Fireproof

Today Michael and I watched Fireproof. If you don't know about it, its a movie about marriage. We heard about it from Michael Medved and since Michael thinks Medved's movie reviews are awesome, we decided to check it out.

The movie is really really good and I highly recommend it. It stars Kirk Cameron (best know as Mike Seaver from Growing Pains) as a fireman whose marriage is falling apart. It chronicles his journey as he first comes to terms with the situation and then as he struggles to put his marriage back together. The movie has a very prominent Christian influence and is in fact centered on Bible principles and Christ's love for us.

This movie is not sappy or cheesy, but I think very real. If you are looking for a good movie night movie, rent Fireproof (and let me know what you think)!

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

Even Better News!!

Today was Match Day and we finally got our long-awaited news....we matched at UMDNJ! We both checked our email this am and found out before lunch! Needless to say we are sooo excited, this was our first choice.

So now its official, we are going to be medicine residents at UMDNJ in less than 4 months! Hooray!

Good News!!

After 4 long months, we have finally found someone to rent our condo in Florida! It took many ads, many trips by my mom (aka our real estate agent), and many "almost" renters to finally find the right people. Even though we are taking less in rent than what we would want, we are happy to at least have someone in our condo and helping us make the payments.

Thank you for all the prayers and fasting...we are very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

SNOW!!

Last winter we had hardly any snow here in Philly and I was beginning to think that I could do the whole "up-north" winter thing. Then everyone starts telling me last winter was mild compared to the usual. So this year, it begins to get cold in October (October!) and we have since gotten enough snow to cancel school for two days.

I am not complaining about the snow. I love the way it looks (the city looks pretty and clean) and I love how quiet it gets. I also love not having to go in to work (this pleasure will be gone soon). So, to prove to all our southern friends and families that there really was lot of snow, I am posting pictures as proof. Sometimes I cannot believe that I really live here...

A Trip to Atlanta

This past weekend we took a much needed trip to Atlanta to see Mike's family. We have never been so excited to travel before, but when the weather has been in the 20s for weeks you really look forward to a trip south.

We had such a great time with our family. It was nice to be able to spend the time hanging out and just being with one another. We also really enjoyed the 60 degree weather and the sunshine! Mike and I both kept saying, can we move now? It was so nice and so clean (something we are not used to in Philly). We now both see that while Philly is an awesome city filled with culture and history, we would prefer to raise our family in a place more like Atlanta (clean, new, safe). It reminds me of how I grew up and thats what I want for my own children.

Here are some highlights from the weekend:

• Mellow Mushroom Pizza! You may think that because we live in Philly, we can get great pizza at anytime. But do you know that we have yet to find a great pizza place? When we lived in Sarasota we went to this awesome place every Monday night. We thought for sure we would find something similar or even better, but no luck. There is a chain called Mellow Mushroom and it really has great pizza. I was talking about it for days before we went there and I was so excited to eat some Friday night after we got home.
• Manicures and Pedicures: we always do this when we visit (we being Mike's Mom, sister and me) and I love the tradition. Its so nice to get pampered!
• The World of Coke! Awesome trip! I LOVE coke, its the best drink ever invented and if it weren't so bad for you, I would probably drink a couple a day (right now I limit myself to 1 every other day). Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, so they have this great museum dedicated to the invention, production, and culture of coke. It was very fun to see all the memorabilia. They also had a mini bottling factory that you could walk through and then at the end get a free bottle of coke. The best and the worst part was the tasting room. They have soda from all over the world to taste. There were some really good ones (like from South America) and some really nasty ones (like from Italy). The man running the tasting room announces overhead, "Try all the flavors in the room, but you must try Beverly from Italy, its very good" So everyone rushes over to this fountain and fills their glass. Let me tell you, as soon as that junk touched my lips I started to gag. Gross is an understatement, it was so bitter. I spit it out and then quickly found something sweet to get the taste out of my mouth. That Coke worker was really mean!
• Sundial Room at the Downtown Westin This is a restaurant that is on the 72nd floor of the hotel downtown. We rode a very fast elevator to the top floor and then the restaurant is circular and revolves (one revolution per hour) so you can see a panoramic Atlanta skyline. It was a very cool place to eat and because it was a clear day we could see forever.
• Swallow at the Hollow I finally got my long-awaiting southern biscuit! This restaurant is a bar-b-q place with all the southern fixins that we have missed for the past year. We both had bar-b-q with biscuits, mac and cheese, baked beans, coleslaw, and fried green tomatoes! All soo good!!
• Fast & Testimony Meeting We attended the sacrament meeting at the church near Mike's mom's house. She came with us too, which was so great. The meeting was very good, one of the best I have been to. We really enjoyed being there and I will always remember the way I felt as I sat and listened to everyone's testimonies.

Now that I have taken up tons of space to write all of this, I think I will wrap it up before this becomes a book. We had a really great time in Atlanta and we can't wait to go back. Of course we took our camera, but took no pictures, so sorry for the very pictureless post!

Update

Can you tell that Mike and I have gotten back into our normal schedule? The last time I posted was when we were "working" nights in the Emergency Room and I actually had time to get online. This past month we were back at UMDNJ (hooray!), Mike was doing Nephrology (kidneys) and I was working with the cardiologists. The month was great, we were both very happy to be back in the hospital and be on the floors (EM is not our thing). I have decided after this past month that I have no interest in Cardiology, it is all for Michael. The heart is interesting for sure, but its just not my thing. So no Bianco Cardiology group in our future.

Starting Monday, Mike will be on the cardiology service and I will do geriatrics. We are both very excited to be rotating in the specialty that we both want to do for our careers (when we finally get there). This past week I had patients that were 99, 96, 94, 89, and 86 years old. I love those old-old people. One patient told me about being at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed! I'm really looking forward to spending a whole month in this field, then I will know for sure if its what I want to spend an extra 3 years in training for.

And p.s. Monday is Match Day. This means that by Monday at noon we will know for sure what residency program we will spend the next three years in. We are very nervous and very excited. It will be great to know, to sign the contract, and have one less thing to worry about. Only 4 more months to go!!!
This is an old picture of Mike and I giving our cat Fabian a bath at my parents' house in Florida. It always makes me smile to see it, he looks so miserable. (I know its not relevant to this post, but I thought I would put it up anyway)