Being a Doctor

Its been way too long since I updated. So much has been happening, from moving to Dallas and living with my parents, to starting my residency and learning how to be a doctor, and most recently buying and moving into a new house. Needless to say we've been busy. The house is coming together, and I'll post pictures sometime in the near future...hopefully.

Being a doctor is kind of fun. My favorite part is having the nurses page me and when I call back I get to say "This is Dr. Banks, somebody paged" and then they respond "yes Dr. Banks, I need you to tell me what to do for this patient...". Although getting paged all day or in the middle of the night while on call is not as fun, I do still enjoy getting called Doctor and being able to decide what to do for a patient and have somebody actually carry out my plan. So far I've mostly been on easy rotations like ultrasound and now breast clinic, while taking in house call every now and then on labor and delivery. I've delivered several babies and already lost count. Probably this Saturday I'll do my first c-section by myself, which is exciting yet scary. I'll keep you posted on how it goes:)

I'll try to do better about updating, for those of you who actually read this. xoxo

Water Works

Yesterday Haley and Grayson came down from Cypress to visit me and go to the park. We went to Discovery Green and let Grayson play on the playground and in the water spouts. We had a lot of fun, and here are some pics:

Grayson getting ready to slide-

It took us a while to get him into the water area, but once he was in, he had a lot of fun!

Running through the water at its highest intensity...he didn't like the water in his eyes.
He wanted Haley to play in there with him, this is about as close as she got!
Drying off a little, and Haley giving him a little faux-hawk.
Fun day!

PuGraduation

That's right folks, Izzie graduated from Puppy class last night. I am such a proud momma! She did all her tricks on command and was mostly on her best behavior. Shortly after this picture though, she threw up all over my lap. Gross. I'm not sure why she threw up or if she ate something she shouldn't have earlier in the day, no idea. All I know is that later that night while watching tv, Sadie puked too. My poor sick girls! Luckily they aren't acting sick today, in fact they've been playing non-stop with their new Kong Wubba toy. It looks like this: They love it. Its (hopefully) an indestructible little rubber ball thing inside some (hopefully) indestructible fabric. Izzie likes tug of war toys best, but these girls shred EVERYTHING, and Izzie always eats the little strings that she tears off all toys and it gets stuck in her...well, anyways. So far the toy is still completely intact, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Just a taste of the outdoors

This weekend Andrew and I decided we weren't going to sit around the house and be lazy like we usually do. Instead, we set off to find something new and fun to do in/near Houston. Our first venture was to drive North of Houston about an hour and a half to a cute little place called Bernhardt Winery. It was the cutest little Tuscan winery, with a bed and breakfast attached, and the most beautiful view from all directions. We did a tasting of their different wines, which were different and fun to try, and then bought a glass to enjoy out on the yard. Here was the view from our chairs:

The winery also allows weddings and receptions, and we were lucky enough to be there while they were setting up for what looked like it would be a really cute little country wedding. Here are some more pictures of the winery, the wedding set up, and us enjoying the beautiful ambiance and each others company.

Look how cute the centerpieces are; yellow sunflowers, lemon/lime towers, and floating yellow sunflower candles. Also note the beautiful tree in the background that Andrew had to practically hold me down to keep me from climbing it.

We got a brochure from the winery about the Texas Bluebonnet Wine trail, and we think we might venture on the whole trail some weekend soon. If we do I think we might stay at this one at the bed and breakfast in the middle of the trail, and if so I am going to climb the tree...just watch me:) On the way home, we drove through Montgomery county, which apparently is where the man who designed the Texas flag lived. So here I am standing by the informational gazebo, and in front of a Texas flag:

Inspired by the satisfaction we had on our journey into wine country yesterday, we decided not to let the weekend end at that. There is an arboretum here in town that I've been wanting to go to, but Andrew always complained that dogs weren't allowed. Well I looked it up, and sure enough, dogs are welcomed, so off we went! Here are a few pics of the pretty place. Hope they make you want to go outside :)

P.S. If you want to see any of the pictures bigger, just click on them and it pulls up a larger version. Trust me, the bugs will need to be seen closer to do them justice....

Sweet Life

I had to put up a sweet picture of Lola to go with my title....
She used to sit in the sink while I got ready all the time, but lately she just wanders around the counter top meowing and trying to get me to pet her, or sits right outside the bathroom door and messes with Izzie. So when she sat in the sink last night, it made me all nostalgic and I had to take a pic.

So I'm done with medical school, FINALLY! Its been a long 4 years, but worth every penny, and late night, and tear, and fight with Andrew, and....well you get it, it was hard.

Now, to celebrate being done, I've spent the last two days doing a lot of my favorite things. I've slept in, cuddled with my girls, gone to eat lunch with Andrew at our favorite sushi restaurant in Clear Lake, Tokyo Bowl, taken the girls for a long nature walk at a new park they've never been to before, gone to eat Mexican food with some of my favorite friends, and gone to get a lovely massage. Now I just need to find a place to lounge around by a pool to get a nice tan before I go on my cruise...

Pretty Sweet :)

Dirt in yo face

Tonight was the playoffs for the coed softball league that Andrew and I played on this season. I have been playing coed softball every season of medical school, and fully intend on continuing to play when we get to Dallas. We'll probably need lots of people on our team, so you folks should start hitting the batting cages to get ready. Anyways, tonight was the playoffs and I was not excited about it. This was the first season we played with this team, and while we were actually really good, I didn't know anybody except Andrew, Keith, and a guy named Steve, so it wasn't as much fun as when we played with my med school friends. I also wasn't excited because I got some kind of stomach bug last night/this morning and really just wanted to sleep all day and night. But, I went to the game, and we won our first two games to put us in the championship. For a tired girl with a tummy ache, two games is a lot, and going into the third one I was exhausted. We couldn't get a hit against this team, and Andrew (who is our pitcher) couldn't throw a strike to save his life. Actually the umpire just wouldn't call a strike at all, so Andrew started arguing with him and then got a lecture about how he better start respecting the umpire or he would be kicked out. Of course I get mad at Andrew and tell him to shut up or else... and we continue to get the crap kicked out of us. I hate to lose, I hate to lose, I hate to lose. But I never argue or complain.... until today. In the last inning, I made the most AMAZING play at first base where I stopped a ball hit to the right of me and dive into first base to get the guy out. He was OUT. But of course the idiotic umpire said that I touched the bag with the wrong hand. I touched the bag with BOTH hands. I lost it. All I could say was "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" at the top of my lungs, over and over. Everybody knew the guy was out, even on the other team, but the umpire wouldn't back down. We ended up losing, and I ended up with two scraped knees and a face full of dirt for no reason.

On a happier note, I only have two shifts left of medical school....BOOYAH!!!

Stupidity at its finest

As I reach the end of my month in the emergency room, and really my career as a medical student, I would like to reflect on some of the most interesting patients I've seen this month.

1. A 7 year old boy with a tooth stuck in his ear. Was he hiding it from the tooth fairy?
2. A 19 year old girl who injected protein shake into her butt cheeks. I guess she thought thats how J-lo got the junk in her trunk.
3. A grown man with a perfume bottle stuck in his rectum (butt). He told us he fell on it... why was he walking around without pants/underwear, and why didn't he break it when he landed on it?
4. A 19 year old girl with a foreign object stuck in her "privates." All we could see is a little plastic sticking out, and we couldn't pull it out. The xray showed a metal coil inside the plastic, inside her body. She says she didn't know what it was or how she got there... She had to have surgery to get it out, and it ended up being a spray bottle cap. Why???
5. A 21 year old girl with Type 1 diabetes who ran out of insulin, so she came to the emergency room and was being treated, but decided she was tired of being in the hospital, so she left... IV still stuck in her arm, no prescription for new insulin...wonder how long she lasted before she went back to an ER?

I know there are more, but those are the only ones I can think of for now. I wonder what kind of exciting geniuses I will be treating in Dallas??

MMmmm, CAKE!

Today I made a DELICIOUS cake. I found it on AllRecipes.com, but I will go ahead and tell you how to make it.

Here are the girls ready to bake!

Here are the ingredients:

Creamy Peanut Butter

1 cup of butter or margarine

4 eggs

Yellow Cake Mix (I used the butter kind, but I think you can probably do any kind you want)

2/3 cup of water

Confectioner's sugar

Heavy cream (or milk, I used the cream)

1 tsp Vanilla (optional)

Hot fudge (optional)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (optional)

The Cake:

Preheat the oven to 325 and "grease and flour" two 9 inch cake pans (for this I sprayed some Pam and sprinkled some flour in the pans).

Mix a half cup of butter or margarine with a half cup of peanut butter. I used the electric whisk-er, but I don't think you have to. Then add the 4 eggs one by one, mixing in between. Next alternate the cake mix with the 2/3 cup of water until just mixed (no whisking here). Put the batter in the cake pans and bake for 25 minutes. This is one of the pieces cooling:

The Frosting:

Mix another half cup of butter with a full cup of peanut butter. Whisking is ideal here to make it creamy. Then add confectioners sugar. The recipe called for 4 cups, but that seemed like a lot, so I only ended up with 3 cups. Here I also added some vanilla extract as recommended by one of the critiques on the website. Then pour in 1/3 cup heavy cream and whisk till creamy and fluffy. If it still seems thick, add more cream until it looks fluffy and spreadable.

Make it pretty:

Toppings

After the cakes cool, stack them and cover with the icing. I got some microwavable hot fudge from the ice cream toppings section of the grocery store and heated as directed, then drizzled it around the cake. I was hoping it would look more drizzly than clumpy, but its fine. Then I got mini Reese's peanut butter cups and smooshed them into the icing....and VOILA!

Hope you make it, and hope you like it!

BBQ Adventure

Today Andrew and I went to see "Date Night" at a hole-in-the-wall theater in Pearland. Some friends told us about it the other day, and said that you can see a movie at night for only $4.50. Since I am working tonight and tomorrow night at the ER, we decided to go on a daytime date and see if the matinee was cheaper. It was indeed, only $2.50 per person, and the movie was really funny.

Afterwards, we decided to go ahead and get dinner in the area. Andrew was feeling adventurous, and decided we would be dining here:

Here is Andrew enjoying his BBQ. You can see a little bit of the "ambiance" in the background.

This one is a little blurry, but I still think you can tell how classy it was...

And last but not least, the view from our way out the back...

Lazy Days

I don't have to work today, and I'm just sitting here watching HGTV, surfing the web, and snuggling with all my lazy girls. The past few months I've had a lot of lazy days like this. I've had easy classes and rotations that don't require my presence at school or at a hospital most of the time, and I've really gotten used to just sitting around and doing nothing. This month I started my last rotation of medical school: the pediatric emergency room. I've worked more this month than any of the past 4 months combined. Its made me remember what my life is going to be like when July gets here and I am a REAL doctor. I am excited, but I am going to miss my lazy days with just me and the girls. Unfortunately, today won't stay lazy for long. Since I've been working so much the house is filthy and I have no clean clothes left, so I have to get to work. Maybe I can really rest tomorrow...

Proud Momma

As you know, we enrolled Izzie in puppy training classes a few weeks ago. So far we've mostly learned how to sit, to walk on a leash without pulling, and to "watch me". Most of these tricks she'll do when we have a treat in hand, but if we don't, she chooses whether or not she wants to listen. Its frustrating...she is such a stubborn mule. I would understand if she just couldn't learn the things we were teaching her, but for her to know exactly what I want and ignore me...bah!

This last week I couldn't go to her class because I was working nights in the pediatric emergency room. Soo, Andrew had to take her alone. When I finally woke up Friday, I asked Andrew for a full report and show-and-tell of the new tricks we learned in class. To my surprise, Izzie learned to lay down, and to leave a treat until you tell her she can take it! Never in a million years did I expect her to be able to learn these kinds of tricks! Not only that, she has started to do more of them without needing a treat. Don't get me wrong, she still ignores me about 25% of the time, but thats better than the 100% of the time that she ignored me before starting school. I am looking forward to increasing tricks, and decreasing the stubbornness....

Here is my baby on the way to class the week of Easter:

Tooo long

Its been WAY too long since my last post. I knew this blogging thing was going to be difficult for me. Top 10 things that happened to me since the last post:
10. Andrew took me shopping for our anniversary and I got some really cute stuff!
9. Monday the 15th I found out I matched to an obgyn residency. Didn't know where yet, but at least I knew I matched.
8. Wednesday the 17th my mom and sister came in town, and "surprised" me by bringing my cousin too. Then we went and hung out for St. Patty's day and I got to wear cute shamrock stickers on my face!
7. Thursday found out I would be doing my residency at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, which was my first choice! I am very excited to be moving back home close to my family.
6. Friday was Andrew's birthday and we went to the horse races which was super fun. Didn't win really, but lots of people came and there was a dessert buffet...
5. Saturday night was my 4th year class banquet for medical school. I taught a few people how to play craps (sp?) and had a dance party with lots of friends...what a great way to finish this long journey with good people! I'm really going to miss them!
4. I had a whole lot of nothing to do this week, which included sleeping in, reading a new book, taking the girls to the dog park, etc.
3. I finished my obligations as president of the obgyn student association and can pass on all the stress and annoyance I've dealt with this year to the new president.
2. Izzie had her first training class yesterday and didn't flunk out. Hopefully she will continue to learn every week and become the good little pug that she needs to be.
1. Baylor just beat St. Mary's and are going on to the Elite 8! So proud to be a bear!

Fun With Friends

Yesterday we went to Levi and Mandy's house to see their new Sheltie pup, Lucy:

We went to the rodeo this week with Brad, Haley, and Grayson- Super Fun!:

Doggy Love

I love my girls, all three of them, but I am and always have been a dog person. There is just something about being able to take your dog places and do fun things with them, run around, throw things for them to catch, and see the joy it brings them. This weekend we took the girls to the SPCA Mutt Strut, a fundraiser 1 mile walk/run for the SPCA. THEY LOVED IT! Even though Izzie took about 10 minutes to stop barking, whining, squeeling at everything that moved, she finally calmed down and was quite well behaved. All of their doggy friends came to the strut too and we had a grand time!









In other news, my sweet husband and I celebrated our two year anniversary on Monday. We had a romantic dinner at Vic and Anthony's Steakhouse Monday night, and tonight are going to see Brad Paisley tonight at the rodeo!