#realdoctor

Though he actually finishes June 30, this weekend we had the graduation events for Peter's residency program. On Friday we and the other three graduating chiefs and their spouses/parents had dinner at the department chair's house, and Saturday we had the graduation dinner with the whole department and invited guests - so great both his parents and mine could join us to celebrate the end of this final step in the long becoming a doctor process.

Celebrating seems a bit surreal, though, as there were so many long days when it seemed like the end would never arrive, but it also seems shocking that it's already been almost a whole year since I wrote about the start of this final year of residency...

Peter has worked really hard to get to this point, in terms of both hard work/dedication and vast quantities of time spent at the hospital, and I'm really proud of him for it all. It's weird to not be able to actually see your spouse do their job well (not exactly appropriate - or desirable! - for me to visit him in the operating room and observe his skills), but I know from all his hard work and studying and smarts that he has trained to be a darn good doctor and he is going to be SO good at his job. So if you're ever in need of a friendly ENT to sort out some ear, nose, or throat issues, I've got your guy!

Overall, it's been quite the five years. I've both cursed residency and loved it for all the hard times (and more recently, solo parenting) it has meant but also for the amazing opportunities and people the circumstances of being in a residency program have brought to our lives. Thanks to residency we've had a chance to live in a great city we'd probably never otherwise have chosen (thank you match process), cried over horrible hours and tough months, felt at times that our lives were put on hold by the bad hours/low pay yet also had some of the biggest and best life progressions and transitions (hello, baby!) during this time, and learned/grown up a lot.

Residency graduation is definitely the end of an era - even just being married to a resident has defined my life enough that it partially inspired my blog name - that really began many moons ago, starting with four years of medical school. So with this graduation we've got major transitions both for Peter professionally and for us as a family: a first real job for Peter, a move, a new house - and figuring out what our life and routines as a family are when there's finally a little more time available in it. So, like real adulthood. It's hard to leave what you're familiar with, but there are exciting things ahead! (More about what residency life is like and on making it through here, if you're interested.)

First things first though is enjoying Peter's final vacation week of residency. The best advice we received about going through residency as a couple was to ignore the medical school loans occasionally and make sure to take quality vacations together when he did get time off - those weeks have been some highlights in our past years. This time around we have to start working on packing, but we also get to take a little Cincinnati last hurrah staycation while Hendrik is with his grandparents. Every restaurant we ever wanted to try, here we come!

best of 2014

Not being a diary or journal keeper, I always appreciate at the end of a year how having a blog has gotten me to record all sorts of memories and happenings from the past 12 months that I wouldn't otherwise have the chance to look back on. And while I wouldn't want to pretend that there weren't any disappointments, frustrations, and anxieties along the way, it's just kind of nice to look back and see all wonderful things - stuff we did, places we went, meals we ate. I can't help but think - what a year!

Here are some highlights that I wrote about and Instagrammed along the way (funny to see how many of this year's favorites mirror last year's - I guess I'm a girl who knows what she likes!)

Best trip:

• Florida: this was a year with much less travel than the preceding ones, but we made the most of baby's first vacation by spending two whole weeks in Florida in March - one with just the three of us, and one with a whole bunch of my family. It was a great escape from the Ohio cold

Best books:

• The Good Luck of Right Now and The Storied Life of AJ Fikry are the two books I gave 5 stars on Goodreads and they've stuck with me all year. Recommend to all!

• I also couldn't stop thinking about The Secret Place, What Alice Forgot, and All the Light We Cannot See after finishing them - all books that will suck you deep into their world.

Best restaurant meal:

• Boca dinner for our anniversary and 30th birthday celebration (this time at the new location, which is an even better experience than when it topped our 2013 meal list). Other highlights of new-to-us places: Bouquet and Bakersfield.

Best recipe:

• Fish taco bowls: in 2013 I tackled learning to make fish tacos, but in 2014 we discovered the deconstructed bowl version, and it's become one of our go-to recipes that I can whip up really quickly for a super yummy and satisfying dinner (pro tip: stir in plenty of guacamole!) 

• But for sweet things, definitely this cookie pie, discovered for Hendrik's birthday and made (and eaten) many a time since. 

Best Pinterest project:

• Fireplace bench: it doesn't get better than a great combination of form and function - it just looks so cute (I still can't get over how great this fabric is), and it's been amazingly useful as a bumper to protect Hendrik from hitting his head on the bricks - not to mention as a climbing surface for him and a bench for extra seating when we have people over.

• Runners up: tassel garland and painted beads - both were really fun to do, added some nice festiveness to my life, and got lots of use!

Best outfit:

I blogged way more outfits this year than in the past, plus I really felt like I started nailing my personal style, so it was too hard to choose a top outfit from all my favorites. Thus, one (or two) per season:

• Spring: white jeans + graphic tee + utility jacket and floral dress + denim jacket + sneakers

• Summer: striped dress + denim jacket, not groundbreaking by any means, but my most worn combination of the year - so simple, but it worked for all kinds of occasions and I felt great in it!

• Fall: distressed jeans + graphic sweater + blazer and sweatshirt dress + denim jacket + ankle boots

• Winter: plaid scarf two ways

Big achievements

• Finished my third half marathon with a PR of 1:34:59 (and then was injured a lot, boo)

• Created and successfully remixed the heck out of a fall capsule wardrobe.

• Planned and made it through a master bathroom renovation.

• Read 44 books.

• For Hendrik: learned to... sleep through the night, roll over, sit up, crawl, say his first words, eat solid foods, pull up, drink from a sippy cup, stack blocks, and so much more. A baby's first year is busy (all his monthly updates with favorites, firsts, and adorable photos are here)

Big events/happenings
In 2014, we:

• Entered the last year of residency, and our final year in Cincinnati, and completed almost half of a list of 30 things to do before leaving on June 30. 

• Turned 30! And celebrated with a cupcake pairing party and lots of other fun stuff.

• Celebrated Hendrik's first birthday with a cutie pie party

• Celebrated our 8th anniversary with another Boca dinner.

• Got a blog makeover!

The cliche "the days are long, but the years are short" has always felt true while Peter's been in residency (those workdays really are long), but with a child in the picture?! In 2014 somehow all of a sudden I went from having an infant I still had to get up to nurse during the night, to a toddler who eats more lasagna in one sitting than I do.

Despite all the 5pm whiny hours that will drag on, I'm sure I'll be back here at the end of 2015 saying the same thing... so here's to spending some time this year heeding the advice of that other cliche everyone pulls out when you have a kid: "enjoy it, because it goes so fast!"

one year

Today marks the beginning of Peter's 5th year of residency... which means we're one year away from being done, and thus one year away from moving back to our home town in Michigan.

Residency has been difficult on both of us in a lot of ways, and this last year comes with more responsibility (and thus more work hours and more stress!) for Peter, but I'm still feeling a sad for how quickly the year will probably fly by, and a little nostalgic already about our time in Cincinnati. We'll really miss this city and all the great things we've fallen in love with here: our first house, our friends, our favorite restaurants, the milder winters and springs, the proximity to so many things I love but Holland doesn't have (Trader Joes, Ikea, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel. Even Chipotle!).

And I admit I also feel a little cliche, being married to my high school sweetheart and moving back to our hometown. But we're also excited to be close to our families, for the great job opportunity Peter has there, and for all the new friends, experiences, restaurants, and activities that we'll discover as we settle back into a place that we know well but haven't lived in for years now. Oh, and to live close to the beach in the summer again - so excited about that.

Moving to a city for residency is kind of interesting - you get to choose which cities/residency programs are on the rank list that you submit, but the match process ultimately decides for you which one you'll end up in. It's such a big unknown, going in to that Match Day in March, which I found so stressful: there were 8 cities we could have ended up in, and with one opening of an envelope suddenly the location of our next 5 years was mandated. But it also has its excitement: it was a great time in our lives to try out a new city, to explore a little farther afield from where we grew up, to develop a new set of relationships and hobbies in a new place.

The other interesting thing about moving to a city for residency is that most of the people we know best here are also residents or spouses of residents, so we've all settled into this new city together as transplants and transients. It's great to know people with shared current experiences and varied past experiences - but I'm also reminded, when I have fleeting thoughts of maybe making Peter break his contract in Michigan so we can stay because I'm going to miss it so much, that many of our friends will be moving on at the same time, so it would hardly feel like the same city any more if we were to stay. The end of residency is quite a transition point in many ways.

The experience of moving at the completion of residency will be so much different than how it all started - Peter actually accepted this job last September, so by the time we move we'll have known for nearly two years the location of our next move. And of course we also know the city itself, having lived there for many years and still visiting our families there with some frequency. It'll still feel new in a lot of ways, given how long it's been since we graduated from high school and moved away for college - and given that now we're a family of three! Our Ohio-made baby is soon to be a Michigan-raised boy... And as much as we've enjoyed our time here in Ohio, as a Michigan-raised girl, I'm happy about that. 

Sharing on Medical Mondays. Photos by Jacqueline Vollat from our photo shoot in May.

five things Friday: (re)engagement edition

Last weekend Peter and I were reminiscing about when we got engaged because it happened on an Easter weekend - I was pleased he brought up/remembered that it was on a Good Friday, even if it did take him a minute to recall how many years ago it actually was (9!). And while I'm really not an expensive jewelry (or even that much of a diamond) kind of girl, it still got me to thinking about what I might choose differently for a ring if I were to get engaged at this point in life rather than as a 20-year-old...

At the time the ring Peter got was exactly the very simple princess cut I wanted, but my style has rather changed (and matured) since, so a couple of years ago for an anniversary I got a diamond infinity band (similar to the first one below) that I now wear with my wedding band instead and love it even more because it's just the right amount of sophisticated sparkle for me and it doesn't catch on things. Plus it's a little different from the norm, since most people wear an engagement setting, which I like.

images from Brilliant Earth

I also love options that are a little wider and could stand alone, or ones that have the stones bezel set, which I think is quite chic, or even mixed metal options. The retro inspired Windsor Collection rings that Brilliant Earth is launching today (including the Posie Diamond Ring above) are quite glamorous too. Also great: they (along with the others shown here) are from a company with a commitment to ethical practices that donates part of its profits to those who have been harmed by the diamond industry. That's something I would think more about now too.

One thing I definitely wouldn't change though is how we got engaged: We were in our junior year of college when we started talking about marriage/wedding specifics; by that spring I knew we were going to get engaged and Peter had asked about what kinds of rings I liked and what size I might need, but I was kind of wondering when the guy was actually going to make it official, if we were going to start planning for a wedding within the year...

One weekend we went to my parents' cottage for an evening to make dinner and watch the sunset together, and I kind of thought to myself that it would be an ideal time for a proposal, but nothing happened. So the next time we went (which happened to be Good Friday, a day we had off from classes but the week before midterms, so I was all stressed out about studying and didn't want to take the day to drive up to the cottage when Peter first suggested it, but he insisted we go), I had put that out of my mind as a possibility. I still didn't have an inkling even as we were finishing up dinner and Peter started so sweetly telling me all the reasons he loved me. I was just sitting there enjoying all the lovey talk... and then all of a sudden there appeared a ring, since the conclusion of all the love reasons equaled "will you marry me?" I was a bit stunned. The only reaction I could think of was to hug him, which knocked the ring right out of his hand, but it got sorted out and on my finger shortly. Then we got to drive home to tell our parents, and show off the ring and our good news on Easter when my extended family got together. It was fun.

And it was a perfect kind of proposal for us, I'd say. As much as I love the stories of them, an elaborate surprise with family secretly watching or a down-on-one-knee in front of all the other diners at a restaurant or something like that are just not my style (it was more than enough spotlight for us introverts to have to stand up in the front of the church for our wedding ceremony!). I loved that it was a simple, quiet moment for just us and that there were little elements of surprise - that I wasn't expecting it on that day, or that I learned how Peter had, completely unbeknownst to me, gone to dinner with my parents the week before to talk about it - and I love that it happened at a place that's really special to us, especially in retrospect. We've spent a lot of time at the cottage with my family, then got engaged there, spent our wedding night there, and have spent many we-need-a-vacation days there too during the busy times of medical school and residency.

Okay, now I want to hear some engagement stories! Was it a surprise? Did you have any input on the ring? Would you pick a different one now?

Sharing on Friday's Fab Favorites.

30 before 30 #6: photo album

Our recent anniversary gave me a reason to work on a couple of items on my 30 before 30 list... Granted, one of them, eat at another top 10 Cincinnati restaurant, was a duplicate dining experience - Boca! - plus I've already completed this item several times over with other restaurant outings, but it might just be one of my favorite list items, so I have no problem with that.

However I also used the occasion as a deadline for finally getting around to ordering a photo album of our married years, so that I could give it to Peter as an anniversary gift (other deadline: the 40% off sale Shutterfly was having; I managed to finish up my order a few hours before it ended).

My goal with this list item was to have a tangible something out of all the photos stored on our computer. Since I basically haven't had any photos printed since we got married, I thought what I should make is just an album of our married years (so far). Easier said than done - part of what made it take so long to get around to is that's a lot of photos to choose from, so narrowing 8 years into one book was hard (and kept not sounding like a task I wanted to tackle). So I decided I'd just try to capture the essence of each year and not worry about getting every event or every photo covered.

I ended up doing a page each for "love" (engagement photos), "marriage" (wedding photos), and "baby carriage" (maternity/Hendrik's birth), followed by a page each for our 1st apartment and our 1st house. Then I did one page per year of marriage, 2006-2013, just picking a few highlights/big events or favorite photos of us together. Finally, some of our favorite memories - and most fun photos to look through - are of our travels together, so to finish off the book I decided to dedicate one page to each trip we've taken. Besides the title page (the black & white round photo shown below), this is my favorite part of the whole thing.

Picking out and uploading photos is just half the battle - then there's actually arranging the pages! Shutterfly does make it pretty easy; I love the photo book design options (I went with "modern white and think it's quite classy) and coordinating page layout options they have. They have various "ideas pages" with each book design; it costs a few dollars more to do your book with these sample layouts, but it's worth it because they look nice and it takes less thinking/time, so I mostly used those pages to arrange my photos and add titles/brief captions.

So while it took me quite a lot of time to put together, it was kind of fun in the end - especially having a reason to look back through all our photos and reminisce - and I'm quite pleased with the result. The book looks really nice, and it's fun to have on the coffee table to page through!

(p.s. a great tip from my mom that I need to actually do: if you have a book you want to make, upload the pictures and get it all ready to go now. Then you can save the project to your account until they're running a sale on photo albums, or better yet, until you get one of the occasional free book promo codes they send, and you'll be good to go for ordering at a good price! Next up I want to do a book of "Hendrik in the Making", using some of our maternity photos and the fun bump's-eye-view series I did.)

on 8 years

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. We've been through a lot of transitions together in those years - from just graduated from college and going out to find our very first apartment, through medical school and our farthest move away from family for residency, to buying our first house and first car and getting a dog.

My elders (i.e., parents) laugh at me in a loving “I told you so” kind of way when I say it, but we were so young when we got married (21) that lots of changes and transitions were inevitable - we were kind of still growing up. But I absolutely love that we got to do it together. One funny example: when we first got married we loved to go out to eat, but it was a big deal to get to do so (medical school costs big bucks!), so we tended to go safe - hamburgers & chicken tenders, anyone? Now we kind of live to get to try new restaurants and exciting new foods (helps to be into the dual income category now), and we're pretty amused by our previous lack of culinary adventurousness. That took a little growing up...

2006: wedding, first apartment, start of medical school | 2007: start of my job | 2008: start of medical school clinical rotations | 2009: residency interviews, month in Baltimore for an away rotation | 2010: match day, move to Cincinnati, first house, residency intern year, start of working from home, Ginger joins the family | 2011: residency year two, 5th anniversary trip to Mexico, trip to Arizona | 2012: third year of residency, travels to Dominican Republic, South Carolina | 2013: 3-month research rotation (best part of residency), pregnancy & arrival of baby Hendrik!

Of course after 7.5 years of marriage, our relationship had its biggest change ever last fall, as we transitioned from a married couple to a couple of parents...

Having a baby certainly alters a marriage, and there are certainly difficult parts, but there are really great ones too, that make being married even better (and I already really liked being married to Peter before). I feel like we've always been a pretty good pair, but I love how being parents together makes us into a team. And seeing how proud Peter's was of my growing belly and, now that he's here, our growing boy, makes me love him all the more. He's a great dad, and there's nobody I'd rather be doing all of this great stuff of life with.

Everyday life as a team of parents has been fun (Friday nights are all about baby bath time now, and we think it's kind of great), but as we start this next year of marriage, I can't wait to keep doing the things we most love to do together, except now as a family of three - especially traveling (family trip to Florida coming up!) and enjoying quality time over weekend brunches (Hendrik's 1st major outing was of course to our favorite breakfast place).

And of course to keep doing things we love as just a couple sometimes too, like exploring the menus of great restaurants together - starting with our anniversary date night plans this weekend... can't wait to get back to Boca!

best of 2013

2013, what a year! It's so fun to scroll back through my Instagram feed and blog posts from the last 12 months as a way to recap everything. From these, it's clear some big things in our 2013 were brunch, beach vacations, mix & match outfits, and ice cream outings. Oh, and BABY.

There were some other great highlights too:

Best trip:

• Dominican Republic. Same as last year, this all-inclusive resort vacation with Peter was the most relaxing and wonderfully sunny of my year. But our really brief trip to Columbus for a babymoon was pretty fabulous too.

Best books:

• I had to add a young adult category to my year's book recap because it had some of the best books I've read, including the only one I rated 5 stars on Goodreads: Wonder. I also loved Marcelo in the Real World and The Fault in Our Stars.

• But also there was some great standard fiction, including The Dog Stars, Life After Life, City of Thieves. 

• And even more non-fiction than I usually go for, with some especially great reads in the motherhood memoir category like Operating Instructions and Waiting for Birdy.

Best restaurant meal:

• Dinner at Boca. We ate tons of great meals at restaurants around Cincinnati; we still have old favorites like Enoteca Emilia, along with new favorites like Sotto and Abigail Street, but the best of the year had to be anniversary dinner at Boca. We can't wait to try it again!

Best recipe:

• Fish tacos. I learned to make several new things this year, but the grilled fish tacos recipe was probably the winner out of all of them! 

Best Pinterest project:

• Embellished burp cloths. Cute, easy, good sewing practice - and they get used every day! 

• Runner up: stamped scarf. Also super easy, cute, and functional.

Best outfit:

• I documented outfits in all seasons, mixing & matching lots of things I felt great in, but my favorite was probably the Pinterest-inspired layered blazer look. 

• I also had fun documenting my maternity style -one of the most versatile items I had was a ruched black dress, which fit from 20 weeks all the way to 39, and made for some of my favorite outfits in fall and summer.

Big achievements:

• Completed 10 more items on my 30 before 30 list - my favorite of the year has to be seeing a Cirque du Soleil show. 

• Wrote a 4-part series of amateur tips for more professional blogs. I'm kind of proud of these posts. 

• Last in-house call shift of residency for Peter!

• Learned how to use our new DSLR camera in manual mode.

Big events/happenings:

In 2013, we...

• Made and grew and birthed and started raising a baby! Craziness. And so wonderful. 

• Enjoyed the fabulous 3-month residency research rotation, which allowed for regularly eating breakfast together, going to the gym together, walking the dog together, re-watching all of The West Wing together, and even time for a bonus vacation week trip to Florida with my family.

• Celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. 

• Decided we'll be moving back to our hometown when Peter finishes residency. 

It was a great year, but we look forward to what 2014 will bring, with a growing baby, entry into our 30s, and many more good things I'm sure. Happy New Year!

Sharing on Nestful of Love's Hello 2014, Goodbye 2013 linkup!

pre-baby bucket list recap

Now we're down to just one week left to the due date... holy smokes. People keep asking if we're ready, which I guess we could say yes to - we've done the classes, the hospital bag is packed, we've got the car seat installed, and we're VERY eager to meet this little guy. But that's about as prepared as it's possible to be I guess - not sure we can ever be fully ready for the major life changes and difficult things and overwhelming parental love we hear our headed our way.

But at least we can also say the pre-baby bucket list is pretty much done!

Here's a recap of the fun we've been having in the spirit of savoring the things that we love to do together and appreciating the great things about the final days of being just the two of us:

pre-baby bucket list

Last week Mackenzie posted about how having lots of little things to look forward to in life can offset those nagging obligations on your calendar that can bog you down or fill you with dread - deadlines, dentist appointments, etc.  Her reminder to fill in your life with "happy moments" around those to do list items, making for a more enthusiastic you, is great for everyone, but it was especially good at 2 months away from my due date...

Recently it's been easy to get overwhelmed by the to do lists I've got around here for maternity leave prep and baby prep - not to mention that I'm starting to have more and more moments that I'm just plain tired of being pregnant and want this to be done. So I've started a list of activities to do pre-baby that will help us savor the things that we love to do together but will be much harder (or nigh unto impossible) once we have a little one, and to help me appreciate the great things about these final days of growing a baby as I get more impatient to meet him.

We're planning a little babymoon overnight getaway for early September. Nothing too far away, since we're getting pretty close to the due date, but it will be welcome amidst all the weekends Peter's had to work in this 3-month block (not to mention the crazy early mornings/late nights). Besides that, I think remembering to enjoy these activities over the next two months will help offset the remaining nagging tasks (insurance, childbirth classes, pediatrician selection, ugh) - and make the most of our remaining time as a family of two.

And this weekend we already did #2! We had a great date night to the newly opened Sotto - excellent food, a cool venue to check out, and a really nice chance to be able to reconnect over a long meal. We spent the rest of our evening talking about how great that date night was.

What little things are you looking forward to?

pros of being married to resident

How was your weekend? Peter got to spend all day Saturday taking the annual in-service exam for ENT residents (I spent it more enjoyably, running a 10k and having brunch with friends). It's nice he has this out of the way now - for a chunk of the year it takes up Wednesday nights for review sessions, and then of course there's this Saturday that suddenly is no longer a day off. Another example of how, in residency, your time is not so much your own...

But having a resident for a spouse isn't all about bad hours, like I sometimes make it sound. For Medical Monday, how about few of the perks of having a resident in the family:

1. Useful skills: with his surgical training, Peter's a pretty good sewer now, so he knows how to do helpful things like darn his own socks. And he once trussed a chicken with a surgical needle/thread. Also, apparently labs are prone to ear infections, so he's obviously the perfect member of this household to clean out and dry those Ginger ears after bath time.

2. Useful supplies: access to hospital items can be handy, like the gloves and masks Peter brought home for protection from harsh chemicals when I deglossed the cabinets for painting. Also, the lint-free cloths from the OR have come in handy for a zillion things (apparently they open tons of packages of these, only use a few, and dispose of the rest... so I'll take 'em!).

3. (Occasionally) helpful hours: those seemingly terrible work hours occasionally are actually helpful; for instance, Peter was working in the middle of the night last September and could order our new iPhones right when they came available, while everyone else had to wait weeks longer to get theirs after the first batch sold out.

4. Entertainment/stories to impress at a party: while some of the day's stories can be too squeam-inducing, often they can be quite entertaining. Like the one about a guy who aspirated an entire fish that was still alive.

5. Bragging rights: much as I still find it a bit unfathomable, it really is kind of awesome that my husband spends his days doing surgery on people. I don't actually go around bragging about that, but it's sometimes tempting. Because it's a cool fact.

Also, I have to add that are a few perks you think you might get, but they turn out not to be true, most notably: you think you're going to get all this free medical advice, but be warned - residents apparently forget everything from medical school aside from whatever they've specialized in. If I've got a sore throat, okay, but if my foot hurts or my hypochondriac "I think I have a tumor" syndrome surfaces, I'm out of luck.

So do you reap any benefits from your spouse's profession?


Sharing on Medical Mondays, hosted by Emma, Jane, Heather, & Mandy.

30 before 30: top 10 restaurant

Thank you all for the well wishes yesterday! It's fun to celebrate such a milestone, even if, in typical residency fashion, Peter got home late enough that we were together for one waking hour... But we totally made up for that on Saturday, as our anniversary was obviously the time for doing #15 on my 30 before 30 goal list: eat at another Cincinnati top 10 restaurant. So we got dressed up and headed to Boca for an amazing dinner.

When I first started tracking the Cincinnati Magazine top 10 list, Boca was #2. In the latest version, it dropped to #9, but since it was my first visit and I didn't know any different, I'd say it's definitely higher ranking in my book. The food and service were really great, though things were clearly running a bit slowly - which was actually fine with us, since we were there to enjoy a leisurely celebration. And we did, including the glasses of prosecco the waiter brought us for a toast upon hearing it was our anniversary. We also enjoyed being able to see the open kitchen and the chef at work. I'm a total nerd for things like this after so many episodes of Top Chef.

The weekend menu consists of two or three course options plus dessert. It was tempting to go for three, but we stuck to two courses each and really enjoyed all of them (and with the fabulous grilled garlic bread added in, definitely couldn't have stuffed ourselves with another course). I started with a ravioli filled with potatoes and cheese in a sage brown butter sauce - can't go wrong with brown butter sauce. Peter had a fabulously hearty and delicious pasta with tomatoes and guanciale, a fancy type of bacon that we've had before and learned you definitely can't go wrong with.

For the entree, I went with the cod, which apparently was new to the menu that night. And they should keep it there - with pureed potato, green beans, and toasted almonds, plus some kind of lemony yummy sauce, everything together made for a perfect taste. Nice and light but still warm and so flavorful. And Peter had the veal with glazed turnips and apples and a potato puree. Very rich and hearty, perfect for winter.

Then for dessert, I had a most excellent selection of gelatos, while Peter had the pot de creme, also delicious. And then we were full.

Bottom line: a most excellent anniversary celebration worthy of crossing off an item on my 30 before 30 list. And which both makes me wish we could afford to eat there every weekend and makes me want to get to all the rest of the top 10 restaurants - if this is currently 9, then there's a lot of good food out there in Cincinnati.

7 years, and on being married into medicine

Peter and I started dating our junior year in high school, and when we got married 5 years later, I thought about how much we had changed and grown up in that time, but happily in ways that were compatible. Now it's kind of funny to think back on that, especially seeing our baby faces in wedding photos, because 7 years after our wedding, we have changed and grown up so much more - and still in compatible ways. (I realize in another 7 I'll look back and think how young we were now!)

Another thing I remember thinking when we got married, 6 months before Peter started medical school: how looonng it seemed like it would be before he finished the process and became a "real" doctor, and how old we would be at that point. There were lots of worries too: Would we ever get to see each other? Would we have to move far away from our families for school/residency? Could we ever afford to travel together before turning 40? 

But how fast it's gone! Just 2.5 years of residency left - and we're totally not old yet (right?). And how much I love our life, and the many places we've traveled.

To be honest, sometimes being married to a doctor isn't all it's cracked up to be (or whatever the people who used to say to me in Peter's first couple of months of medical school, "ooooh, you're going to be a doctor's wife and go to country clubs and things!" thought it was), at least if you marry him before med school... There are bad hours and stress and expensive licensing exams. The doctor-in-training process has dictated plenty of things about our lives - where we've lived, how much time we've had available to spend together, how much debt we've had to start our adulthood with. And there have certainly been days or weeks that I've been not so happy about being married to the process, when the words "I hate residency" have crossed my lips.

But I'll say being married to Peter definitely is all it's cracked up to be. Despite any crazy things that medical school and residency bring, this is our life, and we're happy in it because we're together. Perhaps I'll see some of those stereotypical doctor's wife "perks" eventually (and also free ear tubes if my someday children ever need them?), but I'm happiest with the perk of having a husband who enjoys the career he's picked, and whose favorite thing to do with his time off is go on vacation with me. I guess wouldn't mind also being awarded some kind of MD-in-law though, after all the random medical knowledge I've learned and helped pay for...

Happy anniversary, sweetie. Looking forward to many more great years, in residency and beyond.

wedding day | medical school graduation day | first summer in Cincinnati for residency

p.s. sharing on the Medical Mondays blog hop hosted today by my new favorite site, Medicine: A Love Story.

2012 in review

Though it came with its losses and disappointments, 2012 was a year that gave plenty of reminders of how blessed we are. We celebrated our 6th anniversary, got to travel a lot, spent time with family, strengthened friendships, improved our house, grew in confidence and skills, and progressed in our careers. Along the way, I enjoyed wearing lots of colored jeans, making new blog friends, reading 50 books, and going out for breakfast as often as possible.

As you can see, I discovered Instagram big-time in 2012, but I also did lots of other great things:

Best trip:

My work trip locations weren't quite as exciting this year (Washington DC is great, but three times in one year is more than enough...), but Peter and I did a bit more traveling than usual on our own. Our Dominican Republic vacation was probably the most relaxing, but we loved Colorado too.

Best books:

--Fiction: always hard to choose as I read several great ones. Emily, Alone got 5 stars from me on Goodreads, but I also loved Rules of Civility, State of Wonder, and Broken Harbor.

--Nonfiction: The Happiness Project was definitely my most enjoyable (and most life-changing) nonfiction read, but I also couldn't stop talking about MWF Seeking BFF and Bringing Up Bebe for the same reasons.

Best movie:

--Les Miserables, hands-down. I adore the musical in the first place, and I thought this movie version was well done and well filmed. I sobbed at the end, it was so beautiful and raw.

Big achievements:

--Peter reached the halfway point in residency as of the end of December, along with the no-more-Saturday-calls point.  

--I redesigned the blog all by myself, got a .com, and made lots of new friends in the process (also got to hang out with some of them in real life!).

--I ran about 900 miles and finished my second half marathon race with a PR.

Big events/happenings:

--Seeing President Obama at a campaign rally was exciting. 

--Finishing a kitchen remodel was really exciting too.

Here's to another good year!

five things friday: sentimental edition

I like to keep an organized house (and rather enjoy cleaning out closets and cupboards), so I'm not one to keep a lot of items for sentimental reasons - but I certainly do have a few, and a couple weeks ago I got to thinking about nostalgia after reading this post from Life of a Doctor's Wife; milestones like anniversaries get one thinking about memories too... so this Friday, 5 special-to-me things:

1. I was going to reorganize the closet in my office, but I got sidetracked by the box of special treasures stored in there - some old tapes, special letters we've received, drawings from young cousins and siblings, fun things to spark memories like that.

2. I would love mini daffodils for their cuteness anyway, but I have a special fondness for them because Peter gave me some on the first Valentine's Day we were dating those many years ago (and it still lives!). So for $2.50 at Trader Joe's, a little sentimental spring for the living room.

3. Our recent anniversary date called for dressing up, which also called for a fancy coat - so I pulled out this one of my great grandma's that I was given after her funeral. I also have a couple of her jackets, including the one she wore to my wedding; she was always dressed just so.

4. I haven't worn them a lot in the last few years (not sure why), but for our anniversary dinner I also got out my wedding pearl earrings, and I've been wearing them ever since. These were a "something new" on the wedding day, and my "something old" was a pearl necklace from a long strand my grandma had made into necklaces for her granddaughters.

5. And one more piece of "something new" jewelry that will become a sentimental piece: a couple months ago I mentioned that I might like an anniversary band to wear in place of my engagement ring (sometimes, especially in glove weather, you don't want to wear something that sticks up and catches on things, right?). I had kind of forgotten about it until Peter sweetly suggested some jewelery shopping - "didn't you know the 6th anniversary is the one when you get jewelry?" And now I have something special we picked out together - and something long-lasting (as all my jewelry, aside from wedding-related stuff, is of the fake but fun variety...).

anniversary weekend

 anniversary tulips (to match our wedding flowers)

I don't love the night float schedule Peter is on this month, but on the bright side, it does mean that he has weekends off... so it was lovely to have the weekend to enjoy together, and even lovelier that our 6th anniversary was on Saturday, so we had a chance to celebrate. 

my new Everyday Food cookbook

We started the weekend on Friday night by having the other residents in Peter's year over for dinner - it's been so warm out that we just had to grill! I tried out a new sweet potato fry recipe to go with our burgers too. A great evening catching up.

 all dressed up at The Palace

For our anniversary on Saturday, we got to dress up and check another restaurant off the Cincinnati Magazine top 10 list: The Palace Restaurant. Even for a special occasion, we wouldn't have been too likely to go there - but a couple months ago they had a great Groupon offer, so the price became right!

amuse-bouche

 

 winter vegetable salad

And we were so glad we tried it. Amazing. Our table was kind of tucked away in a funny area, which was quiet but didn't really allow us to get much of a feel for the restaurant - but the food was the show anyway. After watching so much Top Chef, it was kind of thrilling to be handed an amuse-bouche from the chef. Then we had the salad of winter vegetables with goat cheese and crispy country ham (i.e., best bacon ever), followed by the braised lamb with olive oil whipped potatoes, mirepoix vegetables, meyer lemon, and lamb jus for Peter and the roasted salmon with chorizo, green beans, cauliflower, marcona almonds, and romesco sauce for me. It was all beautiful and absolutely delicious.

braised lamb

roasted salmon

 

If I were a Top Chef judge, I would definitely pick my salmon as the winner of the night - the fish was cooked perfectly (as the judges always say), and the chorizo added such a nice smoky and salty dimension. Combined with all that, the green beans were also the best we've ever had, we decided. We spent the rest of the weekend saying "remember that great dinner?!" to each other.

On the way home we picked up a movie and some ice cream to round out the night - after reading Moneyball on vacation, it was time to watch it. The movie was good, but the book was better (so it goes).

On Sunday, we had a bit of a church fail: unbeknown to us (since we were gone the last couple weeks), they were having only one combined service - so we showed up at 11, just as it was wrapping up. So we had some very enjoyable fellowship at the coffee shop down the street instead.

And then Peter started his work week early evening Sunday while Ginger and I watched the Puppy Bowl (who needs football when there's cute puppy overload!).

2011 in review

2010 was a year of big firsts and transitions, and so 2011 was much more of a settling in year (which is nice too!):

• Peter began his 2nd year of residency.
• I started my second year of working from home and just reached 5 years of being at this job.
• We celebrated our 5th year of marriage. 
• We reached one year of being a family with a dog.
• We started our second year of living in Cincinnati and explored lots of new restaurants, museums, theaters, and landmarks.

Best trip:

--We (and I) did some great travel this year, but our 5th anniversary trip to Mexico wins - getting away to a warm place in the winter is an excellent idea, and getting to relax together with no computers and no responsibilities is quite a treat.

Best books:

--Fiction: The History of Love. Or maybe Let the Great World Spin. Or Okay for Now (young adult). This is impossible to choose - I'm not sure why I even try to make myself do so!

--Non-fiction: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks probably sparked the most discussion of any book I read in 2011.

--Classic: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or East of Eden.

Best movie:

--This was the year of BBC miniseries on Netflix instant. My absolute favorite was Downton Abbey (I watched all 7 episodes over the course of about 2 days); I also enjoyed the Sherlock miniseries.

--It's pretty rare for us to actually get around to watching movies at home (limited free time + always a lot of dvr shows to catch up on), much less go to the theater, but we were really glad we made time for True Grit and The King's Speech.

Big achievements:

--Peter took the last round of medical licensing exams (and passed with flying colors).

--I ran a half marathon and still can't believe I started the year with a resolution to run a 5k race and ended up there!

--We bought our first car - that feels like a quite grown-up thing to do, and I am loving those heated seats.

--I sewed my first wearable item. Hope to continue to work on this in 2012...

Big events/happenings:

--Losing my great grandma was a big and difficult change for my family; we miss her but remembered special things about her at the holidays (snowflake ornaments and peanut butter balls).

--We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time and had lots of other great family visits.