oh christmas tree

We put our Christmas tree up this week! It was sooo fun and I am now a huge fan of the real Christmas tree. We never had a real one growing up, and I was amazed at how easy the whole process was - picking it out, bringing it home and setting it up. We ran out of lights when we were halfway through and had to make a late-night run to Target to get more. :) We are so proud of our tree. It's like our new pet. :) And now our house is all warm and festive.

quote of the day

Today I was seeing a male patient in his mid-30s for upper respiratory symptoms. Here is a peek at what transpired:
....
me: "Have you been coughing a lot?"

patient: "Yeah, and my fallopian tubes are really congested."
...

tagged!!!

My sweet new friend Jaci from church "tagged" me which means I am supposed to share 7 random things about myself and then tag 7 other people to do the same!

Here goes!

1. I love Christmas. A ton. It's always been my favorite holiday. I start listening to Christmas music in October and don't stop until sometime in January. And I don't just listen to the same stuff over and over - I have quite a collection! The other day I tried to count all the Christmas songs on my computer and I lost count somewhere around 150 - yikes! I love that Christmas brings out my creative side, I love that it brings my family together for an extended period of time, I love giving gifts, I love having a break from work, I love Christmas movies (Elf, Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, etc), I love holiday baking, I love bundling up, I love writing Santa a note and leaving it with his cookies and milk (yes, I still do that), and I love meditating on what Christmas means - and that just about every year I realize something wonderful and new about the story of Jesus coming to earth.

(ok, obviously I could go on and on about that one, but you get it...)

2. I love shopping - as long as it's not for groceries. Something about it is incredibly relaxing and stress-relieving. (Scary, I know.) Sometimes I go to Target on my lunch break just to look around and chill... and I leave without buying anything.

3. I listen to Talk Radio. A lot. You know, I am in my car for at least 1 hour and 20 minutes every day of the week. My favorites are Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager. They don't yell and I learn a lot from them - you should give them a try! :)

3. my husband thinks I'm obsessed with modern means of communication: ie facebook, blogging, etc. He's living in like 2002. (just kidding, matt)

4. When I listen to music - I listen to it LOUD. especially when driving.

5. I LOVE salt! more than anyone else I know. I put it on pretty much everything except sweets. My blood pressure, last checked on Tuesday, is 108/64. Pretty darn good. I should probably start cutting back... but I don't want to.

6. I'm really emotional and I have been since I was little. Ask my husband or an immediate family member just how emotional. I have a huge heart for emotional kiddos who cling to their parents and cry at the drop of a hat - that is sooo me.

7. I love "The Office". I think it's absolutely hilarious & I love how it reminds me of good times with one of my best friends, Meghan. Yes, there are some parts of some episodes that I just pretend aren't there, but still, it just cracks me up. Matt and I are going through them from the beginning right now and last night we watched the one where Jim tells Pam he's in love with her. Soooo good. :)

ok, so I officially TAG: Bobbie Baggett, Heather Greene, Beth LoSurdo, Steph Harrison, the lovely Sarah Bush, Mommy, and Allison Horner. Sarah and mom: either start blogging or post your seven things in my comments :)

our fall photos

I just happened to have my camera when we went on our walk the other night :) these will suffice as our family fall photo shoot for this year, don't you think?

matt and friends

pretty flowers!



maybe small, but a pumpkin patch nonetheless.

The Pumpkin Patch

An observation I have had lately: it seems it is quite the trend to take your kiddos (if you have any) to the pumpkin patch about this time of year for a Fall photo shoot.  I have nothing against this idea, and I think it's a super-cute idea, however I have never heard of it before this season.  When we were little we never went to a pumpkin patch, much less have our pictures taken in cute Fall attire with the pumpkins.  Is this a new thing??  Is it a Texas thing that just never made its way over to El Paso??  I've passed by a few pumpkin patches lately and kinda feel drawn to stop and take cute pictures of something.....  :)

Maybe I'll take Matt.

All of you fellow bloggers who have pumpkin patch pictures up: I love them and your kids are soooo adorable!!!!

thoughts before bed

Christine told me I needed to "post" before going to bed, so....

Praise God, I got 2 more ENT interviews today!  I have really been having to learn patience and trust in the Lord lately.  

To add to Christine's dog list:

1. Newfoundlands

2. Bernese Mt. Dogs

not sure how to spell either of those.

On a different note, I can't wait for skiing this year!

so you're not wondering...

okay, so apparently if I say anything with the word "baby" in it I might make people think I'm having one... see comments on the last post  :)  ...  so just for clarification, we're not (planning on) having a baby anytime soon.  Just in case there was any confusion. We do still like thinking about having one someday, thus the baby names.  You have to be prepared, right? 

Before a baby comes along, we would like to get a dog, but we've decided we can't get one until we find out where we're going to be living after June of 2009. (ie residency)  

This weekend we went to Barnes and Noble and looked at a big dog book just for fun...  we really like: 

1. Labs

2. Golden Retrievers

3. Springer Spaniels

4. Brittany Spaniels

5. Pointers (this is the most recent...)

6. other various breeds up for adoption...

If you have any advice on dog breeds, we'll take it!!

My family has had a lot of pets.  We had a beagle named "Hokey Pokey" first, then along came Sarah's rabbit "Snowball", then Kevin's Lab "Brownie", then Sarah's second rabbit "Oreo", then my lab, "Teddy".  Now my parents have a cute yellow lab named "Bailey" - she's precious.  Matt likes to laugh at us because apparently we like to name our animals after sweet treats.  :)  only some of them.

This is Bailey, the newest of the Bush family pets - she's so fun to play with  :)

p.s. I'm insanely jealous of my brother and his wife (Kevin and Kelly) who just got their 2nd puppy.  :)  I still love them, though!

6 months!

We've been married SIX MONTHS!!! How quickly it has gone by!! It's been absolutely wonderful. Here are just a few of my favorite things about marriage so far.... in random order, and off the top of my head, of course.

1. attempting to make dinner for Matt.

2. watching Matt grow in Godliness and learning from his faithfulness and discipline

3. being excited about where next year will take us

4. helping in the nursery at church together

5. living at the Sycamore Tree close to Nathan and Bethany & Josh and Melanie!!!

6. getting my husband hooked on The Office.

7. Gloria's

8. Having Sarah stay with us :)

9. having other people over, too.

10. going for walks in Highland Park

11. sleeping in

12. talking about baby names

13. signing my prescriptions, finally, as Christine Whinery PA-C

14. having my best friend around all the time. and knowing he'll always be around. :)

There's so much more. but we're going for a walk in Highland Park - Woohoo!

sarah's birthday fun

What a fun day we had celebrating Sarah's birthday! Luke had the great idea of surprising her with a day at Six Flags, and it was tons of fun. :) (except for spending part of the afternoon being absolutely terrified.... i don't like roller-coasters). We spent the whole day there, then went to Manny's for yummy Mexican food, then had cake and ice cream at our place with a few friends. Here are some pictures :)

warming up on the "Sombrero"

Yay for the swings!!

Matt was decidedly one of the "not cool" people (holding his arms out) on the "Gunslinger"

How cute are they?!?

baby shower thief!

It seems a lot of people in our lives are pregnant right now. My wonderful Medical Assistant, Angela, is going to be having a baby in about a month. We had a baby shower for her at work the other day. It was great fun. It's always fun to do something out of the ordinary during the work day, don't you think?

Well, another co-worker and I decorated our conference room the night before the shower.... we went all-out with balloons, streamers, confetti, table decorations, and a super-cute "it's a girl" banner that hung from the ceiling! It was all set to go and all I had to do was pick up the cake the next day. That morning, one of my co-workers came by my desk and said "Do you want me to put a table cloth on the table, or do you need help putting up more decorations?" I said no, that I thought it was probably fine with what we had already done.... little did I know...


When I finally went into the conference room with the cake, the only decorations that were up were some of the balloons and a few of the streamers. I asked where the rest of the decorations were... and no one knew. We decided someone had taken them down and everyone was appalled!!! The nerve!! It was actully quite funny :) Our first suspects were the drug reps who had been there earlier that morning, but then someone got on the phone with our cleaning man, and he had taken them down the night before. (I felt kinda bad for him cause i think he got in trouble.... and he was just trying to do his job.)


Nonetheless, the shower turned out great!



Dr. McMillin, Angela, and me!

happy birthday dear sister!

Ode to Sarah

Sarah, Sarah we love you,

You're so fun and really nice, too!

I miss you when you're far away,

I'm glad you live closer than East A.

You live in Denton, nice and near,

I like it when you come stay here!

We share our clothes; you take them home,

But that's okay... it saves us dough!

You wear jellies like we used to,

Good thing they're back in style or I'd laugh at you!

You are so great at what you do,

You tell people about Jesus, woo hoo!

Matt and I, we sure love you,

Hope this year is full of blessings, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

hubby minus beard

Matt (very, very reluctantly) shaved his beard this week because he's on a new rotation (Critical Care Anesthesia) at the V.A. The VA's OR is pretty strict and if you have a beard, apparently you have to wear a "darth-vader-type" mask which is described as "hot, annoying, restrictive, and incredibly dorky-looking." Thus, the shave.

He's still soooo handsome. Don't you think?

Baseball with the Langstons!

This week we did all kinds of cool Dallas stuff! Matt got free tickets to the Rangers game and in the midst of their busy schedule, we were privideged to have the Langston's accompany us! It was way fun. And the Rangers won, which is a plus.

Some highlights of the night:

1.) We caught the pic below while we were trying to take a picture of ourselves and a foul ball happened to be coming toward us at the exact same time. Pretty neat pic, we thought. As you can see, I was terrified.

2.) 2 broken bats! And I told Melanie that if they break the bat they get 10 extra points. She believed me. :) just for a second.

3.) One of the player's names is "Milton Bradley." Josh called him "Connect Four."

All in all it was just a fun night. We love the Langstons!!

today

Today I had the privilege of telling two new moms that they are pregnant!

One of them is a beautiful, excited, young hispanic girl who came to me basically complaining of morning sickness. She just got married 3 months ago, doesn't have a job, and her husband is a blue-collar worker. I know they will love their baby well. (and I hope it will be my future patient!) They are so happy about the new little member of their family and are surprised to find out that the little one already has 4 limbs complete with nubs of fingers and toes, pigmented eyes, a beating heart and a spinal column. I love these visits.

The next one didn't even smile when I walked in the room congratulating her on her pregnancy. She was visibly annoyed and told me that she wants kids eventually but "this is not the time." She's a full-time nurse and her boyfriend has a job, but they don't want to be inconvenienced with a baby. I took a deep breath (and said a quick prayer) and realized I needed to explain her options. I already knew what she was thinking, but I wanted to try to convince her to have her baby. I talked with her about adoption, and told her that there are adoptions agencies that will pay all the medical bills (including hospital bills) if you give your baby up for adoption. I printed out some info about the Dallas Pregnancy Resource center and hope that she'll give it a second thought. In the end, she told me she's going to have an abortion. This was one of my most difficult situations at work.

I will be praying that she doesn't go through with it, but the sad truth is that this is reality in America. It happens every day:

- Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.

- In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred.

1.21 million is unacceptable. I need to pray that there would be fewer abortions in America... that doctors, politicians, and just normal good people would realize that there are other options.

Sorry for such a depressing post... this is just what was on my mind today...

my wife

I love my wife.  She takes such good care of me.  Just today she went to the grocery store and made a fantastic dinner (chicken sopa) for me.  She is also folding laundry for me as I "study" right now:)  She's the best!

to galveston...

I'm so glad it seems that the hurricane wasn't quite as bad as it could have been, and everyone I know in the Houston/Galveston area seems to be safe. What a blessing! I think I've had a little different perspective on this hurricane than I've had on other natural disasters, just because I lived in Galveston for a couple years. I feel sorry for the people in Galveston and South Houston who have lost even a little, because so many people down there just don't have much at all. In a way it would make sense for them to try to stay behind and guard their few possessions, especially if they don't have a greater hope apart from this life....

"Now if the earthly tent that we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. "

Here are some of my favorite places in Galveston. Trust me, there weren't many. If you know me very well, you know that I wasn't a huge fan of the town. Nonetheless, I have wonderful memories thanks of great friends that I wouldn't have if I didn't live there!

MOD - the coffee shop where I would frequently study

This was my neightborhood grocery store - it took me over a year until I finally had enough courage to go inside.....

our landlords' yard art

our apartment in galveston!

good friends

me and meghan :) I miss her.

labor day weekend

This post is kind-of old news, but for Labor Day weekend we took a trip! To Lake Tanglewood, which is just outside of Amarillo. Matt's parents have a comfy little house on the lake and they were so generous to let us stay there. We did all kinds of relaxing and enjoyed the outdoors... for 3 whole days! It was very refreshing.

slow days...

This week at work has been very very s . l . o . w . .... probably because school just started back up, so none of the little kiddos are sick yet; and it's not flu season yet; and people aren't outside doing summery things, stirring up their allergies and breaking their ankles, etc.... Those are my theories anyway.

This afternoon it is my turn to do "Walk-In Clinic", which means I don't have any scheduled patients in the afternoon, I just see whoever walks in the door between 2 and 4:30 needing to be seen. I am assigned to this job once a week. In the winter, the walk-in provider averages about 20-25 patients per afternoon, and I think the record is 57!! (which required a lot of help from other doctors for obvious reasons). In the summer, we average about 10-15 each afternoon, which is nice .... but not today! I haven't had one patient yet this afternoon! (Thus the blogging.) So, I'm enjoying a nice peaceful afternoon. So far today I have read all my favorite "friend" blogs, all my favorite "political" blogs, and I tried to do some online shopping for certain people I know who have b-days this month. :) And they're paying me - yikes! My job is not often slow, but when it's slow, it's really slow. nada enchilada. There's nothing to catch up on, because I have to be caught up by the end of every day no matter what. I could open my books and try to learn something, but...... hmmm, no excuse.

a thousand words

fun with the fam

My parents came to visit last weekend and we had tons of fun! They get a 2-for-1 now when they come to Dallas because Sarah lives in Denton now. They spent a couple nights up there with her and then they all came down to stay with us for a few days. We ate at a lot of Dallas restaurants, watched a lot of Olympics, and talked politics. :) Luke hung out with us a lot too, which was great!

By the way, I really miss the Olympics and wish there was a TV network that played re-runs for the rest of the year for those of us who couldn't watch the daytime/non-weekend events. Another solution would be Tivo, or as my sister says, "Divo". :)

Back to the Blogging Board

Well, It's officially been like 3 weeks since I've posted on here. I'm still trying to find out if anyone really reads this thing... so if I do have any fans, I hope I haven't disappointed you with my long absence. I'm back!!

To update you on our lives .... Matt is back in Dallas, woohoo! And we have no plans for any more extended absences. He'll start interviewing for residencies in November, but those will just be quick trips, no more of these month-long adventures. We did have fun seeing our families in Colorado the last weekend in July, but it was just a quick visit.

There's really not much else new with us! I'm still busy with work, and Matt is now in the middle of an E.N.T. rotation here in Dallas. He enjoys it & really likes the people he works with. After this rotation, he won't have any more ENT until residency!

We've been to Gloria's twice since he's been back. It's our fave Mexican restaurant in Dallas and I REALLY missed going there when Matt was gone. We usually go about every week. Amazingly, we can order chicken-fajitas-for-1 and they will have them at our table within 60 seconds of us placing our order. Now that's great service. :)

Matt and the Dads hiking in Colorado...

Matt trail-running in the park across the street from my parents' house (that tiny white dot in the middle of the picture is him)

Mommy in the kitchen... :)