happy birthday, christian.

To my best friend (we just realize we met each other for the first time TEN YEARS AGO...gulp...are we old?!), my husband:

Happy Birthday!!!!

I feel so lucky to know you and I'm really glad you were born.

I think this is the start of a fantastic day (that apparently involves ditching class and going back to bed after birthday breakfast).

More to come from tonight's celebrations (which will include dinner at the much-talked-about Pizzeria Bianco....read about it here; I'm excited!!!).

XOXO,

Ash

And we're back.

In Phoenix, that is. My folks get home from their trip tonight (they have already informed me of the grave travesty that is the fact that we've never taken a cruise as a family before - it was their first one and they loved it). I really enjoyed hanging out with my brother. I can't wait until he gets his license and come see me whenever he wants.

Today we're back to work. I had a meeting for Teen Outreach this morning, drove our neighbor across the street who is having awful luck with her car right now to a job interview, cleaned up a little, and now I'm holed up at Christian's school getting ready to hit the books. Well...MacBook, I guess. If you looked up hot mess in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of me. Shaggy as all heck - in desperate need of a haircut (falling-out-braid or down...makes no difference).

My husband is a dear man who says he's not embarrassed of me going around in public like this. I think my mom might be, though. She's always telling me to get myself together. [Still working on it, Ma.]

I also got to finish The Help on my drive back up to Phoenix. Since I feel morally/academically obligated to be in front of nursing books when I'm actually sitting still anywhere, I decided to download some audio books for my three or so drives back and forth (2 hours each way) I did while staying with my brother so I could actually get some much needed fiction back in my life. I love to read...it's all I used to do as a kid. Some kids would stay up late to talk on the phone or play video games; my mom used to catch me sneak-reading at midnight with a flashlight. However, academia killed any and all opportunity for me to continue my love affair with books and I have really enjoyed getting to read again since graduating from nursing school. The book was amazing. I cried three or four times, laughed consistently, and drove down the freeway with a goofy smile on my face half the time. So very well written, I really truly enjoyed it. Next is either The Hunger Games or Never Let Me Go. I'm a sucker for sci-fi.

All right...better get back to it.

[PS - SOMEBODY I LOVE TURNS 25 TOMORROW....STAY TUNED...]

Oh snap.

Love,
Ash

SUCCESS!!!!!!

One cool thing about Chris' medical school (and something I now envy, being in grad school myself) is the pass/fail grading model. It's easy peasy (the system, that is)....either you pass or you fail. Your grades essentially don't matter because as long as you achieve a passing average on each subject block (ex. all the GI block exams averaged out), you pass and move forward in the class. Grades are never posted, the students are never ranked, and it takes away a bit of the competition felt between the classmates. They feel more inclined to help one another and (in my opinion) it creates a better sense of camaraderie. Takes a bit of the pressure off. Christian seems to really love it and it makes sense to me, especially for medical school.

Well, my school is decidedly not pass/fail. It's A/B/C/Fail (as in, anything below a C is failing...below a B in my assessment class). This daunting fact, combined with the fact that my entire advanced pathophysiology class is comprised of five grades (four exams and a presentation) has had me a little nutty with stress. With the first exam quickly approaching and me trying desperately to catch up on my lectures, I think I started to lose it a little. I did a few hours of cramming and, while reviewing a practice exam, I didn't understand a few questions in a row...so naturally came the water works. Enter husband and his ability to always know the right thing to say. He hit me with a with a solid pep talk and informed me that he'd be so proud of me, even if I got one point for putting my name on my paper (which we don't even do...online exam). What a guy. 

So after all the drama, I just found out a few hours ago (via email): I scored higher than the class average! 87%! I cannot begin to describe the sweet relief. And, according to the professor, this is the hardest exam of the course. I guess I'm not getting tossed out of grad school after all. :)

Woo hoo!!!

Since my brother and I have been hanging out in Tucson together, we've been able to see lots of family. My aunt and uncle invited us over for dinner tonight and somehow we managed to gather eight of the nine grandkids on mom's side in one place (the only girls are my sister and me, and I am the very first/AKA the original grandkid). I lined the boys up for some pictures and, well, I'll leave you with their shenanigans. OH by the way...since when do kids you used to take care of/play with/babysit get driver's licenses and join the military??? Jeeze, cousins. Stop growing up.

Monday is home sweet home (my folks are back from their Alaskan adventure!) for a certain mister's birthday on Tuesday!!! It's pretty much one of my favorite holidays. :)

XOXO,
Ash & Vies (AKA Lazy Bum)

Thursday night lights.

There are few things in this world that I love like my brother and sister. I am so proud of both of them, it's kind of ridiculous.

Tonight was my baby brother's first high school football game. He's played football since he was five or six, with the Tucson Youth Football Wildcats and I must say, I never loved football the way I love it now before he played. I kind of learned about it along with him, from the little guys playing flag all the way to his first summer with the high school freshman team. He's a multi-talented kid (plays club and high school basketball as well) and is smart as a whip. He's also hysterical.

I feel really lucky to have been old enough when he was born to help take care of him, change his diapers, and feed him (well, maybe not the diapers). It makes his growing up all the more surreal for me and now I have a better understanding of why my mom was heartbroken when I grew up and moved away. He's one of my favorite people in the world and he's growing up to be such a cool guy.

Well, kid: Here's to the beginning of your high school football career (and your first victory of the season; 27 - 0)!!! I am SO glad I was able to be there while Mom and Dad are on vacation. There is no place in the world I would've rather been.

GO COUGARS. [#8]

Oh, high school.

XO,
Ash

P.S. My test went all right. I don't want to say anything until I get the score back early next week. I'm weird and superstitious like that (as are most nurses).

Exam death.

So, studying for my first exam has been and will continue be consuming my life. Bottom line: I just temporarily deactivated my Facebook account until after the test. **** just got real, right now.

Think happy, passing-grade-type thoughts.

XO,
Ash

I bet you all thought I died.

Yeah...so.....school started and caught me off guard a bit. I weighed my options (of studying/prepping for the first week and going to San Francisco/Vegas) and picked the obvious choice. I don't know why I assumed they'd just teach it to me in class like they did in nursing school when I was naughty and didn't prep for things. Which happened frequently. Well....SURPRISE! I "showed up" to my first two hour lecture online and we blew through the materials and the teacher was like, "Okay then, great, anyone have any questions about anything???" and I was all, "........"

Bottom line: I got behind. Which apparently is a no no in grad school (or at least this program), so I have be working feverishly to catch up (hence my absence). Progress report? Well, I'm getting there. I have an exam in a week and a half, so I have no choice but to get there. Positive thinking! :D (We'll see if I'm still smiling a week from Thursday). 

Blog-worthy things that have happened since I last saw you.....hmmmmm......okay. I know there are more than two, but I have to get back to studying sometime today.

(1) Cooking. I've been cooking more delicious from-scratch foods. This little baby is my answer to a serious spanakopita craving (minus the phyllo): spanakopita lasagna! It wasn't half bad (and fed us for a week and a half). Recipe found here (I subbed whole wheat pasta noodles)!

(2) The unlucky (yet fun) weekend. Christian is the president of the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) and his club is really stepping it up and providing a ton of cool activities/opportunities for the students. First biggie of the semester was the EMIG-Palooza campout! They planned a really great trip to Fossil Creek and planned to have EM residents from Maricopa Medical Center join us to talk about EM residencies/EM in general. Cool right?! Ahem. Well, wouldn't you know (after a DEATH summer of 110 degree temperatures, NO rain, and dust storm after dust storm) that as we were headed up I-17 North, the rain started. And continued. It looked pretty ominous and we found out after a 10 mile trek down a dirt road (way to go, little Civic) the road was a little uncrossable (at least by our little Civ). [Camping photos are a combo of mine and Cori Breslauer's]

Beginning to look ominous....

And then comes the rain...

And there went the road...

A large group of medical students trying to figure out what to do.

So naturally we went ahead and tried to cross it......SYKE! No, the damage to our car would come later. So naturally we decided to pick another campsite. One of the residents said he knew of something in the area, so we decided to head elsewhere. On our way there, the sudden rain decided to cause some falling-boulder-situations on the freeway. One of which fell from the mountain, rolled into the road in front of med student/rock star Kaya who hit it head on in her Jeep, we swerved and hit the driver side. In the words of Liz Lemmon, "BLERG!" Chris and I (and Jeff and Viesa) waited with Kaya while she got towed to the nearest city, ours was still drive-able so we hopped in and headed to camp.

Poor little Civic. 

The boys were exploring while we waited for the tow truck. I told them to pose
and apparently I got their album cover.

Eventually, we made it to camp which was already under way. Everyone had a really nice time!

Next day: Since we were ripped off at Fossil Creek, we were on the hunt for water. So naturally, a 2 mile death hike was the activity of the day. Super steep but totally beautiful hike down and eventually we find water! Viesa was a champion hiker/climber. We decided that she's part mountain goat.

Basking her royal-self in the sun.

Next step: "Cliff jumping". I'm a safety freak (no one likes to have me around during fun activities), so I tried to avert my eyes and tell myself that if emergency room doctors were doing it, it was okay (not sound logic, I know).

It looks shallow because it WAS shallow. Sheesh.

Christian, ignoring his paranoid wife. I salute you, sir.

One of the residents, setting a good example.

Then, as we were hiking towards some deeper water, we were walking over some loose rocks and I sprained my dang ankle. Like pop, oops, that didn't sound right. Again, blerg. I have very loose ligaments (my elbows and thumbs do abnormal things) and I've always been prone to a good ankle sprain. Haven't really had one since I was playing soccer in high school, but alas. Luckily, despite being 2 miles down an extremely steep canyon, I was hiking with (you guessed it) Emergency Department docs. Frankly, there is no better crowd to injure yourself around. I was assessed (Nothing broken! Yay!) and taped up in a jiffy. Horrified at the thought of some wilderness rescue folks having to hike down and take me out on a gurney, I decided to hike back up with Christian and Jeff. Slowly. We had someone else take Vies up and eventually we all made it out alive. 

One of Vies' new hiking buddies who took her back up for us.

All of us. :)

Despite the numerous disasters, we actually had a really fantastic time. The company was great and I'm proud of Christian for having a hand in organizing such a cool event for his fellow students. 

All of this past week has involved trying to catch up in school (which seems like a game I just can't win) and this:

Hopefully after the first exam I can catch my breath. The next two weeks I'll be in Tucson off and on to stay at my parents' house with my brother while they're on their 25th Anniversary cruise to Alaska! Christian and I have cruised Alaska with his family and it is SO MUCH FUN. I'm really excited for them; they totally deserve it. In said two weeks, I'll be studying my pants off, as well as attending the FIRST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME OF THE SEASON! Yes, that deserved all caps. We. Love. College. Football. And we love that my parents have season tickets! Ahhh...it's that time of year again. :)

Also, a certain handsome husband has a birthday coming up in a few weeks, so stay tuned for those shenanigans as well. 

I hope this finds all of you well and less stressed than I am. :)

Love and doggy kisses,

Ash & Vies

adventures in cooking.

Most anyone who reads this blog knows that cooking isn't my thing. I don't have a particular issue with it (in fact, it's fun if you do a good job), but I'm not generally very good at it. I blame this partially on the fact that my sister loves to cook and is very good at it, so she took over cooking with my mom and learned a bunch of stuff. Also partially on the fact that my husband is an amazing cook and frankly, why would I cook my mediocre food when he's always cooking great stuff?!

Regardless, as part of an effort for us to become healthier people, we decided to start eating more whole foods (less processed/canned/boxed/frozen/etc.) and up the ante on our exercise (or lack thereof at the moment). This means, more stuff from scratch. ::Sigh:: I decided it meant it was time for me to take the reins and try to split the kitchen 50/50 with my dude. I had serious doubts.

Bottom line: success! I thought, at first, that I my have bitten off a little more than I could chew. I decided to go with chicken and spinach (whole wheat) linguini Alfredo with bacon. That's right folks. You read it right. I made Alfredo sauce from scratch. That's a big deal for this girl. True story (and I mean true), I definitely set three different items on fire (not big fires) while cooking, part of the hazards of a gas range and doing ninety things at once (a paper towel on the bacon plate, the actual box of matches we use to light the pilot on our stove, and a linguini noodle that escaped the pot when I poured them in and slipped into the burner). After putting all the fires out and managing three pans at once, I tasted with my eyes closed because I was definitely scared. And it was good! Here's a crappy photo after I ate half:

I have to say though, I was so damn tired from making it (and slightly stressed) that it was hard to enjoy it a ton. Really good, but now I'm just pooped.

Hopefully the next attempt is just as good with less fire involved.

School starts tomorrow! I'm scared/stressed/stoked. More later.

XXXOOO,
Ash

P.S. My mama's having surgery tomorrow to remove her pesky gall bladder. I've seen it done a bunch of times during school/work (easy peasy!), but it's a little different when it's your own mom. Say a little prayer for her quick recovery. THANKS!