We've been enjoying our trip to Tennessee for the holidays.  Last Wednesday night, Ramy, Rebecca, and I took a redeye flight to Tennessee.  I was a little anxious about the possibility of a delay, since it was so close to the holidays (we've never been this late arriving before) and because of the big storm in the midwest.  However, we had no delays and completely uneventful flights, in which all of us were able to catch a few winks.  We arrived in Nashville bright and early on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a holiday Cracker Barrel breakfast before heading south.  It was a frantic scurry to get things ready to go to church that evening and then on to Aunt Margaret's house.  Then after we got home, it was quite a late night preparing for Santa's arrival!  He, Rudolph and the other reindeer, and Santa Mouse all came through for us though, and Rebecca was ecstatic.  Christmas was a wonderful day, although there were so many presents that we saved some of them for the next day. 

I've got lots of pictures to download and upload, but no time to do it right now.  Soon though, I promise.

Dance Recital

We're still figuring out how to upload just certain sections of a video.  So fast-forward to 1:14 to view Rebecca's dance.

A Sunday night update

I think this weekend was one of the least relaxing weekends ever!  Unfortunately, it followed one of the most hectic weeks ever!  Last week was a really busy one for me.  Monday night, we had the vigil mass for the holy day of obligation that was on Tuesday.  Tuesday was an eternally long day.  I was dealing with a crisis that included a mandated suspected child abuse report and ended with a 5150 from 9:15 a.m. until I finally got to leave the clinic at almost 7 p.m....with no break or lunch.  On Thursday, I came to my Perinatal Co-Occurring group to find out that apparently all my girls had decided that they should just not take their medications.  Add some psychosis and mania to people who are newly coming off drugs and who have a lot of raging pregnancy hormones, and it is not a pretty picture!  I also had a meeting at work to help select the candidates for next year's internship class that they will interview.  It's nice to be on this end of the internship application/interviewing/selection process instead of where I was this time last year!  It's also nice to see just how impersonal the decisions whether or not to interview really are.  It helped me lick my wounds from a couple of the rejections I got last year! 

It is so hard to believe that this is my last full week of the first half of my internship.  Next year, I'll be at Upland a couple of days, then at Perinatal, and then I'll be on vacation.  When I get back, I'll be starting at CONREP.  It's going so fast!!!  I've got several clients at Upland who I am sad to be leaving, and after last Tuesday's all-day crisis, I finally feel like I've bonded a smidge with my supervisor.  Otherwise I feel a bit like I'm having senior-itis.  I know I'm leaving, so I'm ready to move on and get started at CONREP.

The biggest news on my front is that I have a really strong lead on a position at Fox Army Health Center at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, which is essentially in Huntsville (half an hour from Fayetteville).  I've corresponded several times with the director of their neuropsychological services program, and then I had an hour and a half telephone conversation with her last Friday afternoon.  She's essentially been running a one-woman traumatic brain injury clinic, doing all her own testing, scoring, report writing, and she's got a several-month-long waiting list and needs help.  It would really be an ideal position for me.  I'd be doing neuropsych testing and some psychotherapy.  There's a lot that has to go on behind the scenes in order to create the position, but it is looking very promising.  Please, please, PLEASE pray that things go well on this front!

Ramy is going to be finishing up one trial tomorrow and starting another one on Tuesday.  Luckily for us, the bad economy doesn't slow down criminal trials any!

Rebecca is her usual joyful self.  She has been having a delightful holiday season thus far.  Last year, she was pretty wary of Santa.  This year, she's excited about the idea of Santa, but she's still a bit cautious.  She's very much into all the Christmas songs though.  Right now, she is watching the claymation cartoon of Rudolph in our room.  A few minutes ago, she was singing and dancing to Christmas songs, which I taped and will be posting very soon.  She has her first dance recital next weekend.  It is just for moms and dads, and I'm not sure how it will go.  Yesterday, they allowed the moms in to watch them practice their number.  As soon as I was in the room, Rebecca just looked at me and wouldn't dance!  I may have to leave so that she will perform!

This weekend was extremely busy.  Friday, it was pouring down rain.  When I got out of my intern training day (Fridays are early days for us), I took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping and got a lot of things done, but I got soaked in the process.  That night, Rebecca helped me make a huge vat of spaghetti sauce, after we'd gone grocery shopping.  Rebecca has turned into a wonderful kitchen helper!  Cooking with her assistance only takes about twice as long!  She is very inquisitive and eager to learn and help.  She especially likes to stir and put in pinches of salt.  Unfortunately, she only gets about four grains of sea salt in each pinch, so you can see why it takes so long! 

On Saturday morning, Rebecca had dance class.  When we came home, she helped me put together a pan of lasagna using the sauce we'd made the night before.  She also helped me bake a pound cake.  After a trip to Costco and a very brief nap of Rebecca's, we headed off in the rain to Claremont to go to Ramy's office Christmas party.  We ended up as the recipients of a throw, which Rebecca claimed as hers, in the white elephant gift exchange, and Rebecca enjoyed playing with a little girl named Ericka and a little boy named Jason. 

This morning, we got up and went to church.  Then we got home, and Rebecc and I had just enough time to make the caramel icing for the pound cake.  She was completely enthralled with the melting of the butter in the pan, although she didn't care so much for the use of the hand mixer.  She liked the sampling of the warm icing much better though!  Then we went for a Christmas brunch at our friends Madeline and Paul's house.  Rebecca played with Rachel, Ashley, and Matthew for hours on end and was completely exhausted by the time we left.  We had some incredible roast beef that Maddie and Paul had roasted, and we did a Barefoot Contessa-style sandwich with french bread and parmegiano reggiano, fresh mozzarella, arugula, and marinated tomatoes.  It was so good....and tonight, Ramy and I were wishing we had another one!  It's always fun to have time with friends.

So it was anything but a relaxing weekend, but it was a fun weekend.  Unfortuantely, now it is almost 10 p.m., and I have laundry to finish folding and clothes to lay out for tomorrow.  I have a complicated neuropsych and psych testing case that I'm doing all day tomorrow, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Happy Birthday, Simon!

Last Saturday (between dance class and the Knights of Columbus Christmas party), we went to the first birthday party for Simon.  It was a fun party, although it was much colder than anticipated (and it was outdoors!).

Ana's and my mutual friend Raquel was there with Eliana.  You all may remember my request for prayers for them about a year ago.  Here they are and doing wonderfully!  Ellie was born after a whole pregnancy on bedrest, after Raquel had had two miscarriages, a stillbirth, and survived the death of their triplets who were born prematurely, after 9 years of infertility treatment. 

Rebecca was pretty excited about the pinata.  And let me tell you, this kid was whacking that thing with a lot more force than one would expect from a 23 lb. child!

She was almost as excited about gathering the candy that came out when the thing finally broke apart!

The birthday boy wasn't missing any of it!

Knights Christmas Party

On Saturday, we went to the Knights of Columbus Christmas party.  I'm trying to be active as a Lady of the Night....I mean, a Lady of a Knight, so I had agreed to be on the decoration committee, so I'd had to go that morning to set up and decorate, while Ramy fielded dance class with Rebecca.  We had lots of good food at the party, at we didn't bring home any of the hashbrown casserole I'd brought and only a bit of the pound cake with caramel icing that I'd made.  It was a really nice evening, and we all had a good time.

Rebecca had a really good time at the party.  She enjoyed sitting at the kids table and playing with the other kids. 

They had these little pop gun things, and some of the kids were really obnoxious with them and made lots of noise.  Although Rebecca liked playing with the thing, she didn't like the noise the other kids were making and looked at them quite disapprovingly!

Rebecca took full advantage of having a DJ at the party and danced her heart out.  There was a little boy who was about six and who loved to dance as much as Rebecca.  This kid knew all kinds of dance moves, and he and Rebecca stole the show.  Ramy requested the DJ play "Beat It" and Rebecca was ecstatic.  She was grooving all over the dance floor (yes, my Baptist and CoC friends, at Catholic parties, we're cool with music and dancing!) and had a blast busting a move!  She was hilarious!

The dancing was interrupted by a visitor from the North Pole, who came to see the children and hand out some early Christmas presents to lighten his load a bit on Christmas Eve.  Despite the fact that it was a pretty pathetic Santa (the economy must be bad even in the North Pole, for this Santa was looking like he's skipped some meals this year), Rebecca was in awe when he walked in the door.  Her face lit up and her jaw dropped. 

he was so happy to get a present from him and was even agreeable to sitting on his lap for a bit (although I think she's still pretty wary of that whole idea). 

She was more than happy to rip into the bag and find her gift, which was a new stuffed puppy, which is quite realistic in the way it whines, barks, and wags its tail (later that night, Ramy and I were searching for an off switch but ultimately learned that he shuts up if you ignore him for a few minutes).

After she got her present, however, our little homebody was asking if it was time to go to Mama's house.  So we didn't stay very late at the party. 

Thanksgiving Recap

Wow, I don't think I've ever gotten so far behind on my blog!  Every day this week, I've had about five things I was determined to get done that never got done. 

We had such a nice Thanksgiving.  My mom was here for a week and a half.  Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed having lots of undivided Grammy time. They went out to breakfast, hung out at the bookstore, did shopping, made Christmas candy, created Christmas ornaments, and had lots of snuggle time.  Rebecca handles the separations now very well.  She doesn't get upset when Grammy leaves and knows that we'll be seeing Grammy soon.  But she certainly enjoys her Grammy while she has her! 

I took off the day before Thanksgiving, which was the first vacation day I've taken since starting at DBH. It was so nice to have five whole days off!  Instead of cooking a Thanksgiving feast, I instead made reservations.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Tam O'Shanter, although we also had "leftovers" that I made for us to have at home.  Rebecca helped me make macaroni and cheese and cornbread dressing, and we had a honeybaked ham that we're still eating on.

On the day after Thanksgiving, my mom and I did our usual marathon of shopping.  We were at Santa Anita mall at 5:30 a.m. and didn't get home until 4:15 p.m.  We got some awesome deals!  Ramy and I were able to enjoy two date nights while my mom was here visiting.  One night, we went out for coffee and watched a movie (Precious), and the other, we had dinner at the Melting Pot and walked around at an outdoor mall.  It's nice to know that we still have plenty to talk about when we aren't accompanied by a toddler!