October 2011

Current Weather:  60 degrees and sunny
Current Gas Price: $3.10 per gallon
Total Cockroach Count:  3

Hello family! How are y'all doing? We are so excited to see you soon and can't want to visit for the holidays!  This has been an exciting month for us and we feel like it FLEW by! Wesley finished up his Peds block and is now in Block 5 (Medicine)...it's hard to believe that he's already 1/3 of the way done with his intern year! Way to go Wesley! In two weeks, he will move to Block 6 (Sports Medicine) and he won't have ANY call! YAY! And obviously we'll be taking a nice long vacation to come and see y'all! Wes has been holding up like a champ these days but I've started to notice a little more of the "intern behavior" that the older doctor's wives were telling me about.  The other day I woke Wes up from a nap before a night shift on peds and the first thing he said was, "How's the baby?"  And then just last week I tried to wake him up again by saying his name and he wouldn't wake up, so I gently rubbed his face...still nothing, so I put my whole hand on his face and rubbed it (with a decent amount of pressure) and he STILL didn't wake up (didn't even stir), then I started shaking him screaming, "COCKADOODLE DOO BOB!" and he finally woke up! Haha, I made that last part up but you'd find it funny if you've seen "What about Bob?"

*Wesley made a new delicious dinner the other day and we thought some of you may enjoy trying it! Let us know what you think if you make it!

Wesley's Butternut Squash Risotto
Ingredients
3.5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2.5 Tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 dry white wine
1 butternut squash
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg

*** We only used half the squash for this recipe but we cook/chop the whole thing and freeze the remaining half and make it again the next week. You can always double everything else and use the whole squash but you'll have a lot of leftovers! ***

Directions
Preheat oven to 375.  First, cut the squash in half (lengthwise) and set one half aside.  Brush the squash flesh with olive oil and place face down on a roasting pan. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes (or until soft and yields to the touch).  Remove and let sit for about 20 minutes.  While the first half is roasting, take the other half of the squash and chop it up into very small pieces.

Put chicken stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Reduce to low heat and cover to keep the stock hot.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute (add garlic when almost translucent) and continue cooking until translucent.  Add the rice and stir well for about 30 seconds.  Add the wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until liquid is absorbed.  Add 1/2 cup of hot stock and stir until stock is absorbed.  Keep adding stock and stirring until absorbed until all the stock is gone. (Maybe about 25-30 minutes).  While doing all this, get a large frying pan and saute HALF of the chopped up squash with some olive oil (freeze the other half).  Once the risotto is all done, immediately add HALF of the roasted squash (freeze the other half) and the remaining sauteed squash to the risotto and stir until blended.  Add the cinnamon and nutmeg.  Dish up and enjoy! *We sometimes put some Parmesan  cheese on top just because we like it but it's up to you!


*Our first big adventure in the month of October was a trip to the beach! We've learned a lot from the locals down here about going to the beach.  First, you DO NOT go to Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head (those are for tourists). Second, you go to one of the following beaches: Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, Edisto Island, Hunting Island, etc. Third, you go in October when no tourists are and it isn't so hot.  We wanted to go to Edisto because we have heard so much about it and it seems like we'd really enjoy it but the campground was all full so we ended up going to Hunting Island (which is right next to Edisto). Turns out Hunting Island supposedly has the best State Park in South Carolina and Wesley snagged us a camping spot there! It apparently is a great place for bird watchers because it has a ton of varieties and eagles and stuff.   We enjoyed our drive there (took four hours? I can't remember) and we loved driving through the countryside.  We only saw 1 corn field, which was very disappointing but we did see....COTTON fields! Oh man, we are in the South! Haha, I've never seen a cotton field before in my life and its weird looking stuff too! It was too good to pass up so we stopped to get a picture!

That machine in the back left is what collects it all and does something...haha  Wes isn't home to give me the farming terms...dang it! On our drive back we saw this huge block of cotton sitting in the field.  Like really big...probably bigger than our living room! 

We didn't get there until 9:00 or so and turns out we had to walk to our campsite...so that was an adventure carrying all of our things back and forth to our campsite in the dark! We were surprised to wake up and see what our campsite actually looked like.  It was very different from anything we were used to with all of the palms trees and stuff. Haha, I woke up to a strange noise outside the tent that sounded like a low growling throat noise that was surprisingly coming from a tiny red bird. Haha, very interesting.  Later on, while we were eating breakfast, a huge bird of prey (don't know what kind) flew on the branch really close to us and took off after one of those little red growling birds...poor guy.

Soon we headed off to the beach! Unfortunately, it was actually really cold (the locals lied to us!) and we wore our jackets the whole day.  Well, at least I did.  It really was made worse by the fact that it was so incredibly windy that we could hardly face in that direction.  (You know that feeling when it's so windy that you can't breath when you're facing it?)  Please enjoy this video that gives a great example of how windy it was!

Enjoying his weekend off! 

Do you like my $5 sunglasses from Walmart with a diamond "A" on them?   I broke my favorite sunglasses days before we left so I had to grab something quick...I'm all about diamond monogrammed stuff :) 

Did you feel cold watching it? I did. After sitting for a while, we finally decided to go put our stuff back at the campground and just walk along the beach.  It was a lot better that way and we got to see more of the island!   The lighthouse on the island is one of the oldest in South Carolina and it was pretty cool to go inside.

It was super windy up there but gave a great view! 

We really enjoyed being away together! And we just really missed camping! This is the only time in 2011 that we've been able to go! Haha, we went like 5 times in 2010! Well, times are just crazy right now but we know that camping will be a big part of our lives so we'll just have to wait until life settles down!

*The following weekend we went to a "Wedding Crashers Party" at the cheif resident's house.  She throws great parties and we enjoyed it a lot! Dana, you'll be happy to know that I won the award for "Best Reusable Bridesmaid Dress" wearing your bridesmaid dress! You have such classy style :)

*The weekend after that was a very exciting one because we made our first journey back to Ohio for my cousin Ashley's wedding. Although we were in Ohio for less than 48 hours, we had so much fun seeing John & Kim, Libby, and Mom and the rest of my extended family! We were happy we could be there to support my them on such an exciting day! Her wedding was absolutely gorgeous and we had a great time! It was, unfortunately, cut short though because the groom's dad ended passing out after partying too hard and Dr. Wesley had to come to the rescue at yet another family wedding.  Everyone was really scared though because no one knew what was going on so I think people thought it was more serious than it was, myself included!  Haha, he is doing well though! Here are some pics from the wedding:

I got three feathers put in my hair and I totally love them (although I'm cheap and won't pay to get more once they fall out) but I was disappointed to hear (from Libby) that "only college girls have them in Ohio." Haha, that was mildly embarrassing as lots of people get them down here.  There are a bunch of teachers at my school who have them so I was really excited to show off my feathers...but I guess I'll just have to be cool here and not in Ohio :( 

Wes dancing the dollar dance with my cousin Ashley.  She looked absolutely beautiful! 

We had a great time dancing as they had a live band playing lots of big band music! Wesley was leading me all over the dance floor with our foxtrot step!  I thought we were pretty cool until Wes started dancing with my mom and she totally showed me up by twirling all over the dance floor! Haha, she was at least gracious about it and showed me how to do the twirls so that after that I could twirl around the floor myself.

BUT, the big dance moment of the evening was doing the Bombshell Stomp with my cousins.  Ashley (the bride) had emailed Mom, Libs, and I (along with all my cousins) and asked if we could learn the steps to the Bombshell Stomp.  Haha, I have NO experience doing line dancing but I thought I'd give it a try because Ashley was dancing around like crazy at my wedding and I wanted to support her! Haha, needless to say it was pretty shaky but we pulled it out! Haha, Libby, Kim and I were practicing that morning trying to remember all the steps but it turned out pretty well! Enjoy!

*Next was Halloween! Haha, despite celebrating it ALL week long at work we went to the residency's Annual Halloween Party.  Wes and I are not super big into Halloween and we did not have costumes as of 30 minutes before the party so we had to improvise with things we had around the house.  It was shockingly easy to find nerdy things around our house...hmmm?

Does it look natural? Hee hee...

This is Joseph and Trish Hall.  Trish is an intern with Wes and Joseph is in the Army...so they switched places for Halloween.  Wes and I had had that idea originally but speech therapists are unfortunately difficult to identify... Check out Joseph's bicep that barely fit in the extra large scrubs...haha we were all laughing about that!

This is Leanne and Trent Kline. They are fellow OSU grads and Leanne is an intern with Wes also. Trent is a stay-at-home dad currently because apparently Greenwood and neighboring areas are not too into fitness so he can't find a job (but the hospitals are full of unhealthy people for Wes and Leanne to take care of).  They have a 7 month old girl named Harper Gray (as in Scarlet and Gray). 

*We continue to really enjoy our church! We are learning more and more every week and have met a lot of wonderful people there! Haha, turns out that the entire intern class (minus Matt Haldeman) go to Northside Baptist church! AND they even had a guest celebrity visit last week...Justin Timberlake! Haha, just kidding! But check out this guy that is in their worship band...we all call him JT cause from our seats he looks like Justin Timberlake.  (Wesley got some interesting looks taking this video during church...yikes!)

Ok y'all...I think that may be it! We are so excited to see you all very soon! Please let us know if we should bring anything or do anything to help out for the holidays! WE LOVE YOU!