Thanksgiving

Jeff and I were able to drive down to Kentucky to spend Thanksgiving with Aaron and Brynn. The traffic was terrible heading out there and took us 8 hours, but it was definitely worth it. We had so much fun playing with Samantha and meeting Miranda. The food was great and we had more than enough pies. I even got my banana cream pie for dessert, after dinner snack, and breakfast. Thanks Brynn!





We went to the Louisville Temple with Aaron on Black Friday. It is almost exactly like the Columbus Temple. Unfortunately, Jeff had to get home to study so we could only stay for a day. Thanks for the fun time Aaron and Brynn!

Charlie's Happy Place

Tomorrow I bring back my first foster kitten to the shelter. Charlie has fattened up nicely, which means he finally weighs enough to be vaccinated, neutered, and adopted. Here's a video of him in his happy place. Yes, that is a bath rug. And he will purr without fail every time he steps paw on that mat.

Jeff and I went to Utah last week for Nicole's wedding. We had so much fun with all the family and friends we were able to see. Jeff missed two days of school and flew home right after the luncheon. I stayed for another six days. My parents came into town the same week so I helped baby sit Allie while Jess and Trey were in Florida. Here are some picture highlights from our trip.

We were sad to say goodbye, but the good news is Christmas is just around the corner.

Real Pumpkin Pie

Here's the recipe I used for my pumpkin pie made from a real pumpkin. I found the recipe from this website and it goes into a lot of detail. This is my simplified version.

Pumpkin Glop: Clean, cut, and seed a pie pumpkin. Cook wedges until very tender. You can either do this covered in the microwave with a couple inches of water at the bottom, steam wedges on the stovetop, or bake in the oven until very tender. I just did it in the microwave and it turned out great. Scoop the pumpkin out from its skin and puree in a blender.

Depending on how much pumpkin glop you end up with, you may want to alter the following ingredients. I only had 1 ½ cups of pumpkin glop so used half of everything below.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• one half teaspoon ground ginger
• one half teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups pumpkin glop
• 1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Combine ingredients and mix well using a hand blender or mixer. Pour into pie crust to ¼ to ½ inch from the top.

Bake at 425 F for the first 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 F and bake another 45 to 60 minutes, until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

The pie tasted the best when we let it sit overnight in the fridge so all the flavors could meld. I've already made this twice and can't wait to make it again!

Pretty Pretty Flowers

I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art and found this painting by Piet Mondrian of a chrysanthemum. I loved the outlining of the peddles and the muted color scheme.


So I decided I needed to paint one too. I painted a dahlia instead and used crackle in the background.

Fall Break

Fall break is such a good idea. Just as the weather is cooling off, the leaves are beginning to change, and the long research block if over, Cleveland Clinic gives their first and second years a whole week off.

The Cleveland Zoo is free on Mondays so we went with our neighbors.



We spent some relaxing time reading. Although it's hard to be relaxed while reading The Hunger Games.


We drove a couple of hours to the Ikea in Pittsburgh to buy a dresser and some meatballs.



Plenty of time was spent playing with Charlie.



We went out to eat at The Melt. It's a famous grilled cheese sandwich restaurant. Go look it up on Man v. Food.


And of course we cooked. We tried some new recipes and I even made a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. Let's just say it was so good I've already made it twice. :)

A Taste of Cleveland

For the past few weekends Jeff and I have experienced the many cultures of Cleveland, most of which center around food. We went to Little Italy's Feast of the Assumption after a giant rain storm. We walked the streets in search of a good meal while local children splashed barefoot in the resulting rivers flowing down the road. We made sure to try some gnocchi and chocolate dipped cannolis and were not disappointed.

The Greek festival was the following weekend. There was a live band, traditional Greek dancing, and of course food. We had gyros, french fries, and Loukoumades, which are Greek Honey Dumplings smothered in honey sauce and sprinkled with walnuts. YUM!


This weekend we decided we couldn't be truly Cleveland cultured until we had some good BBQ. So yesterday we went to Hot Sauce Williams. All the locals talk about it and it has even been on TV a couple times. It's an old pink building with blue trim and is famous for its meat smothered in BBQ sauce. The sauce was amazing and left your lips with a slight tingle. Here is the aftermath. We ordered WAY too much food.


We finished the night off with a visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I was like a little kid in a candy shop when I saw the museum's collection. They had works from Piet Mondrian, Andy Warhol, Georgia O'Keeffe, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, and Jackson Pollock. The best part is we only went through a small section of the museum! I can't wait to go back.

Big Bugs

No one told me the bugs were bigger in Ohio. I swear! The flies are ginormous and somehow they keep getting into our house. I think they are sneaking in under the hallway door that leads outside. Luckily Jeff's mom protected us and killed six in one day with her rolled up folder. Those flies didn't stand a chance. Today Jeff's parents bought us a fly swatter and a roll of fly tape. So far they've been put to good use.

That fly on the wall,


Never saw it coming.



The good news is we also found a huge butterfly. Now that I can handle. We went on a walk with Jeff's parents up by Lake Erie and found this little guy.

White Coat Ceremony

Yesterday we had Jeff's White Coat Ceremony. In the morning we had breakfast with all the CCLCM students and families at the Cleveland Clinic hotel. Jeff gave me a tour of the school and then we headed over to Severance Hall for the ceremony. The whole thing was kind of like graduation in reverse. After the ceremony there was more food, which I was very happy about. :)
I'm glad we went because now it feels all official. We're in medical school!

A Small Obession

For those of you who know me well, you've probably realized I have an obsession with crackle. I have been using it in a lot of my acrylic paintings like this one.


So you can only imagine how excited I was when I discovered the cracked paint on our porch door.


I just love living in an old house. It has so much personality. Like these doorknobs. Aren’t they cute! I love the old skeleton key hole. It totally reminds me of Cinderella, which happened to be my favorite Disney princess movie growing up.



As for the unpacking… I’m getting there. And when the house is presentable I will post some pictures.

Hello Cleveland

We made it to Cleveland after 30 hours in the car. We did 20 hours the first day and ten the next. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We got in on the first of July and ABF was supposed to deliver all our stuff on the 2nd. Well, they ended up bringing everything on Monday the 5th so we had a few days to get creative with our cooking.
I absolutely love our apartment. We have great neighbors living below us with the cutest kids. Our landlords are super nice and even filled our fridge with some food for our first night here. We have a nice neighborhood and a cute backyard. I even got to see fireflies for the first time. Our ward is very welcoming and was eager to help us move in.
There is a lot more I could say right now, but I have a pile of boxes calling my name to be unloaded. Here are a few pictures of our house before we filled filled it with all our stuff.

Three Week Vacation

Jeff and I had a chance to make the rounds and visit tons family before moving. We spent a week with my family in Washington, a couple days with grandparents and cousins, and a week with Jeff’s family in California. It was so much fun! Here are a few highlights from our trip.


We walked around Alki Beach and ate at Spud's Fish & Chips.



My mom and I found this painting at Goodwill and I painted over it. It was cheaper than buying new canvas and a frame.



My dad took a day off of work and took us out to Lake Sammamish. The water was perfect except for how cold it was.



Our windshield wiper broke on our way down to Oregon. We pulled over at a rest stop to examine the problem. The whole piece connecting the wiper was gone. Since it was raining we had a serious problem. A man saw we were in trouble and came over to help. He tried holding the parts together with a straw he dug out of the garbage.
When he realized it wouldn't hold tight enough he took out his do-rag and a knife. Once we started to oppose he simply laughed and said, "Oh, like it's so expensive," and cut off a chunk. On our way to an auto shop we couldn't help but laugh at our pimped out ride.


We stayed a night in Portland and were able to celebrate Jared's birthday. This meant there were a lot of cousins around. It was so fun to see everyone and how big all the kids are getting. Melinda made an awesome toolbox cake for Jared complete with a screw driver and saw.




The next day we drove to my grandparents house in Northern California and stayed the night. We woke up the next morning and left for my other grandparents house a couple hours south. We had a lot of fun with them!


We drove another 10 hours to Southern California to spend the week in a beach house with Jeff's family. It was a blast as you can tell by the pictures.











We all went to Disneyland for a day. It was fun to watch the kids get excited about the princesses and rides. The weather was perfect and by the end of the day we were exhausted. Jeff and I decided our kids will have to wait till they are older to go to Disneyland. I don't know how parents do it!







Our trip is over now and we have a week to pack for our big move. We spent about 46 hours in the car already and still have another 30 ahead of us. Good thing we're not sick of each other yet!