The Perot

The two peas had the awesome opportunity to visit the Perot Museum in Dallas this past week. If you get the chance to go they highly recommend it. 

Along with all of the neat and interactive displays, the Museum has a sports section where you can test some of your skills. The wife took the time to visit the slow motion lab. Participants perform a skill in front of a camera and then can watch a slow motion playback juxtaposed to a recording of a pro-athlete doing the same skill. 

The wife chose a double jazz pirouette (compared to a single ballet pirouette). The results weren't too bad.

Medical School Graduation #1

As all medical students know, doctors to be really have two graduation ceremonies. 

And the first and most nerve racking of these is called

Match Day!

It basically determines where you will be living for the next few years, the program in which you will be fine-tuning your skills, and the doctors with which you will work. 

The wife and hubby entered the gymnasium of the medical school with hearts pounding and found out they will be packing up a moving truck once again. At least this move will be just a few hours away from their current residence.

Waiting in line for the greatly anticipated and dreaded envelope.

Conferencing family as we open it and read our destiny.

Wood Works

Now presenting, 

after a couple of years of thought, a power-tool-filled Christmas break, and few days of staining,

 our homemade nightstands:

The wife's design and the combined handy work of her father, the hubby, and the wife.

The wife's favorite parts of this project were getting to handle power tools, working with her dad and picking his brain for some handy wood-working knowledge, and watching the end product take shape.

Dad fitting the shelves with screws.

The nightstands after the wife added the trim and sanded them down.

Before gaps in the trim were fitted with wood filler.

After wood filler, sanding, and staining - a close-up of the beautiful design on the trim.

Whipped Cream the Old Fashion Way

This was so much fun to do around to the holidays!

You take all of the ingredients for whipped cream and pour them into a mason jar.

You tightly screw the lid onto the jar and then shake it mightily for 3-5 minutes.

The amount of time depends on what you would like to make: whipped cream or butter?

For whipped cream, you know you are done when the contents stop sloshing around as you shake.

For butter, you know you are done when the contents congeal into a ball (which happens just past the "stop sloshing around" phase).

I used one pint of cream, 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (to taste), and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Enjoy!

The home whipped butter was really yummy on our homemade pumpkin bread.

Inspirational Rules

The wife loves those billboards with house rules on them,

but she wanted something a little more personal and inspiring for the two peas.

With a canvas, some acrylic paint, and a scripture 

she came up with this little work of art:

It cost just over $7 to make.

She discovered there are plenty of writing samples online for the calligraphy part.

Paperworks

The wife really wants those wicker baskets one can place in shelves to make messy piles go away, 

but those things cost upwards of $20 or more. 

So she's going to,

you guessed it,

make them out of paper and cardboard. 

Yep. She loves paper! And there is plenty of paper around this domicile.

She's thinking of all of the phone books they've never used,

the mounds of magazines they've read and no longer read,

and the newspapers she saved for gardening....

She discovered tons of online videos about making baskets out of rolled up paper, 

and her work has turned out fairly well so far:

It's time, yes, but it is totally awesome! 

(The wife is thinking of the green papers she is saving by weaving these grey and yellow larger ones.)

I would post directions, but it's so much better if you watch someone make them.
Look up "Weaving Baskets from Paper" on youtube.com.

Halloween Magic

This year the wife decided the two peas would attend trunk-or-treat, 

and better yet, 

the Annual Allen After-Halloween Party,

in accurate and detailed sci-fi splendor 

(probably to satisfy her incredibly nerdy side).

We gave some teaser pictures in August 

and now all that's left is to show the final product:

With some fabric, zippers, bias tape, thread, cardboard, shiny paper, scrapbook paper, pens, paint, tiny neodymium magnets, and ingenuity we have two good looking medical officers. We saved plenty of money in making it all from scratch. Though it did take two months to put together. 

And we can't take any credit for the designs.

This device has a trap door in which we can place a glow bracelet to light up the screen. 

The effect was pretty awesome:

We made a fairly convincing pair.