Summer

Life has been whizzing by so fast I haven't had time to stop and write about it. In fact, I recently found out I was faster than my own radar detector when I received a ticket for going 86 miles per hour.

The summer's events led to my husband christening me as a chronic under-estimator and over-commiter. Summer started benignly enough. I planned on taking a few summer courses and gardening. One and half classes turned into three and my garden is actually a couple acres large.

In the midst of school and life, we went on a family vacation in Cape May, New Jersey. It was so much fun to hang out with Aunts, Uncles, and cousins as an adult. We had a great trip even though Joseph had to leave in the middle of our trip and fly to Chicago for a day and I had to sneak off periodically to complete homework assignments.

We returned to the South with school and work in full throttle. Life surprised me with a litter of feral kittens as I was storing some things in one of our outbuildings in anticipation of my new room mates. One of the kittens had a giant gash in her neck so I felt obliged to take her in. Turns out there was a worm living in the hole in her neck. I took her to the vet next morning expecting that we would probably just recommend putting her out of her misery. Instead they sucked the worm out and told me she'd probably be just fine. Good news, but now I was feeding a four week old kitten milk from a syringe while trying to keep my alpha dog from eating her. Several weeks later she turned out to be a he and we have some degree of animal harmony in the household. 

In the middle of the kitten crisis my sister and her boyfriend moved in. Good news except for the fact that the main bathroom was still undergoing major renovation and was still unusable. Boyfriend's entire family was visiting the next week from Philadelphia and we had one toilet and an outdoor shower. Luckily they were flexible and accustomed themselves to the wonders of showering outdoors. 

All grown up. Turns out these girls are boys.

Things not quite yet settled I took off for Hot Springs Arkansas for a girls vacation with one of my best friends. Hot Springs was beautiful and surreal. I'd like to return. 

Hot water from a hot spring in Hot Springs

Historic bathhouse row







I got back to Tennessee and banged out the rest of my clinical hours in a rural primary care clinic. I fell in love with rural health care. Primary care with the nearest hospital an hour away is a unique experience and one I'm excited to continue. 

No summer is complete without producing a year's supply of pesto.

And tomatoes of at least three colors.

The finished product. Blood, sweat, tears and a whole lot of tile. 

We bid summer farewell with a big party and some Northeastern visitors.

Now, with lessons learned from summer about time management, the fall semester has begun. I'm looking forward to cooler weather and more blogging.