Ron's Grandma Betty

Ironically, Ron and I both have a Grandma Betty, makes it easier, huh?

Anyway, Ron's grandma broke her hip on Monday morning. She is 96, and had to be transported to a hospital in Burlington, VT in order to be considered for surgery (the first hospital she went to wouldn't do it). As of now, they've taken her off all her meds in preparation for surgery (she was on blood thinners, so they need to wait a few days before attempting surgery). Tuesday is the earliest they would consider doing it, so if you all wouldn't mind saying a little prayer, we would really appreciate it.

Sooooooooo Busy

It's been a little crazy around here. I'm nearing the end of my pathology block (FINALLY), and we have a TON of exams/presentations, etc. From last Friday to next Tuesday, I will have had six exams, 2 presentations, and 2 take-home exams. CRAZINESS!

I have lots to update about, just no time, so hopefully next week I'll update more.

In the meantime, I feel awful that I didn't get happy wishes out to 3 very important people, so here ya go!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! Love ya both!

Happy Birthday Shannon! I am a horrible cousin, I didn't even call you, let alone send you a card...I promise I'll make it up to you, hope you had a great day!

Love you all!

Taco Soup

I decided to make some Taco Soup last night for dinner. This is one of my favorite recipes, given to me by my friend Sue. It's very simple, and the longest part of it is the time it takes for the meat to thaw.

Ingredients:

1-16oz. Can Whole Kernel Corn, undrained

1-16oz. Can Diced Tomatoes, undrained

1-16oz. Can Kidney/Black Beans (your choice), undrained

1-8oz. Can Tomato Sauce

1 Packet Taco Seasoning

1/4 Cup Chopped Onion

2lb ground meat of your choice (I usually use Turkey)

Some Ingredients I used....gotta love the Wal-mart Great Value!


Directions:
1. Brown meat and onion in a skillet, drain.


2. Combine all ingredients (including browned meat and onions) in a kettle and bring to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.



3. Spoon into bowls and top with your choice of cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips/corn chips, etc.

Congratulations Vince & Gretchen!!

Ron and I traveled to West Lafayette, IN this weekend for my cousin Vince's wedding. They got married at a church in town, and had their reception at the Purdue Memorial Union.

It was a great wedding, we had a ton of fun.

It was very nice to see my family for the first time since Christmas!

I did end up getting a new camera on Thursday last week with my winnings. I did a lot of experimenting with it this weekend at the wedding, so here's some of the highlights!

The Church

Vince & Gretchen during the Ceremony

The Flowergirl Making Herself Comfortable

The Grand Exit

On their way to the Reception

Larry & Christine havin' some fun before introductions

Uncle George & Cahhhh-men

The Shisslers!!

That's it Gretchen, you're one of us now! HaHa!

The Beautiful Cake

Cake Cutting:
Very Nice Shot Gretchen!

The Newlyweds Dancing

After the wedding we all went to Harry's, a local bar near the reception hall. Ginger and I decided it would be a great idea to do tequila shots...still not sure why anyone EVER thinks that's a good idea, but we did!

All in all, an awesome weekend, went by way too fast!
To see the rest of my pictures from the wedding, go to this website: http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j170/Lila1016/Vince%20and%20Gretchen/

You can right click on them and download any of them if you'd like.

I won!!

We had our honors banquet tonight, where they give tons of scholarships and awards away to students, faculty, and staff. I usually go for the free meal, and hopes of winning something (which I never do...).
Well I actually won something tonight! Unfortunately it wasn't because of anything I did (even though I was president of the student AVMA, but apparantly that's not enough "leadership"). My name was randomly drawn from a bag of names for a $500 scholarship (ironically sponsored by the organization I used to be president of). I'm excited! I've been wanting a new camera for a while, so I think I'm going to use the money to get one, I can't wait!!

I also treated myself to a manicure and pedicure. I haven't gotten one since the wedding last year, and it was very nice =)

Pups

Well, as some of you know, we took in a dog around Thanksgiving of last year as a "foster". He belonged to a friend's sister, and she needed to find him a new home. It was a pretty desperate situation, so we decided to take him temporarily and try to find him a home. Well we did find him a home...ours!

After several months of sending out emails and trying to convince people to take him, we finally decided to just keep him. At that point we were too attached, and he gets along really well with Ryno. His name is Sampson, we call him Sam for short. I finally got Ron to agree to officially keep him after we spent money to neuter him and do a gastropexy (surgery where they sew his stomach wall to the right side of his abdomen to prevent it from bloating and flipping 360 degrees).

Here's a Picture of Sam and Ryno. They were sitting so very patiently saying;
"Please Mom, can we help you wrap the gifts for the baby shower, PLEEEESE?? We really want to play with the tube of wrapping paper!"

The "Contest"

If any of you have seen my husband lately, you will notice that he looks....different. He has this "thing" growing on his face that reminds me of Chandler on "Friends" when he tried to imitate Richard by growing a mustache. Anyway, this is a result of Ron and the other men on his team at work trying to do some male bonding, so they created "Mustache May". Apparently I'm not the only wife protesting, so they're going to end it on Friday (thank god!). But for your enjoyment, and Ron's embarrassment, I've included a picture. =)

Can you tell how excited he is to be having his picture taken??

Shopping and Whiskey Balls

I went to a shower today for 2 friends of mine that I met on the knot.com, way back in my wedding planning days (seems so long ago now!). I know, I know, it sounds silly to say I have "friends" from the internet, but it's true! I've known them (yes, in real life), for about 2 years now. There's a group of about 25 of us that became really close because most of us were planning weddings in the spring/summer 07, and these people become your security blanket in wedding planning. They're the ones that you go cry to when your dress shop burns down (yes, that actually happened to me), and you bitch to when your fiance is making you upset, etc. They understand, and that's how we all formed such a great bond. It's hard to understand, but I read this article the other day that sums it up PERFECTLY: http://tinyurl.com/3ho8m6

Well now we're all old married hags, and starting to have babies (just to clarify...THEY are having babies...not me....yet).

I was in charge of the big "group gift" from about 8 of us for both of these girls, so Ron and I had our first adventure in Babies R Us last night. It was quite interesting, I can only imagine what it will be like when we register there. I was very confused and basically had an associate attached at my hip to figure out where everything was. We ended up shopping for three people, off three different registries, which made the checkout interesting, but we made it!

I also decided to try a new recipe for this shindig, so I thought I would include it on here. I got the recipe from one of the technicians at school, she made it once for a food day and it was

0-so-yummy!!

Whiskey Balls

Ingredients:

Meatballs (2lb)- You can use frozen or make your own.

1 Medium sized bottle of ketchup (I used a 24oz bottle)
1 cup Brown Sugar
2/3 cup Whiskey

Here's what I used:

Directions:

1. Put meatballs in a crockpot/slow cooker

2. Combine Whiskey, Brown Sugar, and Ketchup in separate bowl

3. Pour mixture over meatballs making sure the meatballs are completely covered.

4. Cook on Low overnight (6-8 hours).

Finished Product:














5. You can freeze or refrigerate them, and then just heat them back up wherever you need them.

Note: When I got up in the morning, the ones on the bottom were a little burned, so it might be a better idea to cook these during the day when you can stir them every few hours, or just get up once in the middle of the night to give them a quick stir. I honestly think they would really only need about 6 hours in the cooker to be done.

It's Official

So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. I have so many friends and family members that are long distance, and it's so hard to keep up with them. So I figured this would be a good way for them to see what's up with Ron and I.

This is going to be my attempt at doing a life/food blog. I imagine once I finish school the food blog will become much better, but I do make the occasional meal once in a while, so it should be interesting. I plan to start adding pictures whenever I dig my camera out of the depths of my room (or I convince Ron to buy a new one), but don't hold your breath on it!

Exciting news from today....
I'm officially a 4th year veterinary student!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!! I'm almost there!
I decided today was the official day because our email profile at school changed from "professional year 3" to "professional year 4", and what's more official than the school email, right??