A few days off

I've had a couple of days off from school. If you count the weekend, and the fact that I finished class by noon last Friday, I technically had 4.5 days.  However, they call it "Fall Break" by giving us Monday and Tuesday off. I'll take it, though.

It worked out great for the break to fall on this past weekend. Jesse has been in Dothan since last week for work, so it gave me the chance to go visit him! Thankfully his brother and sister-in-law (Matt & Heidi) live there as well, so I got to visit everyone!

While Jesse worked Saturday morning, I got to visit with Heidi! We had a girl's day out, which started with getting ready - curling our hair and sharing new makeup favorites, then went shopping.  I had so much fun roaming around the stores, getting good (and honest) advice from someone with a similar style and opinion. She hasn't been to Birmingham in a while, so I think we made up for the shopping all in one day. ;)

Once Jesse and Matt were both off work, we went to Firestone Wood Fired Pizza & Grill for dinner. It was amazing! (No pictures, sorry!) If you are ever nearby, stop for lunch or dinner. Their wings and pizzas are fresh, unique, and delicious! Definitely a place that has put great thought and effort into their menu and foods. On our table: the House salad (with dried peaches and pecans - amazing combination), Wood Fired Wings, Hummus with Pita Bread (the bread was great, the hummus of the week not so much), the Meat Baby pizza (what you would think of a meat-lovers, but superb), Hawaiian Delight (ham + pineapple - not my favorite, but Jesse loved it), and the Fun Guy pizza (roasted garlic & spinach).  I've had brick oven style pizza before, but these guys know what they are doing.

After dinner Matt & Heidi took us to AdventureLand, where we had fun being kids again in the arcade. We divided up tokens and played until we were out. Heidi hit the Jackpot twice on a ball drop game, and Jesse once on the game where the light spins around and you have to punch your button at just the right second to trap it (top left in the photo). Our efforts were cashed in for candy!

On Sunday, Jesse and I went to St. Andrew's Bay. We spent the morning on the beach and did some snorkeling. We saw several fish and a couple of crabs along the rocks. There was also an interaction with a couple of raccoons that live in the rocks along the shoreline. They are apparently not afraid of people, and came out to investigate for snacks. They were adorable!

We left the beach for a late lunch at Finn's Taco Trunk, which is known for... well, their tacos. So we ordered the original fish and ahi tuna tacos. Then we patiently waited for them at their picnic tables.  They were quite yummy and piled high with fresh toppings.

Jesse has acquired quite the obsession over Chill Frozen Yogurt while in Dothan, specifically a custard yogurt that they didn't have. No worries. I made do with Pumpkin Pie Fro-Yo + cheesecake bites and Salted Caramel Corn yogurt + a brownie. I promise it all fit into that one bowl. :)

I left Jesse in Dothan for more work, and spent a night in Luverne visiting my parents. My mom even cooked me dinner to my request. Then I enjoyed some naps on their couch, doing absolutely nothing.

It was SO nice to enjoy some time off.  We crammed a lot of fun into just a few days and even through Jesse's work, he helped me make the most of it!

Another exciting fact: the next time we see Matt and Heidi we will be headed to New York!!! I can't wait!

High Five for Friday

Helloooooo everyone!  I realize I've been a little MIA lately. Please excuse the lack of posts; it's been a little crazy around here, with many 10pm nights at school (see #3).  Let's catch up though with this week's high five!

1.  Saturday we had a wonderful visit from Jesse's parents. They came up on Friday and took us to dinner at the Fish Market downtown. We then gave them the Birmingham experience of going to the top of Vulcan, which was beautiful at night; and of course a trip to Steel City Pops!  Saturday morning, Jesse took them to his work where the pond was open for fishing (an annual occurrence). You had to keep what you caught, so they returned at lunch time with several fish, which was just enough to feed the fours of us. It was SO good to have them here with us and to share some of our city with them. :)

2. On Sunday, after church, we stopped by Railroad Park for lunch.  They were having "Trucks on the Track," where all the different local Birmingham food trucks set up for the day, and 10% of the proceeds went back to Railroad Park.  For you non-Birminghammers - Railroad Park is a new-ish park in the downtown area. It's a beautiful place to picnic or go for a walk, with a beautiful backdrop of the city.  It's part of the hope to revive certain parts of downtown Birmingham, and is located just across from the Baron's stadium (Region's Field). This was actually our first time at the Park (go figure... food was involved in bringing us in).  The whole idea of food trucks really drew in a lot of people, as the lines were pretty long. Jesse and I split up to get our grub.  He was on the hunt for fish tacos, and found his way into line for Cantina, while I waited for a fresh off the grill grilled-cheese from Melt.  His cuban and fish tacos were amazing, as was his side of grilled corn with cilantro butter and crumbled fresco cheese. My grilled cheese was no ordinary grilled cheese - it took two hefty Texas toast slices to hold together the brilliant combination of pulled pork, BBQ sauce, and homemade mac and cheese!

3.  I survived my first practical in my clinical evaluations course!  And by that I mean, I don't know if I passed, but I didn't die of a panic attack in the middle of it while my professor watched my every move, and graded me by checking off every little possible thing I could do (or not do, or forgot to do).  Whew!  We were all at max stress this week, because all of our little over-achieving minds probably thought deep down somewhere that this first clinical checkoff would secretly pronounce if we can indeed be optometrists one day. But, we were all stressed for nothing. (Well maybe a little something.)  I tried to give myself a little pep talk before going in. It went a little something like this, "You just gotta go in there and show 'em you can do this. Because you can. You can take a case history. You can determine their visual acuities. You can check their pupil sizes and reactivities to light. You can do confrontation fields. You can check blood pressure. So don't stress... just go do it!"  So I did. You get timed on everything, meaning you have a certain number of minutes to perform each skill, which was the hardest part. Somehow I finished them all in time; definitely with a few flubs here and there. But, I finished it and can now move on.... to the next exam.  It's nearly midterm time, which is absurd, because it seems like we just started this semester!

4.  Last night, after I returned home from my practicals day at school, Jesse and I declared it movie night, and invited Mike and Kelsey up to watch. Movies + popcorn + friends = the best way to unwind after a trying day!

5.  A couple of weeks ago I sat for third year students to practice evaluating contact lenses. Mostly I did this because they were giving American Express gift cards out to the participants. I had had my eye on a few makeup items I wouldn't normally chunk out the dough over, but I decided if I participated and got the giftcard, it would technically be like getting this makeup for free! So, that's what happened. I finally got around to going to Ulta today. They were having 40% off several drugstore makeup brands, so I combined that with coupons to stock up on the foundation I like. (Score!) Plus my splurge (think with me: free!) beautiful Naked palette! I love all of the neutral colors it has inside, and I am SO excited to put it to use!

High Five for Friday

Wooohooo! It's Friday, y'all!  Didn't think it would ever get here this week.

I pretty much studied all. week. long. So there is not much happenin' around here.

Let's see if we can come up with a High Five for the week:

1. Jesse threw it back old school this past weekend and pulled an all-nighter with our friend Mike playing video games. They battled goblins and trolls until the wee (weeeee) hours of the morning. It's great to have friends so close that can hang out this way.

2. On Tuesday we kept the cutest baby in the world. I tried to teach her about the digestive system and all of it's possible diseases, but she wasn't too interested. She much preferred swinging in the hammock with Jesse and playing with a few baby apps he added to his tablet. Then we watched her eat an apple half the size of her own head, one teeny tiny bite at a time. So cute!

By the way, I learned at small group on Wednesday that saying "keep" a child, as in to babysit them, is a Southern thing. Apparently those that live way above us on the map prefer to say, "Can you watch my baby tonight?" However, I might have corrupted a certain Northern friend. ;)

3. This week at school I learned how to appropriately check your blood pressure, began an enormous packet of notes about ocular antibiotics, and can now test all of your eye muscles and visual field for defects while randomly (not really random at all) waving my arms around in front of you for about 2 minutes.  I'm no pro at any of these quite yet, so it would probably take me longer than expected.

4. After a long week of studying I de-stressed with a little shopping after class today. Mostly window shopping, but I did get a nice deal on these makeup brushes, which I've been needing to upgrade from the ones the Estee Lauder counter gave me for free quite some time ago.

5.  The best moment of the week was last night when I was bombarded by a pirate at my front door. Thankfully she did not plunder my house, but only wanted to see if we would go with her to Pirate Day at Krispy Kreme to loot some free donuts. Kelsey and Mike put their theater skills to good use. Words cannot describe how awesome the performance was - you should just watch it for yourself!

From Our Kitchen - Red Wine Steak & Mushrooms

It's been a little while since I've tried a new recipe or meal. I've been in a cooking slump, mostly due to the lack of time to spend in the kitchen. We really wish we had a grill, especially during the summer months. I've thought about getting some kind of indoor grill-like cooking surface. We found this pan at TJMaxx, and put it to use that same night:

It's a cast iron pan with an enamel coating on the outside. It is VERY heavy, and has this extra piece to press down on top of foods (not sure how useful that will be). 

We picked up some beef at Publix. Now, I'm not a huge beef fan. It can be fatty, which to me is gross. And then there are cuts that can't be cooked quickly or they will wind up tough. So, I have a hard time picking out a piece of beef, and I'm not going to by an expensive cut of sirloin (or whatever) to cook in the pan - it just ain't right. This piece of flat iron steak seemed marbled enough to stay tender and thin enough to cook evenly and through in the pan.

Here's the line up of seasonings we used. The herbs on the right were Herbs de'Provence, or some kind of blend of Italian herbs. It would have been best to marinate so that the steak could absorb more of the flavor, but this was dinner on the fly.

I soaked each side in wine and soy sauce, then shook the Lawry's and herbs on top and rubbed them in, then threw it in the pan.

After several minutes I flipped it over, and was a little excited to see those "grill lines." Now, of course it doesn't give the same flavor as a real, outdoor charcoal grill, but it is a step up from a flat pan which just lets the meat steam in its own juices. I also added some mushrooms to the pan, with a little butter and wine.

This is where things got weird. I stood in front of the rice aisle trying to find a mix, like rice pilaf or something. I saw this quinoa and brown rice mix, but did not realize it was pre-cooked until I was trying to determine how long to cook it, and the package said to rip open the top and a tablespoon of water and microwave for 90 seconds. WHAT?! So I took the suggestion in fine print and warmed it up in a skillet. It was a little disturbing to think that this rice had been cooked who knows how long ago, packaged, and sat on a shelf. I like the combination of quinoa and brown rice, but I won't be buying this again. I'd rather cook my own.

Tada! A quick and yummy meal for dinner! The steak was tender, and had good flavor (which could have been better by marinating). I would probably try cooking this cut of meat again- maybe with different seasoning, like a lime marinade (to replicate my favorite Urban Cookhouse dish...hmmm).

What are your favorite cuts of steak/beef to cook indoors?

High Five for Friday

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a doozey of a week, with late nights and lots of morning coffee to keep me going. I'm about ready to crash. Let's see if I can muster a high five:

1. I studied hard last Friday and Saturday so that I could join Jesse and Mike on their trip to Atlanta. We made it in time for the sushi buffet at our favorite place - Ru San's. Right in the nick of time to pile our plates high with deliciousness before they took the buffet down. :) We then went to The Fish Store (appropriately named), which is a salt water fish and coral warehouse. It was full of beautiful corals and unique fish (also a lot of Nemos)! We then made a quick run through Ikea, which is always fun! I found a neat bamboo cutting board and a cute purple and pink spatula.

2. I got to see my friend Hannah this week! We studied together... separately really, but I still got to see her, and that makes me happy!

3. I can now thoroughly evaluate your pupils and determine if you have abnormalities, like an afferent pupillary defect, aniocoria Horner's syndrome, or Adie's pupil!

4. I think it was last week that I worked on changing a very minor detail of the blog. If you look up on your tab to any webpage there is a little image next to the site's name. These are called favicons. The typical Blogger favicon is their trademark B in an orange box. I've tried to change mine before, but it didn't work. I gave it another try last week and made a white heart in a blue box. It didn't show up immediately, but I noticed it works for me this week when I view the blog! So maybe you see that too.

5. Tonight, we went to a meeting at school that was held by the Banzai group - a community of optometrists who are focused on practicing medical optometry, and being so successful they bring in at least a million dollars a year. It was so insightful, and I'm very glad I chose to go, and that I brought Jesse along to hear what they had to say. It was wonderful to see all of their passion, especially in the midst of feeling overwhelmed by school itself. It was good to be reminded of where I could be in just a few years, although the present seems difficult and unending.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

High Five for Friday

It's Friday again?!  A Monday off sure mixes up the week. Considering I feel like I just got into the swing of the week as it's coming to an end, not much happened this week. But let's see what I can come up with...

1. Saturday we went to our friends' daughter's birthday party. She is one whole year old!  She's the best baby, possibly ever. She always smiles when we first see her, she loves to play with Jesse's hair, she rarely cries, almost always eats all her fruits and veggies (I'm always proud of non-picky eating children), she has the cutest little 'focus face' as she concentrates on nearly everything (because she's also super smart), and we love her very much.  She got lots of sweet little gifts from all of her friends, including a touch and feel book from us, which she kindly pointed to each animal's fur and said "oooh." It means she like it! A success!

2. Labor Day was spend with my mom's side of the family at my Aunt Mary John's house (hi Aunt Mary John! She's a frequent reader.)  Jesse's parents came along as well! Uncle Charles grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and MJ made all the sides (fixin's) and various desserts were brought. It's not a Wilson gathering if there aren't nearly as many desserts as "real food" options. ;)  It was delicious, and a wonderful time with family, with some... interesting... conversation.

3. Our Community Group is changing paces, and this week we cast lots, true Old Testament style, to determine the next book of the Old Testament we should work through chapter by chapter (or something like that). After several dueling rounds of chance dice roles, throwing of tokens, dropping of sticks, and flipping of coins, six books were finalists. In the last casting of lots, sticks were drawn and the Lord declared Amos the book we shall study! So, Amos it is. Anyone know anything about Amos? We don't now, but we will over the next few months, and I'm excited to be digging through scripture together!

4. A repeat from last week: Jesse went to Dothan for work, which meant he got to spend (some more) time with Matt & Heidi. He returned yesterday, and all became right with the world again. :)

5. I took a nap in the hammock today. Aaaah... I love that thing. Makes for the best naps.

Just a little song...

This song recently, and quickly, has become a favorite of mine. And thankfully, it comes on the radio nearly every time I'm in the car. I don't know if that's because it's super popular, or the Lord is trying to reach me. Either way it is humbling no matter how many times I hear it.