Breakdown

Baby K sometimes dances, and she seems to enjoy the music Dad plays..which, is really LOUD. Apparently it is called "Dub-step."
Anyways, you can see some of her wicked moves here.
But then she gets distracted by a duck and stops dancing.
Guess it could happen to the best of us.



dance!!!

Look What I Made!!!

Our house is in a constant, VERY slow state, of being spruced up. Somedays it works better then others.
When we moved in, we had a short cafe curtain and a shelf covering the lower 1/4 of our kitchen window. Our kitchen window is the HUGE square single pane window that we will, if we stay in the house long enough, have to replace at some point.
But anyways, I had been looking at the window treatment for the last two years trying to figure out what to do. And to make matters worse, in the morning, the sun beats in through this window and makes the back of our house kind of like a sauna.
So it was time to fix it.

And in honor of the long time of talented seamstresses in my family, I decided I would try my hand at it.
I'll admit, there was some re-reading of the sewing machine instructions (lent to me by my very crafty friend), a bit of give and take, removal of a WHOLE seam line.
And, truth be told, I wouldn't look TOO closely at how long each of the panels are. But oh well, I think overall they turned out just fine.
The good thing is, if I have to make curtains again it should take slightly less time!

We got the fabric at Ikea as well as the curtain wire and the clips....




I wanted two panals so that I could still see daylight but could provide a block for the brightest/hottest of the morning sun...




Not too shabby....and I have a third panel that I am going to hang in the laundry room :-)

Also, token shot of baby K about to enjoy a hike:



Wait...don't tell me. She looks EXACTLY like her dad. Yup, I know.

Backyard Shenanigans

Ok. So this post starts with a quiz. The answer will be at the bottom:

Question: What is this plant?



This afternoon K and I enjoyed some fun time playing on the slide. Mark had purchased the slide a few months ago and it is amazing how much one slide can occupy K and any other kid who might be over.
She mastered the climb up the ladder (less a few big tumbles) and turned her focus to the more challenging path.
See below, I would equate her climb to sending a complex boulder problem.

1. Assess/Plan your route:



2. Begin your quest, stay focused on the prize:


3. Have friends take wicked action shots from different angles to highlight your skills:



4. Meditate in your greatness following your awesome send:



5. Reminisce about the route you just sent by wistfully looking into the distance:




I'd say she's ready for the big league, wouldn't you?

Back to Quiz....any guesses?????



Answer: CUCUMBERS.
I guess we have more of a yellow thumb than a green thumb? either way, these looked too radioactive to eat so we chucked them...makes me wonder what exactly is in our soil. Maybe we'll have better luck next year.

Favorite Shots of K

Ok. So this post is about shamelessly flaunting my baby girl's cuteness. And no, I promise, I'm still not biased...

These are my favorite pics from her bday shoot, then I will be done inundating you all with pics of K. I'll try to get back to normal life posts, but I can't resist these....

Ok. I promise. The last of them. But it was so hard to choose...these were just the ones that struck my fancy when I made this post, there are countless others that I love too :-)
Also, just in case you haven't heard, all the props go to my friend Cherish, artistic genius who has earned the privilage ;-) of being flown out WHERE-EVER we are to take K's bday pics.

Hope all is well out there!

Happy Birthday Mark!!!


Today is a very special day...
Mark's bday!
This is just a post to say how much we love this guy...
Without him our family would most definitely fall to pieces. He's goofy when a smile is needed, serious enough to handle all the finances, and truly an amazing, godly man who I just happen to be lucky enough to be married too.

Mark we love you and hope you have a great day!

Little Muncher


I was changing K's sheets one day when I noticed that her crib was chipped!



Then I looked on the other side and noticed the same thing....



Then I began to get suspicious. These "scratches" looked an awful lot like teeth marks....
Little K has been nibbling on the crib!!! Here's hoping that the paint isn't too toxic....




This is a shot of her at an outdoor concert we went to this week. She LOVED the music and clapped and danced...
It was actually a pretty interesting show; it was a free park concert and the band is called Adam's Road. The music was good, but their testimonies were more where the meat was...check out the website if you are interested.

Next post...homemade curtains by your's truly!!!

2 Firsts in Chicago.

1. Beach



2. Kitty.



Poor old kitty...

Book Review-House of God

In case you didn't already know, I love my Kindle. Love. It.

And have been taking advantage of a much friendly third year of residency by trying to get in as much reading as I can.

I finally read a book that is well known in medicine by pretty much everyone. It was written a number of years ago and has become almost an iconic capture of intern year. I had heard about it in college, medical school, and residency and it came pretty highly recommended but for whatever reason I never picked it up. Until now.

And I kind of loved it.

The book is:

House of God

By Samuel Shem

I think it is difficult for me to review this book so I'm going to try to talk briefly through why I really really really liked this book.
I only have one warning, it is relatively *ahem* dirty so you should be forewarned. To me, that part of the book was the least true to life...but maybe I'm just in a tame residency.
Ok here is my review.

1. Painfully true to life. I think that reading this during my intern year would have been incredibly disheartening. Intern year is hard, disorienting, at times a bit scary, and although such a time of profound learning and growth it truly stretches you. I can remember hiding in my call room when I was on call hoping that no one would page me because I was worried I wouldn't know how to take care of it. This book manages to capture the feeling that comes with "becoming" a physician, the raw panic that at times grips you combined with the weight of responsibility and the almost constant feeling of incapability.

2. Accurately highlights a lot of the failings of our medical system. The majority of our healthcare dollars (i.e. Medicaid) are used for a small percent (5-10%) of people in the final days/months of their life. We spend a HUGE portion of money taking care of the elderly. I don't necessarily think this is wrong, but I think Shem is able to paint a picture that sometimes to take care of someone means to do LESS rather than MORE. This is an exceptionally hard concept for people who want to feel like medicine is doing something for them. Sometimes medicine can't do enough. Period.

3. I'm so glad I'm not an intern. Seriously. I think the only way for me to get through it is to be where I am now. I'm not done by any means, but so much of the disorientation that he captures is gone, I will always have more and more to learn, but those first days, weeks, months are SUCH a steep curve that I can't imagine doing it again.

4. My family rocks. Part of the dysfunctionality in the book centers on the lack of meaningful relationships that a lot the characters have. I know that hours have changed significantly since the book was written, but part of what makes all of work so livable is coming home to people who know and love me and can keep supporting me even if I am a bit wonky due to patient stuff, not quite enough sleep, or whatever.

Ok. You should read this. Just don't read it if you are in medical school or an intern. Read it after. It's better that way. I promise.

K Loves BBall.

This past weekend we went to visit Wisconsin and spend some time at a new place that Amelia's parents had purchased.

One of Sandy's gifts for Russ was the construction of the bball pole, a must in every Robertson driveway. In visiting, we discovered that K loves basketball.

Maybe Dad will have company to watch the NBA....someday.

K gets rocked at the bounce house.

Wait until the end...then you see some air. And yes, she is laughing. I promise.

We know what she really thinks.

Family Photos.

Photo shoot. Here we come. You cannot imagine the difficulty I had in weaning down to just these few photos for the blog...there were literally hundreds of good shots.
I have lots of photo-phobia about getting pictures taken and that I am not going to be happy with the shots. It all started back with my wedding photos where I pretty much HATED all of the ones taken by our professional photographer. I actually hide my album, because although I Loved my wedding, I am so sad about the pictures. The ironic thing was, my mom, who is an awesome mom for many reasons, in this instance it was because she planned my WHOLE wedding, let me pick out my photographer. Lo and behold, it was the only flop of the wedding. Lesson learned. Mom picks everything :-)
Anyways, I couldn't have been more happy with these pictures. They pretty much made up for the wedding fiasco and then some.
I know I've said it before, but all the credit goes to our good friend Cherish Pennington. She just sees the world differently than the rest of us and then manages to capture it with a camera. Amazing.

So here goes.

Grandma and Grandpa (and K is coming to get you!!!)

Dad and Grandma Ann

Grandpa T and Nene

Three generations. And yes, we are actually related. Even though the little one looks different.

Family Shot!

Sigh. I guess P-dog is part of the family.

Auntie Laurie!

The artist herself. And her very entertained subject.

Me and my little peanut.

Like I said, I loved all the photos.

Birthday Celebration!!



In honor of K's bday, we had a little gathering :-)
Cherish took so great shots so I am going to mostly just have this post be pics.
Thanks to all our friends and family who helped make it such a special day.
And I know I sound like a broken record, but really, cherish is awesome. All of her candid photos are these lovely artsy shots of the whole crowd. When I take candid photos, everyone has their eyes closed and is in some awkward pose. sweet.
Anyways, here goes!


Opening gifts. I found the whole "opening gifts" mostly involved me, opening gifts. Less from baby K. Her main interest seemed to be in the discarded paper.

Phoenix=sad she didn't get gifts.

Excited.

Ok. So there is this whole series of shots that closely detail K's discovery of the yumminess of cupcakes. I think I'm just going to have to make a facebook album titled. "k meets cupcake." Be on the lookout. Seriously.

K and friend 1.

Friend 2.

Few more. There were more friends here, but these are the best shots...

I love boxes!

It was a great little celebration. Although I do feel like it is probably more for us than her, I think she liked it :-)

Next post...family pics. Then Baby K photo shoot. I guess I have to stop calling her "baby" cause she is now more of a "toddler." Hmmm. Will consider it.

Cupcakes

Cherish took a few cool photos of Baby K's bday cupcakes, so I thought I would post them.
The truth is, they were awesome. And I messed the recipe up.
So I can only imagine how much more awesome they would be if I actually did it right.
Recipe can be found here

Half an oreo at the bottom of every one.

The finished product!

I'd say...success!