Goings On...

Things around here have been moving very quickly lately.  This month has been a bit stressful because of the quick pace of it all.  At work for me, it is grant writing season, and we are working on placing final orders for books, and scheduling the last set of professional development workshops for the school year, and then it is time to start planning our summer program!  I also realized the past couple days that I am on my longest streak of working without a significant break in my entire life.  As a student and then as a teacher, I have been so lucky to have 2-10 week breaks spread throughout the year.  This is definitely not the case in the non-profit world.  I have tried to convince my boss that since we are an "education" non-profit, we should follow the education world schedule, but she just doesn't seem to buy it.   I am starting to get tired though, and I don't know how the rest of you have been able to do it! I need spring break!!! ;-)

Drew has been on nights this month, and it is always tough to adjust to that schedule for all of us!  We pass each other for about 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening, and occasionally at lunch (if I can get away!).  He sleeps all day and works all night.  The poor dogs think they have someone home to play with all day, when really Drew just wants them to keep sleeping! :)  We hit the halfway point for this schedule this weekend, so 2 more weeks, and then we will see each other again!

We have also started planning for Drew's third and final year in Tucson.  He is looking into post-residency possibilities, a fellowship in behavioral and developmental peds or a job in a general peds outpatient setting, here in Tucson, back home in Nashville, or a program somewhere completely new!  There is so much to think about, and so many pros and cons for each one, but I will let Drew tell you about all of that in one of his own posts.

In his final years, Drew also has the opportunity to do what is called an "away rotation."  He is able to choose a location somewhere other than Tucson to learn more about the culture of pediatrics somewhere else.  Thinking about this possibility, we decided to bite the bullet and do something BIG and together, so as of right now, we are in the very preliminary stages of planning a month long wotking trip to Africa!!  Drew would be working in a children's clinic, and I will hopefully be able to find a school where I can work and help out for a month in the same area.  As I said, we are in the very preliminary stages of planning, but we are really looking forward to all of the possibilities!!  We will definitely keep everyone posted, as plans start to come together.

We are very excited as spring is upon us to welcome a string of visitors to our home in Tucson, and to get back east a couple times!  We will going to Nashville for Easter weekend for an engagement party for my sister Ruthie and her fiance Matt.  We will also be heading to North Carolina in May for Drew's youngest sister, Margaret's wedding!  In the meantime, my old camp friend from Australia, Rachael, is stopping in this weekend during her travels to the states, my mom will be here mid-March, my best friend Mary and her hubby Dan are coming in, and Drew's best friend Derek, and his wife Katherine!  Whew!  I get tired just thinking about it!!  I cannot wait to see so many great friends and family though, and all of the tiredness that follows will be well worth it!  Our visitors will also be able to take part in our cooking experiments!  Lots of guinea pigs to try new recipes with!

Keeping busy definitely makes it easier to keep going when Drew is working so hard, and we are still so far away from home.  Tucson has been good to us and good for us, but I definitely have my moments of longing to be closer to family and close friends.   I continue to be excited to see where the next paths of life take us though!

To take us out with a bang this evening....

Drew, the Nighthawk 

(I think I will let Drew explain this one too...)

Silly puppy...

Yet again, Albert is up to some crazy stuff these days.  He loves to bounce, so much so that Drew and I are beginning to wonder if Tigger would have been a more appropriate name for him.  We are really considering putting him in some sort of agility class because he can move!  He leaps over other dogs at the dog park, has been known to leap over armchairs, and we have even found him standing on top of his crate.  The other day, the dogs and I were outside in the back "yard" enjoying the sunshine and a cup of coffee when Albert decided he wanted a better view of everything and hopped up on the table:

It wasn't a running leap and he didn't use the benches on the sides... he was just standing there and then jumped up on to the table.  It is a good thing the walls are so tall in our backyard, or he might jump over!

In other Albert news, he graduated from intermediate puppy class on Sunday (I don't have a photo from this time around, so I will post his beginner graduation photo again, since he was too cute).  He will be moving on to the advanced class in a couple weeks, which should be interesting since there will be no treats used and LOTS of distractors.  We are pretty confident he will be successful.  He is a pretty quick study.  We will just have make sure we stay consistent!

It has been raining here lately, so we gave both of the dogs a bath the other day, since they were especially muddy.  We had to share Albert's post bath portrait.  He looks like a little gremlin or something! :)

For fear of Annabelle feeling left out of the photo stories, I will share this sweet one of Albert and her snuggling.  Annabelle is not very fond of the camera, so it is a rare moment when we capture her on film.

Baking Highs and Lows

After my very successful apple pie, I was feeling extremely confident with my baking talents.  I started thinking that maybe I did have some baking talent after all!  I decided that for Drew's birthday I would make chocolate cupcakes from scratch (I am usually a box mix kind of girl).  Well my confidence was quickly shot when my cupcakes failed to rise and plump up while baking and instead fell flat looking more like cookies on the muffin tin than cakes.  When I tried to get them out of the pan, thinking that I could still somehow save them, they fell apart into little piles of (very delicious) crumbs.  My streak of success had quickly come to an end.

To make it up to Drew, I decided to make him his favorite sweet breakfast for his birthday instead.  I pulled this french toast recipe out of my Vanderbilt Children's Hospital cookbook (which I love!!).  Here he is the morning of his 29th birthday (as Albert hopes that Drew shares his birthday breakfast with him!)

 

Finally, I wanted to share a delicious chocolate chip cookie that I found a while ago in a magazine I had picked up (either Real Simple or Martha's Everyday Food...I can't remember).  I made these cookies again last week and was reminded of how delicious they are.  The dough also freezes really well, so we divide the dough into 4 or 5 portions so we can make cookies for weeks.  It keeps us from eating them all at once too.

Crave Worthy Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 1/4 cup (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (not melted)

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (I have made it with and without...I think it just depends on whether you are in a nutty mood or not!)

Directions:

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium high until fluffy (about 5-6 minutes).  Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in eggs one at a time.  Beat in vanilla.  Mix in flour mixture.  Fold in chocolate chips and chunks (and nuts if you want).

Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop or large spoon, drop dough on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Refrigerate 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place 6 cookies on each sheet about 3 inches apart.  Bake 17 to 18 minutes, rotating cookie sheets halfway through.  Let cool.   You should get 24 large cookies with chewy centers and crispy edges! YUM!!

If you want to freeze the dough, scoop the dough and place on baking sheet.  Pop into freezer for about an hour, and then transfer dough balls to plastic freezer bags.  Freeze for 2-3 months (if they last that long!!) :)  Bake from frozen when craving cookies!