Weekend

Friday night we went to a surprise birthday/Halloween party! We borrowed our costumes from Megan and Pat and we were Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf! Brett was not sure about his costume until he realized it had a mask. He was excited that he could sleep at the party and nobody would know it haha! But, there was no time for that because everyone loved The Wolf.

The party was at a resturant and one man asked him to come over to their table because his daughter who was about 21 was really scared of his costume and he wanted Brett to scare her. Then a big table of Asian girls were all wanting their picture with him. It was pretty funny and he enjoyed entertaining everyone!

The party was for "Richard Simmons'" sister and her husband. They are both turning 30.

Beth was also part of the surprise because she lives in Florida and her sis didn't know she was going to be in town.

Saturday Kari, Rachel and I hung out all day while our poor husbands were all on call. We got coffee and breakfast then went to the Arboretum to see all of the pumpkins. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect.

After the Arboretum we went to The Bishop Arts District and checked out a few shops and had lunch at a great restaurant, Bolsa.

I got stranded at a gas station yesterday afternoon when Brett's truck decided not to crank. After trying to jump it and nothing happening, Kari and Derek came to get me. They got there just as Brett was finally able to text me back and tell me to wiggle a cable and then, it cranked (crunk?)!

Last night Brett and I got to go to dinner with Nick and Licci. We always have such a good time with them and found a great new restaurant.

Brett is on call again today and I'm trying to stay busy.

Starting in November he is supposed to have a normal work schedule with weekends off. I can hardly wait!! And I know he is so ready to sleep in and do what he wants for once.

Butternut Squash Soup and Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

I had Butternut Squash Soup yesterday at a restaurant called Bolsa. It was delicious.

The cool weather (and another day of being home alone with nothing I need to do) inspired me to try to cook some myself.

Here is the recipe I used.

It turned out to be very tasty!

Gran Gran gave me a new pan I have been wanting to try so I decided to make some Jalapeno Cornbread. Brett said he eats it at the hospital and really likes it so I thought I would try to make some for him.

Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread

3 boxes Jiffy Cornbread Mix

• 1 can Cream Corn
• 2 C sour cream
• 2 C shredded cheddar
• 3 eggs
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper diced
• diced jalepeno peppers ~3
• salt and pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together, spread in a greased 9x13 dish and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

(This recipe makes a lot of cornbread! It is really moist and REALLY good!)

Randoms

I got a new app on my phone- Instagram. You can follow people on it and do cool things with pics. My name is drannajoy on there.

On our drive to SA last weekend. This was rather ridiculous, but pretty funny. Brett never knew he was covered in dogs he was so out.

Saw this new toy at Target and a little girl brought it in last week as her prize for coming to see me. Not sure about it. The drill is huge!

Got this at B,B and Beyond a few months ago. I figured it would be good to use at future Oral Surgeon gatherings since the skull is their logo.

Sam is pretty much 100% believe it or not. He is back at his farm and running his tail off. He loves hanging out in the garage and recently discovered this chair that was unloaded from last weekends Squirrel-a-thon. Sorry Gran Gran, I think it is his now. Haha

Isn't there a saying that Dr's are the worst patients? Brett seems to have a cold and is just pitiful. He has been at Children's Hospital this month and always gets sick when he works there. (He has plenty of fur to keep him warm though!) I've given him all kinds of meds to help get him well because he is on call all weekend and he is going to the World Series Sunday night. No time to be sick!

Flipping Out Over a Feather

Hung my necklace in the bathroom last night.

I heard Dot whining and went to see what she was so upset about and found her in the bathroom trying to get it. I guess she thinks it is some sort of bird.

She is hilarious.

Fun Weekends

The last few weekends have been full of lots of fun things!

First was Megan's bachelorette party in New Bruansfels. We had so much fun floating the river, eating at The Gristmill and going to Gruene Hall.

The next weekend my family came in town and we went to see Kid Rock. I had no idea, but I love him! He puts on a great show!

I also got to hang out with this adorable little guy. Aimee, Scott and Andrew came in town for a wedding but came early to visit with us. We went shopping, ate out and went to the Dallas Aquarium. Andrew is going to be a big brother in January. Can't wait to meet his cute little sis!

Last weekend was a girls trip to LA. Can't beat sitting at the pool, going to the spa and eating out with a fun group of girls!

One more girls trip next weekend then I'm hoping to actually get to hang out with Brett...

Hopefully his October schedule will be better because as fun as this month has been it is not fun not getting to see each other much :/.

Fur Kids

The pups are all getting along really well. Sam is almost back to 100% believe it or not. I'm so glad we didn't put him down like the vet recommended. He has gained about 10 pounds (somehow we know how to make a dog gain weight at this house!) and he is moving around like he was never hurt. He is using his broken side like it doesn't even bother him. We think he is almost ready to go back to life of running miles a day and spotting birds.

I think he may miss it here (and someone miss him). He is enjoying his pampered life in the city: baths, ear cleanings, nail trimmings, living in the "man room", treats, toys and lots of petting.

Queen Sassy spends most of her day sleeping and being served meals on her throne and occasionally lifting her head to bark at an unusual noise.

Dot got a new toy because I thought it resembled her. Don't you agree? She is going to be upset when Sam leaves because there will be fewer dogs for her to steal food from. She is losing her mind over eating. We don't know what to do!

Wine Bottle Decor

I saw this on Pinterest and love it.

For Megan's shower I painted some wine bottles with chalk board paint and wrote cute little sayings on them.

I saw on Martha Stewart how to make any paint into chalkboard paint.

I used brown for these.

I gave these to a friend for her birthday.

A wine bottle and a beer bottle!

Made these for us.

Really easy and so cute!

Restaurant Week

Dallas has Restaurant Week every year at this time. Several restaurants participate and offer a 3 course prix-fixe menu for $35 and part of the proceeds go to the food bank.

We love it because we get to try out really nice restaurants that we don't normally eat at because they are so pricey otherwise.

Wednesday night we ate at III Forks steakhouse with Brett's co-residents and their wives/girlfriends.

This is the first time in 4 years of residency they have done this. I don't know how their schedules worked out for this to be possible but it was a good time and I hope they get to do this more.

We have been wanting to eat at "the ball" since Brett started residency here.

The restaurant is called Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck.

The view was awesome and the food was great too.

We also tried out Nick and Sam's one night last week. That is another steak restaurant that is has been here for a long time. It was our favorite out of all three.

Dove hunt

Brett started night shifts yesterday so he had the morning off. It was opening day of Dove Season so we went hunting at a friend's place about 30 minutes away.

Dot stayed right under Brett's feet the entire time.

Sassy doesn't do much but look around. Sometimes she will go look for birds but she usually doesn't bring them back.

Dot the retriever. She found almost all of our birds and brought them back to us.

We lost two birds to the crevaces in the dry ground. These things were so deep we couldn't even reach the bottom of them. Pretty crazy.

The Vascular Fellow came out in scrubs. He made his team round super early so he could go hunt. I doubt they were happy about that but that was the only way he got to go.

Sam Is Broken

Sam decided to take a nap under a running truck Sunday. My brother had gone to unload something at the barn and left the truck running. He hopped back in the truck and when he began to back up he heard Sam scream. He did not back all the way over him but he was hurt. There was no way Clayton could have seen him. Just an unfortunate accident.

His pelvis was broken in three places.

He has not moved much this week. He gets up to go to the restroom but other than that he doesn't want to move. He has not lost his appetite, but is obviously in pain. When he does walk he tries to walk on his two front feet. The good thing about him is that he doesn't weigh much so doesn't have a lot of weight to put on the breaks.

The vet said that two of his breaks will most likely heal on their own, but the acetabulum fracture is not likely to heal without surgical repair. This surgery would be at least $5,000 and we are not even giving ourselves that option. The vet said if we choose not to do the surgery we will need to euthanize him.

We got some pain medicine and Brett talked to one of his orthopedic surgery friends. Of course he is not an animal surgeon, but he suggested we keep him from moving around for a few weeks and give him the pain meds to keep his pain level down. He said his hip will not heal normally but it may repair itself in some way. If we don't see any improvements and he continues to be in pain over the next few weeks we will have to euthanize him. :(

Say a prayer for Sam. We are hopeful but know that the odds of recovery are low.