A Date Night on... Everyone?

One of my favorite things about birthdays is all of the mail that you receive leading up to the big day...by that I mean everyone from your dentist to your insurance salesman to any store chain that you've signed up with will send you a sweet little note wishing you well.  Within that note, if you're lucky, is typically a little coupon for x dollars off on your purchase of x or more.  I LOVE these.  It's almost like a challenge, what item can I find that I'll actually use that's JUST over the amount I'm given?

Yesterday was the day I selected to meet the challenges.  I had to spend from 7:30-3:30 at work on Saturday (more on that later), so Darren and I decided that when I got home we would go out on a date to the mall & have a nice dinner after that.  However, this wasn't just your typical date.  Since beginning our finance class at church, we've really budgeted our eating out and entertainment spending...and therefore haven't really gone on many typical "dates" in 2013.  We are fortunate enough to still have some gift cards leftover from Christmas and the lovely Valentine's day box that my mother sent, so we decided to plan out our date night with one goal in mind: spend as little money as possible.

Our first stop was Bed, Bath, and Beyond, where my Uncle Chris had given us a gift card over Christmas.  We always get lost in that store, but ended up finding some things we really needed (like a 9x9 pan for cookie brownies so they'll cook all the way through!) and some things we know we'll use (an all-weather picnic blanket in its own zip up tote).

Next, we headed to the mall with my birthday letters in hand, ready to find great deals.  From Vera Bradley, we spent a GRAND TOTAL of $1.51 on these two items (both originally retailed over $34.00):

Then, at Banana Republic, I got $15 off this little treasure (it goes so well with multiple outfits!):

By this time we were pretty hungry, so we decided to head across the street to Maggiano's, a pretty nice Italian restaurant chain that Darren and I have visited only twice before.  The first time was for my senior winter formal in high school, so obviously we were excited to eat here using gift cards.

All in all, we had a lovely evening and spent only about $20 total.  So much fun meeting the challenge. And thanks everyone for a date night on you!

Now, for those of you who don't have weak stomachs, I'll tell you a little bit about what I did earlier in the day.  St Jude is very invested in partnering with hospital labs to educate staff about our field: electrophysiology.  Yesterday, we hosted almost 60 local/semi-local staff members at a lecture series and heart dissection focusing on EP concepts of arrhythmias, ablation, and anatomy.  My dear friend and coworker, Megan, was there to join me (as were most of the rest of the STL St Jude team).  She and I, however, got to actually sit through all of the lectures and participate in the dissection while the others were leading it.  Here we are at the beginning, full of energy (well, coffee) and focus:

There are two main hospitals that I've been working at, Mercy and Missouri Baptist (MoBap).  Both of them came to join in the fun, and I wanted to show you the people who I absolutely adore and get to spend all of my time with at work.  Not everyone was in these pictures, unfortunately, but here are a few!

Some of the beautiful ladies of Mercy

Some of the wonderful staff at MoBap

Here is my favorite shot of the heart before I started to mangle it up:

Somewhere about 5-10 minutes into the dissection, Megan and I got kinda silly (hey, it was post-lunch and pre-nap). So, we took advantage of the fact that we had a bloody heart and a ready camera.

Pre-dissection pose

Post-dissection pose

We want to drink your blood!

Okay, so finally, one of the COOLEST things about our heart dissection yesterday was that our heart had a Patent Foramen Ovale. Look it up if you want more details, but basically it's a hole that remains from when a fetus had blood flow from the left to right side of the heart before it was born.  When you were born, that hole naturally closed up and became a thin layer of tissue called the Fossa Ovalis.  For some people, it stays slightly open and could potentially lead to some troubles. To make the up-close views not so hideous, I made them sepia for you (you're welcome).

Right below Megan's pointer finger is the hole 

I put a straw through it to show you that it connects the right and left atria

Megan is shocked by this discovery!

Anyway, we had a great time and were very thankful to not only the leaders in St Jude for putting this together, but also all of the people who took time out of their Saturdays to come learn with us.  It was pretty fun and I'm glad to have the opportunity to participate in events like this.