Paula Deen!

Last Friday I surprised Zach with a day trip to Tunica, Mississippi. It turned out to be a lot of fun even though Zach was mad for the first 45 minutes of the drive because I wouldn't tell him where we were going. He hates surprises and pictures, therefore we don't have any pictures of our little getaway. We started off by going to the Tunica River Park Museum which was actually pretty interesting. They had a lot of cool displays and information about the Mississippi River. There was also a nature trail that we walked even though it was 100* outside. After that we decided to hit up the outlet mall, but that was just too much walking outside also! We ended the evening by eating at the Paula Deen buffet inside Harrah's casino.

The restaurant is designed like her home so you walk in through her porch and there are different rooms to dine in. It can hold 560 people!
I have never seen so much fried food in my life! We spent 2.5 hours there tasting everything that we could! They also have seafood on Friday and Saturday so Zach was able to try some of that out. It was hilarious watching him try and eat crab legs! :)
We're not big fans of Southern food but it was fun to try everything out that we haven't had a chance or desire to yet! We figured we paid for all the food, we might as well try everything. Overall, it was quite the experience and we left feeling extremely full!

We love electricity!

This post is long over due and I was thinking about not posting about it at all but I promised Becky pictures of this so here goes! A few weeks ago I walked out of my doctor's appointment and the sky was really dark and it raining lightly. By the time I drove down the 3 stories of the parking garage the wind had picked up and it was raining so hard that even with my windshield wipers going full blast I couldn't see a thing. I heard on the radio the tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warning for our county so I decided to just sit in the parking garage for awhile. Luckily, the wind and rain died down after about 45 minutes and I was able to drive home. The drive from my doctor's office to our apartment usually takes 10-15 minutes but this time it took me an hour to get home! Anyway, we ended up losing our power for 48 hours. Thankfully, we have some great friends who let us hang out at their houses during the day so we didn't have to deal with our hot and muggy apartment. I have no idea how anyone lived in the south before air conditioning! Here's some pictures of the damage from the storm. Most of them aren't that great since I was driving and trying to take a picture at the same time.

You can't see it in the picture but this tree that is fallen over is on top of a house!

This was a common sight - huge trees, completely uprooted.

Zach and I got creative the second night we slept in our apt. without air conditioning! Those are little hand held battery powered fans tied to shoe laces that we hung above our heads. Unfortunately, they're not meant to last for more than 3 hours at a time!

August 2010

We now know where we will be spending Zach's last year of school......................................................

SALT LAKE CITY!

We will be staying in Memphis through next August while Zach does his first externship at the Eye Clinic at SCO. For the fall semester his extern will be at the Eye Foundation in SLC and he will be at a family practice in Magna, UT during the spring semester.

We are so excited to be able to move back west and be around family and friends in a year! It's crazy to think that by the time we move to SLC we will have a one year old! There are definitely things we will miss about Memphis though. Mainly all the great friends we have made out here! However, we will NOT miss the insanely hot and humid summers. :)

Playing catch up

Last Saturday my friends, Marissa and Heather threw a baby shower for me. It was so much fun and turned out really nice! A big thanks to everyone who came and to Heather and Marissa for all the work they put into it. Now I get to start planning Marissa's baby shower! There were seven pregnant women at my shower, unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of all of us.

My mom sent this blanket she made and an outfit that matches it perfectly!

The food was delicious!

The coolest watermelon ever!

My two favorite drinks, water and lemonade. They know me well :)
Betsie and Tiffany
Jana (had her baby this morning!) and Julie (due the day before me)
Haylee (due in Oct.), Keri (due in July), Katie, and Mallory


Mindy, Corinne (due September 9th), Heather, Marissa (due September 23rd)

Opening presents...Natelie and Becky in the background
The only game we played was nursery rhyme pictionary. It was really fun even though my team lost! I'm glad they didn't have any of those really lame shower games planned. :) This is Katie Hale drawing something!
Heather, me, Marissa with the confetti cake Marissa decorated! I don't know what I am doing with my head here...
All the presents from the shower, a pic just for my mom.

Saturday night we went to a Redbirds game with Jesse and Marissa. We were lucky enough to sit in the shade since it was extremely hot and humid. After the game they had a fireworks show which was pretty sweet.

Jesse and Marissa

Here's a not so flattering belly pic for all of you who have been asking for one. Just a little bigger than the last one I posted on Easter. ha ha. This is at 30 1/2 weeks.

Our friend, Gabrielle, we made at the game. She really liked my purse and loved having Zach take pictures of her!

This past Tuesday I had the day off work so I drove down to Collierville and had lunch with my friend Natalie. She is the doctor I worked for at Eclectic Eye (my first job in Memphis). I hadn't seen her since before Christmas so it was a lot of fun to get together for a few hours. Here is a picture of the Collierville Eclectic Eye staff. I do not miss having to wear black everyday, but I miss talking with these guys on a daily basis. I'm glad I have been able to keep in touch and see them every few months.

David, Natalie, Jomi

Everything else has been going really well. I have been so blessed to have a complication free pregnancy. Although, I haven't forgotten how miserable I was in the beginning when I was sick 24/7. I go to the doctor every 2 weeks now and am measuring right on target. I've had some awesome swelling in my feet and ankles lately. Really, last week it looked like there was a tennis ball under my skin where my ankle should be!

Zach is doing awesome in school. He is in the clinic 3 days a week now, seeing real patients! I would be so nervous if I were him, but he is such a natural at talking with people, he hasn't struggled with it. Actually his staff doctor told him the only thing he needs to work on is not talking so much with the patients. :) I think that's a good problem to have! He has even had a few Spanish exams, which has been nice for him since he hasn't been able to use his Spanish much since moving to Memphis. We also should be finding out where we will be going for externs next year pretty soon so we'll keep you posted!