Eight Years Ago Today

Unfortunately this version doesn't have any sound but you get the gist. My copy of the video with audio is like 50 minutes long. I'll have to work on editing that. These past eight years have flown by! Love you Ry ;)

~Ashley

Don't Trip :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

YAY! Finally, Nebraska got in on some snow action! I love it and we completely got pummeled with a whole lot of snow! It started snowing last night before I got home from work. Ryan got home first and called to warn me that the roads were terrible. By the time I got done with work, there were literally no cars {well, I take that back, maybe there were like five cars} out on the road. So I just traveled slowly and made it home safe and sound. I had to be at work at 6 am this morning. Went to the garage to get in my vehicle and noticed - woah - we got a lot more snow than I think the weather man was projecting. My explorer was pushing snow as I backed out the driveway and the plow hadn't been through {which was actually a good thing....just keep reading} and the roads in our subdivision were terrible.  I didn't dare stop. I just kept driving as I didn't want to get stuck. I finally made it out to the main road which had one lane in each direction plowed. I made it to work and called Ryan to wake him up and inform him of all the snow that was outside. There is no way Ryan's car would have even made it out of the driveway let alone out of the neighborhood without getting stuck. Ryan's clinic got cancelled so Ryan had a nice snow day at home {taking care of all the snow!}. The ICU never closes so I was glad I had a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get me there. Ryan estimates at least 12 inches of snow in the driveway, maybe even 14. Northern Omaha definitely got more snow then the area around the med center. Ryan shoveled part of the driveway and then a neighbor let him borrow their snow blower. Once Ryan finished, the plow came through the neighborhood {this was at about 11:30!}. Check out the snow removed from the driveway and the snow the plow dumped at the end of the driveway. Ryan strategically placed the shovel to give everybody some perspective :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!! :)

~Ashley

Lots of Things on My Mind

Let me introduce you to Elphie Mo:

No, Ryan and I did not get another cat. Gotcha!! Elphie Mo is one of the cats Ryan and I saved from our bon fire at Ryan's parent's house nearly two and a half years ago.  We rescued Elphie Mo and her three siblings when they were tiny, tiny.

From bottle feeding...

...to finally drinking out of the bowl

See. Tiny, tiny. I wasn't lying. We bottle fed them and slowly started adopting them out. Mo {as we initially named Elphie} really grew on Ryan and I. We adopted out her three other siblings and were set to keep her. We weren't super thrilled about adding a third cat to our liter but we only wanted good homes for these little guys that we had vested so much time in. So, Mo was ours. Then along came the M family {gotta kept people's identity somewhat private on this little 'ol blog of mine on the big world wide web - ha!}. Melissa and George were friends with our neighbors who happened to be out of town on vacation. We also happened to get huge snow storm #548 of the winter. Since our snow blower didn't blow snow very well, the neighbors had told us if we had a big snow storm when they were gone, we could use there big snow blower. Perfect. Big snowstorm, neighbors permission to use their snowblower, we had the keys to the neighbors house and the snowblower - things were falling into place perfectly! Except, when we went into the neighbors garage, the car was blocking in the snow blower - what?!?!? There were no car keys to be found and there was no getting that snow blower out of the garage without moving the car. Well, to make an already long story short, Melissa had taken our neighbors to the airport in their car and decided since a snow storm was in the works, she would park their car back in their garage and keep it covered instead of parking it on the street at her house. Are you still with me? Anyways, by some miracle, our neighbors received Ryan's text message plea for help, called Melissa and George who then came over to move the neighbors car. So, Melissa and George, not even knowing who we were, came to out door to let us know they were moving the neighbor's car. We started chatting. Zoey, Cooper and Mo all came to greet them at the door. Turns out Melissa and George are cat lovers too! They had three kids and two cats. Turns out, the cats sort of showed preference for their older two and so they were thinking about getting a third cat for their youngest for Christmas. Anyways, again, to make a long story short, they ended up going home with Mo that night as a Christmas present for their son! I was so happy and heartbroken at the same time because I had become so attached to Mo. They ended up naming her Elphie but kept Mo as her middle name to keep her roots :) Elphie Mo ended up with the perfect family and we couldn't have been happier with how everything turns out. {Seriously, do things not happen for a reason or what?! Snow storm, neighbors on vacation, snow blower stuck in neighbors garage, neighbors get text while out of the country, neighbor's friends show up at house and adopt little Mo.} Ryan and I occasionally stopped by Melissa and George's house for visitation {because that's what adoptive cat parents do - ha!} and Melissa also keeps us updated via texts {hence the picture of Elphie Mo chilling in their bathroom sink}.

So anyways, what does this all have to do with what's on my mind? Well, tonight after getting home from a complete blah day at work, I decided to walk down the block in the cold to get the mail since I figured there would be some Christmas greetings inside that would help cheer me up. Well, we got a Christmas card from Elphie Mo's adoptive family. It melted my heart and definitely helped cheer me up. It's the little things in life that make things worth it!

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Let's see what else is on my mind. My current state of being a resident. Ugh, some days I just want it to stop. I want residency and everything associated with it to just stop. Here are a few reasons why:

#1) The Dreaded Pager
I would be such a happy person if I never had to hear my pager go off again - ever! No joke. I cannot put it in writing just how maddening a tiny little beeper can literally drive a normal person absolutely insane.  Honestly, it is relentless sometimes. I have dreams of throwing the pager against the wall and rejoicing as it busts into a thousand pieces {not really, but I think I might enjoy that dream - ha!} Several {nearly a hundred and that's not an over-estimate} times per day I have to remind myself that the people paging me don't know that several other people are simultaneously paging me. Sometimes, we'll get two additional pages as you are returning the first. So I take a deep breath, pick up the phone, let the big breath out, dial the number and say "Hi, this is Dr. Thorson returning a page" in the most calm and collected voice possible. On my normal rotations, the pager usually isn't that bad {key word: usually}. On my current off-service rotation, carrying the pager is awful. Awful, awful, awful. Us residents joke {likely as a form of therapy} about the stupid pager and how it drives us into complete insanity on a daily basis.  {*deep breath* This is only temporary. This is only temporary. ha!} Oh well, here's to many more years of pager insanity to come!

#2) Awkward Moments
I don't know what it up recently, but I've been having several awkward moments lately. Twice in the past week, I've been stopped by people {one walking out of the hospital after a 28 hour shift and the other in the cafeteria} "Hey Dr. Thorson, you delivered my baby!" And then I have to scramble and go on damage/image control as I have no idea who they are which makes me feel bad.  I love what I do, I just wish that I could remember every couple I help deliver their child. And that's what's hard about residency. Since I don't have my "own" patients necessarily, I end up meeting people for the first time and then deliver their baby shortly after. I just can't wait until residency is done and I have my "own" patients. I usually have one or two of these awkward encounters a month so to have two in one week is a little much. {I could elaborate further about other awkward moments that get old, but I'll spare everyone the ho-hum details} Here's to several more awkward moments in the years to come!

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This is on the flip side of my awkward moments. When I was a first year medical student, I participated in an OB elective. We were paired up with an expecting mom and went to their OB check ups with them and then got to be at their delivery. I got paired with the best expectant mom in the world. She was so laid back and wonderful to work with.  {I think it's important to note, I had never even seen a delivery prior to this. Must have made a big impact on me because look at where I am now.} Anyways, we've kept in touch over the past five years. An email here, an email there, Christmas cards, birthday party invites, an occassional get-together when I'm up north etc.  Well this past week, she found me on facebook! I can't believe how big her kids are getting. It's so good reconnecting in a more main-stream facebook kind of way.

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There are several other things on my mind like the recent school shooting in CT. {Whose mind is it not on, I mean, really, come on.} My heart literally breaks for everyone involved - those families of all the little kids, those adults that were killed trying to help save other kids, the family of the shooter, the shooter himself.... I can't even imagine being in any of their shoes. Awful. There is no other way to describe it. What is this world coming to?! What happened to the days of kid getting to be carefree? Ugh, I think about the way things have progressed since I was a little kid and worry about what this world is going to be like when I have kids. It's a very scary/concerning thought.

~Ashley

License Plates

I tell ya, I see more license plates from all over the place here in Omaha. On one of our drives back to Minnesota, I was bored {shocking - there's nothing between Nebraska and Minnesota} so I decided to write down all the different license plates we saw. I would be interesting to keep a running list because I bet I would have been able to easily add another 5-10 to this list from our drive back after Thanksgiving. So here is the list of plates we saw between Omaha and Des Moines.

Alberta, Canada

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Florida

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

 Iowa

Kansas

Maine

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

 Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

North Dakota

Oklahoma

Quebec, Canada

South Dakota

Wisconsin

 

No too bad for just a couple hours of license plate watching. After typing this up, I wish I would have kept track of those license plates we saw heading back home after Thanksgiving. I can recall seeing Washington, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Ohio but I'm sure I'm obviously missing a few more. Maybe I'll make a checklist and cross license plates off as I see them and see how long it takes me to complete them all. Hey, it's something to pass the time while driving through corn fields.

~Ashley

 

 

 

It's quite a tight fit...

...but she still fits :)

~Ashley

Grandma & Grandpa Frost

{This past weekend, I was looking through past blog posts that I've written, and I noticed I had one post from almost a year ago saved as a draft. After reading it, I thought that it was suiting that this be my 200th blogpost. I remember writing this post and not publishing it because I felt that it didn't do my Grandparent's justice - I felt like I couldn't really put in words how much they mean to me and how great they really are. So I saved it, with plans to go back and put the finishing touches on it another day. And there it sat, for quite some time. And now looking back, it's amazing how much life can change over such a short period of time. But, regardless of what has changed over the past year with my Grandma having a stroke and my grandparents moving into the nursing home, there is still sometime that hasn't changed and thats my love for my Grandparent's. I still, after reading this, feel like I can't adequately put into words how important these two people are to me, but that's ok - sometimes somethings don't have to be put into words.}

So without further delay, here is a post a wrote nearly a year ago, not complete, but just some of my thoughts and feelings...

I have the best grandparents that anyone could ask for! I wish more people in this world were like them. I went to visit them on Friday and was reminded just how fortunate I am to have two people like this in my life. They are two of the most kind, caring and compassionate people I know. For example, my grandpa is such a gentleman. For as far back as I can remember, he has always opened doors and pulled out chairs for my grandma. I remember when I was little, we would walk to church and it was one of those walks that I can remember pretty clearly. I, being a youngster, was walking all over the sidewalk. I remember grandpa telling me that he was going to walk out on the outside of the sidewalk. This was strange so I asked why. He told me that men are supposed to walk on the outside of the sidewalk to protect the women from cars and also to keep them dry in the event that a car came and splashed a puddle up on them. I think I have a love for baking because of my grandma. When ever she was baking, she always let me pull up the little step stool so I could see what she was doing. My favorite was when she'd be making cakes - I'd get to lick the spoons :) My grandma is such a classy lady. She always has her hair done and lipstick in place. She has a great sense of fashion too and her outfits are normally not complete until she puts on a broach or fancy necklace. I hope when I get to be her age that I have her sense of style. Grandma makes the best dinner rolls and when we were younger and spent the night, if we were lucky, she'd make home made cinnamon rolls and frosting. We would sleep downstairs and when my sisters and I would wake in the morning, we could always here them getting breakfast ready as the kitchen floor was squeeky in a few places. If we weren't having cinnamon rolls, we were likely to have shredded wheat or a half of grapefruit with sugar on top. Speaking of sugar on top, that reminds me of my grandma's garden. She had a small little garden but boy did it produce a TON of veggies. I remember my grandparents trying to get me to eat tomatoes. They let me put all the sugar I wanted on them :) It didn't help :( I still don't really like tomatoes to this day. They tried at least.  My grandpa has given the family a love for popcorn. Every night he gets out his stove top popcorn popper and goes to town. When family was over, he'd fill this large yellow bowl full of popcorn. The popcorn was always unsalted but the popcorn salt was always next to the bowl so we could salt to taste. Our families love for stove popped popcorn goes so far as all of my families pets eat popcorn! My husband initially thought that was weird, but it's not weird for the Frost family :)

{I could write more. I could make edits. But I'm just going to leave it as is. I have so many memories of growing up with my Grandparents. I'm one lucky kid!}

~Ashley

All we need is a little snow!

While everyone back in Minnesota got nailed with snow this weekend, we were left snow-less. But the cold weather sure hit us - brrrr. Here's a shot of our place in all of its Christmas glory.  All it needs is a little snow.

~Ashley

Pat's Getting So BIG

This weekend, Ryan and I went to Sam and Morgan's place for pizza and a movie. Oh course we had to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. That movie never gets old - love watching it every year. Sam and Morgan's little boy Pat is getting so big! We brought over Pat's Christmas present. I laughed when it was about the size of him - ha! {These pictures are pretty blurry, their cellphone quality}

He's getting so big! {Still not a lot of hair though.}

HA! A little overwhelmed by the size :)

Tissue paper tastes pretty good.

This sock monkey tastes pretty good too!

Pretty excited about a fire truck {he's going to have to grow into this toy}

Playing with his new toys!

{Ryan looks like a giant compared to tiny little Pat.}

 Who can resist hanging out with friends, cuddling with their cute little boy and watching classic Christmas movies? I know I can't!

~Ashley

Oh Christmas Tree!

We would like to introduce you to the Griswold Thorson-family Christmas Tree!

Yep, that's right. Ever since we moved here a year and a half ago, we've joked about using this pine tree as a Christmas tree. Last year, it looked a little sparse and we were heading back to Minnesota for the holidays so we put up our fake tree. This year however, this pine tree was over growing it's space and since we'll be here over the holidays, as I have to work Christmas and New Years, we decided to cut it down. To be honest, we felt a little ghetto cutting a tree down from out landscaping and bringing it inside. But, oh well, let's just think of it as being resourceful :)

Getting down to business.

Tag team. It takes muscles to saw a tree down :) {nice flannel pants Ry!}

Shaking out the dead needles {and spiders}.

Trimming up the bottom. {Pay no attention to the orange extension cord. We have a green one, but just haven't switched it out yet. At least we have lights up! and not to mention they are on a timer so they are on every night when I come home from work.}

ahhhh...ahhhh...FLT {that's short for funny looking tree} ha! :/

Ok maybe this is a better angle. Or maybe we just have to wait for the branches to let down. Or maybe, maybe we are just going to have a funny looking tree this year - lol!

Give us a few days to get this baby looking like a respectable Christmas tree. A few lights, an ornament here, an ornament there, and a nice looking tree skirt will likely do wonders. It's looking a little scary right now, but we'll see what happens. It's all about the memories, right?! Lol!

~Ashley

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've had the time to sit down and write a blog post update. Since returning from my parent's place at the beginning of November it has been work....work......work. Well, realistically it was more like this: work, eat, sleep, work, work, sleep, work, eat, work, work, sleep, repeat. This past month was one I wasn't really looking forward to because I knew I'd be putting in more than my far share of hours at work. My week back in MN at the beginning of the month was strategically planned and then I also had 4 days off at Thanksgiving, leaving me to work 15 shifts in November. 15 shifts doesn't sound bad, right?! Well, working 200 hours over the course of those 15 shifts is just about enough to make anybody go bonkers. No wonder why I barely got any sleep! For the entire month of November, I only saw Ryan during my vacation week and over Thanksgiving break and then 5 minutes here and there - but honestly, we went days without seeing each other. There were times where I'm sure I was in acute kidney failure as I rarely went to the bathroom. There was a 36 hours stretch where I didn't eat more than a couple hand fulls of popcorn and a diet mountain dew. Not the best thing to do but dire times call for dire measures. I had to choose between eating and sleeping and I choose to sleep. Not fun. But November 2012 is in the books and I'm moving on! I start rotating in the ICU tomorrow which will be a change for me.

But first here's what has been going on {besides work} since our week back in Minnesota.

Ryan hurt his knee playing hockey. He's been out for three weeks now and it will be at least another month before he will be able to get back on the ice. He tore his PCL so he is currently doing physical therapy. He is making good progress and can walk without a limp. He can't quite take the stairs two at a time yet {he found that out the hard way today} but he's improving. One of his hockey buddies sells used exercise equipment, and he brought over a stationary bike for Ryan to use to rehab his knee. He told us that we can use it until someone wants to buy it! So Ryan has been dutifully doing his knee exercises and using the bike to strengthen his knee.

We hit the road back to Ryan's parent's place in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Ryan was nice enough to drive up as I was so sleep deprived, I slept almost the entire way back. Ryan jokingly told me that he didn't think his knee would be able to handle the entire drive back. I told him if that were true, we'd have to wait to leave Thanksgiving morning. I wasn't messing around - I could barely keep my eyes open and likely was sleeping by the time we hit the interstate just a few short minutes from our house. Ugh, working countless hours just to come home and read and study and then go to bed to wake up and do it all over really takes it out of a person. I slept a lot over Thanksgiving break. I was in bed by 8pm on Thanksgiving night and even slept through movie plans with friends. I definitely needed to recharge my batteries. We had a big turkey dinner which was delicious! I did a little Black Friday shopping. Not the crazy midnight/1am thing though {I was sleeping and not giving up those precious hours of sleep}. I like going to Sterling Drug for Black Friday. The store opens at 9:00am and it's not full of crazy people. Their black Friday special is 50% off anything you can stuff into a big Christmas gift bag. I ended up only getting a couple Christmas ornaments - they must have changed their buyer or something because the flavor of the store has changed over the past year. Oh well, better for my pocket book I guess! We ate lunch at Piggy Blues with a bunch of friends later that afternoon. We watched plenty of football. We got together with friends to play cards. Renee and I made and decorated more sugar cookies than I'd like to admit. Renee made her spaghetti sauce from scratch for us {so delicious}. I watched Christmas movies on TV {however, I haven't watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which is my all-time favorite,yet}. I did a little reading for work {gotta keep plugging away at that stuff to stay on top}. And last but not least, I slept...a....lot! It was so hard to come back to work after having a few extra days off. But, at the end of the day, I love what I do. {Although, had a won the power ball, I would have significantly scaled back the amount of time I was working from 200 hours in 15 shifts to say, I don't know, *cough, cough* 0 hours in 15 shifts :) No such luck for me. Long hours, we will meet again!}

I had this weekend off so as you can imagine, I've spent the majority of it sleeping! I went to bed at 930ish Friday night and besides waking up at 6:00am for a half an hour {darn internal clock} I slept until 11:30! I haven't slept in that late in a LONG time. Actually, I don't know if I've ever slept in that late....ever. Ryan and I went and saw the new James Bond movie which was decent. I have missed going to the movie theater so it was nice to actually have the time to take in a flick. Ryan and I are also prepping for Christmas since I work the holiday this year. Another post to come regarding our holiday prep :)

~Ashley

You had to know...

...a cat post was coming one of these days!

Cooper being part of the action.

Zoey getting some early morning snuggle time in :)

Random Sky Pictures

Here are two pictures I've taken in the past couple weeks. Can't forget to enjoy nature's beauty in an otherwise stressful life of a resident.

This was the sky one morning as I left for work the week before this last vacation.

Storm is a coming! {This one was taken in St. Peter this past week on vacation.}

~Ashley

Llama, llama, llama

You better believe I had the coolest pets when I was growing up :)

~Ashley

Playing with Food

As I was looking through pictures from our Thanksgiving/Christmas gathering, I couldn't help but to think when I saw this picture...

..."I think I have seen pictures similar to this before."

So I went back in my pictures and looked through all the holiday gatherings, etc and came up with this...

Top picture is from Christmas 2011 and the bottom is Thanksgiving 2012. I thought I'd have at least one more to add to this but I couldn't seem to find any additional pictures. I'll be sure to take the obligatory Ryan-playing-with-our-dinner-food picture to continue to add to this picture roll at our future family gatherings - ha! {I might also tell him he is required to wear a black t-shirt!} All in all, I'd have to say, Ryan is a pretty good cook.

~Ashley

A much needed week off

One week every three months, I get a week off. Normally by the time it comes, I'm itching for a vacation! This time proved no different. We went back to my parent's place in Minnesota. Since I work Christmas and New Years and other family members weren't sure they'd get the Friday after Thanksgiving off, we had family Thanksgiving/Christmas.

For our holiday dinner, we feasted on crab legs. Ryan and I never make these on our own so it was a nice treat. Here are a few pictures of the night.

The Ryans in the kitchen

Ryan cooking up a storm.

The goods!

Chowing down.

Look at all the crab leg scraps.

Dave was out hunting earlier in the day and got a deer. He still saved room for some crab legs though.

We were all stuffed by the end of dinner. It was so delicious. We postponed dessert until our stomachs had some time to digest everything :)

My sisters, mom and I were able to spend some time with my grandparents at the nursing home. Grandpa was eating lunch when we got there so we spent some time visiting with Grandma. She is doing good. She opens her eyes on her own and responds to questions. She also laughs which is so good to see. After a while, Hillary and I went to the cafeteria to see if we could bring Grandpa back to his room. He had just finished eating. He had eaten everything but the squash, stating that it was no where near as good as the squash that Grandma used to make for him :) I'm pretty sure that Grandma would sweeten it up with lots of brown sugar. Grandpa uses a walker to get around but he can sure cruise. He made me laugh on the way back to his room when his neighbor across the hall was blocking the doorway as she was wheeling herself back to her room - as soon as Grandpa had enough clearance to the side, he zoomed right around her leaving her in the dust. Lol. A little nursing home competition :)

After visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, we went shopping. I got the basics: socks and a popcorn popper. I also picked out a frame for a print my parents gave me for Christmas of the woods up the valley from their house. I love it and can't wait to hang it up at our house. I've narrowed it down to two different spots in the house where the picture would look good, but I think it might find its way to the dining room.

Ryan wasn't able to get the week off so he came back Monday afternoon. Hillary, the two Ryans and I ate at Mexican Village before Ryan made the trek back. It has been forever since I've eaten at Mexican Village. Brings me back to my college days. Before heading back to my parents' house, we stopped by the Red Box and rented a few movies. For the rest of the day, we watched movies and went through some of my mom's Christmas things. It was fun looking at all the ornaments that we've gotten through the years. Hillary and I both packed up all of our personal ornaments and were able to bring them home to use on our trees this year. {We packed up Kristin's for her too.}

On Tuesday, Hillary and Ryan made their way back up to Duluth and I worked on a presentation for work. After my parents finished work, Sophie and I went to the polling place with them. Sophie LOVES going for rides in the car. She is too cute. When my parents went into vote, Sophie started to panic a little bit since she couldn't see them - lol, she is too pretictable.

I've had a lingering head cold for the past two and a half weeks but it seemed to get a little worse or the course of vacation :( I was so stuffed up and didn't sleep the best at night as it was difficult to breath at times. Wednesday I just relaxed during the morning and napped here and there. Then I took Sophie for a ride up the valley. There is something so peaceful and relaxing about bring back in the woods. The drive up the valley is so incredibly pretty, and its also therapeutic just going for that drive. Sophie and I took our time driving all the way up to the top of the valley and then turned around and drove back. When we got to the bottom of my parents' driveway, Sophie gave me a look like "Do we have to go home? Can we keep driving?" {I tell you, she loves going for rides} So I took her into work to see mom and dad. After we got back home, it was nap time for a short while until I was off to get my hair cut {chopped off 6 inches} and then over to Owatonna for dinner with one of the OB/Gyn's I worked with when I was a medical student.

Thursday, I felt so crummy. So congested and my poor nose was starting to hurt from having to blow it so frequently. I made the drive back home Thursday and have been just relaxing and taking it easy for the past couple of days. Yesterday was beautiful outside. It was 74 degrees! Ryan and I did a bunch of yard work {hopefully the  last time we have to mow the lawn this year} and also put up some of our Christmas lights. We got a few looks as people drove by, but this year is the first year we put our lights up with nice weather. We're usually putting them up when it's freezing cold outside. We won't turn them on until after Thanksgiving though because that drives me nuts when people do that. It's a good thing we enjoyed being outside yesterday as right now, it's 24 degree outside :/

~Ashley

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I love Halloween. I dream of throwing a big halloween party some day with lots of themed food and snacks and decorations. Growing up in the country, we never had trick-or-treaters, so ever since Ryan and I have had a house of our own, I looking forward to handing out candy. Every year since we've been homeowners, well longer than that actually, I've wanted to hand out full-sized candy bars to the trick-or-treaters but it has never panned out. So this year, I told Ryan that we had to stop by costco or Sam's club to by candy bars. Well, neither Ryan or I had a chance to make it to the store today, so I found myself stopping my Target on the way home from clinic this evening to pick up candy.

We had 103 trick-or-treaters tonight before we turned off our light. We started the night by giving the kids two little candy bars but had to scale that back to just one as our candy supply was rapidly starting to dwindle. I'd say the best costume of the night was one of our very first kids. He was young, probably 3 years old. He had a homemade SpongeBob character {I'm not up to snuff on SpongeBob} costume. It was the cutest thing ever because he couldn't see his feet and couldn't look down into the candy bowl to grab the candy. His parent's had to help him down the stairs too. We watched him walk down the street and, likely it is one of those gotta-be-there moments but I wish I would have had a video camera, he looked like if you gave him a little nudge, he'd fall over and not be able to get up. Ha! So cute. I also had a little kid ask, "Can I get another one of these for my dad?" Hey, at least he was being honest as he went reaching back into the candy bowl. Zoey sat at the top of the stairs the entire night and one little kids rang the doorbell and then yelled 'Woah, look at that fat cat!' before we even opened the door to give him candy. Oh Zoey, you bring so much joy to our lives.

I was reminiscing about Halloween of years past year Ryan tonight. I remember how when I was little, a lot of the Halloween costumes came in a box and consisted of a face mask and drape-like thing that covered your body. I also remember being a ballerina princess. I might have even been a ballerina princess on more than one Halloween. Either that, or I dressed up in that costume quite a bit - ha! I loved the crown and the sparkly wand and the fluffy skirt.  I also remember how we'd go to Grandma and Grandpa Frost's house and grandma would be in her cheese cloth ghost costume. There was we scary music playing from the window and Grandma would open the door and scare us. This happened every year without fail. I always got scared. I even specifically remember one year, I knew she would be coming to the door and scaring us, so I stared in the window along the side of the door thinking to myself 'If I know when she's coming, she can't scare me.' Wrong! She still got me that year! Most years I think my grandparent's handed out raisins. That's my Grandma, always thinking healthy :) I also remember also stopping by Misses Degonda's house. She always had treats for us and she would also give us plants too. I also remember trick-or-treating at Rosie's house and how she would remove the window from the screen door so when she opened the main door, she didn't have to take out little kids by opening the outside door. And how could we forget the Halloween Snow Storm. Halloween is such a fun holiday for kids and adults a like.

So, Happy Halloween! Don't eat too much candy!

~Ashley

Furry Friends

I love these guys!
Cooper is definitely my pal. He is by my side 24/7 when I'm at home. And Zoey, she is such a sweetheart.

Zoey is just so cuddable (I don't think that is a word). But look at her. I can't resist cuddling with her.

And Mr. Cooper....

Always helping me study at night.

Loves when I open the deck door for him to enjoy the fresh fall air.

Extreme Close UP! I think you call this a bad whisker day - lol! {This is what happens when he decides to sit on my chest when I'm trying to fall asleep.} LOL!

A little better - not as an extreme close up as the last. This is just proof that he is constantly stuck to me like glue - he'll stay on my chest regardless if I make a big flash go off right in his face or not :)

~Ashley

Defining a bad call shift.

I was on call last night. I was absolutely dreading this call shift as the prior call shift left me feeling completely defeated, frustrated, angry, and with little self confidence. I was in a funk all day Saturday morning in anticipation for heading in for the night shift. I prayed several times through out the day for a decent call shift without you-know-what hitting the fan every two seconds. Anyways, turns out my call shift wasn't that bad. And in fact, it was one of the best call shifts ever and I even got a couple hours of sleep (I think). At 3:00 am when I went to lay down, I got to thinking (agh! thinking will get me everytime!). All that I could think about was now that I was having a decent call shift, it made me realize even more just how crap-tastic my last few call shifts have been. Last night I actually got to eat dinner and I actually got to go to the bathroom which is a far cry from the prior call shift that was so stinkin crazy that I never even had a chance to sit down. 16+ straight hours (well in technicality, my last call shift was at the end of a 12 hour work day, gotta love residency) of running around and it took a call shift like last night to realize even more that, yep, I was right - I'm not over-exaggerating when I say life as a resident if absolutely crazy sometimes. Yeah, that prior call shift still ranks as the crappiest day of residency. Ever. So glad to have had a normal call shift last night. So, so thankful. I needed that to regain some sanity.

~Ashley

Personal History Making Day :)

I'm going to remember today for years and years to come. I got to primary my first abdominal hysterectomy today! I loved every single second of if. It may not sound like a big deal, but this is a huge day in the life of a budding OBGyn. It's days like today that make up for the days in residency where you're left wondering why in the world you are even doing what you are doing. Those days when you literally want to poke your eyeballs out. Those days when you swear if you pager goes off one more time, you'll throw it out the stinkin' window. Those days when you-know-what seems to constantly be hitting the fan. Those days when we just want to throw in the towel and call it quits. Ugh, those days seems to come all too often sometimes. Today is not one of those days. Today was a good day. In my program, first and second year residents rarely get to do hysters, as the primary normally goes to the third or forth year upper level on service. The glorious thing about being on my current rotation is that I'm it. I'm the only resident, so I get all the cases. I love it. Regardless of how many times I sit and wonder if I really chose the right career path and question why I put myself through the trenches of residency, today totally makes up for it. Here's to many more cases to come {and only 2.5 more years of residency!}.
~Ashley

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, Ryan and I had some visitors from Minnesota. The weather on Thursday and Friday was rainy and cold but on Saturday when Kelsey, Sandi and Gabe arrived, the weather was perfect. It was such a nice fall day. We took every to Vala'a Pumpkin patch. Ryan and I went last year during the week so it wasn't very busy. Saturday was a different story - it was soooo busy! Lots and lots of people and lines everywhere you turned! But we still had fun. We raced eachother on peddle bikes (no pictures since we were all intense in the moment), we ate turkey legs, we watched the pumpkin chunking cannon fire away, we watched pig races, we ate corn dogs, we took a hayride out into the pumpkin patch, and we bought kettle corn and hot chocolate and of course you can't forget about the caramel apples. It was a lot of fun, but boy was I tired by the time we got home. {That and I think that I finally caught Ryan's cooties and have had a really bad sore throat for the past two days :/} I forgot to bring my camera so we only got cellphone pictures. Enjoy.

Being kids :)

Enjoying our caramel apples!

Ryan, Gabe, Sandi and Kelsey waiting for the pig races to start.

Turkey Leg!

Kelsey tackling her turkey leg!

That's all I have for pictures. Wish I would have taken more but we were all having fun.
~Ashley

All gone

We had two solid days of rain, wind and coldness. Our leaves are now gone for the winter :(

~Ashley