Just keep swimming

Well, I passed. I think I failed to mention that yet in my posts since finals. It was a really rough first quarter for me. A lot of adjustment and frankly really hard. But I made it! Only 24 months to go....

Last week was the first week of the 2nd quarter and it felt like 3 weeks with all of the new classes and information they managed to throw at us in 5 days. Thanks PA school, I love drinking from your fire hose of information. 22.5 credits in 10 weeks... NBD! I was super pumped and thought I could at least feel on top of things for a week (just one!) but that didn't happen. So... just keep swimming!

Veggie time!

After getting home from vacation, I couldn't wait to eat some vegetables. Eating right while on vacation is not easy to do. I don't think we ate too horribly but I still came home feeling gross. Like I needed vegetables!  


I made 2 vegetable soups over the weekend before going back to school: a beef stew and a vegetable chicken noodle concoction. We ate the chicken noodle over this past week (my first week back in school). And I put the beef stew in the freezer right away so we could eat it later when I'm studying 24/7. My husband LOVES the beef stew. He keeps asking me when we can take it out of the freezer. Ha! Maybe we will this week....


Here's the recipe. It's simple and we both really like it : )


Beef Stew in the Crock

2 pounds Beef chuck or stew meat; cut 1" cubes
     (they have this meat pre-cut into cubes in 1lb packages at Fry's... it's great!)

1/4 cup Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1 1/2 cups Beef broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Clove garlic; minced
     I like to be generous with the garlic : )

1 Bay leaf

1 teaspoon Paprika

4 Carrots; sliced

3 Potatoes; diced

2 Onions; chopped

1 Stalk celery; sliced

2 teaspoons Kitchen Bouquet (optional)

• Place meat in crock pot. 
• Mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat; stir to coat meat with flour. 
• Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. 
• Cover and cook on low (200 degrees) for 10 to 12 hours or high (300 degrees) for 4 to 6 hours. Stir stew thoroughly before serving. 

Oahu - August 2011

It started like this...

him: I need a vacation.

me: I really wanna go to the beach.

So while I studied, he began scheming what we could do. We thought, let's keep it simple and get a quick getaway to California while I have 1 week off school in August. After looking into some things he says, "This is getting expensive enough, might as well just go to Hawaii again..." And that's how it happened.

We spent our honeymoon in Kaua'i 9 months ago and decided to try another island this time. We ended up on Waikiki beach in Oahu.

The beach from our hotel room:

Gorgeous sunsets:

Walks on the beach:

We tried zip-lining on our honeymoon (SO FUN!). This time we parasailed.

It was a beautiful view and the breeze felt great!

The driver had fun dunking us in the ocean a few times. Word to the wise... keep your mouth closed.

One of the reasons we ended up on the island of Oahu was because I thought it would be cool to visit the sites of Pearl Harbor. We visited the USS Arizona Memorial. Awesome experience. They show you a video about how it all went down on December 7th, 1941, then take you on a ferry over to the memorial. The memorial sits perpendicularly on top of the the sunken ship.

Huge wall inside the memorial with the names of all who died on the USS Arizona that day. There was a bench (just out of view in this pictures but would be to the left) that had a list of names of survivors who had later had their ashes buried there with their shipmates.

All in all we had a fun and relaxing trip. We spent every day on the beach, in the pool or both. And I'm really gonna miss my naps in the sun : )

Aloha!

rAnDoM

Been studying for finals... hours that I am able to stay concentrated are shortening and breaks are lengthening :- / But look at all the fun things I find on the internet :-)

Funny article about rompers. Laughed out loud at step 3. Oh and I totally did this at my wedding!

Love pinterest. Enough said.

Holding onto this quote I stole from a friend's blog:

Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. - Christopher Robin

Anatomy fact (from notes not internet): the nerve that allows you to taste passes through your ear on its way to the tongue. Maybe this is why food sounds good?? ;-)

Is it Thursday yet?

Just keep swimming.

10 more days, 3 exams, LOTS of studying, and a "patient encounter" till 10 days of freedom. Man I need this break.

Time to go master this...

Also, where have my friends gone? I miss them.

Oldies and studying

That pretty much sums up this weekend...

You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

I LOVE clouds. I don't know what it is but when they come out, I just want to take a picture. (I have lots of sky pictures on my phone... kinda pathetic. But they're so pretty!) Unfortunately, the time this most happens to me is when I am in the car. Most of my sky pics are taken from behind the wheel. And yes, I realize this is probably not the safest idea but what can you do. I spend a lot of time behind the wheel right now. I have put over 5,000 miles on my car since starting school in June! Needless to say I have plenty of pics to show for it...

Early morning clouds with sun peeking through. Soooo beautiful.

Love these bridges. I always think of Little Miss Sunshine:

Yummy drink after an exam. Oh wait that's not the sky... ;-)

Love these beautiful Arizona sunsets.

Time to start my morning of studying for reals now : )