Crisis

Everything is still going fine with katie and the baby. Although she continues to sleep poorly she feels generally well. We wouldn't even describe ourselves as anxious at this point, however.....


I feel inside that something big is coming (obviously) and it is causing me to act out in strange ways. I have been thinking a lot about going camping or hiking into Mexico. I wonder about how cold it would be to go cayaking in the ocean this week. I have smoked a chicken in a clay pot (see previous blog). And the other night I decided that I would sleep outside in our yard.

So I got a bed made up for me and my dog and there we slept. How did we sleep you ask? Fitfully of course. That is generally how you sleep when you are camping unless you have been hiking all day and feel tremendously tired. How long did we sleep? Until 5 AM when the rain started - and our warm house and bed seemed to appealing to stay outside.

38 weeks

Hello there. Things are going well down here. We are finally getting to the point of being ready for the baby to come. We are also much more prepared emotionally as well--it feels better. We have gotten the carseat installed and pretty much everything that has to be ready is ready for the baby. Other stuff can come later. We are also getting really excited about what the baby is. It hasn't been hard waiting to find out if it is a girl or boy--but now that it is close--i want to know.

Here is a picture of me; i am still fairly small, but i have grown two cm in the last week. The baby seems to be doing fine. we are just in the waiting game now and we'll keep ya'll updated.

Please be praying for safe delievery and adjustment bringing the baby home.

January

This has been a great month for us...... since we are getting close to baby time I thought I could write to update you all.

Katie is 2 weeks from her due date. She is doing well overall. She isn't sleep as well as normal and takes some naps during the day. She is still doing normal things - walking the dog, grocery shopping, going to MOPS and her Bible Study. We just had 2 weeks of straight rain - no scooter. Thankfully, Katie would wake up and take me into the hospital.

I have been working with an orthopedic surgeon, which has been great. He keeps a very light schedule with only a few operations a week and 2 days of clinic a week, with Fridays off!! Also, he is a great teacher who has made me comfortable giving steroid injections for arthritis, rotator cuff problems, etc. From the first day he had me injecting knees, shoulder, hips and other various trigger points like the lower back, heel, and carpal tunnel.

I have also been feeling more comfortable in clinic becoming more time efficient and able to do multiple things at one time. My nurse Rosie and I have become more comfortable together and she has helped me immensely.

We will talk to you soon - and will be sending out an email soon after the baby arrives.

Blender Salsa

The other day I realized that the salsa that I eat regularly at the hospital is homemade - blended on the spot. I was quite impressed and I asked the cook about the recipe - she said she didn't really have one it is just a mixture of tomatoes, chiles and onion......

So finally at home I decided to give it a whirl..... WOW! It is really easy and it goes like this

tomatoes (fresh, canned and diced, or whatever you have)
onion
peppers (chiles - you pick the kind, the spiciness and the amount)
small amount of salt

You put it in the blender and voila! In fact I might go dip a chip right now

It costs pennies. You can make it fresh. You could make mass quantities and can it. Whatever you want to do. Now we have one more reason why it really is the number 1 condiment.

p.s. I am thinking about starting up a business of canning the salsa. I just need a name and some startup money.

Term

I am now full-term and it seems that things are going the same. my belly is still measuring small, close to 6 cm smaller than i should be. The baby is measuring okay though....so, everyone is feeling okay about it. we will be doing ultra sounds every week from now on. i could go at any time, but lets hope that it is not before Feb. 1st.
i continue to be more tired and not getting enough sleep at night--it is preparing me.
we are having a couple over for dinner tonight that we met on Sunday at church. He is in the military and they moved down here when we did. Their names are TJ and Katie (we haven't met Katie yet)...but we are looking forward to having them over.
some new news: a good friend of mine from HS, Ian, and his wife are moving to Kingsville, TX. This is only 90 miles from us!! i am very excited to have familiar people so close. we aren't sure when they are moving yet, but hope to find out soon.

Birthing class

Matt and I had our birthing class this past Saturday (all-day). We were able to take it with our friends, Megan and Joe. The class was pretty good and the information was good. Megan (who is a third year at the residency program) and matt knew most of the medical jargan, but joe and i got some stuff we hadn't heard before. The only other thing that was good to hear was the breathing techniques. and after watching the video and hearing more about the "helpful drugs"---the whole giving birth thing ain't lookin that bad!!
our friends Sarah and Dan, had their son, Noah Christian on Thurday night by emgancey C-Section. Baby and mom are great and we are very happy for them as they had a very difficult pregnancy. Noah is now out and Sarah is able to get back to herself.
Matt will be writing more about his birthday present this week along with pictures of what his first experience was like cooking something in it. crazy boy!

My Birthday

Katie and I were going to go out for my birthday.... but we decided to change our plans.

I had the pleasant surprise of having the day off of work unexpectedly, in fact the doctor who wasn't working that day does not even know that it was my birthday.

I thought to myself.... what gift reeks of 27th birthday. Enter - the CHIMINEA!!! The chiminea is the gift that keeps on giving.

These bad boys sell for $120-200 in the north country, but here on the Tex-Mex border, I got it for $35 with the stand included. It is solid clay that is polished with some substance that makes it almost metallic. It is quite large - 4 to 5 feet tall on the stand.

We used it last night and it was awesome! I am planning on using it again tonight..... and I have big plans for tomorrow. I am working on how to slow roast a chicken by suspending it down into the pit.... we'll see how it goes.

The Shower!!

We had our couples shower this past weekend. There were about 30 people there and it was a really nice time for both matt and i. we had dinner and opened presents and then we had an open time of prayer for us--it was very special. The people that planned it did a very nice job and we were both very thankful!!

Here are some pics of the evening:

These are three of my very dear friends, Sarah, Mari and Ashley. Sarah and Mari planned the shower for us and Sarah is giving birth to her son on Thursday!!

My Eye Sight is Worsening

Saturday was a big day for me..... mowing grass - both our house and our friends' home who have moved away and have it on the market. I stopped by Joe Nash's house to borrow his weedwacker. If you would like to visit his blog to be introduced to the characters of this post, feel free to link to http://nashfamilyonlineblog.blogspot.com/ they have a very cool photo intro.

Anyway, I was returning the weedwacker. I was tired. I was very hungry. I did not have on my glasses.

I saw their cat outside of their house, which was unusual. Joe was not at home and I called him and he seemed surprised. I was very surprised that the cat would not come inside the house. After a few attempts I cajoled the cat into the house - and he went crazy!! Jumping up the walls, tearing around the house the cat was out of control. He ran to the back of the kitchen.

Then I looked to the other side of the house and out of the bedroom comes the Nash's cat klondike.... I said to myself "I have made a terrible mistake". That's right, the Nash's only have one cat. In case the names of the characters threw you off - I had just put a cat, not belonging to the Nash's into their house. The one I had grappled with was a stray!

As I left, I thought.... maybe I need to wear my glasses all of the time

A little late with the New Year's Weekend write-up

Sorry about the lateness of this blog. New years was now a week and half ago..but i was being lazy about writing about it. We went up to San Antonio on Friday afternoon and stayed the night with some friends from Philadephia for the night. It was wonderful to catch up with them and talk about Philadelphia and all of the things we missed about it.

Then Saturday we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast with them and went into the city to walk the "riverwalk" and see the Alamo. The picture of all of the animal heads is from this resturant/museum that we had lunch at--Matt loved all of the heads on the walls----can anyone see the Tar Heel pride??

Here are some pics from the day: this is the Riverwalk-beautiful--i want to live with my window facing this place.

Then we were off to Austin to see my brother, Brian and his wife, Jen. We were able to meet them for dinner--we had chinese and it was wonderful!!! there is NO good chinese in Harlingen, TX. Brian was preaching on Sunday morning at Hill Country Bible Church which we were able to attend. He did a wonderful job talking about Running the Race and which Race we were running for. Matt and I both needed to hear, think and pray about those very goals. Anyways.. then after church we rushed out to grab something to eat cause they had to catch their plane. We ended up at Rudy's--this great Texas BBQ place!!!! we found out there is one about 1/2 hour from us!! so, we'll take any visiters there when they come. It was a treat to see them once more before the baby comes and have some time with them. They might have guessed the baby's name (if it is aboy) as well--but it is still a secret (they still don't know either).

Fame and glamour

I have been waiting for when the fame would come with medicine. Today is my day. It may be all downhill from here.


I had a patient today who lives on our street. I didn't notice until the end of our encounter that he lived on Nantucket Dr. When I mentioned it he said, "I've heard about you.... your the doctor on the moped."