a smattering.

well i won't even bother trying to catch up on everything since the last time i posted, there's certainly no time for that. the days are still packed, with work soaking up a fat 11 hours tuesday through friday. it always seems so much more chilly when i'm scraping ice off my car at 6 in the morning in the dark. i've devised a new breakfast and i'm quite enjoying it- old fashioned oatmeal with peanut butter and cinnamon. it's like eating a cookie, seriously. and it's nice and warm to gobble up before i jump in my 30 degree car, or to eat at the stoplights from a thermos on my way to work. i have quite the routine down these days.

and yet i still manage to find time to cook once a week at least. i've been borrowing cookbooks from the library- giada de laurentis' pasta for every occasion, ina garten's back to basics, and martha stewart's great food fast. they all have some great stuff in them, i'm considering actually purchasing one of the three. this past week i made a blue cheese alfredo sauce that i had over whole wheat penne with sauteed mushrooms and onions.

the week before it was a veggie pasta bake. and this week i'm making salmon corn chowder. last week i also managed to bake up some pumpkin bread and some killer mint brownies, they might as well be fudge. it's a good thing they're about gone, i can't keep my hands off of them. (community group is always a great excuse to bake up a treat). i also have 4 very brown bananas hanging out on my countertop...banana bread is next on the list. i promised my friend jill at work that i would bring her some. that was going to be tonight's treat, but susie and i ended up cooking dinner for our neighbors across the street (turkey meatloaf was my contribution, cheesy potatoes was susie's). we're headed over there as soon as the potatoes are done.

i've also been renting books on cd from the library, which makes the drive go by much more quickly. next on the list: sense and sensibility by jane austen.

the weekend before last i got to go to a seminar put on by my church on marriage and family. it's not as wierd as it sounds, there were plenty of single people there. we'll take all the biblical advice we can get on things such as that! it was a day full of great information. now i'm not married, but here are some of the highlights that i picked up on from a single gal's point of view:

-women often get a negative vibe from the biblical word "helper." the speaker pointed out that when you need help, you go to someone strong, someone you can trust, someone who can help you. it's the same idea: women are helpers to their husbands in the strongest sense of the word.
-there is a reason for romance. it is the ultimate reality- it is the way the Lord pursues and loves us. through our marriages, the gospel is proclaimed.
-men are always asking the questions "am i man enough for this?" while women ask "do you really like me?" when both respective parts are answering that question for their partner on a regular basis, it is a life-giving relationship, full of freedom.
-everything of worth is costly, and everything good takes time and effort.

i took at least 4 pages of notes, so to condense down to 4 points is hardly doing it justice. if you're curious, check it out on http://www.marshillchurch.org/. for more of mark's preaching on the matter, check out this page: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2010/12/14/how-to-honor-your-wife/. good stuff.

we had a long lunch break during the seminar, which can be summed up in one photo:

berry cobbler a'la'mode.

and i'll leave you with that.

the weeks fly by.

i can't believe february is more than half way over. i moved up here to seattle more than 5 months ago! especially in a rotation like the one i'm in now, with a 2 hour daily commute, the days just fly by.

this past tuesday susie and i gave a heart healthy presentation to some employees from general electric. we took food samples of healthy snacks and explained ways that they could decrease their fat intake, replace less-healthy fats with more-healthy ones, and lower their sodium consumption. the group was really interested and engaged, asking plenty of questions and responding when we asked them. they were shocked by some of the nutrition facts from restaurants (as were we) that we used as examples, and on the whole, seemed motivated to make a few small changes that will make a big difference in their health

the weather has been sunny here lately, which has been really nice. the other day i was driving through my neighborhood and pulled over just to take this picture:

that's the sound, and the island is vashon.

on thursday night gary came over and we cooked peanut butter giger noodles with veggies, but definitely learned to add the ginger slowly- fresh ginger is potent! what we ended up with were more like ginger noodles with a hint of peanut flavor. susie ate with us, and we ended up adding more peanut butter and more soy sauce to each of our plates individually. the flavor mellowed out a bit the next day, but all in all, it was kind of a flop. that's what happens when you start changing everything in a recipe and don't actually measure....it's bound to fail sometimes!

saturday morning i made lemon ginger muffins with the leftover ginger from thursday (thank goodness we didn't use ALL of it, i don't think the noodles would have been edible!) to take to my community group potluck.

jenna was there as well, and we sat on the floor eating bbq pork sandwiches and potato salad and caught up on each other's lives. this group is so different from my first one, but full of intentionality and challenging questions all the same.

saturday afternoon gary and i went to the sculpture garden downtown- it was a blazingly sunny day, albeit cold and windy, but we took advantage and went anyway.

a silver sculpture of a tree!

from there we walked to the space needle, which was only a few blocks away. we explored seattle center, which reminded me a lot of a carnival, the kind that always shows up at the rodeo. we were pretty cold by that point so we went inside one of the buildings and stumbled upon the championship yo-yo competition, which was actually fairly entertaining. these kids would do their tricks to music, and it was pretty amazing. we watched a few acts, then were on our way.

after that we had dinner at a little neighborhood mexican food place called cocina esperanza- it's practically a one room space where everything is cooked from scratch to order. tasty! fish tacos for me. not as good as fuzzy's in fort worth though.

the view of downtown from queen ann hill makes the space needle look huge!

today i have off of class, which is such a treat. not a single thing scheduled! except for a cappuccino at my favorite coffee shop :) off i go.



sunshine.

these past two weeks have been full of more sunshine than clouds! uncommon for the seattle winter to be sure, and i appreciate it. i've taken advantage and replaced the gym with the park when i can, although running along the water the other day at lincoln park was accompanied by some serious white caps in the water and hurricane-force wind gusts. it kicked the workout up a notch!
last week the interns all drove down to the capital in olympia for RD legislative day, which wasn't very eventful, thought i did enjoy the free blueberry scones from great harvest bread company and the tour of the capital building:

and this past week i also started my new rotation at a couple of different hospitals in tacoma. unfortunately, this means that i wake up at 5 or 6 am, depending on the morning, and commute almost an hour each way. it makes for long days, thought the drive is a nice one.

those are a couple of shots of rainier from areas near where i get on and off the highway. i want to take a picture every time, it never gets old.

i'm getting much better with the material i'm working with in this rotation, and i'm learning a lot! i've been getting lots of experience with all kinds of medical situations and how to handle them nutritionally, most of which i have no prior experience with. i'm at a small hospital now (50 beds), so i can kind of get my feet on the ground before i transfer to the big 300-bed one. i was there on my very first day and it was a little overwhelming, to say the least. the small one is much more manageable, and i can fit all my patients onto two sheets of paper as opposed to 20.

i started teaching in the primary classroom at church this past weekend! it was a lot of fun- normally it will be katy, tyler and i, which will certainly make for a silly class. those kiddos are so cute, 5-7 years old. they still think it's so much fun to play the "now stand on one foot!" "now turn around in 3 circles and sit down!" game, which comes in very handy in getting them to transition from one activity to another. we talked about the birth of john the baptist, who came to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of Jesus, and how God is faithful because he keeps his promises. i like teaching the kids lessons, i even learn things from them!

okay, time to keep on with the to-do list.

love,
tracey

a book.

several weeks ago i finished reading a book called "a severe mercy" by sheldon vanauken. it is beautifully written, and i highly recommend it to all those in the market for a new book to curl up with by the fireplace. (hopefully with a crackling fire and warm latte in hand if you're a victim of the everywhere-but-seattle blizzard that struck the country last week)

below are two (of many) quotes that particularly made me think, so i thought i would share them.

"the christianity we represented was sunny and joyous, with all the room in the world for humor and gaity, and yet at the same time rigorous and glorious. so we laughed and joked and poured out the wine but challenged their minds and souls. and the students smiled and abandoned the solemn voices they had been taught to use in speaking about such things, gaily drinking wine and discovering a Christ who was a blazing reality."

"do fish complain of the sea for being wet? or if they did, would that fact in itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? then if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest? it suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. it suggests that we were created for eternity. not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. we are always amazed at it- how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. where, we cry, has the time gone? we aren't adapted to it, not at home in it. if that is so, it may appear as proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home."

hope you enjoyed them!

love,
tracey

cabin fever.

a weekend of fun and lots of falling down. today i feel kind of like i got hit by a truck...i'm so sore everywhere!

allow me to elaborate.

this weekend was the first annual cabin fever getaway weekend at mt. baker! 14 of us rented out a huge cabin just on the edge of the mountain for the weekend, complete with kitchen, 3 fireplaces, big screen tv, and hot tub. i carpooled with ben and gary and we made it in on friday evening. lasagna for dinner, and lots of card games!

saturday was our day on the mountain. we got up early to chow down on some bagels and coffee before loading into the cars to head for the slopes. the morning started with katy, dorina, and nicole. the guys went off and did their own thing, the girls didn't really know what we were doing, and intended to take it pretty slow. it was a rough start....first fall of the day, right off the first lift. i think katy and i fell every time, except for maybe the very last one. dorina taught us the basics, but before too long, she and nicole ended up taking a wrong turn and got separated from katy and i, who proceeded to take our time getting down, falling every few feet, having to clip out of our boards, scoot our way up whatever hill we were stuck on, clip back in, and repeat the cycle. i think it took us over 2 hours to get down the first run, and by the time we got to the bottom, we were pretty spent. the funniest part was when we ended up in a 3-foot-deep-powder little valley right next to the run with two asian guys. we just sat there for a few minutes, wishing we knew how to board, then hiked out in their footsteps. after taking ten minutes to get our boards back on (my bindings were so tight!!) it was getting close to lunch, so we looked at our tattered map to try and figure out how to get to the lodge, only to find out that there was no direct path there. so we hiked half way up the nearby run because someone told us that there was a cut-through, but they were wrong. so at that point we just sat on the side of the run for a long time watching all the pros that could stay on their boards for more than 2 minutes whiz by us. we were 20  minutes late for lunch at that point, so we called to let the crew know that we weren't going to be there anytime soon. thank goodness gary called me back and let us know that they swictched the plans and were all at a different lodge...unfortunately on the opposite side of the mountain from where we were. he walked me through the routes to take to get back, and katy and i braved two more lifts and a couple more runs before finally making it to the lodge, almost an hour and a half after the meeting time. it was so good to see familiar faces!

most of the crew headed out again, but gary and tyler sat with us while we warmed up and ate some lunch. then the four of us headed to the easy slopes where the guys taught us how to actually use our boards. we were so much better by the end of it :)

the evening was spent eating homemade turkey chili and soaking our sore muscles in the hot tub, then watching a movie and playing the question game in a big huge circle. lots of good conversation and lots of sleepy wind-burned faces from the day. i don't even think i moved when i fell asleep last night!

this morning we cleaned everything up and headed back to seattle. i squeezed in the car with katy, tyler, dorina and westin because ben and gary stayed to board today too. it was cozy, but we were silly and laughed a lot, in-between little naps from time to time.

fun fun times with good friends. lots of memories and a few pictures too :)

before heading up the first run

at the point of "what's the number for the snowmobile that can come pick us up??"

it was snowing so hard all day!

after laughing at ourselves so hard for falling when getting off the lift every time.

he patiently taught me to board backwards on my toes all afternoon.

kidney bean.

This week I started a new rotation at the Northwest Kidney Center. It’s a short one, only two weeks, which means I have 8 days there total. So far, I’m loving it. The kidneys are fascinating (I’m an anatomy nerd, I know) and the fact that we can artificially do their job in such a way that enables people to live up to 40 more years with a disease that used to be a 2 week death sentence is amazing! We can even use membranes within the body itself to filter blood the way the kidneys should...cool. I’ve gotten to work with three amazing dietitians who are buckets of fun, each of their offices opens to one main room where their receptionist sits, so they all just chat back and forth all day. And they couldn’t be more different! One is a speed-talking social butterfly, one is a walk-to-work hippie, and the third is a culinary mom of three eagle scouts.  But they all work so well together, and have a lot of sarcastic fun doing it.

I’ve been getting to walk out on the dialysis floors and visit with patients as well, as they sit there having their blood run through a machine. It was kind of a strange sight at first….not quite used to seeing that much blood everywhere, but I got used to it. It’s quite a change from working at a long term care center. The people on dialysis, well, half of them, are so hopeful and vibrant. After all, even though they have to spend 12 hours a week hooked up to a machine, they can now live for years to come, and get to live more or less normal lives.

I got to taste all the nutritional supplements yesterday:

Some are definitely better than others.

And here is a bag of all the pills that one of the patients was supposed to take for three months. Needless to say, they didn’t, and one of the dieticians keeps all the pills in this gallon Ziploc bag so that people can truly appreciate how many pills they have to take every day.

Other non-internship news? This week has been loads of fun.  On Tuesday I went to a pot luck for church and got to talk to several really interesting and genuine people. On Wednesday I fixed turkey meatloaf, veggies, and bread for Gary and Susie- I love any opportunity to break out the cookbook! And last night was another Tuxedos and Tennis shoes catering event! My community group came this time, 8 of us total. The McCleans, the Reeds, the Goetz,’ Gary, and myself. It was a fun evening of bite sized foods and good conversations.

Tomato basil soup with a bite-sized grilled-cheese sandwich!

Last night a friend of mine hosted a wine tasting party, so the usual crew went and had a lot of fun. We tasted a few wines (not all of them, because there were about 30), then the ladies all sat and had real life conversation. All my friends here are married, so when they get onto married topics of conversation, I mostly just listen. I'll need all that info someday in my life, even if I have nothing to contribute now! I appreciate their honest and open conversation.

Also, I finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia! The last book wasn’t my favorite (Voyage of the Dawn Treader might claim that title), but I appreciated the biblical references in it. CS Lewis is great about that, illustrating profound biblical ideas in a simple way.

And now, I'm off to community group. I'm still scouting out to find a new one, though it will be hard to beat the last!

Love,

Tracey

adventure.

Victoria came to town this weekend! She got in on Thursday night (after I got to fix homemade pizza and salad for Susie, Lori, Jon, Gary, and myself) and the weekend of adventures began. We realized that we have been friends for eleven years now, which is half of our lives! There’s a level of comfort and familiarity that only comes with a friend you have known that long. We took plenty of pictures to document the whole weekend, that’s definitely a necessity when you put the two of us together. It was a weekend full of great food, great company, and relaxing. We played a lot of games and slept in almost every day! I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

On Friday we ventured downtown to explore the market, starting with the original starbucks.

You can see the market in the background! It was windy that day, clearly.

We treated ourselves to a nice seafood dinner at Dukes Chowder House on Alki, here we are after, admiring the view of downtown Seattle from across the water.

In our food-coma state, we decided to call it a night and watch a movie.

The next morning we had chocolate croissants at Bakery Nouveau, then walked along Alki in the daytime for an hour or so.

It was lovely.

Saturday night we cooked dinner for a bunch of my friends (rosemary garlic pasta with chicken) then had smores for dessert. Game night after that!

Sunday after church we went to Luna Park Cafe for lunch, one of my favorite local spots in town. We indulged in an Oreo milkshake, they claim they have the best ones in Seattle.

Bananagrams at Starbucks, we're gamers to the core.

It was a refreshing weekend. This afternoon has been a day of playing catch up on all the things that have been getting pushed since last week.

Last Tuesday it snowed 4 inches overnight! I was actually out at community group when it started, and by the time I needed to leave, it was hardly drivable. I ended up leaving my car parked at the house I was at (I need to learn how to drive in the snow…somewhere without obstacles or hills) and catching a ride home with someone who has more experience. They dropped me off at the base of my hill and I got to hike up it. I hardly even noticed the cold, it was so beautiful. The snow was absolutely pristine and untouched, and the combination of streetlights and city light reflecting off the surface made everything so bright and lovely. Had I had someone to go with, I definitely would have taken a walk around the neighborhood.

Wednesday was date night- we had dinner at Endolyne Joes, which is probably my favorite restaurant in West Seattle, and it just happened to be vegetarian special night, which is right up my alley! I’m not a vegetarian, but given the choice, I’d take veggies over meat any day. I had a goat cheese/butternut squash/mushroom crepe, which sounds kind of odd, but every bite was delightful. From there we went to see a free showing of the Seattle symphony and got to sit so close to the front that we could hear the bassoon player hitting the valves on his instrument. I don’t listen to much classical music, but it was a great show!

That’s all for now. I’ll write more soon (I hope), about the book I just finished reading, new years resolutions, and the things I’ve been thinking about. Because it’s been far too long since I’ve posted!

Until next time,

Tracey