What I Wore Sunday: Chunky knits + striped skirt

The weekend has gone by way too fast, as per usual, but I've enjoyed being off and not living in fear of my pager going off (that'll be next weekend). My crazy hours this past week affected my sleep schedule, and I was up at 6:30 this morning (actually 5:30, thank you dearly hated spring forward time change). But happily, Stephen and I really did get to have a date night last night (and yes, I wore the striped dress!) I also made it to Pilates today, which was pure torture but necessary. We'll be hitting up Sunday mass later tonight...

Today seemed like a cozy sweater and chunky scarf kind of day (we're bracing ourselves for 12 more inches of snow tonight). This skirt was an Old Navy find last year (similar here) and was well worth it, since it goes with pretty much anything and works any time of year (tights and boots for winter, sandals and a tee for summer). 

Linking up of course with Fine Linen and Purple for What I Wore Sunday. Also joining Plane Pretty and the Woestmans. 

Happy Sunday!

 Cowl: Etsy

Cable sweater (old, Gap)

Skirt (Old Navy, similar)

Boots (Madewell)

Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen for the weekly round of Quick Takes.

 

1. If you've been following any of my style posts, you know that I'm obsessed lately with my Hunter boots (evidence here, here, and here), but my littlest sister Maria (age 10) is less than impressed with them. She refers to them as my "duck boots" and when she came over this week, she asked me "So are those boots really in style?" When I assured her that they are (and have been forever and will be forever), she rolled her eyes and sighed "What is this world coming to?"

 

Via

She also thinks that they look just like Stephen's firefighter boots:

Kids these days.

2. I am shocked x 1 million to say this, but I am kind of liking my surgery rotation. Don't get me wrong, it's a love/hate relationship (definitely hate the 5 a.m. rounding) but there is something about getting to see your patients after you've "fixed" them in the O.R. And seeing the inside of the human body in surgery is amazing (we will see if I am saying the same thing after 16 hours in surgery today...my attending physician told me to make sure that I eat my wheaties this morning).

3.  I have 563 recipes on my "Foodie" board on Pinterest, of which I have made approximately 3. One of the three was this week: these Oven Tacos. I highly recommend them (easy and delish).

Photographic evidence of my Taco Bake rendition

4. The courage of this mom truly inspired me this week. (Thanks goes to my sister Ingrid for sharing her story with me).



5. And on a more lighthearted note, this is true passion, people. (Credit goes to my sis Ilsa for this. I'm glad that my sisters send me cool You Tube videos that I would never find on my own).



6. My surgery call weekend is now switched from this weekend to next, so instead of waiting for my pager to go off and scrubbing in on a gazillion surgeries, I will hopefully be wearing this striped dress for a weekend date night with the hubs:

 



7. Is anyone else counting down the hours until the Bachelor finale on Monday? I think that I will have a small heart attack if I don't get done in surgery by 8 p.m. that night (priorities, I know). 

Via

Also joining Alyssa today for my first round of Coffee Date. So that I can play by the rules, I'm adding my 5 fav beauty products to the round-up (these quick takes just keep getting randomer and randomer):

 

5 Favorites: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

 

Full post to come later :)

 

Happy, happy weekend! 

 



A striped dress...

Joining Kristina (doctor fashion blogger!) of Pretty, Shiny, Sparkly for Bloggers Do It Better: Black and White Stripes (more black and white stripes looks here, here and here)

I normally don't have much luck at T.J. Maxx. Everything either doesn't fit quite right, is too teeny-bopper, has holes or snags in weird places, or is hidden in some clothes rack of craziness and I never find it. This dress, however, was different. My sister and I went to T.J. Maxx last weekend and I tried it on for fun, fully expecting it to meet the aforementioned criteria, and was pleasantly surprised. I didn't exactly need it, so I tried to talk myself out of it unsuccessfully (I blame part of it on my sister, who gushed about its wonderfulness). I knew there was no turning back when I went home and tried it with boots, a belt, and my favorite scarf.

Despite the excitement over my stellar find, I have to give full disclosure that it is not what I wore today (or yesterday). What I did wear was OR scrubs, which make getting dressed at ungodly hours of the morning easier but are not really outfit post worthy. However, I'm super excited to wear this for Stephen and I's next date night, which is hopefully not too far in the distant future (not looking super promising right now since I'm on call for general surgery this weekend and Stephen works next weekend).

Dress: French Connection via TJ Maxx (similar)

Boots: Madewell

Belt: Madewell

Scarf: Etsy (old)

Surgery: Day 1

A brief intro for the Medical Mondays folk: I'm a third year medical student in an M.D. program in Michigan and I'll be graduating in May of 2014. I worked as an ER nurse for two years prior to medical school and was largely motivated to go to medical school by volunteer work that I did in Ecuador and Haiti. I'm a newlywed as of August 2014 to a wonderfully supportive husband (he's a firefighter/paramedic) and started my blog a few months ago where I blog for fun (and a creative outlet!) about style and newlywed life, and occasionally about medical school.

So I found this really awesome link-up, Medical Mondays, and I had all sorts of plans to write some really deep, inspiring post on medical school and how it's changed me and what I've learned etc. etc. Instead, I just got home from my first day of my general surgery rotation and 10 hours in the OR, I'm on trauma call tonight (crossing my fingers that I do not get called in, even though it is probably inevitable), and I have to be back tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. to pre-round on the ICU patients that my attending assigned me today. I also woke up this morning with a cold on top of the still-lurking bronchitis from my pediatrics rotation (I was sniffling all day under my OR mask). So since I'm not feeling very deep or inspired, I'm just going to share a random recap of general surgery Day 1.

6:45 a.m.: Arrive for orientation, cough and sniffle and cough some more while the surgery director talks about how hard surgery is, how bad the hours are, how we will not pass if we slack, how hard surgery is again.

7:55 a.m.: Surgery director finishes talking about how hard surgery is and sends us off to find our surgery attending that we are assigned to for the week.

8:05 a.m. I find my attending physician in OR 5 and watch him doing a laparoscopic hernia repair through the OR window. I don't know whether to go in since they are in the middle of a surgery. OR aide tells me to go in. Attending physician then tells me that I better have a really good excuse for not being there earlier.

9 a.m. Patient comes for a breast surgery and attending quizzes me on stats from a recent study on breast cancer and then is astonished that I have not read the study yet. I assure him that I will read it.

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Several rectal surgeries reinforce my lack of desire to go into general surgery.

3 p.m. Patient comes for abdominal surgery with a completely open abdominal wound. I am again reminded of why I don't want to be a surgeon.

3:30 p.m. Attending physician quizzes me on anatomy on the abdominal wound patient. I have no idea. He then tells me that it's impossible to distinguish any anatomy since the bowel is so distorted (and I feel 100x better).

3:45 p.m. Attending surgeon splashes me by accident with fluid from said open abdominal wound. It just misses my face and lands on my gown.

5 p.m. We finish the day's surgeries. Attending physician gives me a blank order to sheet to write orders for our most recent patient (and then leaves before I can tell him that I'm really not sure of what orders to write).

5:30 p.m. I round on more patients that my attending assigned me in the I.C.U. before he left.

I am now sitting at home reading about Nissen fundoplications (tomorrow's first surgery), sniffling, and praying that my pager doesn't go off. I will say though, that I've been dreading my general surgery rotation for a long time and today wasn't that bad. I guess that's the pro of expecting the worst?

We shall see what Day #2 will bring...

What I Wore Sunday: mustard + mauve

I went on a serious (and much needed) cleaning frenzy this weekend and in the process, I realized that my closet is full of outfit possibilities. There are so many ways to remix what I already have (money and guilt free!) I made some related New Year's resolutions that I haven't done a great job keeping, but there's no time like the present...

So normally Pinterest is my best friend for re-mixing outfits, but today I didn't need it because I had my lovely sister, Ingrid. I planned on wearing this mauve skirt and turquoise necklace with a burgundy cardi, but she insisted that I wear this mustard one. And I think she was 100% right. So full credit goes to her since I'm not sure that I ever would have tried this combo on my own! Also, she is a stellar photographer.

Stephen is working again this weekend so we went to the evening Sunday mass (hence the late post). Tomorrow begins what I've been referring to as D Day (a.k.a. day 1 of my General Surgery rotation). I'm glad that I had my sister, cleaning, and closet remixing to keep me from thinking about it.

Celebrating Sunday and linkin' it up as usual with Fine Linen and Purple. Also joining Plane Pretty and the Woestmans. Happy Sunday!

Cardi: Target

Blouse: Banana Republic (old)

Necklace: Etsy

Skirt: J. Crew (last seen here)
Shoes: Madewell skimmers
 

Liebster award & random facts about moi

The lovely Stephanie of Captive the Heart and Natalie at Here I am, the Handmaid of the Lord both graciously nominated me for a Liebster Award last week! Here's the scoop:

via

My 11 Facts:

1. I was a nurse in an inner city Emergency Department (in a scary place that starts with D and ends with T) for two years before I went to medical school. While I was living there, my roommate and I had to find a new apartment because a homicide happened in our first apartment building. Ok, this was depressing first fact. Sorry.

2. I double majored in Spanish and spent part of a summer in Mexico. I'm a wannabee Latina (I love Latin American culture). Also, Our Lady of Guadalupe is my favorite.

3. I went to Haiti with a relief team shortly after the earthquake in 2010, and have been back 4 times since. There's a huge place in my heart for Haiti, and I think about the time I spent working there almost every day.

4. I am the oldest of eight kiddos. I LOVE big families :)

5. I have an unhealthy obsession with J. Crew (ok, that was probably obv.) although I try to get my Crew fix on super sale, from the outlet, or thrifted via Ebay or J. Crew Aficionada blog sales.

6. I also have an unhealthy obsession with The Bachelor. Total trash TV I know, and I just can't resist it.

7. I once drove away from a gas station with the gas pump still in my car. Not my proudest moment.

8. I have a gazillion scarves of all colors, patterns, and warmths, and from different places around the world.

9. A few years ago, I got stung by a sting ray while volunteering at an orphanage in Ecuador. It was one of the scarier experiences of my life, and I ended up in the hospital for some complications from the sting when I got back to the U.S. The nurses kept telling my family how lucky I was to be alive since apparently a sting ray killed Steve Erwin (the Crocodile hunter).

10. I absolutely cannot watch scary movies. And I fall asleep in action movies (ask Stephen). So that pretty much only leaves romantic movies and comedies (but only the clean humor ones). My poor hubby...

11. My secret dream is to be a stay-at-home momma and a style/fashion blogger on the side. But God had other plans and I will be graduating with my M.D. in 1 year, 2 months (but who's counting?)


Questions from Stephanie at Captive the Heart

1. I collect...scarves (see #8 above).
2. Tell me your favorite Disney movie. Hands down, Beauty and the Beast. I love that Belle is smart and strong, and her obsession with reading.
3. What's the last book you read? Did you like it? Kind of sad, but my OB textbook. I don't normally read textbooks (just bits and pieces as I'm studying) but I loved OB-GYN so much that I read pretty much all of the textbook. I did like it, although I did not agree with some of their presentation of ethical issues...
4. In case we ever meet in real life and you come over to my house, how do you take your coffee? Black :) Unless I'm at Starbucks, then it's a soy latte.
5. Everyone has a few...what trend do you totally regret following? Hmmm...several in high school. Old navy fleece vests, the poncho, glitter Airwalk shoes...Shudder.
6. Your flower of choice? It's so hard to pick one! Since I was a little girl, I've loved forget-me-nots. Now, I'd have to say irises and tiger lilies. Oh, and peonies!
7. Name something you've always wanted to learn. To knit! I learned the basic stitch last year but would love to learn more (and to actually finish knitting something).
8. Are you more head or more heart? I've always been more heart although sadly, medical school has made me a little more head. I guess a balance is best?
9. How's Lent going for you so far? Um...could be better. Let's just say that I'm glad we still have some time left. I definitely have good things to work on this Lent, but it's never easy...
10. What social or political issue are you most passionate about? Gosh, there are so many! One that I'm passionate about is NFP though. The Church's teaching on marriage and family is so beautiful, and I truly believe that NFP is wonderful for a marriage. We use the Marquette Method (look it up if you are interested!)
11. What saint has had your back the most? Definitely St. Gianna. She's such a beautiful example of a wife, momma, and physician.

Questions from Natalie G. at Here I am, the Handmaid of the Lord:

1. Who is your favorite saint? St. Gianna :)
2. What time, if any, do you have to stop consuming caffeine? I am actually a stickler on this one! I learned in nursing school to stop drinking caffeine 6 hours before bedtime, and I really try to do this.
3. How often do you change your sheets? Ha. Well, it should be every week. But every two...maybe three weeks. I really need to work on this.
4. Show me a picture of your favorite mug. Original, I know. But it's simple, huge, and I love it.

5. How do you like your eggs? Scrambled with lots of veggies (mushrooms!) and swiss cheese.
6. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? I've been to Rome once, but I really want to go back with my hubby (he's never been) and show him the beauty of the Church there.
7. Do you use pens or pencils? I much prefer pencils (the mechanical ones!) especially for taking notes.
8. With five words or less, why do you love the Catholic Church? Only 5? Ok...I love that we're united in Christ & the Eucharist (almost made it in 5).
9. Do you prefer shorts or pants to bed? Pants in the winter, shorts in the summer.
10. What three websites are your biggest time wasters? Pinterest and various style blogs (Kendi Everyday and J. Crew Aficionadas are two of my favorites).
11. What is your favorite beverage? Diet Coke. I tried to stop drinking it once after reading a study on how bad it is, but I just.can't.stop.


The nominees:

Ok, so I am nominating the lovely blogs below! If you want to participate (and I won't be one bit offended if you can't/forget/don't have time) here are the questions:

1. Best trip ever:
2. Favorite saint and why:
3. Fav recipe:
4. Your wedding colors and flowers (potential, if you're not married yet):
5. Article of clothing that you can't live without:
6. Favorite blog for your morning coffee read:
7. Polka dots or stripes?
8. Top favorite mass song:
9. If you could meet anyone, who would it be:
10. Most essential beauty item:
11. Why you started blogging:

Liebster nominees:

Lisa

Jamie

Laura

Patti

D-Isis

Katrina

Jen

Rebekah

Andrea

Friday Quick Takes

 

Joining Jen as per usual for another round of Friday randomness.

1. I definitely meant to post this picture the first week of Lent, but here it is a little late (and still just as hilarious). I love the Catholic "Hey Girls", but this one is probably my absolute favorite.



via

 

2. If you haven't seen this video, you really must (credit for the laughs goes to my sister Gwen for showing it to me).

3. This picture portrays our insane amount of snow better than any words.

 

4. I bookmarked this chicken paprika recipe from the lovely Anna of In Honor of Design forever ago and finally made it this week. It.was.amazing. I told Stephen that if a restaurant served this, I'd order it every time. It's also insanely easy (only a few ingredients and I got through it with no major problems, surprise).

5. I was checking out the new J. Crew catalog on a study break and asked Stephen what he thought of this outfit. He rolled his eyes and informed me "If I wanted to see the sun, I'd go outside." I'm guessing that I won't be getting him to wear yellow pants any time soon.

 

6. I spent this week curled up on the couch with my pediatrics book and this little contraption. Yes, my asthma does not do well when I get bronchitis.

 

7. I took my pediatrics shelf exam today, and it was tougher than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if it was because I've been sick or because I'm just not meant to be a pediatrician (ha). I wish I would have wrote down all of the hilariousness from the peds clinic, although I did share some moments in this post and some of my past Friday Quick Takes. I still can't get over how scary it is for kids to have their ears looked in (when I pulled out the otoscope this week, one little girl informed me "That looks VERY dangerous" and then immediately burst into tears) but I finally feel more comfortable with it, and realized that it's true that an infected ear drum really does look like a cervix. Oh, pediatrics, I will actually kind of miss you.

 

I've had a couple blog posts in the works that I just couldn't finish this week on my study breaks: the lovely Stephanie of Captive the Heart and Natalie of Here I am, the Handmaid of the Lord both sweetly nominated me for a Liebster award and so I'll hopefully be posting my 11 facts/answer to their questions/more Liebster nominees tomorrow. I also found some amazing J. Crew look-a-likes at Forever 21 that I can't wait to share...

 

Have a blessed and beautiful weekend!