Chatty

Last weekend Zack and I spent a night in Chattanooga. Life has been so busy and hectic recently with Zack and I both going a hundred miles an hour trying to keep up with the demands of our respective jobs. So, we decided to take some time to reconnect. We were hoping to make a weekend of it, but I had to work a 1/2 day on Saturday. So, after I got home from work, we piled into our car and headed on a little road trip.

We got up to Chattanooga about 3 and checked into our hotel. Once settled into the hotel, we headed out to walk around and see what there was to downtown Chattanooga. Even though Zack go to Chattanooga every once in a while, it is usually with a specific purpose in mind and we really have never taken to time to just enjoy the city.



Chattanooga is actually a really neat little city and it has nice parks and walking paths around the downtown area. Zack and I walked around downtown and then took the walking bridge (an old railroad bridge converted to walking bridge) over to the North side of town. For those of you who have never been to Chattanooga, it is a quaint little town located on the banks of the Tennessee river. The city itself is pretty clean, and there is a free shuttle service that will take you pretty much anywhere that you would like to go around the downtown area.








After walking around a little, Zack and I decided to look for a place to eat dinner. We ended up deciding on a little Mexican restaurant not far from our hotel. We were pretty hungry and the food was pretty good. After dinner we headed back to our hotel to have a family meeting....basically to spend some time talking and just trying to get on the same page. After about an hour, Zack decided that we needed to go get some Ben and Jerry's Ice cream...he had been craving ice cream since we had walked past the ice cream shop earlier that afternoon. So, we headed about a block from our hotel to the Ben and Jerry's on the corner. I was stuffed from dinner. So we ended up sharing some ice cream.







We headed back to our hotel with our cold, creamy treasure and scoped out the hotels pool...whic was PACKED with kids. We decided that we would wait a little while and then head down to the pool. So, about and hour later we went back to go swimming. We were in luck, because as we walked in the door to the pool, the last of the families were walking out...we had the whole pool and hot tube to ourselves....at least for a short time...a few minutes after we got there 2 couples came in..I'm not sure if they were intoxicated yet, but they were on their way, each with alcoholic beverage of choice in hand...and they apparently had no qualms about PDA. So, feeling a little like uninvited guests, Zack and I decided to head up to our room for the night.

Sunday morning, Zack and I headed down to the shuttle stop to catch a shuttle across town to a restaurant that Zack had founf online, the City Cafe. The reviews that Zack had read were glowing. We got to the restaurant, which was linked to a Days Inn. Zack and I have learned not to judge every restaurant by it's outward appearance.

The restaurant did not disappoint. The portions were huge and the prices were low. I think that my meal cost about 3.99 and I got and egg and cheese sandwich with home fries. It was delicious and I had a hard time finishing all of it. Zack got a omelet and homefries and his meal was about 5 dollars.



We left the City Cafe satisfied and headed to one of the parks located on the banks of the Tennessee River. We sat under a bridge to stay in the shade and had the bulk of our family meeting. We talked about goals for our family, expectations, and hope for the future. We didn't always completely agree on everything, but we at least were able to discuss our thoughts and feelings on different topics which is always helpful.





The day before while walking around, we stumbled across a little ice cream parlor. I should say our noses led us to it as we walked toward the delicious smell of freshly baking waffle cones. The line was really long and we had not yet had dinner. So, we agreed that we would go back the next day. So, after sitting in the park for a while talking, Zack and I headed to Clumpies for some ice cream...I was not disappointed. It was delicious, and it was worth waiting in line for.


After we finished our ice cream, we headed back toward the main section of town because we wanted to watch a movie. We decided to catch a matinee. We were wavering between a few movies, but decided to go watch the Adjustment Bureau. It turned out to be very different than I anticipated....and I'm not sure if I liked it or not.



After the movie, Zack and I decided to grab some dinner before heading home (trying to prolong our mini vacation). One of Zack's coworkers talks about the restaurant Qdoba alot. So, Zack wanted to try it out...it reminded me of a glorified Moes. The food was good, but no better than a Moes in my opinion.




After dinner, we walked back to where our car was parked and headed back to the reality of our crazy and busy lives. However, it had been a great weekend and Zack and I were in a much better place to face the world together viewing things from the same perspective. It was nice to have a little time just to enjoy one another's company and to touch base with where we each are in terms of our hopes, dreams, and expectations.

soup and sandwich at the puddle

A few days ago, I tried out a couple of new recipes. I tried out a slow cooker beef stew and ultimate panini. The beef stew was, ok, but the panini was really good. I didn't have a panini maker. So, I used my George Forman grill and it worked nicely to give the sandwiches those nice grill marks. Zack really liked the sandwiches too despite the tomato that was on them. The sandwiches have ham, pickles, caramelized onions, tomato, and cheese on them....yum!

Dr. Seuss, the finished project.

Well, I finally got some pictures of the decorations that I made for work, at work. So, here is what our pod looks like after being Seussafied. Sorry the pictures are kinda dark, but I took these when I had to work last Saturday. So, most of the office didn't have the lights on.

I thought that the babies looked pretty cute sporting their Dr. Seuss Hats. There are also pictures of cute babies on the note tray/holder things beside each door and they each have their very own Seuss hat too.

Denver

As a PA, every six years, I am required to take a recertification exam to maintain my National certification. While it is hard to believe that I have already been out of PA school long enough to need to take this exam, I know that it has been long enough for me to forget a lot of the areas of medicine in which I am not actively working. The recertification exam is a general medicine exam, meaning that you can and likely will be asked questions about every area of medicine. Since I really need my national certification in order to be able to legally practice and thus maintain my job, this exam is REALLY important to pass. My friend Beth from PA school and I had been looking for review programs that we could go to together in order to prepare for our exam. It is always better to go to those kind of things with someone that you know.

So, the first week in March, my friend Beth and I met up in Denver to attend a continuing education review course for our PANRE exam. If you are going to spend that much time in a room listening to lectures, you might as well kill 2 birds with one stone! The CME that I got from this course will pretty much complete my category 1 CME requirements for the year.

The review course was REALLY intense. We were in the "class room" from 7 in the morning to about 6-6:30 every night with about a 30 minute window for lunch, which thankfully was provided. Then, at the end of the first 4 days, we were given a 2 hour take home test of 120 questions to complete. These were designed to give you both an idea of areas where you are weakest and to let you know how prepared you are, without studying, to pass the exam.

I left work early on Tuesday and had to catch a shuttle down to the airport. I was a little worried about taking the shuttle since I had never done it before, but I made it to the airport with plenty of time to make my flight. I was trying to travel light, so I wouldn't have to check a bag. So, I had a couple bags to keep track of while I was running through the airport.

I got into Denver without any trouble. Once I got there I caught a shuttle to the hotel and met up with Beth in the Lobby. I called Zack to let him know that I was safely to the hotel.


Pretty soon after I made it to the hotel, Beth and I went to bed so that we would be ready for the full day ahead of us.

We woke up and headed down to the buffet breakfast that came included in our hotel price. The buffet was really pretty nice, although the selection did not really very from day to day.

After eating a nice filling breakfast, we headed into the lecture hall and sat down on the front row (the only place we could find 2 seats together) to listen to the lectures. I was READY for a break by the time that we stopped for lunch. Unfortunately, Beth and I got stuck in the back of the line for lunch. So, we barely got food, scarfed it down, and ran to the bathroom before the afternoon session started.

The binder of lecture material was incredibly thick. So, Beth and I would just take the notes for the day down from our room with us each morning...much easier to carry around that way.

The food that they served each day for lunch was actually really good. And each afternoon, we got a snack break with some different sweet or savory treat each day.


After we finished our first full day, Beth and I headed out to Downtown Denver for dinner. We were able to just walk a couple blocks from out hotel and have a good variety of placed to eat. Beth had gone to an Irish restaurant for dinner the night before. She thought that it was really good and she wanted to try it again. So, we decided to try it out for dinner.

I ordered a Chicken and Bacon Boxty, which was delicious and Beth ordered some chicken curry. Her meal had great flavor, but it was a little to spicy for my liking.

Beth's Chicken Curry 9oops, a little blurry)

My Chicken Bacon Boxty

Our second day of conference was pretty much like the first....The most exciting thing of course was the food.

breakfast...



lunch...



and Dinner...

We asked the hotel concierge where a good place to eat would be. He suggested a restaurant called the paramount cafe. So, Beth and I decided to try it out.


Beth ordered some kind of tacos and I ordered Falafel. I didn't try Beth's meal, but mine was really good. The ambiance was really nice too. The restaurant was part of an old theater and it had some neat architecture.



and, then of course, there was a LOT of this...
And the third day...



This was pretty much the most sun that we saw during our trip because the rest of our time was spent in a room without windows.

I forgot to take a picture of our lunch this day. But we had make your own sandwiches and mini cheesecakes

We had seen a little restaurant the first night in Denver that looked good. So we decided to try it out third day. The restaurant was called noodles & company.


I had chicken noodle soup and Parmesan crusted chicken penne.

Then we stopped by the corner cafe for dessert. I had a whoopie pie.


And then our last full day...
Breakfast...
Lunch...


And dinner...
For dinner we headed to a restaurant that we had noticed earlier in the week called the yard. We both ordered southern chicken fried chicken with spinach mashed potatoes. I thought that it was delicious.



Denver was a pretty interesting place....the small part of it we saw....We did see a guy walking around in a full storm troopers outfit from star wars...very interesting....very interesting.

The lectures were exhausting and both Beth and I were ready to be done at the end of each night....but I am glad that I went. I still have a lot of studying to do, but it was nice to have a review and get some review materials.