The Pan and Jerm Show

Baby Update!

2009-11-01T18:56:00.005-06:00

Things are progressing well on the baby front. I figured we better start updating this thing, so we'll be in the habit when we have millions of cute pictures to share with far-away family!

I'm 35 weeks and 1 day, and according to Jeremy, the baby will be born between one and two weeks before my due date. I hope he's right, but I'm not getting my hopes too high!

He's going to be named William Lawrence (and yes, KU basketball was involved in the name choice!).

I just finished washing all the teeny little clothes and socks, and realized I have no idea how many clothes we need! But, since I've never done this before, we'll just see how it goes and buy more stuff if we need it!

The room is almost finished, as you can see from the pictures below.

Looking in from the doorway.
The crib side. Waiting on homemade bedding accessories from Nonni in Kansas!
The changing table area.

An awesome picture painted by our niece Katlyn. The frame is being painted, so we should get that up on the wall in the next few days.

And for the adoring public, a picture of my ever expanding waistline. This is from last week, I was post-call and it is blurry, but you get the gist!
That's the update! More news as it comes!

Oh My Yum.

2009-08-30T10:47:00.001-05:00

Steamed lobster tails and Risotto with Peas.

Just. YUM.

Yum!

2009-08-29T16:05:00.003-05:00

Ok, trying to ease back into this blogging thing. Slowly, but surely...

Cherry Pie with Crumb Topping

The crumb topping doesn't look right, for some reason. Let's hope it tastes good!

Saturday in Asheville

2009-08-23T16:06:00.004-05:00

We spent a fun Saturday in Asheville yesterday. Started out with a trip to Chimney Rock, with some pretty spectacular views. We rode the elevator to the top of the chimney and got some great views.

After that, we hiked to this 400 foot waterfall. It was a bit challenging for me, considering I'm not a hiker even when not pregnant, but we made it! My calves are paying the price today, however!

From there we headed to Asheville. We wandered around downtown and had some dinner and ice cream. Asheville is like Lawrence on steroids. A similar appearance to Mass Street, however about 10x the number of hippies! We also managed to see a guy juggling fire, a man dressed as a nun riding a tall tricycle and a man dressed entirely in white, with his head painted white as well. Weird!

2-Month Update

2009-07-23T08:51:00.003-05:00

In case anyone still follows here, we haven't been posting, mainly because we don't have anything to post about. But here's a quick synopsis of the last 2 months.

We flew to KC in May and had a great week at my brother's graduation and Pan's brother's wedding. Lots of Oklahoma Joe's was eaten and Boulevard imbibed.

I flew back to KC in June and had a great time at my friend Scott's wedding.

Pan is now roughly halfway through the pregnancy. She's had a really good pregnancy thus far, in that she hasn't had much in the way of the typical pregnancy side effects. We did find out we are having a boy, which breaks the streak on my side of the family of having all girls. We're still super-excited and have begun looking harder at all the stuff we need to buy, including going to a 1 million square foot furniture store to look at expensive cribs and baby rooms. Too much.

We did fit in a trip to the beach (Wrightsville), where I managed to avoid spraining my ankle this time. We had a pretty fun trip, although we ate some terrible food along the Cape Fear River in Wilmington.

Pan is no longer an intern and is really enjoying her anesthesia residency thus far. She really enjoys the people she gets to work with and the much-improved lifestyle, compared to the first year.

That's really it. We've just been really busy with both of our jobs, traveling around a bit, and baby stuff.

Any ideas for baby boy names? I think I know my favorite, but Pan is still very undecided, so any suggestions are useful.

Coming Soon...

2009-05-11T18:53:00.004-05:00

Due date: 12/5/2009

We're thrilled!!

Bloomed

2009-04-26T10:41:00.003-05:00

Our plants are almost fully bloomed, I think. Hopefully, our lemon tree continues its recovery from Catmageddon 2009.

It has been a beautiful couple days in Carolina, although a little warm (highs of about 89). Pan is missing out on the nice weather, finishing up another 30-hour call in the ICU, but only has a few 30hr calls left in her intern year, which is pretty great.

Grilling Season

2009-04-15T21:33:00.003-05:00

Finally! Spring has sprung, and extreme heat is ready to be applied to various meats. I just wish we had more time to enjoy grilling or really anything fun to do. Unfortunately, our work schedules have been hectic.

We do have a trip to Kansas next month to look forward to, though. Soon after, Pan is no longer an intern!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T13:10:00.002-05:00

Who else seen da leprechaun, say yeaaaaahhhh!

We've got the corned beef in the crockpot and the Guinness in the fridge. Cheers!

A Story

2009-03-14T15:47:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time, there was a Meyer Lemon tree and a very curious cat.
And a dustbuster that died.
And so we bought a new vacuum.
The End.

Or, in picture form...
(dumb cat, returning to the scene of the crime...)

Leftovers

2009-02-28T14:16:00.008-06:00

A few good things we've made in the past week or so, but haven't had time to blog about:

An avocado red onion mixture thingy that we used for shrimp fajitas. Pretty great.

A well-rounded meal, for once. Raspberry chipotle glazed chicken with sauteed potatoes, stuffing, and corn. Pretty solid.

Best omelet ever. Stuffed with cheese, chorizo, shallots, and the like. Awesome.

Krautspaetzle. I had never had it before, but it was really pretty good, although I think I would add lentils and German sausage next time. The spaetzle itself was great.

Mustard-glazed pork with salad and couscous. I ate like a fat kid that night.

An Oldie but a Goodie Or: We're Still Alive!

2009-02-14T12:04:00.004-06:00

That was today's lunch: Roasted poblano peppers, stuffed with spanish rice, black beans, and chorizo. It was awesome.

Yes, we are still mostly alive, but we've been really boring. We've been working crazy hours lately (especially Pan, of course, who is currently on a 30-hour call), so I'm just glad when I don't have to eat something by Marie Callender or something out of a bag. Pan hasn't had time to knit in her roughly one hour of awake time at home per day.

But everything's going well for the most part. Our lemon tree is starting to bear some small fruit and the weather here has been great, in the mid-70s and sunny all last week.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day to anyone who manages to still check this after such a long absence.

Also, Kittens inspired by Kittens:

Knitting in 2008!

2009-01-09T21:51:00.001-06:00

This isn't everything, but there were several gifts that I don't have pictures of. Doesn't look like much when it's all compressed like that, but I suppose 2 sweaters, a tank, 5 pairs of socks (my Spring Forwards didn't make it in there somehow), 6 hats, a pair of mittens and 4 bags isn't too shabby. Jeremy's socks were the most tedious, the colorwork hat was the most fun to knit, and the Lila tank is the best fitting garment I've knit thus far.

Now I need to knit at double the speed in half the time, because my stashing has been a bit, um, enthusiastic, considering how much time I actually have to knit!

I do already have a small 2009 FO to show off soon!

Happy 2009!

2008-12-31T21:13:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!
As I celebrate from The Baptist, I thought I'd run through some of the highlights of 2008. Without linking to all the posts, because I'm lazy like that. Really, just click through the archives if you want to see old posts.

2008 in Review

Jan- I spent a month in Chanute for my rural rotation of med school. Jeremy played a lot of video games and drank a lot of beer while I was gone, I'm assuming.

Feb- After much indecision, stress, angst and millions of late night discussions about the possibilities, I turned in my Rank List for The Match. Jeremy was marvelously patient with my 500 nervous breakdowns about where to go, would I match, what order should I rank programs in, etc, etc, etc.

Mar- On March 20, Match Day finally arrived. Nervous doesn't even begin to describe the feeling of walking up to the stage to open an envelope that would tell me where I would train and where we would live for the next 4 years. Happily and quite unexpectedly, I matched at my first choice, Wake Forest University. Jeremy was quite happy to be moving to North Carolina, despite the fact that he'd never even been in the state!

April- The Jayhawks finally pulled it off- National Champions 2008! I nearly tipped over the couch in the process, because I was so excited/nervous while watching the game. The day after we won the title, Jeremy and I headed to Winston-Salem, NC to do some house hunting. We had quite a successful trip- we looked at five houses, put in an offer and found out our offer was accepted when we were sitting in the airport in Chicago, awaiting our connecting flight home.

May- We celebrated a double graduation with Jeremy graduating from UMKC School of Law and me from KU School of Medicine. I had the chance to walk down the hill again, and spray unsuspecting bystanders with tons of cheap champagne during graduation. It was worth every bit of torture during med school to be able to celebrate that moment. We also frantically packed up our apartment and bid farewell to KC, our family and our friends. We loaded all of our stuff (SO. MUCH. STUFF. UGH) into a huge truck and headed for NC with the help of the Strathman parents.

June- I came back to KC for two weeks to finish up a teaching obligation and left Jeremy and the cat hanging out at the house in NC. My mom drove out to NC with me and then flew back to KC. There were definitely some tears shed at the airport, but I managed to console Jeremy (just kidding!). We started to get settled into our new house and tried to adjust to our new town. We also figured out that crazy southerners refer to a shopping cart as a 'buggy'!

July- I started my internship on July 1. It was rather terrifying to realize that I was actually a doctor and now had to figure out what in the heck I was doing! Jeremy started job hunting in Winston-Salem. We also took a weekend trip to Wrightsville Beach and had a great time!

August- This is where things start to get blurry. It goes something like, I worked a lot, Jeremy looked for a job, we bought a kitchen table. We did travel to Vermont for Brent & Bridget's wedding and had a marvelous time and ate fabulous food.

September- We celebrated our birthdays! I had a homemade cake made by my wonderful husband, and I made a mocha cheesecake for Jeremy. I also realized I'm officially old.

October- We traveled to Asheville and I bought a whole lot of yarn at SAFF. We tried to check out some great scenery, but it rained during most of the scenic parts of the trip. We also bought new living room furniture and said goodbye to Jeremy's college couch. Thank goodness!

November- We welcomed my mom & mark for a week's visit. We had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed not having to come to the hospital for an entire week! We spent 3 days in the Outer Banks and found a great big seashell. We also discovered the wonder that is A Southern Season, a 60,000 square foot kitchen/cooking store! We celebrated a delicious Thanksgiving at home and had a TON of leftover turkey! Jeremy got a job as a merchandiser with the PET dairy company and I breathed a hugh sigh of relief!

December- We finally traded in the ol' White Dragon for a 2006 Ford Escape. We immediately celebrated finally having a car with a functional driver's window by heading for the nearest Cook Out for some cheddar style burgers. I also got to spend 4 days in Kansas and see friends, family and the Radio City Rockettes at the Sprint Center. I made it home on Christmas Eve and Jeremy and I had a lovely Christmas filled with WAY TOO MUCH JUNK FOOD from Santa and a delicious ham! I headed to work on Christmas night and am here celebrating NYE, also! Such is the life of an intern!

So, if you've made it this far, I congratulate you! That exhausted me just typing it all! I think the best summary of 2008 is that it has been the Year of Adulthood. Graduations, houses, a car, new jobs and a move half-way across the country!

Best Wishes for a happy & healthy 2009! I'm already predicting the best day of the year will be on July 1, when I'm no longer an intern!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:37:00.003-06:00

Hope everyone has a great day! I arrived back from Kansas last evening and we're spending a quiet Christmas at home until I have to go work later today.

Jerm got a *little* carried away with the whole stuffing the stockings business...

Some of us enjoyed the day more than others...

O Tennenbaum!

2008-12-04T21:20:00.004-06:00

The Great Escape

2008-12-04T15:38:00.004-06:00

We finally bought a new (to us) vehicle today, replacing my old Accord (RIP White Dragon). It will be nice to have a (hopefully) reliable vehicle, instead of praying that my vehicle can make it to its destination and back. Oh, and we finally have a vehicle with working windows.

Our 2006 Ford Escape, courtesy of CarMax. We really like it, obviously.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T16:18:00.006-06:00

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends! We're spending a low-key, low-stress day at home and I cooked my first turkey!

The before:

The after:

It was mighty tasty. Not dry at all and good flavor. I told Jerm he could eat the turkey leg Fair-Style, since I didn't want any of the dark meat. He did not hesitate.

The before:

The after:
(and no, nobody in this house is pregnant. Jerm just ate too much!)

We also had stuffing from scratch, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn and green fluffy salad. We're too full for pie right now, so we'll eat pumpkin pie later tonight!
Everything turned out well and I'm pretty proud of both the turkey and the fact that I didn't get stressed out. Plus, everything was ready at the same time!
We miss our families and wish we could spend time with you today!
And, yes, we went around the table (ok, we both said) to say what we are thankful for!

Pan and Jerm Do the Outer Banks

2008-11-19T12:04:00.011-06:00

Pan took a week off for vacation, and we went with Mark and Patti to the Outer Banks. Nags Head, specifically; it was awesome. We actually went a couple weeks ago, but have been too busy with work to post about it.

This was the beach at low tide at night. It was a great time for finding a bunch of nice intact shells. Pan actually found her conch the next morning at low tide with a few other huge shells.

We stayed here. It was a nice place that served a good breakfast and had a wine and cheese hour. It was cool and very reminiscent of our trip to Vermont at the end of August.

This was our room. You can't really see all of it because of the nooks and crannies, but it was very old-style.

Turtles, I guess. These were at the NC Aquarium on the island of Manteo. It was a pretty small aquarium, but what they did have, was pretty cool. Lots of tiger sharks, stingrays, and what not.

I don't know how to rotate a pic on Blogger, so you'll have to turn your head sideways. This was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It's one of 3 major lighthouses on the Outer Banks, with the Hatteras Lighthouse being the tallest. I didn't really expect to be blown away by a lighthouse, but it was actually pretty neat.

Us, enjoying the few days we spent there. It was a great time to go to Nags Head, with the warmer-weather crowds non-existent at the time. We also took the opportunity while we were there to eat way too much seafood, including rockfish, gulffish (with a gouda/bacon cream sauce and marinated tomato), shrimp (so fresh, so clean), scallops, lobster, a lot of crab, and probably a bunch of stuff that I'm not remembering. We did not buy/eat the alligator sausage that was available for purchase, though. Pan did buy plenty of "souvenir yarn" at a cool place in Manteo.

On the way back, we went through Chapel Hill and spent way too much money at Trader Joe's and spent some time in the hugely(60,000 square feet) awesome kitchen store that has everything (even Bacon Salt!), Southern Season. It was ridiculous and a little overwhelming. But mostly awesome.

Overall, it was a great time and convinced us to come to the Outer Banks at least once a year, maybe as soon as next summer on Ocracoke Island. Thanks, Mark and Patti!

OMG Conch!

2008-11-07T08:03:00.002-06:00

Steak w/Chimichurri

2008-11-02T16:49:00.002-06:00

This was really, really good. I had never made chimichurri before, but this was a good first effort, although I already have ideas on how to improve it.

Saturday Sandwich

2008-11-01T19:46:00.002-05:00

Jerm had been craving some sort of italian sandwich, and I picked up a big huge link (seriously the whole package was one link of sausage, like you'd get from a butcher shop) of italian sausage the other day. I'm lazy and don't like to cook elaborate meals on my one day off a week (it interrupts my inevitable afternoon nap!), so I tossed the sausage in the crockpot with 3 onions, a can of diced tomatoes and some spices. Chopped it up and made a delicious sandwich with some mozzarella and spaghetti sauce. I ate mine on pasta which was equally delicious. Yum!

Trick or Treat

2008-10-31T20:18:00.004-05:00

I prefer treat.

We had about 25 or so trick-or-treaters this evening. No tricks. . . yet. Good times.

Happy Halloween!

Pan got a Little Carried Away. . .

2008-10-30T19:21:00.001-05:00

I will eat it all.

The Haul...

2008-10-26T15:50:00.004-05:00

The haul from SAFF.Luckily I got a good bit of this yarn for great sale prices. The peachy stuff in the upper left corner was 1.50/skein!

But still, a lot of yarn. I'm embarassed! And better get back to knitting!