Short post today.

Hi all,

Short post today. I do have pictures of Jake's Big Backyard birthday party (which he thoroughly enjoyed) and will try to get them up asap. Been a busy couple of days - working on my research, some long but productive days for Ryan at work, trying to figure out how to parent a two-year-old, and dealing with Perry pup's anxiety issues (poor little guy). Also had my 36 week OB appointment. I'm 1cm dilated (the final dilation amount during delivery is 10cm), but it's not predictive of when I'll go into labor; baby Ben continues to do well in there.

So last but not least, a prayer request for a med school acquaintance: John, a very bright ER resident (today's his first day) and his wife moved to Arizona for residency, and two weeks ago his wife got very sick very quickly. It turned out she had toxic shock syndrome (staph or strep bacteria from an infection release a very potent toxin resulting in the person getting very sick with few interventions available). She's needed machines to do the work of her heart and lungs until yesterday, when she was deemed well enough to come off bypass. She continues to improve, but please keep Britney, John, and their young family (3 cute kiddos) in your thoughts and/or prayers.

Have a great day everyone, more updates to follow soon!