weekend fun!

So here are some more pictures from our weekend.

Some wildflowers from the hike.

Here you can see the nice fall colors we enjoyed on the hike.

A self portrait of me at the waterfall.


This is me almost falling while climbing around the waterfall.

Birthday weekend!!

On Saturday, I turned 26 years old. I think this was one of the best birthday celebrations I've had in a long time. First of all, Jeff and I drove up to the best lake house ever to visit with some friends from seminary and hang out in the mountains of SC. Saturday morning, we got up and hiked up to this beautiful waterfall, came back, played pool, hung out, and I got to take a bath in this huge bathtub. On saturday night, we had a little birthday celebration with everyone. Mom and Dad came over, and my mom brought my favorite kind of cake, called Texas Sheet Cake. (The frosting tastes like fudge. Yum.)

And the best part of all were the presents!! I got such great presents. Kim, with some help from her mom, made me these beautiful placemats that I can use with both my everyday and fine chinas. I don't think the pictures really do justice to them.
Kristin made me this cute little pouch that had some body scrub and body butter in it. They smell great. The other side of the pouch has an "A" on it.

Mom and Dad got me my own sewing machine!! It is really nice. I have lots of different stitch options that I can use by just pushing a button. Here it is in all its glory.

I already made my first project with it, a Christmas tree skirt I started after last Christmas. I'm really pleased with how it came out and with how well the sewing machine worked. I'm trying to decide if I should decorate the outer border with something, like one of the prophecies about Jesus, or if I should applique some kind of shape out there.....If anyone has any good ideas, please let me know.
And my dear, sweet husband Jeff. He got me tickets to one of my favorite NPR shows, called Says You. It's all about words and puns, and they are going to be in Charleston in a few weeks. They are going to be recording the show in this really old theater here in town, called the Dock Street Theater. I have been wanting to go to a show there, because it is historic and a Charleston landmark. Now I can see my favorite show in this beautiful theater. It was the perfect present. :)

The weather on Saturday was perfect and the leaves were turning, so we got some great fall pictures. We'll post more of those later.

I really like birthdays.

Brief thoughts on the wonder of God's economy.

Sometimes you just have to stand back in awe and wonder at how well God has designed the world. For instance, tonight I was getting ready to fry up a couple of eggs for dinner. Fried eggs are a common practice for Sunday night dinners around our house. I got out a pan, turned on the stove, and wondered what sort of grease product I should use to make sure the eggs didn't stick to the pan. Upon looking in the fridge, it hit me. Bacon. Bacon is the perfect food. It is delicious, and as you fry it, it auto-greases the pan so you can cook your eggs carefree. It goes perfectly with eggs, and eggs cooked in a post-bacon pan taste better than baconfree eggs. Sometimes you just have to marvel at how well the world works.

In other news... I preached this weekend. Which of course meant donning my suit. Somehow I have one pair of suit pants, and three suit jackets. All black. I never know which jacket I should wear. They all look the same to me (except one has different buttons), but still I assume that one must be the best one to wear. As I was investigating which jacket was the best, I realized I could identify each one by the wedding program that was still in the inside pocket. Thus I could choose between the Cy-n-Carissa(2006), the Jill-n-Don(2003), or the Jason-n-Margeret (2005). I ended up wearing the Cy-n-Carissa, since their wedding was the most recent. Technically, to be quite fair, the Jill-n-Don shares a billing as the Keith-n-Rachelle, because I still had my page of notes from their wedding which had the Bible verses I read printed on it. Keith and Rochelle now have two kids and just celebrated their 8th wedding aniversary. I don't really wear suits that much.

Good Kid's music

While listening to a great audio journal recently, I heard an interview with a Christian musician, Jamie Soles, who writes music for kids. I was exceedingly impressed with all he had to say. Then, I got to hear a sample of his kid's music. It was fantastic--strongly biblical with fun, quirky tunes that are sure to stick in your head. (In the best way possible.) The songs aren't silly, but at the same time are written in a way that will allow kids to learn some good theology and have fun at the same time. He writes about all kinds of stories in the Bible, not just the more popular, well known stories that are often conveyed to children the same way fables are: with short, pithy moral statements about sharing or obeying. These are deep. So.....that being said, you can order CDs off his website, or pay to download the mp3 files.

Jeff and I don't have kids yet, but these songs are so fun, I'm sure I would enjoy listening to them. The only reason I haven't downloaded them yet is that the cash flow is a little tight around here right now, and kid's music doesn't exactly make the cut for things we really need. I also have a suspicion they may be making an appearance as Christmas or birthday presents for our nephew and niecephew (arriving in a month or so) when they are old enough to enjoy listening to fun, kid music.

So check out the website, listen to a few song samples, like this one, or this one. Support this Godly musician and teach your kids some theology at the same time. Works for me!

See the other great tips over at Shannon's.

oh yeah....and about the audio journal. You can sign up for free to get these quarterly CDs. I'm a huge listener of NPR, and often find myself sitting in the driveway listening to the end of a story I'm enjoying. I do the SAME THING when I'm listening to St. Anne's Pub, even though it's a CD and I can listen to it anytime. There are quotes, interviews, stories - both fictional and real, and good music. Plus it's all Christian and very thought-provoking. So that works for me as well.

Fall is coming.....

I think the weather is finally starting to turn..... It actually is beginning to feel like fall. Today was all windy and cool and tonight, coming home from the gym, it was blustery and actually made me want to come home and turn on our little space heater.

I'm ready for fall.

Back at MUSC

After only about 6 hours on my new rotation, I am already sad to be back rotating at MUSC. I've just gotten so spoiled these last two months being at a community hospital and then a private practice. So this morning I returned to the mammoth collection of buildings known as MUSC. Sigh. And now I'm waiting for rounds to begin at 3pm. Another Sigh. I dislike rounding late. I wish we could just round early and get it over with. Oh well. I guess it did give me a chance to write a post, something I haven't done in quite a while.

My first interviews are next week. Feel free to pray.

I should go now and do some reading before rounds.

A list and a picture.

10 people I would like to be more like.

1. Tim Keller
2. John Piper
3. Bryan Chapell
4. J.I. Packer
5. Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes)
6. Donald Miller
7. Will Hunting
8. Howard Roark
9. John Frame
10. Huckleberry Finn

As interesting as the list is, all by itself, to make all the more sure that this post has a broad appeal to our readership, I will also include a photo from our recent trip. We went to Ikea, and we almost lost our nephew in all the blue balls....

















Who would you like to be more like?

Our trip to the District

This last weekend Aubrey and I went up to the District of Columbia to visit my family. Bro Dave lives there with his wife Hannah and their son Jackson, and my parents were visiting. We got lots of good pics, I will post just a few for now to prove that we were really there.

See? Here we are visiting the new WW2 memorial.
















Here we are riding the Metro, looking slightly dazed, after a long day of walking.
















And here's bro holding our favorite nephew (east of the mississippi), just after he woke up, still wearing his dinosaur pj's.

















This is only the beginning of our cute Jackson pics from the trip. Check back later, maybe we'll post another.

Mmmmmm.

Sometimes we make S'mores even when we're not camping. I toast the marshmallows on the stove. They just taste so darn good.

Works for Me!

Making more food than necessary sort of runs in my blood. My mom always had more dinner prepared than we could eat in one night, just in case she found out someone needed a home-cooked meal or we invited friends over to dinner. I also have a hard time cooking for only two, so almost every night we have leftovers. With a busy schedule, these can really be a huge hit for nights when I don't have time to cook anything, but I also used to have a problem making sure the leftovers got eaten. To solve this problem, I bought quite a few of the smallish, single-serving size tupperware containers. When I'm cleaning up our dinner mess, I put any leftovers directly into these smaller size containers, divided into lunch-sized portions. I then stick them in the fridge. In the morning, when Jeff and I are putting our lunches together, all we have to do is grab one of these containers, an apple or granola bar, and our lunch is ready! It's also nice because I don't feel bad about making Jeff pack his own lunch since most days all that entails is grabbing a container out of the fridge. I suspect that this trick will continue to be helpful as we have kids, because they'll also have an easy time packing their lunches.

The other benefit is that if we do eat the leftovers for dinner, we can just reheat them right in the container, grab a fork, and keep from dirtying another dish.

Check out the other tips at Rocks in my Dryer.

Introducing...

We have a new neighbor! Joseph Henry Swearingen arrived last Thursday, weighing in at 9lbs and 15 oz. Mom Emilie and Dad Christopher seem to be doing well, and despite the thin walls floor between our apartment, we haven't heard a peep out of him. Jeff and I are looking forward to some easy babysitting.

Quotes of the week...

Working at the credit union continues to be a source of endless entertainment. Here's a few of the choice gems from this week...

* One guy was sitting in my office on the phone with his mortgage company, trying to set up automatic payments. He was getting transferred around from agent to agent, and obviously getting frustrated, when he got transferred again he explained, "I hope you can help me, I've already been through this whole rigor mortis twice already."

* Another lady was mad at me because we had taken 200 dollars out of her direct deposit before she had a chance to get to it, and she wanted it back. The truth was that her credit card bill was a month and a half past due, and she had ignored all our attempts to contact her, so finally we just took the money. She, of course, was very unforthcoming about these little details, and so I had to do a little account research to figure out what had happened. When I realized what was going on I asked her if she had gotten our letters, she said 'no'. I explained why we had taken the money, and she said, "Besides, even if I had gotten the letter, it said $150 not $200." Ah, what a tangled web we weave....

In other news, it feels like a late November day today. Its 63 degrees outside (brrr!) and overcast, and Aubrey's got a big pot of homemade chicken tortilla soup on the stove!

crafty fun....

So I've been meaning to post some photos of recent crafty activity for a while. I finally some of my projects mailed out, so now I feel I can post pics and not ruin any surprises. Using the pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, I made a few wee bunnies. I'm still getting used to the whole sewing thing, but this pattern is super easy and quick. You really can whip a bunch of these out in no time. Here is the first group:



We have two bunnies, a kitty, and another animal which we will call a bear, although that is up for debate. Using this baby blanket I bought at goodwill, I also made another, which is probably my favorite:



Then I also made a bag which I think is going to be a graduation/Christmas present for one of my classmates. I think it turned out nicely, even though it's not a great photo:



Here's a view from the inside so you can see the lining better:


I wish I could show you some other things I've been working on, but since they are presents, they'll just have to wait.

Hopefully I can work on some more Christmas presents this weekend....

finally.....

After much stress, hair-pulling, screaming, and worry.......

I submitted my big, huge residency application!!

The personal statement made me want to cry and pull out my hair, but after looking at it and working on it for weeks, I finally decided tonight was the limit. No more tweaking. I made some final changes based on some good advice from my brother, and decided it was finished.

Then I paid my $126.00 and have now applied to residency.

I think I deserve some chocolate.

Birthday Books

With some of my recent birthday money I had a little fun over at amazon.com. My books came in the mail today! Wahoo! Even at 29, there are few things more exciting than coming home and seeing that you got good mail! And new books are definitely good mail.

I got 3.

The one in the middle I have actually read before. But it is good, and the writing is excellent, so I wanted to own it so I can read it some more. It is thoughtful, gospel based, and highly literate. (note: the book is called "The Mystery of Marriage," not "Mystery Marriage" like it looks in the picture.)

The one on the left I have not read. But both Aubrey and Bro have read it, and they both highly recommend it, and Aubrey said she would like to own it, so now we do. I look forward to reading it, although its longer than I thought, over 600 pages. So that should keep me busy for a while.

The one on the right I have neither read nor heard about. But it sure has a catchy title, don't you think? It falls into the category of "resource book for pastoral ministry." I don't think I'm addicted to anything at the moment. Blogging? But "finding hope in the power of the gospel" sounds good to me.

feeling better....

The powerful Z-pack is working! Although I think it's causing my stomach to hurt, this morning I could finally swallow without lots of pain. Yay! So hopefully I'm on my way to getting back to normal. Which I will enjoy. There's nothing like a bout of sickness to make you that much more thankful for your health.

Jeff and I are off for a picnic in the park.

Enjoy your Sabbath!