Birthday Post!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and Happy Birthday to me! Now on to business as usual.

Hey friends. Sorry about not posting yesterday. It was moving day for my sister which turned into a very long day for me. Let's do a quick recap and then we'll move on.

I got picked up at 8:00 a.m., we drove from Grand Rapids to East Lansing (during which time I discovered that I'd forgotten my cell phone), picked up a UHaul, which I drove to my sister's apartment. Then we moved all of her shit from the second floor into the UHaul. My mom arrived to help with the last bit and then we drove an hour and a half to Kalamazoo, spent forever getting her lease signed, and then moved all of her shit up to the third floor. It was the worst. After A BAJILLION stairs and tons of sweat, my mom and I headed to Grand Rapids at 5:15. We arrived shortly after 6, I showered, we headed to get her a new phone for Mother's Day (which didn't pan out), then grabbed dinner and started our journey back to Midland (a twoish hour drive). After 40 minutes of driving, my mom realized the garage door opener was in her car, so we turned around to go back to Grand Rapids and finally made it home at 12:15 a.m. Then we drove back to Grand Rapids nice and early so she could pick up her van and drive back to Midland. If we had timed things a little better so my mom could leave before dark (she doesn't like driving alone nor does she like driving in the dark), the day could have been considerably shorter. But man, oh man, did I get a workout yesterday.

Today, some of my med school friends who were still in town (most fled for Mother's day) had a nice breakfast brunch for me!

Breakfast brunch homemade with love

There pancakes in the center were egg nog pancakes that they made with this amazing egg nog from the holidays that they saved and froze. SO GOOD. Here's the recipe that they let me steal:

Egg nog pancakes - SO GOOD

There was also cake afterwards. It was a vanilla cake with caramel frosting that was pretty delish. I was a big fan. Plus, it was nice just hanging out.

Afterwards, I caught up on phone calls and messages, watched Jimmy Fallon from Friday (I watch him every day on Hulu), and then my friends from middle school, Jenna and Allyson, made their way over to Grand Rapids to go to dinner with me. I didn't snap photos of the appetizers we got, but we went to Kitchen 67, a restaurant that was new to me and pretty awesome. I got the chicken avocado bacon burger.

Noms

I would have liked a cheese slice rather than the cheese sauce (made with beer), but I liked the rest of the burger and the fries were well seasoned.

After dinner, we came back here, ate some more cake from this morning (which I then pawned off on my neighbors so I wouldn't gobble the rest up myself), and they headed home while I headed to meijer to do a super fast trip for the things I would need for the rest of the week (mainly, eggs - I've been out since Thursday). Now I'm updating you and then I'm going to pass out - I'm exhausted.

Positive thing for the day: Getting to talk to all of my friends who called or sent texts - I really loved being able to reconnect with some folks that I haven't talked to in a while.

Other photos from the last two days:

Birthday dinner from last night with my Mom: green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, and steak and shrimp with saffron cream sauce - SO GOOD

Probably my favorite birthday card I've ever received - I'm kinda the potty mouthed one of all my friends ;-)

First layer of fruit for Saturday = blueberries

Second layer of fruit for Saturday = grapes

Carb loading for moving (one of those slices of banana bread was for my sister)

Lunch at 3 p.m. - I ate the whole damn thing - I was starving

My ride for the day and my sister's new apartment complex

This morning's breakfast at home in Midland

Thanks for not berating me for missing a post yesterday. Catch you tomorrow!

Another day in the life

It seems as though with second year of med school winding up that medical school faculty have decided to give us a bajillion things to do. Yesterday, we had a class meeting and then had to learn how to draw blood. Today, we had to give presentations about a "controversial" health issue (our topic was whether or not health care plans should cover prostate cancer screening tests that use PSA). Tomorrow, we have a 3 hours session on what our personality type says about which field of medicine we should go in to. Gah. This is seriously cutting into my study time.

That being said, it's been a pretty good day. The presentation that my group gave went over pretty well. We got good comments and one of the preceptors commented that the first presenter (me) was excellent, very warm and well-versed. That was the only comment any of the preceptors gave about presenters. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy. And superior to the shithead in our group who just read off the slides (he volunteered to be a presenter because he's "done this before," and thus, felt as though he didn't need to prepare...?)

It was also my friend Christine's birthday. We went out for dinner and I made her a cream puff cake. It's my mom's recipe and I've never made it before, but it turned out tasty, which is good because I was a tad nervous.

I didn't make it to the gym this morning - Nasur didn't pick up his phone and thus I had no incentive to stay awake, so I ended up sleeping in which was so so necessary. But, I will be going tomorrow! Gotta make my 4 days this week!

Photos from the day:

Breakfast

Bailey in his stance to pounce on a bird that was obviously outside his reach

The birthday celebration crew

Fastest mile ever!

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just that when I get off track, I stop blogging. And last week, I was waaaay off track. It all started with not sleeping enough Monday, getting pretty sick during the week and figuring, "Eh. Screw it. Who needs to go to the gym and eat well more than one day a week?" Um, me. Thanks for pointing that out, scale.

Since I'm up a few pounds, I wanted to set a new goal for myself. In exactly two months, I head back to Uganda. So, in exactly two months, I want to lose 20 pounds. I know that's pretty hefty. But if I can avoid binge eating and manage to stay on track with going to the gym, I know that I can do it. It averages about three pounds a week. So, my goal for next week is 217.2 pounds. I promise to post what I've got.

Also, I want to celebrate something small (read: HUGE) for me. Today, I ran a mile at 6.0mph. Yesterday, while I was doing my 5k, I decided to challenge myself and see how fast I could run comfortably and I settled at 6.0mph. So, I figured I would try doing that for an entire mile today. I know, I know. A 10 minute mile really isn't a big deal. But, considering I started at 5.0mph, I think it's pretty awesome. We'll see if I can run my 5k tomorrow at 6.0mph. Since I've been taking walking breaks every mile, I'm pretty sure I can pull it off if I really want to. Guess we shall see.

Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty crappy and bureaucratic. But, it was my friend Sarah's birthday, so we went out for some Indian food tonight that was pretty delicious.

Also, the company was great. And when I got home, I helped my sister name her new kitten. Welcome, to the family, Winston! What an adorable little guy.