59 Days!

Shooo... It's been quite a while. Things are changing quickly which is a good thing. Also a scary thing because there are many, many loose ends, but it'll all come together.

Basically to catch everyone up on our lives lately, we're both trying to get jobs and we're looking for places to live. We're moving back home to Georgia. We thought about it, prayed about it, cried about it, and decided that as much as we love the idea of Charleston, it's just not where our families are and as it turns out, that's a deal breaker for us. It makes us both sad. Charleston was a dream for us for so long. I guess it's what kept us going during the hard times in school. We would day dream about our future there on the ocean and we'd feel better, even if just a little bit. But that's that. We're coming home. So anyway, we've I've been back and forth to and from home about a gazillion times trying to prepare for our future in Georgia, but we still haven't smoothed out all the wrinkles so that's all I'm going to say about it. I'll update more once we've got more definitive plans.

One of the more fun and specific reasons for going back home has included going to one of Lindsay's bridal showers! It was beautiful, and I was so excited to give her something that was kinda special and something we both loved! Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the shower. That's Lindsay's fault. :)

Not related to a visit back home, but just something fun, last Thursday Adam and I got out of the house to go see a Trombone Shorty concert! It was amazing!! We were both so glad to be able to go thanks to my amazing preceptor on my trauma and burns rotation!

He was very talented with the trombone and trumpet! I'm pretty sure this is a shot of him circle breathing. He literally played one note for like 3 minutes with circle breathing! It was seriously amazing and outrageous.

This is us after the concert. We decided to go to Walmart to pick up some pizza. Adam hates Walmart. Hence, his face.

On Sunday of this week we went to the Oak Mountain Fall Festival, but it turned out to be kind of a dud. :/ Oh well. I did, however, get a foot long corn-dog AND a fried snickers out of it! That was fun. :)

I guess that's about it for now. I'm getting worse and worse about blogging these days but I've got a lot going on at school and at home. I'm also trying to ween off my readers (all 20 of you) because I'm fairly certain after PA school, I'm going to retire Heads and Tales.

Anyway, happy fall, y'all.

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139 Days!

I love watching the days dwindle down. Just let it keep coming.

So I haven't updated since 4th of July. We went back home and had a jam-packed weekend! Friday we went out on a boat on Lake Burton with our Head family. It was incredibly beautiful. I'm telling you, it felt like a perfect eutopia out there. The sky was sunny and blue, it wasn't too hot (almost a little chilly), people were out on their boats but it wasn't too crowded, and there were even prop planes flying around. I was definitely in my happy place. I honestly didn't realize how happy I could be out on a lake. I always thought I was an ocean/beach girl. I guess we'll just see how life plays out... :)

Anyway, Saturday morning, Adam, his parents, and I went zip lining! Adam and I hadn't been since our honeymoon while the cruise ship was docked in St. Lucia. We had a lot of fun flying through the trees. We definitely would love to go back again.

Saturday afternoon we went to Bryan and Whitney's for a little group get together. We had a great time visiting, catching up, and hanging out in the hot tub. That night, Adam, Bryan, Rickie and I went to a concert in downtown Buford (which happens to be walking distance from Bryan and Whitney's) and we danced our hearts out! It was so much fun!! Bryan bought a boat on Saturday morning so on Sunday Adam, Bryan, and Rickie took the boat out on Lake Lanier (which happens to be 2 miles from their house -- I'm telling you they've got it made). Adam told me it was a perfect day for the guys to hang out together. I'm hoping next weekend we can go back and hang out with them on the boat again. I don't think I've ever been out on Lake Lanier so I'm excited!

On Sunday I went with Mom and my aunt to the nursing home to see my grandmother. Afterwards we headed back to Bama for my last week of general surgery. And speaking of, I've officially finished it and I really loved it. I was very worried about being in the OR because before this rotation I was pretty uncomfortable with it all. Obviously sterility is a huge deal and I was terrified I would mess something up! But I became very comfortable working with these two particular surgeons. And I was at my favorite hospital in Bham so that made me happy, too. After our end-of-rotation exam last Friday, Casey, Lindsay and I went to Cocina Superior to celebrate another rotation down! Only four to go!

Now I'm at an inpatient psychiatry facility and I have to travel about an hour to get to my site. It's veeeeerrrry interesting. Lots of big crimes have been committed by some of the patients there. So, it's very interesting indeed.

Anyway, last weekend Adam, Lindsay, and I met Katie, Chris, Cory, and Casey at a brew festival in downtown Homewood. It's always fun spending time with good friends!

Yesterday was Lindsay's 25th birthday and, poor her, it started out with a test in endocrinology and a presentation that she had to give.

 Afterwards we went out with Casey, Mallory, and Ginny to our favorite margarita place, Cocina Superior. We had a drink and an appetizer there, and then we came back home.

 Lindsay and Sadie came over for dinner, drinks, and a dance party at our place and that's how we ended the night! I had a great time, and hope Lindsay did, too. :)

In general, I don't like to post photos of drinking, let alone taking shots, BUT, it was Lindsay's birthday, we had both had a rough day as far as tests and presentations go, and these two pics are the only two shots we took. Promise! Anyway I guess that's about it! We don't have any crazy plans for the rest of the weekend, but we do have exciting things coming up in the next few weeks! So until then, friends!

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160 Days

I'm thrilled that clinical year is passing by so quickly! My class mates and I are less than 6 months away (actually 5 months and 1 week!) from graduating, and we are officially more than 1/2 finished with clinicals (with 9 rotations, and Monday starting week 4 of rotation number 5, we're just barely more than 1/2 way, but hey, I'll take it!). Keep 'em coming...

So what have we been up to? Well, a few weeks back we went home for Mom's 60th birthday! I also took some of my empty pots and planters home so we could beautify them. I was excited about that! And of course it was wonderful to be home for a few days. Here are a few "after" pics of my plants.

This one needs to fill out a little more, but I still love it!

Last weekend, Bryan and Jack came to visit, and all three of the boys went to some motorcycle races! According to the big boys, Jack did very well with all the loud noises and fast vehicles. :)
Saturday afternoon we hung around at the pool and cooked out on the grill. Jack is such a cute baby that he got lots of googly eyes from the other people at the pool. And Bryan was such a good, careful daddy with his precious little boy. Here a few pics that Jack took of himself (ok, so I helped him a little) with my phone.

So with this year (thankfully) being half over, I've tried to stop and think about the things I know I'll miss once we leave Birmingham. So here's my list:

• Lindsay living within walking distance
• Being able to see the other girls at the drop of a hat if needed
• Living in the same city as all my classmates
• The city at night. When you're on interstates 65 or 20, if feels like you're on a catwalk exploring the city from high above. You don't drive on the ground level like regular folk. Oh no, you're several stories in the air on a floating bridge, or so it feels. 
• Lucy and Marley's veterinarian and office staff. They are SO kind and reassuring and understanding. Seriously the best vet I've ever been to.
• The butcher shop, Mr. P's. They have hamburger meat that it the BEST I've ever tasted. It's because they take leftover cuts of steak and grind that up to make the ground beef. Seriously. Divine. 
• Tip Top Grill. It's just a regular hamburger/hot dog/corn dog kinda place, but the views are so fun up on top of the ridge. Sometimes I can trick myself into thinking I live in a little mountain town. We ARE at the edge of the Application Mountains after all...
• The ridge behind our apartment in the fall. It's just covered in beautiful orange, yellow, green, and red trees. We get these views from our patio out front, and in the back when I'm walking the dogs.
• The views from St. Vincent's Hospital. Rain or shine, I seriously LOVE it. This hospital is huge and gorgeous, and just on the edge of downtown Birmingham. I've been lucky to have two rotations there. There are glass walls everywhere, so no matter where you are in the hospital, you are just about guaranteed a great view. 
• Highland Park
• The Mountain Brook Villages. Katie, Casey, and Mallory all live in Mountain Brook, so I always love driving through these Villages to get to one of their houses, especially around Christmas.
• Downtown Homewood ... well all of Homewood actually. The houses are so cute and I love driving around the neighborhoods with Adam to look at Christmas lights. 
• I also love that Birmingham is a big city without actually being a big city. It's big enough to have all of the really nice shopping malls and stores that Atlanta has, but it's nowhere near as big as Atlanta. Adam and I are very thankful for that.

Things I will NOT miss (I'm glad to report that this list is much shorter):

• Parking on campus = horrendous. Although Lindsay and I now have a carpool pass, and it's helped out a TON having that.
• The HORRIBLE roads around town
• The almost just as bad drivers. People run red lights around here like it's no thang at all. 
• Walmart on Lakeshore. It's pretty close to trash in our opinion.

Anyway, there are my lists. So, right now I'm in general surgery and I've gotta admit, I'm loving it way more than I thought I would. It helps that I'm working with a great surgeon, too. We do a lot of fistulas and grafts, laproscopic procedures, hernia repairs... but it's all been enjoyable. 

Next weekend we're heading home and we have some fun and exciting plans! I'll report on that later. Have a great month everyone. That seems to be how long it takes me to blog these days...

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191 days!

Six months and one week from tomorrow I'll be graduating from PA school. Thank. You. Jesus. (Seriously, thank you, Jesus!). I'm getting so antsy!!

Anywho ... a little catch up on what's been going on lately.

Sam and Tammy came to see us the weekend of Talladega (they had tickets to the race) and we had a great time with them. We went out to dinner, visited family in Tuscaloosa, shopped, and played around with my plants and succulents outside. Tammy and I added to my succulent lantern. It's hard to see the difference because a lot of what we added was on top, so I don't have any pictures to share. In fact, we took very few photos the whole weekend!

Dinner Friday night

Visiting Tammy's cousin, Gayle, in Tuscaloosa

A few weekends back Lindsay, Adam and I took our pups to a fun doggie festival called Do Dah Day in Highland! It was so much fun! And I was very impressed with the fact that Lucy was very well behaved. We never have to worry about Sadie and Marley misbehaving because they're wonderful little dogs, but my Lucy can be a little devil. Hence her nick-name Lucifer.

Poor Marley got tired of walking.... No, not really. Adam just wanted to be silly.

After Do Dah Day, we took the pups to Rojo to enjoy some chips, cheese dip, and margaritas. We sat outside so that the dogs could hangout with us, too.

That Sunday, I went to Lowe's and gathered the supplies to paint my own flowerpot. I've got a pretty serious obsession with succulents, and I've been thinking about starting a strawberry pot with some hens and chicks that Tammy and I had left over after adding to my lantern.

But I didn't want just a regular clay pot, so I decided I'd decorate my own. I really wanted to be creative with this, but the farther I got into the project, the less things were going my way. I had intended to follow Debbie Doo's blog on how to paint your own pot (you can find the post here), but mine was going to be in shades of purple. Here are the materials I used and the first shade of light purple.

In the blog I mentioned above, she did this neat thing where she used stencils to add wood filler to the pot, just to give it extra texture. I really liked the idea, but I wanted to either use paisley or lace of some kind. Hobby Lobby had cute paisley stencils so I went with those. Here's a picture after I've crackled it once and added a dark coat. Obviously it has the wood filler on it already as well.

Well I got close to the end where I was to add the second color...and mine just looked terrible. The colors weren't blending beautifully like Debbie's. I immediately hated it. By this point it already had several layers of paint and crackle medium on it but what was another layer gonna hurt? So I decided to repaint the whole thing with my light shade of purple again, add the crackle medium again (which was actually just Elmer's glue), and then paint over with the dark purple. Again. I finally achieved a look I was happy with, but it sure is obvious that there are plenty of coats of paint on it. Oh well. It just makes it look old. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I might sand over the paisley a little just to make them stand out more, but here's my finished product. It is what it is. And I think it'll do just fine to hold flowers.

Also, our golden beauty says hey in the background.

This past weekend, Jenn and AnnaBelle came into town! Lucy wasn't very nice to either of them, but I absolutely loved seeing them both! We did nothing more than lounge around the pool, watch youTube videos of crazy stuff, drink wine, and catch up. A lot. Oh, and take selfies.

This is my favorite photo from the weekend. And to save everyone from a ridiculous number of pool selfies, I'll just post a couple of our photos. 

I loved having her here. I miss that girl.

So, that's about it. You all are officially caught up. Have a fantastic rest of the week! Until next time.

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Anniversary, Easter, and the ED

Not much new here in the Birmingham Head House. Adam has been working, I've been studying and going to clinicals. I've gotta say, I've loved the emergency department -- lots of different and very exciting things that I've seen and done. They may not be too exciting to the average person, but the fact that I've been able to do a lot of this stuff is just awesome to me! I would be very happy with this as a career, and that's a good thing because it pays really well. :)

We celebrated our three year anniversary a few weeks back, which is of course always special, but being the broke graduate student that I am, we didn't do anything too exciting. Just dinner at home and it was wonderful. I can't even believe it's been three years since our wedding. My facebook status from our anniversary was referencing the fact that I've been in PA school for the majority of our marriage, which makes me sad a little. I hate that I've been hugely stressed for a large majority of our marriage, but I have a wonderful and understanding husband who knows that it will all pay off in the long run. And we are so looking forward to the long run. It's not too far away now ... 7.5 months! Unbelievable.

Easter is tomorrow, and I actually have to work the night shift tomorrow night. Adam and I have decided to have an Easter dinner tomorrow evening, which should work out with my sleeping schedule. It's been interesting flipping back and forth between shifts, but I really haven't minded it. My schedule for the ED has been easy-peasy compared to some of the other schedules I've heard my classmates complain about at other hospitals. I'm certainly not complaining. In my opinion, I've got it made. ;)

So anyway, not much has been going on here, other than bunches of cuddling. :) I'll leave you with a few fun pics. Take care! Happy Easter and have a great week! Tomorrow, He is Risen!

 Lindsay, Marley and Sadie

 Marley and Lucy

 The girls and me

Adam and Mar

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Snowpocalypse 2014

So I think it's official. The last Brain child (who will actually be named Brain) has been born. My brothers are finished having babies. And I'm so excited to say that I got to watch my last nephew be born! I loved it so much! My SIL manned up and delivered this precious boy without an epidural. I was so proud of her! She made labor look easy.

Finn-Taylor Carson Brain, 6 lbs 1oz, 18 inches long

He was born at 34 weeks so he was required to spend some time in the NICU. He's also been receiving some antibiotics, hence the IV.

I can't wait to see him again! But of course we had to get back to Birmingham. Although for what, I'm not sure... Adam and I have been cooped up in the apartment all day due to all this snow! And I'm not going to work tomorrow either because school is closed.

Yesterday was quite an experience. But now I realize that Atlanta had it worse because it's a bigger city and people had farther to go. I'm very thankful that I made it home last night and slept in my own bed, despite the fact that it took me 8 hours to travel 8.1 miles. This trip should normally take 22 minutes, according to google. Lindsay and I happen to have rotations at the same hospital this month, so it worked out well that we were very close to each other for most of our trip home. After about 5 hours in the car, my phone had 3% battery and I started freaking out so I made the decision to park my car and jump in the car with Lindsay. And by the end of the night, I knew I couldn't have made a better decision. I'm so glad we experienced that hell together.

I thought the best way to remember everything would be to draw it out on a map. So here it is. This is the exact route I took, including deviations to dodge some bad areas. I hope you enjoy reading my story!

Here are a few other photos that I took throughout the day. There are so many other things I wish I could have captured, but I really needed to preserve my phone's battery. Lesson to learn: always carry a phone charger with you in your car. A portable potty, warm clothes, food, and water would also be helpful.

My view from the hospital. It's normally a really pretty view but the snow definitely made it more difficult to see.

About 45 minutes into my trip. I'm less than a mile from the hospital.

I didn't see this happen, I just saw both vehicles just sitting there.

 Pedestrians pushing cars up hills on campus. Notice the pure white roads. That's most certainly a thick sheet of ice. I didn't even attempt it -- this was one of my deviations. 

- - - - - 

Today Adam, Marley, Lindsay, Sadie and I went out to a field behind our complex to play in the snow a little bit. Lucy didn't come because when I took her out this morning to potty, she shivered and kept picking her feet up whenever she stood still. She normally doesn't mind the snow, but I guess today she just wasn't in the mood. Anyway, we had a fun time playing with the dogs and throwing a football around. Apparently this field belongs to a church so we walked up the hill to the church's parking lot to check out the road on the other side. There was traffic, but everyone was moving very slow. We had talked about getting my car today but the roads are still terrible with ice and standstill traffic. Hopefully tomorrow. Here are a few pics. Enjoy!

And since I haven't posted many pictures of Lucy lately...

This is a very full and content pup.

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