The last month's been extremely busy, full of excitement as well as a few disappointments.
Eric finished his first year of med school (yay!) and got to hang out at Lewisville Family Practice with his CPE (Community Practice Experience) doctor for two weeks. He got to see all sorts of interesting - as well as disturbing - illnesses. Of course there were the typical spring sicknesses - allergies and sinus infections galore; but he also got to deal with several very weird psychological issues, a toe nail removal, eczema, and even a retinal detachment. Now he gets to spend his summer hanging out and entertaining our various guests. :-)
I, sadly, have finished my tenure teaching at Wesleyan. I was pretty bummed when I found out there were no additional classes available for me to teach next year, but I can only assume that means God has something else for me. I definitely know that there's no way I can keep driving 50 miles a day to teach 2 classes.
This shift in my job status has caused me to question almost constantly over the last few weeks what in the world I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I mean, I know I'm not old or anything, but I'm pushing mid-20s here and still feel pretty lost. I made several lists of things I love (traveling, talking to people, problem solving) and hate (monotony, solitude, selling things), and here are some job options I came up with:
- real estate appraiser
- event planner
- administrative assistant (though I think this would bore me eventually)
- college Spanish professor
- missions coordinator (but how do you get to do that?)
- college admissions counselor/academic advisor
- medical interpreter
- trust administrator/mortgage loan officer (this sounds slightly boring too, though)
Any other suggestions would definitely be welcome.
Earlier this month I found several jobs I was interested in - mostly in college admissions or advising. I got a quick rejection from all of them. The only thing I can figure is that my lack of experience and contacts in the W-S area make me easy to say "no" to. Sad.
So, I will be babysitting 3 full days a week for the next few months. Not a dream come true, but, hey, there are worse things I could be doing.
On the up side, we purchased our train tickets for Europe today and made our reservations for our particularly long portion of the trip from Milan to Paris via Spiez, Switzerland. In some ways planning this trip makes me feel a little reckless, but I'm getting more and more excited every day!
I also enjoyed getting to spend time with my family last weekend in Arkansas. My sweet brother graduated high school, and afterwards we spent a lot of our weekend with him, my grandparents, and aunt out at the deer camp playing a lot of pool and ping pong and eating a ridiculously delicious cookie cake. Mmm.
It's always nice to visit, even if my flights do get completely messed up on the way home. :-)
The nice thing about not teaching is the additional free time to work out and, of course, cook. In the last few weeks I've made a delicious Spicy Vegetable Soup [recipe below], Chicken Parmesan Bundles, Enchiladas, Pork Chops with Zucchini Boats, and, my favorite, Zucchini bread. I've got a nice little stack of recipes waiting to be tested this summer. Tomorrow night I'm braving the hopefully-delectable fare of the sea: Parmesan crusted Tilapia (and you have to understand that for me, trying any type of seafood is a victory. I'm 100% going out of my comfort zone here). Perhaps I can inspire myself to blog two days in a row and report on how this goes (because I know my great interest in food is enthralling to everyone else, right??) :-)
Anyway, that's about everything of interest I have to say at the moment. Maybe one day I can get Eric on here....
[Spicy Chicken Soup]
1 potato
1 (10 oz.) package frozen sweet corn
2-4 stalks celery, chopped
2-4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks (1 cup)
1 small onion, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (12.5 oz.) jar salsa
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, chopped
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 (6 inch) fresh corn tortillas, cut into strips (optional)
Place potatoes, corn, celery, carrots, onion and garlic in slow cooker. Stir in salsa, salt, cumin, chile powder and pepper. Distribute chicken evenly on top of vegetables and pour chicken broth over chicken. Cover slow cooker and cook stew on high for 4 hours.
Transfer chicken to a plate and shred with two forks into bite-size chunks; return to slow cooker. Mix tortilla strips into stew. Serve warm.
