Progress

Abe had his meeting today with his thesis committee. Good news, they approved him to set a date to defend his thesis in February! This is a big step, basically meaning that they agree he has done enough on his project and just needs to wrap things up. It will take a lot of work to write the thesis and finish the last few papers, but he will be done with this step and move on to the last year or so of medical school come March. He has worked very hard the last 7 or so years and I am so glad he can finally get to the next step of his long journey.

O Christmas Tree

We went with Abraham’s family to a local tree farm the day after Thanksgiving, something we have been doing every year since getting married. I saw this tree calling to me from a distance. I thought it was a beauty. I’m not sure it thought the same of me (what an awful picture!).

I must have good tree instincts: the tree seemed rather tall and we weren’t sure it would fit in the house. We had the worker cut the tree trunk a little shorter than originally had been done and I got it just right—it barely has enough room for our tree topper.

For some reason Val wanted a picture in front of our tree.

And for some reason so did Isaac.

…and Anna. A very popular tree I guess. And for some reason I can’t tell if Val is closing his eyes in all of these pictures or not.

Our biggest tree yet! And oops, we forgot the angel at the top.

Abe’s mom used to give him a piece to the nativity each year.

We even did some outside lighting this year. Look how the orange door glows (what a great color door, good for many seasons I am trying to tell myself).

And what is that with the lights on it? That is a pergola in case you forgot, and the pergola is finding some good winter time usage!

Fringe

I was ready for a change. I kept thinking about how people always tell me, “Oh wow, you haven’t changed a bit.” I’m not sure if that is meant to mean I still look young or if it means I am outdated 10 years later. I wanted to keep my long hair but was longing for such a big change I was ready to go shorter than ever.

I walked into the salon with a picture of a short sassy bob and with Taylor’s new look:

My stylist convinced me to keep the long hair and go for the bangs.

Here is my before picture, granted I didn’t do anything special (or really anything) with my hair that day.

After:

Do I look like Taylor Swift now? Unfortunately my hair is still brown.  

After the initial shock I have been really happy with the result. Even when no one seems to recognize me.

 

Wreath

I had a rare afternoon where I finished early. I’ve been looking all over for wreaths but haven’t been able to get myself to pay for ones I like. I decided to try my hand at it. Luckily, Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off sale for their Christmas items or I would have been in trouble.

 

I guess I have been in a glitter mood because everything I bought was covered in it. I bought a plain styrofoam wreath and used glitter glue spray to cover it with green glitter. Then I wrapped some ribbon and used a glue gun to hold everything in place. I contemplated adding some colored jingle bells but decided against them at the last minute.

 

 

 

Here are more pictures than you could ever want. Can you see the glitter in the pictures? I was happy with how it turned out. I hope the glitter stays on with door slams. Do you think it needs the jingle bells?

 

Here is a preview of my second one. This was a quick throw together. We’ll see how it goes.

It is so fun to have a house to decorate.

Life as an anesthesiologist

Wow! I can hardly believe I finished my first month of my anesthesia rotation. I am 25% done with anesthesia and about 6 months done with my first year of residency. Time goes by fast.

The first few weeks of the rotation I was paired up with another resident. I basically shadowed them in the OR during their cases. The week of Thanksgiving I was officially given “my own room.” This means that I am now acting as the anesthesia resident in the operating room, putting the patient to sleep, monitoring them throughout the case, waking them up, and taking them to the recovery room--with a staff anesthesiologist as my back up.

I was very worried the days prior to starting by myself. That song that is on the radio right now that says, “flying solo, flying solo” or is it “riding solo"” (?) kept running through my head. I had nightmares every night leading up to my debut, including things like heads falling off my patients and me trying to put them back on and hoping nobody noticed. The Friday before I started on my own I had a trial run by myself of about 30 minutes. Wow, suddenly those monitors became so intriguing and my heart was racing. It felt like I was watching a suspense movie I couldn’t turn away from.

Luckily, I have had a lot of supervision and the faculty have all been very nice. I am starting to see I am making  improvements in  placing the breathing tube, breathing for the patient, and monitoring for problems. I don’t have as many nightmares, feel a little less stressed, and can tell that I am learning. For example, I had a patient whose oxygen fell down (her lungs closed up—called a bronchospasm) and blood pressure shot up through the roof. I was all alone but I knew I had to act, and fast. I was pleased that I stayed calm, secured the airway, administered medication to calm the patient and bring the blood pressure back down. By the time a staff anesthesiologist appeared (they had been paged overhead), I had the patient stable. It was still scary but I was pleased I was able to manage the situation and I learned that I can at least take care of problems until help arrives.

So, after one month I am really starting to like my transient life as an anesthesiologist. I have gained a huge appreciation for this group of doctors who take patients lives in their hands multiple times each day. And, it really isn’t as boring as everyone thinks. When it is you ensuring a patient’s healthy sleep, it can be very interesting and exciting!

Dear Santa

I have had multiple requests from family for my Christmas list. Sorry to those who are not family, unless you are a friend who’d like to purchase me a gift, a point I promise I wont argue about.

*I post this at the risk of sounding greedy. In actuality, I feel quite content with all of my STUFF. But, here are some ideas of things I’m not necessarily dying for but could be fun or useful. In no particular order.

 

-Piano music (I miss music to sing a long too. I would particularly like a Beatles book)

-Flat iron (mine is years and years old and really not great)

-ipod nano for jogging

-freezer for our basement (5’ or 7’)

-cute coat/jacket. I feel like I have few dressy options, esp for the jacket stage or the very cold winter stage

-help finishing my quilt (or someone paying a professional to do it)

-clothes (I feel very outdated in both casual and more dressy clothes. I really like big chunky sweaters. I would also like some jeggings. Or anything else cute, really)

-bike clothes (more options are nice)

-dress socks

-shoes or boots

-headbands, fun jewelry, hats, belts, etc

-paintable adirondack chairs (2), matching table if possible (for the patio—I hope to pain them to match our doors)

-pretty cook book stand

-maybe a pretty way to store or organize jewelry

 

Abe is harder. He has mentioned he really wants an electric griddle. He really likes things like real vanilla or fancy cooking ingredients. The book Cake Love and the new Cake Love book, something about Cakes Across America (not sure the title) seem to continue to interest him. He listens to a lot of books on tape so I could see a nice ipod dock for our kitchen for when he cooks could be nice. I guess I’ve given you all my ideas now. Oops.

Let it snow

Today was our first snow of the season. I am a bit surprised we made it almost to December but we were close.

Being from Utah, I tend to like snow. Unfortunately, while Utah has “the greatest snow on Earth,” Iowa does not. They may have the “longest lasting ice on Earth,” but definitely not good snow.

We had a small winter preparedness message at church a few weeks ago. They got me really scared for what the Iowa winter can bring…and this is my 6th Iowa winter! We have been lucky so far this year.

This year we will have to start shoveling our walks and driveway.  We were lucky to receive a snowblower from our previous homeowners (to bad it isn’t an ice melter). We also finally got our new windows installed, just in time!

Now, I just need some of these: