Blast from the near distance past

Ryan went to a Poison concert back in July. I vaguely remember him going until I found a picture from the concert in his phone photo album. I must have been sleeping and recovering from June (my last exhausting month as an intern!)

~Ashley

It's getting more official.

Ryan accepted a faculty position at the med center and this made it a little more official for him I think...

...his own office :)

Today Ryan is taking his oral boards. I'm told they are rather under-whelming and "not a big deal." He just took his written board exam last week and who knows when we'll have the results of those. These are the last steps in him becoming fully licensed though and we're pretty excited.

~Ashley

Additional Pictures from Our Advantures of Babysitting

Just getting around to posting these pictures Ryan took doing our stay-cation. This little guy is so stinking cute!

Zoey has a few pounds on him!

Love this little expression :)

Everybody having a little floor time.

~Ashley

Stay-cation

This week we've been catching up on sleep and Ryan has been busy studying away.

This past weekend, we had some company over to watch Sunday football. Ryan purchased the NFL Sunday Ticket  from DirecTV so I'm guessing that our theater room will be having several guests over the course of this football season. One of the people that came is allergic to cats so I always try to vacuum all the cat hair to lessen his sneezing. Well, Zoey is afraid of the vacuum and seeks cover whenever the vacuum comes out of the closet. This is where I found her when I was done vacuuming...

....hiding half way underneath the bed.

For the first part of the week, Ryan and I tired our hands at babysitting a tiny little 5-week-old. He belongs to one of my resident-mates and he is so cute. When he arrive Monday morning, the cats weren't to sure what to think of him.

Zoey really didn't know what to think.

Cooper sought higher ground in case the little guy started moving - ha!

Ryan looking like an old pro at this.

He didn't do much other than sleeping, eating and....

pooping!

The cats eventually somewhat warmed up to him but in general, it was very short lived and they wanted nothing to do with him.

Striking similar poses - ha!

Cooper stayed this close for literally less than three seconds.

He is such a cutie!

The weather is starting to feel like fall around here. I love it! Ryan and I were out running errands and we picked up a giant mum for the front step for only $15! I can't wait until this mum is in full bloom!

Fills my planter nicely :)

Here is a view from inside the house. It's going to look so nice when all those blooms open!!

This week has gone by too quickly. Vacation also blows by too fast. ugh, I wish vacations lasted longer :( It'll be back to work for me on Monday, better get back to relaxing :)

~Ashley

Here is another post of random happenings around our place.

This is Ryan after scoring a hat trick (3 goals in one game).

Our cats are enjoying the cooler weather and I can tell they are excited for fall when we can leave our windows open more often. They are still predictable and like hanging out in our south window where they get lots of sunshine.

Hillary and Ryan had an eventful trip back to Duluth a few weekends ago. They got hit by a charging black bear while driving down the highway. This is too good not to post some pictures of. Seriously, what are the chances of having a black bear run into you as you are going 60 mph down the road. We're just glad that Hillary and Ryan didn't get hurt. The DNR is think the black bear was a 500lb fella that's been hanging out in the area of the accident. It appears that this accident didn't kill the bear so lets hope he doesn't charge another vehicle coming down the road.

Black bear hair in the tire!

They scared the you-know-what out of that poor bear and he left it on their car.

He sure crinkled the door!

Big enough impact to deploy the airbags!

 Ryan and I went back to Minnesota over Labor Day weekend for one of my med school classmate's wedding. It was held at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul - that place is absolutely gorgeous. I forgot my camera (and our wedding gift) back in Omaha. They had a photo booth which was fun and documents that we were there.

I'm not sure but I think Ryan is trying to be a gangster in the second photo - ha! :)

Duluth med school classmates

Kelsey and me!

Sunday night, we had a bonfire in the backyard. Sunday was so hot outside, that we couldn't sit too close to the fire, but it was a good way to relax after a pretty long week at work. My mom purchased this bonfire dome which is pretty cool. Ryan and I want one! You can build a pretty big fire underneath that dome.

On Labor Day Monday, my mom, Hillary and I went in to visit with my grandparents. My grandma was doing fantastic. She was able to open both of her eyes, talk to us and we even shared a few belly laughs :) Ryan and I hit the road back to Omaha around 10:30 that morning. Good thing we left early because we ran into a little car trouble. We were about three hours from home. I was driving. Ryan was sleeping. All of a sudden it got really humid in the car. I woke Ryan up and said 'Ry, it's really humid in here.' He told me 'Turn the air up.' I replied, 'I didn't adjust the air though,' just as I looked at the engine temp gage and the needle was rapidly climbing. Ryan quickly had me pull over to the side of the road. We called AAA and then were waiting for them to call us back with a tow company, etc (because of course nothing is open on a holiday) when a nice older gentleman pulled over to help us out. He clearly knew a thing of two about cars. Thankfully we were just past an exit for a small town which happened to have a gas station/mechanic shop just off the highway. He got us and our vehicle there and they were able to call in a mechanic for only $65. I didn't think that was too bad to have someone called in. Anyways, to make a long story short. Ryan and I waited over two and a half hours for the mechanic to take the thermostat out, then when he had everything back together, he went to fill the radiator with coolant and it drained out all over the floor. Yep, the radiator was broken. We then called Ryan's parents to see if they would bring us a vehicle since Ryan and I both had work in the morning. Yep, they were willing to bring us a vehicle (thank goodness) but we had to wait three hours for them to drive to the middle-of-nowhere-Iowa. Needless to say, our normal five hour trip home took almost 12 hours.... ugh :( Thank goodness for nice parents!

I started my REI (reproductive endocrinology and infertility) rotation this past week. It's going to be a nice rotation. But this past Friday started mine and Ryan's stay-cation. Ryan is taking his licensing exam next week so we are bumming around home this week. I'm hoping to catch up on sleep and work.

~Ashley