Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Birthday Party


Last weekend, I miraculously got off. In case you're not familiar with how days off go in a surgery residency, they are usually random. The only rhyme or reason is that you're required four days off for the month. That sometimes means I'll go 20+ days without a day off, if they're bunched up in the first part of one month, and in the second part of the next month. This also explains why I have time to blog on a Tuesday morning. What most people consider a regular weekend is for an intern in training labeled a "golden weekend", meaning that you actually get to leave work Friday afternoon, leave your pager behind, and you don't have to worry about coming back until Monday morning.

So anyhow, I got the weekend off, which was AWESOME because it was both Easter and my BIRTHDAY weekend. We decided to drive down to Austin to spend it with my family, since I hadn't seen them since January,

and I hadn't seen my little sister since last summer.


Saturday, we went grocery shopping for my birthday dinner, and then I got a fantastic massage from a woman named Amanda (at Massage Harmony in the 26 doors shopping center in case you're ever in Austin on a Saturday). Saturday night we went to my sister's house where we grilled steaks and ate all my favorite things- shrimp cocktail, asparagus, spinach salad, caprese salad, and of course, funfetti cake (decorated by my sister and my 3-year-old niece).

My sister set up a beautiful tablescape outdoors on the porch.


What is even more amazing? She is able to put together a gracious and artistic southern-living style table, and make me a cake, while doing MUCH of it like this:

A baby on the hip and the other on the leg!

It was so fun to spend time with the little girls



(after we'd been pushing her higher and higher on the swing and repeatedly down their mini roller-coaster... this girl is an adrenaline junkie)

And to relax on Shannon's porch swing:


Such a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/ evening! And of course, after dinner and a few glasses of wine:








and why my mom is not in any other picture...

2 comments:

Karen said...

It was wonderful having you back in Austin for the weekend--my cup runneth over--I love you!!

Shannon said...

Aw, you're sweet. I'm glad you liked your birthday setup. I'd like to point out that in that picture, while I did have a baby on the hip and one on my leg, there was one very special helper in my hand -- a glass of wine ;)

We can't wait to see you again this weekend! It is like the month of golden reign! (Is that a surgical term?)