The Corry $6 Burger

Doug and Maegan are here (more on that in a future post) and we decided to grill some burgers out back. I tried a new recipe with the burgers and they were awesome so I will share my recipe with the 3 of you who read this blog. Bob, if you ever find time to see this page you can skip this post because it includes mushrooms.


1. Beef - I 1 pound of 80/20 beef
2. 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3. 2 Tbsp A1
4. 1 egg
5. 1/2 regular size onion, diced (makes almost 1/4 cup)
6. 1/4 cup bread crumbs
7. 1 can mushrooms
8. 1/4 cup Velveeta cheese
9. 1/4 milk
10. fried egg for each burger

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl. When well mixed form into burgers 5 - 6 inches across (they shrink on the grill).

Fry the eggs, preferably in a cast iron skillet with butter flavored Crisco (this is especially nice if you happen to have a side burner on your grill)

Saute mushrooms, once again this can be done in the cast iron skillet with butter flavored Crisco. Drain excess Crisco. Cut Velveeta into 1/2 inch squares (the smaller the better). Add milk and Velveeta to mushrooms and stir until cheese sauce is smooth.

Place burger on bun (mayo, mustard, ketchup as desired) top with layer of mushroom cheese sauce, layer lettuce, tomato, and pickles (if desired) on top of cheese. Place fried egg as the top layer below the bun (I prefer to have the yolk soft but it's good either way).

As you might imagine the end result is a very tall burger and it is delicious.

Next time I'm adding avocados to the finished product.

I love medicine

It's 4:26 AM and I've been at the bedside of a criticially ill patient for the past 90 minutes. I spent much of that time speaking with a gentleman and his granddaughter about withdrawing medical care for his wife. 91 minutes ago I didn't know these people from Adam and 45 minutes ago I was doing my best to inform a grief stricken man the best I could the condition of his beloved companion so that he could make an informed decision regarding her care. There were no cardiologists, there were no pulmonologists, there wasn't even a familiar family physician it was just the family, the chaplain, and me. The end of the story is that the family decided to withdraw care and spend the last moments of this woman's life without all the tubes and medicines.

What about that scenario makes me love medicine? That man trusted me to give him the information that he used to make a life and death decision. That family was forced to allow me, a total stranger, into one of the most important moments of their lives and it was natural to do so. With all the responsibility that I have felt thrust on my shoulders over the past month I think I have forgotten, at times, what this whole healthcare system is about. Most of the treatments done each day aren't going to be life and death decisions, but some are and the trust that patients place in their doctors is astounding. I love the feeling of being trusted and though there will certainly come a day when I make a mistake and get down on myself for doing so the trust from my patients will still be there.

It is now 10:47, I was called back to the room shortly before 6 to do a death pronouncement. As always it was a solemn occasion. As I entered the room the husband took my hand and with tears in his eyes he whispered a heartfelt thank you to me. I am humbled to be in a profession that places me in such an important (though oftentimes very brief) portion of other people's lives.

Rain or Shine, The Beach is Fine

Saturday was Jacob's first day off this month and we decided that we would go to the beach. We checked the weather and it said there could be some showers but they won't last long. So we headed out. This is what the parking lot of the first beach we went to looked like.

We ate our little packed lunch in the car, and waited a few more minutes and decided to drive a little more to another beach near by in hopes of better weather. That turned out to be a great decision.

The kids couldn't wait to get out of the van and go play in the sand and water. We immediatley started with building sand castles. This quickly got old when no one could get a castle bigger than 2 buckets.

And so we moved on to burying one another. Everyone took their turn, except mom or course, because someone had to take the pictures.

Once everyone had been buried it was down to the water to wash off and play. We played in the water for quite some time and the kids absolutely loved it.

Kristian then wanted to be buried again; he kept throwing sand on his legs until we got the hint. The kids thought it would then be fun to pour water on the sand he was buried in which he was all to happy to splash in. This of course creating the result of having to be cleaned off again, several times over.

Eventually the burial site was turned into a private pool for Kris to play in on the shoreline that would fill up each time the waves came in. He splashed and splashed and was in baby paradise. Then I noticed that his legs were a bit on the purple side and we decided it was probably time to go warm up.

We headed back to the towels and then back to South Bend. Once there we stopped at Big Lots to get a BBQ (I have missed having a BBQ and making my husband cooks all of the summer meals) and stopped for hamburgers and milkshakes. Oh yes, the kids slept well that night.

All in all, A great first day off!!

Jessica's 3rd Birthday

So Jessica had a birthday party a week ago and between my sister coming and the painting starting somehow I forgot to put this on. Jessica had a blast at her birthday party. It was Princess Themed (obviously) and all of her little friends came dressed up in their princess attire. Too Cute. I made Jessi a Cinderella dress-up for the party. She loved it and looked so cute in it.

We had so much fun with all of Jessi's new friends. We made princess wands with foamie stickers, had lunch (butterfly shaped sandwiches and sides), ate birthday cake, opened presents, and then decorated princess shaped sugar cookies with girly colored frosting and tons of sprinkles. Thanks so all of her friends that came and made her 3rd birthday party a great one.

Sunday was Jessi’s actual birthday. We celebrated by having her pick of dinner (quesadillas) and then opening presents from family and mom and dad. She got a special present from her Aunt Corinne. There is a video of her opening Aunt Corinne’s Cinderella collection that she gave to Jessi for her room. Thanks Corinne, she really loves it. Well our little princess is 3 now. This should be fun.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the days.

The Ranch

I am preparing myself for my first call night without a third year backup tomorrow. Add to that the fact that I'm on again Monday and I have a busy few days. This all comes on the weekend that all my brothers and sisters, parents, and cousins are enjoying themselves at the annual Corry Reunion. My folks own a bunch of property near Navajo Lake in Southern Utah where the reunion is held. My grandfather always referred to that piece of property as the ranch so henceforth I will refer to the Navajo Property as The Ranch. At any rate I am somewhat sad to be missing the reunion both for the company as well as the location.

A week before coming to South Bend we spent a couple of days camping at the ranch and I'm just now getting the pictures off of the camera so without further adu here are some of the pics from that event.

Things Are Changing

So I hesitate to post this as I am afraid no one will ever want to come to visit us anymore. My sister, Jennifer, came to visit us this week and we put her to work. I was waiting to start any of the painting until she got here as I have never painted before. (that is the result of living in a lot of rentals) Anyhow, she has, and is very good at it I might add. So with that said, on with the changes.

Jessica's Room

This is the first project we started and I am glad we tackled it first. I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided on this pattern for the room and what a huge process it would be. However, I am thrilled with the results and am very glad we stuck with it. I still need to buy some shelves to go on the walls so she can display her Cinderella collection that her Aunt Corinne gave her, and I also want to paint her bed, art table, and bookshelf white, but that might be a little while. Just a few more things on the project list. Jacob is also going to put crown around the ceiling and a chairrail where the stripes meet the pink. Without further ado, I give you Jessi's Room. . .

Spencer and Kristian's Room

So luckily this room was a little easier than Jessi's. It did include a trip to Wal-Mart at 2:00 am to get some more green paint. Just FYI, if you ever need paint in the middle of the night, you know where you can get it at. We finished it at about 4:00 am. I am very happy as well with this room. I don't know what I am going to put on the walls yet, but we are looking for bunk beds for the boys and I plan to make matching quilts. I just think that will be so cute. We are also going to put crown molding in the boys room as well. So here is Spencer and Kristian's Room . . .

The Arch

So I was not aware that my twin sister is a "Master Mudder" but once I found out about it I took full advantage of it. So first we scraped off Jacob's and my first attempt to putty the arch which had cracked everywhere. Then we began the process of mudding the arch for the second time. Jennifer had a lot of practice mudding when she was in theater in college I find and is very good at texturing, which is awesome since our walls are all textured and Jacob and I were pretty sure we were not going to be able to make it look anything like the rest. So to make a long story short, Jennifer mudded the whole arch, matched the texture perfectly, and it looks totally awesome.

p.s. So how long do you think it will take me to get all of the bedroom and closet doors that are in the back of the picture back up in the kids room?

So now onto a few of the other projects I have had before Jennifer arrived . . .

Old Blue

So anyone that has visited our place has had an experience sitting on our couch "Old Blue". Well I guess I should say slouching and not sitting as it is rather hard to sit on Old Blue as you tend to sink into the middle. Well, it was time for a makeover. First Old Blue got a sitting companion that I found at a garage sale and talked down from $175.oo to $50.00.

Next, Old Blue got a nice piece of 3 inch foam under the cushions to help with the "sinkage" issue. And finally, a new slip cover to match the new couch and hide Old Blue. So now we have "New Brown". I am going to recover the throw pillows once I decide what color to paint the room and that will be the final touches to our new couch.

And last, but certainly not least, THE BOAT

Robert, this is for you. I can't tell you how glad the kids are that the boat ended up in the back of the truck. With a little work from mom, and a lot of jokes from dad, I give you the S.S. Corry.

Happy Indepedence Day

This morning the kids and I celebrated the 4th by participating in a bike parade. I had no idea what to expect but geared myself for whatever was to come. We met a lot of the other residents over at the Galbraiths (Resident's at Memorial) and decorated the bikes and strollers. Upon all the other kids arriving I made the observation that Spencer's little bike that we got on freecycle in Yakima was way to small for him. It was about the size of all the three year olds bikes. I guess we know what to get him for Christmas.

All of the kids in the neighborhood lined up behind 2 fire trucks and after a small patriotic performance we were off. Spencer liked it for about the first minute and then realized he was pedaling uphill. He gave it all he had, but whereas he has never had much bike riding experience (shame on his mom) he tended to lean to one side or the other depending on the training wheels, and well, little plastic circle don't work as well as wheels. With a few pushes he continued on.

About 1/2 way through Jessi informed me she needed to go potty. One, I was so happy that she hadn't just gone in her clothes like normal. Two, It isn't the best time to get the urge. Luckily, on of the other residents lived just a block away so we made a quick detour. She made it too. Yea, I am so proud of her.

As soon as I got back to the crowd Spencer informed me he had to go potty. Now you can imagine I am a little frustrated as I just made one detour and didn't really want to have to have Bonnie (the person's house we used) take us all the way back again. So I took advantage of the fact that Spencer was a boy. We found some trees just outside the neighborhood and he did his thing.

When things slowed down we headed back to the Galbraiths house for fun in the sun. Our kids were once again mad at me for not bringing their swimsuits so they could play in the pool. Basically I justify this for two reasons. One, Jessi can't swim with her ears, and no matter how we try we can't get her to keep anything in them so she could swim. So basically pools are off limits to her. So I feel bad telling her no and then letting Spencer go. Can you see the dilemma? Second, I am paranoid around pools. I admit it. I think that is a little weird as I spent pretty much my entire high school years around a pool, but I really worry about the kids even dangling their hands in from the side. So I figure I need to get them in swimming lessons so that I don't have to worry. One more thing to add to the "To Do" list.

Anyhow, we are back home now and at 5:00 we have a BBQ at the Brady's house who also have a pool. (I told Spencer if I can find his old life jacket and if it still fits, he could swim. I am trying to meet him half way I guess.) I am so glad to have such wonderful friends out here. Jacob is doing his first day on-call and it is making it so much easier for me being so distracted and getting to enjoy such great company. Wish I could say the same for him. He called a little bit ago pretty stressed out. I guess that happens when you realize your on your own all night. (I guess he isn't completely on his on as a chief is in-house tonight, but essentially he does it on his on unless he needs help.)

Hope everyone is having a Happy 4th!! Me and the Kids sure are!!

P.S. If you read the last post without pictures, check again. I added some pictures of the wedding and our construction :)

A Great Time to Catch Up

WARNING THIS IS LONG - YOU MAY WANT TO SKIM

So I have been meaning to do this for days, and with each passing day I have more and more to report on. So here it goes, a complete overview of our crazy June. And I am pretty sure the past and present tenses are going to get a little mixed up, oh well.

June 1st
We have everything packed up and Jacob and I left for Salt Lake so that we can pick up the truck the next morning. The kids stayed with Grandma Corry. I must say it is rather nice to travel up to Salt Lake with relative calmness.

June 2nd
Jacob and I pick up the truck in the morning. We drop off the car carrier at my sister’s house where it was stored for a few days and have a wonderful breakfast at my Moms. Then it is into the 26 footer Penske and we head down for Cedar. The whole drive down we were reminded of how grateful we were that we weren’t driving the truck all the way to South Bend. That bench seat is so uncomfortable, the truck does not ride smooth, and worst of all, there was a governor on the truck set at 70! Killer!!

When we arrive at Cedar City we go straight to the house and pack up. It didn’t take us too long and then it was over to Mom and Dad Corry’s for a farewell dinner.

We found out a few days later that something else went on this night but more on that later.

June 3rd
Jacob and I got up around 5:00 and had to say goodbye. This is always so hard. After some tears, we got on the road. We made it to SL (the kids slept most of the way which was a real blessing) and then Jacob showed up about an hour later. (That governor just kills your time.) Then we said a quick goodbye to the kids and Jacob (and the truck) and we got to take my parents car and head out. We made it to Sydney NE that night.

June 4th
Jacob and I drove from Sydney to I can’t remember now, but only a few hours away from South Bend. Thrilling day, but at least we had a good book to listen to.

June 5th
We arrive in South Bend and are very excited to be out of the car for a bit. We met with our insurance agent, went on a walk through of the house (why is it when you rent an apartment it is spotless and when you buy a house it is trashed, weird) watched 2 movies (living it up while we can at the $1.00 theater), and then spent the evening with our friends the Sanderson’s. (Thanks again for letting us stay with you!)

June 6th
This is the big day. We spent the morning cleaning at the house, including shampooing all the carpets, and then in the afternoon went to the bank and became official home owners. That was pretty awesome. It is very, very different to own a house verse rent one but so far we are very happy with the decision to buy. To celebrate we went to dinner and a movie. Thanks to Aunt Jen and the gift cards from Christmas we went to see a movie that wasn’t at the $1.00 Theater. We flipped a coin between Iron Man and Indiana Jones and Iron Man won out. It was pretty good. That evening we blew up the air mattress and slept for the first night in our own house. It should be noted as well that my Dad and Brother left at Noon with the truck headed for South Bend as well.

June 7th
Jacob is rather excited about having our own backyard so the first thing he wanted to do was plant a garden. This is what we spent the morning doing. I must say too, it is doing pretty well. We just have to find a way to keep the chipmunks and insects out. Any suggestions? The truck arrived at 4:30 (that’s right, they drove though the whole night).

As soon as we opened the truck we were greeted by the plastic boat frame that we thought we left in Cedar with Jacob’s brother Robert. The story goes that at 3:00 a.m. on the early hours of the 3rd Robert crept in our room looking for Jacob’s keys. Apparently he had to lay on the floor for sometime as I told Jacob to go back to bed in my sleep and he was afraid he would wake me up. Eventually, he just grabbed all of Jacob’s shorts and took them out in the hall. He spent an hour tying the boat into the back of the truck and surprised us like none other.

After getting the boat untied we took everything off the truck and stuck it in the garage. Thanks to everyone who came to help us unload. I am so grateful to have such great friends. Dad and Adam grabbed a quick shower and then it was back in the car to drive back to SL.

June 8th
After a long night (mostly for Dad and Adam, we were pretty rested and I never had to drive) we arrived back in Salt Lake in the early afternoon. Yea, we are crazy. We were very happy to see the kids as we were really starting to miss them. Then everyone got some shuteye. My dad went and lay down around 4:00 and we didn’t see him again until the next morning. Thanks you Adam and Dad!! I can’t say this enough, but I really appreciate you two and all you do for us.

June 9th
Adam had to work this day, which was why we hurried back. I figured we would spend the day relaxing and chilling but it turned out we had quite a few errands so the day got filled up pretty quick.

June 10th
Today is the reason we drove back to Salt Lake. Tamsen, my younger sister, married Dean Bogeardas (sorry, I think I slaughtered the last name) It was a beautiful wedding!! Tamsen looked absolutely gorgeous. The food was pretty good too. Congrats Tamsen and Dean. As a side note, Tamsen got Jessi a beautiful dress to wear for the occasion which she was all to happy to spin around in and tell everyone she was a princess.

After the wedding came the part I had been dreading. Time to say goodbye, again. I would say after a few tears we got in the car, but it wasn’t a few tears. It is hard to say goodbye to my Mom. So finally, after a few sobs, I got in the car and we headed east. The plan was to just drive to Evanston, but once there we were still pretty awake so we drove on. Turns out that might not have been the greatest decision. For some reason all of the hotels in Wyoming turned out to be full that evening, (maybe due to the surprise snow storm.) We finally found a smoker room at around Midnight. I can’t remember what the name of the city was but lucky the room didn’t stink that bad, and we were so tired I don’t think we would have cared.

June 11th
First thing we did upon waking up was book a hotel for that night; we didn’t want to have the same situation again. The drive was pretty much like all drives until we got to Omaha. It was then that we hit the storm and heard the sirens. Somehow though after a few minutes of rain, we were in the clear and the storm seemed to just hedge on the edge of the interstate but not over the interstate. Tender Mercies. Our hotel was in Council Bluffs just on the other side of Omaha.

We arrived around 6:30 and went to get something for the kids to eat. We were told at the drive though that they weren’t serving because they were in the middle of a tornado watch but we could come in for shelter (their tone inflected a real “Well Duh” hint). So we went back to the hotel and had chips and goldfish for dinner. The kids wanted to go to the pool but whereas it is surrounded by glass we decided against that. So they had a personal pool in the bath and then off to bed.

To say it was a long night would be an understatement. I don’t remember being that scared in a long time. We watched the news for quite some time and watched as tornado’s hit all around us. We tried to figure out what would be the best option of one were to hit. Finally, after quite a few prayers, and a lot of worries, the storms died down and we went to sleep.

June 12th,
When we woke up we found some of the trees in the parking lot torn down but that was about all of the damage done. We loaded up for one last day of driving. The amount of flooding we saw over the next hour was insane. There were ballparks where you could only see the very top of the outfield fence. We found out later that the closed down the interstate the next day due to the flooding. Again, Tender Mercies.

We arrived at South Bend around 4:00, and started work on finding all of the beds and getting them set up. The kids were so excited to have new rooms, (although they will be happier when I finally get around to painting them blue and pink)

June 13th – Today

Okay, so the rest of the days all start to blend together for me. They consist of Jacob doing orientation at the hospital during the days, me unpacking during the days, and then us working on projects in the evening. Whereas, the first two aren’t that exciting I will touch on some of our projects. They include taking down the built-In in the family room, taking down the tin shelves in all of the closets and building new ones from the wood we now have from the built-in. We also have replaced the tin closet doors and put up new ones. Jacob spent a Saturday building tables in the garage for his tools and organizing the entire garage. And last Saturday we built the arch between the dining room and living room. Now we have to mud and tape, but that has been put on hold due to Jacob starting with an Internal Medicine rotation.











So that is what we have been up to for the last month. The house is coming together, slowly but surely. Jennifer is coming to visit starting tomorrow and we plan on painting while she is here (I have never done it and so am glad to have her help) and I am sure that will make a huge difference. The kids sure are excited.

Today, Jacob has his first On-Call day on this Independence Day so I am sure he will write about that. Jessi’s Birthday is on Sunday and we are having a birthday party tomorrow for her. She is so excited. I will try and post on that quicker with lots of pictures.

Well I think this is far long enough. I hope you skimmed!!

Faith of a Child

Spencer has been learning a lot about prayer lately. Last week he was praying that Jessi would do better on her potty training, and it just so happened that she had a particularly bad day with it and before bed Spencer told me that prayers don't work. I tried to help him understand the concept of God's will and free agency, but come on he's 5. Instead we decided that he would keep praying for Jessi to get better at her potty training. The next day Jessi had a perfectly dry day and Spencer was so excited at bedtime because he prayed for Jessi to not have any potty accidents and she didn't!

Fast forward to Tuesday. Tuesday was my first day of actual patient care as a licensed physician. My first rotation is medicine which for most people is the most challenging mentally and a close second to OB as the most challenging physically (in family practice residencies anyway). This makes for a somewhat stressfull day and while I have been trying to prepare myself for it Tuesday was difficult for me. The learning curve in residency is steep at first and I have yet to meet a physician who says they weren't at least a little stressed. I have a tendency toward anxiety (thanks for that dad) and so I was very close to having an anxiety attack on Tuesday. Fortunately for me I have some experience with that(some of you faithful readers may remember an email on the subject a couple of years back). I know what it feels like and I can generally calm myself down enough to function. When I came home yesterday I was exhausted, not so much from the work but from my own stress. Because of that stress I am now sick with a cold that I'm pretty sure wouldn't have even caused me a sniffle in a nonstressed state (Melissa is perfectly healthy). Spencer noticed that I wasn't quite myself and asked me what was wrong so I told him I was scared of work (once again he's 5 people). When he said his prayers he prayed for daddy not to be scared.

Today was slightly better than yesterday. I stopped worrying about being inept and was able to accept that a little better and the day went pretty well. My cold got worse, but that will be another few days. I got home and things were not awesome, but they were better than yesterday. Spencer noticed and he asked me if I knew why I was feeling better. I said no and he responded by saying: "It's because I prayed for you not to be scared dad." It melted my heart and I cried. Of course then I had to explain to Spencer that sometimes people cry when they are happy.

Tonight Spencer and Jessi both prayed for me not to be scared and to do good at work so I'm planning to do a little more than just not screw up tomorrow.

While I feel like the dumbest resident on the planet (I've heard that is not so rare as I think) I think I'm keeping up with the curve when it comes to being a dad. Maybe the kids are praying for that too.