Catch-up Time

Oh boy, catch up time indeed. I feel like this month has been flying by. Not only have we had just normal life stuff going on, but work for both of us has been crazy busy. Every day seems to go by so fast. The holidays will be here before I know it! Anyways, I feel like a lot has been going on around here, but I have had no time to get it all down, so here's a run-down of what we have been up to lately:

   Our friends Julie and Josh got married September 15! I know she was very excited and ready to get married since her now-hubby has been living in New Mexico for the past year, but I already miss her :(. The wedding was in east Texas where she grew up which worked out well for us since my dad grew up in a town about an hour from the wedding. We went and stayed at our family farmhouse in Jacksonville. Since the wedding wasn't until Saturday night, we spent all day visiting with my Memaw and my god-grandmother Erma (who by the way turns 102 this year--insane). Rachel and Paul (and little Lucy) drove out there with us and stayed at the farm which was a lot of fun.

Michael playing with Lucy

Yay!

Me and Amber at the wedding :)

   We started a 10-week Sign Language course at the beginning of the month. Texas School for the Deaf is here in Austin and they offer classes for people in the community. We have been trying to self teach ourselves for awhile, but have not been doing a good job at all, so we signed up for a class. Our teacher is deaf which is interesting at times, but we are learning a ton, and are really enjoying ourselves. We are planning on skyping this weekend with my cousin Jacob (who is deaf) to practice what we have learned so far.

   My sister lives in Austin now! I have been able to hang out with her a few times and she is having a blast living here. She goes to ACC for classes, but lives at SRD- an all girls dorm at the edge of UT campus. Her roommate goes to UT and Kristen bought guest football tickets through her and sits with all the students. Kinda like the best of both worlds. Its weird that she is in college now. She says her classes are going well and is studying a lot so she can hopefully transfer into UT next year.

     We started fostering with the springer spaniel rescue again this month. Gaius has come a long way over the summer and is really doing well being an only child. All his behavior problems have gotten way way better (some are gone!) and we can tell that he is really happy. We still feel like we want to help out with the rescue, but will probably take a break between dogs to let him re-center each time. Here's a picture I took the other day of him and Meg (the foster dog we have now). They spend a lot of time sitting together in windows making sure to bark at everyone who walks by :).

   I have been a sewing fiend the past couple of weeks. A couple of months ago my friend Christine invited me to do a craft show with her in October, and I was super hesitant to say yes, but I decided to go for it. I really have no idea what to expect or how it will go. This is the first time I have even talked about it other than to Michael because I have mixed feelings about whether I even have any business doing something like this for many reason, one being that I haven't even been sewing or crafting for very long. I finally just decided that this is something that would totally challenge me and make me step out of my normal box. Any even if its a total fail, at least I can say that I tried and had a great time. Plus all the sewing, brainstorming and planning has been a blast, especially since its all with a really fun friend. Also Michael has been super encouraging and that's always makes me feel better :). So we will see!

   Work. There is so much transition going on at my work right now. The good news is that its all very positive transition. It all started in August when we got back from Michigan and I found out that my boss was leaving at the end of August to take a new job. My new manager was managing the Seton ob/gyn practice on the third floor of the medical office building where my office is, and now she manages both clinics. Her name is Jen and she has been wonderful. My practice has really been growing a lot over the past 4-6 months, and now that we have a new manager who is very involved, has oncology experience, and is very supportive of our clinic we are able to change a lot of things for the better. We have been working on better processes, developing new forms, my temp MA has been hired full time (finally!), and we are re-arranging a lot of furniture and other things to help our flow work better. A lot of process that worked fine when we were much smaller now are needing to be improved or re-done to accommodate a larger amount of patients. Last Friday, I spent an entire day with my MA cleaning out our supply closet and organizing all the storage in the chemo room, lab room, and both exam rooms. We figured out what we had, what we needed, labeled everything, and just got things organized! I have also been developing and working on master lists, forms, training binders, and process flow charts. Needless to say, my workdays are just crazy busy with all these extra things on my plate along with just my normal work.  Also, earlier this week, Jen's boss (Elaine) who is in charge of all the "southern region clinics" of Seton came and met with all of us and told us that she really wants to focus on our clinic to help it grow and become the best that it can be. Oncology is a special area for her since her husband died of cancer 6 years ago, and she wants to bring the experience of what being a patient is like into how we are running things. She thankfully is very nice and supportive of the ideas and changes we want to implement. Also, she is buying us new pretty uniforms which is fun. Retail therapy always wins :).  Its exciting to hear that our kinda bland clinic is going to get a makeover the next few months to make it a more enjoyable and homey place for our patients. They are so special and deserve to have a nice and comfortable place to come to that hopefully makes their lives a little easier and what they are going through just a little less terrible. So like I said, a lot of changes, but good changes!

Whew! So those are the main things that have been going on lately. Michael's work has a lot going on with a new product coming out that his team is very busy with but I won't even try to explain all that stuff because I would fail miserably. And who could forget Longhorn football games? They are looking pretty good this season and I have high hopes :).  Now that I am all caught up I can spend the rest of my evening on the couch with a book and rain in the background....doesn't get much better than that!