Look! She's Alive!

It's been a busy few weeks. First, I spent loads of time preparing my grandmother's memorial service. And packing for the trip. Since Nora came along (and OH, what a good child she was. seriously) I had to pack "essential baby gear" such as the Pack and Play, stroller, books, toys, etc. Then, we were actually in Florida (hot and muggy is an understatement) for two days during which I officiated the service and spent lots of time with extended family. Let's not forget the 30-hour round-trip car ride from Virginia.

I arrived back home at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 2 and showed up at work at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. The interns did their evaluations for the unit of CPE on Monday and Tuesday, and us residents did our evaluations on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, we said good-bye to each other in a wonderful but long and exhausting exercise where EVERYONE got the chance to be alone in a room with everyone else, and we took turns being "ears" (listening but not talking) and "mouth" (talking with the other person listened).

Today I received my supervisor's final evaluation for my 4th CPE unit (5th total, since I had one prior unit) of this residency. I was very pleased with it, and there were no surprises. So, I am now in possession of 5 (five) units of Clinical Pastoral Education, two of which are Level 2. If you know what that means. If you don't, then just smile, nod, and act impressed, because you should be. :)

For the next three weeks, us three residents will be splitting shifts (12p-6p; 6p-12a; 12a-6a) to ensure hospital coverage. Mine will mostly be 12p-6p, which will allow me to spend mornings with Nora and evenings with Harry. On August 28, we'll all (Henry, Danny, Sandy, Kitty, Judy, and me) go out to lunch, say good-bye for the last time, and the residency will officially be over. On August 31, I begin my new "job" as Super Mommy. I am looking for (and have an interview tomorrow; PRAY!) a per diem/as needed chaplain position to keep my feet wet and get some spending money. However, I've put off the search for a full-time position until May or so, given that Baby is due on March 3. I might decide to take another year of family leave (do you KNOW how expensive day care is for two kids? We'd be looking at $350 a week), since the job market kinda sucks right now AND I don't know how I'm going to handle having two children.

More later...I'm on call tonight and just spoke to an ICU nurse who needs me to call the Red Cross on behalf of a patient's husband. Poor woman is in the ICU and her husband is overseas.