Hi

Has it really been an entire month since I last updated on here. Geez! Where does the time go? There is not much new around here but here's a few things we were up to this past month.

On one of my weekends off, Ryan and I drove back to his parents' place in Minnesota. It had been a while since I have seen our friends in his hometown {since before residency started} so it was so nice to have a weekend of relaxing and catching up with people. We grilled out at Zac and Leah's house, then bought dessert from the ice cream truck and finished up the night with a boys versus girls game of bean bag. Us girls won both games! We stopped by Matt and Carrie's and I met their sweet little Kallen for the first time. He is seriously the most relaxed and happiest baby ever! We slept with this windows open at night for the first time since Spring. We went to the new Batman movie. Renee and I got pedicures while Ryan and his dad had their own bonding time. Renee made a double batch of her homemade spaghetti sauce and sent us home with the leftovers! Ryan and his dad fried a turkey one night. I took a few naps. We watched the Olympics. We relaxed. We had a wonderful weekend! 

I finish a baby quilt just in time for a special little delivery that will always hold a special place in my heart. A fellow resident had a little boy whose nursery colors are grey and yellow. This baby quilt fit right in {minus one of the seams that ended up coming apart in the wash...oops...I'm a newbie at it, so I'm still learning}.

Getting all the pieces figured out.

All done.

Cute binding :)

My parents and Sophie came down and visited us here. We relaxed. Ate brunch at IHOP. Drove around Omaha, showed my parents the new hospital I'm at this year. I showed my parents Warren Buffet's house in all of its modesty. My mom and I made a baby blanket to donate to our Church's AppleFest. We took naps. We tried my dad's new body wash concoction. We trimmed our out-of-control-rose bushes and trimmed the tree in our front yard. We made chili for dinner and froze the left overs for later! We watched movies in our homemade movie theater. My parents brought me fresh sweet corn on the cob from the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. It was so good to have my parents down. I miss being closer to home so much!

I sliced my thumb open cutting the end off a piece of the above mentioned corn on the cob. Note to self: new knives are really sharp and just dirty the cutting board instead of cutting into your thumb next time.

This happened shortly after my parents left to head back to MN and Ryan had just finished up an old man's hockey league game. There was blood everywhere and the cut was deep. I called Ryan and told him to come home as I thought I might need stitches. This thing bled and bled and I could not get it to stop bleeding. It eventually slowed, I called Kristin to ask her opinions regarding stitches versus no stitches. I was a little concerned that it was my right thumb, I'm right handed and I do surgery on a daily basis. After an hour, we decided to have another doctor look at it. I debated urgent care vs. emergency room. After talking to Kristin, we decided that if I did indeed need stitches on my dominant hand's thumb, I better go to the ER where they do stitches on a more regular basis. So off the the ER {thumb still bleeding, I'm still holding pressure}. We get to the ER and the receptionist told us it was going to be a while as all the rooms were full. Then I thought to myself, "I'm not spending one of my four days off this month sitting in a hospital." So we left. Purchased super glue and glued the cut shut :) I'm happy to report that my thumb is healing nicely and I only missed one day of surgery. Doctors make the worst patients!

I went to one of Ryan's hockey games when I was on call one weekend. I surprised Ryan as he didn't think I was able to go. But I had my pager and cellphone and could leave the game if I got called into the hospital. Ryan was really surprised to see me there and his team won! Ryan got two goals too! I only saw one as I got a page and had to return the page out in the lobby as the ice arena was too loud to her anything on the phone. While waiting for Ryan to get out of the locker room after the game {he is ALWAYS the last one out of the locker room} I watched the little kids learning how to play hockey. They were so adorable!

One morning, the first thing I saw when I opened the garage door was this rainbow.

I texted Ryan the picture with the caption "It's gonna be a good day :)" Well it actually turned out to be a not so good day at the hospital. I'm not going to elaborate other than to say in the world of obstetrics, things aren't always teddy bears and happiness. I saw a second rainbow as I left work that day which I thought was fitting. Two rainbows for two not so happy situations. I haven't seen a rainbow since that day...

Cooper likes to take naps when I do. I woke up from a nap to see this at the end of our bed:

Since he's all black, it's hard to tell but is right arm is across his face in a very dramatic fashion. Cooper's hairless teats make me chuckle.

I caught Ryan having a little fatherly moment with Zoey one night. It made me smile that he is such an animal lover and takes such good care of our kiddos :) And not to mention, Zoey is pretty hairy so I like when she get deFURminated.

I went to the bookstore on campus and came across this shirt...

Interesting way to spread breast cancer awareness, don't you think? At least I think so!

I get to see some really pretty sunrises on my way into work some mornings.

We followed this truck one day and the dog melted my heart. So care free!

Ryan has been perfecting a dry rub for ribs on the grill. They are yummy!

I'm sure that I am missing some of the things from this past month but the above is all that could trigger memories as I browsed my cellphone pictures. Hopefully my next update isn't a month from now!

~Ashley

Hot Air Balloon

On my way into work this past week I spotted a hot air balloon off in the distance. At first I thought it was the ReMax Balloon but then I thought it was rather early in the morning to be trying to sell homes (5:45-6:00ish in the morning). As I drove closer, it was just a recreational hot air balloon.

{sorry for the poor quality, it's a cellphone picture}

I would love to go on a hot air balloon ride sometime and would actually love someday to go to the hot air balloon festival in New Mexico. One of the apple orchards here around Omaha had a {mini} hot air balloon festival this past fall but Ryan and I weren't able to go to the lighting ceremony {where they start to fill the balloons really early in the morning when it is still dark} because I was working that day :( Maybe this fall I'll not be on call so we can go. Anyways, as I was pulling into the hospital, I had to take a picture of the balloon in the distance...

{disregard the bug smear as this was taken through the car vehicle}

Picture perfect!

~Ashley

On Safari to Outer Space

I had this weekend off, so I wanted to do something to make me feel like a normal person. Ryan and I decided to get out and explore some of the things that Nebraska has to offer. Our first stop was the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari just a little bit south of Omaha. It is mainly a driving tour with one area with a foot trail to see bears and wolves.

Ryan was driving so I was manning the camera!

First wildlife encounter were the Elk {trying to keep cool since it has been so stinkin' hot down here for weeks now}.

There were tons of them and we were surprised at how large their antlers were.

I would hang out in this little pond if I were an Elk at this park as well. It was near 100 degrees when we were here and it was before noon. On a side note, I hate the hot, humid, heat. I wish it would rain here and cool it off. {I'm keeping my fingers crossed, they are saying maybe by Tuesday we'll get some rain.}

Next up were the white tail deer. These guys are pretty tame if you ask me. Nothing like the deer who jump out in front of your car on my parents' road.

Theme of the day: hang out in the shade!

The vehicle in front of us got a super up-close view of the deer.

We then braved the heat {sort of} to go see the wolves. The bears were hiding somewhere out of view {likely in the shade trying to keep cool}.

There was an owl exhibit along the way. I loved it. I think owls look so cool.

I see you lookin' at me!

These owls are the Eastern Screech Owls.

We stopped by the bear exhibit, but like I said before, they were nowhere to be seen. So onto the wolves we went. Ryan was excited the see the wolves since I swear it is one of his favorite animals of all time.

Ryan's comment to me after seeing the wolves involved something about his dogs looking like wolves and being bigger than these guys :)

We saw several Sandhill Cranes....

...and Bison butts.

As we sat in our air-conditioned car watching these bison, Ryan said to me, "Um, I bet these bison could really do some damage to our car if they wanted to!" I agreed with him and then became thankful that none of these bison were fighting when we saw them.

I'm guessing the people who live around the same area as this safari park are glad they have large fences to keep these animals contained.

After we finished our safari, we went to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. {Same exit, just opposite side of the interstate as the safari park.}

We were admiring this missile on the way in from the parking lot and little did we know that this ballistic missile is actually named.....wait for it.....

THOR!

We walked inside and were greeted by this giant jet...

Ryan thought it was funny to go all paparazzi on me. Kids will be kids I guess.

They are currently in the process of restoring this bomber. {I can't remember which bomber this is as I forgot to take a picture of it's name...oops.}

Getting ready to head down into the first exhibit.

Flight simulator or a child's toy?

Apparently a flight trainer.

This bomber dropped...

...small bombs...

...medium bombs....

...and large hydrogen bombs.... {Okay, so I think it was capable to dropping these big hydrogen nuclear bombs but never actually did.}

Looking up into the belly of the bomber.

There were several more jets and there was a space exhibit as well. I didn't do as good of a job taking pictures after the first exhibit because it was muggy in this place and I was getting tired. So there were several more things that we saw and we also watched a movie call "Great Balls of Fire" about meteors and asteroids. On our way out of the museum, we noticed lots of out of state license plates in the parking lot. We drove through the parking lot and found license plates from 16 different states - pretty cool to see.

Before going home, we stopped for ice cream at ColdStone. Once we got home, we sat in the air conditioning for a little bit before hooking up some sprinklers outside and sweating our behinds off in the short amount of time that it took to do it. Ugh, this heat is awful. I'm so thankful so a house with air conditioning!

All in all, Ryan and I had a good day being a "normal" couple doing "normal" things.

~Ashley