This week in pictures....

First off, Monday the 4th, was the first anniversary of my cousin Andrea & her husband Kraig. I thought about you two on Monday, and then Tabitha went tearing by yelling something, and I was forever sidetracked. In the past 5 months, I discovered that "Mommy-Brain" is in fact very real, and I count myself fortunate that I don't have the clumsy type, only the very limited short-term memory type. I realize that makes me late, but really Congratulations!! You have now officially past the newlywed phase and you both lived! I'm very proud of you two. I don't have a current picture, but this is one of my favorites from their wedding. Aren't they just cute!?!

I also didn't mention that our sweet Tessa has reached that feline milestone of 12 years old as of August 23rd. Only about 84 years in people years - not bad. She still has her kitten moments, but mostly she has staked out the kitchen counter as her territory and her life is mostly sleep, be brushed & adored and a little bit of eating. Last year we were fairly certain we were going to lose her any day after a span of two weeks of bilious vomiting. Our vets found a shadow on x-ray that appears to be a tumor originating off the lower part of her spine. Apparently it waxes and wanes. Some days she feels pretty good, other days not so much. About every 4-6 months she starts acting like she's got a partial bowel obstruction and after 10-14 days she perks right back up. So we just look at this situation as she's had a pretty good life and when she's tired of being with us, she'll let us know. Otherwise, everyday with her is pretty much a gift. So here is one of my favorite portraits I took and then on Monday, she found the crockpot cooking dinner and made friends....

Wednesday morning I did grab the camera & caught a picture of Miss Tab with wheels on the way to school. Since then I've mostly been just trying to stay caught up. Our school has unfortunately not gotten the bugs out of the crossing guard schedule, so she has to stop & wait for me before she crosses the street in front of the school. The sarcastic exasperation from her is nearly "overwhelming". And Yes, she is sticking her tongue out at me. Just 110% sass right now....

Wednesday also saw me sign and return my contract for my new job. A very happy moment actually. Then I met Michael for lunch. Turns out that this will be the first time in 12 years that I'll be working close enough to him that we can meet for lunch! Since I've heard non-stop about all the fabulous restaurants around him for the past 3 years, I'm looking forward to some good lunches! So here's a peek at the building that my office will be in....

Today I planned ahead and had the camera for some ballet class photos. And she was just hamming it up, let me tell you. She had oreos (and learned their name) for her afternoon snack today and apparently the sugar hadn't worn off yet when we got to ballet. At any rate, these make it look like she knowns what she's doing. The reality is that you can take the gymnast out of the gym, but you can't really make her dance! I'm sorry, but when she keeps demonstrating her cartwheels & handstands to her ballet classmates, something is lost in translation....

This week I have just been struggling with blogger. Trying to post and especially upload pictures has just been a tedious trial of re-send, re-send, re-send, save, re-send, etc. So aggravating that I am serious considering switching to typepad, even though that one has a monthly charge.... Don't know, more research is needed and I'll have to get back to you. If anyone has any experience with typepad, leave me a comment. I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not the only one with frustration issues. Tab has had a rocky week at school. A note got sent home Wednesday that she'd poured water on some kid's head when they were supposed to be in line. Then there seems to be a disconnect between what she's capable of doing and what her teachers are expecting her to do. For instance one note said that she was having lots of problems with the addition/subtraction facts. But when I really looked at the worksheets she was bringing home, there's been a subtle shift in the vocabulary from "add", "subtract", "plus", "minus" to "sum", "difference", "addend", "subtractend". When I sent a note back pointing this out, and that if they used words that Tab knew, then she could answer the questions, and she'd stay interested and engaged in learning. Well, the response I got made it seem like I just discovered the secret formula to win the lotto. Suddenly, "Tabitha got it!" Sorry folks, it's not brain surgery. The kid has been here for 5 months, and only speaking English for 3. So to quote my Dad, "Use the K.I.S.S. principle." (I'll allow you to fill in your favorite version of what that stands for....) But the take home point is, if you want her to do the work, use words she knows and keep it simple.

Oy vey! So now we've got a parent-teacher conference scheduled for next week to make sure that we're all in agreement on what the expectations are for her. Every night this week has been an exercise in frustration & patience for both of us to get her homework done. I'd like to think that after next week's meeting things will go better, but I suspect it's going to be worse for awhile before it gets better. Thank God she can ride that bike & stay up about 98% of the time, so that something's going well right now!

Last night, in that brutally honest way that 8 year olds have, she told me "Mamma, you worry too much!" When I explained that that was part of my job, she thought about it and repeated herself. I offered to let her do some of the worrying, but she didn't want to. She also decided that Dad didn't really want to, and that none of the cats really knew how to worry. So basically she decided, it really was my job to worry, since no one else wanted to.... How's that for philosopy studies at 8 years??

In other goings on, I have been studying like a fiend for the Pedi Boards on Oct 23 & 24. Covered 178 pages in the past 4 days, over about 8 hours of reading time. Just got another case review book that arrived yesterday. I ordered it on Wednesday and paid for 2 day UPS and it arrived in less than 24 hours. Scared me to death since I hadn't expected anyone at the front door when the doorbell rang! Tucker and Pixel have become my serious study buddies and they sprawl out on the kitchen table and shed profusely while I've got all the books out. I may start posting a daily log of time & pages, just to keep me honest....

Today I hit the Hemetology/Oncology chapter and it is just sheer, painful slogging though the material. Today I finally figured out why this topic is so terrifically hard for me and it boils down to being scarred by residency. Over the course of 3 years, I helped to take care of nearly 100 kids with various forms of childhood cancers. Over three years, I had more than my fair share of kids die. I unfortunately became the resident expert on codes and pronouncing death. So some of the kids I already knew the outcomes. But there were always ones I wondered about, so my last year, on one of my last rotations, I had the opportunity to sit down with my Oncology attending, whom I really liked, and I asked her "What happened to so & so?" I was able to list off about 20 names of kids whom I had all gotten attatched to, or had made an impression on me. They all had a variety of cancers, were a variety of ages, a variety of ethnicities, and all characters in one way or another. These were kids whom I had really hit it off with. And know what? Every single one of them, died. Not a single one had pulled through. Even some of the ones with pretty fair prognoses. As a person, as a physician, I can't even being to describe how gut-wrenchingly crushing that was. And at that point I started to feel a deep seated hatred for childhood cancer, what it does to the kids and what it does to the people who love them. So now, when I have to study this stuff and memorize mind-numbing minutiae, all of those negative feelings, and experiences, and losses come rushing back and I have a really hard time focusing. So, I guess, I'm just going to have to figure this one out and get my act together, even though this has historically been one of the hardest parts of the exam for me. But this year, I am determined that I am passing this d*** test. So I gotta' do, what I gotta' do

And on a final note, Tab's school has sent home the forms for the annual fund-raiser. This year the kids are selling cookie dough. And not just any cookie dough. This is good stuff! Michael & I bought some a few years ago and it bakes up into really tasty cookies. So, if you're so inclined, I have a little girl who really wants to sell some cookie dough (48 cookies to the box). The choices are:

• Chocolate chunk $13
• Peanut butter $13
• Snickerdoodle $13
• Oatmeal raisin$13
• Sugar cookies $13
• M&M cookies $15
• White chunk macadamia nut$15
• Heath chunk $15
• and my personal favorite Chocolate chunk pecan$15

Seriously, if you're interested, leave me a comment & we'll make arrangements!