this weekend.

here's what we've been up to lately:

making dinner - some nights i make real meals (shown below). other nights, like friday, i just make pancakes and bacon. stuart likes those nights best. :)

stuart likes when i cook dinner. thumbs up.

i got this old steaming pan from an estate sale with my friend jill (for only 50 cents!). it looks just like my mama's.

stuart diligently watching the stove while i make dinner.

weeding these weird mushrooms out of my basil and mint plants - at first they were cool because they just randomly grew. now, they're creeping me out. i just pick them, but of course a bunch just keep popping up. my basil plant has a ton of them growing up from the potting soil. gross.

see the giant mushroom growing in my basil pot? it's to the right of the basil - the mushroom stalk is almost invisible, but you can definitely see the cap in the photo!

here's just a little guy that sprouted up in the basil.

enjoying our weekend - stuart had his pediatrics final on friday morning, so i went to work and did a few hours of module training while he was examined. we met up for lunch at a yummy mexican place called juanita's. we had a chicken enchilada and chicken empanadas. yum-o. friday night we went out and got coffee with our favorite friends here, chris and jill. a bunch of kids were hanging around outside the coffee place, and a fight broke out (more of a brawl, i'd say) between a 9th grade kid and some other kid's 21-year-old big brother. chris and stuart jumped right in and kept the boys from killing each other until a cop pulled up. so, that was exciting. stu and chris were definitely the heroes of the evening. saturday morning we slept in (yay!) and got a late breakfast at community bakery, where we saw jeff and courtney and cutie ava claire. we ran errands all afternoon, including stopping by sam's:

stuart really liked this giant can of tuna.

after running our errands, we went home and watched the princess bride (fun, silly movie) and went to jeff and courtney's for dinner. it was great to have stuart home on saturday instead of him having to go into the hospital. today we had a quick lunch after church, then i went to a knife skills class at william-sonoma with beth - i learned the difference between chopping and slicing, honing and sharpening and what to "julienne" means. we're getting ready to head out to meet some of the pierce family for dinner at za-za's (pizza, salads and gelato - yum. can you tell we like food?). mimi will be there, and we like her a lot. so, that will be good :)

this week stuart starts his internal medicine rotation at the VA hospital, and i'll start my first real week of work schedule - w/th/f 7a-7p. we're finally settling in!

two months.

two months ago was the big day! when i think about it, i'm still in awe that we really pulled it off (much of it on our own - mom with the flowers, casey reagan and katie with planning and coordinating and executing!) and that everything was just perfect at our wedding. a big thank you - if you're reading this, then you probably played an integral part, and i continue to be thankful for how much our families supported (and continue to support) us. and two months in, stu and i still like each other! so, yay for that. ;)

tomorrow is my first day on the oncology floor with real patients. i'm so thrilled, i can't wait! i'm afraid i won't be able to sleep tonight because i'm so excited. i have to get an early start, though, so i hope i can fall asleep! stuart has a skills test and final exam later this week, so he's just keeping on with his studies. he's such a trooper. i'll make him some more banana bread as a reward. i think that's his favorite kind of encouragement - the banana-bread-kind.

just wanted to post a quick update... that's all for now!

catching up.

this past week has been so busy! i started orientation for my new job on monday, which consists mostly of sitting in a classroom watching power point slides and videos. although, one day was entirely dedicated to learning non-violent crisis intervention techniques. essentially, as a health care worker, i get in a lot of trouble if i ever hurt a patient, even if they are throwing punches at me. so now the hospital is mandated to instruct it's employees how to respond to "crisis" situations (i.e. a patient/family member/other staff person starts pulling my hair and cussing at me). i learned some sweet moves that: a) protect the crazy patient/family member/other staff person and b) keep me from getting beat up. i went home that evening and told stuart to create a crisis for me to intervene in. i couldn't get out of his headlock. oh well, so much for the sweet moves i learned.

stuart remains quite busy, chipping away at his third year. he is about to enter the last week of his pediatrics rotation, with a final exam on friday. prayers would be appreciated :) he has the WHOLE weekend off next weekend (for the first time in several weeks, he doesn't have to go into the hospital on saturday!!) so we're sleeping in and going out for breakfast at community bakery (my new favorite here in little rock).

our biggest challenge this week has been keeping our home from turning into a messy wreck. without me being home all day to pick up and keep things tidy, the apartment has been significantly messier. hopefully we'll figure out a good system soon. at least we've had food to eat every day, although sometimes it was just random things we found in the refrigerator. it's hard being a workin' wifey.

other news from this week:

-stuart's oldest brother derek turned 32, so we went out to eat at a fancy place here in town. at dinner, derek and beth announced they're going to have a BABY! woot. she's due march 22, and so far everything looks great! i'm so thrilled. i came to little rock just in time.

- i got bit by an ant on my foot while waiting for the hospital shuttle one morning to carry me in from the parking lot. now my foot is giant, red and terribly itchy. boo ants.

- my basil and mint plants are really quite happy. although, mr. mint is starting to get a little too big for his first, tiny pot i planted him in. maybe next weekend i can transplant him to a bigger home.

-it's still hot here. 100s for the high every day.

- we found out my favorite friend, hannah, will be going to a secret location in the eastern hemisphere in january to lead a team of college students. they'll be doing evangelism and church planting with a missionary family that is already established there. we are thrilled for her! join us in praying for her.

more to come soon!

my earthly dearest

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.

[C. S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952)]

i ran across a website called girltalk, which sounded kind of cheesy until i started looking around. they describe their site as "conversations on biblical womanhood and other fun stuff." i'm glad i gave it a chance - they have a lot of good thoughts to share. they posted the above quote by lewis on their site, and so it has me thinking. so far it's been quite easy to love my husband, mostly because he's so cute all the time. also, that newlywed bliss hasn't worn off yet. but what will happen when he isn't so cute anymore? and the newlywed bliss is long gone? of course my love for him will (and should!) rest solely on Christ and the work of His cross. it's hard to know what that looks like right now, since it feels easy to love my husband. stuart and i pray every night that we would continue in diligence to seek Christ, spending time in the Word and prayer. our marriage can rest on nothing else.

in other news: wednesday evening after i returned from pine bluff we went out and met jeff and courtney for sushi. we like them. it's fun to spend time with stuart and his life-long best buddy (and cousin). even as late 20-somethings, they still act like little boys when they're together. also, j&c have the cutest little kiddo i've ever met. ava claire is just a doll, and it was fun to hang out with her at the sushi place, too. she's becoming very vocal :) and really is becoming a little person now, and much less baby-like! court mentioned that AC is going to move up to the toddler class at her daycare soon. it's unbelievable how quickly they grow up!

thursday after stu finished his rotation at the hospital, we went over to harmony health clinic to volunteer. i triaged patients all night, which was really fun! it got a little busy, and folks had to wait a little longer than usual because i was chatting so much with each patient when they came in to see me. stuart had to come tell me to move it along. :)

i'm thrilled to start my real job on monday, although it will just be hospital orientation for several days. i think by the end of the second week, i should be up on my floor! woo, i'm finally a real nurse!

pop's office, basil, banana bread and wedding photos

yesterday was my last day working at pop's office in pine bluff. i feel pretty comfortable taking patients back and preparing them for ob/gyn office visits now. just in case any of my oncology patients at UAMS need this kind of care, i am quite qualified! :)

it's been fun to come back home these last few weeks after spending a few days each week in pine bluff working at the office. i'm excited to cook dinner and clean and take care of my plants and see my husband. i wonder how long i'll love doing these things when i have to do them 7 days a week, with no respite away in pine bluff at mom P and pop's.

the basil i picked up last week at the farmer's market (only $1 for a giant bunch, by the way!) has sprouted little roots for me, so i anticipate planting one of my little basil sprigs soon, and hopefully he will turn into a giant, healthy basil plant!

today after meeting beth and her friend emily for lunch (who i just loved!) i came home to make some banana bread. one of the easiest treats i've realized i can make for stuart. also, i use whole wheat flour, so it's not too bad for us! :)

this stuff is awesome. it barely tastes like whole grain, but it is 100%! and unbleached. all around goodness!

we also got a dvd in the mail recently from our wedding photographer (see her here. she's amazing. and she does much, much more than just weddings.). we couldn't be happier. here is my favorite:

(photo credit: courtney potter, 2010)

i can't wait to get some wedding photos printed and into albums (although, i know that every bride has this intention... we'll see how quickly i get to it, right?).

our home.

here are some photos of us getting our apartment set up here in little rock...

this is what our living room looked like - everything from the uhaul and all the gifts that had been mailed to us.

working in the kitchen after the arkansas party to make lemon sweet rolls for my family's farewell breakfast the next morning

the beginning of my herb garden on my kitchen window sill: mint and rosemary. i also have a little basil sprig that i am coaxing to sprout roots. i got the little mint sprig above from my friend jill, and it rooted for me! i'm hoping the basil will work just as well.

our first major purchase as a married couple: chest of drawers from an estate sale. $12.50. also, the red owl was a housewarming gift from mama acree, we found that charming little alarm clock at target, our "money tree" (as katie calls it) on sale at walmart and the oldie-looking radio (actually an ipod dock) a wedding gift from our friends stan and clare.

more to come!

a sewing project, white coat ceremony and the farmer's market

i started a sewing project. stuart and i have started spending the various gift cards we received as wedding presents, and i quickly realized that all the cute home decor items were way more expensive than i was willing to spend right now. so, i decided to begin my little sewing project.

i bought some clearance fabric at hobby lobby on friday (hobby lobby is like a ginormous michael's) and i wasn't sure what to do with it. after shopping around for pillows to put on the two beds and our little sofa, i decided i needed to learn how to make pillows for cheap. and so my little clearance fabric began morphing into a pillow in my mind. at first i thought i might get together with my friend jill and practice on her sewing machine, but i got too excited and so i just started sewing by hand. so, we'll see how it goes. i will probably have to get up with jill at some point so she can show me how to really make a pillow :)

friday night was stuart's white coat ceremony. here he is accepting a pin for his white coat telling everyone that he has integrity and will be a good doctor :)

the man smiling with the pink tie to the right of stuart is dr. beck. he's an oncologist who went to school at wake forest in winston-salem, nc. he volunteers at harmony health clinic with us.

i went to the farmer's market yesterday morning with beth. i think farmer's markets are one of my very favorite things. just lots of fresh food. and all kinds of people come out to the river market on saturday mornings in little rock, so it's an opportunity for people-watching, too (another one of my favorite things). we wandered over across the river to north little rock where there's a smaller farmer's market for local-only produce and other farmer's market items. at the original river market, you can always find all kinds of things, including pineapples and bananas, which clearly aren't grown by local arkansan farmers. it was nice to find the smaller market where we know that we are actually supporting our local community.

basil, green peppers, gardenia scented goat milk soap, zucchini, yellow squash, various baby tomatoes and local beef

a "cool" friday.

it has "cooled down" here today (per the radio) and the high is only 95F. i can't wait for fall. everyone promises that the weather gets better around here.

we ended up going out to "sip and shop" last night in hillcrest, but we waited until 8pm so it was a little cooler, and it was really nice! some of the shops had already closed, but there was one still open and some guys were playing music outside. we stopped at u.s. pizza on kavanaugh, where derek and beth had dinner and stuart and i shared some breadsticks. i'm thankful that d&b live so close by - it's really a blessing to be near them.

today i'm heading out to spend my $20 of crafty budget i gave myself for the month - i'm thinking my first project will be to make some pillows. i already have some fabric, so i just need some thread and decorations to put on the pillows (buttons? maybe some ribbon?) i also started making a necklace last night out of leftover ornamentea items i had in my stock of jewelry-making stuff. i freaked because i realized that there is no ornamentea in little rock, and what was i going to do when i needed more jewelry-making items??? stuart assured me that there must be some sort of bead shop around here. i booed that, because "some sort of bead shop" just isn't ornamentea. hmph.

tonight is the white coat ceremony at uams for the new first year students in the school of medicine. i guess it's a sort of matriculation ceremony where they all get "coated" with their short, little white student-doctor coats. it's also a ceremony that recognizes some other students in upper classes for various reasons. stuart and i are going tonight because he was awarded the "white coat award" for being the most awesome in his class. every year his classmates vote for one student in the class who they think represents and upholds the oath they took at their first white coat ceremony when they started med school. this person demonstrates honesty, integrity, compassion, etc... "someone who can always be counted on," and they chose stuart last year. so he gets a special little pin to wear on his white coat, and he gets it tonight. then, it's off to bed early again so stu can get up at 4:30am to head in to the hospital for his weekend call. i'll be sleeping in, then heading to the farmer's market.

happy weekend!

photos from san francisco.

flying first class rdu > atl > sfo.

our first meal in sf - Gott's in the ferry building on the bay.
stuart wasn't sure about the garlic fries. they were delicious.



i can't figure out how to upload photos faster into this blog thing, so go see an album i put together on facebook: honeymoon in san francisco!

getting into the swing of things.

stuart is well into his third year - he has successfully completed a week in the newborn nursery/NICU, a week in a general pediatric outpatient clinic (mostly "well" visits), a couple of weeks in pediatric outpatient specialty clinics (cardiology, pulmonary, allergy, endocrine, etc.) and is just finishing up his first week of being on the inpatient pediatric cardiology step-down unit at arkansas children's hospital.

a few weeks back, when stuart's rotations were in outpatient settings, he didn't have to leave until 8am, so i would get up and have breakfast with him before he went. now that he is working with inpatients, he leaves the house before 5:30am, so i happily let him wake up and eat breakfast on his own. :)

i've landed a nursing job at UAMS (the university hospital where stuart is in med school) on their inpatient adult medical oncology unit. i'm a cancer nurse! i was always interested in oncology through nursing school, and the interview for this unit turned out to be kind of a last minute surprise, and it was neat to see how the Lord provided the perfect job for me, at the perfect time. it doesn't start for a few more weeks, so i've been driving south to pine bluff to work for stuart's dad ("pop") in his outpatient OB/GYN office a few days a week.

it's hot here - yesterday the high was 103F, with a heat index of 111F. ugh. makes one feel like napping all day long. one thing that i have been excited about after moving to arkansas is "sip and shop" here in hillcrest (the neighborhood we live in here in little rock). the first thursday evening of each summer month, the local shops and restaurants stay open later, local musicians set up on the sidewalk and play music, and folks come out for a good walk around town with their kids and pets. it's just fun. tonight is the first sip and shop to occur since i've moved here, but with a heat index of 111F, i'm not sure i'm at all interested in going out for it.

things are mostly unpacked around our apartment. i think we have only one box full of things to really find homes for. we also need to figure out the lock combination to the bike room so that we can move my bike out of our living room. i have allotted myself a $20 crafty budget for august so that i can get a little decorating done. :) things will really be up and running around here starting on august 16, when i start at UAMS. we can't wait!

we'll try to get some photos up here soon (and post more often - thanks for the reminder, dad!).