D-O-N-E!

Stick a fork in me kids!  I am DONE!  Today I successfully finished my first term of midwifery school!  We don't have semesters, but go year round completing four terms per year.  This means that if I keep this rate up, I will be done with my program in exactly two years from now!!!!  I'm feeling pretty good and quite happy!

NOW for my 10 day vacation from school!  :)  Our friend Ellen is coming to visit from Oklahoma for the weekend, so it's time for me to clean this severely neglected house up and wash our stinky dogs.  And really, I don't mind at all!  Anything is better than school at this point.

Hello!  We're still alive!  Just so busy we don't even know what to do with ourselves.  In the last two weeks here's a brief run-down of what we've been up to.  I promise I will start blogging again one day....

• We closed on the house and own it now!  It happened within six days of when we made our offer and much craziness, but we are happy everything went through alright!
• We applied for, were appraised for, and were accepted (last night!) for a line of credit to use towards construction so we can completely renovate the house and hopefully move in by November
• We are getting bids from various people to replace all the siding on the house.
• We have shopped for and set up Homeowners Insurance - who knew this was such a big deal in New Orleans???  Katrina was an unkind girl to that policy, but we're happy to own in an area which has not flooded since New Orleans became a city.
• I have learned how to wield a chain saw.  We've cut down two trees and numerous big rebel branches and so far no one has been hurt.  Thank the Lord.  Scott makes me nervous with that thing.  
• We've ripped out the nasty, old, stubborn fence that went down the middle of the new yard and cleaned up various amounts of garbage we discovered under the two foot layer of leaves/mulch that has been untouched back there for several years.  It will be excellent compost for our garden :)
• Speaking of gardens...we've planted one in our new yard.  And built a fence around it to keep the dogs out.  It's a big garden.  In two months we will have more tomatoes and various other veggies than we will know what to do with. 
• We survived Mardi Gras and had a blast!  We are paraded out though.  Whew.
• I am finishing my first term of nurse-midwifery school and trying to do that without completely getting my butt kicked.  This is a lot of work!  I can't wait for next Friday when I start my 10 day break, before diving into Term 2 in April!
• Elena is here right now visiting for a spur of the moment spring break trip - we're not doing anything too exciting (thank you school), but it's nice to have her around.
• We are training to run a 10k (6.2miles) at the end of April.  Health needs to stay a top priority, even though running is the LAST thing I want to do most days.

Sound like we've been busy enough??? I go to bed exhausted each night, but we are happy and doing well.

Fat Tuesday

To most of the rest of you this is just another Tuesday.  However, down here, in glorious New Orleans, the kids are out of school for the day, most businesses are closed down, and we're dressing up to head out to the parades in costume to celebrate   

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!