On Wednesday, I started packing up my stuff to head for Milbank, SD. My friends RJ and Callie are both out there and I haven't seen them in a long, long time! Ryan was still working on his edits and was slightly jealous that I was going to be leaving. The next thing you know, Ryan was packing his bag and coming with! The journey out there is over 4 hours so Ryan worked on his dissertation while I drove. We got to RJ's place in Milbank and Callie and her daughter Hadley were there as well. After visiting for a while we went out for dinner. After dinner, we sat around RJ's just talking and catching up but I was SO tired, I could barely keep my eyes open - a far cry from our years in undergrad together. At about 10:30p {well after my normal bedtime} we finally hit the sack.
On Thursday, RJ had to work, Ryan had to work on his dissertation but Callie had the day off so I met her and Hadley at the park. We were the only ones at the park and it was a lot of fun! Hadley is about to turn 1 and she is such a little cutie. She has been walking since 7 months of age so we chased her around the park - Callie certainly has her hands full! After the park we went to a local wildlife refuge which has a little driving tour that you can take. It was really pretty out there - long grass blowing in the wind, big rocks sticking out of the ground, ducks, pheasants, lots of birds, tons of turtles and hundreds of wildflowers. Hadley took a nap as we were driving through the refuge and when she woke up, we stopped and took a walk on one of the pedestrian paths. I brought my camera alone and Callie and I took several pictures of Hadley throughout the day - she is so stinking cute! After RJ finished work, we all ate dinner together, went out for a couple drinks and then had a low-key night.
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| Hadley using her legs :) |
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| She loved the merry-go-round |
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| One of my favorites of her from the day. |
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| Miss Hadley |
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| This butterfly flew in right as I was taking pictures of the flower. |
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| One of the several painted turtles we saw. |
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| The grass and the big boulders were really pretty. |
We woke up Friday and basically hit the road. It's a long, kind of boring drive to South Dakota and back. We decided to take a different route home as our GPS was telling us it would get us home faster. Well, a few hours into the trek, the road was under construction and we had to take a huge detour - there went any of the time we were going to make up taking this alternate route - ha! As we continued on our detour, I noticed on the GPS that we were getting close to Hutchinson which is where Becky, a medical student I mentor, is on RPAP. Becky and I had plans to get together this next week but since we were so close I called to see if she wanted to meet Ryan and me for lunch. Luckily she was working on her community project and was available for lunch. We met at Buffalo Wild Wings and talked and talked and talked and talked. We had a lot of catching up to do! She is right at the beginning of her 4th year and had lots of questions about boards, RPAP, rotations and electives. She is actually going to be doing the Hawaii Integrative Healing elective that I did this past February. I'm so happy she could work it into her schedule - it is a fantastic rotation!
Once we got home, we had just a couple hours until we were off again. This time to St. Peter where we met up with Anna, a high school classmate of mine. I love getting together with Anna. We go way back and always have such a good time together. It never gets old reminiscing about the past :) I wish Anna lived closer so we could get together more often! Once Ryan and I got home, it was well after midnight and I was exhausted.
After sleeping in a little bit on Saturday, I was up and ready for another busy day. I spent a few hours giving Ryan's dissertation one last read through looking for grammatical errors. I had one paragraph left of his 100+ page paper when the doorbell rang and my classmate Kelsey was at the door. Kelsey came down for our other classmate Kathleen's wedding. I finished up the last paragraph quick and then Ryan made the corrections to his paper and set it off to his adviser for final approval prior to scheduling his defense date. Kelsey lived by me during medical school and hadn't seen Zoey in quite some time so Kelsey played with Zoey while I quickly got ready for the wedding. We were just about to head out the door and I realized I forgot about the wedding card, so I got that together and we were out the door. We arrived at the church with about 30 seconds to spare. The groom was walking the mother-of-the-bride down the isle as we took our seats. The wedding was in Litomysl, MN which is just south of Owatonna. Cute little town with a church and just a few houses. The reception was outside underneath a big tent right next to the church. It was a BEAUTIFUL evening for an outdoor wedding reception! I ran into an old college classmate from MSU at the reception - hadn't seen him in over 6 or 7 years. His name is Dan and he is actually a cousin of Kathleen's. {Que It's A Small World} Dan and his very pregnant wife Julie {she is due in two days} were there with their adorable little one and a half year old. It was good to catch up with Dan and Julie. We stayed at the reception until 11-11:30ish before heading home. {I have no pictures as I didn't bring my camera, but it was a really pretty outdoor reception!}
Sunday morning after we were all up and moving, Ryan made Kelsey and me waffles and bacon for breakfast. After showing Kelsey all of my new flower beds and talking for a bit longer, Kelsey left for home and I left for my parent's home. We are in the process of gutting there old office building at home and as soon as I got home, I put on my mask and got to work. We made a lot of progress but let me tell you, I wore the wrong shoes! The shoes had about zero support so by the end of the day my feet were pretty mad at me! Even with the progress we made, there is still some more work that needs to be done before the gutting process is complete. After showering and cleaning up, my mom and I picked up Chinese take-out in St. Peter for dinner. We ate dinner, started watching the news and I fell soundly asleep on the couch. It wasn't until the middle of the night when I woke up in my jeans and t-shirt that I finally moved to the bedroom.
My busy week continued on Monday as well! At about 9:30am is when all the calls started coming in about our house in Omaha that we are supposed to be closing on in a week. After several phone calls, emails, scanning and more emails I was off to meet up with our home insurance agent in the Twin Cities. After that meeting, I finally was able to head home. No sooner after I got home and finished watering my outdoor plants, my cellphone was ringing off the hook. Well, it was Ryan, who was down in Austin working, telling me that his dad fell and broke his leg. Poor Steve. Just a month ago he had surgery to six his left knee and he slipped on the stairs and broke his right leg and foot. Good thing he got his left knee fixed or he would have been in really tough shape! So I packed up once again and headed south to Austin to help out.
While in Austin, Ryan and I met up with our friends Matt and Carrie for dinner. Matt and Carrie just found out they are expecting a baby in December so it was good to see and congratulate them. We ate at Piggy Blues which is my favorite place to eat in Austin. Our friends Josh and Andrea own Piggy Blues so we support the local business whenever possible. Josh and Andrea and their three kids were all at the restaurant as well. Josh and Andrea are expecting their forth child in about three weeks here. Babies all around I guess! While we were eating our BBQ, our friends Zac and Leah came walking in for dinner. Leah didn't want to cook since it was hot out {around 100 humid degrees}. I don't blame her! After we finished up, we had to run a couple of errands for Ryan's parents. Poor Steve, he is in a leg brace right now until the swelling goes down, at which time they will cast him. Steve informed me that he thinks the broken leg came from the fall down the stairs but the broken foot likely came from him dropping a log on it when he was out chopping wood. The log on the foot and the fall down the stairs happened Saturday and he didn't go to the doctor until Monday. He has the highest pain tolerance out of anyone I know! We helped move things around and get Steve situated in the house - he is one hurting unit!
We've had a pretty busy last few days. In our 'down' time we've managed to start packing for our move south. I hate moving :( At least I won't have to do it for another four years!
~Ashley
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