Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I am happy that tomorrow is thanksgiving. I am sad that Aubrey has to work. I am happy that Aubrey has a good job that she likes. I am sad that Aubrey is on call for Thanksgiving AND Christmas Eve. Lame! I am happy for the impending Christmas season! I am sad for disagreements about how to celebrate Christmas. I am happy for Christmas carols that celebrate Jesus! I am sad that my nephews and niece live so far away. I am happy that we get to go meet baby Caleb on Friday. I am sad about this whole Presbytery debacle. I am happy when studying the Bible. I am amazed at its complexity. I am distraught by theological factions formed on partial understandings. I am hopeful because Jesus is the Lord of his church. I am sad about the stuff in the post below. I am happy that my wife is brave, wise, spiritual, godly, well-spoken and honest enough to write it. I am praying for a little olive shoot to go around my table. I am happy about our new (used) car. I am happy about cheap gas. I am happy a...

I've had this post tumbling around inside my head for a while, but just haven't been able to write it. Or write much of anything, for that matter. The last several months have been some of the hardest I've had. I was convicted recently, reading some Buechner, about how we should tell our stories, stories that can call us like a beacon to the safe harbor that is life in Christ. And reminded that our stories are reminiscent of his story - the one great story of redemption. But I haven't wanted to tell my story. I guess I feel a little ashamed, and sad, and just can't bring myself to write words that I wish were not true. But I've been feeling a little dishonest here, and realize more and more that I need all the prayers I can get. Burdens become harder and harder to carry, the more alone you feel. Over the last 15 months, we have been trying to get pregnant. Unsuccessfully. At first it didn't seem like a big deal. The average time it takes a couple to get pre...

So Aubrey and I crashed a wedding today. We got there late, so mostly we just crashed the reception, which is the better part to crash anyways. The son of one of the elders at our church in Charleston was getting married up in Clemson, and so a bunch of our friends from Charleston were going to be there. I've only met the groom once, and I had never met the bride (still haven't), so it was normal that we weren't invited. But Aubrey's parents were. They were the grooms landlord, so go figure. It was a great wedding to crash. It was in an old, unheated, stone church, and it was about 40 degrees today, so it was a little cool. But otherwise great! The food at the reception was excellent, barbeque, and shrimp, and venison. Just the kind of party you would expect the McClellans to throw. But mostly it was great to see a bunch of old friends. Pastor Craig was very passionate in his righteous indignation on my behalf on a certain issue, and that was encouraging. I d...

One of my pet peeves is restaurants that advertise "homemade" items on their menu. Such as "homemade biscuits" or "homemade apple pie." I object! If something is made in a restaurant then it is by definition NOT homemade. It is restaurant made. Unless the cooks are baking at home and then bringing their wares in to the restaurant to sell, which, for the record, I highly doubt. Or perhaps the cook actually lives in the restaurant, so it is his home, but again, I don't think so. I noticed a variation on this fallacy tonight at the grocery store. Aubrey and I were perusing the cake mix aisle, and one of the boxes advertised with the slogan, "Scratch baking made easy." Again, I must object, if you are using cake mix from a box, you are by definition not baking from scratch. Scratch baking has not been made easier, it has been replaced. Which is fine, its not that I object to baking from mixes, but lets not kid ourselves. Well, I must go...

I realized today that after eating fresh, delicious tomatoes grown a mere 20 feet from where they were consumed all summer, there is just no going back. Eating a tomato grown who knows where that was picked before it was ripe?? Eww. I guess I'm done eating tomatoes until the spring.

A Sesquipedalian, appropriately enough, is a person who likes big words. While I have sesquipedalic tendencies (new band name?) I don't use big words as much as some people I know. Lately I've found myself learning lots of new words, which I will share for your edification. Excorcitation - apparently a blend of "exhortation" and "excercise." Which fits, because this particular excorcitation was a real mental workout to get through. Hebdomadal - occuring once every seven days. "I go to a church which meets hebdomadally." Limn - to portray using words. "I am attempting to limn my thoughts in this post." Agglomeration - a jumbled cluster. "I am limning an agglomeration of words." Trope - a rhetorical device of using words in a non-literal sense. Aporias - expression of doubt. "My aporias over correct word usage is troubling." Somnolent - sleepy. "Is this post making you somnolent?" Obdurate - stubborn. ...

I came home from call yesterday determined to get at least one present done and scratched off my Christmas list. Mission accomplished, in spite of the frustration that is using bias tape to cover curved edges. Oh well. Next time we'll just leave the edge square and try to make mitered corners. A good tutorial for how to sew it on is found here . I did finally, though, figure out how to make bias tape using a rectangle of fabric and cutting it in one long piece, mostly with the help of this little diagram . And a ruler. I really do have yards of the stuff leftover, so expect to see some cute green, purple, and teal polka-dotted bias tape on projects in the future. I actually got two little projects one, though the second one is not actually for Christmas, but for a birthday that might be upcoming. Now I just need to actually decide what else I need to make so I can finish some more things. Christmas feels awfully close all of a sudden. ps - Photos will come, eventually, but likely ...

I didn't even know I had this much to say about the trip. But apparently I do. As far as medicine goes, one thing I do that I feel is probably the most beneficial is to do joint injections for those with arthritis. The great thing about joint injections is that they can benefit someone sometimes as long as 6 months. So someone who could barely walk or work because they were in such pain can suddenly move nearly pain free. I was able to do probably at least 100 injections, mostly shoulders and knees, but also in fingers, wrists, elbows, ankles, thumbs and just about anywhere two joints come together. I was also able to inject a few carpal tunnels. It was great practice for me, since I don't get to do nearly this many in my own clinic. But now I feel much more practiced with some of the joints I don't do as often. To round up the photos, here are some other photos of the people - who are just beautiful. We saw lots of horses. And kids riding horses. He might have been the cu...

If I had to pick a single favorite part about the trip, it would be getting to meet and spend time with a wonderful Honduran doctor named Janela. She and I both graduated about the same time from medical school, and she is a believer who has been working in a small clinic since she finished. We had some good discussions about how we do things in the US, local patterns of antibiotic resistance, cultural beliefs about medicine, and lots of other things. My academic medicine spanish vocab is a little limited, so I had to work harder to understand, but I was very impressed by her knowledge. She was even reading Nelson's pediatrics . But I was able to teach her how to do joint injections, and she taught me how to fix someone's ingrown toenail by removing part of the toenail. (Sounds fun, right?) My other favorite thing? As always, the kids! Some were serious. I made some cry. (Nothing new there, unfortunately.) Some were even red-headed. And some were just cute.

As I've said, each day we drove out from the village we stayed in to different smaller villages to set up clinic. The first 4 days we set up clinics in churches, and the last day we used a school. Here is what the outside of a typical clinic looked like for us. And here is the inside of a different building, but fairly typical of the churches we saw. (Although this one was one of the larger churches we used.) And from my seat inside, here is what I could see out the window, very different from my usual view in clinic. If you couldn't already tell from seeing these buildings, the poverty was often almost overwhelming. This is what two different "towns" looked liked where we worked. They waited very patiently in long lines, often in the rain, to see us. I certainly wish we could have done more for these people. The small amount of vitamins and medicines we gave will probably not make a lasting change. But every person who came through heard the gospel, and hopefully by ...

What will most likely stick out to me most about this trip were the roads. I do not think I've ever been anywhere with roads quite like these. But I guess I've also never been to central America during rainy season. It did rain on us every day, and so basically every place we traveled required the use of 4X4 trucks. But because we were able to get to these remote places, lots of people were seen who rarely, if ever, make it to a doctor. Mud was also a recurring theme this past week. Thank goodness for my marmot precip jacket and my sierra designs pants that kept me clean and dry. And I'm also thankful to God, to whom I prayed more than I ever have while driving. Fishtailing on narrow, mountain roads is really not the best sensation. But he (with the help of our drivers) brought us safely to and from our destinations each day. We forded several small rivers over the course of the week. This was the largest. And occasionally we came across cows in the way. Like this one. But...

I arrived safely home last night after two good flights and a short drive. I discovered that half my residency program got food poisoning this week and 10 residents and 4 attendings had to call in sick. Yet another reason to bring my own lunch . And apparently, leaving the country may be the best way to avoid food-borne illness. The trip was great - it's always a blessing to meet other believers and spend time with them, and at the same time try to use my gifts in a way to hopefully spread his kingdom. There will be more posts later. I'm going through the photos, and will hopefully have some posted soon. But for now, I'm tired. Until then.... here's what most of Honduran countryside looks like. And even the photo doesn't do it justice.

Well, with Aubrey still in Honduras I had to man the candy bowl myself this year. I didn't want the doorbell ringing all night, so once the trick-or-treators started, I grabbed a lawn chair, a book, the candy and a dog, and sat out on the front porch. Lucy is pretty afraid of strangers anyway, so she definitely wasn't a fan of strangers in costumes coming up to her and petting her. Thankfully she's more patient with children than adults. What's the deal with parents driving slowly down the street while the kids walk from house to house? A little walking is not going to kill you. Our neighborhood is suprisingly lame for halloween. There were not that many kids, and from my perch on the porch it didn't look like there were very many houses participating. I didn't even get rid of all our candy (not that I mind!). You'd think we would be a prime neighborhood. We're practically the definition of suburbia, our neighborhood makes a short loop, easily w...

1. I got up early this morning and swam at the Y. I'm not a big fan of getting up early. But I do like to swim early. Or at least I like the feeling of having swam early. Because I love eating a big breakfast, and it never tastes better than after a good swim. 2. I shopped yesterday. I'm constantly amazed at the advances in pancake technology. Not only does the premixed pancake mix now come pre-measured in a shakeable bottle so that active thought is reduced to a bare minimum. But yesterday I noticed that one can buy microwave pancakes. They are pre-made cakes that only require a short nuking, just in case the idea of having to add one ingredient to a bottle and shake was too daunting for you. 3. Now I'm drinking a delightful cup of joe, and jumping back into paper writing mode. Here I go...

I´m here safely and enjoying myself. And we do have some internet, which is nice. And I even got to talk to my husband today on the phone. I certainly praise God even for his little blessings. My dad has a description he uses for VIMM, or Volunteers in Medical Missions , the group I am here with, a group he has been involved with for many years. He says that the purpose is to provide a cup of cold water at the end of the road. And let me tell you...we were at the end of the road today. So near the end that I felt like I was in a toyota commercial, riding in the back of this 4X4 pickup, bouncing down this muddy, unpaved road in the rain. It was great. It took us about an hour and a half from the village we are staying in, which is also about an hour and a half down an unpaved road. But the people certainly were happy to see us, and I injected every arthritic joint I could find. Lots of vitamins and parasite medicine was given out, and we treated lots and lots of scabies . So much that ...

In just over 12 hours I will be on my way to Honduras for a medical missions trip. Like much of what I do, this was a bit of a last minute affair. At least my own preparation for it has been a bit of a last minute affair. Yesterday, another of the doctors that I work with casually asked me if I was taking malaria prophylaxis. Umm....errr....oops. I didn't even think about it. Glad someone else around me thought about what they learned in medical school and decided that maybe I should look into getting medicine. So my dear dad called me in some pills that I started yesterday. Today I am frantically looking through all those papers I got but didn't read, trying to make sure I know what all I'm supposed to bring. Sheets? Towels? I'm still not sure. So I'm off to do some more running around, finding a few snacks to take, and getting my suitcase packed. Hopefully my husband can provide some amusing blogs for this week, and I'm sure I'll have some photos to post ...

ESPN.com featured another article today about the dilemmas of Chad Ocho Cinco. I have to chuckle every time I see these articles. In case you have not followed the saga, let me get you up to speed. Last year the Cincinnati Bengals had a receiver named Chad Johnson. His jersey number was 85. Thanks to the number, his nickname became "Ocho Cinco" spanish for "Eight Five" (note: note Eighty Five, but Eight Five). While the nickname is mildly clever, and has a certain ring to it, it is irregular for a nickname to have twice as many syllables as the name it replaces. But I digress. Anyway, Chad wanted to wear his nickname on his jersey, but the league required that players wear their real name on their jerseys. So. Not to be out-witted, over the offseason Chad Johnson went to the Florida court system and legally changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco. Aha! Those wide receivers aren't as dumb as they look! Now the league has said that he has to continue weari...

for 4 weeks when you get to work and realize you left the house, saw patients, and spoke with an attending without having brushed your hair. At least my teeth were clean.

I'm not really much into politics, so this will be a brief post. I have 2 thoughts. 1. A friend turned me onto this article . I wonder if people who plan to vote for Sen. Obama know how extreme he is on this issue. 2. One of my college professors had this remark on his blog... "The problem, of course, is that no one has the capacity to see the relative insignificance of the elections, except the poor. They know that they will be excluded no matter who sits in what chamber to cast votes. One can not have justice without just persons, and one cannot have just persons unless one begins with proper worship of the Triune God."

Tah-Dah!! Now that the appropriate mourning period for Junior has passed, we are proud to unveil his replacement. Its a Toyota Highlander, and is just an ever so slight upgrade over Junior. As in 17 years newer. He is, as yet, unnamed. So if you are hit with inspiration upon seeing his picture, we are open to suggestions. He has quite a few bells and whistles, but two stand out as my favorite. 1. A built in garage door opener in the sun visor. This is particularly great because when we bought our house it only came with one garage door opener, and I have been unable to find a replacement. So for the last year and a half any time I leave the house I back Junior out into the driveway then go back into the garage to shut the door and then run out and duck under the closing door while jumping over the little laser thingy, and happily drive away. Repeating the process in reverse when I get home. So needless to say, I am quite excited about having a garage door opener in the car...