Thanksgiving and Other Randoms

So, you remember how I mentioned the med school thieves?
I know I told you I would give you more of the story, but really, there is nothing more to it. I brought my Mountain Dew to school, put it in the fridge, went to grab it when I was desperately in need of caffeine, but it was gone. And I never figured out who took it. RUDE.

Before I tell you about my Thanksgiving break, I want to give you a recap of my run in with not-so-pleasant policemen a couple days before my test.

Here I was, on my way home from a rather early night of studying.

Apparently 12:30 am is really late to cops, but I beg to differ. But anyways.

As I was making my 7 minute drive from my second home (Volker Hall), I came upon some flashing blue lights. Note to self, if you see blue lights anywhere in Birmingham, make sure to take a detour before getting any closer.  Those blue lights ended up being a roadblock, and apparently 12:30 is too late of a bedtime for this girl.

So I stopped, the cop walks up to my car shining his flashlight right in my eyes.

I must make note, he seemed to be was extremely skeptical about my car, but just because you have a crack in your windshield doesn't mean you're selling Schedule 1 drugs or headed to beat someone. Promise.

Policeman: "Did you just drive by here a little while ago?"

Me: "No sir, I did not."

Policeman: "Do you have your license?"

Me: "Yes sir"

(Fumbles for wallet and shakily hands license to p-man)

Policeman: "Maylene? What are you doing out here so far from Maylene?"

Me: "That's where my family lives. I live in an apartment up here because I attend UASOM and I have been studying all night."

Policeman: "It's too late to be out, GO HOME."

(In the meanest voice I've ever been talked to in by someone that didn't know me)

Me: "Uh, yes sir."

I know. You're probably wondering. That's it? Yeah, that's it.

The moral of the story is: 12:30 is NOT too late for me to be out.

Where was this policeman when people were stealing my Mountain Dew out of the fridge. Sheesh.

On another note, Thanksgiving break was rather delightful. I spent Thanksgiving day with my family and then Friday I went to the fiance's family Thanksgiving. I ate a lot, regretted eating as much as I did, and relaxed as much as humanly possible. I also continued the Black Friday shopping tradition and spent Thursday night shopping with the family. (Black Friday = shopping on Thursday? Still don't understand that.) Except this year it was different. Normally I only go for the cheap movies, but this time I wanted to get a special present. I got to Walmart at 9:00 and pretty much walked out as soon as I walked in. So my sister and I headed over to Target and waited in line, outside, in the cold, for 2 and a half hours. However, our patience failed to pay off and I walked away from Black Friday empty handed. (That's never happened.) At least Target gave us maps and free Luna bars. Target > Walmart

That was pretty much the extent of my break. Now I must make it through this last 3 week stretch until I can relax again. I can't believe I'm almost done with my first semester of med school.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

On Halloween, I made cupcakes for my study group/friends and my ICM group.

(ICM is our Intro to Clinical Medicine course where we learn how to take patient histories, communicate effectively, etc.)

Anyways, those cupcakes turned out to be a big hit, even though they were just boxed funfetti cupcakes with store-bought icing. So, for this week's meeting, I decided to make some homeade cupcakes to show them some real skills.
Okay, not really. I had just been eyeing a recipe I found online for these carrot cupcakes (mainly because the pictures of them are so pretty), and I finally decided I wanted to try them. 

Oh, and classmates make the perfect guinea pigs for taste-testing.  Well, they are more like vultures really.

You can probably imagine the amount of people that want to be my friend for a day when I bring cupcakes, especially since I have ~180 classmates and only 24 cupcakes - you do the math.

I just followed the recipe (linked above) and this is how they turned out

You'd be amazed at the number of med students who get impressed over "pretty" cupcakes and tell you that you should have opened a bakery instead of going to medical school.

Honestly guys, it's not that impressive. It's just some measly sprinkles.

I will admit, however, that they tasted pretty good.

But, no carrot cake will ever be as good as my grandma's.

:)

Happy Tuesday!



Gobble Til Ya Wobble

I've been on a roll this week, and by on a roll, I mean I have another craft for you guys. You feel spoiled yet?  You should, because instead of crafting, I really should have been studying.

But that's okay. Studying isn't as fun.

This was another easy craft.

And it involves Mod-podge.

Are you noticing a theme yet?

It's all I tend to have time for, so don't hate.

I found this idea on the one and only, Pinterest.  Like always.

It's perfect because I had everything I needed and it involved wood. I am just a little obsessed with wood crafts. Oh, and it's Thanksgiving decor!

Supplies:

3 pieces of scrap wood (8", 3", and 11")

Scrap paper

Mod-Podge and Foam brush

Paintbrush and paint to match your paper

Letters in your saying of choice (I used my cricut to cut them, but you could also use stickers)

Oh, I also had to use sandpaper to sand down my blocks because I cut them with a jigsaw.

• First, paint your blocks a solid color and let dry.
• Cut the background paper to the correct dimensions to fit the front of your blocks and adhere with Mod-podge.
• Adhere your letters to the top and brush 1-2 coats of Mod-podge on top.
• I also used my Cricut to cut out a turkey, but you can pretty much do whatever you want with this kind of craft.

And there you have it. Another easy DIY Thanksgiving decor craft.

12 days until turkey!

DIY Charger

I'm so excited it's officially the holiday season.

Except for some reason, people seem to have forgotten there is a holiday between Halloween and Christmas. It's called Thanksgiving guys. You know, that holiday where you give thanks, eat a lot of turkey, dressing, and hashbrown casserole, and then fall into a deep glucose-and-tryptophan-induced coma .

Yeah, now you remember, huh? Anyways, I didn't forget about it, and, as much as I can't wait for Christmas, I am trying to refrain from putting up all my Christmas decorations.

However, since I had to take down my Halloween decorations down (which, by the way, Halloween came and went faster than a witch on a broom), I wanted to decorate with something.  So, that leads me to what today's post is actually about.

Since I don't have a better name for it, I'm going to call this project DIY Thanksgiving Mod-Podged Charger.  That's kind of a mouthful, but whatever.

This took me about 2 minutes. Seriously.

Supplies:

Cheap plastic charger from a craft store

Some letters to spell out what you want it to say (I cut mine with my Cricut)

I also cut out some cute fall related shapes

Mod-podge and a foam paintbrush

I slathered some Mod-podge on and laid out the letters how I wanted them. Then slathered some more Mod-podge on. That's it. And voila, super easy Thanksgiving decor.

Can you tell I like projects that require Mod-podge?

Happy almost Thursday! :)

FUN 2

So, I don't know if I told you or not, but I started the second round of "fun" about 2 weeks ago.

Fundamentals 2.

So far, so good.

Actually, to be quite honest, it's been a lot better than the first round of fun.

I think it's because of this:

Okay, so probably not because of this.

It's just a decorated flashcard box.

But, hey, I will admit, it makes studying my flashcards a little more tolerable.

All I did was take my boring black 3"x5" flashcard box from Office Depot, cut some pretty paper to the correct dimensions and slathered on some Mod-Podge to make it stick.

Simple as that.

And now I have a cute little box to keep my millions of flashcards in.

I'm sure by the end of med school I'll have a whole rainbow of boxes (considering I've already filled up one box and this one is actually my second). Sigh.

Time to get back to paying attention.

Oh, and I almost forgot, how was your Halloween?