Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

Last month I took the kids to the last free day at the Natural History museum until fall. Although we still enjoyed the dinosaurs and stuffed mammals, there actually were a few more parts of the museum we checked out that we had missed last time, including a more hands-on area where we got to play with various bones and antlers. The highlight for me was the butterfly exhibit. I couldn't stop taking photographs.

Here is what I've been working on lately: Growing a new human! Obviously I have been having some trouble blogging regularly since starting my new job, but getting pregnancy really has thrown me for a loop. Those first few weeks are just brutal with the fatigue and nausea that are compounded by, you know, actually having responsibilities like taking care of children and working. Thankfully I seem to be past all that now, and have noticed that I actually have a little energy. Today I even cleaned out the frig. Baby should arrive sometime in early December and we are once again waiting until baby's birthday to discover the gender. I have lots of thoughts about being pregnant again, rather easily, after all our previous problem s, so maybe I can write down a few soon. We are getting more and more excited (and terrified) about adding another one to the mix.

These pictures are WAY overdue, but I did manage to make part of the kids' easter outfits this year. I actually love how these turned out - Naomi's skirt is very adorable and Judah really loves these shorts. The seersucker is super soft and he wants to wear these a lot. He calls them his "soft shorts".  For Judah's shorts, I used this tutorial from the blog Made . I was able to whip these up in maybe an hour, which included some time to re-sew the side seams when I decided they were too wide.  Naomi's skirt was also made from another tutorial from the same blog. Seersucker really is the perfect fabric for this project. I loved not having to hem each layer and just using my serger. This was a slightly more involved project, but still fairly fast. Of course, no photo shoot would be complete without someone crying for no particular reason. I'm really not sure why Judah was so bummed out here.  I don't think I've sewn anything since I made...

Trying to slowly get back into this blogging thing. Here are just a few highlights of our summer trip to SC: Hanging out with these cuties: Watching my little brother graduate from medical school. I am so incredibly proud of him and excited about his future. All the Doctors Rampey (plus the one Dr. Tell) Beach time with the cousins:

And once again I'm here, wondering how nearly a month can go by without updating the blog. We had some vacation (Yay!!), saw my younger brother graduate from medical school (double yay!!), and then came back here and had to get immediately in the swing of things (boo!). I'm not sure I've completely recovered from all that yet. Hopefully I can get some photos downloaded from the camera and do some photo posting, which seems to be about all I have the energy for these days. Even just working part time and having two kids - that is some serious business. In other news, the resident I was supposed to work with today was in a little car wreck (he's fine) and so today I was back rounding by myself. I had almost forgotten how to dictate a discharge summary.  I had forgotten how nice it is when you have a resident around to do all the paperwork and write all the prescriptions. I wasn't quite able to make all the phone calls I needed to today, and I also think the SC hospi...

I am finally getting caught up with the photos on my camera. We had a small party for Judah's birthday with a few friends from church at our favorite park . Here are some highlights: Rock Climbing. Swinging. Food. Presents!! Cupcakes! More rock climbing. Playing with friends!

I know I've mentioned the Observatory before, but this is a great LA sight that is free, educational, and beautiful. It's located in Griffith Park, a huge park with tons of hiking trails, a golf course, the zoo, and various other fun things, which all probably deserve their own post. The Observatory is a great destination all by itself, even if you don't have time for any of the other park activities.Firstly, you get great views both of the Hollywood Sign and downtown LA:   The inside has tons of cool astronomy exhibits about eclipses, tides, planets, and this very cool Tesla Coil , which they fire up every few minutes.  Judah's favorite part is this huge pendulum that knocks over these little sticks to tell the time. Although it's not open all the time, frequently they have huge telescope set up to look at something cool. When we went last summer, we got to see Venus.   Check it out!

1. We have a tradition of all saying what we are thankful for before we pray for our dinner. A few days ago, Jeff told Judah he was thankful for his dinner. Judah's response: "Dad, you have to be thankful for something real . No one's thankful for dinnner." I'm guessing he is not impressed with my cooking. 2. Although Naomi is nearly weaned, we still nurse about once a day, just before bed, although I can tell my supply is nearly gone. The word Naomi uses for "milk" sounds exactly like the word she uses for "moo." So when she wants to nurse, she will tug at my shirt and moo. As if I needed to feel more like a cow. 3. We leave in less than a week to head back to SC for my little brother's graduation. I'm so excited about seeing my family and hanging out at the beach I can hardly wait. 4. I have a ton of photos I need to take off the camera. Maybe when I do I can post a few here. 5. Last week I got to do another delivery (Yay!)...

The biggest news at the Tell House lately is that we finally closed on our SC house. This is a huge answer to prayer, obviously, since paying both the mortgage on our house and our rent here in CA is no fun, and has made for some added stress. And yet, I found myself a little sad. I loved that house. Our first house - the house where we brought home our babies, and lived through 6 years of the joys and sorrows of residency and married life. I think, too, that part of me had this thought that if things didn't work out here, we had this safety net of a home to go back to. And now that's gone. And even though I know God has called us here, the thought of not really having something to fall back on is a little terrifying. Goodbye, Oak Ridge Drive. We'll miss you. I guess now I really need to make a new blog title.

I have been working as a doctor for almost 7 years now. I have been present during lots of beautiful moments and lots of tough ones. I have delivered babies, pronounced death, and given lots and lots of difficult news. I'm not sure I ever was closer to crying while seeing a patient than during rounds on Friday. I have spent most of my time since graduation practicing as a hospital physician. I rarely feel like I have a lot in common with my patients since most hospitalized patients are fairly old. In some of them, I might see my grandparents, or my parents, or even what I might be like in another 30 years, but I cannot always see my present self. But she was different. My patient was a beautiful woman, almost my same age, with an adorable 10-month old daughter. I knew her daughter was beautiful because she proudly showed me pictures on her phone as we were discussing how she felt and when she might get to go home. She asked that I speak with her husband, who clearly adored ...

I decided I'm going to do a little ongoing series about fun and free LA activities. LA is an expensive place to live but there are some great things to do that don't cost anything. I've already mentioned a few of them. (Mostly I'm looking at you, Science Center .) I'm not sure how frequently I'll do these, but we'll see how it goes. One of our recent free finds is the Santa Susanna Train Museum and adjacent park. It's not technically in LA, I guess, but right next door in Simi Valley. Since we live about 3 freeway exits away, it's definitely close enough for us. It's an old railroad station that was moved and turned into a small train museum and model train display. The museum only has a couple of rooms but you can blow a train whistle, play with a telegraph and teletype machine and see old train-related paraphernalia. And get a sticker, which is a big hit with the 4 year old crowd. The highlight for us is definitely the very large model rail...

Judah just had his fourth birthday. It's hard to believe that just four years ago, after one of the longest and toughest days we welcomed that little guy into our family. He's not nearly so little now, full of thoughts and ideas and questions (and questions!) and funny and smart and sweet. He challenges me and most days I feel like I'm failing him. Thankfully I serve a God who doesn't. Motherhood is teaching me to pray. The birthday boy requested oatmeal for his birthday breakfast. No lie. I did serve him the tastiest baked oatmeal and put sprinkles on top so it wouldn't be boring.  After I picked him up from school we had a fun trip to the playground in his new four year old t-shirt. With Rockets. (You can see his one year shirt here , his two year shirt here , and I can't find a good link to his three year shirt.But it had a "3" on it in Thomas fabric.)  (She's getting cute. I know this is a post about my 4-year-old, but I couldn...

I finally broke through the post-Christmas sewing burnout in time to make Naomi a little backpack. We have a friend babysit the kids on thursday morning while I'm at work, and now Naomi has a cute little bag we can pack with a few diapers and a water bottle for the trip. I again used the Toddler backpack pattern from Made by Rae . I love everything about how this turned out and especially the fact that everything used was already in my stash. I only had an invisible zipper that was long enough, so that's what I used. I still have some leftover white fabric - maybe enough to make a little skirt. I think it's the piping that really makes this backpack look so nice. It's not hard to add but can turn a sort of ho-hum project into one that looks really sharp. Is that weird to have a skirt that matches your backpack? Either way it would be adorable. The lining came out very cute, too. I love how girly this backpack is without being pink. Not that there is anythin...