Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

These shorts little snippets of posts are not as satisfying to write as the longer, soul-searching, deeply thought out posts I used to write more of, but these days this is about all the energy I have. 1. Judah has a nasty cold. He cried over lunch yesterday because Jeff wiped his nose and wouldn't stop crying until Jeff finally left to come home. I felt bad for the other doctors who were eating lunch in the same area. Then he apparently came home and slept for five hours. That is some kind of record even for my very excellent sleeper. 2. Work has been crazy busy this week, with close to 40 patients total on our list, meaning that I have had between 18 and 20 to round on every day. Today it was a little better, but sheesh, it has been an exhasuting week. The last couple of months I have been working essentially full time because of some other doctors in our practice leaving. I am looking forward to going back to part time starting next month. 3. Jeff's parents are coming ...

I am definitely starting to get the itch to get a little more prepared for this baby. The last few weeks have been a little busy, but this week I am finally getting some time to do a little bit around the house. The biggest project that I have in front of me is getting Judah's new room ready. I am not making a new nursery , as I still love the one we have . We are going to move Judah into a new room - my current sewing/craft room. (I will miss having one of those....) Of course in order to do that, I have to actually purge and be able to move the sewing stuff into a corner of our guest room. (We have a very large guest room that has room for my sewing table.) Today I started project purge. I am happy to say that I am getting rid of 4-5 huge bags of stuff. I've culled down my fabric stash, found a bunch of stuff to donate to our hospice store, and gotten a big bag of scraps ready to donate to Judah's nursery school. I also boxed up an entire bookshelf of books to put into ...

I have been thinking more these days about how the birth of this little one will go. The day Judah was born went nothing like I had planned or imagined. It was a long, exhausting, and somewhat disappointing day (that ended well!) during which I spent several hours crying about the c-section I could see coming. As disappointing as that day was, I know that I got the birth experience that God wanted to me to have. I might have chosen a different experience for myself, but seeing as how I rarely know what's best for me, I know that it was what I needed. I was reminded today that I have even more to be thankful for that I realized. A doctor friend just gave birth over the weekend. I hear her labor was long and frustrating as well. But then, her baby immediately had trouble breathing, was intubated, and ultimately transferred to the large children's hospital in Charleston where she is struggling to survive. I have felt sick all day that I could ever have grumbled internally a...

Sunday afternoon we decided to check out one of the many campuses of Mark Driscoll's church in Seattle, called Mars Hill. Although I have enjoyed numerous Mark Driscoll sermons, I would say I'm generally opposed to the idea of a multi-site mega church. (I guess since I can invite our entire church over for a party at my house, this shouldn't come as a surprise.) I will admit, though, that the entire experience was quite good. The bathrooms were beautiful - they had these lovely wooden counters and modern-looking basin-type sinks. (It goes without saying that they were also very clean.) The rest of the decor had a very hip and modern feel. There was an introductory video about this sermon series on the book of Esther that was very well done and professional. I'm also fairly traditional when it comes to worship style. I love singing hymns, although I do love the "RUF" versions with a more modern tune as well. I was pleasantly surprised by the music. It ...

A few more quick photo highlights: A nice view from the ferry we took one morning to a local island. The view from our hotel room: We also visited the quirkier side of Seattle. Although I'm thinking that many parts of Seattle could actually be considered quirky.This is a sculpture called the fremont troll, and he lives under a bridge. We had a wonderful, relaxing time, but by the end I was very ready to come home and see my sweet boy.

Seattle is a really cool city. We are having a great time and so thankful my parents were able to keep our boy so we could get away.

1. Everyone will be happy to know that my patient who had perforated his bowel left the hospital last week, eating, walking, and even promising that he was not going to drink anymore alcohol. We can hope that he is able to stay committed to sobriety. 2. I'm now 24 weeks pregnant, nearly 25. I breathed a sigh of relief in both pregnancies at this point, knowing that if I went into labor unexpectedly my baby actually would have a good chance of making it. Of course I know things can still go wrong, but with every kick and hiccup I'm believing that I will get to meet this baby in December. 3. You know you're 24 weeks pregnant when you get excited about the new purchase of.... a pair of compression stockings. And your evening nightcap consists of two tums straight up with a zantac chaser. 4. This week is a little insane. I worked the weekend, and now we're heading on a little trip. (Photos to come!) We'll be gone, then get back and I have to go straight to work. ...