Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

It rained all day yesterday. A dreary, gray, blustery day. The kind of day where you want to lay in bed and drink hot cocoa. I, of course, had to work. But I did manage to sneak a nap in. The photos I took are all monochromatic. They're not technically black and white, but you'd never guess that by looking at them.

I love playing Scrabble with my husband. Maybe a little less so when I lose.

I'm participating in December photo project again this year. For more info about it, go here . One thing I have come to love about my job is getting up early. Even though I still sometimes struggle to get to bed at a reasonable hour, and will hit my snooze button several times, I love being up in the quiet and dark of the early morning. One thing I'm actually missing in this part of my pregnancy are the early morning runs I had come to enjoy. There is just something wonderful about getting out with just me, my thoughts, the dog, and the road. This morning, I ventured up to the roof of the hospital - a quiet (and cold!) place to enjoy an even better view of the sunrise.

Jeff and I went to the movies tonight. We rarely go to the movies, mostly because Jeff doesn't really enjoy them the way I do. I have to really talk up a movie for Jeff to want to go. Thankfully, we've seen enough Pixar movies that it doesn't take much convincing to get him to go see those. Hence, the last time we saw a movie it was to see Up . I had read a good review about The Blind Side (and another one about Michael Oher) in World magazine, and was looking forward to seeing it on the big screen. With a little convincing, Jeff agreed to take me tonight. We LOVED the movie. It was great. Jeff even enjoyed it. It was uplifting, funny, moving, and free of objectionable content. This is the kind of movie I can get excited about seeing. And the best part is that it's based on a true story, about a family who loves the Lord and looks out for the orphan put in their path. Of course, it's not framed exactly that way in the movie, since the director of the film, and the...

Once, when I was an intern at Village Seven Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, I had the duty of teaching a mens bible study. The teacher I was taking over for? Jerry Bridges. The word "inadequate" is inadequate to describe the way I felt. Nevertheless, Jerry Bridges has been an influential author in my life, and being able to meet him on several occasions has only enhanced my appreciation for him. Here are three books I liked: Pursuit of Holiness . I read this in the fall of 1996, it was the second book of real theology that I'd ever read. And it helped change my life. This book helped teach me what a serious christian life looked like. (not that I didn't have other good sources teaching me that...) Thirteen years later, I don't remember the specific content of the book, so much as I remember the impact it had on me. And the picture of the guy running on the front of the book. Respectable Sins . Our small group read through this book together la...

These are the things that I'm thankful for. [Note: due to the second commandment, pictures of the Trinity and their accomplishments (vis-a-vis my salvation) will not be added.]

My senior year of college I had to take this computer science class. It was a prerequisite for the program I was in. I hated it. I felt like it was a complete waste of time. I skipped it as often as I could - which wasn't too hard, since all the material for the class was on a CD they handed out at the beginning. Mostly, I think it annoyed me to have to take this class I was uninterested in, when there were lots of other interesting classes out there I could have taken instead. We learned about html, and had to make a little web page. Again, this felt like a complete waste - what would I ever need this information for? I certainly didn't foresee ever having some sort of personal web page I'd be updating. I have to admit - although I'm no expert, I still remember enough to personalize my own blog by changing the html. And now I'm doing some work on Jeff's other blog , which is still ongoing. I think we're going to get there. A little knowledge of html ended ...

I just started a month of pediatrics. I'm definitely enjoying this more than urology - though that's not really saying much. I still feel like I don't quite have the hang of things yet. We work with two really excellent pediatricians, but the peds service runs quite differently than our medicine service. There are many, many more details that need to be "sweated," and as someone who strongly dislikes details, it's taking some time getting used to. Honestly, when dealing with kids, you really do need to think about all the details, so it's stretching me in ways that are necessary. Kids are impressively resilient, so it's a nice change taking care of patients who get better so fast. Exhibit A for their resiliency - there was a 15 year old girl who had her gallbladder taken out yesterday. Not even 4 hours after surgery she was already digging into her lunch tray - which included a big piece of cheesecake. This morning she ate bacon and biscuits with gust...

1. I think I like the name of this post, and I think it would make a good name for a regularly recurring feature. Unfortunately, people will think I stole the name from the similarly titled "Three things I think I think" which is a regularly recurring feature on the back page of Sports Illustrated. People will be right. 2. I think we had a great time this weekend while my parents were visiting from Colorado. We had breakfast at our favorite local digs, played scrabble, drank coffee, chatted, ate a big, early Thanksgiving dinner, and my parents got to hear me preach. Mostly, we just enjoyed being together as a family, and thanks to Mom and Dad, we now have our first piece of decor for the baby's room. 3. Aubrey and I both think that our nightly walks around the block with our dog are one of the best parts of each day. I think Lucy thinks that too. 4. I think that if you so desire, and you have a moment, and its not putting you out, that you should check out my new...

My parental units are visiting this weekend from Colorado. We are looking forward to much fun, good food, a visit to our favorite breakfast place, and plenty of Scrabble. It has also given us a good excuse to get a good thorough fall cleaning done. We went all out on the cleaning. We've filled about four big trash bags with stuff we decided to finally get rid off, and have taken two trips to the local Crisis Pregnancy resale store with stuff to donate. The room which is destined to become the baby's room has been collecting all the junk we haven't wanted to think about for the last two years, and we finally got that sorted out. It always feels so good to throw stuff away.

I originally posted this over a year ago, but spent part of yesterday afternoon making a big batch of pear butter and was reminded why I love it so much. I had it on some waffles this morning and it was delicious! So here's the recipe. This stuff really does make a great Christmas present - not the typical cookies or cake, relatively inexpensive, and very tasty. Pear Butter works for me. Working in a doctor's office , there are lots of people around who I'd like to give Christmas presents to, like the nurses who work on my pod, the secretaries who order us lunch everyday, our residency coordinator who fills out paperwork for us, etc. But I don't want to spend lots of money, because it starts to add up. This year I decided to make some Pear butter, which just sounded tastier to me than apple butter. I also don't have a food mill so I just used my blender. Pear Butter INGREDIENTS 4 pounds medium pears, quartered and cored 2 cups sugar ...

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. Every summer, as I go out to mow the lawn, I notice that my neighbors have mowed their own lawns, plus they have generously also mowed about two or three feet of my lawn. I always squint my eyes in their general direction, and suspiciously wonder if they have truly done this out of good natured benevolence, or if they are trying to subtly claim the extra bit of yard as belonging to them. However, when its 99 degrees out, I quickly unsquint my eyes, and give thanks that I have a bit less yard to mow. Strangely however, this phenomenon does not carry over into fall leaf raking season. Every fall, as the beautifully colored leaves begin to descend, as if magically, I gain the lost edges of my yard back. A laser-straight line can be perceived, separating the pristine leafless expanses of my neighbors yards, from the ankle deep leafing fields of my own. And this line never fails to perfectly straddle the division between the two water access...

Yesterday was a long and strange day. After church, we went to a funeral for one of the older members of our church. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago, and honestly, our prayer has been that he would die quickly, and at home. He loved being home. He was born, lived his whole life, and died, all within a 2 mile radius. And our prayers were answered. He lived by himself until the end. His funeral was brief, but sweet. I was also scheduled to work in the ER yesterday. Because of the funeral, I was running late, and drove almost straight from the funeral to the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital, I also had a patient who was ready to have her baby. I ran in, put on my gown and gloves, and then 3 pushes later had a beautiful little baby girl. Then, I started my ER shift. Just before I arrived to the ER, a five year old had come in and died. A five year old . Apparently due to an ATV accident. The ER doctor was shaken. The nurses were crying. Even though I wasn...

People tell me I look too young to be their doctor a lot. Every time I'm on call, someone asks me if I'm sure I'm old enough to be a doctor. I never really know what to say. I don't think I look that young. It sort of gets old. I went to the dentist yesterday. I'm not going to say how long it had been since I was last there, because I'm a doctor and we are supposed to set a good example of taking care of our teeth. But I will say I got a perfect bill of tooth health. After the hygienist vigorously cleaned and flossed, the actual dentist came in to check on things. My first thought when I saw him was, "Wow. He looks like a frat boy." My second? "He is not old enough to be a dentist." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying that.

Amid the ongoing debates on how to make health care affordable, Aubrey threw in her two cents , now I'm going to throw in mine. (Actually, Aubrey's thoughts were worth considerably more than two cents, mine are worth slightly less) I say, we're lucky that health care is as affordable as it is. As Dwight Schrute once said: Why tip someone for a job I'm capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones. I think there's much good sense here.

We finally started working to get the nursery ready yesterday. At 10pm. I'm not sure why I was suddenly struck to go through the boxes of stuff that had been shoved into the extra bedroom upstairs, but I was. And so we started. Since we've moved in, that room has been the "where-should-we-put-this?-I-don't-know-just-stick-it-in-the-extra-room" room. So there were boxes of old toys, several old posters, old pictures, random baskets, old papers - you name it, it was in there. We made a huge pile of stuff to be donated to our local crisis pregnancy center resale store, and an even huger pile of trash. THEN, we moved on to the craft room. Let me just say that I LOVE my craft room. It's nice to have a place where I can keep all the craft stuff, and not have to drag out the sewing machine whenever I want to sew. The downside of having a special place to do it all in is that I don't have lots of motivation to keep it neat. I can leave fabric pieces strewn about ...

Its the baseball offseason again, and free agents are shopping their wares. The GM's are all meeting in Chicago this week, and we're all eager to hear which players will be moving teams and which will be staying. All of this means we're about to be inundated with the oft-used, but regrettable stock phrase, "Its not about the money, its about winning championships." Now when I was a lad, still but knee high to a yak-pup, I participated in many organized sports. And if there was one moral lesson to be taken away from the experience, it was that winning wasn't everything. Sure, we played to win, but it was more important that we play fair, do our best, encourage our teammates, and shake hands with the opponents after the game. And considering I played for mostly Christian school teams, giving glory to God was also a consideration. Apparently somewhere between youth sports and the professional level, this lesson is being lost. And not only is it being lost, ...

I just started two week of a GI rotation. Mostly, I guess, this entails me watching them do colonoscopies and EGDs. This is, I'm realizing, maybe not the best rotation to do while pregnant. Undigested food in the stomach? Disgusting. The smells? Also disgusting. I nearly tossed my cookies. I think I've got a pretty strong stomach. Blood - doesn't bother me. Snot - no problem. Childbirth - bring it on. But I've ALWAYS had this thing about gross food/vomit/etc. Just ask Jeff. I refuse to throw away food that looks disgusting. I call him to do it. I get totally grossed out when there are bits of dinner floating in the sink that have come off of our dirty dinner dishes. Ewww. When I was little, just the sight of cooked peas could gag me. (Thankfully, this I've outgrown - I really love peas now.) So apparently my aversions run deep. And seeing something like this up close and personal INSIDE someone's stomach? Almost more than I could handle. I guess even I have my l...

Today during church, as soon as Jeff started preaching the sermon, our baby started moving around. It was quite a good sermon. Apparently the baby thought so, too. Maybe we have a little theologian in the making.