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  • 05.12.2009 And We’re Off To…
    22 Comments

    SEATTLE!!!!!!!!! We are so excited and surprised! It was Jeremiah’s number one choice throughout it all, and we just got nervous because we didn’t feel like we ever got a for sure “the spot is yours” from them. Jeremiah, and his Honest Abe self, refused to contact any other programs for fear it would look dishonest…knowing he wasn’t putting those other programs first.

    Anyway, the spine surgeon in Seattle that Jeremiah really respects and got to know a little bit on our trip out there, called him this morning. I wish you could have all heard Jeremiah’s voice when he called to tell me the news. I felt like the Rocky theme song was playing in the background and he was ready to go toe to toe with the world. I was standing in the Walmart parking lot and I am pretty sure everyone around thought I had won the lottery 🙂 I am so proud of him. So thankful to see God rewarding all his hard work with some validation. Thank you all for praying for us and sharing in the excitement!


  • 05.11.2009 And Then He Reminds Us That Life, Indeed, is Good
    8 Comments
    I’ve been in a tizzy about some things. Could you tell by that last post? 🙂 There’s Jeremiah’s schedule, which left me being exasperated with my children/feeling like an evil stepmother to them. Then, I have been having some body (insert butt) issues, with summer approaching and the realization that things aren’t as I would like them to be. I actually wrote a funny post about this particular issue, but I am afraid it got filtered by my husband. Then there was this underlying worry I had about my sister Taylor, who was trying to finish the last weeks of Architecture school and was having a genuine nervous breakdown. There wasn’t anything I could DO for her, really, and that was a weight. Finally, there was my home. I love our house, but it is old, and the plummer has had to visit us not one but FOUR times in the last couple of weeks. Not to mention my Dad and Jeremiah spending a Saturday making repairs of their own. Couple that money drainage with the fact that I read all these books about houses and their timeless beauty…I’ve been itching for a makeover (or overhaul) and the money to do it with.

    So there they are. The issues that have been plaguing my mind for the past month and turning me into an all-around grouch. Turning me into one of those people you ask innocently, “How are you doing?!” only to be answered with a laundry list of negatives that you didn’t want to hear. But today, as I was cleaning my kitchen, my heart was tranquil, and I felt like God spread before me the sweet ways He has been addressing each of my silly little grievances.

    The evil stepmother issue: I received one of the most sincere and beautiful letters from my friend Aubrie that encouraged me in my role as a mother. Although I don’t feel like a lot of it is true, it was the type of letter that backed each compliment with personal observation and just made my heart sing.

    The body issue: On Friday morning I took a shower at the gym after my run. There was an 80-something-year-old woman, half naked, putting her make-up on beside me in the mirror. She was 80, and so was her body, but she was at home in her skin (much more than me who would never step out of the private shower without being completely dressed), standing there in her undies talking to me about my babies and my husband and her own life. It made me happy to see her confidence. It made me realize that this body I’ve been worrying so much about, is really just a shell to get the real me around in the world.

    Taylor: The picture above is my family celebrating Taylor’s graduation in true Auburn style–a tailgate with good BBQ. I am SO SO proud of her, and thankful that it is O.V.E.R.

    The home issue: I got out of my car today, and my neighbor/friend Ashley (Noah’s Mom for you faithful readers) called from across the street, “Can I come over and start trimming your bushes?” I called back, “I’ll watch your boys. Come on!” You know it’s bad when your neighbors are so tired of looking at the undergrowth consuming your house, that they offer to come over and take care of it themselves 🙂 No seriously, she is just a very sweet friend who swears she ENJOYS yard work.

    While Ashley was the catalyst, and the hardest worker, there ended up being a crew of three woman (Ashley, my sister Taylor, and me) in my front yard, with four babies running wild in the flying brush. It was hard work, but it was fun to do together. It was especially fun to see the immense progress we made. Here is a before and after, and a picture of all the bushes/vines/TREES we conquered.

    Today was exactly what I needed to give me a jump start on wanting to make more affordable, doable progress on this old house. The trimming…along with the discovery that the Mr. Clean magic erasers take grime off my baseboards, cabinets, and floors that I had signed off on as permanent long ago. As hard as I’m nesting lately, I just hope I’m not pregnant. 🙂 (I’m not.)

    I hope God taps your heart with reminders of the ways He takes care of even the silly things that tax you. And tick tock, tick tock we find out TOMORROW!!!


  • 05.09.2009 Put OBAMA on Trauma
    22 Comments

    My girls have not seen their father since Cinco de Mayo dinner. We left El Cazador, and Jeremiah asked if I could do the girls’ bedtime routine so that he could cram for all of his cases the next day. Since then, we’ve been rising around 4:30. He gulps down cereal while I make his lunch–because they certainly don’t give him enough time between cases to go somewhere and EAT–then I shove his coffee in his hand as he rushes out the door. He hasn’t gotten home until around 9, and then I warm his dinner. I sit there while he eats, and one of us looks at the other and says, “SO, how’s YOUR life goin’?” and we both laugh really hard. We go to bed EXHAUSTED, and it starts again. This is Trauma at UAB, and it is horrible.

    Part of the problem is that he has had a couple of really good rotations in a row. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing each other–even hanging out together. The girls are missing him bad. Pace jumps out of bed in the mornings like a dazed animal and says frantically, “Did I get up early enough to see Daddy??!!” Then, she goes to bed at night saying, “Is Daddy going to come home soon and eat his dinner?” It is sad.

    It makes me feel petty to be overwhelmed by ALL ALL ALL the one-on-one time I’ve had with the little ruffians, when I know Jeremiah is being worked to the bone. But the fact is, I AM overwhelmed and this is only his FIRST week of a TWO MONTH rotation. I’m thinking about moving to the beach…Anybody else want to come?? 🙂

    When we were first married, I got mad at Jeremiah about these long hours. Surely he must be an over-eager beaver?! Surely EVERYBODY isn’t working like this? Then, I realized they were, so I started getting mad at “the hospital.” I have drafted many a letter to “the hospital” telling them just what I think about them,…but I think Jeremiah would have killed me if I had ever sent one of them. So now, I’ve decided to transfer my anger to…Obama.

    Now that I can see end of the strenuous treadmill they call residency, I’ve started to be eager for a little compensation for these hours we’ve both been pullin‘. I’ve started to feel like we’ve ALL (the girls included) sacrificed a lot for this all-encompassing career, and by goodness, I don’t feel bad about wanting to be paid real live money for it! But now, NOW we have Obama, who thinks Jeremiah should work for free. Could somebody ask Obama how he expects us to pay off all of Jeremiah’s student loans and the debt we’ve been accumulating just to LIVE over the past four (going on six) years? Could somebody ask Obama if he has ever had to take trauma call and witness the kind of discipline, skill, endurance, and knowledge it takes to do that? Can somebody ask Obama what kind of people are going to WANT to live through this kind of hardship, if you refuse to pay them well for it?–not SMART people. Do you want your doctors to be smart?

    So, it’s 9:30 on Friday night. I’m mad because I know my husband is standing over a body in some cold OR starving to death, and the best person I can think of to be mad at is Barack Obama. There! Thank you for listening to all of that.