California Comfort

Hey there,
It's been a while since I last posted and I thought an update would be nice. The last few weeks have been good and have been very comforting.

Tom came up from San Diego and met Jackie and I in San Jose. We watched the Husky game that Saturday-- it was the blackout game so to support my darling siblings I wore all black (was not about to wear that god awful purple). That night, however, we went to dinner with Eric's uncle and I got to watch my Coug game. :D We got killed, Halliday just isn't pulling his weight this season. On Sunday Tom took us down to San Francisco and gave us a grand tour of the city. I had never been there before (just drove through) so it was really cool to see the nice part of town instead of the ghetto area that we drive through. We started off on a submarine tour of a submarine from WWII. It was SO cool and Tom showed us around all the little buttons and crannies and why they designed the vessle the way they did. It was a pretty amazing experience. We got ice cream at Ghiradelli's and lunch at a fish and chips place on the warf.



 

I went to Stanford for a food summit conference and learned a lot about what is going on in the 'food world' in the Bay Area. Some people are trying to get as colonial as possible and get down and dirty in the fields while others are trying to get tomatoes to grow in our kitchen drawers and underneath skyscrapers with special lighting. It was pretty interesting.

Mike and I broke up a few weeks ago. He has a promise to a future job that would keep him in San Jose pretty much forever. He knows how much I love home and how much I love you guys so we broke up and I get to come back to you ASAP. Since that happened Friday night of my weekend down in the South Bay, I went to my roommate Jacque's mom's house and stayed there. They fed me well and made me a very warm bed. Jackie (my sister) and I went to Santa Cruz on Saturday and checked out the town, we also drove up to Pescadero for THE BEST artichoke soup you'll ever have in your entire life. Why do people not make artichoke soup at home? It should be on every menu at every restaurant. Then we went over to Eric's aunt and uncle's house where I got to cuddle with their golden retreiver and watch some basketball. They were very nice and very welcoming-- I'm glad Jackie has them down there as a part of her California family. On Sunday I drove back to Lakeport and got ready for the week, ready to move forward!

My preceptor for foodservice has become our "Lakeport Mommy". She's really more like one of my aunties. Jackie, (yes, another Jackie) has completely taken us under her wings and welcomed us into her house like her own children. Her husband Glen has made dinner for us on multiple occasions and they even took us out to the casinos for my very first casino experience... no I did not win... Jackie and Glen live with Jackie's 2 siblings Sharon & Kevin. Kevin has Down's Syndrome and is a pretty funny guy. Sharon also works at the school and is also one of my adopted aunties. Jackie and Glen's two golden retrievers just had puppies last week and we got to be there to help birth them! I never thought that I would have my hands deep in kanine placenta but it was actually pretty fun! I wanted to show you pictures but the picture uploader is no longer working to my liking...

Jackie (my sister) came to visit and helped deliver the puppies as well. We went to Ceago, a winery in Lucerne on the other side of the lake and it was beautiful. Once I figure out the picture thing I will show you the beautiful picutres we took at Ceago. We hung out, ate really good food and watched some movies. The puppy delivery was really the highlight of the weekend.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning, cooking, and homework. I'm in clinical now down at St. Helena Hospital in Clearlake. This was the hospital that I originally really didn't want to be in but I put my hands up and let go, and I have to admit God really did put me there for a reason. Everyone is so nice and eager to help me learn, I've calculated tube feeds and TPN (IV feeds) and really felt comfortable in my surroundings there. The chaplin is an Australian woman who has a very similar attitude as Barry. She is Seventh Day Adventist, like the hospital, but boy if she was a pastor I would definitely go to her church. I think she has a good understanding of God's love for us, and trust in us, and our commitment to God. It comforts me and makes me feel good.

I'm about to go play with the puppies, they're 8 days old and we're hoping they'll open their eyes today! I'll send pictures along when I can figure out how to add more than one.

I love love love you and can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Love,
Lindsey Grace

Beginning of October

Hello hello,

It is Wednesday, two days into October and I can barely believe that it's already October! It feels like I haven't been home in AGES, but it also feels like July was just yesterday. Since it is officially October, we have officially started using my recipes at the school I'm working at!! Today we made white chicken chili and it was absolutely delicious. Most of the elementary school kids ate it and the kids who chose it at the high school loved it also. However, middle school kids are twerps and would not even try it. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA HOW TO GET A-HOLE KIDS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL TO TRY FRESH COOKED DELICIOUS FOOD THAT DOES NOT COME IN A PLASTIC BAG??? I am completely at a loss with those kids. I consider a recipe a success if I can get the 3rd graders and the high schoolers to finish their entree.

Olivia and I are trying out the recipes at home first to make sure they're tasty and make sure it's possible to make for 700 kids. The other night we made orange chicken, I could have died it was so good. Last night we made a lentil curry soup in the crock pot for dinner-- so easy and SO delicious. I wish we could use that recipe for the kids but I doubt they'd touch curry. Tonight we're making a homemade teriyaki sauce for teriyaki chicken with pineapple chunks in it. We also made "Aloha Muffins" that are pineapple and banana muffins that we had for the kids this morning, and they loved them!! One of my little girls at the elementary asked Olivia "who made the muffins this morning?" and we smiled big and said "we did!!" She said she wanted them again soon!! We're trying pumpkin overnight oatmeal for Friday-- hoping that goes over as well as the muffins did.

Other than that not much has gone on. We've been working out, watching some movies and planning our October trips down to San Jose. Tom is in San Diego this month so I think we'll meet up in San Jose the weekend of the 12th. We have the 14th off from school because it is a teacher in-service day so it works out quite nicely.

That is all for now!
Love,
Lindsey

I just found out I can put pictures on here!

Hiking Mount Konocti

Wine Tasting in Kelseyville

The Cobb Waterfalls

Yellow watermelon

Back At It

Sorry, all, for not keeping up with my blog. I've had a VERY stressfull time down here and have been pre-occupied with many things. Good news-- I have a preceptor for my acute care and I am going to graduate on time!

So, what else is new? I've been visiting San Jose to see Jackie, Eric and Mike a lot. The drive isn't bad and my roommates live down here so we trade off who's driving. I'm currently in San Jose right now and loving the bug-free atmosphere. Olivia wants me to move down here in March to get an apartment and study for the RD exam together. I'm seriously considering it seeing as Mike is here and having a study buddy would be very beneficial. I want to make sure and visit home though because I miss my family more than the world. Also, once we get an apartment down here I'll have to drive up and grab Tessy because there is no way I'm leaving her outside longer than I have to!!

For the last week we have been housing a 3 year old cat who we named Peter. He was hit by a car a few weeks ago and lost his back leg. He is also a bobcat and has no tail. Needless to say, he's a little weird looking. But he has THE BEST personality. He loves people, but he is not used to being inside (we think he was a runaway) so the sound of flushing toilets, sinks, TVs, etc. freaks him out a little bit. But he LOVES to cuddle and LOVES attention. His one fault is that he has been having stomach problems which we found out by him first pooping in my bed, then pooping on Olivia's floor, then pooping in my clean laundry of my sheets that he pooped on the first time!! Right now he's here at Jackie's house-- I'm a little worried because we've been here since Thursday afternoon and he hasn't pooped yet-- unless he has pooped somewhere in Mike's laundry that I haven't found yet.... Jackie wants to call him Charlie, but I am still calling him Peter, Poopy Peter.

I have been working at Lakeport Unified School District for my food service rotation and I absolutely LOVE it. I got to add many new recipes to October's breakfast and lunch menus incorperating scratch cooking with commodity foods and trying to keep the kitchen staff calm while trying all these new things! The kids are absolutely adorable, and are sort of tolerating the new recipes. The elementary and high school are trying and liking everything, but the middle school kids are middle school kids and think its cool to starve and act like the food is poison. It's pretty entertaining, and our preceptor is very very generous and nice-- she never used to eat vegetables and she is trying everything we make and says she likes it so it makes me feel good. One of the kids the other day in the lunch line looked at the kid next to him (who I had just said hi to) and said "is that your mom?" --- I THOUGHT I LOOKED LIKE I WAS 16 NOT 36. They have also told me things like "you look like a girl" (obviously) and "the monkeys on your shirt look like my stuffed animal"

Other than that, we've just been cooking a lot-- Olivia makes really good Asian food, Jacque makes really good Italian food and I am the Mexican professional. We eat very well.

Love you all,
Lindsey

P.S. I still love getting mail!

Cleaning Day!

I don't quite remember when I wrote last so I will tell you all about my week.

Monday:
We had just got home from our trip to San Jose, the weekend kind of took all our energy out of us so we watched a lot of TV after work.

Tuesday:
Nothing (besides work-- which was still pretty much nothing)

Wednesday:
We had the RD come in to work, and I did nothing. I do believe I went to the gym after work though and that was quite refreshing.

Thursday:
Nothing-- I read Harry Potter at work. That was fun.
Oh I also chose a resident for my case study. She is blind and had been living independently for many years before she fell and had to be admitted to the nursing home. She was telling me about the FULL meals that she would make on her own at home, using all of the appliances that normal people do in her kitchen. She is seriously a rockstar.
After work we went to a Tribal Health Fair where one of the dietitians in the area asked if we could come check it out. It was small but nice, there was a lot of helpful information about nutrition and healthcare for the people in need. Also there was a free dinner, cooking demos, and prizes! Since I'm the luckiest person on the planet-- with my 3 raffle tickets that we had WE WON the raffle and got a $50 gift card to Walmart. I know what you're thinking "Ew, I don't want that prize" but in Lakeport, it's a pretty nice prize. We were happy, we had Indian Tacos for dinner-- unfortunately I was the only one brave enough to get ground turkey on my taco and I was the only one who ended up having food poisoning (or unagreement) from our meal. At least it tasted good.

Friday:
Literally nothing at work- I finished Harry Potter OOTF (pretty fantastic, reading these books never gets old.) We went out to dinner to a place called Jimmy's which is a Taquaria/Greek restaurant. The man who helped us (obviously a family business) was quite gorgeous, and is starting up a career in realestate. Why do these people live in Lakeport?!?  I had a gyro though and it was quite delicious.

Saturday:
Olivia and I had a meeting with our program director for breakfast in Windsor. We went to a place called the Omlette Express which was quite good. It was also a very good meeting, Olivia and I were concerned about getting the experience we needed in acute care here since our hospital is only 25 beds and doesn't offer the variety typical placements do-- our program director gave us the green light to start looking for preceptors in San Jose so we can do our acute care there! Olivia's dad has already offered to let us live at their house-- we'll see if Jackie will let me sleep on her couch for 6 weeks though ;)
After the meeting we went to Walmart to cash in our winning $50. Then I remembered that I had a gift card to Pier 1 Imports also, so we went 15 minutes south to Santa Rosa and popped into Pier 1. I got a painting for our living room and a mug that has cow udders for the base and is spotted black and white like a cow for the cup part of the mug. I LOVE it. Next door to Pier 1 a linnens store was going out of business so we stopped in to see what kind of deals we could get. I wanted to get a fitted sheet but couldn't find one I liked- however I did find REALLY cute place mats that were only 90 cents each, so of course I bought them.
Once we got home from Santa Rosa we took a quick nap then went grocery shopping. We stocked up on some really good fresh fruits and veggies-- I love living with food people! Not that my parents didn't buy great produce, but we have different food every night (mexican, chinese, italian, etc.) and it never gets old! Then after grocery shopping we went to check out the Taste of Lakeport. Instead of being all about food like the Taste of Edmonds, it's all about wine here. It was $35 to participate and we're quite poor so we did not join in, but it was good to see normal looking people out in town having a good time. Then to top of the great day we watched The Lucky One right before bed.

Sunday:
And now to today. Cleaning day! I started off my day folding my rather large pile of laundry that had come out of the washing machine a few days ago. Since I am an early riser (benefits!) I decided that washing my car before breakfast was the best idea so that I didn't have to be out there in the heat of the day. I washed it really thoroughly, came in for Sunday Funday breakfast (banana pancakes with turkey bacon) then went back out and vacuumed and washed the inside windows of my car. I LOVE HAVING A CLEAN CAR. And somehow here it gets dirty FAST.
After cleaning my car I borrowed our neighbor's (she's really cool, I'll talk about her later) pressure nozzle for the hose and sprayed all the webs and bugs off of the outside of the house. Then when I thought I was done I remembered I needed to do my balcony so I had Jacque swing the hose up to my balcony so I could spray from up there. Then I took my broom that I bought from my new favorite store (the Kelseyville Lumber store) and some soap and scrubbed off all the bird poop from my balcony. It's so clean now! I scrubbed our back deck also and fed the pathetic palm trees in the back. It felt good to be outside and not bad being wet out there either-- our water doesn't exactly get cold but it was still refreshing.
Jacque and I connected the propane tank to my brand new grill. Jacque and Olivia cleaned most of the inside of the house: kitchen counters, dishes, cleaning the stove, bathrooms, windows, mirrors, etc. I vacuumed and swiffered and MAN does it feel GREAT to have a spic spac clean house. I'm sure my back will hate me for it later but it sure does look nice in here.
I threw in Pitch Perfect to motivate me to iron my work clothes. I just love that movie, it will never get old. We put up the painting that I got at Pier 1 yesterday and finally put up our "Lake House" sign. It's been a VERY productive day and it's only 4pm!

I have a conference this week along with another team meeting in Santa Rosa. Jackie, Eric and Mike are heading up on Friday for Labor Day weekend and I'm really looking forward to that. All is good!

Love you all,
Lindsey

Really ready to come home.

The last few weeks have been very frustrating. I finished up at WIC and absolutely loved it, then I went to extended care after. It's a 90 bed facility in Clearlake and a lot of the residents have been there for quite some time and already have their diet plans figured out. We figured out that both of our "acute care" facilities aren't actually acute care so we plan to talk to our directors about all of it.

We went to San Jose over the weekend and had a BLAST. Normal civilization is such a wonderful thing. It was in the 90's, we relaxed, shopped and Eric was an AMAZING brother-in-dating and changed my headlight which proved to be a very difficult task. I owe him a bottle of tequilla-- and not the cheap kind. We also went out to a place called Campbell and met Olivia and her friends there. It was a cute little area, felt a lot safer than Jackie's neighborhood, and had a really great time.

Unfortunately we had to come back to Lakeport, but Jacque finally came with us and moved in!! We are adjusting to being back in Lakeport.. temps are in the 90s-100s and there is a wildfire in Chico that is sending over a plentiful amount of smoke our way.

Really missing home right now, wishing that I had my kitties with me or I was just home with my kitties. I could really go for some Agua Verde or Taster's Wok right now.

You all know my address, little mail would be wonderful.

Love you,
Lindsey

1st rotation down

So I have officially completed my first rotation as a dietetic intern. WIC was so fun. On Wednesday I taught a class to moms about transitioning their baby from the bottle to a sippy cup and protecting their teeth with fluoride varnish and frequent brushing. In California they don't fortify their water with fluoride so the kids get tooth decay even worse than at home.

Yesterday I got to hold so many tiny babies! We started with a mom with 1 month old twins, the mom was still very weak from her c-section so I got to hold them during their appointment. Then another mom came in with a 1 week old, THEN another mom came in for a lactation consult with a 1 week old who I got to hold for a long time. All of the babies smelled like sweet little baby smell and I was a happy girl. For lunch one of my co-workers invited me over to her house and her mom made us lengue and frijoles y chiles. The chiles were fresh out of the garden and EXTRA spicy. I loved every single bite. I also brought cupcakes with rainbow chip frosting as a going away treat for everyone.

Today was my last day and we had a travel clinic in Lucerne. Pretty boring day at work but today my other co-worker had us over for lunch. She's the mama of us younger ladies and HER mama made us fresh tortillas and soup of pork and beans. It was delicious. I don't think my dad would believe how much pork I'm eating! But it has been really good. The other thing we had that was really really good was arroz con leche. Take horchata, warm it up, put rice in it and add a whole lot of love and we now have my new favorite thing on this planet. This co-worker also invited us over tomorrow for her granddaughter's 5th birthday party. I'm sad to be leaving but it is nice to have new friends I can hang out with during my time here!

Jackie and Warren are on their way here right now and we are going to have a fun-filled weekend!

Love you all!