With the addition of some little pools on the back patio, Jack has been thriving in the desert. Between time spent here in those pools, and time spent with Rebekah at the pool in Palm Springs or the pools on base, he is becoming a little water baby. Maybe we should have rented a house with a pool after all ... . He has developed a healthy desert tan - thankfully without getting burned at all. We are all enjoying learning about the mysteries of the desert as we continue to be amazed by the animals, the landscape and the weather. We have the most spectacular skies around here. Sunrise, sunset, the night sky - all are incredible. We can see the milky way pretty much every night. Astronomy lessons would be quite easy from our backyard. Rebekah has taken some great shots and hopefully I might even practice a little night photography. Lightning storms are also amazing. Some, like this morning, are accompanied by rain, though that is rare and most of the time we can just see the bolts moving across the desert. We had a spectacular storm last week at sunset and Rebekah got the best pictures. Amazingly, after just our one big rain, the desert has become quite green. At first I thought I was hallucinating as the change has been gradual over the last two weeks, but it is definitely the case that the desert floor, at least up here by our house, has green covering with some tiny yellow flowers, and the bushes are increasingly green. I have been meaning to get some shots - hopefully that can happen today.

what a month it has been for us! After finishing
residency, including a few extra weeks to make up for
some of my pre-Jack bedrest time, we packed up our CT
and DC homes and moved to the sunny and hot southern
California desert! What a strange and wonderful place
we are finding Twentynine Palms! We have had 115
degree heat, seen coyotes, jackrabbits, desert quail,
lizards, black widows, bats, felt a 5.4 earthquake,
enjoyed spectacular sunsets, learned the names of new
cacti and trees and been flooded out! And that was
actually all within our first two weeks here. We are
finally settling in, have almost finished unpacking
the boxes, and have even hung a picture or two on the
wall. (most are waiting for Dad to arrive!) Jack,
Rebekah and Marilou have really explored the local
area finding all the public pools from here to Palm
Springs and checking out the Hi Desert museum, the zoo
at Big Bear mountain, the children's museum in Palm
Springs and the Living Desert experience. I am
excited for my first trip to Palm Springs this weekend
now that I finally have a day off.



My transition into military life was rocky, to say the
least. It took almost a week for the Navy to actually
make me "active" which meant I couldn't become
official, get ID cards, get onto the computer, etc.
Then, once I was active duty, we discovered that
someone entered me as male eleven years ago and
despite my very pregnant physique, this was NOT so
easy to correct. It took 3 weeks for me to become
female rather than male, so during that time I could
not be married to Andy or have a son with him. All of
this is happily, finally corrected.

From a medical standpoint, it has been very
interesting. The hospital is tiny. There are 4 ORs,
but never more than 2 going at once. There are only 3
anesthesiologists, 3 OR nurses and 2 surgeons. Well,
right now, 1 surgeon. I had no sooner arrived when
the other surgeon had to suddenly go on emergency
leave because his wife went into premature labor.
Luckily, I had been credentialed the day before so I
was able to take over being the surgeon on base. My
first solo cases have been the pre-requisite weird and
complicated. But I am managing and it is exciting to
be making my own decisions and having my own surgical
service. I have actually done a bowel resection for
intussusecption which could end up being my big case
for the year! Mostly we see a lot of hernias, lumps
and bumps, abscesses, appendicitis, some cholecystitis
and then lots of colonoscopies, both screening and
diagnostic. The ward only has about 12 beds. The
most I have seen occupied was last weekend when there
were 4 inpatients - 2 mine and the other 2 I was
consulting on! The people have all been great - one
of the benefits of such a small place is one quickly
gets to know everyone else in the hospital. Labor and
Delivery is around the corner from our surgery
offices, and they have 7 beds. We will be welcoming
our new little one there!

In a couple weeks Jack will start kindermusik and
hopefully some playgroups so that we can meet some
other kids and other families. Everything is in
transition right now with labor day and the start of
school around the corner. We hope to find him some
playmates soon! Rebekah has been a saint in agreeing
to come and stay here so now we just want to find some
fun activities for them.