Baked Strawberry Oatmeal

I would definitely say I'm not a creature of habit for most things. But one thing I'm pretty consistent with is breakfast. I'll pick one thing and eat it every morning for months until I never want to eat it again. Pretty much all of pharmacy school it was eggy oats. Plain original oatmeal with 2 egg whites. Not exciting by any means but it kept me full longer than anything else. And I'm alllllwaays hungry so that's the most important thing. The one problem with it though is that it takes awhile to make and then you're stuck cleaning a pan of oatmeal every single day. I realized I needed to come up with something that didn't take quite so long to make in mornings since I usually leave pretty early. So obviously I googled for awhile and found a few recipes for baked oatmeal that I could make ahead of time and heat up every morning. I kind of combined a bunch of them and this is what I came up with:

INGREDIENTS

4 cups oatmeal (not quick oatmeal)

1 carton strawberries

2 eggs

3 cups milk or water

1/4 Cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

• cut strawberries into bite size pieces and discard tops
• mix strawberries and walnuts together with oatmeal in baking dish
• whisk together eggs and liquid (I usually use 2 cups almond milk and 1 cup water)
• pour egg/liquid over oatmeal until equally covered
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

I cut it into 8 pieces and Darren and I both eat it most mornings for breakfast. Just add it in a bowl with a little almond milk and heat in the microwave for a minute. Sooo tasty! And makes my morning so much easier.

Graduation Week(s)

 It finally happened! I AM A PHARMACIST! Wooo, feels good to say those words. After 3 years of undergrad (I finished early) and 4 years of pharmacy school I officially have my doctorate in pharmacy. And now that I'm officially done with school, reality is setting in and I'd just like to go back please. School is great. Seriously, I wish I could just stay forever. However, some student loans have other plans for me and need to shrink real fast. And I guess I actually am excited about really getting to work every day and not needing someone to sign after everything I do because I'm just a lowly student. Bring on the long coat!

Ok but really, in light of such a monumentous occasion, I knew graduation was going to be pretty great. Especially since I skipped my undergrad graduation. The celebrations started off traveling with Becky and Emily to Chattanooga for a lake day with Em's boyfriend before heading to Memphis. It was so much fun and made me seriously miss OHL. We just drank beer on the float all day and played a bit with the jet skis. I thought I was adventurous but topped out at about 30 mph which apparently isn't very fast for a jet ski but was fast enough for me! And having dinner on the deck that night was just the cherry on top. Nothing more relaxing that dinner on a screened in porch at the lake (especially with great company!)

Stop #2 was Memphis! Duh, I had to actually graduate! We spent two days "in class" for pharmacy law review but mostly just spent time hanging out and catching up with friends. One of our friends put together the most hilarious "Wall of Shame" slideshow with ridiculous pictures from the past 4 years. I honestly can't even put it into words how great it was. I love my friends and had so much fun (probably too much) in pharmacy school. School would have been nowhere near as amazing without them. We also had a great class party at a bar in Overton square where we had some funds to use from our class budget before we graduated. Commence an open bar and people ordering rounds and rounds (and rounds) of shots uhhh... because we could!

Oh yeah and then there was the real graduation part. Let's be honest... that was probably the least exciting part of the trip. But it made things official nonetheless and it was definitely fun to have my family there. After graduation we went to McEwens on Monroe for dinner. I had actually never been there before and made reservations on a whim but it was really fantastic food and a nice small atmosphere. My parents splashed out and booked Darren and I a suite at the Peabody and they stayed there also.  It was definitely a cool hotel and very nice but we all decided actually staying there wasn't really worth the hype.

My biggest supporter and stud of a hubby!

My sweet grandparents

So glad they could make it!

My crew

so lucky to be BFFs with the valedictorian.... who knew!

my favorite teacher and residency director for the next 2 years!

Had to have one with Em and Trav

7 pharmacists and.... a Darren! haha he hears way too much pharmacy talk. what a trooper!

Champagne and apps at our private hotel bar

beautiful room!

My cute parents on the roof

My new favorite memphis breakfast... fried chicken sandwich covered with sausage gravy.  I was incapacitated the rest of the day and it was worth it!

After graduation my parents and Darren went home and Becky, Emily, and I headed to Destin! I forgot how much nothing is in Alabama... but I remembered real quick. Such a boring drive, but totally worth it! We had so much fun sitting on the beach or by the pool and drinking lots of daiquiris and wine. Is it a bad thing when the daiquiri guy knows your order after only 2 days?? I also got to meet up with my BFF since Kindergarten, Lindsay, for dinner one night since we lives in Pensacola. It was such a fun and relaxing trip. I can't wait to go back with Darren sometime soon. He's never been to Destin before so I think it would be really fun. We definitely had fun at Tybee Island last summer and, in my opinion, Destin is a way nicer beach than that.

The next logical place to go after Florida would be home,  but our friends Molly and Judd were getting married in Memphis so we headed back there again. Darren and Becky's fiancee met us there and we got to hang out with our Memphis friends again and enjoy Memphis for the day before the wedding. We hit up Central (duh) and Wiseacre brewery which was really fun and had some incredible beer. I am officially a huge fan. Molly and Judd's wedding was at the Memphis zoo and so much fun. There's nothing like weddings with the pharmacy crew.

So after two long weeks we finally headed back home to Knoxville. It was so nice to get back to my own bed but now the reality is setting in that now that I've graduated I have to actually take my boards. So let the studying commence....

Life Lately

Life lately has been GREAT. Here are some recent iPhone pics.

We have a favorite new Saturday morning routine consisting of going for a walk with the dogs at Lakeshore followed by coffee at our favorite coffee shop. Darren is such a softy with them!

I planted some new annuals not long ago and added some rocks to the front of our bed. We were having a huge problem with all the mulch running onto the driveway every time it rained. Hopefully this will help and doesn't look too bad either!

 New bedding for the guest room. Now I need to figure out what else to do to make this not such a beige box...

Just a typical night for me getting into bed... can you find Darren? Sidenote: we don't actually let Annie sleep with us, but she does take advantage of the bed quite a bit when we're not in it.

My sweet friend Candace brought me these flowers and asked me to be her bridesmaid. I'm so excited! It's going to be so much fun and I couldn't be happier for her and Garrett. I don't think I've ever received white roses before and I think I've become a huge fan. So fresh and gorgeous!

We took on a massive project last week with redoing our wood floors! Peter and Darren worked so hard. We still had to have our floor guy help us out in the end though. It was going way too slow.

Leveling where our old wood used to be. We wanted to just extend that wood into the living room (which used to be carpet) but that wood was discontinued so we had to go with something completely new. Which was a huge pain but I was excited for handscraped!

Slow slow progress....

I'm happy that everything turned out amazing and we couldn't be happier. The new wood throughout just really brings the whole house together. We still have a few odds and ends to put back but it's really coming together. 

These pups gave us a bit of trouble during the flooring process so I loaded them up and took them to my parents' house. I was so frustrated with them and then turned around to see them asleep and snuggling in the back seat. God knew what he was doing when he made dogs so cute! They're impossible to stay mad at.

A new Whole Foods just opened up right down the road from us and I'm already obsessed with it, especially their hot bar thing. I love all the salads and grilled veggies. I feel like I've accomplished so much if I can walk out of the store without spending $1000 dollars!

Last Thursday I had my very last day of school EVER. I've been out of class for a year and a half now but now I'm officially done with it all! Next time I set foot in the hospital I'll be getting paid and have a whole lot of new responsibilities! Darren and I celebrated with the best way I could think of... Mexican food with a jumbo margarita! It's such a relief to be done although I don't think it's really set in yet. 2 weeks until graduation in Memphis!

This may seem like a boring picture but we're so excited to have some nice grass in our backyard! It was overgrown brush when we moved in and Darren has worked so hard planting grass. It's so nice to look at now and the dogs have a lot more room to play. 

Speaking of play... This girl is OBSESSED with her frisbee. I can't even describe it. She's getting really good at catching them though which is fun.

This weekend my parents came over from Nashville and Philip came up from Chattanooga to celebrate my dad and Philip's birthdays. We had lunch at Stock and Barrel in market square and had so much fun!

Philip also brought me some beautiful flowers from the farmer's market for graduation! I love them! Nothing better than fresh flowers.

That's all for now!

Match Day

A few Fridays ago was one of the biggest, most exciting, most stressful days of my life/ career thus far. It was what all people refer to as "match day". It's the day when the fancy computer algorithm decides the fate of medical and pharmacy students across the country. We all find out if we'll do residency training and where it will be. 2 weeks prior I had to submit a rank list of all the programs I interviewed with in order of where I wanted to go. And then I had to WAIT. It was pure torture. I said all I cared about was matching somewhere but truly I was really hoping to match at my first choice.  Darren and I had long discussions about how I should rank things and once we finally decided I was so peaceful and content about the decision that I really really wanted it to happen. Those two weeks were so hard not knowing. I'm SO happy that's over now.

We knew we would get an email sometime before noon on March 20th, but we didn't know exactly when. I was up and out of the house before 6 to get to my rotation on time so I figured that was too early to get the email so luckily I didn't feel the need to check my phone incessantly at that point. Once I got to my rotation around 7 I checked my phone before I got out of my car and then walked into the building. Right when I was sitting down at my desk and putting my stuff away I got a text from my friend Emily with a screenshot of her email showing that she matched at UT Medical Center and she said "will you be my co-resident?" I had already confided in Emily that it was my top choice and thank goodness I could answer YES! And then I saw the hands down most exciting email I've ever received!

I was soo happy about where I matched that I just couldn't stop shaking and smiling. It was such a great feeling. I immediately texted Darren to tell him the good news. Darren and I had talked a lot about if moving would be the best choice for us or if it would be better to stay in Knoxville. At the end of the day I knew there wasn't a better fit for me than at UT and the people there are some of the smartest, most caring, and most fun people I know.  I'm so lucky to be able to train there! Darren also loves his job in Knoxville and we have a great little house and we're just not ready to leave yet. I'm pretty sure Darren also started looking at season football tickets 5 minutes after I told him. I'm so thankful to have matched at my top choice and can't wait for the next two years, as tiring and difficult as they might be.

Luckily Darren was in town on match day (I was living at my parent's house for the month for a rotation) so I convinced him to come take me out to lunch to celebrate. I was so distracted once I got the news that morning with texts flying everywhere and finding out where all my friends were going also. It was SO hard to concentrate. We had a clinic that morning so I had to try to be focused which I succeeded at for the most part but I was just on top of the world. Luckily my preceptor was very understanding and let me take an extra long lunch to celebrate. We were (and still are) so happy!

A Perfect Day

Well I currently am in the midst of my second snow day in a row! I've never had a day off rotation for snow since now and I'll most likely never have one again since the temperatures next week should be in the 60s and then all I have left is April! I'm staying with my parents in Nashville this month since my rotation is in this area. Luckily Darren's weekend starts on Wednesday morning so he came into town on Wednesday night and we've gotten to spend the snow days together!

Anyway, last weekend when I was still in Knoxville we had a great weekend! Darren and I both agreed it was one of the best weekends we had in a long time. It started off Friday night. I worked on a project at school most of the day Friday but when I got home we decided we wanted to do something. Also when I got home I found out we had been delivered a mysterious package which turned out to be a brand new fancy wireless printer. My parents had called me the weekend before and said something about getting a new printer and I lamented about how much I hated our current printer which was a hand me down I have had since freshman year of college. But somehow it was actually still working so I didn't want to spend the money on a new one. So I was soooo excited and surprised when my parents bought it for us anyway and had it shipped to our house. It was so thoughtful and unexpected and we were really happy to have a printer that will actually be easy to use now. We considered staying in on Friday night because we're pretty conscious of not spending money eating out but decided since I would be gone most of next month we should do it anyway. We went to a brewery/ restaurant in Bearden and sat at the bar and had the best time. I don't know what it was but we just had a lot of fun and it was really nice for it to just be the two of us. And we were home in time to go to bed at a decent time which always makes my old soul happy.

Saturday morning we woke up and it was SO sunny! Which immediately made me very happy and was a nice change from all the overcast and snowy we had been having lately.  Darren agreed to take me to a new little coffee shop for breakfast and it was GREAT! Everyone in Knoxville should definitely check out Blue Mason coffee. Darren isn't typically that into coffee and he said it was the best coffee he's ever had. I would agree and would also say that the almond, vanilla bean scone was the best scone I've ever had.  Local little coffee shops are always the best and I'm so glad we discovered this one.

On the way back from coffee we stopped at REI. A perfect weekend wouldn't be complete without a little shopping. We planned on going hiking in the afternoon and my running shoes really weren't going to cut it in the snow and mud. Darren suggested we buy some hiking shoes for me and we found some awesome ones! This isn't a great picture of them but they're completely waterproof and have been keeping my feet so warm in dry in the weather we've been having lately. I also really like that they will be great to continue to use throughout the spring and summer too. 

We picked a hike to do just over the North Carolina line where we could take the dogs too. They're seriously just the cutest and so funny.

Unfortunately our hike in North Carolina did not happen. Long story short....we got stuck in the snow/ice half way up a mountain, almost slid off the side of the mountain, and eventually made it back down shaken up but relatively unharmed. We were still desperate to go on a hike, especially the dogs, so we ended up driving back to Knoxville and going on a little hike at a place we usually go to. And we ended up having the best time! There was still quite a bit of snow which the dogs loved. It was so nice and sunny and Darren and I were loving it too!

These dogs were worn out by the end of the day, which is always nice for us! We headed home and then went to the Casual Pint near our house to watch the start of the UT basketball game with my brother and his girlfriend, Katie, who was in town. I love the selection at casual pint and we had fun even though the basketball game was not going our way. At half time Darren and I left and went to meet our friends Candace and Garret for dinner. It was good food and great company. We stayed there for a few hours even after we were done eating just drinking and talking. It made me soo sad that I had to leave the next day. 

Sunday was pretty unexciting since Darren was resting up to work that night and I was busy packing up my life and getting everything together for my next rotation in Nashville. But Friday and Saturday just overall were great days. I was very sad to leave Knoxville but have actually been having a great time in Nashville so far!