Counting Down

Anyone who knows us knows we are kinda obsessed with our alma mater, TCU.  Actually, we bleed purple.  When doing laundry I often have a full load of purple clothes (mine and Corey's).  Once college baseball season ended, we got into countdown mode for football. 

Over the summer we've been busy bees getting ready for the 2011 Horned Frog Football season.  First we bought season tickets, then we purchased not one, but two, parking spots - perfect for tailgating!  But we had two small sedans and really, you can't tailgate in TX with a sedan.  So, we've been on the lookout for an SUV, promising ourselves that we would only get one if it was a steal.  Last week we found that deal of a lifetime (thanks to my penny-pinching husband!).  Here's our new-to-us TCU tailgating mobile.  The only thing that would make it better would be if it were purple!  Okay, maybe not.... 

In order to tailgate in style, I had to have a stylish bag in which to transport snacks and/or beverages.  And look what I found - a cute insulated tote.  And it was half-off!

Last, but definitely not least, I found these beauties while searching for some new running shoes.  While not TCU purple, these screamed TCU football to me!

All I need is a new TCU t-shirt, a TCU plate holder for the new wheels and perhaps some portable purple serving pieces.  Now if kickoff would just hurry up and get here - only 45 days! 

Rah Rah TCU!

Houseguests

We hosted our first overnight house guests last week.  My best friend, Sarah, and her almost 9 month-old daughter stayed for 3 nights.  I had a wonderful time with them!  I haven't seen her sweet baby girl since she was only a few weeks old.  She's obviously much more fun and interactive now.  We did lots of shopping, eating and trying to stay out of the heat.  We also took a trip to the aquarium which was a good way to stay cool! 

Lacey learned quickly how to get treats from her

 One of the best parts of the visit (besides seeing my best friend) was watching Corey interact with Harper.  He's changed so much over the years when it comes to kids.  He used to leave the room when a child started crying.  Now he loves making babies laugh and tries to soothe them when they're upset.  It really warmed my heart to see him bond with her.  Spending that time with her has definitely made us think more about when we'll be ready for our own. 

Isn't that a great smile?

Step Into My Kitchen

Since I was younger I loved cooking, especially baking.  It started off as helping around the kitchen to baking cookies for friends in high school.  But it wasn't until I lived in my first apartment with my college roommate that I really started cooking for myself.  At that point it was a lot of quick meals and things I grew up eating, like ground beef with jarred spaghetti sauce and frozen garlic bread, chicken in cream of mushroom soup over rice or noodles, tacos with packaged seasoning and even hamburger helper.  I developed some new favorites thanks to my roommate including chicken enchilada pie and taco ring (yummm).  But when I moved out on my own and then got married I started branching out.

Over the previous year I've really gotten more and more adventurous.  I now make my own taco seasoning, use only homemade spaghetti sauce and make cookies, cakes, muffins, pancakes, waffles, etc from scratch - no boxed mixes here!  I'm trying to use less packaged foods and lots more fresh ingredients (and lots of canned tomatoes).  Most of my inspiration comes from various food blogs.  In fact, there are 20 food blogs are on my google reader - yikes! I'm also completely obsessed with the website Tastespotting.  Almost every night I'm not working, I'll curl up with my laptop and look through the gorgeous pictures of delicious looking food.

I definitely have had some flops, but I'm getting more and more confident with my skills.  Now, if only I could manage to stop burning, cutting or injuring myself in other ways in the kitchen, things would be great.  Here's some of what I've been cooking up lately:

Blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries

Pizza with homemade dough - my 1st time working with yeast

Yellow cake, chocolate frosting (all from scratch) with some decorative touches

Cranberry-orange-walnut bread

Yeasty dough - smells so yummy

Chocolate cookies

Banana-strawberry-spinach smoothie

Banana cake + cream cheese frosting = delicious

Blackberry muffins (forgot to flour the blackberries)

Waffles from scratch - soo much better than Aunt Jemima!

Chocolate cupcakes, oreo whipped cream frosting

Steak nachos using leftover homemade carne asada

This doesn't even scratch the surface of what I've been making.  I just usually don't photograph things - especially dinner because I'm too busy eating it ;o)  Did I make you hungry?  Go get creative in your kitchen, its so much fun and so rewarding!!

Ebb and Flow of the ED

Everything about working in an Emergency Department is unpredictable.  From what the patient volumes will be to what case/illness will present to what the drama will be that day.  While we can't control what will walk in the door or when the proverbial "bus" will unload, we like to think we have some clue of how things will be.

There are some trends in the patient volumes (and somewhat illnesses) that present.  Take, Monday's for example.  They are inevitably crazy.  No matter what the staff numbers are, we get behind and usually really far behind.  When I walked in close to midnight last Monday there were wait times nearing 2 hours.  Usually, on any other night at that time wait time is 30 minutes max.  There are a few theories about why they are so busy.  Some being: people don't want to spend weekends in the ER so they wait until Monday to be seen; people waited over the weekend with their illness hoping to see their doc Monday morning, but they're too jam-packed to fit anyone in; someone is looking to get out of going to work or school.  And one that I think, but haven't really discussed with anyone - incubation periods.  Kids share germs at school on Thurs/Friday and the illness starts to rear it's ugly head 2-3 days later.  Again, all theories, who knows how much merit any of them hold.

Wednesdays are historically the "slowest" day.  If anyone knows why I'd love to be educated.  That's just the way its always seemed.

Now time.  What is the busiest time?  Seems to be right around 4-6pm.  Everyone comes home from work/school and its time to get those injuries that occurred at school taken care of.  Or they injure themselves while playing after school.  Also when people realize its too late to get into the doctor's office to be seen that day.  Slowest time?  I'd say 3-6am.  Its a beautiful thing when you've started off at midnight with 80 patients in the ED and by 4 there's only 10 (with only 1-2 coming in per hour).

Trends as far as illness presentation?  Flu and RSV/bronchiolitis season is usually November-February/early March.  However, not always the case!  This year we seemed to start early and end late.  Spring/Summer is definitely orthopedic injury season.  Once the first hint of beautiful spring sun peeks out, we are flood with broken arms, legs, fingers and even noses.  Asthma has a predilection for weather changes - i.e. end of winter/start of spring and other season changes, Texas springs full of thunderstorms, wind and pollen, and fall when all the molds are prevalent.  And seasons dictate patient volumes as well.  Winter is most definitely the busiest time with RSV, flu, pneumonia, etc on top of all the other "normal" ER things like lacerations, abdominal pain, abscesses DKA, GI bugs...you get the idea

So the moral of the story?  If you want to be seen quickly in an ER - show up between 3-4 am on a Wednesday or Thursday morning in the mid Summer months, preferably not on a night with a full moon (that is if your emergency can wait that long).  ;o)

Sleepless Nights

I haven't been posting much lately and I'm not completely sure why.  I think its a combination of things like being exhausted, not feeling like writing and feeling uninspired.  I've been working a lot in the last couple weeks and its taking its toll.  Also, I don't want to write just for the sake of posting something, I want it to matter.  Anyhow, here goes...

Like I said, I've been working a lot lately.  I'm not sure how it happened, but my scheduled managed to get pretty jam-packed over the last couple weeks.  Sure, I still have my days off, but they seem fewer and further between than previous.  With all this working of back-to-back-to-back 12 hour shifts, you'd think I'd fall into bed at night and pass out once my head hit the pillow.  Unfortunately for me that hasn't been the case.  I've never had a problem falling asleep until now. 

Despite my eyes being heavy and my inability to stop yawning on my drive home, I would lie in bed wide awake with the shift's events running through my brain.  I found myself thinking about this patient or that wondering if I messed something up or worrying about a frustrated parent.  I know this isn't totally uncommon for people working in medicine, in fact I used to feel like the odd one out because I hadn't experience it.  This was the first time it had ever happened to me and it was happening every night after work.  Did I do a good job suturing?  Did I miss something on that patient's presentation?  Will that patient bounce back?  Do my attendings think I'm totally incompetent?

It may sound crazy, but those were actual thoughts.  I found myself second-guessing almost everything I had done each day.  Worrying myself to the point where I couldn't sleep.  A couple nights I ended up on the couch with the TV on to drown out my thoughts because that's the only way I could actually get some sleep.

It took me speaking with a colleague in a different department before I realized why this was happening.  Starting tomorrow I will be acting a sole provider.  By that I mean I will no longer have to check out every patient to an attending physician.  I will still have the option to do so (and required to do so on some) but I will have the ability to see, diagnose, treat and discharge my own patients without that second opinion.  I think the knowledge/anticipation of this change was sitting in the back of my mind and that's why I've been second-guessing myself so much lately. 

Once realizing the root cause (and checking on my patient's charts a week later realizing none had come back due to my ineptitude), I was able to work things through.  I'm still new at all this.  I'm not going to be an expert and I'm not expected to be one.  However, I am intelligent, learn quickly and can apply what I learn.  I will do my absolute best and if I can't figure it out, I have a great resource in my colleagues and attendings.  Also, there's a difference between a healthy and unhealthy amount of doubt/second-guessing.

I'm happy to report that after my last several shifts I was able to fall asleep.  Sure, I still think about my patients and sometimes doubt things, but those thoughts are no longer keeping me up at night.  I have a feeling my first several shifts "solo" will bring back the sleepless nights, but I have some new coping tools.  And if all else fails, my couch is a pretty comfy spot to sleep...

Wedding Bells

Last weekend we were lucky to share in our friends' big day.  Corey was a groomsman, so we drove down Friday morning to be there in time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

The weather all weekend was beautiful, which was good because the ceremony was outside!  The rehearsal went without a hitch and we headed off for the rehearsal dinner.  Good food and good conversation was had before wrapping up.  We walked back to the hotel and the evening was beautiful.

Rehearsing

Dinner

The happy couple

The wedding was great.  The ceremony was beautiful, simple and sweet.  The wedding party looked lovely.  During the vows you could tell how in love the bride and groom are.  The reception was beautifully decorated with touches of purple everywhere (they are fellow TCU alum after all).  The wine was flowing and the DJ had the dance floor busy all night.  And the most important measure of any wedding - the cake was phenomenal!

After the "I do's"

Corey & his bridesmaid counterpart

Cakes - yumm

The bride

The groom & Corey

Us   :)

 
We had a great time during the wedding weekend.  Sunday morning was a bit rough, but we managed to get ourselves packed back up and drive home.

Congrats to the happy newlyweds!!  Thanks for letting us share in your big day :)

A Texas Spring

Spring is in full force here in Texas.  It started in early March and has been going strong since.  I absolutely love spring here - quite possibly my favorite season.  The cold dreary winter is gone.  All those dead, brown plants bloom into striking greens, yellows, pinks and purples.  And not to mention the weather!  Sunny, breezy and 75-80 degrees?  Yes please!

Well, there are some things you can count on when you're talking about a Texas spring.  First, as any weatherman will tell you, thunderstorms are the norm.  And when I say thunderstorms, I'm talking loud rolling thunder, howling winds, pounding rain and often hail.  Last week we had one just as described.  We were on our way home and saw some crazy lightening displays off in the distance.  About 10 minutes after getting home, the rain started.  Then the hail came, pelting our walls, windows and patio furniture.  It was so loud and hard it sounded like people were trying to break our windows - yikes!

Our little hail collection forming outside the back door

Aside from crazy storms, spring is also a time for blooming plants.  We got adventurous and decided to plant some beautiful flowers in our front bed.  Of course, midway through planting a friendly neighbor stopped by to let us know that rabbits in the neighborhood just love to eat flowers.  Oh well, we forged ahead.  Turns out having a pretty garden isn't as easy as planting and watering - at least not for us.  About half our plants are dying.  We're working on a remedy but haven't made our minds up yet.

Our flowers just after planting - now they are dying 

The one successful plant - a great rosebush (planted by the previous owners)

To many sports fans out there, spring = baseball season.  This year we've spent many a weekend afternoon watching our beloved Horned Frog baseball team.  The stadium is great, our seats are shaded and there's a fun atmosphere at the games, plus they have the cutest bat boy in the world!  We're just hoping they make it to the regional, super regional and on to the college world series again this year!

View from our seats

And what says spring more than love?  I'm talking weddings people!  This past weekend we were lucky to share in the nuptials of great college friends.  More on it later, but until then - here's a picture from the big day:

The beautiful bride and I