Lois

Ryan and I said goodbye to his Grandma this week. We were able to say our goodbyes over the phone as we were not able to make it up to the hospital Thursday night. We will miss her but will cherish the memories we have.

July 2006 ~ Me, Lois and Ryan at our house in Baton Rouge

LOIS AUDREY THORSON was born on May 7, 1924 to Irving and Mary (Klees) Strassburg at the family’s home in Hardwick, Minnesota. She was baptized and confirmed at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Luverne, Minnesota. She attended grade school in Hardwick and graduated from Edgerton Public High School in Edgerton, Minnesota. Following school, she worked as a housekeeper and took care of various families in the area. Lois was united in marriage to Wallace Thorson on July 12, 1943 in Luverne. She then became a member of Blue Mound Lutheran Church where she was confirmed and active in Ladies Aid. The couple made their home on his parents’ farm just east of Hardwick. She helped on the farm and was a homemaker to their four children. She later worked at the Blue Mound Inn. Following Wallace’s death on August 29, 2005, Lois moved into Luverne and enjoyed keeping an active social life with her girlfriends. She moved to the Good Samaritan Society - Mary Jane Brown Home on December 31, 2012. On Friday, January 25, 2013 Lois died peacefully surrounded by her family at the Sanford Luverne Hospital at the age of 88 years, 8 months, and 18 days.

Lois was a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Luverne where she belonged to GLCW. She was a member of the Red Hat Club and enjoyed volunteering in the community, including at the Hinkley House. She was an avid reader and enjoyed craft work, spending time on the computer, and taking many short family vacations. She especially enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Lois is lovingly remembered by her children, Kieth Thorson and his wife Pauline of Hardwick, Stephen Thorson and his wife Renee of Austin, Minnesota, and Christie Heitman of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; eight grandchildren, Timothy, Matthew, Kari, Bryan, Amy, Jason, Cory and Ryan; eight great-grandchildren; son-in-law, Robert Sprengeler of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and her sisters-in-law, Delores Strassburg and Gerry Strassburg. She was preceded in death by her husband, Wallace; daughter, Cathy Sprengeler; grandson, Travis Thorson; and her siblings, Darrell Strassburg, Clifford Strassburg, Naomi Strassburg, and Elaine Clark.

Lois and Ryan on our wedding day.

 ~Ashley

A picture worth a thousand words

Oh Zoey, I love you! {LOL}

Brewing up something good!

For Christmas, we got this....

....and love it!

Ryan wanted to big cup of hot chocolate this past weekend and that is exactly what he got!

Does this kid like his toppings or what?!

~Ashley

My last year in my twenties!

Yep, I just turned 29. That looks old as I type it, but I don't feel that old! My birthday was this past Thursday and I was on home call Wednesday night. Again, home call can be hit or miss and I had bad luck and got called in. {These last few call shifts have been really busy, usually it isn't like this.} I had some stuff for work to finish up at the University Wednesday night after I finished my clinic and just as I was getting ready to leave, I got called in to admit a new patient - I knew that this patient was coming so it wasn't a big deal. I was just glad that I got called as I was leaving the University and not after I got home. After finishing the admission, I ended up getting home at 930p. {It makes for a really long day when your day starts before 600a!} I spent an hour or so talking with Ryan and getting ready for bed before falling asleep at 1030p. Ryan stays up late and just as he was getting ready to come to bed, my pager went off :( Into the hospital I went at midnight. I was actually getting called in to go to the OR so that wasn't so bad - it's better than going in and writing an H&P sometimes! Anyways, the procedure went well - it was an interesting case - and then I ended up staying and helping out with another case. By the time both of those cases ended, I took a nap in the call room and then got up to start my day.

All in all, I got to deliver five babies on my birthday. Last year I got to deliver zero, so I was excited to finally deliver some kiddos with the same birthday as me. Nobody named their baby Ashley though :( Since I was up and at the hospital most of the night I was able to leave work somewhat early. I got home, took a 3 hour nap and then Ryan was getting home. We went out to a steakhouse for my birthday dinner. Neither Ryan nor I had ever been to this steakhouse but let me tell you - they have the best steak that I have ever eaten...in...my....entire.....life! It was literally melt-in-your-mouth good! They brought out flowers since it was my birthday and also put a candle in our big piece of chocolate cake that we got for dessert - so good!

Ryan told me at dinner that I was chipper and awake but my eyes looked really heavy like they could close at a moment's notice. Check out the bags underneath my eyes. I think the shadows make them look bigger than they were!

If there is one thing that I could change about Cooper, it would be his love for flowers. And by love, I mean his love to EAT flowers. He is a maniac when it comes to fresh flowers. He feels the need to chew off all the petals :( We got to take the flowers from our table home with us. We snuck {is that a word?!} the flowers in past him so he didn't see and hid them by the sink behind a water pitcher. He didn't get to them there but we couldn't even see them! I figured, what's the point of having flowers if you can't see them. So I moved them to an open spot on the counter but still back by the back splash so hopefully Cooper wouldn't see them. Wrong, he attacked this flowers like nobodies business the first time we let them out of our sight. Little stinker!

It started off with just a few petals on the counter....

....and went to even more petals....

....until he darn near chewed off all the petals. I must note that he didn't touch the roses. Hmm...maybe that's the solution to the problem - only roses from now on :)

~Ashley

A drive to clear the head

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before I was on call. It was actually home-call which can be really hit or miss. Well that weekend and actually the two days prior to the weekend ended up being super busy. I ended sleeping a vast majority of Sunday after being at the hospital all night Friday until Saturday evening....

I'm thankful that Ryan documents times like these where I am completely passed out from exhaustion but Zoey loves me all the same and still likes to cuddle with my sleeping self.

Looking at that picture makes me feel tired for myself!

When I woke up on Sunday I was kind of in the pits - just blah. Everything that was keeping me busy the days before weren't exactly "happy" things. As I've said before, ob isn't all rainbows and butterflies. I'll leave it at that. By Sunday night, I was still really tired but needed to get out of the house and do something to make me feel like a normal person. So what did we do? I, in my pajamas, grabbed the blue comforter from the above picture {which I've had since I was in 8th grade! It's so warm and comfortable!}, and got into the passenger seat of Ryan's car, turned on the seat heater and Ryan drove me to down to the Old Market. Last year, we discovered that they go all out down in the Old Market and put white lights in literally every tree. It is actually breath taking the first time you see it. Anyways, we knew from last year that they do this but we hadn't been in the area at all this past Christmas season. I figured looking at all the lights would cheer me up. So Ryan took me for a quick drive to see the lights and then we drove home again. I'm so thankful for a supportive husband who doesn't mind driving 15 minutes both ways to see three minutes worth of Christmas lights :)  I didn't have our camera so these cellphone pictures will have to do. I would love to actually take some good pictures down there one of these years. Just imagine the below pictures multiplied on every street for several blocks. Gorgeous.

Sorry, this is blurry but they don't just use a few tiny strands, they literally go all out!

Again, blurry but you get the point.

 If you are ever around Omaha near the holidays, this is a must see.

~Ashley

Taking a study break to give an update

Things are about status quo here and that means on thing....busy... *sigh*

My month in the ICU ended on New Years Day and now I've been at our private hospital on labor and delivery. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not but Ryan's parents came down to visit over Christmas. It was nice that they were able to come down and hang out with Ryan because I spent the vast majority of their time here either working or sleeping post-call. So remember at the beginning of December when Ryan and I cut down the tree from our front yard to use as our Griswold Thorson-family Christmas tree? Well, unfortunately we only got around to putting lights up on it. This tree was in a sad state of affairs the entire Christmas season but none-the-less, I love when the house is dark at night except for the glow of the Christmas tree. I'm kind of embarrassed to post the picture of our tree as I never pulled out our real camera to take its picture. I just used my cellphone. Well, I take that back, I used Ryan's mom's camera when they were down here but forgot to get the pictures before they left. So here it is, our lovely Christmas tree for 2012...

Ahhh, lol! Don't mind the branches that never "let down" lol. We positioned it so the best view was upon entering the house and coming up from the basement. This is not this trees best side. Lol. And not to mention this picture doesn't help the situation at all.

The cats remain the same and we are glad to have them as part of our home. Who wouldn't like to be greeted by these two cuties when getting home from work everyday?!?

Yeah, neither of them look to excited to see anyone in this picture....

Cooper continues to hate to be held. He tolerates me holding him because he knows if he tries to escape, I'll just snuggle him tighter :-) Usually when Ryan picks him up, he pins his ears straight back. The other day Ryan yelled for me to "come quick" as Coop was half-way tolerating Ryan holding him.

Coopers ears may not be pinned back but the look of shear panic on his face makes me laugh!

Zoey on the other hand, she cuddles without a problem

I know that's not much of an update, but more of what we've been up to will come in seperate posts in the next few days. These are just misc. pictures I wanted to post.

~Ashley

Pond Hockey 2013

I had to work today but Ryan had the day off and he spent it playing pond hockey on the lake behind our neighborhood. Someone at the game took pictures and posted them on facebook, so I was able to see how much fun Ryan had today. Thanks to the photographer!

Young and old - they all play hockey! {And yes, Ryan is wearing both jeans and sweatpants - he told me he needed to layer to keep warm.}

 

I like the snow pile for the goal :)

 

Looks like fun was definitely had by all!  Happy New Year from our house to yours! Here's to a great 2013!

~Ashley