Quick Update

Just a quick update {before we disconnect the internet} of what we've been up to lately.

This past weekend was a busy one for us. After a long day of packing on Friday, we met up with our friends Zac and Leah at the Elks in Austin for the evening. They were having karaoke that night. I could never have the guts to get up and sing in front of everyone. I give credit to those people who do because man some people were WAY off key. But as long as they were having fun :)

Ryan's dad broke his leg last weekend and is in a cast with zero weight bearing on that leg for another 3 weeks. So on Saturday we helped his parents out around their house. Ryan mowed the lawn and I helped clean up some trees they recently had taken down. I worked up a pretty good sweat and got a nice sunburn while doing so. After the trees were all cleaned up, I cleaned myself up {and checked for ticks - not a one, I was happy} and Ryan and I were on our way back to Owatonna. One of Ryan's friends from Omaha recently moved up to the cities and was at Cabela's, so we met up him for dinner at the Sportsman's. When we walked into the restaurant, I ran into my friend Katie M who I have known since before I was in kindergarten as we went to day care together. It was nice to catch up with Katie. After dinner, Ryan's friend Chester came back to our place {which was a total disaster since we've been packing} and we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful night. Couldn't ask for better weather right now!

I've been helping my parents gut one of our building at their place. So on Sunday, I headed over to help them out. We worked a lot on Sunday {nine hours total} and made a ton of progress! The building is looking good! Before heading back to Owatonna, I stopped by my grandparent's place to visit with them for a while. Right as I got there, Grandpa was making popcorn! He makes the best popcorn in the world!! While Grandpa was popping away at the stove, Grandma filled me in on all the family gossip...Mike sold his house in Rochester, Hollis caught his first fish {a walleye} this last weekend with Dick, Dean is feeling good since his surgery, etc :) It's good to get the scoop on what's new in the family. After an hour or so, I decided I better hit the road as it was getting late and I had had a long day. By the time I got home, my body of so stiff and sore. Sitting in a car for an hour after doing all this manual labor was not good. I took a couple ibuprofen and went straight to bed!

I woke up Monday and my aches and pains from the night before were gone but I had a nasty head cold that set in :( So I've been blowing my nose constantly trying to alleviate some of the sinus congestion :( It's getting back but I'm not 100% yet. Yesterday there was more packing and well more packing. We took a break and drove to Austin to get Ryan's "fun car" {his Camaro that he's had since high school} out of storage at the Mower County Fair Grounds. While we were in Austin we also ate at Piggy Blues {delicious!} and was able to say by to our friend Josh. Then it was back home for more packing and packing and packing.....

As of today we are making good progress. This morning has been a busy one already. We stopped by the bank to turn in all of the coins we've collected over the past couple of years {cha-ching!} and got our cashier's check for the closing tomorrow. Then we took a load of stuff we didn't need to the Salvation Army {it feels so good to declutter}. Then we went to pick up our moving truck. I left Ryan at the rental place to get the truck and I came home to pack {or write this blog post - ha!}. I just heard his pull up outside so I better run! More about our move to come! (sorry for mis-spellings, etc - no time to proof right now)

~Ashley

Busy, busy week

This last week has been a busy one for Ryan and I. It all started last Monday - Ryan was still working on his dissertation edits and I had nothing going on. I was getting stir-crazy. I could have started packing for our move to Omaha or I could have cleaned the house or I could have done just about anything but I wanted to get out of the house and get away for a while. Ryan suggested taking a road-trip to see some friends from college so after searching last-minute vacations online and realizing it was not in our budget, I started making some phone calls and soon had plans for the rest of the week.

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.

Hadley using her legs :)

She loved the merry-go-round

One of my favorites of her from the day.

Miss Hadley

This butterfly flew in right as I was taking pictures of the flower.

One of the several painted turtles we saw.

 

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

I {heart} my Zoey!

When most people see her, they stop and stare. But when I see her, I pick her up {remembering to bend at the knees so I don't hurt my back} and snuggle her a little! Yes, my little cat Zoey is quite large and I love every pound of her. It hasn't always been the case, but she is the most mellow cat these days {probably because she is intolerant of most activities}.

Zoey was born during the summer of 2004. She was the cutest little kitten in the whole liter!!

There she is - the little one in the middle!

Isn't she adorable!

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She came to live with me at my apartment in Mankato while I was in college. It was there in Mankato that we discovered many, many things about my little Zoey. One, she had ear mites. Two, meow mix cat food did a number on her poor little stomach. Three, she sucks the tip of her tail. Four, she LOVES feathers. Five, she LOVES to eat. Six, she can play dead. Seven, she'll sleep in your underwear drawer if you forget to close it {cough, RJ, cough, cough}. Eight, she loves looking out windows. Nine, she is absolutely terrified of vacuums.

Zoey's bad hair day after getting ear mites washed out of her poor little ears.

She was not a happy camper the rest of the day, poor thing :(

Here she is a little bigger.

Just hanging out on the window ledge.

After Mankato, she moved to St. Peter with my sister Hillary. {I was up in the cities taking classes at the U and staying with Kristin who is allergic}. It was in St. Peter where she really gave Hillary a hard time. Zoey decided that she liked the bubbles her automatic water dish made if she flipped the little lever to get more water out. She continued to hit the lever, see the bubbles, hit the lever, see the bubbles, etc until the entire water dish was drained and all of the floor. {Zoey, you are a naughty kitty!} It is also here where Zoey became over-obsessed with her food. She would eat and eat and eat all day is she could. So we resorted to feeding her two times a day and eventually she got an automatic feeder which would dispense a quarter cup of food twice a day. This in turn caused more problems for poor Hillary. Zoey would sit at her bowl and meow and cry and act like she was going to die if she didn't get more food. {The vet even considered anti-depressants for her at this time although we never put her on them} She eventually learned how to stick her hand up the machine and get a couple extra crunchies to come out. {She's pretty smart!}

Zoey had a lot of energy when she lived in St. Peter. She was run back and forth through Hillary's apartment if she got razzed up. I wish I would  have videotaped her because she would go absolutely nuts. She would run to the sliding glass door, see her reflection in the window, get scared, hiss at herself, get even more scared, turn around, run like a bat out of you know where and then she was shimmy up the bathroom door frame. Hillary and Ryan C. liked to give Zoey catnip from time to time and Zoey LOVED it. She would get all happy and rub all over everything. One thing Zoey liked to do in St. Peter was jump from the floor to the counter to the top of the fridge to the top of the cupboards and watch Hillary cook, do dishes, etc. Well, once when she was high on catnip, she went to the top of the cupboards and started rubbing against the edge. Well what do you know, she was so into rubbing against the cupboards that she rolled right off the top of them! Per Hillary and Ryan, the only thing that got hurt was her pride - ha! Zoey gained the nickname Zoikes while in St. Peter and Hillary and Ryan would pull out the "zoikesanator" {squirt bottle filled with water} whenever Zoey was being naughty.

Here she is sucking her tail {hehehe, Ryan just saw this picture and asked if this picture was recent as she "looked a little thin."}

This is her playing dead. In Mankato, my roommate RJ would tell people when they showed up at our apartment "Hey look! My cat plays dead." He would then make a gun with his thumb and index finger point it at Zoey and go "Bam! Bam!" and when the people turned to look at Zoey, she'd be laying like this - lol.

After St. Peter, she moved up to Duluth with me for medical school. I continued with the automatic feeder as to not let her gain too much weight that she had already proved possible. She loved Duluth. Outside one of my windows was a pine tree with lots of bird activity. She would sit on her little perch in front of that window for hours and cackle at the birds and try to attack them! While bird watching her tail would zip back and forth like something fierce.

She was a good companion to have up in Duluth as I went through my first year of medical school. And for the most part she was pretty well behaved besides begging for more food everyday. {I didn't give her any catnip though.} She would sit on one of the dining room chairs next to me while I studied. She never let me out of her sight. If I was in the living room and had to go to the bedroom to get something, sure enough, she would only be a few steps behind. In the mornings, I would go to the kitchen to get breakfast and she would follow behind and then lay on the rug in the kitchen. She has a little red cat bed that I put in the corner of my bed and every night she would jump up on the bed and climb into her little bed for the night. It was nice to have somebody with me in my apartment as living by yourself can be kind of lonely sometimes. Oh, she also played catch like a dog! It was awesome!

For my second year of medical school, I moved in with Hillary at her place in Duluth which meant Zoey had to go live with Ryan in Omaha. She had a good time in Omaha. It was the first time she ever experienced stairs and still to this day she goes up and down stairs pretty funny - Front foot 1, front foot 2, back foot 1, back foot 2 and then on to the next step. She continued to like feathers, catnip and laying in the window down in Omaha. She took a liking to laying in boxes while here as well. She stayed on the automatic feeder in Omaha - twice a day as normal - until Ryan couldn't take her endless crying in the middle of the night and waking the other roommates up for food, so he set the feeder to three times a day. And this my friends, is the beginning of Zoey's life as a fat cat! I remember going down to Omaha to see Ryan after he had unknowingly-to-me set the auto feeder to three times a day and Zoey was HUGE. It looked like she had a volleyball in her belly! But turning up the feeding frequency stopped her mid-night cryings and she's been one happy little big camper since!

Hanging out in Ryan's sock drawer.

Being naughty and eating Ryan's paper.

She loves feathers!!

Waiting at the window for Ryan to come home.

More feathers!

Sucking her tail.

She ate through a bag of cat treats! Must have been before the feeder went up to three times a days.

She even broke into the catnip bag.

Sleeping on her back as usual.

She's been in Owatonna with us for the past two years. She likes it here as well. She no longer gets to use the auto feeder as we have two cats and she would eat  both cat's portion of food. So she is large but she sure is happy. She still has a fear of vacuums and blots when ever she sees it come out. She loves when we open the doors and windows so she can sit in front of them and smell the fresh air. We give her baths on a pretty regular basis to keep her bottom clean. She is getting more used to them and I might say she actually enjoys them now.

It is really cute. Just yesterday I was out pulling weeds in the front yard landscaping. Zoey was sitting on the screen door watching me. She gave me a little meow and I started talking to her. For about three minutes I could say "Hi Zoey! I love you! Whatcha doing in there?, etc" and she would respond back with little meows. She melts my heart!

She sits up against the wall like this and Ryan thought it would be funny to add a beer :)

She still sits with my when I'm studying.

Bathtime!

This was bath time when we had the rescue kittens at our house. Poor Zoey probably felt like she was on display.

She doesn't fit in her little red bed the best anymore :( {I had a better picture of this but I can't find it at this moment}

Ryan posted this picture on facebook and one of his friends made the boarder around it - lol!

Oh Zoey, you made be big, but I love you to pieces!

~Ashley

Bekah

Time is ticking down before residency starts. I have so many great memories from medical school but I'm sure my four years of residency will be filled with wonderful memories as well. I met some of the best people during medical school - some of the best friends anyone could ask for. I'm kind of sad that everyone is moving away to their residency destinations. Even if they aren't moving far or are staying in Minnesota, I'm moving away from them!

This last week I had a little going-away lunch with Bekah in the cities. Bekah is moving to Michigan where she will be doing five years of residency in urology. I know that she will do great. She is the best and here are a few reasons why:

- She can always make me laugh regardless of what the situation is at hand. She has a way of putting a comical spin on anything. When she tells me stories, I can actually picture her doing/saying whatever it is. Laughter is the best medicine and Bekah sure has it down pat.
- She never takes life too seriously and is always up to have a little fun {Oh, the memories I have of her :)}
- She is a very strong person. For a majority of our second year of medical school, her fiance was deployed over in Iraq. I don't know how she managed to get through him being away at war while still keeping up with medical school and everything else going on in her life. {I'll never forget her bringing care packages into class prior to mailing them off to Greg - they were packed full of goodies!} On top of all of this, she is in the military and spent weekends at drill and she also worked for the medical examiner. She not only is strong but she is pretty darn organized.
- She is a very generous individual. Just one example of this is that during medical school she made sure to pay-it-forward by giving to those less fortunate on a monthly basis and never expected anything in return. I strive to be like this more often.
- We can pick up where we left off regardless of how long it has been since we last talked.
- She's super talented! She knits the most beautiful mittens in the world and can make stockings and scarves like nobodies business. She can sew and quilt - she just finished a huge king size quilt and that is NOT an easy task. She makes good food too {and invites people over to eat it}! And she can also refinish furniture. She's one crafty lady!
-She is full of hugs. She hugs everyone!! {Even if they don't like hugs - I'm thinking about one of her roommates during med school - ha!} Bear Hugs!

I could continue on, but the bottom line is I am blessed to have Bekah in my life! She is one of the best and I'm going to miss her when she's in Michigan and I'm in Nebraska.

~Ashley

Spelunking

Yesterday, Ryan and I took a little road trip and were spelunkers for the day down to Harmony! In the Southwestern part of Minnesota, there are several caves which have been carved through the limestone as rivers rushed through. We went to Niagara Cave, which is supposed to be the biggest and coolest cave to explore {there is also the Mystery Cave State Park in Forrestville down there}. It was such a pretty drive to Harmony - lots of rolling hills, a drive through a massive wind farm, and the "Amish Byway" which didn't disappoint as we saw a few horse-drawn covered-buggies truckin down the side of the road! When we arrived at Niagara Cave, it looked, well, completely normal. It was basically in the middle of farm land. Who would have thought that there was this big beautiful cave below!

We paid the admission fee and then I had to pay for a sweatshirt. Yes, I got suckered in purchasing a souvenir sweatshirt since I didn't bring a jacket and the cave is 48 degrees. Luckily, Ryan brought his jacket so we didn't have to purchase two! The tour was a mile long - a half mile into the cave and a half mile back out. It was SO cool! I would recommend this tour to anyone. The cave is actually pretty big and it has a 70 foot waterfall inside!!! SO COOL!!! Check out the pictures below and then I'll tell you a funny story :-) Oh, forgot to mention, there is even a little chapel down in the cave :)

Lots and lots of steps into the cave.

More steps down to the waterfall.

There is still a river running through the cave.

The watefall - up close and personal! We had to walk out on this little bridge to see the waterfall and it made my stomach kind of queasy! {This picture was taken with no flash to give it the cool effect.}

This is the waterfall as taken with flash.

This picture is taken looking straight up to the top of the cave.

Note the lovely sweatshirt!

It's alive! {That slimy looking stuff is growing, but you can't touch it or the oils from our skin will cause it to die.}

I can't help but say "superstar!" when looking at this picture :)

More slimy-looking stuff on the cave wall.

These little stalactites are 80 years old. Very slow growing!

More growing slime :)

A very narrow and talk part of the cave.

They call this the skeleton arm and hand. Can you see the two arm bones and then the finger bones?

This is called the "wedding cake" {to go along with the wedding theme with the capel and all}. You can't see the bottom tier but you can see the top two.

One of a couple different fossils.

Stalactites.

Even bigger stalactites!

An enormous stalactite!

The big stalactite was at the end of the cave. When we got here they turned all the lights off and it was dark! Like dark, dark, dark. Like can't-even-see-your-hand-even-though-it's-one-milimeter-in-front-of-your-face dark! They kept the lights off for quite a long time, and then I got nervous that bats were going to start flying around. Someone then asked the tour guide to turn the lights back on. (ha - they must have been thinking something similar as me!}

And now to the funny story. Once we started heading back to the surface, Ryan and I were in the back of the group with the tour guide. There was a group of four people in front of us - two mid-aged couples. Anyways, the last part of getting out of the cave is climbing back up all the stairs which we first came down. We went up the first flight and one of the couples in front of us sat and took a break. The other couple from their group continued on up. {Ryan and I are now in the middle of these two couples.} Well the couple in front didn't know their friends had stopped to rest {and hence, didn't know Ryan and I were right behind them} and the wife of the couple, she started asking her husband to give her a push up the stairs. {hehehe, snicker, snicker - I can't even write this without laughing!} So he's pushing her, giving her a little help up the steep steps, and then she tells her husband "Hun, can you move down, like underneath my butt more and push." {hehehehehe} The husband then replies "No, I can't. Wife: "Just move your hands down underneath my butt and push." {hehehehe} Husband: "I can't. You're too high up." Wife: "Put your hands on my butt and push!" {LOL, hehehehehe, LOL}. Then we got to a break in the stairs, they turned around, saw Ryan and me and told us we could go ahead of them. So Ryan and I continued up the stairs and by the time we reached the top, our legs were burning! {There were so many steps!!} I didn't really laugh out loud when hearing the conversation between the husband and wife, I was just laughing inside. I thought it was kind of cute - something I'd ask Ryan to do - hehe! Maybe this isn't a funny story to any of you reading this, but it might be one of those had-to-be-there moments because I'm still laughing!

And that about sums up our day at Niagara Cave!

~Ashley