Lopez 4 Life

Chicago

2011-12-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we made a trip to Chicago to visit a couple of residency programs and see the city. It is taking me a little while to get pictures on the blog because Mark takes about 1000 (literally) in each city we visit, so there are quite a few to choose from!

Our first stop was for some Chicago deep dish pizza, and it was so yummy! On the other side of that pizza was our good friend Matt Lapine. He and his wife Molly, who was back at the hotel with their precious daughter Bella for nap time, were able to meet us for the weekend and it was so good to see them! We met Matt and Molly pretty soon after we were married when we were in the same church small group, and we became fast friends. We have missed them dearly since they moved last July, but have been excited for them as Matt enjoys a new job in Toledo, Ohio. It was so fun to spend time with them again!

Molly and sweet Bella.

Bella loves leaves. She would be perfectly content to sit in her stroller with a leaf in each hand. She is such a laid back kid and smiles more than any little one I've ever met!

A pretty view from our walk along the water toward Navy Pier, which is in the background if you can see it. Mark and I realized that every city we are looking at is on a body of water, which we are so excited about because it is so pretty!

This one was taken from Navy pier. I love the silhouette of the city and the bird in mid-flight. Mark is such a great photographer!

The Art Institute of Chicago, where Mark's aunt studied.

Running Bella up a ramp. She was pretty unfazed by the excitement.

Can you spot the two people in the center of the bean, one is much taller than the other?

There they are. I didn't realize the last time I saw this structure how cool the reflection of the city looks. I'm guessing I was missing the main point of it.

Another thing you learn when you are married to an artist with a background in art history and architecture is to appreciate buildings. An interesting little tidbit Mark brought up is that we've seen a Frank Gehry building in each city we've visited. In Seattle it was the Experience Music Project, in Chicago the Pritzker Pavilion (below), in LA the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and in NYC the 8 Spruce Street building.

The "L." Mark and I are really excited about living in a place that has good public transportation. We are looking forward to selling our cars and spending more time walking outside.

You don't have to know Mark very well to know that he has been a lifelong Cubs fan. So, of course we had to make the pilgrimage to Wrigley Field! He was such a happy guy.

After we left Wrigley field, we walked around the Lincoln Park area which is a neat more-residential neighborhood. We were walking by this park and I said, "Um, I think that's a rhino." Apparently, there is a free zoo in Lincoln Park! So, of course we walked through. I did not wake up that morning thinking I'd see lions and tigers and rhinos!

The tiger was roaring. Mark started to make some comment about how he was probably roaring because he was miserable, but I stopped him mid-sentence because there was a 5 year old boy standing next to us.

The lions were taking a rest. They were right up next to a window, so we could see them up close. The picture doesn't do justice to how massive they were. Their paws were the size of my face. We talked about how powerful and majestic they are, and got a better picture of our God's power and majesty as he is often described as a lion in the Bible.

Overall, we had a great time in Chicago. It is such a neat city with a lot of natural beauty paired with the excitement that a big city brings. Mark was with me for a three day weekend and then he flew home to get back to work and my mom joined me for the rest of the week. We had a lot of fun walking, shopping, and of course, eating. I interviewed with 2 programs and we left feeling like Chicago will be a definite possibility for our next destination!

Seattle

2011-11-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

Our first stop on the interview trail was Seattle. My brother has lived there for the past 5 years, so I've been there before but it was Mark's first visit to the Pacific Northwest. It is such a pretty part of the country and has a great mix of city life and natural beauty. Shortly after we arrived, we took a ferry boat over to Bainbridge Island, which is where the next three pictures are from. It was a very quaint little town and we had some amazing coffee, lunch, and probably the best ice cream I've ever had.

On our second day, we visited Pike Place Market, the famous farmer's market in downtown Seattle. We watched the fishmongers throw the gigantic fish, looked at the incredible flowers, and smelled the delicious baked goods. We tasted some yummy roasted hazelnuts and fresh baked donuts, and got fresh salmon and crab to make dinner that evening. Mark got some amazing apple cider, but I recently learned he only likes cold cider after I excitedly brought home hot cider k-cups for our Keurig coffee maker which he gently told me tasted like medicine.

I interviewed with Seattle Children's Hospital and really liked it. The program had a very warm, welcoming feel and the hospital was a free-standing children's hospital (as opposed to a pediatric ward in a general hospital). The residents seemed to enjoy their lives, meaning they didn't seem too stressed out, which is also a plus. There are some neat opportunities for community advocacy projects and global health. Each resident also spends 2 months in their second year in a rural area of the northwest known as the "WWAMI" region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) working with populations like American Indians, migrant farm workers, etc. So, altogether it sounded like a well-rounded and somewhat unique residency. It was my first interview, so I don't know where it will land among the rest, but it was a great start!

The Trail

2011-10-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

The next few months of our life are pretty unique if you aren't familiar with how medical school/residency works. I've found that most people's idea is some combination of Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, and House, which is usually pretty far from reality.

The terminology usually confuses people, but medical school is 4 years and you are only ever known as a medical student or occasionally a sub-intern in the 4th year. You are officially a doctor when you graduate medical school, but you go on to further training, called residency. The first year of residents are called "interns." In Pediatrics, 2nd and 3rd year residents are known as "upper levels," "residents," or "senior residents." Also unique to Pediatrics and a few other specialties, "chief residents" are doctors who are elected to stay an extra year after 3rd year to serve in an administrative/leadership position. Beyond residency, doctors are known as "attendings" if they are in an academic setting where they are overseeing residents and medical students, or they are just board certified physicians. So, this next step is a 3 year training process, but it is a job where I am getting paid, etc. The climate of residency has changed a lot over the past 10 years, where they used to have no duty hour regulations but now, we are limited to 80 hour weeks with no more than something like 26 consecutive hours of patient care. New this year, interns are only allowed to do 16 hours in a row, eliminating overnight call. Most programs I've looked into have gone over to shift work, which a lot of people don't like for some reason, but I enjoy coming home at night so it sounds good to me. I guess I'll see what I think next year.

A few months ago, Mark and I decided on different parts of the country where we would be willing to move based mainly on places with good job opportunities for him. We landed on Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and New York. It was pretty easy for me to find some great programs to apply to because they are all big cities with good options. I sent in my application at the beginning of September, and we've set up all of the interviews between now and Christmas. After I visit and interview with the programs, I'll enter a list ranking all of the programs where I'd be willing to train into a national ranking website. All of the programs submit a list ranking their applicants and the computer matches you to one program. On Friday, March 16, we'll go up to campus and after some anticipatory festivities, everyone in my class along with everyone across the country will open envelopes at the same time and find out where they are going. Exciting!

So, between now and then, I'm going to try to keep the blog up to date with our travels around the country. We've already visited Seattle and it was a great start! It all started to feel real when our plane landed in Seattle and Mark and I started talking about how it could possibly be our next home. Mark is going to come to each city once with me so we can make a good decision together, and he is trying to network with some companies in each place to feel out the job market. It is a really exciting time for us, filled with a lot of unknowns but we are looking forward to this next step!

The Bunny Slope

2011-10-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

I started my 4th year of medical school in July. It is kind of hard to believe that my last year of school is finally here! On one hand, it has been a very long road and I'm ready to move on, but on the other hand, it is a little intimidating to think that I'll have an MD attached to my name in a matter of months. In the mean time, 4th year is amazing. Aside from a set of board exams, this year has no tests or grades and is much less stressful than the past three. There are three required rotations which include a sub-internship which is a general inpatient month where you are treated like a 1st year resident, an acute care month which is an ER or ICU month, and an outpatient clinic rotation. Other than that, there are 4 elective months for a total of 7 months, leaving a solid 4 months for vacation! Hooray!

My sub-I was in July and I was on an inpatient team at Children's that was half general pediatrics and half endocrine patients. I worked hard that month, but it was so exciting to finally take real responsibility for my patients. During 3rd year, there is always an intern (1st year resident) seeing the patient along with you, and they are the ones who are responsible for the patient. Often there are things going on with a patient that you don't know about because you aren't the primary physician. As a fourth year, you make decisions, write orders, call consults, answer nursing questions, and generally take full responsibility for the patients and although it is much more work, it is so much more fulfilling. There were some real challenges that came with those responsibilities, including dealing with a stressed out Mom who vented all of her frustrations on me in the middle of the hallway one day, but I learned so much from even that unpleasant experience. The fact that I enjoyed my sub-I so much was real confirmation that I chose the right career path!

August was my outpatient clinic month, and I did 1 week in the pedi endocrine clinic, 2 weeks in the pedi rheumatology clinic, and they let me spend 1 week out at Camp John Marc for Camp Joint Adventure! It was so awesome to spend time at camp again. I worked mainly with the horses, which was a totally new experience for me and I have a new appreciation for the hard work it takes to work out there. It was really refreshing to spend time outside and get out of the hospital/clinic for a while. I hope there is a time in the future when I can be in a camp setting again, it is such a neat place.

September was a dermatology elective, affectionately known as derma-holiday because I averaged 2 days of work per week with a few lectures here and there. I learned a little bit, but mostly enjoyed some free time and studied for my boards which I took at the end of the month. No more tests for the year!

October was my acute care month which I spent in the neonatal ICU. It was a completely different world. For the first week and a half, I had only the lower-level care patients, but by the second week, I started taking care of a baby who was born at 27 weeks. That translates to a little over 3 months early, and he weighed 1 lb 12 oz. Tiny. Unbelievably tiny. The first day, it was scary to even touch him, but I got to know my little friend pretty well by the end of the month. He had a lot of major issues to face in the first few weeks of his life and he was by no means through the worst of it when my time in the NICU was over. There were a lot of babies who had a pretty rough start to life and there were some difficult times, but I'm so thankful for the experience. I got to know a few mothers well, spending time with them daily at a point in their life that held so much uncertainty.

This month is Radiology, and the start of interview season. I'm missing a little over 1/2 of this rotation for interviews, and the rest of it is super easy. I go to lectures from 10-2 some days, and other days (like today, where I'm drinking coffee and watching Let's Make a Deal as I blog) I have nothing! I've spent some time thinking about what I'm going to do with my free time over the coming months. I've decided to pick back up with the Rosetta Stone and get better at Spanish, which was basically decided for me when I became a Lopez. I also became a member of Pinterest, which I'm hoping will inspire some fun crafting and delicious new recipes, but so far I've just spent a lot of time browsing. I grew up playing the piano, but when I realized that may not be the easiest instrument to always have around, I got a guitar. I took lessons for a little while in college, but haven't played in a while so I have big dreams to self-teach, but we'll see how that goes. Other than that, I'm open to ideas for new hobbies!

Next month I have off, and then in January I'm taking "Philosophy of Medicine" which has some interesting reading/discussion topics. I won't lie though, I was also attracted to the elective due to the schedule....Tuesday/Thursday for 2 hours. Yep. I'm about to live life. I'm hoping in February to be able to take a Public Policy elective where I'll spend 2 weeks in Austin learning about Medicare/CHIP/WIC

Psychiatry

2011-10-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Last rotation of 3rd year was Psychiatry. To be honest, that was on purpose because Psychiatry was known for being a little more laid back than the rest. It did not disappoint.

For the first 3 weeks, I was on Parkland Consults, meaning anywhere in the hospital that a team felt a Psychiatrist was needed for a patient, we went to see them. Sometimes, this meant a team was trying to cover their own tails and it wasn't very interesting/necessary to get Psychiatry on board, but most of the time it was really (I found myself starting to type "crazy" here, but that's not PC, but now I can't think of a better word...) ...wild. The second half of the rotation I spent on inpatient Psychiatry in Parkland which is a locked-down ward. I also went to mental illness court which is where patients go who are trying to get out of the hospital when the doctors don't think they should leave. Finally, I spent 3 shifts in the Psych ER, which was the most intense experience of all. I'll sum up this rotation with a couple of good stories:

A woman with underlying dementia who became delirious (there is a big difference between delirium and dementia and if you learn that, you learn a very important Psychiatry topic) who told me stories about her maggot friends and how they walked in a line and she saw them on the ceiling and it was strange how they walked together because, everyone knows maggots don't walk in a line, just ask science and they'll tell you. She also told me I looked like "one of them girls on the shows who is always hanging out with the boys" and to tell my husband to keep me in line. I'm pretty sure she was calling me a floozy, but I tried not to read into it.

Another woman had the most beautiful singing voice, but the problem was she would sing gospel music at the top of her lungs early in the morning which aggravated all the other patients on the ward. One day I walked in and told her good morning and she stopped me to tell me she had a revelation. When I asked what it was about, she said it came in the version of a song and started belting out Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle."

In all seriousness though, I think mental illness can be one of the most difficult things a patient and their family can face. It is different from other medical illnesses both in how it is approached and how the public receives it. There are so many challenges to coping with, treating, and handling mental illness. I think the Church went through a period of time where it failed to see psychiatric illness as a true medical problem and people were often ashamed of it and saw it as spiritual failure when it is often just as organic as a heart attack. There is a fine line between recognizing that a medication is necessary and relying on it, but I firmly believe that medication for mental illness has a place along with faith, community, and prayer.

Obstetrics & Gynecology

2011-10-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

OB/GYN was my second to last rotation of 3rd year and I was starting to feel like it was the home stretch. I did gynecology first and it was not my favorite. I spent a lot of time in the OR watching hysterectomies and other surgeries that would make a person cringe if I described them. If there is one thing I figured out early on, the OR is not my favorite place to be. I think I might enjoy it more if I wasn't so freaked out the whole time that I was going to touch the wrong thing and contaminate it and have the wrath of a scrub nurse fall on me. But even besides that, gynecology surgeries are in a particularly difficult place to watch if more than 2 people are standing around the patient, so I spent hours pretending to be attentive when all I could see was the back of people's heads. I made to-do lists in my head, memorized the order of advertisements on the computer screensaver in the room, and basically tried to save myself from a death caused by boredom. Gynecology clinic was OK, a better learning experience but mostly a little gross in my opinion. Then I did a week of urogynecology where I learned everything there is to know about urinary incontinence and basically learned to fear the consequences of child bearing. I'm mostly kidding...

The second half of the rotation was the obstetrics part which I enjoyed a lot more. Being a part of delivering a baby was an unforgettable experience. I had a hard time not getting choked up everytime I was in a delivery because it was just such an amazing sight to see the faces of the mothers and fathers as they saw their little one for the first time. It was at this point that I realized Pediatrics was it for me, because I always found myself wishing I could go with the baby over to the warmer instead of finishing up with the mom. After a while, you also start to recognize the personality types that certain fields of medicine attract, and I am not quite the ob/gyn type. Not really sure how to explain it, but it is just a feeling you get I guess.

Zihuatanejo

2011-10-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Over spring break this year, Mark and I went to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Mark did about 8 posts on his blog: Bongos and Peaches last April, so I won't put all the pictures on this one, but check it out of you're interested. Mark takes some seriously awesome pictures, I'm always impressed by what he captures.

Internal Medicine

2011-10-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

Although it has been quite a while since I've posted, and it seems like forever since my Internal Medicine rotation, I'm still going to try to fill in the blanks over the past year. I guess when I'm this far removed from the experience, I'll only remember the important stuff anyway.

Internal Medicine was a 3 month rotation, the longest of the year. My first month was my Parkland ward month, which is notorious for being the toughest. By the way, I learned recently that I've used the word notorious incorrectly in the past, using just as "well known," but Mark informed me recently that it is basically the same as "infamous." So, I'm using it now in it's correct context :) Internal Medicine is basically just adult medicine, and it covers a really wide range so it was a densely packed learning experience. People often ask me when I tell them I'm going into Pediatrics if I have a hard time seeing sick and suffering kids. Obviously, yes that can be difficult, but I had a harder time on Internal Medicine seeing a lot of people with disease processes that there wasn't much to be done about. During my Parkland month, we had a lot of chronic liver disease and cancer, two diseases that can have a pretty mean course. I was thankful for the opportunity to work with and learn from these patients, but I figured out pretty quickly that Internal Medicine was not going to be the path I would take.

My second month was at Baylor in Dallas, my first private hospital experience. It was a different world I stepped into, a world of insurance and discussions about what a patient could pay for based on their coverage, something I was not used to. On one hand, it was nice to know that many patients had good places to go when they left the hospital, and we didn't have to battle the "which transitional care/nursing facility will take this person who doesn't have funding" dilemma. On the other hand, there were a few times I saw, what I thought was, medicine practiced for financial gain. Meaning, patients staying in the hospital longer than necessary, or tests ordered that I had learned did not give much valuable information. It was a strange, unpleasant feeling to talk about how a patient needed to be transferred to Parkland because they weren't funded, or that they wouldn't be able to receive life-saving dialysis because they were Medicaid and they would need to get in line at Parkland for their treatments. It was not a setting I particularly enjoyed, and even though there are times I get frustrated with the crowded rooms or long wait times at Parkland, it made me thankful to learn medicine in a county hospital.

My last month was outpatient clinics which was really enjoyable. I am pretty sure I want to practice outpatient rather than inpatient medicine, or at least a combination of the two. I spent time in clinics specializing in Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Endocrinology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, and general Medicine. Almost all of it was at the VA Hospital, which I grew to love. It was a great learning experience and pretty laid back, so a fun way to end a marathon of a rotation. After I finished the exam at the end of this block, I realized just how much I learned and how great a foundation those 3 months helped to build.

Santa Fe

2011-04-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Back in December, we took a trip with my family to Santa Fe. We really enjoyed a relaxing few days walking around the beautiful, quaint little area where we stayed. My family has always taken yearly family vacations which used to be in the summer, but since my brother and I have been out of the house and with different schedules, we started taking them over the holidays. No one had ever been to Santa Fe, and we were not disappointed!

We stayed close to "the plaza" where a lot of the little shops are. It had snowed the day before we arrived.

My handsome man.

We loved this picture of my dad. Even though he looks kind of like he isn't enjoying himself, he really was :)

The outside of our hotel at night. It was so pretty with all of the luminaries lit up. The hotel restaurant also gave us decidedly the best meal of our lives.

My sweet mom.

One night on our way back to the hotel, we spotted this leather shop and had to try on their amazing hats. Everything was ridiculously expensive, but made for some fun pictures.

The church next to our hotel was so pretty. We went for the Sunday service.

This was the French Bakery that we actually ate at twice because it was so delicious and cute inside. The crepes were so good!

We went to this antique shop, and I had to stop and smile at their "medical section" which included items such as "brain duster tablets" and your general "healing ointments".

We visted the Loretto Chapel, home of "The Miraculous Staircase." The legend is that the chapel was built without adequate space for a staircase up to the choir loft, so the nuns prayed and a man showed up, built this amazing staircase, and then no one could ever find him again or has a record of who he was. The architecture is actually a mystery, because there is no center beam to hold it up. It is only held together with these wooden pegs between the steps. Pretty interesting to see!

On our last day, we visited the town of Chimayo, which was straight out of the movie "Nacho Libre." It had a very Mexican feel to it, complete with a beautiful and interesting little chapel that Mark had to duck his head to walk into.

It was such a fun trip! Can't wait to figure out where we'll go next Christmas!

Fort Worth

2011-02-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas break, Mark and I decided to take a little mini-trip to Fort Worth. I've lived in Dallas all my life, but never really spent much time in Fort Worth, and we had so much fun! I knew we were in for a fun 2 days when we stumbled on this little gem down the street from our hotel...

Yep, that's a dog, a cat, and a rat. Best friends. The owner said they've been together for 10 years. The dog and cat are attached by a leash thing, and the rat just walked around them. It was hilarious, and adorable, and a little strange. Definitely an interesting sight!

One of the main reasons we chose Fort Worth is that Mark's been wanting to go to the art museums there. We visited the Kimbell, the Modern Art Museum, and the Amon Carter, and they were awesome! Lot's of cool pieces and Mark had studied the architecture of the Kimbell (pictured above) so he enjoyed seeing the building firsthand.

At the Amon Carter, we walked upstairs and saw this cute little family. Then, we realized how strikingly similar the mom looked to Mark's sister, Brittany! Other than speaking with a French accent and having three boys instead of 2 girls and a boy, she could definitely pass for Britt. It was really funny. They were on such a fun little outing, the mom had cards with facts about the different pieces, and they would sit in front of them and talk about them.

Another highlight of the trip was our visit to the Stockyards to watch the cattle drive. Twice a day, they take about 15 big longhorns down the main street, and just kind of parade them back to the stables. If you don't know, I sort of love cows, so it was pretty exciting for me :) We talked to one of the cowboys for a while too which was fun.

The little downtown area near the Stockyards had fun little shops with neat decorations.

So, if you're looking for a cheap, fun weekend, Fort Worth is a nice spot to visit!

Pediatrics!

2011-02-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

I think I found my calling. I really enjoyed Peds! I think a few good ways to know if you enjoy something include...
1. You don't mind waking up in the morning to go to work
2. The day goes by pretty quickly
3. You don't mind staying later than usual a few times
4. Staying up all night to do your job doesn't bother you (as much)
5. The people already doing the job seem to really enjoy their work

Pediatrics was a 2 month rotation, 1 month outpatient and 1 month inpatient. The outpatient month was split into 1 week of a private practice clinic, 1 week of newborn nursery, and 2 weeks of specialty clinics at Children's. For my inpatient month, I spent 2 weeks on the Hematology/Oncology floor and 2 weeks on a General Pediatrics floor. So, I got quite an array of pediatric experiences and I really enjoyed every bit of it. I liked both sides, the outpatient was more well-child check ups and growth/development stuff, and the inpatient had a lot of pretty sick kids.

Usually, when people don't like pediatrics, they give two reasons. #1 being the fact that it is difficult to see sick kids because they can't always tell you what is wrong and it is sad, #2 being it is difficult to deal with parents either being super scared and emotional or at the other extreme, being absent. I actually loved the interactions I had with parents and the relationships developed with them, because they are usually really wanting help and guidance and if they are the absent type, you have a chance to be an advocate for child. As for watching kids be sick, I felt a strong motivation to try to help them get better, and the good news with kids is that they are pretty resilient and do get better. It is extremely difficult to watch a child suffer, and heartbreaking when they die, but I trust in God's sovereignty and rest in the knowledge that matters of life and death are in his mighty hands. As my medical training goes on, I've learned more and more that end-of-life issues are an area where a doctor has an opportunity to help provide comfort, dignity, and loving kindness more than almost any other time. We had a lecture about pediatric palliative care, and the doctor said something along the lines of all books are different lengths, but every book has an ending, and we can be a big part of making it a good ending. As semi-cheesy as that sounds, I thought it was a good way of looking at it. Most of the time though, our goal was to help kids get better and go on to live a long life.

So, if nothing else changes, I'm starting to look into Pediatric residency programs. Mark and I have talked a lot about where we'd like to end up, and the cities with the best job opportunities for Mark's field of work are New York, Chicago, LA, and Seattle. The good news is they are all big cities with lots of different Pediatrics programs, so we'll see where we end up!

Neurology

2010-11-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

This semester has really flown by! I finished my Neurology rotation 2 weeks ago and actually really enjoyed it. Learning neuro during the first 2 years of medical school was never my favorite, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty interesting. The brain is such a fascinating thing, and the signs and symptoms you see when certain parts of the brain aren't working are so specific to that part of the brain's function. Some disorders produce involuntary movements, while others cause paralysis. Some change a person's ability to speak, while others affect language perception. Some have impacts on a person's memory, cognition, or personality. Certain strokes can cause a person to completely ignore one side of their body (usually the left), and they won't even recognize their own arm if you show it to them. So from an academic perspective, it was really interesting to talk about a patient's symptoms and where they localized in the nervous system, but there was not always very much you could do for a patient. We did a lot of diagnosing and symptom management, but there wasn't always plans for a cure.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to experience neurology and I learned a lot, but I don't think I'd want to do it forever. I definitely learned how to do a better neurological exam though, which will be really useful. A neurological exam includes assessing mental status, strength, reflexes, sensation, coordination, and gait, which is useful in any area of medicine. Neuro isn't just about the brain, it involves the spinal cord, nerves, and muscles, so there are a lot of problems people have that would require a good neuro exam. I had a patient during my family medicine rotation who complained of numbness in her leg, and I really didn't know what to ask about or what to look for in my exam, but now I have a much better idea of what to do in that situation.

I started Pediatrics 2 weeks ago (yay!) and I'm loving it! I did my first week in a private practice setting which was a good learning experience. It was a big group of pediatricians, so I saw a lot of different styles and it was a great way to start this rotation. One of the MD's I followed was Dr. Sue Hubbard and she has a great website with all things pediatric. Last week, I spent time in the newborn nursery at Parkland and it was so much fun. We saw so many babies and I loved it! I'm excited for the rest of the rotation!

Family Medicine!

2010-10-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Next up was Family Medicine! I was excited to start this rotation, but I didn't know just how much I would like it. It was all outpatient clinics (meaning not in the hospital) and I would see a patient, listen to what was going on and do a physical exam, and then present my findings and plan to a faculty physician or resident. I realized that I love education and disease prevention, which is a big part of Family Medicine. I learned about Community Medicine which is sort of a branch of Family that is involved in community health, advocacy, social programs, and improving patient care among many other things. I got to see patients of all ages, from newborn babies to 98 year old ladies and that was really fun. I liked not having any patient population excluded. I got pretty excited about it so Family has definitely made the list of fields I may pursue! There are a variety of settings you can work in, and the training is really broad which excites me. I met doctors who chose their own hours and had a great family life which is really important to me. The more I learn about it, the more I get excited about it, so we will see if that's where I end up! Here is my essay from Family Medicine...

"In the first few months of my clinical training, I have spent most of my time learning about how to recognize signs and symptoms of diseases and how to treat them. I have also learned a lot during my Family Medicine rotation about disease prevention, patient education, and health maintenance. I get excited about figuring out a diagnosis, deciding what steps to take next, and counseling patients. It is exactly what I’ve been waiting for, the chance to practice medicine. However, over the past few weeks of Family Medicine, I’ve recognized that not everything is quite so black and white. Often there are financial, social, spiritual, and educational barriers to healthcare that require flexibility and sensitivity on the part of the physician. It is just as important to find out about those issues as any other part of the encounter. If a healthcare professional does not take the time to ask about different aspects of a patient’s background, then the rest of their plan of care may not matter because a patient may not follow it. Or, they may cause unnecessary emotional strife by being insensitive to a patient’s beliefs or level of understanding.

Many patients I saw this month had financial difficulties that prevented them from receiving the textbook treatments for their disease. It was often necessary to look at the Walmart $4 prescription list to choose medications that would be feasible for a patient to purchase. The five minutes it took to figure out which medications would fit a patient’s financial needs made treatment possible. Sometimes though, patients had multiple comorbidities, so even the $4 medications would add up and a patient was left deciding which medication was the “least important.” Before I jumped to labeling a patient as noncompliant, it was necessary to figure out WHY they hadn’t been taking their medication. After hearing that paying for prescriptions took a huge percentage of a patient’s monthly income, I suddenly became much more understanding and less judgmental of their “noncompliance.” Furthermore, some patients had difficulty finding transportation to their appointments or figuring out how to get childcare. It is easy to tell a patient to come back to do fasting labs or to follow up in two weeks without recognizing how big of a request that may be. Socioeconomic status also affects a patient’s ability to follow certain diets, especially when they have to provide for the needs of children. It is imperative to be aware of these issues and to be ready to counsel patients on less expensive ways of achieving their goals.

Education level also affects the way a patient responds to their disease or treatment plan. It is easy to take for granted that a patient would understand what kind of diet they should follow as a diabetic, when a patient may think they only need to avoid candy or coke. Also, certain conditions carry stigmas in different cultures, so the way information is presented to a patient with those beliefs is so important. I’ve learned that cultural competence, socioeconomic awareness, and being educated on social issues are going to always be a big part of my career. I need to work hard to learn as much as I can about the community I practice in and the resources available around me."

Surgery Part 2

2010-10-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

So much for keeping up with writing things down this year. I had all the best intentions, but free time has come at a premium these days.

Surgery ended about 6 weeks ago now, and I'll be the first to admit that I was very happy to see it go. I learned some valuable things, but I am definitely not going to be a surgeon. On Trauma, we saw patients on the wards from about 5-6ish, and then went to the Trauma Hall in Parkland and waited for patients to come rolling in. We carried a pager with us and it would go off whenever someone was on their way and give us a few key pieces of info to be prepared for. To this day, the sound of that pager gives me chills. I also do not love the whole trauma scene, it is pretty horrific to me but I'm thankful for the people who want to take care of those patients. On my first day of trauma, the first patient that came in ended up dying and it was pretty hard to watch. We have to write short essays at the end of every rotation, and I reflected on that experience...

"On my first day of Trauma call, within the first few hours of the morning, we received a page for a Level 1 trauma. The patient had fallen 20 feet on the job and landed on the concrete below. The paramedics were already performing CPR as the patient rolled in, and the nurses and doctors resumed CPR as they moved him to a trauma bed. The room was packed, it seemed like there were 20 people there and they were rushing around, yet it was surprisingly quiet so everyone could hear instructions. I watched as they performed the ACLS protocol and waited anxiously for some sign of life from the patient. After the protocol had been followed through, one of the doctors in the room said, “What time is it?” My heart sank. She called the time of death at 11:17 am and you could see the energy in the room drop and people started taking off their masks and gowns and walking away. The whole thing must not have lasted more than 10 minutes, but it is an experience that I will not soon forget.

It was strange to me how everyone just sort of dispersed afterward. They didn’t seem to be overly affected by the event. They resumed conversations, talked logistics, even smiled. It was sort of shocking to see people just move on. I couldn’t help but wonder how they could just walk off and leave the man lying there. One of the nurses said that we needed to still do a full evaluation of the patient to document the injuries, so I went with the resident over to the patient. It was so strange to see his face and know that he woke up that morning thinking he was heading to work just like any other day. He probably had a cup of coffee, said goodbye to his wife, and may have told her he’d be home by 5. Then I thought about his family. They were about to find out information that would completely change their lives. There was no warning for them, the patient suffered an accident in an instant that claimed his life. And yet, the rest of the team was back in the hallway talking about discharging the guy in the next room. How could it be that easy for them?

Then I started to realize that they were doing what needed to be done to be a good health care team. If everyone were completely crushed for the rest of the day, then other patients and their own personal lives would suffer. Death is a reality on the Trauma Hall, and the doctors and nurses need to be able to pick up and move on from it. Over the course of the next week, I watched other patients come in and became aware of many others in the SICU who had sustained major injuries and may never recover. I think for me, I need to find a line between processing what is happening around me when it comes to disease, injury, and death, and not dwelling or thinking too deeply into it to where I can’t move forward. I want to always respect life, to not take it lightly or to treat death flippantly, but I see now that all patients are not going to have good outcomes and I am going to have to learn how to deal with that in a healthy way. I don’t think I need to stop feeling sad when people are hurting or when they die, but I recognize that in order to be a good doctor, I’m going to have to do my best to treat the things I am able to and accept the things I can’t change. It will be through a combination of prayer, processing things with others, and talking about it at home that I will continue to learn how to cope."

After Trauma was Emergency General Surgery which was probably the roughest part of Surgery for me. We had to be there at 4am most days and were pretty busy all the time. We drove the camera for the laparoscopic procedures which is not a super easy task in my opinion. Maybe its because I never played video games, but it was tough to navigate those cameras when the surgeons were moving their instruments all over the place. I also learned about working with people who are very difficult to work with which was not fun at the time, but I know it was an important lesson. All in all, I think I took a lot away from the surgery rotation, but I couldn't have been happier when it was over!

Food is Good

2010-08-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Alli is almost done with her surgery rounds, but I've grown to see that cooking is something that I can ACTUALLY do. Here's some more of my creations.

Here I am on the way to making another Greek Salad, this time as a side.

It was a side to lamb. I figured I should give it a try since it was the recipe of the same chef that I had ordered it from in New York.

Then I made these Melon Slushes from a cantaloupe we bought at the farmer's market. There is also pink lemonade concentrate and ginger ale in it. They were really refreshing.

For my first pasta dish, I made Spaghetti with Red Bell Peppers and Kalamata Olives. It tasted like The Olive Garden. There was a lot of Parmesan cheese in it.

For a side, I tried to make a Chilled Avocado and Mint Soup, since it has been so hot out, but it was probably my first two thumbs down dish. It was too minty or something. The flavor was just something that you became weary of. Although, it did look cool, so it took very good pictures.

I went to Whole Foods and got a Salmon, big enough for two meals, so that I could experiment. The first night I cut the skin off the part I wanted to cook, which was really hard, and I never want to do again. Then I marinated it in an Asian flavored mixture that had Soy Sauce, mustard, Bourbon, and maybe a few other things. It turned out suprisingly good. Alli previously thought she didn't like Salmon, but now she does. :)

Alli made cookies! She got the recipe from Molly in our home group and they are good! Even better with ice cream.

For the second part of the salmon, I left the skin on and cooked it in a skillet, one side on the stove, and one side in the oven. Then topped it with a tomato vinaigrette. We also made Hush Puppies! They were kind of scary because you fry them, but the dough was really sticky, so it was hard to figure out how to put it in the oil with it in a ball. We took the picture with our two most successful tries.

And we had breakfast for dinner the other day. Ricotta Pancakes with Orange Syrup. They were fun to make and really good. Probably the least healthy thing I've made too. But we made the Orange Syrup by boiling orange juice with orange zest, water, and sugar. I learned words like blanch and julienne.

The Grouchy Chef

2010-08-04T10:10:00.001-07:00

Now that Alli is out being a doctor most days, I (Mark) have decided to give cooking a try. Alli calls me the Grouchy Chef because when she asks me questions while I am cooking I get really flustered and can't do two things at once. But I don't look THAT grouchy, do I?
I bought a "Food and Wine" magazine, mostly because I liked the layout and photographs, but have really tried to make some interesting things. My first go was an Omelet with Herbs. It was ok, I think I put too many herbs in it, but it wasn't bad.

We had some ribs in the freezer, so I went all out, because ribs are one of my favorites. We went to the farmer's market and picked up some veggies and fruits for the next couple weeks. This recipe was for Blueberry-Glazed Ribs, so I made this Blueberry Syrup and after putting the ribs in the oven for an hour and a half, you brush this mixture of blueberry and other stuff onto the ribs and broil it until it browns. These were some of the best ribs I've ever had to be honest.

We have a lot of leftover Blueberry Syrup, so I put it in lots of different things like vanilla ice cream.

Next, I made a Summer-Vegetable Casserole that had potato, zucchini, tomato, yellow bell pepper, and onion in it. The dish was pretty good, but was more of a side in my opinion.

When we were at the farmer's market, we also got some red grapes so that we could make this Harvest Cake with Grapes and Sangiovese Syrup.

It was a little lemony and sweet enough for me to enjoy it.

You serve it with a grape syrup that you make by boiling grape juice.

Finally, there was a bunch of Greek recipes by a chef of a restaurant in New York called "Kefi". We went there when we were living in New York and loved it, so I really wanted to make a few of his dishes. So we made these Greek Salad Sandwiches, and they were AWESOME.

We made the dough from scratch, and then you fry it. You spread a tzatziki suace (which we also made) and then top it with the greek salad (which would have been great even by itself).

There will be more dishes soon!

MS3

2010-08-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

I started my 3rd year of medical school a month ago, and it has been quite a busy month. I brought it on myself though- I purposefully put my surgery rotation first because I knew it would be the most time-intensive and exhausting rotation, plus I am pretty certain that I do not want to be a surgeon. So, the idea was to more or less get it out of the way. I know I won't regret doing it first once it is over and the rest of the year feels a little less stressful in comparison to surgery, but in the meantime, I have been thrown in full-force to the fast-paced and demanding world of doctoring.

Mark will be the first to tell you that surgery is not my favorite. While I have really enjoyed starting to finally be involved in patient care and have really liked my residents (they de-stigmafied the "super-demanding, overly-intense and often angry" personality profile they sometimes get), the OR is just not my home. 90% of the time I spent in the hospital this month was in the OR with the patient under anesthesia, and I tend to enjoy my time in clinic and on the hospital floors more. I'm glad I confirmed that though, and now I have at least a little more direction as to what I want to be when I grow up. Also, I have learned so much this month that I know will make me a better doctor in the future even though I won't be going into surgery. I definitely will not forget this experience!

For the month of July, I was on Surgery C at Parkland Hospital, which is the Colorectal Surgery team. Lots of guts and butts. My hours have been really long- waking up at 4:30 AM most days and getting home about 6:30 PM, working Monday-Saturday, averaging about 70 hours/week. Mark has been SO understanding of my inability to stay awake much later than 9 o'clock most nights. ALSO- he has found a new talent/hobby that we will blog about soon, I'll just say that it has helped me out tremendously and it has been a huge surprise that he enjoys it so much!

Starting tomorrow, for the month of August I will spend 2 weeks on Trauma and 2 weeks on Emergency General Surgery. My schedule changes big time- I will be on what is called "Q3" where I am on-call every 3rd night. That means I stay in the hospital for about 24-28 hours every 3 days, but the other days I'm only there for about 4 or 5 hours. So, I'll say goodbye to Mark Monday morning at about 5 AM and not see him until he gets home from work on Tuesday night. Kind of a bummer, but it will only be for a month and only every 3 days. I am NOT an all-nighter kind of girl, so we will see how it goes!

I am learning so much about patient care now that I am finally in the hospital and starting to do what I came to medical school for. For the past two years, medical school has been predominately classroom/lecture work, but now I am full-time in the hospital. It is a HUGE learning curve. I know a lot about disease process and physiology, but I know very little about how to take care of patients in the hospital. Even the everyday things like how to dress a wound properly, how to manage IV fluids, what to pay attention to on a daily basis to track a patients progress. Most of the time I feel really dumb, but I have to remind myself that it takes time to learn all of this stuff and everyone in my class is in the same boat. I don't know how many times this month I was asked a question and had no clue what the answer was. But, I know it will come and I will just have to keep reading and asking questions. It can often be a frustrating place to be though.

I LOVE seeing patients everyday. I have really enjoyed the relationships I've made and I have learned so much from them. I've learned that you can't expect to approach different people the same way and expect the same results. It is so important for me to know my patients well so that when something changes, like Mr. J this month who just wasn't himself one morning and ended up having an infection in his abdomen, I can be aware of it. I've also become intensely well aware of how much of a blessing my health is. Some people are just sick all their lives- one thing after another just keeps breaking down. It is so difficult to watch, yet so important for me to be present for. It is going to be such a great privilege and responsibility, and one of the main reasons I chose medicine, to be there for people when they are vulnerable and hurting. I am going to learn so much this year and on about what my role is in that situation, which brings a lot of mixed emotions. On the other hand, it brings so much joy to see patients get better and go home, and it makes the hard work worthwhile, to learn what I need to do to help patients get better.

I think that's enough for now. I fly through a lot of thoughts and emotions lately and I want to remember them, so I'm going to try to keep writing more.

The Smokey Mountains

2010-08-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

After I finished my boards on June 22 (longest 5 weeks of studying ever, I couldn't be happier that test is over with), Mark and I left for the Smokey Mountains! We planned an anniversary trip to a place where we could get away and spend some good quality time together. We rented a cabin and it was a great combination of relaxation and time outdoors.

Our cabin was spectacular, it had an amazing view and 2 porches with a swing and a jacuzzi. Ours was the one on the far left. It was so cute and cozy. We hope to go back one day.

The view from the porch. So pretty.

We got there on the weekend, so there were a lot of tourists in the park. Mark and I thought it would be a good idea to go for a harder hike because then there wouldn't be so many people. Mark looked up a trail that sounded a little tougher, but led to the tallest waterfall in the park. I love waterfalls so I was sold. Little did we know......

The preditor...Ramsey Cascades. The victim...2 unsuspecting and naive Dallasites with little hiking experience. We started off with our lunches packed and our 1 powerade to share (mistake #1). I also brought a few books to read when we got to the top (mistakes #2,3,4). We started off feeling great and excited about our first hike. The hike was 4 miles each way, so 8 total. In case you don't know, 8 miles in the mountains is much, MUCH different than 8 miles on flat ground. It was a little tiring at first and we saw some benches but decided to press on. After about an hour and a half, we came to a sign pointing us toward a smaller path- we had only just begun.

Can you find Waldo in the picture below?

We started up the smaller trail and it got really tough. Every step was uphill and we were drenched in sweat. We came upon a group of people and asked how far from the top we were, they smiled and said that we hadn't even started the hardest part. There was one point where Mark asked me if I wanted to turn back. I told him in a very serious voice, "I'm NOT going back." We were determined to finish. And finish we did! We finally reached the cascades and it was beautiful. We were beyond exhausted but pretty proud of ourselves for finishing. I was, however, wishing I had brought 3 fewer books and 1 more powerade. Oh well, you live you learn.

We stayed for a while, put our feet in the water and took some pictures. Then we realized that it was getting a little later in the day and we still had a 4 mile hike back to the car, so we started down. By the time we finished, we were fully exhausted and our feet were hurting pretty bad, but we came out alive! The soreness the next day is another story...

The next day we decided to go for a scenic drive and go to the highest point in the park, Clingman's Dome. It is only a 1/2 mile hike on a paved road to the top, so it was nothing to us. We took the rest of that day and the next off to rest and watch more of the World Cup.

After a few days of resting, we were up for another hike. We were more careful this time to read about the hikes- realizing that Ramsey Cascade's is rated as "strenuous" and we gained over 2000 feet in those 4 miles up. We went for Rainbow Falls, a shorter hike to the highest single drop waterfall in the park. It didn't disappoint!

The picture actually kind of dwarfs the waterfall, it started really high.

On the way down, we saw some giant catepillars. We loved all the nature around us, but were absolutely fine with not seeing a bear this time like we did on our Thanksgiving trip.

The Smokey Mountains is one of our favorite places now. We decided that it could be a neat place to take our kids one day if its possible. It was so fun to get away from the city for a while, have some fresh air, and appreciate God's green earth!

1st Anniversary!

2010-08-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Mark and I had our first anniversary last month. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since our wedding day. At the same time, it is starting to be hard to remember what it was like to not be married to each other. I know him so much better than I did a year ago and appreciate him so much more.

Many people say that the first year of marriage is really hard, but I can honestly say that we had a fun and happy first year of marriage. While there were some things to get used to, like figuring out how to find a happy medium between my semi-obsession with keeping things clean and in order and Mark's, well, lack of obsession, and learning how to approach finances, we came out of the 1st year feeling even more in love and excited for the future. Marriage has been the greatest catalyst for spiritual, emotional, and relational growth that I have ever experienced and has pushed us both towards maturity. I'm thankful for the ways it has made me let go of, or continue to try to let go of, areas in my life where I can be so selfish and self-centered and move toward putting another person's needs first. It also helps that I am married to a man who is so forgiving and makes it easier for me to apologize :)

Mark gave me the best 1st anniversary present I could have ever imagined! He made a book with pictures and descriptions of all the things that happened during our 1st year of marriage. I love it now and I can't wait to share it with our kids one day! You can see some of the pages on his website - marknlopez.com

The bakery we got our wedding cake from made us an anniversary cake so we didn't have to eat year-old cake. I guess it kind of ruins the fun of it, but at least the cake didn't taste like freezer. We had it for over a week though because it was packed with frosting. We had a bottle of champagne that we saved from our wedding which turned out to be a golden-yellow color and disgusting, so we had part of the experience. The champagne in the picture was a fresh one :)

We went on a wonderful anniversary trip that Mark planned and he's going to put up some pictures of it soon. It was a huge blessing for us to be able to get away and spend some time together because life has changed in a big way since I started my 3rd year of medical school. More on that to come!

Watts/Burke Wedding

2010-06-14T20:26:00.001-07:00

Here's a video I shot from Ben and Kate's wedding this weekend in Decatur, GA. Hope they are having a happy honeymoon in Savannah!

Thanksgiving 2009 - The Kiddos

2010-05-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Six months after the fact, I edited some stuff I recorded of the family.

Easter Weekend

2010-04-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

We had Easter with the Lopez-side this year and it was so fun! The Burton's came in town from Raleigh and it is always so good to see them. Our niece, Annie, turned 2 a few days before Easter and they had a birthday party for her. It was dinosaur-themed, and Annie had the cutest dinosaur costume ever!

I've never been to a toddler birthday party, and it was pretty awesome. The kids are loving everything about what they are doing, except every kid has to have one melt-down. But, as soon as its over, they are back in the game. Amazing.

The newest addition the the Lopez family, Lucy Lopez!!! She was born March 7 and is such a cutie! She looks a lot like Annie and it is neat to see Annie be a big sister! Can't wait to see them again!

Bryce changed so much from the last time we saw him, which was when he was only a few weeks old. He is such a little boy, and so fun to play with. Just a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.

Lydia, Bryce, and Jo. They are growing so fast and change everytime we see them!

We went to Phil's Ice House for dinner one night and took some family pictures.

J and Sally, with Annie and Lucy.

Sally's sister Molly with Annie. Molly is an AMAZING chef. Check out her site - Vanilla Orchid.

Greg and Britt with Jo, Lydia, and Bryce.

The whole gang! We love the Lopez's and Burton's!

Medical Mission Trip to El Paso

2010-04-17T15:59:00.001-07:00

Over spring break this year, I went on a medical mission trip to El Paso with students from Southwestern. It was a really wonderful experience and I learned so much from it. It was a week-long trip, and each day our team went to a different church to set up a free clinic. It was so great to be able to put the things I've learned to practice and to get some real experience in the field of medicine. Even more than that, it was a blessing to meet and serve the people of El Paso! We stayed at a church (the picture below) that had an area of bunkbeds and a meeting room, so it was set up to host missionary groups.

This was my team on day 1 at our first clinic. I really enjoyed our team, so many great new friends!

Each team had doctors with them to help/teach/encourage/make sure we didn't hurt anybody :) We had Dr. Zee (left) and Dr. Yam (right) and everyone loved them. They were both so encouraging and loving and taught me a lot about the kind of doctor I want to be.

End of day 1 outside the church. It was a great day filled with learning how to really be a doctor. It is amazing to think about how much I learned that week, thinking back on how comfortable I felt with everything by the last day compared to the first. My last patient of the day was a man I don't think I'll ever forget. When I was running through the basic questions you ask everybody pertaining to their history like "Do you smoke/drink/do drugs?" he answered no, and that he quit 7 years ago. I told him that was a great thing, and he proceeded to tell me why he had quit. He had been living in some of the greatest darkness and sin I've ever heard about firsthand from a person, and a he told about a lady who shared about the love of God and his Son, Christ, with him. He became a believer 7 years ago, and his life changed dramatically. He couldn't help but tell me all of the details of what had happened because of how much joy it brought him. By this point, we were both in tears and he said, "If God can save me, He can do anything." It was such a testament to God's grace and I was so thankful that he felt so compelled to share it with me.

Day 2 of clinics, at our next site. We set up exam rooms in random rooms in the church, I'm pretty sure this one was the nursery.

A sweet family we treated. The little boy was so animated and cute!

Day 3, at probably the nicest facility we had seen. It was great to have a little more space.

This was a really nice mother and daughter that came in together. I think it is going to be really hard to choose what I want to do as a doctor, because I loved seeing kids, adults, and the elderly. They are all different in their own ways, but so fun to talk to and learn from.

We were right next to Juarez, Mexico. You could see the fence dividing the US from Mexico. A lot of our patients were from Juarez. I found out that El Paso is the 3rd poorest city in the US, which really surprised me. I hadn't seen poverty like that in the US before. Even so, right across the fence in Juarez was even worse. The disparity that exists in our world is unbelievable.

Our makeshift exam rooms. Most doctors offices have high-tech, thousand dollar tables. We used desks. It worked fine, but I did find myself wishing we had better things to offer our patients. They didn't seem to mind at all though.

On our last day, the church we went to was in the middle of nowhere. It was what you picture when you are thinking of desert El Paso/Mexico. There were already a bunch of people waiting for us when we arrived, and we got going fast. My "exam room" that day was a table set up in the corner of the room. Not exactly private, but again, no one seemed to mind at all. I was so humbled by how kind and thankful the people we saw were.

Finished on the last day! We worked hard, but we also had a lot of fun. It was a good reminder of why I am doing what I'm doing. I won't lie, 2nd year of medical school hasn't been my favorite. I study more than ever in my life, and it wears me out. I have had plenty of moments where I've wanted to just put everything away and go become a teacher or anything else that doesn't require me continuing this marathon. But, then I get to go on a mission trip, or we visit patients in the hospital, and I feel refreshed. I only have 3 weeks left of 2nd year, and I couldn't be happier. Life is going to change pretty dramatically in July though. I will go from studying all day to being in the hospital all day, which will carry its own challenges but will be much more exciting. Mark and I are trying to prepare for the crazy schedules and such. I'm so thankful for how supportive he is. He is a big part of the reason I'm still in this game, he is always encouraging me and having patience when I'm crazy. His personality is great for the part too- not too much shakes him up so it reminds me to chill out. I love that guy.

Snow Day!

2010-04-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

We had the weirdest winter this year. Not only was it incredibly cold, but it snowed more than I have ever seen it before in Texas, and we had so much fun! Our first encounter with the winter weather was on Christmas Eve. We went to church in the early afternoon and it was just sort of dreary outside. Then in the middle of the service, we started to see some little flurries out of the windows at the top of the church. Then, when we left the building at the end, it was coming down in big white flakes and it was beautiful! I've never seen any kind of white Christmas, so we were pretty excited. Little did we know that we would be seeing much more of that wintry weather.

The next batch was the mother load. It was a few weeks later, the day before I had a test and we woke up to huge white flakes and it was showing signs of sticking. Mark had some fun outside before he left for work. It was early and I was still in my pj's, but he didn't hesitate to throw a few snowballs at me.

I was studying inside all day, but I left the shades drawn so I could watch the snow fall. I slowly watched our parking lot fill up.

About mid-day, I saw our upstairs neighbors outside making a snow-woman, so I joined them! They had previously lived up north, so this wasn't too out of the ordinary for them. We named our snow-woman Petunia.

That night, there was no sign of the snow stopping and they were calling it a record for DFW already. The next morning, we woke up to Narnia!!

I had to be at school pretty early to take my test, needless to say this whole snow storm was the biggest distraction ever from studying/caring at all about a test, so I was lucky I did well. After digging my car out and taking a few pictures, we started hearing some cracking noises and watched the tree next to our building basically explode and a huge chunk of it fell off. Come to find out, our whole street was full of tree limbs that couldn't take the weight of the snow, so I was lucky I could get out.

It was so beautiful and peaceful outside that morning. Nevertheless, in true Texas form, the weather warmed up the next day and the snow only lasted another day. We saw it at least twice more to lesser extents over the next few weeks. I wonder what the summer weather will be like!

L4L

2010-02-20T10:38:00.001-08:00

Yes, the blog title is somewhat of a joke. A few weeks before we got married, Mark got a new computer and it came with a free iTouch. When you get any of those kinds of products from Apple, there is an option for free engraving on the back. Mark had typed in "Mark Lopez" and his phone number to engrave, and I made a joke about how we were going to be married soon, so what is his is mine, so it shouldn't say just Mark. We thought about putting "The Lopez's", but then realized, hey, this is free engraving and no one is ever going to appreciate it but us, so we should have fun with it. And Lopez 4 Life was born.

Indiana

2010-02-12T13:07:00.001-08:00

We've been on quite a few trips lately, and the last one (for a few months) was to visit my dad's side of the family in Indiana. They live in a pretty small area of Indiana and it is always so relaxing because life just seems to happen a little more slowly there. We stayed at my aunt and uncle's house, and they live on a big piece of land that is really pretty. I had a test the next week, so we had to make a few trips to the library in town to get Internet, and Mark took the opportunity to take some pictures.

The picture below is of the library. It was really nice and gave Mark and I both the desire to get library cards for the library next to us. There are so many awesome resources and we forget about it because of the Internet, but we want to start appreciating the library more.

My uncle used to work for this brewery in Terre Haute. It is closed now, but we liked the vintage look of it.

My aunt and uncle's land is behind us, and it stretches pretty far back. I went on a walk with my dad the last time we were there and deer were running all around which actually sort of terrified me.

This is my dad's side of the family, minus my cousin Joel who had to leave early that morning to get back to school. From left to right in the front: Uncle Charlie (my dad's brother), Aunt Jean (my dad's sister), me, Mom, Grandpa, Dad, then my brother and Uncle Tim (Jean's husband) in the back. I'm thankful for my sweet family!

San Fran

2010-01-30T14:12:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks before Christmas, my (Alli) parents told us they wanted to take a family trip and thought San Francisco would be fun. We were pretty excited about this idea, so the day after I finished my last test before the break, we left for the west coast! My brother always, seriously always, has some connection with some person to get awesome deals/opportunities when it comes to travel and he didn't disappoint us. We stayed right on the wharf in this really cool boutique hotel that was decorated really pretty for the holidays. At night, they had a fancy hot cocoa bar and free wine in the afternoons. It was a welcomed treat after finishing another semester of school!

It was pretty cold outside, but there were people swimming in the water in front of our hotel! We asked about the sanity of these people, and a nice guy explained that a group of people swim there year round and have a whole system of monitoring their body temperatures to know how long they can handle it and when to go inside to this health club where they get warmed back up. That is a serious dedication to exercise!

The second day we were there, we went to the wine country! We started the morning in Sausalito, a really cute little town right across the Golden Gate Bridge, and had an awesome breakfast at a great cafe.

As usual, my brother wanted to check out the boats that were docked, so we had a nice walk and saw tiny jellyfish in the water around the boats.

We drove through the beautiful countryside and stopped first at the Jacuzzi Winery. Yep, the same guy who invented the hot tub. It reminded Mark and I of this vineyard we looked at to have our wedding and reception. The wine was really good and my parents joined the wine club, so we are benefiting from their monthly deliveries!

Next, we went to the Robert Mondavi winery, a bigger one with a tour offered. So, we got to see some of the behind-the-scenes of wine making and learned a lot about the history and science of it all. It is a pretty involved process.

The vineyards were so beautiful, and we weren't even there for the time of year that they are known for being beautiful!

After we had enough wine tasting for the weekend, we went back to enjoy the city. We had some delicious meals, of course, and walked around all of the little shops. The only slight disappointment for me was that the seals who usually sit on these floating platforms in the wharf were pretty scarce. I guess I wouldn't want to sit up in the wind when it's cold outside either though.

My dad's favorite phrase whenever Alcatraz was in view was (said in a semi-Connery sounding voice) "Welcome...to the Rock."

Our last hoorah for the weekend was a stop at the Ghirardelli shop to have an ice cream sundae! It was a great weekend with my family!

Thanksgiving Trip

2010-01-30T14:06:00.001-08:00

It's been a while, but we want to catch up a little bit from the last few months. I know all 5 of you have been on the edge of your seats :)

We've been on a few trips, the first of which was to The Smokey Mountains in Tennessee! I went in college with some girls and we camped in November and came as close to freezing as I'd ever like to again, but the natural beauty is incredible. So, when we found out that Thanksgiving was going to be in North Carolina with Mark's sister's family, The Burton's, we decided to make a road trip of it and stop in the Smokies. It was such a great trip, our first road trip as newlyweds and we really enjoyed both the time in the car together as well as the fun places we stopped.

The first stop on the road trip was to a wedding in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Mark's good from from college, Joel, married Christina, and you may not be able to see it in the picture, but there is a sign congratulating them outside the movie theater. The town was so small and cute and we loved sharing their wedding day with them!

We made our way to Tennessee the next day, stopping that night in Gatlinburg. On the way, we had a little bit of a run in with some nature... It was really dark and we were on these curvy mountain roads, and all of a sudden this huge Black Bear came running out in front of us. Mark slammed on the brakes and swerved, and thankfully we missed him. Needless to say, we drove the rest of the way quietly leaning forward to see if any other creatures threatened to jump out at us.

We finally made it to Gatlinburg which turned out to be a really fun little tourist town and we had a great time. It was all decorated for the holidays and there were tons of cute little shops to walk around. Mark wanted to play miniature golf, which I'll admit wasn't on the top of my list of things to do, but it turned out to be an awesome course that went up the mountainside and was a lot of fun.

The next morning, we spent some time in the mountains and walked a few trails. Our first encounter of the day was with an elk named Jerry. We were super excited to have stumbled upon him in a clearing, and spent a good 10 minutes watching him eat grass. Then, we drove about 5 minutes further and saw another clearing with about 50 elk and had to laugh at ourselves a little bit. When we pulled up to the huge field full of elk, there were a few other people already there taking pictures and whispering about how neat it was, and Mark and I started to get out of the car and he accidentally pressed the panic button on his car alarm. It was honking so loud and we were both freaking out trying to turn it off. Finally, he stopped it and luckily, we realized the elk couldn't have cared less about the noise! It was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time.

At one of the trailheads, we saw this old school house. I wonder what it was like to go to school a hundred years ago in the Smokey Mountains. It is amazing to think about how much things have changed, now almost every classroom has a computer and countless other resources. Compare that to the simplicity of the one-room school with nothing but the students and their books. I will say, their recess had to be pretty cool everyday.

We left the mountains and drove the rest of the way to Raleigh to see Mark's family. The Burton's just welcomed their newest family member, Bryce! It was so fun to meet him for the first time, and to see the rest of the nieces too. It is amazing how fast kids grow and change. We had a wonderful week in Raleigh and a great Thanksgiving with the Lopez's!

I love how pretty North Carolina is. Even though Raleigh is a big city, its so different from Dallas. I like living in Dallas, but we are a little lacking in the nature department. This picture is from a park near the Burton's that is pretty well incorporated into the surrounding woods. It was nice watching the little ones play on the playground, and we had a little fun too! I appreciate whoever decided to put an adult-sized sea-saw in the mix.

U2 360 Dallas

2009-10-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

We got to go to the U2 360 Tour at Cowboys Stadium! This was great because one of the first conversations Alli and I had at Camp John Marc was how we both really want to go see U2 in concert. I had seen a bunch of DVDs of them live and I always wanted to get to go see them so this was like a dream. We got in line for the field access around 3:30pm... there was already a ton of people in line.

This picture was taken at around 5:15 and it shows all the people BEHIND us in line. Keep in mind we were not close to being in the front of the line. The line wound around the sidewalk around the stadium.

Muse was the opening act, and they melted our faces off with their guitar solos. We really like the song 'Starlight'. They were really terrific and a lot of fun, but we were there to see U2. When they came out, the stadium went bananas. Bono was jumping up and down and yelling.

The stage for the tour was amazing. The center stage rotated around at one point so that the people behind the stage could see them. But it was for the most part pointed at us. We were about 6 or 8 people from the outside ring where they walk around.

The structure of the stage was supposed to look like a spacecraft. It sorta had a reptilian look to it too.

The bridges from the center stage to the outer ring also rotated. So when The Edge was walking on the bridge it rotated towards us and he stepped off right in front of us. It was a pretty crazy set.

The screen was also pretty incredible. During the middle of the concert it came apart and was in these diamond shaped frames. It looked really sweet. Then it came back together and was lower than originally so that you could see this other thing that lit up over the screen.

During the second encore Bono wore this jacket that had lights attached to it and he swung from his microphone which was hanging from the ceiling (like he did on Saturday Night Live). It was a fun concert. Our favorite highlights of the show were probably Mysterious Ways, Elevation, Still Haven't Found, Beautiful Day, Breathe, and Magnificent. But everything was pretty great.

Family Visits and Rangers Game

2009-10-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

My (Mark) brother's family came up from Austin in September. We went to a park and Annie loved the dogs. She probably would have jumped on a swan if we weren't careful. It's always fun to visit with the family!

We went to a Rangers game in late September. They were still hanging on to the playoff race at that point and actually pulled out a really good win against the Angels that night. This is the view of the new Cowboys Stadium from the Ballpark at Arlington.

This was where we sat. It was a great night. One interesting note is that this was the FIRST game in ALL of my life where they did NOT sing the 7th inning stretch. Instead this guy played Cotton Eye Joe on a violin. Really weird.

The Lawrence Welk Show

2009-09-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

Alli and I have found these SNL clips to be some of our favorite things to quote this week. Kristin Wigg is the actress and she's probably our favorite SNL cast member. This should lighten your day.

New York: The Epilogue

2009-09-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've updated our blog, and we are back in Dallas, but I can't leave our season in New York unfinished. So, here is the the last installation of our New York adventures...at least for now.

This was in Times Square right after we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway. Those of you who know us well, are aware that we are huge fans of "The Office," and in one episode, Michael Scott visits NYC and says he likes to go to the places that aren't so touristy, like Times Square. We joked about that every time we went there. Actually, we spend a lot of our time in general quoting The Office. That's what she said.

This was in Central Park on the North side. I didn't know this before living in New York, but the Northern part of Central Park is pretty different from the Southern. There are fewer people and some really beautiful waterfalls. Walking through the park was always a breath of fresh air for me, because its pretty much the only nature you get in Manhattan.

This was on top of the apartment building where our new friends the Asher's live (pictured below). Yes, it overlooks the front of Macy's, and they can watch the Thanksgiving parade from their roof. Yes, I am wildly jealous. I really like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it brings back so many holiday memories! They also have a perfect view of the Empire State Building. Such a neat place to live!

This sums up one of our absolute favorite things about New York. Right before we got married, Mark asked to join a small group from Redeemer Presbyterian, and little did we know how much we would love our new friends. From the left, Aileen (her husband Josh couldn't make it that night), Kristen and her husband Adam behind her, and Elyse and Jordan on the right. We are so thankful we got to know these fun couples, it was such a neat community for us to be a part of for a summer. It was amazing how God provided us with great friends during our short time there. We miss them a lot! Oh, and Kristen and Adam are expecting a baby almost any minute now and we can't wait to see pictures!

I'm sure most of the things we did made us look like tourists, but I never cared. I actually really liked pulling out my map every where I went because I liked figuring out the most efficient ways to get places.

This was the morning I left for Dallas, and as Mark's dad commented, we made sure we fit every last thing in we could. We went to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx and it was so beautiful. Such a sweet ending to our time together in the city, it was hard to believe it was over.

We had an absolutely incredible time in New York filled with memories that I know we'll always cherish. We learned so much from this experience, about marriage, each other, the joy of meeting new friends, what it means to help the poor, how people are so unique and yet still so similar, and how wonderful a new lifestyle can be even when it makes you a little nervous at first (that one was mostly me). We are both looking forward to a lifetime of new adventures for as long as the Lord allows us!

A few more favorites

2009-09-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

My friend Kaitlyn came to visit while we were in New York! It was such a fun week and so nice to be able to spend time with such a great friend. She and her husband are having their first baby in February (Feb 14th is the due date!) and I am so excited!!!

We got tickets to Mary Poppins and loved it! I think we were getting more into it than the little kids around us. We stopped in Times Square for a picture afterward.

These next few are from our day trip to Coney Island. It took about an hour on the subway to get there, and I'm glad we saw it, but there was really not too much going on there. It was kind of a dead town, but pretty unique and made for some fun pictures. It was sort of like you stepped into 1950 or something.

Most of these are little stands that have displays of the food they sell and everything was fried. Everything.

Nathan's was one of the only places with non-fried foods, but pretty pricey for a hot dog. We decided to wait to eat until we got back to the city.

The Staten Island Ferry was one of the best deals in New York, its absolutely free! You wait in a mob of people and they open these big doors to let you on the boat and everyone rushes to get a good place to stand because you pass right by the Statue of Liberty. When you get to Staten Island, you run around the corner to try to catch the ferry that is going back to Manhattan. We ran up to the door just as it was shutting and the guy was not about to let us on. They run every 3o minutes though so it wasn't a big deal.

We didn't actually pay to go to the Statue while we were in New York, but this was close enough for me. I really liked that there was a pirate ship sailing by Lady Liberty.

Kaitlyn and I got up really early one morning to go see the taping of Good Morning America in Central Park because Kelly Clarkson was on! It was a good thing we brought an umbrella, because it absolutely poured on us.

Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts talking to Kelly after she sang. It was interesting because they kept taping quick snip-its of Kelly singing so they could show it as they went to commercials. It makes it look like she is giving a concert the whole time, but she really only sang like 2 or 3 full songs. Slightly disappointing, but still a fun experience and one of the last big things Kaitlyn and I got to do together. I was so glad she came to visit!

My grandmother was Italian and she had about 9 brothers and sisters, so my dad has quite a few cousins. My dad grew up in Connecticut and most of his relatives still live around that area. His cousin Marion and her husband Gordon got in touch with us while we were there and met us for dinner one night in Little Italy. It was such a neat experience to get to know another part of my family! They were both such a hoot and we heard some fun stories about my dad and the rest of the Italian side. Those of you who know my dad can imagine that the whole evening was pretty entertaining.

On one of our last weekends, we finally made it out to New Jersey to see my sweet friends Kate and Bethany. Kate is working in Jersey and Bethany lived with her this summer. It was the cutest little town and a really nice historic-type home. It was a welcomed journey away from the city, sort of like a vacation from our vacation I guess. This is where Mark and Bethany discovered the hilariousness of "Fail Blog" and watched videos for hours while Kate and I did some catching up. Miss you girls!

On our last night together in New York, Mark and I went to Serendipity! The desserts were humongous and SO delicious. Probably the best sweets I've ever had. We had the frozen hot chocolate (on the left) and some ridiculous sundae that had a piece of chocolate cake in it. We watched the movie "Serendipity" on our honeymoon (the selection of DVDs at our resort was mostly really intense dramas so that was one of the few fun ones) so I had been excited about going there for a while.

Despite what it looks like, we couldn't actually finish the desserts. Believe me, we tried.

New York Collage

2009-09-10T11:57:00.001-07:00

While in New York, I collected just about everything. Ticket stubs, brochures, plastic bags, you name it, and I made a collage out of them. Finished it yesterday!

The Highline and Brooklyn

2009-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

We have less than two weeks left here which is hard to believe. Time has gone by so quickly! We had another memorable weekend complete with a walk on the Highline and the Brooklyn Bridge. So, I'm new to the blog-world and admittedly not the most techno savvy person, so the pictures here are in no particular order because I can't figure out how to move them.

The Highline is a really cool new park in Manhattan. They converted an old train line that went above ground into a neat walkway with flowers and awesome views of the city. On our way to see it, we stumbled on the Chelsea Market, which was an exciting find. We walked in this sort of dark doorway and there was a fun bunch of shops and places to eat inside that looked like an alley between two warehouses or something. We ate some unbelievable food and then realized that the whole place is downstairs from the Food Network, so that probably had something to do with it. After we walked through it, we made our way to the Highline and got some great pictures.

After that, we took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked over it into Brooklyn. We had heard that some of the best views of the city are from the bridge and it didn't disappoint us. There are cars below you when you're walking, but I realized halfway through that they are actually on either side of you and the only thing below the wooden boards you're walking on is the river hundreds of feet below. It made us both pretty nervous. We made it over the bridge and into Brooklyn and walked around a fun part of the city the rest of the afternoon.
This is a view from The Promenade in Brooklyn Heights. Mark said he thought it was where Will Smith sits when he's contemplating joining the Men In Black or not. It was an amazing view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

This is us in the middle of the bridge. You can see the Manhattan Bridge in the background.

One of my favorite sights of the day. Pigeons sharing an ice cream cone! How nice. And patriotic. They were pecking at it, so it was flying everywhere and getting all over them.

Starting the treck across the bridge. We had to stop and think about how amazing the construction of a bridge is. There are so many people and cars that cross it each day!

One of the views from the Highline. You could sit down there and there was a window overlooking the street so you could see the cars going right under you.

Lots of pretty flowers on the Highline!

Amazing looking cupcakes at the Chelsea Market from some well known bakery called Eleni's.

The fruits and vegetables were all so fresh and pretty. Lots of homegrown and organic stuff.

Another really fun day. I think we're going to live life a little differently when we get back to Dallas. We've grown to love walking around and appreciating what is around us. You see so much when you aren't always driving. I'm getting excited because my friend Kaitlyn is coming in town today for a visit, so I'm sure I'll have some more fun things to write about soon!!

Yankee Game!

2009-07-22T09:42:00.001-07:00

Last week, Mark and I went to see the Yankees play! It was one of our favorite nights in New York. For those of you who didn't know (like me), the Yankees have a brand new stadium this year and it is really fancy. We sat in the bleachers and had a great view of the game. I don't know why the bleachers are the cheapest seats because they are my favorite place to sit. I guess you are a little far from the pitcher, but you have a great view of home runs. We sat next to this older couple who had apparently given tickets to a young mom and son outside the game. The little boy was hilarious and he'd get really into the game and yell at the umpire. The old man would explain some of the finer details of baseball to him and it was really cute. They were even nice enough to take a picture of us!
It was a really good game. The Yankees beat the Orioles 2-1 on a home run in the 9th by "Godzilla" - his real name escapes me. They pied him in the face during the interviews after the game. Mark wants to go see the Yankees play the Red Sox next week, which is known to be a pretty heated game among the fans. After a semi-questionable call during our game, a guy in our section stood up and said it was a bad call and the entire section booed him for a while. Lesson learned, don't mess with New Yorkers. When the Yankees win, they play Frank Sinatra's, "New York, New York" and Mark and I definitely felt like we were "a part of it."

NYC Volume 3: The Entertainment

2009-07-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

We have had a lot of fun these past few days going to different events around the city. The first was last Wednesday when we went to Brooklyn for the Philharmonic in the Park! I particularly enjoyed it because when we went into the park, it felt like we had completely left the city. You couldn't see any buildings, just trees and fields and it was really pretty. Actually, Mark and I both agreed that it reminded us of Barton Springs in Austin, a park we've gone to a few times together. It was refreshing to sort of get away from the city, especially for me because I do a lot of walking around Manhattan while Mark is at work. We got to the concert pretty early to get a good spot, set our blanket out on the grass and started to get our picnic out, when we saw some people we knew! Remember, there were thousands of people already there and Mark and I know about 6 people in the entire city, so this was quite a coincidence. It was a couple from our small group, so we went to say hi and ended up sitting with them and a big group they were with. Mark signed us up for a small group through the church we're going to here, Redeemer Presbyterian, before we got married and we really love it. We have met some wonderful people and it has been such a blessing to us! The Philharmonic was incredible, it was such beautiful music and it was a perfect night outside.

One of the downsides to these free concerts and stuff we've been going to is that they always seem to have a major shortage of bathrooms, and at intermission, I really had to go. So, Mark came with me to find about 50 people waiting in line for 3 bathrooms. Yikes! After seriously contemplating going in the woods, we decided to stick it out and wait in the line. We ended up standing behind these three women that Mark so perfectly described as "Marge Simpson's sisters." They had thick New York accents and deep, raspy voices and were pretty hilarious to listen to. It definitely made waiting in line a little easier. At the end of the concert, there were fireworks which were awesome and made a great ending to a fun evening!

The next night, we saw a band that was the complete opposite of the Philharmonic. The band was called "Man Man" and the description we came up with for the concert was a "Rock Circus." Mark said it was like they were playing 5 different songs at the same time. I don't think I've been to a concert that made me laugh like that. It was chaos, but a planned chaos where they all stopped and started at the same time. They were yelling and jumping and throwing feathers and I really don't know how to put it all into words. The picture above really doesn't do it justice. It was something fun and out of the ordinary for us, and Mark said a lot of people in his field listen to that type of thing, so it was fun for him to get to know it a little better.

On Friday, we met a friend from our church for dinner at a delicious sushi place and then went to the Morgan Museum which was free that night. The museum is made up of JP Morgan's collection of famous art and other amazing things like Beethoven and Mozart manuscripts and an original Gutenberg Bible. It was pretty crazy how much stuff Morgan had acquired over his lifetime, he had the biggest personal library I've ever seen! It reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, complete with different levels of books that you'd have to use a ladder to get to. Plus, the security guy told us that one of the shelves was a secret passageway, which completed the whole "Batcave" effect. It was a pretty fascinating sight.

On Saturday, Mark and I walked through Morningside Park, a beautiful park just north of Central Park to "Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too," one of the best soulfood places I've ever been. Then, we went down to lower Manhattan and walked around the Fulton Fish Market which felt more like Seattle than New York. We visited the TKTS booth, which is where you get discount tickets for shows in the city and got tickets to "Stomp" for that night. It was such an amazing show! They went for almost 2 hours straight, playing everything from toilet plungers to matchbooks and inner-tubes. They swung from the ceilings and beat on trashcan lids and pots, and even just made rhythms with their hands and feet. We liked it a lot!

By Sunday, we were pretty exhausted, so we just walked around the city after church for a while and ate at a fun diner on the East Side. We did make a stop into the Apple Store though, which is constantly packed with people. That's all for now!

NYC Volume 2: The Food

2009-07-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

One of the best things New York has to offer is amazing food. We have had some seriously delicious meals and have yet to be disappointed with any place we’ve gone! Here are our favorites…kind of embarrassing how long this list is…

The Food:

La Esquina – This was one of the first places we went and it was AMAZING. It is pretty small and serves real Mexican food, not the Tex-Mex we are so used to. So many places in the city are unique in what they serve. We decided that Mark’s Nana could open up her own restaurant here and even if she only served tortillas, it would be wildly successful.

Rice to Riches – This place looks like a trendy ice cream shop, but instead of selling ice cream, they sell rice pudding! I’m fairly certain it’s in the movie “Hitch”. It was delicious and we got to keep the cool bowl and spoon.

Magnolia Bakery – You may or may not know this about me, but I’m a big sweets person. It is a major weakness of mine. One of my favorite sweets is cupcakes and we had some of the best cupcakes EVER at the Magnolia Bakery. We took them to Rockefeller Center to sit and eat them, and they didn’t last long!

La Taza de Oro – This little place serves Puerto Rican food and it was very authentic inside. We liked it a lot!

Andy's Deli – This is the deli right by Mark’s work, so we’ve gone here a few times. I think this is exactly the type of place that makes New York famous for its deli’s. I don’t know why their versions of sandwiches are better than other places, but they are. It’s a mystery.

Celeste – We went here one of the first few days we were in New York and it is authentic Italian food. It’s a tiny little place and you sit elbow to elbow with strangers. It reminds me of the Italian atmosphere I’ve experienced where everyone is like a big family. It was so fun and our pastas were great!

Billy's Bakery – Mark thinks their cupcakes are better than Magnolia’s, but it’s a tough choice. They were pretty delightful though.

Shake Shack – This place amazed me. It’s this little building in Madison Square Park and the line to get food is at least a half-hour long at any time of day. We got hamburgers and a custard concrete and I then understood why the line was so long.

Mr. Softee – There must be about 800 of these trucks around town, because you can see them on most streets. It is soft-serve ice cream that has been around for years (my dad said he grew up with it) and it is really good. And, they give you free sprinkles.

Jackson Hole – This place is famous for their hamburgers, so that’s what we got. It was by far the largest hamburger I’ve ever seen. Mark and I shared one with nothing on the side and both of us left full!

Kefi – We tried to go to this place once and the wait was forever, so we made reservations for the next night. It is Greek food, which I’m not ordinarily super excited about, but it was SO good. It was super cool inside, we ate downstairs and it looked sort of like the living room of a nice home in Greece.

Adrienne's Pizza Bar – We walked a lot on Sunday and we made our way down to Stone Street in lower Manhattan. Stone Street is this narrow, cobblestone street that has about 8 restaraunts on either side and the tables are all out in the street. The night was beautiful and we ate an amazing salad and shared one of the best pizzas I’ve had.

Bouchon Bakery – This little bakery is in the Time Warner center, so we got sandwiches and took them to Central Park last Sunday. They were such simple sandwiches, but so good!

Murray's Bagels – New York is famous for their bagels, and this is known to be one of the best places to get them. They have so many choices, including a lot of options with fish which I find an interesting choice for breakfast. I guess a lot of people eat them for lunch too. Our bagels were fantastic, so soft!

Those were our favorites, which is everything we’ve eaten so far. I’m cooking more now that we’ve figured out the grocery store situation, which I’ll probably detail more later!

NYC Volume 1: The Sights

2009-07-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Mark and I have done a lot in just the past week and a half. There are so many fun (and free!) things to do here over the summer, so I'll try to hit the high points of what we've experienced so far.

The Sights:

Rockefeller Center - This is one of my favorite places. Maybe because of my love for 30 Rock, but mostly because it is just a really cool place to sit and people watch. Something I didn't know before is that during the warmer months, instead of an ice rink they have a fancy outdoor restaurant and bar in the middle. Mark and I came here one night with cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery and sat for a while.

Columbus Circle - We take the subway here everyday and we usually make a transfer underground to get to Mark's work, but its another great place to sit. We came here after the fireworks on the 4th and sat by the fountain while thousands of people walked by.

The Metropolitan Museam of Art - I went with my friend Bethany (from Camp John Marc) last week. Even just the building itself is incredible, and it is filled with so many different types of art. Some beautiful, some thought provoking, and some really creepy. I really liked the sculptures and the European paintings.

The Museum of Natural History - Mark and I went here this past weekend. It was interesting because most of the museum is scenes of stuffed creatures behind glass. We could only go to one "special" exhibit (kind of disappointing because it is pretty expensive in my opinion), so we picked the Planetarium which I haven't been to since junior high and it was really cool.

The Hudson River - We have been here a few times, once for the 4th of July fireworks and twice to see different shows on a pier. Both shows were pretty overcrowded though so we didn't end up staying. Thats the tricky thing about fun events here, sometimes you have to show up about 4 hours early or you can't see much.

Columbia University - I went here with Bethany because she's applying to a program here and it was beautiful!! It made me excited to start learning again.

Battery Park - This is where you get on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, so we had a great view of it. We are planning on going sometime soon to see the statue. They had a big metal sculpture there that looked pretty beat up, so we read the plaque for it and it was a sculpture that used to be in front of the World Trade Center that stood for World Peace.

Ground Zero - We went to a small church called St. Paul in front of the site that did a lot to help during 9/11. They had an exhibit up with pictures and writings about what it was all like. It was great to read about how the church represented Christ through their tremendous acts of service and love.

Wall Street - We went on Sunday, so there was no action, maybe for the best.

Times Square - A little too busy for me most of the time, but its still fun to see it. Did you know there is an area in the middle where people just set up lawn chairs to sit and watch? I didn't believe Mark at first when he told me they weren't waiting to see something in particular, just lounging in Time Square.

Central Park - Mark and I spent a lot of time in Central Park on Sunday and it was wonderful. We brought lunch and watched a few baseball games, saw people playing cricket and tennis, musicians, boat riders, fountains, baby ducks, what more could you ask for?

Greenwich Village/The Meatpacking District - One of the more expensive parts of town, so not my favorite place, but we went to a cool glass art exhibit there.

The Flatiron District - This is where Mark works, so we spend most of our time around there. Its pretty typical, shops and deli's and restaraunts. There are some fun parks around it and I like walking here.

Chinatown - Pretty much exactly what you are picturing right now. Flags with Chinese lettering and shop after shop with a lot of Chinese food places. Bethany and I went here and she got ginger-flavored ice cream which was very surprisingly delicious.

Union Square - I sit here quite a bit, its pretty close to where Mark works and a subway that goes pretty much anywhere. Lots of musicians and artists usually, and a Farmer's Market on Fridays & Saturdays that I'm planning on visiting this week.

Stay tuned for volume II, our personal favorite....the food!!

Lopez 4 Life!

2009-07-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

We've finally decided to take the plunge...and start a blog. I don't know how good this is going to be seeing as I typed and erased about 2o sentences just to get this thing started, but my hope is that we can share more of our life with our friends and family. So, here it goes!

We are newlyweds!! Mark and I got married on June 27, 2009 and I know it sounds cliche, but I'm not lying when I say it was a dream come true. I could never have imagined how wonderful it would feel to be surrounded by our incredible family and friends to celebrate the joining of our lives. It was such a display of how much the Lord has blessed us through the people He has put in our lives. I loved every minute of it! I will post some pictures once we get them.

After the best party of our lives, we were off to Turks & Caicos for our honeymoon!

Or so we thought...

We were dropped off at the airport and we started to check in and I'm scanning my passport but it isn't working. A guy from the airline walks over and tries to scan it too, and then he looks at it and casually says "Oh, you can't use this." He opens to the first page and at some point, someone had punched holes in it and there was a red stamp that said "Cancelled". WHAT?? A lady named Ms. Bonita walks over because she sees that there is an issue and starts asking me if I had another one. Of course, I did not, and she says we can't go. I look at her with tears in my eyes and say "But, its our honeymoon..." and her face drops. I can tell that she feels so bad for us, and she's trying to tell us how we can fly to Houston and get a passport the next day, etc etc. I'd mostly given up hope that this trip was going to happen at this point. I call my brother to see what he thinks, he is pretty much a travel guru, and he finds another passport at my parents house that I didn't know about. They start the 30 minute drive to the airport, and Ms. Bonita tells us that we have 25 minutes before we won't be able to board. Meanwhile, she is doing everything she can to check our bags through and get everything ready so we can just scan my passport and go once it got there. She was amazing. My dad and my brother somehow (I didn't want to know how fast they were going), made it to the airport in under 20 minutes, and we flew through security and got on our plane. It was unbelievable. When it was all over, we laughed about it a lot. I am so thankful for BJ, my dad, and Ms. Bonita, without them we wouldn't have gone on the best trip of our lives!

We spent a week on a 20 mile island that seemed to have about 20 other people on it, at the most beautiful resort called the Windsong. It was small enough to where we got to know most of the workers at the resort. They had a delicious continental breakfast in the morning and Anthony, the guy who served, would give us all of the leftover fruit if we came at the end. We had a lot of relaxing time on the beach, delicious dinners, and even made some of our own food in the amazing kitchen of our condo-style room. We went on a snorkel trip one day where we went to an iguana island, snorkeled on a reef, went conch-diving (yes, we have a giant shell in our home now), and spent an afternoon on a beautiful beach. The captain of the boat was named "Pringles" and he was the entertainment for the afternoon. While we were on the beach, Pringles took the conch that people (including Mark) got from the bottom of the ocean, and made a 'conch-ceviche' that we ate. It was actually pretty good, but I had a hard time eating something that was alive at the bottom of the ocean 5 minutes before. Kinda weird.

We left Turks & Caicos on the 4th of July and the only consolation to the end of our trip was that we were making our way to New York! We are living in the Big City for the rest of the summer while Mark works for Blue Room, a motion graphics company. We got here just in time to see some incredible fireworks in a crowd of a million people. The picture really doesn't do it justice, there were people as far as we could see! We sat on the Hudson River Highway and had a great view.

So far, we've had a lot of memorable events in NYC, and I'll give some of the highlights soon. Thanks for visiting our blog!