What we've been up to...

As soon as I got back to blogging, my computer crashes. Sigh. Then William leaves for his last week in Elizabeth city so I still didn't have a good computer to post with. Anywho, here's what we've been up to:

Not last weekend but the one before that was Homecoming at Campbell and the Science department hosted an alumni gathering. William and I were SO excited to go back to the campus we love, where we actually met, and actually got married at! We were also SO excited to see some of our good friends and our favorite professors. Here are some reunion pics:

One of our favorite things was seeing these new chairs of the future they got! Lol the only thing better would have been if they were motorized:

We had such a great time walking the campus and seeing all the new additions. The new library actally made us really jealous (the library while we were there was pitiful). Once we left there we went straight home to meet my parents and we went out to the State Fair. It was SOOO crowded, probably because it was the last weekend of the fair AND it was saturday night, but we got to eat a lot and ride a few things so it was fun (and by we I mean William rode rides with my cousin's boyfriend because I HATE fair rides):

We were SO exhausted when we got back and needless to say we had a great nights sleep. William left that Sunday to do his last Community Practice Experience in Elizabeth City. I came back to Winston, a long, lonely drive back, and had to work all week here by myself. Such a sob story, I know, but I really missed William this time. He got back Sunday afternoon and we went out to eat and came back and relaxed. Yesterday for Halloween we rented a few scary movies, got some popcorn and spent the night by the fireplace (b/c its freezing here) watching movies and relaxing. We're getting back into a routine now, William started his GI unit this week, and my parents are coming this weekend for my mom's birthday.

That was a lot to catch up on but last week was overall boring without William here! Hope everyone is having a good week. Can you believe it's November 1st?

Chicken Broccoli Shells

We tried this recipe last week and it was actually really good! Here are the ingredients:

1 (16 oz) jar alfredo sauce (you really need two)
2 cups frozen chopped broccoli (thawed)

2 cups diced cooked chicken (I used a food processor to shred the chicken..the shells are not that big so you would need to dice it into fine pieces or shred it like I did)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

24 jumbo pasta shells (1 box--cooked and drained)

Chopped onion to taste
Minced Garlic or Garlic powder to taste
Italian seasoning to taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

How To Prepare:
1) Preheat oven to 350. Boil shells and drain--set aside

2) Cook chicken--I cooked the chicken in a frying pan with a little olive oil and added some garlic, chopped onion, italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Then I put it in the food processor so that it was a nice shredded mixture that fit well in the shells.3) In a bowl, mix one jar of alfredo sauce, chicken, and broccoli, and cheeses.

4) Place shells in a greased pan and spoon mixture into the shells. (Here you have the option of pouring another jar of alfredo sauce over the shells which I did--Next time I would only pour 1/2 of the jar because I don't like things extra "saucy"). Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

5) Enjoy! We were so hungry that I couldn't even get a finished product picture!

The only thing I would change is next time I would add more cheese on top of the shells before baking. Other than that it was great! :)

Weekend in Charlotte

William and I had a busy week as usual but we were excited by the fact that we were going to spend the night in Charlotte on Saturday! I took on an a project a few weeks ago and we put a desk in the guest bedroom that we can use for studying and bill paying and overall just more organization. Well, then we needed a chair for it and we also needed a picture for above the bed so we thought what better place than IKEA? At the same time we had a melting pot coupon and since they are both located in Charlotte we thought why not just get a hotel room and make a mini trip out of it (it only takes us about an hour and 20 min to get to Charlotte).

I had to work Saturday but I got off at 1:00 and we headed out on our way. We got to our hotel and looked around, changed clothes, and headed back out to our reservation at the melting pot. Here is the inside of the hotel (the elevators were really neat):This was only our second time at the melting pot and it was just as amazing as ever. Here's a pic of William (complete with the steam!) and our after dinner chocolate drinks!

We went back to our hotel after that (completely stuffed) and the hotel had this awesome feature where you can rent movies that our in the theater. Of course it cost $15 to rent the movie but that's how much it is to go the theater so why not rent it in the room where you can lounge around! Anyway, we rented The Help and it was SO good! We loved it! We slept in the most comfortable bed and got up in this morning to the hotel's breakfast buffet. After we checked out at the hotel we went to IKEA and bought the things we needed and then we shopped around a few other places and came back home. It was so good to get away even for a little bit and then we came home and set up all of our stuff. Here's a picture of the new chair and the picture above the guest bedroom:

Last weekend we caught a grand opening of a linen store here in Winston and we got a "luxury" bed ensemble for $70. They run almost $200 at places like Belks and Bed Bath and Beyond. Here's a picture of it on our bed:
We had a great weekend and now our apartment looks better than ever! We tried a new recipe last week that I will post soon because it was a keeper! Hope everyone has a good week!

Focus

Long time no post...I know....surprise surprise. It seems like EVERYtime we get back on the blog waggon something dramatic happens that consumes my life. I didn't even get to post about my birthday! The major thing that has happened recently is the death of my car. Yes. The green essence that has been me since high school died. BUT have no fear....three weeks and an unholy amount of money later, it's back in full force, good as new. What happened to it? Apparently every car has a computer in it and mine stopped working. It was giving out all these false readings about the transmission and this that and the other and when they found out that nothing was wrong with all that, they new it had to be the computer. Yikes.

Anyway, Let's recap the life that we have missed on the blog. First of all I turned 24 on the 17th! William and I got to go to Garner for the weekend where my mom had these beautiful roses waiting for me (I love fresh flowers!):
Mom and I went shopping Saturday and she bought my a pair of shape ups! I needed some new shoes for work since I stand on my feet a lot and hopefully they will help at the gym also. They look like this but mine are green. I honestly haven't even had time to lace them up but when I tried them on in the store it felt like I was standing on a rocking chair. They are pretty cool.

Saturday night we met my aunt, cousin, and grandma at the Outback and had a birthday dinner complete with this cute cake that was to DIE for. It was from Sams and had my favorite whipped cream icing instead of the heavy buttercream:

And here's a pic of the crazy family afterwards: My cousin had a cuter picture where my dad didn't look like he was asleep but I couldn't get it to upload on here, lol.
Sunday William had to get some studying in because he is in the cardio block which is another interruption in our lives. He absolutely hates this block (which means it's driving me crazy also) but his test is tomorrow so hopefully we can all make it through. Anyway, I was able to meet my friend Lauryn (her birthday was the day before mine) and she also gave me a beautiful flower arrangement which is sitting on my coffee table right now. I had a wonderful birthday!....Then my car died.

William and I have had a rough time trying to carpool because our schedules are SO different. Luckily my parents were on vacation last week so we were able to borrow their car for the week. Both of our cars are paid for so William and I are reallly trying to make it to his residency with no car payments! His birthday is in December so one of our gifts to each other was tickets to see Blondie. She was at the DPAC last wednesday...you may know her from such songs as "The Tide is High", "One Way or Another", "Heart of Glass" etc. and the concert was SO much fun! Here's a picture that is pretty bad quality but I dont think we were alowed to take pics so I was doing it secretly:
Our past weekend was spent just catching up and helping William get prepared for his upcoming Cardio test. This unit and his next unit which is pulmonary are supposedly the worst two units of second year. Once he gets through the next three weeks then he will leave for Elizabeth City again for the last time (this trip will only be a week). This weekend (the weekend AFTER his test) is supposed to be our fun weekened with no studying but now he has to do a poster for the student research day showcasing all of his research for this summer. If only it wasn't required...LOL but it's fine because once he gets through it, it will be done forever!

So that's about it for now. We're trying to plow through these next few weeks and hello? Can you believe it's about to be October? Where does the time go?!?!

Sunday in Boone

My dad and I both had to work this past Saturday so my parents came up to visit us once he was off work and I was home also. Saturday night we went out to eat and Sunday morning we got up early and took a trip to Boone. William and I have been here for a over a year and we never realized that we are only about an hour from Boone! We did a lot of driving around, taking in all the mountain scenery, and we went to Linville Falls and hiked up to the different overlooks of the waterfall. Here's the view from the highest point:

Here's mom and William sitting on the edge (I must admit that getting that close to the edge made me a little queezy--LOL):

Here's mom and dad at the lowest point (Charleigh was cut out by accident!)


And me and William in the same spot:

We drove along the blue ridge parkway with the windows down and blankets on top of us because the air was actually chilly! Once we got back to Winson it was a different story with all the humidity. We drove through blowing rock, passed tweetsie railroad, and scouted out all the places we would love to take a mini vaccation back to! We came back home, dropped Charleigh off, and went out to a mexican restaraunt. We had such a great time and we always hate it when we have to say goodbye. :( William has his first test as a 2nd year this friday so he is really working hard and I am trying to recover from some sort of sinus infection or cold or something. Hope everyone has a great week!

Calm weekend

This week has felt a little disorganized for William and myself. We think it's just the issue of getting William started back up with school and studying and coming back from the beach last sunday didn't leave us with a lot of preparation time. Anyway, with hurricanw Irene swirling around the coast we thought this would be a good weekend to stay at home in Winston and get some reading and cleaning and general relaxing done!

We had a good week overall, and William is back in full force with school, but Thursday night he took a break for us to have dinner with our friends Meredith and Patricia. We went to Campbell with both of them and Meredith went to Africa with us and lives here in Winston Salem. Patricia is in seminary and she came to visit Meredith before her school starts backs so we all went to Mellow Mushroom for some goooood pizza! Here's a picture of the lovely sisters:

We had fun with you guys and I'm glad we got to see Patricia while she was passing through! We have another full week ahead, complete with some potential decision-making about jobs which I'll post about when the time comes. We're working for the weekend which is labor day weekend and my parents are coming to stay! Hope YOU have a great week!

Annnddd we're back (again....)

We're back! I always know when it's time to get back to blogging because Corey Adams keeps me straight! :) HAHA thanks Corey! I have been working severe overtime because a lot of people have been on vacation/getting married/etc. With that said, William and I finally got a chance to take a trip before he starts back to school TOMORROW! He's so happy to be a 2nd year med student, not the bottom of the bunch anymore!

We left last wednesday for myrtle beach. William's uncle John lives in Georgetown, SC which is about 45 minutes from myrtle. We went to his house wednesday and stayed the night then left thursday for the beach. I didn't get a good pic of William with his uncle but he took us to a river side cafe for lunch before we left and he snapped a picture of us:

We left for the beach and had an excellent time while we were there! We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, and the Pirates Voyage Dinner Show. We spent plenty of time at the beach and pools, went to the Aquarium, Bodies exhibit, and the dinner show, and we also went to family kingdom and rode some rides which scared me to death. I am not a fan of fair/carnival rides, LOL. We also did plenty of shopping at the beach stores and Tanger outlets! Here was our beach view:

Here are some aquarium highlights starting with stingray bay:

William was really intrigued by the eels....so much so that he leaned in too close, forgetting there was glass, and banged his head loudly!! :)

Margaritaville is such a fun place to eat and we alwas have a blast when we go:

We had such a good time on our trip and we're happy to be back home and ready to get back to our routine. Although school is school, William is ready to get back to the grind and come March he will be a third year medical student! We hope everyone has a good week! :)

Weekend Recap (even though it's already Wednesday)

William and I had a great weekend at home! Since my grandpa died back in September my grandma has had to adjust to living in her big house by herself. William and I have been promising that we would stay with her so Friday night when I got off work we headed to Raleigh. My grandma was given a bird by her nephew and I can't remember what exactly it's called but it has a pretty red tail and it's really expensive. It even comes with a birth certificate. It talks and whistles and makes noises ALL the time apparently but for some reason every time William gets around her it takes a good hour for her to warm up and start talking. It says general bird things like "pretty bird" and "hello" and stuff like that but it also barks like a dog and repeats things my grandma has taught it. It really is cool to watch! Her name is Gracie and she eats all kind of fruit (watermelon is her fave) but she also likes peanuts and ice and veggies straws! Here's a picture of her when my grandma let her out of the cage and a picture of William attempting to feed her (he was really scared of her beak!):

Saturday we woke up and went to cracker barrell with my grandma. There is no better breakfast on earth! Here's a picture of me and her at the table:

We went to my parents house and then took William to the flea market because he had never seen one, LOL. Sunday we had a great relaxing day, ran some errands with my mom and watched a movie while Charleigh loved William and layed behind his head:

Monday we came straight back to work and school and have not stopped since then! My parents are coming to stay here this weekend which will be SO fun. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Technology issues

I really have been wanting to post lately but my stupid computer is acting up. When technology works it's the best thing ever but when it doesn't it seems to blow up your world, lol. I can type a whole post on here and then I cannot hit the "publish" button. I can write the whole post on my computer, save it, and then I have to wrestle William's laptop away from all his research to post it, LOL. Anyway....we had a great weekend here in Winston.

I had to work saturday so once I got off we went to the mall and got all of our grocery shopping done. Sunday we went to church, took a nap, went to the gym, and watched two movies! I don't know if I have illustrated the fact of how hard our church search has been since we moved. We have finally found a church that we like and it reminds us of our old campus ministries at Campbell. They have home groups set up and we finally got the chance to try it yesterday night. We had a great time getting to know everyone and it was a breath of fresh air to connect with people of all ages. We're looking forward to the next meeting!

On another note, today is my grandma's birthday! She has had a tough year with the death of my grandpa but she is continuing to be a trooper and she means so much to me and William. We love you grandma Linda!

We are still alive...

Almost a month since we last posted! William and I have been SO busy with getting his summer research off the ground (which he loves) and all sorts of other things that the blog just took a back seat. We had some time off for the 4th of July so we were able to do some traveling and just relax. We went home friday when William got off and we had a good time just catching up with my parents. Saturday we ran several errands, went to the Farmer's Market with my parents, and grilled out a wonderful dinner. Sunday we got up early and headed to the beach for the day. We also took Charleigh and she LOVES the beach! We drove to Carolina beach and took the ferry at fort fisher. William and I had never done it so it was weird to be on a boat with cars!

We drove through southport and over to Oak Island where we went out on the beach for a few hours. William and I don't mind swimming in the ocean but once we saw a big old jellyfish swimming beside us we were done! I have never exited the ocean that fast...LOL.We left the beach to go back home and we all got showers and went out to eat. It was great to get away for the day and we all slept SO well that night.

Monday we slept in and William and I went to meet some of our friends for lunch. Corey and I went to middle school, high school, and college together and her husband Zach is in medical school. They just spent two years living in the Grand Cayman islands and Zach just took the big test that William will take next year. It was SO good to share the same stories, zach and william relating as med school students, and Corey and I as the wives of those students which is fun but challening! I wish we were all in the same place...maybe someday in the future!

Once we left them we did a little shopping and visited with my grandma for a while. We went to dinner with my parents and immediately got sad knowing the we would have to leave. We're back in Winston now, getting settled back in to everyday life but we had a great few days away!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Wonderful Weekend

William and I had a wonderful weekend together. Thursday night we went out to eat at a Japanese restaraunt here in Winston that is comparable to Kanki. It's called Arigato and they cook in front of you at the table. Annoying side note: Like I said, it's called Arigato so everytime we think about going there or even pass it on our way to somewhere else William always sings the Mr. Roboto song as loud as he can. Anyway, after that we went to see the Hangover 2 which we both thought was just as funny as the first!

Friday I was off of work so we woke up early and went to our favorite walking spot: Salem Lake! To our surprise, they are rebuilding the dam so the lake was being drained but it was still a beautiful walk! There's a 7 mile trail that we take around the lake and since it was early in the morning the weather was cool and sunny and perfect. Here are some pictures along the way (I took quite a few pictures but I'm still getting used to my iphone and tons of the pictures ended up being videos, LOL) :

We were hot when we got back so we ran and jumped in the pool and then we went to Blockbuster and got plenty of movies for the rest of the weekend. We have finally found a church here that we both like a lot so we went Sunday morning and the service was AMAZING. We want to try out the small group but we have to wait till next week when I can get off a little early. We have had the best weekend together and I am so thankful for the peacefulness.

Today William starts his summer reserarch with the pathology department at the hospital and he is so excited. He feels like he is really going to learn a lot and he gets paid at the same time!

We hope everyone has a great week!

Memorial Day Weekend

Man, time flies when you're having fun! Work weeks drag on and then when you get a little break you turn around and it's gone! I was off friday through monday so thursday night we went to Oxford to spend some time with William's family for his sister's high school graduation. Here's a pictue of Victoria walking across the stage:

and the family afterwards:

We spent thursday night through saturday morning in Oxford and then we came back to Winston Salem to go to a baby shower for a friend of William's from his med school class. The shower was SO nice and it was so great to meet some of his classmates. We played l0ts of fun games and I laughed so hard at pregnant twister. It was definitely a shower for men and women which was really cool and with pregnant twister all the guys had to stuff pillows under their shirts and play normal twister. Hilarious. Here's a great picture of William with his pregnant belly:

And an action shot of the boys falling down:

Saturday afternoon my parents came down and we had a great time. We spent lots of time outdoors and laying by the pool because it definitely feels like summer outside! They stayed until Tuesday morning and when I returned to work they went back home. We had a great weekend and we're just sorry it had to end!

Having William Home...

It has been SO nice having William home! He got home friday afternoon and we went out to eat to celebrate! We had a great time hanging out Saturday once I got off work and Sunday we tried out a new church that we really liked! William was accepted in the summer medical student research project so he will start on June 6th. This coming weekend is his sister's high school graduation and memorial day weekend so I'll be sure to get some pictures! Hope everyone has a great week!

Wordless Wednesday

I know this is supposed to be wordless wednesday but I am so excited about the fact that my husband comes home FRIDAY!!! This two weeks is the longest we have been apart since we have been dating and we've handled it well but I'm ready to be back with him!!!! :)

Williamless

Well, I've made it this far without my husband here by my side! William left on Mother's Day for Elizabeth City and I have done pretty well here in Winston by myself. I sure do miss him though! He should be coming home to me this Friday!!!!! I talk to him every night and he is working hard but having fun also! To not be by myself, I went home last saturday once i got off work and I got to go out with Lauryn (here's the most recent pic of us from the wedding):

Sunday, I spent the day with my mom. We met my grandma for lunch at Zaxbys and then we went to Verizon where I got this:

Yes, a new White iPhone 4!!! I am sooo excited. Will William kill me when he gets back? Possibly.

LOL After that we had to go get my car inspected which should have been a quick stop but that turned into forever because they only had like two people working and the car in front of us had 8 things wrong with it. Finally once we were done we went to Jcpennys and did a little shopping and then picked my dad up and went out to eat. It was nice to spend time with my parents and just get to do what we wanted. I drove back here to Winston yesterday morning and I'm working the week away until William comes HOME!