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

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!).