FAIL!

So I've already failed. It's November 2nd and I haven't written anything on Nov 1st for National Blog Month. So if I've already failed, then anything I do write, or any day I do blog on is a success right? Well, here's to trying.

Today....nothing too profound and exciting. Worked and saw several patients today. I'm excited for tomorrow as this is my last day to work for 6 days. And we are off to Maui on Thursday!!

My husband the amazing cook!

I wanted to share something Tobin made, and then he wrote the recipe...here it is:

Sweet Apple Ginger Chutney Glaze

1 Apple

1-1/4T Finely Chopped Ginger

4 Cloves Garlic

3T Honey

1-1/2T Dijon or Honey Mustard

1-1/2T Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1t Cinnamon

1/4C Cooking Sherry

4 Chicken Breasts

Peel, core and finely chop or puree apple with ginger, and minced or fresh pressed garlic. Mix and simmer in small pan with honey, mustard, soy sauce, and cinnamon over low heat. Once chutney is beginning to brown and thicken, add cooking sherry and simmer until again thickening/ almost beginning to caramelize. While waiting prepare sides and cook chicken however suits you – pan, BBQ, oven etc (I prefer to BBQ mine – sometimes even glazing with a thin layer of honey and pepper or Italian seasoning to give it that golden brown color and a sweat aftertaste though this gets lost in the unique flavors of the chutney glaze).

Serve spooned over chicken while hot (though this may be good cold as well!) Enjoy the sweetness of the apple as it tangles with the pungent ginger and subtle garlic infused with honey – it will make your tongue feel like its dancing a finale with each bite… then you realize if you slow down and think about it, you can bring forward the subtle cinnamon, and mustard flavors which makes your tongue begin to think it may have found a favorite. Well, at least that’s what my tongue did! Give it a try;)

Don’t forget to make a veggie side – green salads, broccoli, or asparagus would complement the taste well.

We also ate this on a bed of brown rice to add starch, but perceivably would go well with mashed potatoes, pasta or even stacked on focaccia bread with a mild cheese melt. I like it well enough that I may try all of the above;)

I loved his descriptions! Good work hun. I love you!

The Deck

This post might seem a bit random, but I wanted to put it up here to remind me that my deck was clean at one point. See we live in a mini jungle...NW rainforest jungle that is. A beautiful "old growth" forest surrounds our house. So we don't use a lawnmower, but instead we have a large deck to keep clean. I spent a good portion of this evening sweeping it, and I decided to give it the Supreme Treatment. So out the hose and nozzle came, and I sprayed the entire thing down, scraped off bird doo-doo and pitch. We haven't done that since we moved in, so it felt very satisfying. I took photos just after I finished because literally the wind will blow just a breeze and the deck will be full of pine needles and branches. Don't get me wrong, I love our yard, but honestly I'm thinking about getting the snazzy leaf/deck vacuum cleaner my neighbor has. It might be worth it's weight in gold.

Here it is!

Sadly, no one is here to enjoy it with me. So I probably chose the wrong time to do it. This is probably the compulsion to post about it. All you (one or two) readers can enjoy it with me. Now sit back, relax, and image yourself hearing the gentle breeze overhead in the trees on this night warm August evening.

Side note: My Dad also came over and spent 3 days working on our yard. He has before photos, and I have some after ones. So when I get those together, I'll post to show the amazing progress we've made!

The Boot

Somehow, in all this moving I've lost my motivation to blog. I apologize to all my dedicated readers, which probably account to <10.

Some of the biggest news is, my new gimp status! I ran in a race this past week, and suffice it to say, I guess I wasn't quite as prepared as I thought I was. The race, as above noted, was called Cascade Lakes Relay. I was honored with a random invitation to join the team called, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." This came about, by what I feel was only by God's direction. I literally received an email stating nearly the following:

"You have no idea who I am. But I read on your bio that you enjoy running. We have an injured girl on our team, and were wondering if you would be interested in taking on her part of the race. Here's the race, Cascade Lakes Relay. You can google that and get more info."

So off I went, googling away, and excited to get the opportunity to be part of a relay team! I have always wanted to do one of these races, but have never had the opportunity. Usually you have to sign up nearly a year in advance for these races. What I want to know is when do 12 different individuals know where the heck they'll be in a year? So I've never signed up, nor do I think I could ever organize a team. Anyways, back to the point of the story (there's a point here? well, at least I'll try to get to one). The race started last Friday. In total, the entire length was 216.2, and I was planned to run 21.5 miles of that spread over 3 different legs, each nearly 12 hours apart. Leg 1 was good, a bit of a long, straight 7.5mile leg. You could literally see the finish line from the start of the leg. It was all downhill, but still a STRAIGHT run.

Before I started leg 2, I was exhausted. It was getting later and later at night, and since our theme was "FUN" we found that we weren't running as quick as we predicted. Anyways, suffice it say, before I was kicked out of the van to face the elements at 10pm, I was in the van, YAWNING, and really wishing for my bed at home, and reconsidering why I had sign up for said race. The ONLY motivation I felt that I had was that at the end of this race a possible 3-4 hrs of sleep was in my future, and that sounded glorious, since I really hadn't gotten any sleep the night before the race (unfortunately, the house we slept at the owners liked those darn grandfather clocks that chime every 15minutes...you can say I knew EXACTLY what time it was as I wasn't sleeping). So out I climbed from the van at about 11pm to start my second leg. I think I really was motivated for that sleep, because I took off running, and running fairly quickly! Usually, I am, at best, a 9:30 miler, and it turns out my pace was just around 8:30/mile. I knew I was running a bit quicker, but I FELT GREAT! God also helped me out a bit, because within the first mile I was running, I saw the BEAUTIFUL stars, I've missed for so long (living in So Cal you don't see anything more than the moon...and the moon only if you are luck). And I also saw a shooting star! It was AMAZING! So I just kept running and running. As my team gave me water, the only thing they commented was, you're doing great and making great time! That just prompted me to keep pushing it! Then....really I'm not sure what happened, and believe me, since I'm in the medical field I keep wondering what exactly did. It was right near the finish. I remember a guy yelling, "Stride it out. That's it." And right then, something pulled, gave, strained in my left achilles. It was like all of a sudden I couldn't run. Now this just didn't compute. I had just run nearly 6.5miles, nearly a PR, and I was hobbling to the finish????? So that's what I did, hobble to the end, pass the bracelet on, and quickly start stretching and poking around wondering why I had this pain. So there you have it...that's why I'm sporting this beauty now:

The Boot

I've found that it draws a lot of sympathy...even from my patients. I also think it brings a bit of intimidation to my small stature. It's a good husband motivator...."Take out the trash or you'll get booted." Hopefully, though, my union with this thing won't be for long. I got Xrays which didn't show more than beautifully made foot bones, no dislocation, avulsion, or stress fracture, etc. Now this isn't the end all diagnostic, but no need to do more until I give this little puppy some good ol' RICE therapy (rest, ice, compression, elevation). I have some fill-in-the-blank-itis (as my uncle put it well) and I'm not quite sure why I can't plantar flex my foot while weight bearing. Oh well, even those in the medical field have many injuries that you just gotta let the body heal itself, with time.

Now, I know you all have that dying question still burning within you, "Did I finish the 3rd leg?" Well, just so you won't go unsatisfied, and I would hate for those of you to have a burnt hole inside of you, I'll answer the question (but it takes a bit of explanation first). Well, after I realized, that yes I really was hurting and it wasn't my imagination. I did get that 4 hours of blissful sleep on a high school gym floor. I then was a good lil' nurse (even with the help of my teammates) to REST, apply ICE, and elevate my little foot. Someone even had Kinesio Tape. So I taped up a good replacement achilles, and prepared myself for a 6.1mile run. Now prior to this, I could barely walk, so I truly wasn't certain how far I would go. But I wanted to try. So I didn't even do any "test runs" prior. I wanted to save my foot. I was suppose to run another 7.5mile leg, but another teammate switched with me (which was so gracious of her)! So off I went. I think God was reminding me of humility, because of instead of running fast, I took off at a SNAIL pace (probably 13-14min miles). I slowly was able to make progress. The biggest progress of the day was the road kill I passed. Now for those of you who aren't into racing, "Road Kill" are those runners you are able to pass during the race. Well, my "road kill" was a bit different that day.

************Disclaimer, possible tummy turning, for those light of stomach be warned, or any FEMA activists....it wasn't my fault!******************************

As I was running along the Cascade Lakes Hwy, I saw a cute little chipmunk run out into the road. Just about that time a Blazer drove by, and I thought, "I hope the little guy makes it!" To my dismay, right before my very eyes and little moving legs, the chipmunk had been hit. Now there wasn't much blood and guts, so I began to worry that he was just injured, and when I got to him, the poor little chipmunk might just be in respiratory or cardiac arrest. And I was trying to contemplate if I could just run by and not stop for such a site. Well, before I had the chance to further prepare myself, my van of girls was driving by. They slowed down to cheer me on, and I tried yelling back to them..."I just saw a chipmunk get ran over before my very eyes!" Simultaneously, the driver of our van, didn't see the chipmunk, and "SPLAT!" Just a few yards ahead of me blood and guts literally squirted across the highway....I was checking myself to make sure I wasn't hit (thankfully I wasn't). I summed it up, that God allowed the poor thing to be out of his misery, and thus I didn't have to assess Airway, Breathing, Circulation to see if the little thing was still alive. But I did pass a literal Road Kill that day, despite how slow I was. I think I forgot about my hurting achilles at that instant! So LONG STORY LONG, I made it roughly 4 miles of the 6.1miles, and another teammate (WHO IS AN AMAZING RUNNER) finished it for me. Sad thing is, I was one of the youngest girls in the van! I'm afraid to get old, since I already seem to be falling apart.

Anyways, now I'm in this boot thing, and trying to enjoy the rest and smile at the comments I get! Plus, my shoes don't match, and I just can't have that! So here's hoping to be out of it soon!

Independence Day Weekend Celebration!

We visited Bend and saw the DeBacker fam and my parents. Saturday we went for a hike on Black Butte. It was a beautiful day! And we set up a slackline in the backyard! Here's some pics:

Tobin Slacklining!

Enjoying Aunt-dom and Uncle-dom

We have absolutely loved being closer to our family. Here are some of the fun things we've been doing:

Teaching a 13 month old how to climb. Preparing him for that 5.14 (that's the hardest climb for those who don't know).

Making Benjamin be a dare-devil. How to have fun, be safe, and push the limit just a bit!

Notice his helmet is covering his eyes!

Grace is getting so big! She's doing Monkey Bars, and is better than I am!

Precious Kate...oh so much to aspire to. She's doing great on her own, and certainly loved squealing at us while we played on the playground.

She's isn't dazed and confused or half drunk....promise!

Her hair would look like this every time she went down the slide!

That's an Electric Slide!!!

Showing Porter how to shop like a pro in IKEA!

Hiking in style, as Tobin goes up the Mountain like a Mountain Goat (literally) with a child in tow!

Falling! Caught in the act!

The mountain man and his stick!

Can you tell We are loving it here?

Rummel Update

Some of you may have already read this. But I thought I'd post it to give you an update, from my long absence! You can tell why I haven't been blogging!

The Moving Pile!

Dr. and Mrs. Rummel

Our last photo at the SoCal Beach!

So happy to be done (for both of us!)

What do you do with this thing?

The whole fam: Dad, Dr., Mrs. Rummel, Aunt Velva, and Mom

It was special to be able to hood him!

So here is the latest update:

Where in world are Tobin and Christy, you might ask? Well, we are very excited to announce that this time we will be in the same location for over a year! In these last few weeks, we’ve experienced quite a lot of changes. On May 21, 2010, Tobin became, Dr. Rummel! Such an amazing accomplishment, and a day we have been anticipating for 5 years. In those 5 years, if you didn’t already know, we moved 5 times, and Tobin travelled to countless more places for rotations, exams, and interviews! But this past February, we found out exciting news, we had been praying for months and years—Tobin had matched for his residency program in Corvallis, OR for a family medicine residency program. We were elated with joy the morning we found that out! We get to move back to an area we LOVE, be able to have family closer, and an area that has many outdoor activities just outside the front door. His residency program is 3 years long, which will be the longest place Tobin or I have lived in the last approximate 7 years! We want to thank all our friends and family for their love, prayer, support, encouragement, listening ears, helpful hands, etc, etc throughout this entire process, and what a process it has been!

Any move we make, God seems to reveal what we will be doing and where we will be living, just prior to the deadline of when we must move. In March, we flew up to look at houses to purchase. Christy interviewed for two Nurse Practitioner positions, and the process of home buying, getting new jobs, relocating from Southern California began! Despite having a couple months, it almost seemed impossible that we would be able to accomplish all of the above. However, with God’s direction and blessing, He made it possible. We went through the joys, woes, and stress of purchasing a home, but praise the Lord, we were able to close on the home in good timing and move in right in after Tobin’s graduation.

In late-April, Christy accepted a position working as a Nurse Practitioner at an Integrative Medicine Clinic, serving primary, family care patients and working alongside many other clinicians. She is excited and nervous about starting this new position, but very grateful for an amazing schedule of 4, 10 hour work days a week, with three day weekends! Coming from two part-time jobs (sometimes three!), working nearly every weekend, and then seemingly that schedule perpetually changing, the new schedule seems glorious.

The day after Tobin’s graduation, we began loading boxes into a Penske moving van. Thankfully, we had the help of Tobin’s parents, otherwise the process would have literally been longer and much more painful. We managed to get everything loaded, and on Sunday early morning we left LA at 0500. The roads are beautiful on Sunday morning (no traffic!) and we made good time, to arrive in Redding, CA later that evening. The following day, we drove into Corvallis, OR, unloaded the van into our new home—so that we would avoid the impending rain the following day. In a web of confusion, paperwork, protocols, laws, etc, etc, we weren’t actually closed on the house before we moved in, but thankfully God worked it all out, and we are now homeowners, which carries its own responsibilities, stress, and joy.

We have already taken advantage of this area, going for a beautiful mountain bike ride, just minutes from our house. We also have been able to celebrate, in person, our niece, Zoey’s 3^rd birthday; and we drove over to Bend, OR with family to relax and (what else…) go rock climbing at Smith Rocks! We’ve onlfy been here just over a week, and we LOVE IT!

We do ask for continued prayer as Tobin begins a very BUSY year as an intern. Yep, the work is, at times, grueling, but also so very exciting. Please pray for Christy, as she begins a new position and everything that goes along with that! Pray for our relationships with people here in Corvallis. Pray that we could be a witness here in this city, minister to the community, and find wholesome Christian fellowship.

Our new home!

We would love to hear how you are doing!