Octubre.

Hello blog land. October is almost over (I'm pinching myself as I write this), and despite being unbelievably busy we've been able to squeeze in some October-y things; namely, a weekend in Tucson to do pumpkins and spooky things with family.

My extremely handsome husband and his family (minus two).

We took our annual (at least we try to make it annual) trip to Buckelew Farms to pick some pumpkins, then had a carving party at Christian's parents' house. Christian and I are extremely blessed to not only have super cool/relatively normal (emphasis on relatively) families, but to have amazing families that love each other too! For example: my 15 year old brother was deeply disturbed when he found out after the wedding that he isn't now legally related to Christian's siblings (apparently he thought the wedding would apply to him too). They're all staggered in age and get along famously. The fact that we can do holiday stuff all together is the coolest. No one has to miss out. It's the best.

From left to right: My brother (Josh), Christian (duh), my sissy's boy (Kyle),
Christian's brothers (Taylor and Ethan)

Seesters with pumpkins!

Carving is usually an extended affair, including our favorite friends and should-be-family. My best friend Sarah came and brought her mad carving skills (as she does every year). Two years ago she did the Mona Lisa, last year was Lord Voldemort, and this year was a shark! She wins. Every. Single. Time. I decided to free hand it this year and ended up with what I call a spooky tree. Christian did a classic jack-o-lantern and Viesa was too busy loungin' and smelling pumpkins to carve.

Sarah wins! Just like last year... :)

We have some fun Halloween stuff approaching this weekend, however I have an exam next week so we'll see how much participating I'll be doing. I hate to say it, but I'll be glad when Thanksgiving gets here! I'll be registered for my next semester, done with all of my exams, and totally drunk on mashed potatoes. Amazing.

Hope everyone has been able to enjoy the fun that is October.

busy bees.

Christian returned from the ACEP scientific assembly, and dare I say it was quite a successful trip. I could be measuring it's success in the number of residency directors he met or the number of up and coming techniques and procedures he learned about. Or I could be measuring it's success by the amount of free crap he was able to bring home. He said he even had to leave some things because they wouldn't fit in his carry-on. 

[Note: Computer was not free...]

Some companies/groups do the typical stuff: mugs, pens (why did he bring home so many pens?!), stickers, notebooks. Some companies/groups got a little more creative: flash drives, personal grooming kit (???), or maybe a T Ring (a finger tourniquet for when fingers get chopped off).

Or maybe they give out the best flash drive that's ever been created and the med student recipient decides to give said flash drive to his wife!

Doctor Man has two gigs of storage!!!!

In other news, I've been trying to balance school, keeping the dang apartment clean so our landlord can show it, and packing. Christian has an easy schedule this week because he starts a new block next week (reproduction!), so he's been able to help me a lot. I think it's starting to sink in that we're leaving our first place. I have some feelings, but the new place is really neat and I think we're really going to like it. 

Little Vies is a nervous nellie and doesn't like things out of place. She saw the boxes everywhere and pretty much decided to hide under the bed all day today. I feel bad. Poor baby doesn't quite get what's going on. We really hope she loves the new place and adjusts to it quickly. 

It's looking pretty dang empty around here. We're spending the evening watching our Wildcats play UCLA (and we're winning!!!!!!!) while sharing some wings from Long Wong's. Great date night. This weekend, it's off to Tucson to spend some quality Halloween time with family. Any fun fall plans for the weekend? This is the time of year that I wish I had NO responsibilities so we could just wander around finding fun all day every day. 

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend. This month is literally flying by!

P.S. I met with my cardiologist earlier this week and my ticker checked out! All systems are go (AKA my heart is oober healthy). Cardiologist says sometimes people just have skipped beats and seeing how she checked out every nook and cranny, that's fine by me. :)

a few of mah girls.

Today, I got to spend the day with a few of my fave girls. I love it when people come to visit. :)
Lacey flew in from Texas and Kristin drove up from Tucson with baby Emily! Christian is in San Fran this weekend, so it was a great day to be able to spend some quality lady time which is sadly too few and far between (this applies to you too, sissy & Sarah).

I really can't believe how many crazy things have happened since graduation!!!

May 2010

October 2011

[Note the new addition to our group photos...]

We had a delicious lunch at Lux, drove by the new casa for lady-friend approval (all systems go!), and looked through the pictures from Kristin, Eugene, and baby Em's photo session. The photos were taken by our fave (and only) wedding photographers, the Langs! They turned out so cute, it's unreal. I may or may not have got a piece of the action in a few frames!

Photos by Lang Photographers

Photo by Lang Photographers

The visit was amazing. A little birdie (rhymes with schmacey) told us today that she has a timeline for moving back to Phoenix in the next year!!!! AHHHHHHHHSOOOSOSOSOSOSOSOEXCITED!!!!

Happy Saturday! - I know mine was!

[For Husband: we miss you and hope you're having fun in San Francisco. Thanks for entering us to win an iPad at 30 different conference booths. You're amazing.]

Ash & Chris - 3, dishes - 0.

Today felt a little like this:

Source

Lows:

• Broken dishes. In 24 hours we've managed to break a bowl, a plate, and a glass. All at different times of the day by different mechanisms (none that involve yelling and subsequent dish throwing - don't worry).
• Studying. Or lack of, should I say. Today was busy/stressful. Looong doctor's appointment, plus we were supposed to show the house to a potential renter (meaning crazy cleaning, dish-doing) who canceled at the last minute.
• Cardiologist. Well, she's not the low. She's a really nice lady (and one of Christian's professors...a perk of being a med school wife - awesome referrals!). But after having palpitations on and off for a few years my PCP decided I should get it checked out. I know it's probably all good (and everything has checked out fine so far), but it's still kind of scary. 
• Cardiologist's holter monitor. Two issues with this monitor: 1) Itchy, itchy, itchy, itchy. Needs to be worn for 24 hours and it's suuuper itchy. 2) The point of the monitor is to catch my naughty heart in the act and for the past few weeks (literally since I've been seeing the cardiologist) I haven't felt one palpitation. :/ Like when you take your car to the mechanic and it stops making the noise...they can't fix it if they can't see/hear it happening!
• Day-before-exam (Christian). Enough said. 

My fancy monitor. I'm all wired up like a robot.

Highs:

• Clean house. Renter may have canceled, but now my house is sparkly. 
• Cardiologists. I feel lucky to have health insurance right now to allow me to get myself checked out. I get the final results of everything on Monday and I know I'll feel better when she signs off on my ticker.
• My huzband. He's so helpful when things are stressful. Even when he's stressed himself. He decided to skip out on a few hours of studying to attend mandatory date night (if it's not mandatory, we're both too busy to go). We went to MacAlpine's, shared a cherry Dr. Pepper and had some ice cream cones. A perfect end to a less-than-perfect day. Love this guy!
• One of my TOPS girls is going into active labor!!! So. Incredibly. Exciting. Every single time. :)

Better to list the highs last because they are so much more valuable than the lows, every single day. I'm off to lay in odd positions and give my corazon a talking to (hoping it will misbehave at least once for the monitor). Husband will crawl into bed around 2 or 3 AM after studying all night at IHOP (poor goose). Best/worst thing about test day...it's test day! Over by 5PM (until next time).


Hope everyone has awesome plans for the weekend. I get to visit with Lacey, Kristin, and my baby...and study (hopefully a TON of studying).

E-MEALZZZ

Viesa's morning...not quite sure if she was ready to commit to starting the day...

I have to say that one of the more difficult things for us about having a "household" is budgeting...namely food. It's not difficult to put aside money for your rent/utilities/normal monthly expenses, but food is kind of tricky. First of all, it's amazing. We really enjoy food (maybe a little too much sometimes), and moving to Phoenix has given us the rough task of exploring an entire city worth of new restaurants! And I won't lie...it's been awesome for our bellies, not so awesome for our waistlines or bank account.

Our other big issue: meal planning. I know a lot of you bloggies are iron chef status but this lady, not so much. I mean, I can navigate my way around the kitchen and if you give me a recipe I can follow it without royally screwing it up. However, I'm not super creative in that aspect and I don't know a lot of different recipes. Luckily, Christian is a wiz in the kitchen but he's also a super busy dude and can't be the chef all the time.  We also have a hard time making food for only two people! We find food gets wasted and there is nothing I hate like WASTING. Hate hate hate to waste.

So we've been looking for a way to budget and meal plan without breaking the bank or causing me to lose my mind. It was a lucky day that I was scrolling through one of my fave blogs, Offbeat Home (sister site to Offbeat Mama and Offbeat Bride, my go-to wedding website during wedding planning). The editor mentioned that she used a service for meal planning that really helped her cook a different variety of foods and stay on budget. Bingo.

E-mealz (by the way, I firmly believe in spicing up words by exchanging S's for Z's) is a meal planning service that provides priced out meal plans one week at a time based on where you shop, how many people you need to feed and dietary preferences (general, low-carb, low-fat, portion control, gluten-free). Also usually includes at least one slow cooker meal a weak. For $5 a month (GANGA!) you get meal plans, a grocery list with prices based on what store you chose, and recipes for each meal. Click here to see a sample of our weekly plan (the low-carb Wal-Mart plan).

So this was week one for us, starting on Tuesday. Grocery shopping was a lot more straightforward with the list and we came in $20 under grocery budget for the week! Win. First night was a simple but yummy spinach salad. Nothing too complicated, but plenty to fill our bellies (took about 10 minutes to whip up). I knew today was going to be my first challenge. Don't get me wrong; challenge is good! Variety and new cooking skills were part of the reason we signed up. But there's something intimidating about cooking a large piece of meat! And tonight I tackled my first pork roast.

Ahhh! Pork roast! I'm so scared of you!

I followed the instructions this morning (easy peasy, season the thing with salt/pepper/whatever else is lying around, cut a slit in the top, and stuff garlic inside). Seemed simple, but still scary...especially the thought of cooking it for seven hours and it turning out badly. [Note: I may or may not have called my mom to ask her why my roast was tied up in strings and if I should free the poor fellow before cooking...noob status.]

It started to smell amazing soon enough and by the time Christian got home from studying and my online class was wrapping up, I was feeling optimistic. I put him on veggie duty and soon enough we were ready to rock and roll.

Success!!!

It was actually soooo good! Super easy and super delish. We're pretty excited about our new meal plan and so far it's been really easy. The leftover pork roast will be used for tomorrow night's meal (quesadillas!) and planning meals this way helps ensure there is nothing wasted. I think it will be well worth the $5 a month. Viesa thinks so...

Refusing to take her eyes off the pork roast...

Since the beginning of October we've been having friends over one night a week to watch Halloween movies. Because our apartment is a historic duplex, it's long and skinny and the hang out space is sparse. To improvise  we've been pulling out the bedding we use on the futon for guests (egg carton foam, two comforters), moving the coffee table out of the living room, and making a pallet! Were we the only ones whose moms made us pallets when we were little?! Anyway, we realized it's actually really nice/fun to have sleepovers on the floor with our doggy, watch movies, and study...so we decided to leave it out for the week. :)

Viesa loves it.

Sooo....test week this week for Chris, which always means Crazy-town USA. He's been gone studying all day, came home to devour my amazing pork roast, and took off again to study until midnight. Then he's off to ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) Scientific Assembly in San Francisco for the weekend, learnin' and doing awesome doctor-like things. My darling Lacey from nursing school is visiting from Ft. Worth, Texas and I'm hoping to spend some quality time with her while Chris is gone. He's back Monday, and we're back at it again.

Oh, and that whole MOVING thing is still looming. Step 1: boxes. I'm still on the hunt.

Ahhhh!

Happy hump day.

Happy Birthday, J!

What a week/weekend. I took my second pathophysiology exam on Wednesday (and hope it went as well as the first - I should get my score back any day now). I definitely was a little more distracted this go around and didn't cover as much as I had hoped when studying. We shall see, though.

Our bed in the morning...

I always shut myself in the office to take my exams. It has to be quiet because we have to be on webcam and unmuted conference call the entire exam so they can make sure we don't have someone hiding under out desks and telling us the answers. It can be slightly distracting because you have to listen to everyone cough, clear their throats, and tap their fingers while they try to figure out answers. I mostly feel bad for everyone else because I am constantly cracking my knuckles when I take tests. That or clicking my pen/pencil. As I'm trying to finish up, I can hear Christian moving furiously around the front of the house. I finally submit and say goodbye to my professor, emerge from my test den, and Chris informs me that the landlord was wondering if he could show our house to someone in 15 minutes. And of course he said yes (we're trying to be super helpful to our landlord as he's finding someone to rent our place). So I joined him in the crazy fast cleaning/vacuuming/wiping things down. Luckily I did a pretty deep clean a few days before, so it was mostly putting stuff away and vacuuming up the copious amounts of dog hair we cannot escape no matter how often we clean. The lady was nice, in from out of town I guess...which was why she needed to see the house at an odd hour. She seemed like she liked it, so we'll see. It's easy to talk them up (the house and our landlord) because we love them both.

The weather has been AMAZING. We don't have screens on any of our doors, so we bought a baby gate to let the nice weather in and keep the pup from getting out. It's just been too nice to keep doors and windows closed. I think this is the first dip down for the fall weather. It'll get warm-ish one or two more times, then dip down and stay down. Heaven. I can't wait.

On kitty patrol. 24/7/365.

We've been having friends over almost every other night to watch scary movies and enjoy the crap out of the Halloween season! So far we've watched The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Dead Snow, and The Exorcist. Not too shabby for it only being the 9th of October. I'm kind of looking forward to the new house that has a little more open space to fit more people (hopefully we'll be acquiring a real full-sized couch!). Viesa loves all the company and is not bothered in the slightest by scary movies.

Surprisingly awesome! Yay for foreign zombie movies! (Yes, that's a Nazi zombie...)

Not scared. At all.

 Last night my dad met us in Phoenix for Cruise on Central, a car show and cruise down Central Ave. in downtown Phoenix. The weather was superb and we had a really great time. I'm enjoying unwinding a little after that exam week.

Tire smoke from burn outs. :D

Now we're in Tucson celebrating my "little" brother's 15th birthday! Josh is only little in age, as he's measuring around 6'1" these days. We're ten years apart and he has literally grown up before my eyes.

9 years old on Christmas morning.

14 years old at his first high school football game.

To illustrate his gigantism. I'm 5'9". 

He's super fun, full of shenanigans, and quickly becoming one of my very best friends. I love you, dude. Happy birthday.

Goals this week: coffee with a friend, doctor's appointment, obtaining moving boxes (hooray for Craigslist Free!), and attempting to avoid falling behind in school...again. :)

Love,
Ash, Chris, & Viesa