September 2011

Current Weather: 85 and sunny!
Current Gas Price: $3.03 per gallon
Total Cockroaches seen: 3 (whew!)

Hi Fam! How are y'all doing? We are SO excited to be seeing you all soon! We are about 95% sure that we'll be coming to Ohio on November 19th (yay for Libs and my birthday!) and leaving on Sunday, the 27th.  So we'll have plenty of time to come and visit with y'all.  Although we are very much enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, it is bittersweet because it really does not feel like fall here. I was talking with Debs on the phone this morning and she said that all the leaves are turning up there and its nice and chilly and everyone has pumpkins out.  I haven't seen anyone with a pumpkin out on their porch (probably because it would bake in the heat).  It seems that fall and spring are pretty short here while summer lasts most of the year and winter is the second longest season.

Well, I know we told you that August was characterized by work but I lied...SEPTEMBER is characterized by work instead! Wesley finished his 8 weeks of medicine and is happily enjoying his Peds block (block 4) before beginning another medicine block in late October.  We are both looking forward to going to the beach next weekend!

*I got the results of my heart ECHO and event monitor and it seems like my ole' ticker is ticking just fine! They think that my heart palpitations are a result of stress (and or caffeine)...but it has to be stress because I drink the same amount of caffeine every day but have the palpitations at sporadic intervals.  The palpitations were really bad last May and early June (when our lives were ridiculously busy and changing a lot) and they calmed down in July and kicked back up (a little bit) in August when I started working.  But it has honestly been a long time since I've had one.  SO...we're both glad to know that everything is all right and that I can relieve my symptoms by stress relieving techniques...which I'm not sure what those are but...yeah...

*Well it seems that within three months of living here Wes and I were both big enough celebrities to make it into the local paper.  Please see below for my debut in the Index Journal.  I confess that I'm not thrilled about it because 1) it's a terrible picture of me and 2) I don't appreciate getting undeserved praise.  We went to the "event" because the Bocks (Alan and Lynsey who are 2nd years from Ohio) invited us to a "cookout" so we just went to support them and get free food.  Then there were these cute little mexican boys who wanted to plant some peppers so Lynsey asked if I would help them.  As you can see, I'm wearing a skirt and Wes and I both missed the memo about planting vegetables at the "cookout."  But as you can see from the article, I seem like Mother Theresa or something even though I went for the food...yup..enjoy the article though :)

 * I have really enjoyed getting involved with the youth group at our church.   I lead one of the high school girls small groups (or C-groups as they call them) on Sunday mornings! Early in September I went on their fall retreat to Awanita Christian Retreat Center (http://www.awanita.org/).  I had a great time getting to know the girls a little bit better but was slightly disappointed with how busy it was for me.  This was my first time being on a retreat as an adult and not one of the kids.  I had to be with a group at all times and some girls would want to ride in the paddle boats, some go off the zip line, and others ride the horses.  So I spent most of the time just going around to wherever the girls wanted me too.   I went off the zip line (one time) and pulled both of my biceps and some muscle that runs horizontally across my back so then I just stuck to the water slide after that.  I was in serious pain after my zip line experience...haha, I've even been exercising a lot more and I still hurt myself!  Here is a picture of me driving the church van (YES!):

*The morning that I left for Awanita I decided to run the dishwasher...and OH NO! I used the wrong type of soap.  It was one of those out of body experiences where you can see yourself using the wrong type of soap and you know whats going to happen but you still put it in the dishwasher and turn it on...yup...that's what I did!  The best part?  I did this right as I was leaving for work so I had to just clean up what was on the floor and just not run the dishwasher BUT I was leaving for Awanita right after work so I had to leave all that mess for Wesley to clean up (which he did like a champ!).  But I felt like a pretty bad wife...yikes!

*Also, check out this spider that I found outside the youth group building! I have NEVER seen a spider this big before but down here they call them "writing spiders" because they are the type of spider that Charlotte's Web was based off of...I guess...I'm not sure how valid this statement is but that's what someone told me.

*We have still been finding time to try out more yummy meals! We still make indian food a lot and we actually made some chicken tikka masala and saag paneer for our small group the other day so that was pretty fun! Last night we made our favorite roast chicken and veggies and this week we're going to make some butternut squash soup again in an effort to bring fall to Greenwood.  Wesley tried his luck at gnocchi making the other evening and they turned out to be AMAZING! Here are some pictures of Chef-Wesley making homemade gnocchi.

* We have also tried two new restaurants in Greenwood recently.  We went to Pascal's last Friday before going to see Mornings at Seven at the Greenwood Community Theater.  Pascal's is kind of Greenwood's local "expensive restaurant."  They have a bunch of tapas so we actually ended up getting a bunch of those instead of getting an entree.  Everything was delicious expect for that after we ordered we realized that we got a bunch of stuff with cheese in it and so by the end of the meal we were both really stuffed...there such a thing as too much cheese.

We also went to a little hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant called, "El Puerto Chico" with Payton and Clory this week. The woman who own's the restaurant has a daughter who works as a translator at the hospital...so that's how Wes and Payton heard of it.  It was definitely a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant as we were the only white people in there, the menu was in spanish (with one english page) and the owner shouted something in spanish out of the kitchen and then a woman who was sitting at another table came up to us and said, "she wants to know if you want her to make a little bit of everything and bring it out to you to try."  Haha, needless to say I don't think we'll be going anywhere else for mexican food because it was DELICIOUS! She brought out four huge plates full of food and it was more than enough to feed all of us and she charged us $20. Haha, we really enjoyed the experience!  We'll have to take you all there when you come visit!

*We finally hung some shelves up on that bare wall in the dining room.  I still haven't decided what to put on the shelves but I'm getting there. Here are some pics of Wesley putting up the shelves...he is SO good at hanging things on the wall...everything comes out so straight!

*Lastly, I promised I'd send along a picture of Carly and Clory to show all of you! I spend most of time (when not spent with Wes) with these gals and I feel really blessed to have them as friends down here! They have been a real answer to prayer and have made the transition to Greenwood feel very easy! They were not too pleased with the picture of them but I told them they looked great! We took it after church last Sunday...

Clory Foust (left), me, Carly Ringenberg (right)

*We are so very excited to see all of you over the holidays! Much love! - Wes and Abby

P.S. Here are some pictures of our house for those of you who have not been here! Or maybe I sent these out in an email already? Haha, I can't remember! We've added a few adjustments since these pictures were taken though...

Matt Haldeman helping me plant flowers outside :)

My pink guest bathroom!

Our kitchen...post-wall paper removal!

August 2011

Current Weather:  77 degrees and stormy (unusual weather)

Current Gas Price: $3.37
Total cockroaches seen:  3 (YUCK!!)

Hello Family! How is everyone? Or should I say, "HOW YOU?" or "HOW DOIN?" Haha, these are some fun and interesting phrases I've learned while here. Wes and I have not adopted them into our vocabulary and feel free to slap me if you hear me say it :)  Basically, the month of August has been categorized as "WORK." Wes is currently in his 6th week of his 8-week medicine stretch! It has been an exhausting journey for both of us but we're so excited to have two out of the way soon (he has to complete 5.5 months of medicine this year)!  Wes will begin Block 4 (already?) in two weeks and we're looking forward to that.  This is his schedule until the new year: Block 4 - PEDS  (Sept. 22-Oct. 19), Block 5 - MEDICINE (Oct. 20-Nov. 16), Block 6 - COMMUNITY MEDICINE (Nov. 17-Dec. 14), Block 7 - MEDICINE (Dec. 15-Jan. 11).  So by the time Block 8 (out of 13) begins...Wes will have completed 4 out of his 5.5 months of medicine! YES!!  I started working on the 10th and will be in my fourth week of school next week!


*We had some more visitors this month, which was so wonderful! Libby came to visit us, which was so much fun and I just had the best time hanging out with her!  I definitely miss her! She was unfortunately here when the most recent cockroach sighting appeared AND there was a giant cricket in her shower as well.  Haha, it had rained for several days in a row before she got here (which is unusual) and it must have brought all the bugs inside because we had not seen any for some time before that.  Then Dan and Dixie came to visit us and it was so nice to see them! They bought us some rocking chairs for our porch and they look so cute on our little porch! We've been sitting on them in the evenings when the weather is a bit cooler! Last night we saw several hummingbirds so I am thinking that I'll need to get a hummingbird feeder in addition to my bird feeder if I really want to be Mary Poppins :) 

* Wes had this past weekend off so we took a day and went hiking in the "Upcountry" which is the northwest corner of South Carolina.  We hiked to see Raven Falls and were disappointed to find out that the trail we took went only to the "Raven Falls Overlook" and that we'd have to hike several more miles to actually get to the falls (which we didn't have time to do).  But, it was so wonderful for us to be together and in God's beautiful creation! It was very refreshing and just what we needed after a long week of working!  

Here we are at an overlook of the valley.  Table Rock Cliff is the background there somewhere...that is a pretty popular hike in this area!  Wes has been able to go hiking with some the other residents/spouses once before as well!

We both kept laughing at how easy the hike was for us after  going to Jan's spinning classes at the gym.  Jan  is the  assistant manager of our gym and she has huge muscles and is a just a really nice (and somewhat eccentric) lady.  But she's also really tough...but she has put our legs in shape! 

*After hiking, we headed over to the Ringenberg's (couple from Indiana) for a birthday party! Carly, Clory, and I threw the party for our husbands (who all have birthdays in September) but then it ended up that all of the men that showed up at the party had a birthday in September so the party was kind of for all of them! So when we sang "Happy Birthday" to them it was really just all their wives singing to them :)

From left, Matt Haldeman, Joseph Hall, Wesley, Jacob Ringenberg, Josh Wicker, and Payton Foust

Wesley will be 28 years old on September 12th.  Haha, I was laughing at how I always start to think of myself as one year older once Wes' birthday comes around, so I keep thinking I'm 27, but I still have two more months of being 26!  

* I have finally settled down into my daily therapy schedule.  During the second week of school I found out that I was also going to have to see kids at Northside Middle School as well as Woodfields Elementary and Brewer Middle School.  So, I was kinda of panicking but it turns out that I just LOVE my kids at Northside.   I have several kids in the TMD (Trainable Mentally Disabled) class and several in the PMD (Profoundly Mentally Disabled) class.   These terms (TMD/PMD) are apparently archaic and completely NOT politically correct but everyone here still uses them anyway.  That is something I've definitely noticed about the south...people don't change very quickly and they are not open to a lot of new ideas.  I've learned to keep my yankee mouth shut and not to suggest changes (such as having one form for something as opposed to 15 forms) because I can literally see the panic in their eyes from even the thought of doing something differently.  Haha, of course this doesn't speak for everyone but the older generation especially seems to have difficulty with change!

Here is a tour of my classroom:

* We had a PTO meeting this week and I was apparently supposed to decorate the hallway outside of my room with samples of my students work (of which I have no tangible evidence at this point) so instead I got creative with a spare raccoon poster I found :) Hope you like it!

*  I have started attending the PEAK, which is the weekly youth group at our church.  I will be leading a small group of high school girls starting in September so I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

*Our garden is officially done for after the invasion of the giant green caterpillars! They devoured an entire tomato plant in like two days and then moved on the next one.  Luckily, we had had lots of produce from them and they were starting to die so we just let the caterpillars eat them...haha, we have enjoyed watching them :)

* Wes and I celebrated our TWO year anniversary on August 29th and it was a great way to end the month! I can't believe that it has been two years already! Well...on one hand it seems like two years is such a short amount of time and on the other hand I can't really remember life before we were married.  Residency has been tough on our marriage and has stretched it in many ways but we are so grateful for all the lessons we're learning about God's faithfulness through it! Here's to another wonderful year together!

*We miss you all and we're excited to see you all over the Holidays! LOVE YOU!