Stromboli, Soup, and Cookies

This week I have been trying some new recipes, and found a few worthy of sharing...

Easy Stromboli

Chicken Broccoli Tortellini Soup

Pink Lemonade Cookies
Ingredients for Cookies
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) can frozen pink-lemonade concentrate, thawed, 1 1/2 c. (reserve 1/2 c. for the icing)
8 drops red food coloring
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. grated lemon zest

Ingredients for the Icing
1/2 c. reserved thawed pink-lemonade concentrate
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 c. confectioners' sugar
coarse white decorating sugar

1. Cookies: Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Combine 1 cup of the lemonade concentrate with food coloring in a small bowl. Beat butter and granualated sugar in a large mixer bowl on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add flour mixture alternately with the lemonade mixture, in 3 additions, beginning and ending with the flour; mix until just combined. Stir in zest. Cover; refrigerate until firm, 3 hours or overnight. (Dough will be sticky.)
2. Place oven racks in upper and lower third of oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 4 large baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick foil. Flour hands, then roll 1 rounded tablespoon of dough at a time into small balls. Place 12 balls on each prepared baking sheet, 6 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
3. Icing: Beat reserved 1/2 cup lemonade concentrate, lemon zest, and confectioners' sugar in a mixer bowl on medium speed until smooth. Spread icing on cookies. When icing is almost set, sprinkle with coarse white decorating sugar.

A Conference and an Interview, All in One Weekend

This past weekend was the Family Medicine conference in Asheville. Cody, of course, enjoys going to the conference, but our favorite part about these conferences are that they are close to some of our college friends. Once again, we stayed with our friends, Amy and Elliot, who are always so gracious to share their home whenever we are in Asheville.

We left Greenville on Thursday night; we stayed with my parents and drove up to Asheville on Friday morning. On Friday after I dropped Cody off at the conference, I met up with Kelley, a friend of ours from Greenville whose husband was also attending the conference, to do a little bit of shopping. We found some great deals, but also enjoyed just browsing the mall together with her daughter, Sophie. Amy and Elliot cooked dinner for us, and then we spent the rest of the night playing a marble game we all love--Aggravation. The guys and girls had a competition with this game that lasted the entire weekend!

On Saturday morning, Elliot's mom bought us tickets to a fundraiser pancake breakfast at Applebee's. It was very yummy....and we had a hilarious waitress! Cody went to the conference, so Amy and I went out for a little bit of shopping and spent the rest of the morning just lounging around. The four of us were supposed to meet up with Pam and Mike in Dillsboro to go out to eat dinner, see the luminaries, and exchange gifts; however, we got a little surprise--snow! There wasn't a whole lot, but it was definitely beautiful coming down, and it made us all a little nervous to be driving so far to Dillsboro, especially at night. Luckily, Cody got out of the conference earlier than expected, so we all met in Waynesville (only 1/2 the distance) for lunch. We all had a wonderful time together! It just never lasts long enough! When we returned to Elliot and Amy's house, we played several more games of Aggravation. (I'm sorry to say that the girls did not win the competition this time...we'll beat them next time!)

Cody, Elliot, and Mike


Amy, Pam, and me


Sunday was a busy day for us. We ate breakfast with Amy and Elliot, drove to Taylorsville to go to church with my mom and dad, ate lunch at the church Christmas luncheon, visited with my granddaddy in Hickory, visited with Cody's mom and dad, and headed to Winston-Salem for Cody's last interview. We checked into our hotel and then went to eat dinner with some of the residents. The residents were very nice, and gave us a good first impression of the residency program at Wake Forest.

I dropped Cody off at his interview on Monday morning. I was supposed to meet up with Christina, but unfortunately she got sick and was not able to come. So, instead, I went back to the hotel to read a while before heading out to go shopping. (Can you see a theme??? Shopping almost everyday this weekend. Yes, I like to shop!) I picked up Cody from his interview in the afternoon, we went back to Taylorsville to pick up Hershey at my mom and dad's, and then we drove back to Greenville.

Cody felt that his interview went really well, and he was very impressed with the residency program. We are going to have to sit down to really hash out the pros and cons of this program with the one at Brody so that he can make a confident decision. It is such a relief to have all the interviews complete. (I don't know how some people do as many as 20 interviews for other specialties.) Cody will turn in his rank list in February, and Match Day is in March. Please continue to remember us in our prayers as this chapter in our lives will soon be coming to a close.

The Spirit of Christmas

Hershey and I went to the post office today, because I needed to get stamps to mail off our Christmas cards. The post office on Memorial wasn't open, so I had to drive to the one in Winterville. When I got there, the line was about 15 people long, and moving very slowly. Come to find out, there was only one register open because the other one was broken. If you just needed stamps and if you had the correct change or were paying with a check, they could help you immediately so you wouldn't have to stand in line. Well, I never carry cash with me, and, of course, I didn't have my check book. The woman behind me asked me how many stamps I needed, and she bought me a book of stamps so I wouldn't have to stand in line to pay with my credit card. What a nice surprise! This woman did an act of kindness that was definitely unexpected and unnecessary--the true spirit of Christmas. Her generosity was not only recognized and appreciated by me, but many of the people in line also noticed her act of kindness. May God bless this woman, whoever she may be, and may we all remember her kindness and pass it on to someone else...

Our Thanksgiving Holiday

Cody and I have so much for which to be thankful--our marriage, our family, Hershey, a nice place to live, great friends, good health, more "things" than we ever need, a great church family, and of course, much more food than we can eat....

The Thanksgiving holiday was full of all the things we are thankful for. Our parents both came to our house for Thanksgiving lunch. (We had leftovers galore.) We had a great time talking and playing games.

Using our China for the First Time


The Food


Getting a Full Plate


Cody and his mom went Black Friday shopping at 4:30 a.m. I, with the help of my dad, had a hot breakfast cooked for everyone by the time they were back from shopping. We had country ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns, chocolate chip banana bread, coffee, and juice.

Not only does Thanksgiving mean a time of thanks, but, to me, it also means the start of the Christmas season--my favorite time of the year. After our parents left on Friday, we spent the rest of the afternoon decorating for Christmas. Hours were spent getting boxes of decorations out of the attic, placing them in the appropriate spots around the house, decorating our tree, and putting the empty decoration boxes back up in the attic. Our tree has many special ornaments--I have a ton that I received growing up, we have some that we have given each other or that we received from our parents, there are a few that commemorate special moments in our lives--like our first Christmas together, and a small collection of ornaments that we picked up at the places we have visited since we have been married. Some people like theme trees that are all matchy-matchy, which I think are very pretty, but I couldn't imagine Christmas without our personalized tree.

Our Living Room


On Saturday, Cody put up icicle lights on the outside of the house. He doesn't particularly like heights, but he was so brave to go so high on the ladder to even put the lights on the tall peak of our roof. They look so good! I spent most of Saturday wrapping presents. (By the way, I am 99% done with my Christmas shopping!)

Christmas Lights!


To end our great Thanksgiving holiday, we got to visit with a dear friend of ours from high school. Kristina came to eat lunch with us on Sunday, and she spent most of the day just hanging out. It was the perfect way to end the weekend!

Kristina and Mel

My Ambitious Thanksgiving Menu

For the first time since we have been married, Cody and I are hosting Thanksgiving for our family. Unfortunately, our entire extended family could not attend, but we are just as thankful to have both sets of our parents for Thanksgiving lunch. Not only is this our first Thanksgiving celebrated at our house, it will also be the first time we have used our fine china since we have been married. We are still collecting it, but we finally have enough to serve an entire meal! We are so excited about Thanksgiving!

Here is the menu:
Homestyle Turkey
Red Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Stuffing
Grands Biscuits
Watergate Salad
Brown Sugar Pecan Candies
Pumpkin Pie (Walmart has the best pumpkin pies, so that's where I'm getting mine.)
Apple Walnut Pie
Tea
Lemonade
Apple Cider

Another Year Older...

My husband is very thoughtful, but he sometimes has a difficult time keeping surprises from me. This year, Cody had a surprise birthday party for me, and I truly was surprised! I don't know how he managed to time it just right, but on Sunday afternoon I decided we needed to go to Sam's to pick up a few things (or at least he made me think I was the one who had decided). When we got back and opened the door to our house--SURPRISE!--our friends were waiting for me in our house for my surprise birthday party! They brought snacks and Cody had gotten me a chocolate cake from The Fresh Market. How sweet!

Since my birthday was actually on Monday, we had to celebrate on that day too! Cody took me out to eat at Chili's after I got off work. Unfortunately, they didn't have my favorite dessert (the chocolate chip cookie molten cake), but the chocolate chip paradise pie was very tasty!

Happy 26th birthday to me!

Interview #3: Greensboro

Cody had his third interview at Moses Cone in Greensboro last week. We traveled to Greensboro on Thursday to eat dinner with the residents. They took us out to eat at a restaurant called "The Avenue." This place was really nice...almost a little too nice for my picky palate. Cody ate a rack of lamb with fancy banana pudding for dessert. I had a sirloin steak with chocolate pate for dessert.

They put us up in a really nice hotel for the night, The Proximity! This hotel is a LEED platinum hotel, which means it is a very "green" hotel. Going green was very easy, as this hotel was very luxurious! Our pictures don't do it justice...






On Friday morning, Cody had to be at the Family Medicine Center for his interview. I dropped him off and decided to go shopping. I was able to get a lot of Christmas shopping done. While waiting to pick up Cody, I met Christina to chat for a while before she had to go to work. Cody's interview went really well, and he seemed to really like the program. They have an unopposed family medicine residency program, which means there aren't any other residency programs there. This is a plus because he would be able to do lots of OB/GYN, without having to compete with other OB/GYN residents.

Brody is still his 1st choice, but Greensboro is coming in at a close second. We have one more interview to go--Wake Forest on Dec. 7.

Cody's Brody Interview

Cody had his 2nd interview this week, here at Brody. On Monday night, we had dinner at a local restaurant, CPW's, with some of the residents. It was very relaxed and comfortable. Tuesday was his interview day. Everything went so well. Cody was very pleased with how all his interviews went. It looks like this solidified much of what we were already thinking...

Happy Halloween!

Every year, Cody and I always host a pumpkin carving party with our neighbors. We all get together to carve our pumpkins and eat some snacks. It's always fun to get together, but it's also neat to see what everybody carves. This year we chose to carve a spooky, haunted house. (Although I can't really take much credit for carving it--Cody did most of the work.)


Dr. Hershey--he wanted to be just like his daddy!


Dr. Hershey, with his mommy (Nurse Mel) and daddy (Dr. Cody)

Cody's Asheville Interview

Cody had his first residency interview in Asheville last weekend. (For those of you wondering, he wore suit option #2--it was his favorite, so he felt the most comfortable wearing it.) The interview seemed to go very well.

At the Sweet Biscuit Inn


Our Room at the Sweet Biscuit Inn


We arrived in Asheville on Wednesday afternoon. We had a few hours before his dinner with the residents, so we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood where our bed and breakfast was located. It was in the historic district of Asheville, so the surrounding area was full of character. After our walk, we got ready for the dinner, which was at a resident's house. It was nice having a chance to meet some of the residents in a casual setting.

Thursday was the interview day. Spouses were encouraged to attend, so I also went with him and was involved in most parts of the day. We started off with a meet and greet with some of the attending doctors and then took a tour of the family medicine clinic. Next, Cody had a group interview and individual interviews. While he was busy impressing the interviewers, I took a walk through the botanical gardens at UNC Asheville, which was right across the street. After the interviews were over, I joined Cody again for lunch and a tour of the hospital.

The beautiful mountains in Asheville


The main draw of Asheville is the location--it is nested in the beautiful mountains, and it is close to our family and friends. Since we were so close, we visited with some of our friends from college for the rest of the weekend. It was so good to see Amy, Elliot, Pam, and Mike for a couple of days. We enjoyed some of our favorite things together--good food and playing board games! We also had the chance to meet up with Christina and Monty for coffee, who just happened to be passing through Asheville the same weekend.

On our way back to Greenville, we stayed with Momma and Daddy for a night, who had been babysitting Hershey for the weekend. (Hershey says, "Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!")

Hershey having fun playing with Connor


We enjoyed our weekend on the western side of the state, but it was nice to get back home. Asheville could be a contender, but we'll keep you updated as he attends more interviews. His next one is at Brody; he interviews this Tuesday.

Help Cody Decide!

Cody has his first residency interview coming up next week--help him decide which outfit to wear! Look at the pictures below, and post a comment stating your favorite outfit for him. (Note: He is wearing the same suit in all 3 pictures, but a different shirt and tie combination.) Please vote for your favorite as soon as possible! Click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.

Outfit 1: Navy blue suit, white textured shirt, with a blue/yellow/green/white striped tie.


Outfit 2: Navy blue suit, light aquamarine blue shirt, with a blue striped tie.


Outfit 3: Navy blue suit, lavender shirt, with a cream/lavender/blue/mint striped tie.

Brandon Got Married!

Brandon Blackburn is a friend of ours from college. He was Cody's suite-mate, and he was also a groomsman in our wedding. He and Cody have kept up with one another, and enjoy their time playing against one another on Fantasy Football. We kind of came to see him as Cody's little brother...

So you can imagine how proud we were to attend his wedding this past weekend. Luckily, the weather was perfect--Brandon and his new wife, Kerri, had an intimate wedding in a courtyard garden at the Mooresville Civic Center.







The wedding reception was a blast...we danced all night, feeling like we were back in middle school at times when dancing to songs like Macarena and the chicken dance. We even caught up with some other people from college....it was like old times.



Congratulations, Mr & Mrs. Blackburn!

Atlanta

Last weekend, Cody had to take another part of his board exams in Atlanta. We left on Thursday morning, dropped off Hershey with my mom and dad (who graciously met up in Greensboro), and finally got in Atlanta around 5 p.m. After checking in at our hotel, which by the way, was a little too close to the airport and the train tracks, we meandered our way through Atlanta to find The Cheesecake Factory. Cody had eaten at a Cheesecake Factory before and raved about it, so I wanted to try it and see what all the fuss was about. I had a parmesan chicken and pasta dish and Cody had some sort of mexican taco dish. Very yummy!





Since we were at the Cheesecake Factory, we even had a piece of cheesecake; I normally don't like cheesecake at all, but this one was delicious! We tried the Godiva chocolate cheesecake...



Most of the day on Friday was pretty much taken up by Cody's test. He had to take the clinical skills exam, where he saw 12 "fake" patients and had to do an exam and write a note on each of them. I just stayed in the hotel room all day since we only had one car; however, I don't think I would have been adventurous enough anyway to drive in Atlanta traffic. It was actually pretty nice to just relax, watch some tv, and lounge around for a while--that doesn't seem to happen too often anymore. When Cody was back from his test, we went out for dinner at a chinese restaurant called Mu Lan. We heard about this restaurant from www.restaurant.com; we got a $25 gift certificate for $1! This restaurant was amazing! The atmosphere was cozy, but the food had the presentation and taste of gourmet food! We both had wonton soup, Cody had an eggroll and sesame chicken, and I had mango sweet and sour chicken. This was our favorite food for the entire trip.









Saturday was our big day! We had a jam packed day, but we had such a great time. Our first stop was at the World of Coca-Cola. It was kind of like a little museum about Coke, where you could look at historical artifacts, watch a couple of videos (one in 4-D), get your picture made with the Coke polar bear, walk through the factory area to see how Coke is made, and (Cody's favorite part) try about 65+ Coke products from around the world. For lunch, we stopped at the famous Varsity restaurant for burgers, fries and onion rings. Then we were on our way to see a Braves game. Unfortunately, this game didn't really carry much weight since they were already out of the playoffs. The game was pretty slow until the 8th inning. They were tied with the Washington Nationals. Both teams scored 2 more runs in the 9th inning, so we went extra innings. In the top of the 10th, the Nationals hit a 2 run home run, but Atlanta just couldn't come back....it was still a fun experience, even if they didn't win. (Cody was like a little kid. He was so excited about being at a Braves game!)

Unfortunately, we won't hear anything back about Cody's test until sometime in December....but I'm sure he blew them all away with his amazing knowledge and skills!

Cute Cupcakes

On Friday night, the Heplers had us, the Austins, and the Terrells over. Elizabeth had just bought a new cupcake decorating book, Hello Cupcake, so she wanted the girls to give it a try. We made doggie cupcakes while the boys played Wii. Look at all the cute cupcakes!

Susan's beagle cupcakes to match her dog, Riley


Kelley's cupcake to match her dog, Dreya


Elizabeth's cupcake to match her dog, Violet (She also made a cupcake to look like her dog, Daisy, but I didn't get a picture....oops!)


My cupcake, made to look like the cutest cocker spaniel/beagle mix doggie in the whole world, Hershey! (Can you tell I'm a bit biased?!?!)


The guys playing Wii

"Guess What I Did."

"Guess what I did." Those were the words I heard from my dear husband this week. With him, that could mean anything from helping save a life at work, being sweet and emptying out the dishwasher, or...the dreaded, "I did something stupid." Usually, thank goodness, it is one of the first two. But this time, it was the latter. "I left my cell phone outside last night." It just so happened that it rained that night. I had a brief sigh of relief after he told me it was still working. Unfortunately, it only lasted for a few hours.

I have to say, that this little mishap happened at the right time, as we had a credit for new phones with Verizon. We both got new cell phones. I couldn't let him get a new one and leave me in the dark ages. ;) The best thing is, they were free! My wonderful husband, who is always wanting the best for me, said, "You should thank me for this, since you got a new phone out of it too." You gotta love him!

Old phones


New phones

Good News!

Cody received a letter in the mail on Friday stating that he was awarded a $2000 scholarship from the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians! Woohoo! I'm so proud of my baby! It is always a relief to know that some of the debt we have accumulated over so many years of school is lessened a little. We don't want to be like that old lady on the Suddenlink commercial...

Prayers Needed

UPDATE 9/29/09: I was offered the position at ECU Physical Therapy Clinic, so I have a new job as of next Monday, October 5. Monday is orientation with HR, and I report to the clinic on Tuesday. God is great!

UPDATE 9/21/09: I had a second interview via phone on Thursday, which seemed to go well. I should hear something this week.

UPDATE 9/11/09: My interview seemed to go really well. They will be calling me back for a second interview soon, and I should hear something within a week or so.

Most of you know that I have been working in a temporary position at ECU in the Student Employment Office, which I have really enjoyed. Unfortunately, due to the budget situation, we just weren't able to get approval to establish a permanent position for me and Ruth, the other temp. My temp job ends October 30; so, I am back on the job search. I have my first interview tomorrow (Friday) with the ECU Physical Therapy Clinic. Keep me in your prayers that everything will go smoothly.

One Step Closer

UPDATE 9/18/09: Cody also has an interview at Wake Forest! (Not sure of the date yet.) He has interviews at all 4 residency programs he applied for!

UPDATE 9/11/09: Cody has two more interviews. He will be interviewing in Asheville on October 22 and in Greenboro at Moses Cone on November 13.

UPDATE 9/3/09: Cody has his first interview for the residency program at Brody on November 3!

Cody finished his residency application! Yeah! He will turn the application in soon to about 4 different residency programs. He is still waiting on some letters of recommendation before he submits it to any programs. Keep us (especially him) in your thoughts and prayers while he goes through the interview and match process. Interviews will probably start in November or December. He will find out where he is placed in March (Match Day).

Are You Ready for Some Football?

For the past 7 or 8 years, Cody has played Fantasy Football. He gets a group of about 8 guys together to be in his league, and they all draft football players to be on their teams. They use their teams to wage war against one another throughout the entire football season and hope to accumulate the most points through touchdowns, passes, and yards run by their players. The one with the most points at the end of the season wins bragging rights!

Last night, about half of the guys in his league (the ones that live around here) came over to the house for a draft night party. The guys heckled each other while they did an online draft of their players, while the wives played with kids. I made chocolate chip cookies and a salsa pizza for everyone to snack on during the party.

I'm sure Cody will keep us updated on his progress as we go through the football season...

Winterville Watermelon Festival

This Saturday was the Winterville Watermelon Festival. This was the first time Cody and I have been; it seems like we always heard about it after it had happened. It left us with reminiscent feelings of the Apple Festival in our hometown of Taylorsville.

We arrived in time to see the last part of the parade. (Cody's favorite part was a huge grocery cart that was driven with some sort of a go-cart type motor. I really wish I had a picture, but we didn't take the camera. Here is a picture we found online of the "Got to be NC Big Cart".) We had to walk a LONG way to get to the actual festival from where we watched the parade. Being our first time, we really didn't know where to park, and it seems we obviously parked a little too far away.

A large part of the festival was the fair rides. We didn't venture into that section. (Although Cody probably would have liked to ride some, I don't do so well with fair rides--they always make me feel sick. I am all about some roller coasters, but I will definitely pass on the fair rides.) There were a lot of different vendors set up. You could find anything from watermelon carvings, free slices of watermelon (yum!), watermelon related crafts (like children's clothes and homemade watermelon rind jam), tons of pocket books, sculptures made out of recycled metal pieces, and of course, all types of food vendors. Throughout the day, they were having different types of activities, such as musical performances and watermelon eating contests.

We browsed some of the different vendors and then grabbed some lunch. (We realized the the $20 we had brought was going to go fast.) Cody had his favorite fair food-a $7 bratwurst-and I settled for $5 chicken supremes from the Bojangles stand and we shared a $5 cup of strawberry lemonade.

It did get pretty hot, but Cody and I had a great time together. It is times like this that are memories in the making....

Our Baby is Growing Up

Hershey turned 4 years old last Thursday, August 13 (yep, I'm a little behind in posting). We aren't really sure when his actual birthday is since we got him from the animal shelter. All they could tell us was approximately how many weeks old he was when we got him, so we established August 13 as his birthday!

I'll be the first to admit that he is one spoiled puppy, but he's our baby so we spoil him as much as we can! Look at all those goodies....



Hershey normally eats dry dog food, but for special occasions we get him a Caesar meal. His birthday dinner was New York Strip flavor!



Hershey loved his new toy, Kong. The Kong is a rubber toy that holds treats inside of it. Hershey spent a good 30 minutes playing with Kong while trying to get the peanut butter treat inside. He even played with Kong after the treat was gone. (He didn't want to go on his walk after he got Kong because he was having too much fun playing; if you know Hershey at all, you know he never passes up a walk!)

So Proud....

Cody just got his scores back this week from the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge Test (part of the series of licensing exams he has to take to become an MD), and he did great! I'm so proud of you Cody! Keep him in your prayers--he has to take another licensing exam in October.

Cody's Birthday Weekend

This Friday was Cody's 25th Birthday! (Happy Birthday Heffalump!) He got to celebrate all weekend long.

On Friday, we both got off work at lunchtime, so we ate lunch at Olive Garden and then we met up with his mom and dad who came to visit for the weekend. He opened his presents--my favorite part of birthdays--from his mom and dad. (Cody got to open his gift from me a little early...I gave him his GPS before we went to the beach so he would have a chance to use it.) We spent the rest of the day shopping around with Sherri, then came back to our house to grill out steaks.

On Saturday, we got up early so we could earn some money with our yard sale. We made $188 for about 4 hours of work; that's not too shabby! Then, our wonderful neighbors, Vern and Becky, hosted Cody's birthday party at their pool. It was the perfect day to go swimming, and we all had fun! Even Jake had fun in the water! Thanks to Sherri for making her famous pound cake. After dinner, Cody HAD to go spend some of his birthday money--he bought the Wii Sports Resort and an extra Wii Motion sensor for his remote. He broke it in the second we got home! :)

After lunch on Sunday, James and Sherri went back to Taylorsville, and Cody and I just enjoyed lounging around for a while. All in all, it was a very busy weekend, but hopefully a very good one for the birthday boy!

Check out the pictures from the weekend below: