High Five for Friday

Happy Friday everyone! 

1.  Last weekend we carved pumpkins with friends. I think you can tell which is mine.  :)  Although I would have to say Mike won on his 3D pop design!

2.  Jesse and I stopped by the Summit to see the Elio car, a USA-made small, gasoline powered car which gets 84 mpg for just under $7,000. It officially hits the market next year for those that have already signed up for one. We sat in the production car, which actually has a backseat. You ride tandem style as a passenger, and there is a tiny little trunk if you had...I don't know... a binder or something extra.

3.  Our school celebrated one of our best teachers this week as she gears up for her last full marathon in all 50 states! She started this goal a few years ago, then found out she had breast cancer, but it didn't stop her at all. Dr. Than is one of the most inspiring women, teachers, optometrists I've met. I remember in the first few weeks of our first semester in her class, she came in and apologized for not replying to emails the night before - she had flown to Las Vegas to run a marathon, caught a red eye flight back home, and arrived in time to teach our 8:00 class. She was really touched that we students were so supportive of her finishing her marathon goal.  You can read an article of her story HERE.

4. Rewinding to last Friday, my friend Heather took me to one of her new favorite places in town to eat, Wasabi Juan's. It's a blend of Mexican and Japanese (sushi, specifically), which sounds really weird, but it was good! I had a tuna roll, which was fairly the same as regular sushi, so I'll have to go back and give some other rolls a shot with more Mexican flair.

5. Jesse spent most of the week in Dothan for work and returned on Thursday which was also his birthday! We finally celebrated after he returned home around 8pm after music practice at church. I had dinner hot and ready for him, followed by his requested birthday treat: ricotta cheese cookies. I'm glad he made it back in town to celebrate his 27 years. And I'm glad I've been in his life for most of those years!

High Five for Friday

Two Friday posts in a row! You guys are so lucky. ;)

1. Last weekend we celebrated our friend Mike's (aka Brother's) birthday! A group of his friends surprised him at one of his favorite restaurants where we ate, laughed, and even played Mike Trivia. Embarrassing senior photos also made an appearance. Then, we went home to Luverne just long enough to visit our parents and go to our dentist appointments. (You know us, living on the wild side!) It was so nice to be home, even for just a little while. I love that we are from the same town and can have our parents all together for dinner while we are there.

2. Monday and Tuesday I was off of school for "fall break." When it's only two days, I'm not sure you can call that a break...more of an extended weekend. When it's not enough time for professors to refrain from giving you assignments, it's not a true break. Monday was spent in the dentist office, and Tuesday I finally got my hair trimmed. No drastic photo to share; and I'm keeping the bangs for a while! Mostly because I really have liked them, and secondly because it's likely to be the most awkward hair grow-out of my life and I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to transition that.

3. Jesse finished his second class of his MBA program this past week! Taking one at a time has seemed to be just the right pace. He's in no hurry to complete it (he will finish when I graduate), and this way he is not overwhelmed after work on a regular basis.

4.  Be babysat our favorite toddler this week. She's getting bigger and smarter by the day. Much of our night was spent rolling around in the floor to her direction to "exsh-cise" after seeing Jesse's weights. She continued on, doing yoga poses, then rode on Jesse's back while he did push ups, then she just climbed and jumped all over him, repeatedly yelling "more!"

5.  I made two new meals and one repeat this week that we really enjoyed. I think I enjoy cooking more in the fall/winter months than laboring over a hot stove/oven in the hotter summer season. Plus, soups are easy and delicious and warm the soul. From left to right we have: a butternut squash, lentil, barley, kale soup I threw together (recipe HERE), Pioneer Woman's Spinach Artichoke Pasta, and spaghetti squash with these very flavorful chicken meatballs which are super fast to make. The last dish also taught me that if you forget to buy the spaghetti sauce, one 8 oz can of tomato sauce and one Roma tomato blended in the food processor with a few shakes of herbs for a few seconds can make do! Also I would like to rave (again) that our Aldi grocery store had these squash for 99 cents a piece (not a pound)! Take that, Publix,

High Five for Friday

I am finally feeling like this summer semester is starting to have a routine- now that it's halfway over. And although Jesse was out of town for work this past week, I had a pretty good work and kept myself busy...with what, now, I'm not certain. But let's try to put together this week's High Five:

1.  On Sunday, after church, we had friends Mike and Kelsey over for lunch which was basically a launch party for their Kickstarter fund to support their gaming business. (More to come soon about that, so I won't elaborate here. Except that they are so creative and cool, and God is blessing their talents and efforts in so many ways, and I'm enjoying watching it all unfold.

2.  I've recently discovered Scandal on Netflix, and have quickly become somewhat of an addict. It's kind of like Law & Order minus the court room, plus politics, including the President and his affair with the main character (no spoiler there).  Which brings me to a conflict of interest in me telling you to watch this show (and describing it as I have).... because I don't support marital affairs, but shows like these drag you in and make you root for a relationship that shouldn't happen. And of course, they always make the wife out to be a horrible woman anyway. So watch at your own discretion, but I'm gonna recommend it. ;)

3. Tuesday I got to keep my favorite munchkin. She calls me "Em." Which partially makes my dream of being called "Auntie Em" like Dorothy's aunt from the Wizard of Oz come true. (I realize I'm not actually this child's aunt, but I see her on the regular, so I think we are close enough here.) I tried this on my actual nephew about 16 years ago, but the lingo didn't stick, much to my dismay.  And if I become Auntie Em, that makes Jesse "Uncle Jesse" like from Full House, which is equally as funny.  (Ironically we do sometimes call her a munchkin, which I didn't realize until now was so fitting, as well.)

4. My first week of clinic was awful. It took me 3+ hours to do a full eye exam, and my patients sighed their way through it, asking how much longer this would take.  (To my slight defense, all my classmates were in the same boat as me. But still.... no one wants to sit there 3 hours with lights blaring into their eyes.) Now that 2 more weeks have ticked by, things have gotten better and I've gotten a little faster. My last patient this week repeatedly told me that I did such a wonderful job. She really had no idea if I truly had or not (from my and my attending's perspectives), but she lifted my spirits and made me smile.  

5.  I made these Chocolate Chip cookies this week. I'm pretty sure I could eat chocolate chip cookies daily for the rest of my life.  I do refrain from this activity, but when I have a craving for a good chocolate chip cookie, I've got to make a homemade batch.  Store-bought just doesn't cut it.  The "secret" ingredient in this recipe is cornstarch, which makes the cookies extra chewy. This is just the way I like my cookies, so these turned out nice, without tasting under-done. 

High Five for Friday

Well guys, this has been quite the week!  My summer session has officially started and nearly worn me out. I got a little used to relaxing in a cozy hotel bed until about 10am each morning last week.

1. This summer I get to ditch the books and focus on patient care. I (along with my classmates) will have Primary Eye Care clinic, optical, community eye care, and vision therapy. My favorite so far was working with the kids in vision therapy. This helps kids with different problems, like eye turns or lazy eyes or focusing problems retrain their eye systems to strengthen their eyes enough to fix their problem. Some kids (or parents) start noticing problems when they start school or learn to read and they can't keep their place on the page, wind up hating to read, which can lead to problems in school, and often lead to behavioral issues. But really their original problem was that their eyes just can't do it. So 12-15 weeks of vision therapy can really change the lives of these kids, which is amazing!  

2. Jesse made it home from Pennsylvania Friday! So happy to have him back, as usual.

3. Wednesday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. Although we were miles apart he still sent me flowers to celebrate our special day.

4. After a week away and previous weeks of studying for finals, I finally made it back to community group and Dave Ramsey group this past week, which was wonderful to hang out with friends and talk Jesus and finances.

5. I also came home this week to a couple if post cards from my cousin, Carissa. She is venturing through Austria ans France with her job this summer. Definitely the opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm really glad she took it!

High Five for Friday

Cue the choir, and the angels, or whoever wants to sing a hallelujah praise...

1. We finished second year of optometry school!!! It was literally the most challenging school year of my life (as you have already heard). It was such a relief on Thursday to walk out of our last final exam for the year. Thankfully, Gussie gathered up our class to finally get a group photo of the class of 2016.
And this group of girls I could not have made it through without. They keep me straight, in the right place at the right time, and answer all of my silly questions late at night before exams. They keep me laughing through the hard times and listen to all of my complaints. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends!

2. To increase the nerd level of this post even further, I got an iPad this week for the single reason of taking notes for class and being able to upload notes from this school year for future quick reference. Many of my classmates use their iPads in class, and I came to realize how convenient and well designed this device is, and how much more organized it could help me to be. All of those binders of notes you see above can be on the iPad to scroll through and quickly search if needed. Plus I can access digital copies of my textbooks at my fingertips any time. Jesse says I've crossed to the dark side by owning an Apple product, but it already came in handy studying for finals, and I can tell it is a great investment for school!

(I just had to share this one. She's just too cute.)

3. This Wednesday our community group had a farewell cookout for one of our members. Our friend Ronda has been in search of a job for a couple of months, and finally received an answered prayer. However, God decided to move her to Eufaula, AL, and away from all of us. We were both excited for her and sad at the same time. I am so glad I got to know Ronda while she was here. She is a strong woman with a sweet spirit and is someone you can truly always count on. We will miss her dearly, but plan to visit her soon, so it was not a final farewell this week!

4. We had dinner with friends Hannah, Adam, Kelsey, and Addy on Thursday night after I finished my final exams. I had to get out of the house, so we had celebratory drinks and Mexican food at Little Donkey. Hannah and I are both in the medical-school related world, so finding time to catch up can be few and far between. We enjoyed our time with them and got to hear all about there wedding plans for this summer. I cannot wait!

5.  I finished second year of optometry school! Did I say that already?... Well it deserves two spots on the list because it felt like quite the accomplishment. Plus, considering all I did was study for finals this week, nothing else interesting happened.

Happy Weekend everyone!

High Five for Friday

1. This week has been a little interesting. We spent Monday night huddled in Mike and Kelsey's downstairs apartment in case of tornadoes. Thankfully we did not have any damages in our neighborhood, and we were glad to have a safer place to stay.

(photo from original blog source, linked below)

2. I made this recipe this week, and it was pretty delicious. I'm not sure if anything with bacon can be bad, so give this recipe a try for a new pasta dish.  I was a little leery of the egg sauce, but it didn't have a weird texture and just made everything nice and creamy (without an overload of heavy cream!). I did also roast grape tomatoes to toss in too, which I think added a nice flavor to the mix. The roasted cauliflower was awesome - I would do that again as a stand-alone side.

3. Yesterday our Clinical Evaluation instructors, who have been with us for both Fall and Spring semesters held a little end-of-the-year party to recognize a couple of outstanding students, and then hand out several funny awards based on things they had overheard or seen us do throughout the year. I will spare you the names of the awards, as they are all corny, optometry-nerdy awards. We have all said and done some crazy things as we've been learning new skills along the way. And it's also been fun (and funny) to see how each other's personalities come out in various situations - whether it's the first time you see the retina with a certain tool and are blown away by what you see and feel like a rockstar, or when you freak out because you are stressed and feel like you suck at every clinical thing you've ever done.  We have a great class and it makes each day better knowing you have people going through this with you.

4. Today was the last day of class for spring semester! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! (Insert any other expression of unbelievable excitement here!) Finals are next week, so keep me in your prayers and thoughts. Jesse too, bless his heart, for putting up with me during such a stressful week.

5. Also today, Jesse took a placement test that sets him up for begging a Master's program in business. He took several business classes in undergrad, but not enough to major or minor in it. He has recently been interested in going back to get his MBA for a couple of reasons 1) it can't hurt to have an MBA on top of an engineering degree  2) it could help my practice one day to have someone that knows anything about business since we get little to no business education in optometry school  3) his current company will pay for it- so why not?!  Since he didn't have all of the required classes to start the program, he could opt to take this placement test and if he passed, he didn't have to make up the courses, which would knock off a year of classes for him.  Well, he pretty much aced the test today and is now just waiting for registration to open to sign up for classes! I am so proud of him!  If all goes as planned he will finish the same year as I do. So from now until then we will be some of the most boring people you know. ;)

Happy Weekend!

High Five for Friday

Once again, I forgot to post on Friday. I don't know why... I was completely distracted from studying yesterday and at the pinnacle of procrastination.  Finals are a week away, but my brain is pretty much done with this semester.  This week held lots of exciting things, though - let's start from last weekend:

1. Saturday we were home for my cousin Clint's wedding.  It was quite the ride out into the countryside, but the venue was gorgeous!  A newly built barn just for events like this, that screamed rustic Southern wedding. All the little touches Ashton had planned were absolutely charming, and there was a candy table.... probably for kids... but you know I had to get some!  And there was a grits bar that made my tummy swoon (twice).

And look how gorgeous my cousin Kelsey is in this seagreen color! (Which goes with her glasses, might I add. ;)  )

Little Adelyn also loved the candy bar:

2. We had Easter lunch with Jesse's side of the family on Saturday as well.  Marilyn made a delicious ham and veggie strudel, and Heidi brought her famous double-layer cheesecake.  We also hunted eggs (because you are NEVER too old for that), and Heidi found the "golden egg" with $5 inside! We were all eager to empty the candy out, and everyone was excited about Peeps.  (By the way... Peeps should be designated for Easter... we don't need Peeps for all the other holidays. That sucks the fun out of egg hunts and the original Easter Peeps. Just sayin'.)

3.  Church was amazing on Sunday, with a great worship service and a focus on the resurrection power of our living Savior! The same resurrection power that was enough to save you is the same power that can sustain you. So why do we try to chose what parts of our life we want His power to show up in? Salvation, but not in the hatred of a friend that has hurt us? Save us from all the ugly sins of this world, but not enough to save our marriage from the nothingness it's become? Strong enough to conquer death, but not to help you break your addiction? It's strong enough to restore you- restore your marriage, break addiction, and allow forgiveness (plus more). It doesn't change; it doesn't fade or lose its strength!
Service was followed by what has become the annual Domeny Easter lunch, where Kelsey cooked up a ham and all the proper Easter fixings.

4.  Jesse and I got sick mid-way through the week, but have (almost) fully recovered at this point. Feeling better always feels so good!

5.  After a round a chicken noodle soup and appetites were back to normal, last night we tried using pantry and freezer items to make a homemade spin on a local favorite dish of ours - Saw's Soul Kitchen's Pork and Grits which is a bed of grits topped with turnip greens, pork, and shoe-string onion rings. Divine I tell you. Now, it was a stretch, because we did not have BBQ pork, but I made cheese grits, we cooked up spinach as our greens, and Jesse topped his with shrimp (I'm sadly allergic), followed by French's onions. Mine was okay, but his was delicious. He tries to pretend he doesn't cook, but when he does, he always goes all out and it tastes amazing.

Happy weekend, everyone!

High Five for Friday

I've been busy practicing and preparing for my final practical in my Clinical Evaluations course so the past couple of weeks have been somewhat a blur. I didn't get around to posting a high five last week, so let's just do a little catching up over the past couple of weeks:

1. My mom and mother-in law were sweet enough to come up and be my practice patients over this past weekend. We took them to Little Donkey, a local Mexican restaurant we've recently come to enjoy. And of course we had to get pops. A 2 hour eye exam might have been a little tortuous, but they had a good time otherwise. We ladies even went shopping on Saturday together, which was fun and a nice break from my norm.

2. We also had Matt and Heidi here for the weekend as well. They went with Jesse to our friend Kyle's white water rafting birthday trip. They had a lot of fun splashing down the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Mike fell out at some point, which gave them all a good laugh after the fact!

3. We enjoy when Matt and Heidi come because they always want to enjoy good food in Birmingham. This time we went to Giuseppe's Cafe - a hole in the wall place I drive by almost daily. They served up delicious, fresh Italian food. Our table had a variety of calzones, lasagna, and chicken pesto pasta, along with canollis and Tiramisu for dessert. Everything was amazing. We will definitely return!

4. Rewinding to last Friday: in our Anterior Segment lab we got to practice foreign body removal. Since this did not involve inserting foreign bodies into each other's eyes (read ridiculous and dangerous), we practiced removing epithelium and debridement of cow eyes! Then we also practiced foreign body removal by using various instruments to pick brake dust out of gelatin behind the slit lamp. Surprisingly, this consistency is similar to the front surface of your eye and made great practice for FB removal. Here are Bonnie, Steve, and Maggie in action:

5. I passed said practical! Hallelujah! This little check box meant the world this week.

Other recent happenings:  Earth Day on the Green at UAB happened last week and Jesse met me for foodtruck lunches and we got to see Alabama Power's Teslas:

Last but not least, a reader sent me this precious photo frame she found with our blog title on it, all the way from Michigan!  Okay, okay - she's not some anonymous reader across the states; she's a close friend's mom, and probably keeps up with my blog in case there are photos of her grandbaby... Just kidding! Any time Sally comes to town she always tells me how much she enjoys reading our posts, many of which contain activities with her two kids (our friends) Kelsey and Mike. I will have to find a special picture to go in this perfect frame! Thank you Sally!

Even through the most stressful weeks, when I stop and focus on each week's "high five" I realize how much we're surrounded by precious, caring people that love and support us, and I'm so thankful for those people that warm our hearts.
This weekend holds a wedding, then a celebration of Easter Sunday.  Over the next couple of weeks this semester will wind down and finals will ensue. There is light at the end, folks!

We will see some of you soon! Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Since last Friday (for which there was no post...sorry) Spring Break has ended, and I've been forced to return to school for the last 5 weeks of this semester. It's a countdown, folks. My mind and body really enjoyed the time off. So did the kitchen, and my my husband's tummy.

What did I do with that time, you might ask?  (if case you've been worried about me since my depressing post)
- it begin with a Friday night date out for Indian food

- followed by a whole lota nothin' (and it felt so good)
- made a brief visit home, mostly for dentist appointments
- stopped by my old optometry office to visit
- had taco night with family, which was a combo send-off for my cousin, Carissa, going to Austria for a few months

(and I got to hold cousin Jessica's sweet little baby, who is as cute as a cabbage patch kid!)

- went through and eliminated an enormous stack of magazines that has been growing for quite some time, and other cleaning around the house
- redecorated our mantel (aka - removed the random Valentine's Day paraphernalia)
- had my oil changed
- had my hair cut - nothing drastic (obviously)

- organized our pantry (some)
- watched a good deal of TV (If you are a Netflixer, watch the series Sherlock. It's awesome.)
- enjoyed hanging out with friends, including a late night game night
- cuddled with my hubby (until I caught a cold)

But what about this past week's high five?

1. Our old friend Dusty came to Birmingham to celebrate his birthday. We were lucky enough to meet up with him for dinner one night. Jesse was also able to meet him and some friends for a round of mini-golf. It took him coming to B'ham to introduce us to Saw's Juke Joint, and it was delicious! Can you believe I didn't ask Dusty to share his birthday banana pudding with me?

2. We had a special delivery on Saturday afternoon! It has it's own post coming up, and I can't wait to share it with you! Coming soon, I promise!

3. I've spent a good amount of time this week practicing for my final practical. The big, grand finale of all practicals that has me shaking in my boots a little. It's basically a full eye exam, and will be on an unknown person, unlike our other practicals which only cover a few skills at a time and are on classmates. We are getting ready to see our own patients in the summer term, and this practical will make sure we are all capable of being let loose on the public. ;)

4. We got to babysit this week. Addy loves walking Maggie (which is really Maggie walking Addy) and it makes her so very happy. She runs along behind Maggie with the leash and laughs and smiles and is overjoyed.  It's precious and makes my heart happy too.

5.  Last, but certainly not least, the greatest highlight of the week is that today is my birthday!!! I've officially been around a quarter-century now. Sounds like a long time, when I put it that way. I cashed in on a birthday freebie at Moe's for lunch today. I'm not sure what's in store for celebrating, as Jesse has been out of town this week for work, but I'm looking forward to celebrating someway this weekend.
And apparently even Google now wishes you a happy day.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

High Five for Friday

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!

1.  We went home last weekend to take a look at a table that we are re-finishing and had a lunch fish-fry with both of our parents.  This is a very dear table, and I will be telling you more about in the future. We're not quite finished with it, and I'm saving the photos for before and after. I can't wait to have it here in Birmingham with us! We did use some of Gene's leftover wood to make a little shelf for our bathroom, and I got in on the power tool action.  Maggie also had a good time, can you tell?

(guilty)

2. Jesse had to go to Dothan again this week for work. After having him home from Pennsylvania, I didn't think he was going anywhere for a while. I was wrong. Thankfully it was only a 3 day trip this time, and he's back now. :)

3. One midterm down this week, 3 more to go next week. I'll let you know next Friday if I'm still alive or not.  Probably pumped full of caffeine and with a large deficit of sleep.

4.  Wednesday night we helped our friend Mike get settled back into his condo after having an upstairs neighbor caused a great deal of flooding.  He's so happy to be back at his home instead of a hotel room, but that meant he took his kitty back from us. I got a little sad having to give up the fluff-ball.

5.  My friend Heather and I went to a local high school today to give a presentation required by one of our classes.  We spoke to 10th and 11th grade students that are in advanced placement courses and interested in medical-related careers.  We presented them with a little ocular anatomy and information on admission into optometry school.  It was so much fun to pour into their young minds, and we hope we inspired some of them today!

High Five for Friday

I am thrilled that it is Friday! Jesse has been at a training session in Pennsylvania for two weeks, and I am SO ready to see him today when he gets back! I tried not to let on in last week's High Five that Jesse was gone, because I didn't want the interwebs to know I was home alone (because I'm crazy like that). So let's recap from this week:

1.  You might have already thought that this means Jesse wasn't home for Valentine's Day. We never go all out for Valentine's anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal. He did, however, have our friend (and neighbor) Kelsey come into our apartment and leave a card and chocolates from him for me. It was a sweet surprise when I got home from class on Friday. But don't worry, I didn't spend Valentine's alone. Kelsey's hubby was also out of town, so she and I, plus friends Ronda and Rebekah had a girl's night. We stuffed our own calzones for dinner, and Kelsey made an amazing chocolate raspberry cheesecake! Then we watched a southern classic: Fried Green Tomatoes. It was a fun night!

2.  My mom came to visit me over the weekend. I took her to one of my favorite lunch spots (Urban Cookhouse) and she was able to stay to go to church with me on Sunday and meet some of our friends here in Birmingham. I loved that she came to visit me and keep me company over what would have felt like a long weekend without Jesse home.

3.  Meanwhile, Jesse was battling snow storms to get to work nearly every morning. In weather that was well below freezing!

4.  Jesse's half-brother, Stan, and his family are currently living in Pennsylvania and were in driving distance for Jesse. He went to visit them over the weekend, which was great because it's been a long time since they've seen each other, and it gave Jesse something to do with his free time there.

5.  I also received this picture from Jesse during his trip. He consumed nearly all of this sandwich that was twice the size of his own head. I'm not sure how he packs away the food, but if you know him at all, you know that he can!