I made bread!

I am pretty proud of myself. I was on Pintrest the other day and stumbled upon a recipe for homemade bread. The blog site claimed this was a very simple recipe and after reading the comments agreeing with the writer, i decided to give it a try, and I did it. In the future I will wanna bake it just a little longer but it turned out to be very delicious. Even though we had just finished dinner and dessert, we ate almost a whole loaf.

Here is my yummy bread!!

Here is the link on how to make this bread: http://www.alexandracooks.com/2012/11/07/my-mothers-peasant-bread-the-best-easiest-bread-you-will-ever-make/

The Married Life

I have probably been asked "How is married life" a hundred times. Sometimes by the same people. How is married life?
Justin and I have barely been married 2 months, so its all pretty new and its all been pretty great. The first few weeks we were on our honeymoon and it was incredible. We spent a few days in Orlando checking out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and riding rides at Universal Studios. I feel like I could write an entire post about the Wizarding World alone, so I think I will! Look for that soon... hopefully. Then we spent some time at an all inclusive resort in Cancun Mexico which was also amazing. When the honeymoon was coming to an end, I was kinda bummed but that was over shadowed by how excited I was for Justin and I to get back to Reno and start married life. I could not wait to move into our new house and turn it into our home.

Now moving is never fun, but it was nice having a lot of space to put things and deciding what would go where. We have done a lot of unpacking and organizing, as well as a lot of shopping for furniture and things we need. This was all easy because Justin and I are both so laid back. He was good with any decision I wanted to make and we agree on just about everything. One of the many things we both agreed on was having a great couch that we could spend a lot of time on, and we sure have. When people ask "what is it like living with Justin?" or "how is it not living with Liz?" the answer is simple... its very similar, except a little more cuddling. Liz and I loved to eat together and watch TV together and Justin and I are the same. Just about all the shows I watched with Liz, Justin enjoys too, except Gossip Girl, so not much has really changed in that sense.

Justin is not a fan of shopping but he is when food is involved. Grocery shopping has become a fun weekend activity we do together and this has made my life a lot easier because Justin and I both do not eat meat so I never have to have things I cannot eat in my freezer and refrigerator anymore and just about everything is fair game now. Also, food hardly ever goes to waste. Justin is the best at eating my unwanted leftovers, but sometimes wanted leftovers go missing as well.

So to answer everyone's question married life is great, maybe we are sill in that 'honeymoon' phase but I think I just found the right person that matches me well. Its wonderful coming home to someone who cannot wait to hug you and hear about your day and who will do the dishes. I'm unsure how long he will love to do all my dishes but I'm willing to make it worth it and take over from time to time. Long distance the last four years have made Justin and I great communicators and this could be one of the many reasons these major life changes have been so easy for us.We also have a lot of the sames wants for our futures which is very important. Its also crazy how comfortable I have become in front of Justin. The poor guy has to put up with all my weirdness I usually keep to my self but he for some reason thinks it's cute. I have no idea what married life is like for other people but I really think it is suiting me well. Maybe I got lucky but these last few months have been wonderful and I cannot wait for what our future holds.

Match Day 2013

With only 79 days left before our wedding, Justin and I are getting closer to starting our new life together. This weekend was a very important weekend for us. This was the weekend we have been waiting for since about Justin's second year of medical school. This was the weekend were we would find out where we were going to live the next few years and how drastically our lives would change. It was Match Day and Justin was going to find out what residency he was going to place into. The planning and application process was lengthy and something we discussed for quite some time. Justin really wanted me to be a part of determining where he would go to residency because it was going to be where we would end up living. First he needed to find out what he wanted to specialize in. He went though a couple ideas over the years as to what he might wanna do. He tried a lot of rotations and felt out a lot of different options but finally settled on internal medicine. This opened up a lot of different options as far as locations for us to look at for residencies. He constantly asked me where I thought we should go. I really couldn't do that but I was able to give him an idea of where I did not want to go. I knew I wanted to stay on the west coast and he seemed to feel the same way, so as forth year began, we turned our focus to looking at programs for Medicine on the west. Justin applied to a lot of programs and receive a lot of interview offers. After turning down Ohio and Alaska along with a few others Justin settled on about 20 interviews. One of our favorite options was Portland, Oregon. Justin had his interviews at three hospitals in Portland back before the holidays. At the end of the week I few up to meet him there so together we could check out the area. We both really enjoyed the city and the surroundings and since Justin liked the programs we envisioned this location at the top of the list. 

Now i don't know your familiarity with the "Match System" but the way it works form what I understand is the applicant applies for interviews, they then go to the ones they were invited to that interest them, and then at the end of all the interviews they rank the programs they attended. The programs also rank the students that they saw during the interviews and then a computer system will match up the applicant with a single program and that is where the applicant will need to go. 

Now although we both enjoyed Portland and Justin really seemed to like some of the programs across California, we were both interested in the prospects of Justin moving back home to Reno where I am currently living and have a job that I love. This was a very feasible option financially since we would have an inexpensive place to stay and I would have a steady income. After numerous conversations together, with family, and my boss, Justin ranked the University of Nevada School of Medicine internal residency program number one with a Portland program behind it at number two. When the day finally arrive, Justin and I met up with his parents and sister and we headed over to the highly anticipated ceremony. You could feel all the emotions in the room that mixed from excitement, nervousness and relief. We munched on some provided breakfast and sat patiently while they began calling the fourth year medical students up to receive their envelopes. About three quarters of the way through the names Justin was called. At that time he came back to where we were sitting with the un-opened envelope and began to revel what was inside. And in an instant the wait was over and we knew where we would be starting our life, the same place we started our relationship over four years ago in Reno, Nevada. Justin had matched into his first choice. We are both very excited about the news and cannot wait to start putting our new home together. 

We need more superheros.

I hate that bad stuff happens in the world and there is nothing I can do about it. I do what I can to try to make the world a better place, but everything I do feels minuscule when someone across the country can shoot and kill children. I cant stop that. I cant even think how. I hate guns, but the first thing I thought about is that if I was a teacher in that class room and I had a gun I would shoot that loser. This thought made me even more upset. Why in the world would a gun need to be in an elementary school class room and the fact that I just thought about taking a life. I tried to think of something else I could do in this situation; shoot the guy in the arm? I have never shot a gun, that wouldn't help. I don't want to have a gun in the classroom, that seems scary and idiotic, so what could I do? Now I am thinking of hitting him in the head with a frying pan, this works on TV, but I don't think this would be the correct method either. Is there anything that could be done to prevent this. Why does this stuff happen? It has happened far to much this year and no amount of good I do seems good enough. Now I fear I will be spending the day upset and crying pondering ways to stop stuff like this from happening.

You really CANT have it all

I am very thankful for all the blessings I have in my life. My AMAZING friends which i could list forever, but I do have some favorites : Elizabeth, Kristina, Nicole V., Romo, Schinria, Priscilla... and on and on, and I have the best boyfriend in the world, even if he is far away. I love my job, I'm finishing a college degree, my family might be a little dis-functional but it is a pretty good family, we love each other, I have great parents, and once again the list continues. But I guess to be able to have all these amazing things I need to balance my karma with one horrible thing in my life. And this thing is horrible. They make me miserable almost every day. The worst part is, I think they believe they are the victim, or at least that is what I think they are telling people.

I know what I HAVE to do, but I don't know if it would really make anything better. If I confront the problem, I think it might just get worse, and how do you tell someone how much of a horrible person they are and that they ruin your "life." I just got to try to stay positive for now. Wish me luck.

Limbo

day 17 - a picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

I cant say that there has been something that has recently made a huge impact on my life, except life itself or I guess you could say time. 

Oddly enough, this morning was daylight savings, but anyways time has kinda changed things lately. The amount of time I have that I waste has increased, time has brought me to a new living situation, time has given me new responsibilities in the work place, time has changed relationships with people, some for the better, some not so much, time has affected my lack of extra-curricular activities, and now time is continuing to speed past and change my life more by ending my college career. In less than 44 days I will have completed my bachelors degree and will be done with school.

  Although time has changed so many things recently I feel like I am stuck in the middle where I am finishing up and ending some very exciting pieces of my life, but am not starting the next chapter yet. College is coming to an end, but nothing new will be taking place for a while, so I am stuck in limbo waiting for the next thing. Its been really hard coming to grips that my college life is ending, that things are going to be changing. I am excited for a lot of the changes, but also afraid. How long will I be in limbo until my next chapter begins? Will it take off like I want it to? Will I find new interests and activities to get involved in? What the heck am I going to do with my time once classes are done? I hope it doesn't take me too long to figure out these questions, but first I have to finish off this semester and that means getting back to this research paper on the affects of increased tropical storms on the distribution of sea turtle nesting sites that I am writing. 

My DIY Eco Sun Lamp

I have been stumbling onto a lot of craft websites lately and found one that showed how to make a solar lamp and I knew I had to make one for myself! This is the website I used (http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-made-Sun-Jar/)and below is how I decided to do it along with my final product!!

First I got a small solar garden light at Walmart for only $2!!! It was the kind that didn't require batteries so I was stoked about that.

Then the top part (the piece with the light and solar panel) just popped right off. 

Then I found a jar for only $3.85 that had a lid just about the right size for my solar panel piece. I used a little of the blue sticky stuff (Blu Tack) and stuck it around the solar panel piece.

I then made it fit snugly inside the lid of the jar. 

Then with tissue paper (instead of the more expensive tracing paper or frosting spray), I made my own little design and taped it on the the jar. 

Then I turned of the light and Ta-Da!! My own little jar of sun!! <3