July

When you wait a month before posting, your titles become really easy - this is the month of July.  Yep, creative.  I know you are impressed.

We had a wonderful visit with Mom, Dad, Vito, and Tico over the 4th.  They arrived in classic McGinnis style - dog crate tied down in the bed of the truck redneck style - it only missed duck tape - a tarp was involved - but both dogs were inside the cab.  If you know the McGinnis clan well, you know that we will never win style points, but we will always win the most resourceful contest.  I didn't know you could rent moving trucks until I was in my teens - but I'm still not sure we actually ever used one.  When you moved 7 times before age 15 in the same small town, you just move in the cow trailer.  Like I said - never style points, always resourceful. 

Anyway, this was the first meeting of Tucker and Vito.  They played for hours together. 

 

(Tucker is leaning on Andrew and Vito is leaning on Tucker)

 

We did interrupt play time to take both of them to PetSmart.  You should have heard the comments, it was hilarious!  Everyone was talking about the two HUGE dogs.  Little did they know, we were dropping the meanest one of the bunch off to be groomed...and he is only 5 pounds.  Once Tico returned from PetSmart - this is all we got out of him the rest of the weekend.

They brought us bbq and stew from the small town my mom grew up in - Bostwick, Ga.  Look at it on Google maps, it is a single flashing caution light town.  If you know me, you know I love the annual 4th of July BBQ in Bostwick.  Honestly, it is some of my favorite bbq and stew.  It was almost like being at home for the 4th.  It isn't the 4th without locally cooked bbq and stew.  We still have some in the freezer, but man do I hate to use it up, I have to wait a whole year to get more of it.  We took Mom and Dad to shoot on Saturday.  Gotta love a family that shoots together - one must assume that we will stick together.

 And yes - that is really Mom's gun.  She is only a little proud.

They both enjoyed playing with Andrew's toy.  When we got home from the range, this is what we found in the yard.

 They finally stopped playing and decided to rest for a little while.  Every night we would bring them inside.  Give a dog a bone and he will be still for hours.

 

We also took them to their first gun show.  That is always entertaining and it did not disappoint...such interesting people there.  As soon as they left on Sunday, Tucker assumed his position in his chair and stayed there for hours.  We had to force him to get down and go outside.

The rest of July involved a work trip to the coast, which resulted in a upgrade at the Hard Rock to a suite with a view.  Talk about a nice little trip.  Nothing to fuss about when you can wake up to this view and enjoy the sunset at night.

Andrew and I also celebrated our 5th anniversary with a wonderful dinner at Parlor Market in downtown Jackson.  The food was amazing - it is most definitely a spot we will visit again.

The Green Monster

I know you are going to be extremely sad to hear this news, but we had no other choice.  The green monster is gone.  Andrew's poor truck finally found its way out of our hair.

While it served us well (minus the brake light issues, the broken thermostat, visors without fabric, non-functioning power door locks, blinker set-up going out, somewhat functioning a/c, and most recently the catalytic converter going on the fritz), we (yes, even Andrew) are thrilled to have said our final goodbyes.

I don't give it enough credit - Andrew even says that it only broke when I drove it because I was mean to it - it did have 106,000 miles on it and only once did it not crank (but you could not guarantee you would have brake lights).

So as we close this chapter of med school and residency, we open the next chapter of life with a new truck, ha!  Allow me to be the first to say, I love the new truck and I promise to never, ever speak badly of it because I hate to think we the ol' green monster did to me.

In case you were concerned - yes, it fits in the garage

and yes, we like white vehicles with tan interior!

DONE!

Andrew is officially D-O-N-E with residency and all training!!!!!!  After 12 years of grade school, 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years of residency - he (more like we) is thrilled!

During the month of June, we had three different graduation dinners to attend.  The "joy" or greatest benefit of being Med/Peds is you have three parties to attend instead of just one, ha!  We had the Department of Pediatrics dinner, the Med/Peds dinner and roast, then the Department of Medicine dinner - did I mention that June was a busy month??.

Of course, we only took pictures at one of the three because pulling teeth is easier than taking pictures with Andrew.  Here is the one and only picture I was allowed of the us.

 

Hey -  it isn't the best, but it is proof that we can clean up.  I wanted a picture so we could complete the cycle of "MD training" - I have a picture of us from his White Coat Ceremony at the start of med school, med school graduation, and now residency graduation.  And we certainly won't notice the impact of the past 8 years on Andrew's hair line - nope instead we will notice that I have the exact same watch, ha!

The thought of him working 8 - 5, Monday - Friday is so foreign I don't even know what to think.  It is going to be a major transition for both of us in terms of actually having time to spend together on a regular basis...not to mention he isn't going to be sleep deprived half the year either! 

Now it is on to Board exams - once those are finished, he will be done with tests until he has to sit for Boards again in seven years, I think.

Happenings

The past few weeks have been crazy busy, but wonderful!  We started June with a visit from Adam, Katherine, and Lyla.  I'm so glad they called to ask if they could stay with us on the way home from Texas.  It was wonderful to catch up with them and spend time with sweet Lyla.  Katherine, I promise, we are coming to see the house on our next trip. 

In my last post I told Mom to get another horse - well - she did!  Meet Cash.

 

This picture was taken within a few hours of Cash arriving, so obviously he and Sugar didn't mind too much.  As Andrew said, I bet Sugar is thrilled to not have to ride all the time now, ha!  

Not sure if I have mentioned it or not, but Mom and Dad also got a Great Dane during the winter.  You will not believe how similar he and Tucker appear.  One major difference - Vito is much heavier than Tucker.  One will be tall and skinny and the other will be "built."  This is Vito...

 And a similar picture of Tucker...

  

Moving on from all the animals.  We also had a visit from Mrs. Susan for one of Andrew's graduation dinners.  She brought all sorts of yummy Georgia produce for us.  We have/had peaches, onions, strawberries, blueberries, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, rosemary, and garlic.  Everything but the peaches and onions came out of her garden!!  Of course, I had to make peach cobbler.  I got a little bored and decided to make a lattice top with a little decoration - ignore my lack of art skills please...

 She also requested a trip to Penn's for Chicken-On-A-Stick.  I'm telling you - there is nothing better than watching some one's reaction to seeing it for the first time.  You can tell them all about it for years but until they see it in person, they really don't believe you.  Of course - it was a huge hit...gotta love Mississippi food!

John and Sugar

August 2011 - John's first time on Sugar.

May 2013 - John's ??th time on Sugar.  He rides just about every time he visits Mac and CC.

CC - I think you have another one that will ride with you.  How about get a real deadhead horse next time, not a fake out like Sugar??

Catching Up on Cooking Club

It's been a while since I posted recipes from cooking club, and it isn't because there has been a lack of good recipes.  We changed cookbooks in January and have been working out of "Lone Star to Five Star."  It is a Junior League out of Texas.  Really interesting mix of foods.  So far the desserts have been the major star.

It's Ice Cream Time!

It is that time of the year folks!  I have already made the first batch of homemade ice cream.  I started with peach.  Next up, strawberry.  I just found a creme brulee ice cream recipe. 


Um - yum!

Send me ideas and I will try it out.  I'm all about trying new recipes in the name of finding a good sweet treat!!