Christmas...

So, back in October we decided it would be a good idea to skip Christmas this year, all the shopping and commercial hubub was more than any of us wanted this year.  So we decided we would go to Mexico instead.  So on Christmas Eve morning at 9am we left DFW for Mexico, trying desparately to outrun the snow, luckily we made it safely with no delays and were eating lunch and drinking pina coladas by the beach by 1pm. 

I've always loved Christmas so I have been very surprised this year by how wonderful it is to just enjoy the company of loved ones, and skip the stress and hassles of shopping in the Christmas chaos, and traveling all over for 3 or 4 family Christmases.  This was possibly the best Christmas I've ever had! 

We went to Playa del Carmen Mexico, a mere 30 minutes south of Cancun.  We stayed at Secrets Capri Riviera Maya an all-inclusive adults only resort, and would highly reccomend it to others.  We spent most of our time laying on the beach reading, doing water aerobics, swimming, playing volleyball, and walking down the beach.  We had perfect weather, it was hot (80's) when the sun was out and a nice reprieve when it ventured behind a cloud, and cooled off considerably (high 60's-70's) when the sun went down in the evenings.  The goal for me was to have a relaxing holiday, and it was very relaxing.  We also spent a lot of time eating and drinking, part of the glory of an all-inclusive resort.  I particularly enjoyed the dinner and show of the hibachi restaurant, and the dessert options at the Italian restaurant (I ordered two Ice Cream stuffed profiterols with caramel and chocolate drizzle and chocolate canneloni stuffed with strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla mousse mmmmm....). 

Resort Review for TripAdvisor
Great rooms: spacious, with nice balconies, had a single size jetted tub. 
Restaurants/Food: Better than any other all inclusive I have visited, no dinner buffets except for special occasions, 4 sit down dinner restaurants (hibachi/Pan-Asian, Italian, Seafood, Steakhouse), beautifully decorated restaurants with a romantic ambiance
Drinks: Great, good service, fabulous Pina Coladas...good house wines
Staff: There staff were friendly and helpful without being overbearing, and willing to assist you as needed
Activities: Good schedule of activities during the day including water aerobics, volleyball (beach and pool), kayaking, aerobic beach walks, rifle shooting, archery, Bocce, and hobie sailers.  In the evening, more relaxed come and go activities rather than the nightly "big show" I think about with all-inclusive resorts, activites varied from karaoke, live music, football watching parties, casino night, magic show, etc.  Good, but sometimes felt as though there wasn't one thing to occupy the entire evening
Beach: Beautiful fine white sand, there were some stumps in the edge of the water that should be removed, the water is not as clear at the edge the waves disturb the sand, but it is the beautiful turquoise/royal blue you think of when you think of the Carribean once you travel a few feet out and looking at it from afar.
Only Complaints: Stumps on beach, Bad Sushi, Bath tub only for one, and Hot tub wasn't very hot at night

I just asked Richard if he had anything to say about our vacation he said, "I loved spending time with my wife"...what a good husband I have!

Richard Sheffield, M.S.

Saturday December 19, 2009

Richard graduated from SMU with a Master's of Science in Engineering Management after four years of work.  SMU has a distance education program that made it easy for him to work on his own schedule.  I am so proud of him!


Funny story...We pulled into the parking lot at SMU and Richard's phone rang, it was his mom.  She was calling to let us know that he might not be graduating, because his name was missing from the program.  This inspired a little fear, but we carried on, hooded him up, and I went and sat down while he went to join the graduates.  Immediately I started scouring the program, thinking maybe Maria had made a mistake, but NO, he was not in the program.  I called him to let him know, but he assured me everything was OK, they had a card with his name on it!  WHEW!  And he did! A few fun facts Richard is wearing Orange to signify engineering, and at SMU the business students wear DRAB to signify their specialty, coincidence?

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out and supported us and shared in our Celebration!  We love and appreciate you all! (Maria, Stephen, Nana, Barbara, Clyde, Christa, Daniel, and Mario!)

Richard's Recollection of Graduation, "It was long, boring, and they had to print the words to the National Anthem"

We continued our celebration with lunch at Gloria's!  Yum, I love that place!  Then we reconvened that evening at Champ's in Irving to watch the Cowboys beat the Saints and of course to keep celebrating Richard's big day.  After the game which was very enjoyable, we followed Oscar to a sketchy Japanese Karaoke bar at Royal and 35.  Fortunately, it was awesome!  Good pick Oscar!  You paid by the hour and your entire party had a private room complete with cookie crisp (the cereal, they served it as one of the appetizers).  It was a wonderful day with wonderful people! 

Week 16-Finals, Freedom and Texas

Monday, after a very long weekend of studying my last exam finally arrived.  It was a comprehensive biochemistry exam...yikes!  Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and I got an A in the class.  I just finished my first semester of 7, on to the celebration!  It startted with some celebratory champagne at Lauren's house, before we headed to happy hour at the Front Page.  It's a newspaper themed restaurant in Dupont Circle, I hope that's the right name, I always call it the News Stand...  Here me and about 15 of my classmates enjoyed drinks and food, while waiting for the sweet freedom to sink in.  No time for waiting though, on to the next event... We headed to Lima (a bar/lounge/restaurant) where we participated in a wonderful free salsa lesson and an open bar for the ladies, that's right I said "OPEN BAR".  It was a great way to end what I feel has been a very good semester.  On one hand it's hard to believe I am already one semester into school, but on the other I feel like this was a pretty lengthy semester.  At least I get a pretty lengthy break to recover before the really rough stuff begins.

Tuesday: Welcome to Dallas, Local time is 5:30 and it's 47 degrees!
 I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to be home.  I cried during the entire descent, until I got to the car, I was so happy to be back in Texas!   I feel like Texas is like Cheers, it feels welcoming like everybody knows my name. 

I forgot to mention all the fun to get here, this was Angel's very first airplane ride.  I feel like taking a dog on a plane I got my first taste of what motherhood may actually be like...  Let me preface this with the statement "Sheffields NEVER check bags!", this is Richard and I's motto when travelling.  So Angel is in a doggy bag and I'm carrying her being very cautious not to bang her into the seats or the passengers or tilt her on her side or head.  All the while pulling a roller bag down the narrow aisle while carrying my coat, scarf, and book.  When I got near my seat it was time to hoist my bag into the overhead bin... Unfortunately Richard usually does this and I couldn't get it up on my own.  So the guy behind me attempted to help, but it wouldn't fit.  Now what?  Well, I emptied out the front pockets as the line of passengers grew behind be, I took out 3 pairs of shoes, all my toiletries, and my glasses (none of which were in a bag).  I then gathered up all my stuff, the dog, the book, the scarf, the 3 pairs of shoes, the glasses and the sunglasses, and all my toiletries.  Once I arrived to my seat, I had the window, but the two seats next to it were already full.  So, as I climbed in, I started throwing my bundle down in my seat, which I then had to sit on while I tried to organize myself...I was chaos.  Fortunately Angel is much better that any child I've ever seen on an airplane.

Once, I landed though my parents picked me up and took me home for mom's homemade fried chicken and gravy...clearly you cannot get the Texas outta me!

Wednesday: Heaven in Texas!
Went shopping at TJMAXX with Mom, followed by lunch at my favorite dive in Dallas, Shuck N' Jive, where I had some delicious fried shrimp and raw oysters.  Shout Out: TARA!  Then some more shopping, followed by Paciugo, if you haven't tried it, you must and I highly recommend the Caramel Sea Salt.  Shout Out: LISA!  That's not all the day's not over yet, we met my entire family and Christa at Manny's Uptown for some delicious Tex-Mex (Lord, how I've missed you!).  Recommendation: Nuestro Shrimp 
Then we headed to Fair Park for 101 Dalmations the musical.  I'm a huge musical fan so here is my critique of 101 Dalmations: Cruella played by Rachel York was wonderful gave a commanding performance.  It was also great when they incorporated the live dogs, but overall not one of the best shows I've seen.  As far as music goes, not great and missing Cruella De Ville, which was surprising.  As far as Disney goes stick to the Lion King or Beauty and the Beast.  It was great to see the fam and to have the opportunity to get together just us girls!

Thursday, finally got a haircut which was much needed it's funny the things you don't want to change if you don't absolutely have to.  I took Richard lunch at work so he could show me off :), did a little more shopping with mom, and had dinner with the Paces while Richard was at SMU taking the last final of his Master's Degree.  It was great to see Jason and Amanda, I enjoyed chatting.  Carly and Jonah are getting so big.  We went and looked at Christmas lights, then met Richard for ice cream at Coldstone to celebrate!

Friday, I love seeing my friends.  I've made some good friends in DC but I sure do miss the ones at home.  Hopefully I'll have time to catch up with everyone while I'm here.  Tonight, we met Nick and Kandice at Chaucer's in Addison (they have amazing sushi, but don't ever go here on a Friday or Saturday night if you plan on trying to have a conversation).  It was so nice to see them and catch up, they've had quite a busy couple of months and blogs are nice but it's good to hear it in the flesh as well.  We had a great time with you guys!

I think that's about enough for one post, the rest of Week 16 to come...

Week 15-Finals Take 1

It all started Monday with a hellacious Anesthesia exam.  Started with a written exam with two flat out wrong questions.  Followed by a horrific comprehensive oral exam in which I spent roughly 20 minutes regurgitating everything I've learned in the last semester...it was great (<--note the sarcasm). 

Followed Tuesday by my final Health Policy class.  We had presentations for our final grade, and my group did a presentation on death panels.  If you think you like Sarah Palin I suggest you google her with death panel and look at just how intelligent she is.  Prior to her smear campaign there was a provision in the reform bill that provided medicare reimbursement for end-of life counseling (which is fabulous), but now it has been removed.  Thank you Sarah Palin!  More people will now waste our resources because their families won't know what they won't.  Ok, I'm done with my soap box...

Wednesday, I had my last biochemistry lecture!  Thank God!  One more comprehensive exam in this class on monday, then its all over...Until January that is.

Thursday, was slightly painful... I got to spend 8 whole hours listening to research presentations...  When I have a biochemistry final to study for.  Now I'm blogging when I should be studying.

Friday, I studied all day and then Nicole and I took a break and went to see the National Christmas Trees down by the White House, followed by dinner, and some White Chrismas!  So the big lighted tree is the national tree and then their is an individual tree from each state or territory.  The pic of me is front of the Texas tree, the ornaments were decorated by kids at a Christian school in Lewisville.  This was my last break before a weekend FULL of studying!

Week 14-GREAT NEWS!!!

The beginning of this week was absolutely wonderful, Richard was still here.  Monday, it was cold and rainy so we spent the day lounging around watching movies and had a nice dinner in.  Then Tuesday we got up and headed into the city to go to the Spy museum.  This is one of the only museums we had not visited before because its usually $20 to go, and almost every other museum in the city is free.  However, I got some discount groupon tickets, so we went, and it was really enjoyable and interesting...I still wouldn't pay $20 but it was worth the $9 I paid.  Then we had lunch in Chinatown before we headed home to take Richard to the airport.

Then the BIG news!  On our way home Richard got a text message from his friend Katie (who got him the DC interview), saying that they sent him an offer!  We were so excited that even though we should be going to the airport, we came home and logged on to the Raytheon secure site to look at the job offer, and it was good.

Thursday, after some negotiations he accepted the job at Raytheon in Falls Church (which is 20 minutes from our apartment against traffic, and about 10 minutes from Sara and Tom's house)...Sara this means I can send him to your house when I have to study or maybe when he makes me mad, haha, I'm kidding.

Richard got a job in DC and will be moving here in January!

Other than that, the week was spent preparing for my comprehenisve anesthesia oral exam, and written exam worth 60% of my grade. Only two weeks until Texas, though!

Week 13-Happy Freakin' Thanksgiving!

This week started out great!  Only one day of class, starting Monday.  Unfortunately Monday evening I started feeling slightly under the weather, so I just thought I needed to go to bed early.  But Tuesday when I woke up, things were worse.  I thought I had a typical sinus infection but as the day progressed I determined it was the flu!  So Wednesday morning after Richard arrived he took me to the Dr. to check it out, yep FLU!  They didn't test to see if it was H1N1 but they gave me some tamiflu which made me sick at first but I certainly started feeling better.  The worst part about being sick was that I missed the big family Thanksgiving, I was quarrentined because I was contagious.

Friday, I stopped being contagious and me, Rich, and Stephan went to the Hirschorn Museum and out to Sara and Tom's for Turkey day leftovers.  Where the boys proved their masculinity with Brazil nut cracking (see picture below).  Also, got to spend time with our beautiful neice and boistrous nephew (we built a garage for his hot wheels).

Saturday, I finally had some time to hang out with the hubby.  I made a butternut squash pasta sauce courtesy of Giada, and it was awful!  I didn't know whether or not I liked butternut squash, I don't!

Sunday, I had a bit of a nervous breakdown when I realized that I have a comprehensive oral anesthesia exam in a week that I have not started studying for.  So I spent some time studying.  Then Sara, Tom, and Stephan came over for dinner, wine, and Trivial Pursuit.

Week 12-I'm too sexy for my Cranium...

Me and Heyni with Dr. Azzam (best anatomy professor ever)

BEST week of the semester!!!! Anatomy is finished, one A down we'll see if I can pull off a few more.  This week was basically a week of celebration.  Anatomy final on tuesday.  Then all day wednesday and thursday I spent time with Lauren, Adaire, and Amy working on our mind boggling scapula presentation.  We rewrote some popular songs...including ABC, 123 (the Jackson 5), Fresh Prince (Will Smith), Ice Ice Baby (Vanilla Ice), All the Small Things (Blink 182), and I'm too sexy (forget who sings this...)  I've posted some videos on you tube, do a search for Georgetown NAP 2011 to find the evidence! 

My Anatomy Presentation Group-We ROCKED!!!

So Friday we delivered our presentations (search Georgetown NAP 2011 on youtube for a video), followed by pizza and beer courtesy of our professor!  It was fabulous, but the real party was Saturday.  About 10 or 12 of my classmates celebrated with a night out on the town.  We met at Lauren's to pregame, then headed out to Roxanne's in Adam's Morgan for some more alcohol, dancing, and pure insanity!  This night has been the highlight of my semester, it was so nice to go out and not think about school or what I wasn't getting done!  I also feel like I have officially been initiated into the DC bar scene after a 3:30 trip to Jumbo Slice, they have NO Jack in the Box or curly fries here!!!  They serve the largest slices of pizza I have ever seen, check it out!

Sunday, day of recovery and biochem catch up, only one more day of class before Thanksgiving break!