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!

September 2011

Current Weather: 85 and sunny!
Current Gas Price: $3.03 per gallon
Total Cockroaches seen: 3 (whew!)

Hi Fam! How are y'all doing? We are SO excited to be seeing you all soon! We are about 95% sure that we'll be coming to Ohio on November 19th (yay for Libs and my birthday!) and leaving on Sunday, the 27th.  So we'll have plenty of time to come and visit with y'all.  Although we are very much enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, it is bittersweet because it really does not feel like fall here. I was talking with Debs on the phone this morning and she said that all the leaves are turning up there and its nice and chilly and everyone has pumpkins out.  I haven't seen anyone with a pumpkin out on their porch (probably because it would bake in the heat).  It seems that fall and spring are pretty short here while summer lasts most of the year and winter is the second longest season.

Well, I know we told you that August was characterized by work but I lied...SEPTEMBER is characterized by work instead! Wesley finished his 8 weeks of medicine and is happily enjoying his Peds block (block 4) before beginning another medicine block in late October.  We are both looking forward to going to the beach next weekend!

*I got the results of my heart ECHO and event monitor and it seems like my ole' ticker is ticking just fine! They think that my heart palpitations are a result of stress (and or caffeine)...but it has to be stress because I drink the same amount of caffeine every day but have the palpitations at sporadic intervals.  The palpitations were really bad last May and early June (when our lives were ridiculously busy and changing a lot) and they calmed down in July and kicked back up (a little bit) in August when I started working.  But it has honestly been a long time since I've had one.  SO...we're both glad to know that everything is all right and that I can relieve my symptoms by stress relieving techniques...which I'm not sure what those are but...yeah...

*Well it seems that within three months of living here Wes and I were both big enough celebrities to make it into the local paper.  Please see below for my debut in the Index Journal.  I confess that I'm not thrilled about it because 1) it's a terrible picture of me and 2) I don't appreciate getting undeserved praise.  We went to the "event" because the Bocks (Alan and Lynsey who are 2nd years from Ohio) invited us to a "cookout" so we just went to support them and get free food.  Then there were these cute little mexican boys who wanted to plant some peppers so Lynsey asked if I would help them.  As you can see, I'm wearing a skirt and Wes and I both missed the memo about planting vegetables at the "cookout."  But as you can see from the article, I seem like Mother Theresa or something even though I went for the food...yup..enjoy the article though :)

 * I have really enjoyed getting involved with the youth group at our church.   I lead one of the high school girls small groups (or C-groups as they call them) on Sunday mornings! Early in September I went on their fall retreat to Awanita Christian Retreat Center (http://www.awanita.org/).  I had a great time getting to know the girls a little bit better but was slightly disappointed with how busy it was for me.  This was my first time being on a retreat as an adult and not one of the kids.  I had to be with a group at all times and some girls would want to ride in the paddle boats, some go off the zip line, and others ride the horses.  So I spent most of the time just going around to wherever the girls wanted me too.   I went off the zip line (one time) and pulled both of my biceps and some muscle that runs horizontally across my back so then I just stuck to the water slide after that.  I was in serious pain after my zip line experience...haha, I've even been exercising a lot more and I still hurt myself!  Here is a picture of me driving the church van (YES!):

*The morning that I left for Awanita I decided to run the dishwasher...and OH NO! I used the wrong type of soap.  It was one of those out of body experiences where you can see yourself using the wrong type of soap and you know whats going to happen but you still put it in the dishwasher and turn it on...yup...that's what I did!  The best part?  I did this right as I was leaving for work so I had to just clean up what was on the floor and just not run the dishwasher BUT I was leaving for Awanita right after work so I had to leave all that mess for Wesley to clean up (which he did like a champ!).  But I felt like a pretty bad wife...yikes!

*Also, check out this spider that I found outside the youth group building! I have NEVER seen a spider this big before but down here they call them "writing spiders" because they are the type of spider that Charlotte's Web was based off of...I guess...I'm not sure how valid this statement is but that's what someone told me.

*We have still been finding time to try out more yummy meals! We still make indian food a lot and we actually made some chicken tikka masala and saag paneer for our small group the other day so that was pretty fun! Last night we made our favorite roast chicken and veggies and this week we're going to make some butternut squash soup again in an effort to bring fall to Greenwood.  Wesley tried his luck at gnocchi making the other evening and they turned out to be AMAZING! Here are some pictures of Chef-Wesley making homemade gnocchi.

* We have also tried two new restaurants in Greenwood recently.  We went to Pascal's last Friday before going to see Mornings at Seven at the Greenwood Community Theater.  Pascal's is kind of Greenwood's local "expensive restaurant."  They have a bunch of tapas so we actually ended up getting a bunch of those instead of getting an entree.  Everything was delicious expect for that after we ordered we realized that we got a bunch of stuff with cheese in it and so by the end of the meal we were both really stuffed...there such a thing as too much cheese.

We also went to a little hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant called, "El Puerto Chico" with Payton and Clory this week. The woman who own's the restaurant has a daughter who works as a translator at the hospital...so that's how Wes and Payton heard of it.  It was definitely a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant as we were the only white people in there, the menu was in spanish (with one english page) and the owner shouted something in spanish out of the kitchen and then a woman who was sitting at another table came up to us and said, "she wants to know if you want her to make a little bit of everything and bring it out to you to try."  Haha, needless to say I don't think we'll be going anywhere else for mexican food because it was DELICIOUS! She brought out four huge plates full of food and it was more than enough to feed all of us and she charged us $20. Haha, we really enjoyed the experience!  We'll have to take you all there when you come visit!

*We finally hung some shelves up on that bare wall in the dining room.  I still haven't decided what to put on the shelves but I'm getting there. Here are some pics of Wesley putting up the shelves...he is SO good at hanging things on the wall...everything comes out so straight!

*Lastly, I promised I'd send along a picture of Carly and Clory to show all of you! I spend most of time (when not spent with Wes) with these gals and I feel really blessed to have them as friends down here! They have been a real answer to prayer and have made the transition to Greenwood feel very easy! They were not too pleased with the picture of them but I told them they looked great! We took it after church last Sunday...

Clory Foust (left), me, Carly Ringenberg (right)

*We are so very excited to see all of you over the holidays! Much love! - Wes and Abby

P.S. Here are some pictures of our house for those of you who have not been here! Or maybe I sent these out in an email already? Haha, I can't remember! We've added a few adjustments since these pictures were taken though...

Matt Haldeman helping me plant flowers outside :)

My pink guest bathroom!

Our kitchen...post-wall paper removal!

August 2011

Current Weather:  77 degrees and stormy (unusual weather)

Current Gas Price: $3.37
Total cockroaches seen:  3 (YUCK!!)

Hello Family! How is everyone? Or should I say, "HOW YOU?" or "HOW DOIN?" Haha, these are some fun and interesting phrases I've learned while here. Wes and I have not adopted them into our vocabulary and feel free to slap me if you hear me say it :)  Basically, the month of August has been categorized as "WORK." Wes is currently in his 6th week of his 8-week medicine stretch! It has been an exhausting journey for both of us but we're so excited to have two out of the way soon (he has to complete 5.5 months of medicine this year)!  Wes will begin Block 4 (already?) in two weeks and we're looking forward to that.  This is his schedule until the new year: Block 4 - PEDS  (Sept. 22-Oct. 19), Block 5 - MEDICINE (Oct. 20-Nov. 16), Block 6 - COMMUNITY MEDICINE (Nov. 17-Dec. 14), Block 7 - MEDICINE (Dec. 15-Jan. 11).  So by the time Block 8 (out of 13) begins...Wes will have completed 4 out of his 5.5 months of medicine! YES!!  I started working on the 10th and will be in my fourth week of school next week!


*We had some more visitors this month, which was so wonderful! Libby came to visit us, which was so much fun and I just had the best time hanging out with her!  I definitely miss her! She was unfortunately here when the most recent cockroach sighting appeared AND there was a giant cricket in her shower as well.  Haha, it had rained for several days in a row before she got here (which is unusual) and it must have brought all the bugs inside because we had not seen any for some time before that.  Then Dan and Dixie came to visit us and it was so nice to see them! They bought us some rocking chairs for our porch and they look so cute on our little porch! We've been sitting on them in the evenings when the weather is a bit cooler! Last night we saw several hummingbirds so I am thinking that I'll need to get a hummingbird feeder in addition to my bird feeder if I really want to be Mary Poppins :) 

* Wes had this past weekend off so we took a day and went hiking in the "Upcountry" which is the northwest corner of South Carolina.  We hiked to see Raven Falls and were disappointed to find out that the trail we took went only to the "Raven Falls Overlook" and that we'd have to hike several more miles to actually get to the falls (which we didn't have time to do).  But, it was so wonderful for us to be together and in God's beautiful creation! It was very refreshing and just what we needed after a long week of working!  

Here we are at an overlook of the valley.  Table Rock Cliff is the background there somewhere...that is a pretty popular hike in this area!  Wes has been able to go hiking with some the other residents/spouses once before as well!

We both kept laughing at how easy the hike was for us after  going to Jan's spinning classes at the gym.  Jan  is the  assistant manager of our gym and she has huge muscles and is a just a really nice (and somewhat eccentric) lady.  But she's also really tough...but she has put our legs in shape! 

*After hiking, we headed over to the Ringenberg's (couple from Indiana) for a birthday party! Carly, Clory, and I threw the party for our husbands (who all have birthdays in September) but then it ended up that all of the men that showed up at the party had a birthday in September so the party was kind of for all of them! So when we sang "Happy Birthday" to them it was really just all their wives singing to them :)

From left, Matt Haldeman, Joseph Hall, Wesley, Jacob Ringenberg, Josh Wicker, and Payton Foust

Wesley will be 28 years old on September 12th.  Haha, I was laughing at how I always start to think of myself as one year older once Wes' birthday comes around, so I keep thinking I'm 27, but I still have two more months of being 26!  

* I have finally settled down into my daily therapy schedule.  During the second week of school I found out that I was also going to have to see kids at Northside Middle School as well as Woodfields Elementary and Brewer Middle School.  So, I was kinda of panicking but it turns out that I just LOVE my kids at Northside.   I have several kids in the TMD (Trainable Mentally Disabled) class and several in the PMD (Profoundly Mentally Disabled) class.   These terms (TMD/PMD) are apparently archaic and completely NOT politically correct but everyone here still uses them anyway.  That is something I've definitely noticed about the south...people don't change very quickly and they are not open to a lot of new ideas.  I've learned to keep my yankee mouth shut and not to suggest changes (such as having one form for something as opposed to 15 forms) because I can literally see the panic in their eyes from even the thought of doing something differently.  Haha, of course this doesn't speak for everyone but the older generation especially seems to have difficulty with change!

Here is a tour of my classroom:

* We had a PTO meeting this week and I was apparently supposed to decorate the hallway outside of my room with samples of my students work (of which I have no tangible evidence at this point) so instead I got creative with a spare raccoon poster I found :) Hope you like it!

*  I have started attending the PEAK, which is the weekly youth group at our church.  I will be leading a small group of high school girls starting in September so I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

*Our garden is officially done for after the invasion of the giant green caterpillars! They devoured an entire tomato plant in like two days and then moved on the next one.  Luckily, we had had lots of produce from them and they were starting to die so we just let the caterpillars eat them...haha, we have enjoyed watching them :)

* Wes and I celebrated our TWO year anniversary on August 29th and it was a great way to end the month! I can't believe that it has been two years already! Well...on one hand it seems like two years is such a short amount of time and on the other hand I can't really remember life before we were married.  Residency has been tough on our marriage and has stretched it in many ways but we are so grateful for all the lessons we're learning about God's faithfulness through it! Here's to another wonderful year together!

*We miss you all and we're excited to see you all over the Holidays! LOVE YOU!