Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

Today at work, I got to go have some fun at the hospital. We went over and set up a table hawking our wares to try and drum up some new business. We were meagerly successful, people trickled by our little table, most asking questions, some actually signing up for accounts. Business-wise, doing this is always a bad way to get new business. But the best part by far of these little "on-sights" is the people watching. Particularly today. We set up our table at a busy intersection in the Children's Hospital, between the cafeteria and the gift shop, so I had a prime view of busy foot traffic. It was quite fun. Right in front of our table was a blind intersection, and I witnessed hundreds of near miss colissions. The variety of people walking by was amazing, highlights include... - One adorable little boy with a round face and shaved head being pulled around in a wagon while connected to his IV, he got very excited every time they passed the Christmas tree. Later a li...

As promised, here are some photos from our first ever attempt at hosting Thanksgiving. The meal turned out nicely, and the turkey really was excellent. We are still making some very yummy turkey sandwiches from the leftovers. So here is our menu, with links to some of the recipes. Roast turkey, which was first soaked in turkey brine Pear-blue cheese salad with dijon vinaigrette dressing (except instead of endive, I used spinach, and instead of blue cheese, I used gorgonzola) this was probably my favorite part sweet potato casserole (I didn't use this exact recipe, but this one is almost identical) rolls (I made yeast rolls) chocolate harvest cake (I used splenda, this was OK, not the best chocolate cake) pumpkin pie roast squash and zucchini (I poured some olive oil, basil, oregano, and garlic salt on them and then baked them) blue cranberry sauce (I think this had too many spices, but it was still really good. I used frozen blueberries instead of fresh.) All in all,...

Baby Photos!! I saved these photos from Andrew and Melanie's blog, so you should go check it out and leave a congratulatory note. :) These photos make me teary. I can't wait to meet him.

GO COCKS! And in other, even more exciting news....Jeff and I have become an Aunt and Uncle Again!!!! We have a new nephew!! His name is Samuel. He was born early saturday morning, and weighed in at 8lbs, 7 oz. I would post pics, but I haven't actually seen any photos of him yet. I hear he is quite adorable. I did get to hear him squawk a bit on saturday, and he made some very cute noises. So I am anxiously awaiting photos of him and will post them as soon as I can. There is much more I could post about....but I'm actually at at interview now, and so don't have time. In the works: thanksgiving photos recipes baby photos new projects on the sewing machine So there should be much posting as soon as we get back. I guess that was more than 2 words.

Hopefully, everyone had a great thanksgiving. We certainly did. The food was delicious, and I was excited that my first ever thanksgiving turned out so well. There were no turkey debacles, no sweet potato incidents, and no pie fiascos. :) And I do have lots to be thankful for. Just to start: having been called by God to be one of his own my great family (both the one I was born into and the one I received when I got married) my church family being able to see the end to medical school and realizing how great God has sustained me during this time a wonderful Godly man I get to be married to a healthy body becoming an aunt this year (and almost have I become an aunt twice!) the possibility of moving to a fun new city where Jeff will finally have the kind of job he actually wants and will enjoy God's financial provision for us during these four years a good public library where I can get great books and movies for free Having a new skill that will enable me to make a lot of Christmas ...

Actually, it's almost here. Today and yesterday, I've been baking and cooking all afternoon to get ready for the big day. So far I've made: pumpkin pie chocolate cake cranberry sauce bread (both cornbread and white) for stuffing wheat bread to eat dressing for the salad toasted pecans for the salad sweet potato casserole rolls turkey brine a birthday cake (somehow at Jeff's work he was responsible for bringing birthday cake in today for a coworker, so I made it for him.) :) All this work really makes me appreciate my mom, who always seems to pull together these beautiful, elaborate and tasty meals quite easily. With at least 2 kinds of meat. But as for me, I'm tired. I still need to make baked oatmeal for tomorrow morning. Yum. With pears on top. Even yummer. So it's back to the kitchen for me!

After exterminating the dust bunnies in our bedroom, I decided next to move on to the bathroom. We have one small bathroom in our apartment. It used to be part of the porch, since this house was built before indoor plumbing. Like all traditional Charleston homes, the porch on our house is slanted to prevent it from flooding during heavy rains that we get here, much like the storm outside right now. When our house was redone, whoever enclosed the bathroom decided to leave the bathroom floor slanted. I think we could consider our bathroom to have been grimthorped . It is definitely my least favorite room. Plus the tub is old and never looks clean, the toilet is jammed into the corner and wobbles, and we have no counter space. But the bathroom was due for a really good cleaning and organizing. And it looks so much better now! I again forgot to take a before photo, but here are some good "during" photos. Here I am distracted by some cute nail polish I found and then promptly us...

Since my parents are coming down for Thanksgiving, I took the opportunity to do some cleaning before they get here. And I mean serious cleaning. Today we worked mostly on the kitchen and bedroom. And we really cleaned the bedroom. We actually mopped UNDER the bed. We went through our dressers and purged a few items. I basically dusted the room from top to bottom. I sneezed all day. It was bad. So now we are going to reward ourselves and use some gift certificates for Outback. Yum. Here are some "after" shots. Sadly, I didn't have any "before" or even better, the "during" shots when it was vaguely reminiscent of a hurricane or tornado. Look, all the drawers are closed, with nothing hanging out or stacked on top! Jeff is ready to clean! No clutter or books in sight! Not a single dust bunny to be found.

So here is the first picture ever taken of Jeff and I together, right when we first started dating. A lot has happened since then. I mean, we actually got married!! I think we both look a good bit younger, or at least different. It's been a good three and a half years, though. And it's strange to think that I'm already (almost) graduating from medical school. Back then med school was a huge mountain looming before me, but now I can almost taste the end. I'm definitely glad that I had such a great person to be with during these years. Who knew medical school would be as fun as it has been?

I just wanted to pass along a great link. Dr. David Jones, my ethics professor from seminary, gave a talk to a Missouri church concerning the recent stem cell initiative which was on the ballot. This talk became an essay which is on the Covenant Seminary website. I found it to be well-reasoned and biblical. Please check it out here.

Here is a visual tour of some of the things we've seen recently: SC Wildflowers The Washington Monument The waterfall we hiked to a few weeks ago. A very, very steep metro escalator A sweet nephew Big aquarium fish I think that's all the photos I can fit into one post!

So this week I've been trying to only eat food that we already have at our house. I am not gifted in the grocery shopping department. I often see blogs where all these different women talk about how much they save on groceries and their carefully crafted plans to stay under budget on the food they buy. I do not have any carefully crafted plan. I do not clip coupons. (We don't get the paper, otherwise, I probably would.) I do not always compare the grocery circulars and see where I can get the best deals that week. There are a few grocery stores that have good prices and good store brands, and that is where I shop. So even though there were many things we really needed from the grocery store, I held out last week and only cooked with what we already had. It made for some interesting nights, but overall, it went well. My favorite and I think most creative meal involved an acorn squash. Before this week, I had never purchased, eaten, or cooked an acorn squash. But a few weeks ago...

Jeff and I just returned from one of the most fun evenings we've had in a while. As you may have read, for my birthday, I got tickets to Says You, this smart and funny show that we listen to on NPR, and tonight was THE night. If you ever have the chance, definitely go. It's always somewhat strange when you actually see the people connected to all the voices you've been hearing coming through the radio. I guess I imagined everyone a little different. Here is the only photo I took, since right after I took this one, the usher told me I had to put my camera away or they would confiscate it. Sheesh. A few minutes later, she did actually come back over because she is thinking about buying a digital camera and wanted to know what kind I had. I was sorely tempted to turn off the flash and take another photo during the show, but Jeff wouldn't let me. I guess that's what I get for marrying a man who is honorable and ethical and an all-around good guy. So it's a pretty ba...

At least it sort of feels like it. Ever since I got my new machine, it feels like all I have been doing is sewing. Thankfully, my machine does the hard part. I have been working on various Christmas presents, which I can't post photos of. But I'm excited. And then to go along with the tree skirt I made, using all the extra fabric, I made some stockings. I was definitely excited about how they look. Here is a closeup of the fabric I used in both the stockings and the tree skirt. A few weeks ago, I ordered some quilt squares from ebay, and they finally arrived. Now I have small pieces of lots of great fabrics. It should be fun using these in various projects. And here is a nice picture from our hike, just because I thought it was nice.

I'm back home after my first round of interviews. Thankfully, these were fairly low-key. I actually didn't feel like I was even asked that many questions. Most of the time the interviewers were just talking about different aspects of the program. So I liked both of these programs, and especially enjoyed Greenwood. This program was one I already knew I was interested in. Anderson was also nice, and also a good program. I think what I most enjoyed about Greenwood was that I got to meet a lot of the residents and I really felt like Jeff and I would fit in well with everyone. And let me tell you....programs like to feed you. lots. So after the first day I realized that if I don't want to gain about 15 pounds, I need to just order salad. Because there's always dinner the night before, then lunch during the interview day, all at good restaurants. And it seems that dessert is often involved. Not that I'm complaining, I do like dessert after all. I know that wherever Jeff a...