Merry Christmas to me!

Just wanted to let everyone know, I got an early Christmas present which I wasn't expecting until January. I passed my boards!! This was one of the most stressful tests I have ever taken and one I don't have to take again for 7 years! I was teaching PALS (pediatric advanced life support class) when my friend and coworker texted me to say that our scores were available. I couldn't stop teaching just to look it up on the computer ( however if I had a blackberry or iphone I could have). At lunchtime I was finally able to look online and it said my certification expires in 7 years but I couldn't figure out how to read the online letter that actually says you passed. After 3-4 more attempts of searching and getting on 2 other computers to try to open this document, I finally saw proof that the American Board of Pediatrics told me I passed!!!! Yay!!! What a relief. I guess my trip to Greg's cousin's wedding the weekend before the boards didn't cause too much of a problem.
I would also like to congratulate the entire pediatric residency class from Greenville for having a 100% board pass rate. This is a big deal for our program. Congrats Rebecca, Rob, Emily, Jessica, Kristy, Amanda, India, and Mary!

My craftiness

At our old house in SC, my front door was black and had a storm door. Beautiful but bad for front door wreaths. Needless to say, my Christmas wreath that my mother made me melted while being displayed on the front door. So this year I went out looking for a new wreath. I started pricing some beautiful wreaths but they we anywhere from $30-60! I'm too cheap to spend that much, so I decided that I would try my hand at making them. I bought a wreath, some ribbon, poinsetta flowers and some other decorative items. Here is the finished product. I will say for my first time making a wreath, I'm quite proud of it!

Annual Cabbagetown Chili cookoff

Every year the Hollytreens get together in atlanta where Brian and Beri live to go to the annual Cabbagetown (the park where it is held) Chili cookoff.

Brian, Jeff, Tim and Greg

The layout is simple. You buy a spoon for $5. There are individual tents and restaurant tents lining the streets. They start serving chili at noon. You eat until you are full or there isn't any more chili to eat. They serve the chili in small dixie cups, enough to get a taste of the chili. Some tents give out cheese and sour cream with their chili. Some tents give out cornbread. A few put tortilla chips in their chili and one tent actually put a tatertot in their chili. Impressive.

Here are a few examples of the tents lining the street.

Look at all those people. Every year there are more and more people.

This is one side street leading up to the main park.

Another side street leading up to the park full of tents. This is beofre they started serving the chili at noon. Look at Greg in the background waiting for his chili with his spoon ready. Yes that is Brian in the front with a bandana on his head. His work had a booth named the Cobra Chi - the team from Karate Kid and he was supporting them.

Greg and I probably sampled about 50 chili's and still didn't taste them all. We took a break and had a nice cold beverage. I like the sweetwater blue flavor b/c it has a blueberry taste. Yummy.

Then we all took a break from eating chili. Jeff and Elaina playing on the stone sculptures

Greg relaxing in the park. This park had music playing by a local blue grass band. Everyone was sitting on the grass and enjoying the 70 degree weather.

Tim and Greg.

Elaina and I played ball together.

Now this year was a little different for Greg and I. Normally we drive down on Sat morning from Greenville and spend the night with the Irvings. This year Greg went to Greenville the week prior and spent some much needed time visiting with his mom, dad and his buddies. I flew down from VA on Sat morning into atlanta. I was delayed by 2 hours b/c the deicing machines at the airport broke and couldn't deice the planes. We had to wait for the sun to thaw them out and then we could leave. I think I have now heard of everything.

Ok, these are for Greg's mom and dad. I thought that you guys would enjoy them. We went to a park near Brian and Beri's house to let the dog run and let Elaina play. Greg is still a kid a heart and likes to play on swingsets.

This slide on the left was so steep. After he went down it he fell into the dirt. The slide below was just for fun.

Macgruber pics

I though I would share some Macgruber pics. I forget that some of you are not on facebook and I should post my pics on the blog. Enjoy...


Macgruber watching football.

Macgruber trying to get me to play with him while I am on the laptop (he has a squeaker in his mouth from a toy)

Macgruber cuddling with his mom and dad. He has one of his favorite toys and greg's legs are on the right and my leg is on the left.

Macgurber is snug as a bug. All you see is his head popping out.

Greg and I have now spoiled Macgruber into taking naps on the couch. He can't jump up on the couch so we actually have to put him up there.

Oklahoma trip

I can't figure out this blog thing today... the story is at the bottom and the pics are in reverse. So Sorry!

Pepaw dancing with Aunt yoyo

The mother of the groom - Greg's aunt Jean and the groom Stephen

Jenny and Stephen

Grega and his Uncle Steve

Memaw and Pepaw

A mashed potato bar that looks like a sundae, i guess this is what they do in Oklahoma

Greg and I

Amanda looking on as her brother ties the knot ( she is the bottom left)

The happy couple Kellie and Stephen

Father Tom married them (he also married Greg and I)

waiting for the bride (amanda is top right)

Aunt Jean walking down the aisle

Kellie about to walk down the aisle and Stephen waiting

Greg and I at the wedding

The wedding site and a beautiful sunset

Just beautiful

so sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Just to update you guys what we have been up to. In October, we flew out to Greg's cousins wedding in Broken Arrow Oklahoma. It was the weekend before my boards so it was a very very quick trip. We flew out on a thurday night, went to the wedding on Friday night and flew out at 6 am on Sat morning. Wow! what a whirlwind. I was great to see all of Greg's family there. We had a blast! here are some pics from the wedding.

Greg and his sis - Jenny

greg playing with his cousin's sunglasses (amanda)

A typical call night

So I just thought I'd let everyone know how my typical call night goes. I sometimes feel like I am back in residency on call and back in the hospital. Let me start with a few things. I am on call ( meaning I am allowed to go home and answer questions from home, however if a child is born, something doesn't look right, a csection happens that isn't planned, the ER needs a child admitted or just wants a second opinion, I get to go into the hospital) I am on call about 6-7 nights a month - this is how often I was on during residency. I take one weekend call a month - meaning from 730 AM Sat to 730 Am Mon I am it. I see all nursery babies, NICU babies, kids admitted on the floor, and go in a night if they need me - for 48 straight hours.(yes there are no work hour rules for attendings). Did I mention that Peds doesn't have their own call room in the hospital - I have slept on a couch, a random empty patient room, and sitting in a chair/rocker in the NICU.
Here's how it goes:
I see patients during the day in our office and precept NP/PA students or a pediatric resident. I don't mind teaching, I actually enjoy this part. At 430pm I get checkout from the hospitalist or Neonatologist. I glance at the labor board. If there are any mom's laboring and close to delivering, I stick around until the baby is out b/c there is a 75% chance that I will get called with a question about how a baby looks. I then go home and Greg has made dinner for me:) (this is about 530-7). Now this is where my call night goes up or down. I normally get called in at least once for a delivery - labor and delivery calls when they declare a c-section, they see meconium or a baby has a bad heart rate on the monitor. I go back in, attend the delivery, and come back home about 2-3 hours later (depending on how quickly the csection happens). I sleep until 730 AM and then give checkout. This is a good call night.
My worst call night.... I was the hospitalist for the day, saw about 8 newborns, 1 NICU patient and was on for the night. During the day, I attended 3 csections. I admitted 2 newborns to the NICU for phototherapy (no we don't have a bili bed nor do the nurses allow us to put lights on the infants in the mom's room) At about 4 pm I attended a meconium csection and the child had too much breathing problems to go out to his mom's room. I got to manage him in the NICU for 4 hours - he did fine. At about 9 pm a mom comes in at 34 weeks, poor prenatal care and out comes a 4 lb baby. She wasn't breathing well, I intubated gave artifical surfactant to help her breathe better and placed her on our equivalent of CPAP(really powerful oxygen). I attend another csection. At 11 pm the ER calls about a kid that needs to be admitted, which I also get to do - see the child, write orders, see the child upstairs and make sure the nurses don't have any questions. At this point it is about 2-3 AM and I have labs to check on, blood gases to follow for my child in the NICU on oxygen, and talk with parents of my NICU children. Did I mention that I have now admitted 3 children to my NICU (4 is our max - I started with one) attended 6 csections and admitted a patient to the ward. I am so excited to leave the hospital at 730 and check out. My black cloud has followed me to Virginia.
I really enjoy the hospital but I have found out that my colleages rarely get called in and the nurses see me and cringe knowing that their night is going to be bad. I'll keep you posted if my cloud starts to change.

Cabinet is Done! Kind of...

Well after about 3 or so weeks it seems that the Multicade is finally finished. The only thing that is left is a little bit of artwork I'm going to have to order that surrounds the monitor. There will be some light blue artwork to match the front with some pictures of pacman, donkey kong etc. It will be better than just having black surround the monitor.

Anyway, I have done a few cosmetic changes to the cabinet.

1. First and foremost I got rid of that nasty black molding and replaced it with nice chrome molding. I think it makes the cabinet look a bit nicer.
2. Second is that I replaced 2 of the red buttons with a blue button and a green button. Just to add a bit more color. (buttons are cheap)
3. Thirdly, is that I replaced the joystick. It was pretty cheap and had a lot of play in it. This one is a bit more sturdy and precise.
4. I got the red coin reject buttons to light up. Running power there wasn't too difficult as I just tapped into the 12v & ground wires from the wiring harness.

Click on the pictures to get a closer look.



Here is the back of the cabinet. As you can see I didn't do all that great of a job in wire management. I did the best I could and it's really something nobody sees so I just said screw it.


And here is a picture after everything has been cleaned up and it has been moved to its final resting place. That table even comes in handy as my beer is within a small reach while I plug away on Donkey Kong or 1943. Oh, and Christy and I went to a Flea Market last weekend and I got that stool for a cool $5 bucks. Cheapest thing in the picture but it does its job perfectly.


Believe it or not I also tested out the coin mech's and set all the games to 25 cents per play and it worked! I put in 3 quarters and had 3 credits to play the games. Theoretically I could put this machine in a restaurant for wherever and it could make money. Hmmmmmmm