Oh what a month

For four weeks Steve and I lived with my parents in San Antonio.  Steve was doing a rotation with the UT San Antonio Pathology department.  I figured that if I didn't go down for the entirety of the rotation there was a good chance my parents would kill me.  If not, then be really upset and maybe live with me for four weeks, so down we went. 

If was so much fun to be with my family.  As chance had it two siblings who normally don't live in SA were there for a few weeks so most of my family were at my parents house.  Cadance absolutely loved it.  It took her about 12 hours to realize how amazing it is to have constant attention.

We didn't have many plans, but what plans we did have got curtailed by an emergency surgery for moi the 3rd day we were there.  So, luckily I had plenty of hands to take care of Cadance while I recovered, but my baking, scrapbooking, running dreams were put on hold 3 of the 4 weeks of our stay.

So, without being about to go do much we had fun at home swimming, playing with pudding, watching a lot of episodes of Chopped, and straightening my little brother's hair.  When I did venture out there was much shopping for my brother's wedding and one dinner at Dough Pizza (fabulous!).

2.5 weeks into the rotation we flew to Las Vegas for the wedding.  As tired and sick as we all were we had a lot of fun.  The reception was gorgeous as was the bride.  We had a lot of friends come up from California so it was fun to be able to see them again.  Cadance was a sport, especially during the walk on the strip that went right through her nap time.  Also, I am extremely grateful for the invention of the pack n play; Cadance took more than one nap in a classroom at the church building. 

The trip wouldn't be complete without Steve's wonderful family.  We were able to spend some time at the Ellsworths, and Cindy was gracious enough to watch Cadance while we went to the movies.  We also went to the Culinary Institute of America's bakery and enjoyed some fantastic pastries and a great lunch!

In other news, Steve is fairly certain that forensic pathology is the field he wants to get into.  He really liked the rotation- the work, schedule, etc.  He's also almost finished with his residency application (whoot!).  I graduated from the Culinary School of Fort Worth with a certificate in Pastry Arts.  Both our parents came up to celebrate.  It was a great day.

So here are some pictures from the trip, in no particular order:

Steven Passes his Pennsylvania Board Exam

Well let me take just a quick second to share my mini-victory. I found out today that I have passed my PE for COMLEX 2. This is one of several tests that I have to pass in order to continue being a doctor. I did take the test 8-9 weeks ago, so it's been terribly nerve racking to wait this long. Now, I have started with the medical examiner's office in Bexar County and I am having a blast learning about Forensic Medicine. There are some truly awesome things to learn about in this world.

A Bunch of RandomThings

Over the past few weeks I've often thought, oh, I should write a post about that, or, I should put up that video. And, I obviously haven't. So, I thought I would post up a bunch of random stuff.

This video is my favorite. She does this funny thing with her head when she's trying to pick something up off the floor. The problem is, this chair is a glider so it's not working for her. About half way through she discovers a new noise and I think she likes it more than the flip flop




Here are some pictures from the Cowgirl Museum. We went on Saturday.



She also really loves to eat. It's her favorite time of day. Pictured below are her first tastes of sandwiches. She was a fan.



And some random ones just for good measure

When Do You Learn?

For all of you moms out there I have some questions for you. When do you learn that covering a child in a full body frock will not guarantee that paint will remain off the clothes? When do you remember that no matter how clean they look in a high chair they still have food on them somewhere? When does it click that the decision to let your child hold a spoon is really a decision to pick said spoon off the floor? And, when do you realize that bananas stain really badly?

Cadance the Explorer

The last few weeks Cadance has had a lot of fun exploring our apartment. She's gotten quite good at it, actually. Here are a few pictures from of what she's discovered.


She has also discovered bathtubs and likes to push things off the sides. But, dogs are her favorite. Sometimes we'll go sit by the volleyball court and watch people bring their dogs out. She gets so excited.

In other news, at school today someone came and delivered some mushrooms. He made the comment that it wasn't that hot outside. When I left I saw a sign that said 97. Only in Texas is 97 "not that hot."

Steve is studying hard for his boards. He's technically is a 4th year (have a party in your head!), but until he completes his second round of boards it doesn't mean much. July 21st here we come!

And just because it's fun, here's a video of Cadance eating a strawberry. She become quite jealous when we eat without her, so she's been getting a lot more snacks lately, usually fruit, but yesterday I gave her a pretzel rod while we ate dinner- an entire pretzel rod, usually I break it into pieces. She ate the entire thing. I was shocked. I didn't know you could go through food that fast without teeth.

An Update on Cadance

Mostly people look at this blog to see pictures of Cadance. Sorry I don't post them very often. I know most people have already seen pictures from our trip to PA, but here are some that I took

My First Recipe

Last week in class we did recipe development. I was so excited to create a recipe for baked goods. I think it turned out pretty good. This is my version on test 6

Cheesy Sun Dried Tomato Muffins

Notes: If using non-oil packed sun dried tomatoes only use 1 oz. Pour boiling water to cover and let soak until soft, about 10 minutes. Chop and proceed with recipe.

1 oz. block parmasen cheese, divided
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 T. sugar
1/2 C. mozzarella
1 C. milk
1 egg
3 oz. butter, melted and cooled
2 oz. oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, chopped into 1/2" pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 6 muffin cups.

Cut Parmesan cheese in half. Cut one half into 6 pieces, shred the other half and set aside until needed.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add in mozzarella cheese and stir to combine. Make well in center.

In a separate bowl, beat egg into milk. Stir in Butter. Pour into well of flour mixture. Mix together just until wet. Add tomatoes and fold in.

Spoon batter into muffin cups until 1/3 full. Place one piece of Parmesan cheese in each cup. Place another spoonful of batter to cover cheese. Cups will be almost full. Top batter with shredded cheese.

Bake 15-20 minutes.