Turkey Day

Matt is carving the delicious turkey!

The night before Thanksgiving is apparently the most profitable night for local establishments… I remember hearing some of the crazy stories of how much people would make tending bar that night.  Mom, Dad and I stopped into see Grandma Marsh and I was able to spend time with Kyle’s kids.  They were having fun playing games and running around the house.

Afterwards we met up with Dan and Katie up at Jackson Point to grab some dinner before the band blasted our ears off and Lyssa and I went to downtown Seymour.  There were a lot of familiar faces out, and it was a blast to catch up with Dan and Katie to hear about their new puppy!

Thursday morning I made my wild rice with dried fruit and we had Thanksgiving with the Nagels.  It was so nice to see them all under one roof on Thanksgiving.  Grandpa VB even stopped by for a while after he had lunch with Grandma.  The food was excellent – I could barely move after dinner and didn’t have a spare ounce of room for dessert.  

After chatting after dinner for a while, Mom, Dad, and I took off for Joel’s camp to spend the rest of our Thanksgiving Holiday relaxing in Joel’s presence at camp.  It was nice to be up there to relax and reflect on the year that has gone by all too quickly.  I cannot even begin to explain the ways that life has changed in the past year, but I’m sure blessed to be surrounded by such supportive friends and family.

There’s always something we can be thankful for – I am thankful for the memories and special moments we had together.  Miss you more each day Buck.

Guest Speaker

After my recent return to Pittsburgh, Lyssa and I were chatting on the phone about the possibility of me coming to see her school and her class.  For some reason, it worked out just perfectly because I was flying into Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon and if I hurried on home, I could make it to her classroom in the early afternoon.  AWESOME!  After my GI exam, I was scrambling around to try to get stuff done in time to have dinner and leave bright and early Tuesday morning.  The 3:30AM alarm came too quickly and soon I was in the car on the way to the airport slugging coffee like it was my job.  

A photo I used in my presentation, my big brother inspires me.

Toothbrush on endoscopy to freak out the kids!

I made most of my presentation on the plane on the way to MKE and was rummaging around Google for some gross medical facts and weird X-rays for the kids.  Haha, I was cracking up with all the random stuff I found and even managed to download a video of an endoscope where they removed a mouth moistening sponge from a patient’s stomach.   I was kind of nervous about the presentation, so wore my short little white coat and brought each kid a pen shaped like a syringe full of liquid and some stethoscopes to play with.  The talk went pretty well and I was able to witness the energy of a classroom full of 7^th graders in action.  Wheww!!  It gets even wilder once you gross them out a bit!  It was really quite impressive to see Lyssa in action as “Ms. P”!

All in all, my immense respect for teachers was confirmed!  I only worked with the kids for two hours and I was ready to go to sleep I was so worn out!  Haha!  After school was done, Lyssa and I celebrated the success at school with a double date with our mothers at Applebee’s.  Perfect!

FAST Bowling!

Zel and I with our FAST Group Bowling in Squirrel Hill!

Another FAST (Faculty and Students Together) event was scheduled perfectly between exams and Holiday chaos.  This time, we had the chance to team up wither another FAST group for an evening of pizza and bowling in Squirrel Hill.  Zel, Bhavana, Leben, and I worked with our faculty advisors to set up some friendly competition!

It was fun to catch up with everyone and see how first and second year of school are going.  The first years were in the midst of genetics and experiencing Team Based Learning in all of its glory. I have to say that I have heard each year of medical school is better than the last, so I'm glad we're always moving forward to new and exciting things - even if that means that we are slowly approaching USMLE Step 1.  Eeeeek!


Bowling was a blast.  I cannot remember the last time I went bowling, but I think it was probably at Wally's Seymour Bowl.  We all grabbed a pair of "vintage" shoes and started throwing towards the pins.  Real bowling is much different that Wii bowling I found out rather quickly.  My score was ugly.

I'm glad we were able to sneak in another event before everyone takes off for the Holidays and gets a well needed and deserved break from school.  Until next time... study on FASTeeees!

Zel taking charge of the lanes...

Last Minute: Destination Wisconsin

The first weekend of our new gastroenterology course was a prime opportunity to sneak home for a mini vacation.  I made sure I had extra time in the airport this time around and was flying through Cleveland back to Green Bay.  After a minor delay, I was running out of the airport to find Haus’ Burb in the passenger pick up ready to take me to a fine local establishment to meet Lyssa, Liz, Kate, Marc and the boys.   Luckily everyone was in the mood for dancing and we were sore the next morning from the night of busting many wild moves on the floor.  

Brown eggs, fresh from the chickens' buns.

Saturday morning, Lyssa and I drove up to Joel’s camp to meet my parents and help my dad get some things ready for the up and coming hunting season.   Saturday night we migrated down to Uncle Johns to catch up with everyone after dinner and exchange stories and dance like Taylor Swift.  Lyssa and I got on a role telling stories from our college days and some of the adventures we got into with Windpants.  I was laughing so hard!  We also had Dad and big Whitey consider volunteering to be a standardized patient for a little extra cash – hahah!

Curty teaching Lyssa how to navigate like a northwoods man... GPS.

Getting a good angle on the bambis.

Helping Curty putting up the three stand!

Living off the land...

Sunday morning I went for a walk down the road at Bucks cabin to take in the rustic scenery and the farmland.  There were a lot of great photo opportunities to capture the remaining fall foliage and harvested fields.  Later that morning, we took a trip to the public land to help Curty put up a few deer stands in preparation for opening day and he showed us a few tricks to tracking down the big bucks.  Lyssa was navigating with the GPS and carrying a part of the climber.  It as a nice little hike back into the woods followed by a stop at the water falls on our way out.  We made it there just in time to take pictures and run back to the car before the downpour of rain!  Perfect timing!

Lyssa and I at the falls - WI

Curty, our local tour guide!

Lyssa in the midst of the waterfall

Monday afternoon it was down to Milwaukee for a late night flight through Newark and to Pittsburgh.  I’m sure glad that I was able to make the trip back to visit and catch up with everyone before the hustle of the Holidays!  I never turn town a weekend trip to Wisconsin!

Just another reason why I love Buck's Camp Fence...

Lazy Weekend

I love when I get a few minutes to cook dinners... Ahhmnomnom!

After the Pulm exam, Paul and I were planning to make a run up to Niagara Falls, but instead, we decided to be lazy around our apartment.  We were able to get caught up on life, do a little coupon clipping, shopping, and activate our voucher membership at Urban Active down the road.  It was such a change to be able to relax most of the day and spend some quality time together.  I did a lot of cooking and wedding planning over the wedding.  Overall it was productive and lazy all at the same time! 

Doing a little DIY crafting with cinnamon pine cones - they smell amazing!

Natural Air Freshener

To end our weekend we did some shopping and went on a date downtown, and drove around for a half hour to find a free parking spot, after accidentally passing one up.  The dinner was wonderful and the squash soup I ordered made me excited for the many wonderful fall recipes and comfort food cold weather brings! 

Marsh Weekend Road Trip

In typical Marsh style, my mom and dad jumped into the truck to visit us over the weekend.  They left Thursday night and were on our doorstep Friday at noon!  It was quite a few miles for a weekend trip, but Curty and Deb were up for the challenge.  Paul and I brought our mopeds out to Pittsburgh with all intentions of riding them around town and to the hospital.  Unfortunately, Pittsburgh isn’t much like Madison in the respect that moped parking is non-existent and the hills are wicked!  My moped wasn’t a big fan of inclines, and recently hasn’t been too reliable in starting up each time I want to use it.

Instead of the hassle of switching registration and getting them inspected we decided it might just be easier to ship them back home and let someone else use them.  Mom and Dad were kind enough to run out and get the yellow rocket and Paul’s low rider! 

We started off the weekend with a walk to Walnut Street for pizza and gelato at Mercurio’s and were able to sit outside in late October due to the unseasonably warm weather.  Saturday morning we woke up early to get a coffee and take advantage of a Sam’s Club membership and bulk food purchases.  We got a lot of odds and ends done and were able to make it to the Church Brew, which was packed!    That evening, I managed to pull together some random stuff around our apartment to create Paul a last minute Halloween costume.  He was dressed as Al Borlen from the old TV show Home Improvement.  We picked up a fabric tool belt at Home Depot for 70 cents to top off the costume – a pretty cheap investment if you ask me!

Tool Time!

Sunday morning Mom and Dad took off for home because they both had to head to work on Monday.  Just another weekend with a lot of miles for the Marsh Family! 

(Hahah, actually I’m typing this in the back of my dad’s truck as we head north – somethings never change – we’re a family that’s always on the run!)

I don't know why I am good at fake beards...