Skateboarding..... I am too old, but.....

A funny thing happens to me about once a year........ I find myself thinking about skateboarding. An urge comes on that I just can't curb, until I prove to myself that I am not any good at skating and the older I get the closer I get to hurting myself. I guess it is an addiction, because I know it will not end well. My memories are vivid. Ambridge highschool with a large, slanted bank. Pittsburgh Skatepark. Shadyskates in Shadyside. FDR skatepark in Philadelphia, where the likes of Tony Hawk and Bam Margera skate. They have all been the same memories. Hours of obsessions all ending in the same way. Me falling. Me hurting. Me looking silly.

Well, now the stakes are a little higher. Why? I am a doctor at a hospital. A fall and a broken arm would mean many things. Countless, hundreds of explanations to every patient, nurse, passerby etc. I couldn't wear my white coat. And while I am on my surgical rotation this month with a cardiovascular surgeon I could not scrub in, put on sterile gloves, basically.... I could do nothing. Except be mocked.

I knew all this on Sunday as I was distracted in church. And so what choice did I make? Naturally, I went skateboarding.

I found a drainage ditch that is bone dry. Large enough to drive a car through with large, flat steep banks on each side. I swept it clear of soot and rocks. It was quite warm and I worked up a sweat. And then I started to skate. The memories cam back even more vivid as the board flew out from under me feet. I still don't know what I am doing. But there is always 2009.

Merry Christmas!!

This has been a very Merry Christmas for us this year. We are in Pittsburgh with Matt's family. It was very nice for all of us to be together again for some time. We leave tomorrow to go back home to Texas--it will be good to get home. Matt has his new "nerdy" gismo; I got him a bluetooth. He is quite excited about being able to talk while on his scooter. Matt surprised me with my stocking this year; he got me a diamond necklace. It is pretty and simple and he went back on what he said after he gave me my enagement ring--"i'll won't ever get you another dimond." i am very happy to say that he didn't keep that promise!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas.

This picture is of Isabella and her new cousin, Jack. Jack is only two months old--he slept a lot today.

This is a picture of Isabella, Jack and her two aunts (Martha-is holding Isabella and Sara-holding Jack).
Isabella and her grandmother playing with a koala bear. We are very thankful for our family and that we got to spend this holiday with them.
~K~

Smiles, Apples and crawling

SO much going on with Isabella these days. We are preparing to go up to PA for Christmas to be with Matt's family for a couple of days and Isabella is making it a little difficult to get ready. She is so full of smiles (almost all of the time--very thankful for that)..here are some funny/cute recent pics of her: We think she looks a bit like a telatubby in this one

we have recently discovered (i don't know my it is underlined--it is really annoying) that Isabella loves to eat apples!!! This has been nice for me because i was able to make a whole batch of cookies with her in her chair. She is very possesive already with her food--she gets very upset if you try to take her apple away. She has one little tooth that she is able to scrap apple off with and eat. It is really quit cute. This video i just took yesturday. It seemed like she got the hang of it two days ago and then she was off! i have to really keep those floors clean now.

2nd Years Xmas Party

This past weekend we had our annual Christmas party with Matt's class. We had a very nice meal together and had an ornament exchange. Here are some pictures of matt's class and the whole group. We all can't believe that a year and half has gone by since starting residency. With only another year and a half left it seems that we are all starting to think more and more about life after graduation and what it holds for all of us. We are heading towards a fellowship (more training for a year) in sports medicine and then everybody else is going to go into practice somewhere. It is all very exciting, but it is sad to think about leaving the people we have shared our lives with for this intense time. Anyway, it was a great night together...look forward to next years.

It is Hard

It is hard....... having such a cute little baby. I am sorry to dote - this is something that I don't like to do much of. It is much nicer to have people say a lot of nice things about you then to say them about yourself - but, I just have to say. Our daughter, Isabella, is really, really cute.
It is hard going out in public, walking around an airport, being a plane. It is hard to even go shopping. We get stopped by so many people to praise Isabella's cuteness that we get almost nothing accomplished. It has become almost laughable.
Do you know the look of the certain wife who married the funniest guy at college. Everyone praises him for his humor and the wife accepts but her face says "I have heard this so many times that I don't care anymore". Well the face of the wife - we often make that face about Isabella. However, as soon as we start to tire of her long stares, laughing and pointing at strangers and other antics we end up laughing ourselves. And then we realize...... you can't ever get tired of this.

Time with Friends and Family

We had a great time with friends in Williamsburg. Matt had never been the Wburg before, so i had a great time showing him around and taking him to my favorite place to eat there, the Cheese Shop. Matt had a conference on sports medicine which he enjoyed a lot. He thinks that he can now start injecting me with stuff--not really. But he is happy that he still likes it and wants to do the fellowship when we are done here.

This was just too cute of a picture to pass up sharing.

These were a nice family shot.

This is my life long mentor, Auntie Diana (what Isabella will call her). It was such a treat for us to see her and spend the day with her.

This picture of Matt and Isabella was taken in front of the Governor's Mansion. We didn't get to go into the garden because we didn't have a ticket--i was kind of disappointed.

These are some of our special friends that we hadn't seen in over a year...it was great to see them before they headed overseas. We will miss you Scott and Steph!

Finally some Leaves!

Well, we are back from our long trip to NC and VA. Isabella and I were gone for three weeks and matt joined us for the last two. It was a great time to be with friends and family. We were really happy to be in some cooler weather and experience some crisp air. Here are some pics from our time there:

We got to go to the beach for Thanksgiving and spend time with my extended family. We had a great time together and it was beautiful weather. Matt and my brother had a great time catching crab! They caught some bigs ones (as you can see), cooked them and then ate them. They have a new found appreciation for crab meat at restuarants now.

i'll be posting more pics of our trip. don't want to over do it.

~K~