July Recap

July is over and I'm officially sad. Mainly because that means my off month is over and it's back to real life. And yes, I do realize I should just be grateful to actually get a full month off (which I am) but it also makes going back that much harder. Here's a little recap of a few things that happened in July:

• As I blogged about earlier, we took an awesome trip to Savannah and Tybee Island with some friends. It was a great time and I'm definitely glad we got to get away for a little while.

• I worked.. ALOT. While I had visions of carefree days with nothing on the agenda for all of July, that was actually not the case. I ended up working quite a bit. I can't complain too much because it's always nice to have extra money coming in but working almost 40 hours a week wasn't really what I had planned. 
• Annie was finally old enough to take to the dog park so Darren and I made an effort to take her multiple times a week. While it's really all about her having fun, for some reason I just love taking her there. We found a great dog park that is on a lake and they have a swimming area for dogs, which is perfect for July when it's really too hot for them to run around too much. She's still a little unsure about swimming but definitely likes to get wet and ventures out a little further each time we take her. We even got to meet her doggy BFFs Luna and Bawse there which she clearly loved. 

  

  wet, muddy, and exhausted after a fun afternoon at the dog park

• This was actually a July goal of mine, but I made 2 new meals this month! And I think they were actually both hits. Both came from one of my favorite food bloggers, Iowa Girl Eats. The first was Grilled Chicken Caprese with Basil Vinaigrette. This was my probably my favorite of the two. Anything caprese is my absolute favorite so every part of this meal was perfect. The second was Kung Pao Chicken Lettuce Wraps and this one was probably Darren's favorite. The flavor in the was incredible and since I made them myself I feel like they must be healthier than PF Changs, but they sure tasted very similar. 
• Darren finallly got his approval to work!!  wooohooo! We have been waiting for this forever so we were both thrilled when it finally arrived. He's been hot on the job trail and has already met with a few companies so I'm confident he will have a job very soon. I'm so excited for him!
• I ended my off month with a few fun nights with friends. We had a triple date and went to the Ray Lamontagne concert at the Tennessee Theater. A few months ago Chelsey, Emily, and I had a random idea to buy tickets and take our guys along. I'm so glad we did! It was a beautiful night (almost chilly!) and the concert was really fun. We hit up the brewery after and it just seemed like one of those feel good summer nights (even though it actually felt like late September). 

Trav, Em, Darren, Me, Chels, Joshy

What's ahead for August

I start my family medicine rotation. It's notoriously a hard rotation with very long hours so I'm trying not to have too many expectations for the month other than to survive. I had my first day on Friday and I'm actually really excited about it. I think I'm going to learn so much I know it will be hard work but I really think it will be worth it. My main goal for August (other than survive) is to cut out a lot of sugar from my diet. I really haven't been good at this the past month. I also know I have a tendency to rush for any sugary snack when I have a lot of work to do and just want to reward myself. I'm really going to focus on preparing my food ahead of time and make sure I bring plenty of healthy options with me every day so I'm not so tempted. I'm really hoping eating healthy will also give me more energy for the long hours (in addition to the large amounts of coffee I have no problem consuming).

The end of August is also the beginning of college football season and this household is more than ready!