Winter in Maine

People keep warning me about the winters in Maine when they learn that I am not from here and I reply "well this is actually my third winter in Maine". Today I was walking in the freshly fallen 5 inches we had last night thinking about... I actually don't think I have really spent a full typical winter in Maine. My first year here, I never had to go anywhere if I didn't have to because I lived on campus so if it snowed real bad, I would just stay on campus till the roads were "safe". Then Last year I was in Seattle for November and December! This will be my first true Maine winter. I will be here the whole time, traveling to work everyday etc. I am a little nervous about it. I mean, I had never shoveled snow until today!

I also realized that this will be my first Christmas in Maine! My first year here I went to Europe for Christmas and last year I was in Seattle! This year will be spent here in Maine with Jason's family. We got a tree up already and I am looking forward to making Christmas cookies for everyone! Yay for the Holidays!

Clarification on Visitors

It should be pointed out that our actually first visitor was my good friend Holly!!! She- like a troop had to sleep on the floor as we did not have the spare room up and ready... so the other visitors were the first to use the guest room! You Rock Friend!!!

Visitors

We had our first house guests this weekend. My good friend for Grad School and her friend came to visit. They drove all the way from West Pennsylvania to get to us. It took them 12.5 hours!!! They had a lot of people to visit on their trip to New England and we were fortunate to be stop number one!!! The girls and I went out to Bar Harbor on Saturday while Jason was at a conference. We lucked out and the weather was really pretty nice. That night we made pizza and Margaritas and watched movies- Jason is such a troop to hang with us three pretty ladies! We got up Sunday morning and all went to breakfest. Sadly the girls had to be on their way to the next stop- I tried to keep them hostage but alas they left :( I spent the rest of Sunday just getting things done. I got new tires on my car so I should be already for the snow... I made a really cute fleece tie blanket that is doing a great job of keeping me warm while I write this! Jason is researching Christmas trees next to me. We are probably going to get a fake tree to use for the next couple of years- real trees are very messy and with the base board heating them make me nervous!!!

Work is going really well. I have been very busy with the flu season causing all kinds of panic! So far I have manage to aviod getting it myself but I fear it is only a matter of time! I have pretty much washed all my skin off my hands as I am washing them 2 and 3 times per patient these days in an effort to avoid getting sick. I start taking "call" on Tuesday- which should not be too bad I hope. I will let you know!

We got two baby girl hamsters! Their names are Coco and Peanut, they love to run on theirs wheels and climb the cage. I had to get a second wheel so they each could have their own as they had been trying to run in opposite directions and this was leading to some disagreements in the form of squeeking at each other.

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and hope that everyone gets to eat so really delicious turkey! We will be spending the holiday at Jason's sister's house. It should be great!

We ate our way across Vermont

So Jason and I took a long 4 day weekend to go to Burlington Vermont! We have heard a lot of really great things about the city and were very excited to experience it all for ourselves. We left on Friday afternoon with a big list of things to do and places to go. It took about 6 hours to get there and the drive was beautiful the whole way. It took us through the White Mountain region of New Hampshire and into the rolling green hills of Vermont. We arrived just in time for dinner, after which it was late and we were tired from the long drive over so we just went back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep so that we would be refreshed for Saturdays festivities. So to start our day Saturday we traveled to a town outside of Burlington to hit up the Green Mountain Coffee Roaster's Factory. We didnt get to see any actually Roasting but we did learn all about the process and got to have some pretty delicious coffee! We found out that Green Mountains actually just bought out Tullys which is interesting. After that we headed a few miles down the road to the wonderful Ben and Jerry's factory!!! We took the tour which ended with a free taste of the Cookies and Cream ice cream which was very good. We bought more ice cream outside and got to try some pretty interesting flavors. I had a Cake batter ice cream with chocolate fudge frosting swirl and a scoop of the Peanut Butter cookie dough ice cream! They were excellent! After Ben and Jerry's, we hit up the Magic Hat brewing company, got to sample all kinds of good beers (can't beat that!). We also went to a chocolate factory... man I feel like I need to work out just typing about all this food! Probably our favorite part was the Cabot Cheese factory! We got to sample like 11 different kinds of Cheddar! We bought all kinds of cheeses and butters and we can't wait to make some good meals with them!
Long story short- Vermont Rocks! I can't wait to go back!

Hiking Cadillac

I am a little late in posting this but I wanted to share the pictures. A few weeks ago, my friend Holly came up from Portland to visit Jason and I in Bangor. We all went hiking over the weekend in Acadia National Park! Here are the picture! Enjoy!

Hiking Cadillac

Setting up

So now that I have passed my boards and started work I thought it was high time I updated everyone! I started my family practice job, I like it a lot and am very thankful that everyone there is very willing to help me out as I have a thousand questions everyday! The first week I was pretty much lost and confused the majority of the time but I don't think the patients noticed!

Jason and I also got all moved into our new apartment! Finally out the little box we were sharing! It's two bedrooms, one and a half bath. Its like a townhouse in that it has its own entrance and we have a back deck with a storage unit. His Aunt and Uncle were very nice and have lent us a couch and a BBQ so we can enjoy the summer in style! Here are the pics!

New Place

Off by 12 months...

So I was in Starbucks the other day and there was a trivia question (if you get it right you get an extra/free shot)! So the questions was as follows: In what YEAR did the Frappuccino debut at Starbucks?" I thought about what time in life I could remember drinking them and I guessed 1998. The guy was like "no" I was a little bummed but it was pretty much a guess so I said "was I close?" and he said (very confidently) NO! I was like "ah man- when was it?" thinking it would be totally different... he says "1997" totally serious... I was like "1997! I was REALLY close- what do you mean 'no' I wasn't close!!!" He said "you were off by 12 months!" I was like "What do you mean 12 months- the question asked for a year! I was off by ONE YEAR! That's CLOSE!!!" He just stared at me... I COULD NOT believe it. Its not like it really mattered because either way I was wrong but it was the principle... The best part is that every time I think about him saying NO when I asked if I was close- I just start laughing...