Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I went over to the church office on my lunch break two days ago. I needed to get a box of sunday school curriculum out of the church van. But alas, no one was home at the office. I had no way to get into the van. It was locked. And the key was sitting in the drawer in the church secretary's desk in her office. This was bad news, but I was not about to be stopped. I was on a very tight schedule, and I needed to get the curriculum. It was now or never. I had to think fast. I went around to the back door, and Behold! it was unlocked. I was in the office. But that was the easy part. I still had to get into the secretaries office, and its door was locked. For some reason, I, the intern, still don't have any church keys. And a quick survey of the lock proved that it would not be easily picked. I dug around in my wallet and pulled out my Safeway club card. I slid it into the crack between the door and the jam. Wiggle... wiggle... Click!! I did it! I was in the offic...

It has been somewhat strange these past few days staying at my parents' house. It is so quiet. Way more quiet than it has ever been recently. I guess not having my younger brothers around tends to make it quieter. And i'm sleeping in the guest bedroom downstairs. So I do almost feel like a guest. But yesterday mom and I got to make some lowfat lemon cookies. With cranberries in them. Yum. And I went running in my neighborhood this morning, which was good, although having to run hills after running only on flat surfaces was an adjustment. And of course, I miss Jeff. It is strange sleeping in a bed by myself after so long of sleeping with him in the bed. Tomorrow he will be here!! Yay. I think we are going to eat barbecue on saturday with Kim. So it should be fun. And here is the recipe (if you can call it that) for the lemon cookies. They are supposedly fairly low in calories and fat. (A friend who does weight watchers says they are 1 point.) 1 box lemon cakemix 2 eggs (or 3 egg...

Well....I am on my way out to travel to Seneca, where I will be spending the next 8 weeks for my family medicine rotation. I'm definitely excited about finally getting to do this rotation. Especially since I'm fairly certain this is what I will be doing for the rest of my life. Plus it will be nice getting to use my parents' boat a good bit during this time. And hopefully Jeff and I can do some fun camping. In other news...Jeff and I are also excited about some other family news. Andrew and Melanie are expecting!! Their first child is due in November. We are thrilled about getting to be Aunt and Uncle all over again. Although we are sad that they won't be living downstairs anymore. Oh well, we will just have to visit Iowa. And finally, I thought I'd post another photo from the orchid exhibit in Atlanta.

I finally got our computer working, if only briefly, so I thought I'd load a photo from our recent trip to Atlanta and the Botanical Gardens there. They were having an orchid display. And you all can be praying for Jeff and I. Tomorrow, I leave to go to my rural rotation in Seneca. I'm excited, but not at all looking forward to 8 weeks of living apart from Jeff. (We will see each other on weekends.) Hopefully I can post more later!!

he just gets cuter.

Jeff and I are finally aunt and uncle!! Jackson Ryves Tell was born April 15, 2006 at 5:50pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz, and was 21 inches long. Mother and Baby are doing well. We are ecstatic to have a nephew. For months we were calling him our niecephew, as we didn't know that he was actually going to be a "he." So here he is!!

I feel like Matt Damon. I'm guessing that the similarities are all pretty obvious, but I'll explain anyway. Tonight we went and had dinner with some friends at a local pub. Its on Sullivan's Isalnd. The pub is called Poe's in honor of Edgar Allen Poe, who lived for a time on Sullivan's Island. So while we were going to a pub, which is pretty low-brow, it was a literary pub, named after a famous author, and there were Raven's on the wall. Literature is quite high brow. So I feel like Will Hunting, from the movie Good Will Hunting. He was all smart and literary, and could do fancy equations, but he did not let his brains go his head, if you will. He was still one of the common folk, and he hung out a lot in bars, and he would get in bar fights over the finer details of American History, quoting Howard Zinn, while dismantling outdated economic theories. This is everything I want to be in life. To be smart, and well read, literarily astute, and to have ref...

One of my favorite Easter traditions growing up was the Easter tree we had every year. Mom would cut some dogwood branches and then hang our easter ornaments on the branches. I guess that tradition is more European, because Jeff hadn't ever heard of an Easter tree. So I suppose Mom and Dad must have started that when we were living in Germany. We had all these great wooden ornaments, in the shape of spring animals (i.e. rabbits, chicks, etc.) and decorated eggs. We also had other wooden easter decorations that mom would put out, including these large eggs she would fill with m&ms. Yum. Our house always felt festive around Easter. Since I have been living away from home, I have missed that tradition. So finally this year, I made an Easter tree! Jeff and I went down to the park near our house and cut off a few dogwood branches (while being slightly worried someone was going to bust us for vandalism or something). I put them in a vase, and hung my ornaments on the branches. Vo...

Sorry for the paucity of posts lately. Our computer is not working and currently is being evaluated by a friend who hopefully will be able to fix it. Most of you probably already have this recipe, but just in case anyone doesn't, I wanted to share my and Jeff's favorite breakfast recipe, the way I make it. Excellent Baked Oatmeal 1/2 c. soft butter 1/2 c. soft margarine 2 eggs 1 c. brown sugar 1 t. salt 3 t. baking powder 3 c. oatmeal 1 c. milk Cinnamon Cream butter, sugar, eggs, salt and baking powder. Then add oatmeal and milk. Put in greased pan (either 9X13 or large oval), sprinkle generously with cinnamon, and bake for 20 minutes at 350. I like to use a mix of butter and margarine because I like the texture best that way, but you could use either all butter or all margarine. Lately, I have started to add some things to it when I bake it. Raisins are great, but what made my most recent baked oatmeal especially good was thinly sliced pears stuck down into the oatmeal before...

A life long goal has been realized. I am proud to announce that I won my age division in the Cooper River Bridge Run. Now before you decide to congratulate me for beating thousands of women, I should tell you that yesterday I was running as a 76-year-old woman, Delouris Hollinger. My good friend's grandmother signed up to walk the race, but then realized she couldn't, and graciously gave me her race number to use for free. So I am pleased to know that i am the fastest 76-year-old woman who ran. I am really glad I won, because getting beat by another 76 year old would really have hurt my pride. I'm hoping I won a prize for her to use since I got to use her number for free. I did some research on the results page and found that I did get beat by 4 men in the 70-74 age group, 1 man in the 75-79 age group, as well as an 82 year old man. 82!!! I obviously have some training to do. Maybe next year my goal will be to get beat by any octagenarians, or septagenarians for that m...