A Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Something we've really enjoyed doing with Blake's class is potluck-ing! Last week his classmate planned a themed potluck-- "Vegetarian Thanksgiving". The tofu was delicious!!! And I mean that because I'm not the biggest tofu fan.

I brought this dessert, and it was quickly devoured. With the holidays coming up, I highly recommend this recipe for carrot cake with cream cheese icing... AMAZING!!!! The trick is that it uses both coconut and pineapple. Happy baking :)

Our Speckled Map.

Blake and I have started talking about where we want to live after he graduates and enters residency. It's hard to believe it's only a year away before he will be applying for his residency program!! Where did time go??

So, last weekend we went out for dinner with two maps printed off-- one of the east coast and one of the west coast. As we sat at our booth, we each took turns circling the cities we could see ourselves living. In the end, our maps turned out very speckled! Between the two of us we circled 24 cities in the US... from Atlanta to Seattle. We definitely don't lack adventure :)

Until we know where we'll be, there will be much prayer. Even though we both love adventure, we are also very close to our families and recognize how difficult it would be to live afar.

To be continued...... within the next year ;)

Back in the Spotlight!

I was recently offered a lead role in a show, Holiday Ice Spectacular. And yes... the word "ice" means that it's on ice :)

This opportunity literally fell in my lap, and it's such an answer to prayer. All of my professors have been wonderful in working with me, and they're going to allow me to take my finals early in order to make it to rehearsals starting Dec 1st. Eeee!!!

My character is a female elf who is sweet and hospitable, but constantly has to keep her husband in line and out of trouble. And the "husband/male elf" role will be played by the talented Mikey Post.... ironically, the same person who introduced Blake and I!! Crazy, hu?

Together, Mikey and I will narrate the show and make it all flow. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. On top of that, we'll be performing with a cast of Olympic athletes and figure skating medalists..... ummm, what??? I guess I better keep practicing my Russian because one cast member is from Russia and another from Belarus :)

Just for fun: here's a little bio they put together about me. You can ignore the spelling/grammar errors... they're still working on it.

"Happy Birthday"

When we all started singing "happy birthday" to Joseph, James lit up and was convinced we were singing to him. It was the funniest thing!!! I wish so badly I got it on camera...

We re-lit one of the candles just to let James blow it out, but he still hasn't learned the consequence of touching flames. Just watch ;)

Labor Day 2010

3 or 4 years ago, my family started a tradition to plan a family trip every Labor Day. It's always a special time together, and it's especially fun to see how things change... as spouses and babies are added to the mix.

This year, the family decided to make a trip down to Savannah!! We were very grateful that they traveled the distance to see our new place and experience a taste of our charming little town :)

It's hard to believe that baby James was only 3 months old last year...and this year he was toddling around and babbling his own gibberish. He LOVED playing with my little rocker and saying "rock-rock"

We celebrated Joe's 20th birthday (crazy!) with his favorite cake-- Boston Cream Pie

James was ridiculously cuddly when he woke up from his nap. He just laid down on top of me and rested for a while... a slice of heaven right there! He eventually sat up and just stared at me. Oh, how I wish I could snuggle with that cuddle-bug more often!!!

Definitely one of my favorite stories from the weekend:

My parents took us all out to a Sand Gnats game, which was so much fun! As we were going through security, the guard took the banana out of James' bag (AKA his dinner).Mitch argued for a while, explaining it was dinner for their baby, but he ended up handing it over. When Jaillene found out that they took the banana... let's just say "mama bear" was NOT happy! The supervisor was called and the guard was ordered to go to the store and buy Jaillene another banana since her original banana was thrown away. In addition, she was given two free tickets to another game to make up for the inconvenience. We were all laughing at how quickly her mother instincts kicked in. Her baby got his banana :)

Dad, Jaillene, James, & Mom at the game

Jesse, Blake, me, & Joseph

The ball game ended with fireworks! We were all curious how James would respond.

He started off just laying back and watching with amusement... then sat up and starting pointing... and eventually was laughing and clapping. This kid is not scared of much.

Mom and Dad put James to bed while all of us went into town for late-night pizza at Vinnie's. It was soooooo good!!

Joseph, Jared, & Jesse

We caught some sunshine at the beach on Sunday

The girls-- Jaillene, Eryn, and I

Eryn, Joseph, Jared, & Jesse all made a sand castle for James...

...which he enjoyed destroying ;-)

Post-beach feast at Crab Shack!!!

We got a platter for 6, and the 10 of us couldn't even finish it!

And then, we tried out a new frozen yogurt shop that just opened. You fill your own cup with yummy frozen yogurt, add whatever toppings you want, and then they weigh it at the end and you're charged by the ounce. Mmmm!!

We both feel so blessed to have the families we've been given, and we're incredibly thankful for times like these to catch up and relax. We're already looking forward to next year :)

First Rotation Complete!

Blake completed his first rotation (OB/GYN), having delivered 4 babies himself! So stinking cool. He is really enjoying being in the hospital and actually applying the knowledge he has soaked up the past 2 years, but I think he's glad to have OB/GYN complete.

The last week of rotation he was on night float, and I would come home to this--

Poor baby...he was so exhausted after being up all night and having his nights/days flipped. Of course, I enjoyed having him home during the day even though he was dozing :)