It's official!

Kinzie is now a Mackey!

We couldn't be happier and we love you lots sweetheart!

Adoption Day!

Today Scott's older brother, Kurt and our sister-in-law, Adrienne, finally have their family court hearing to adopt Kinzie!  She's been a part of this family for over two years, since she was just a few weeks old, as a foster child.  After today we hope to really, really be able to officially call her ours!  Please pray things go smoothly and quickly!

Happy Halloween!!

Antoine Dodson & me!

Members of the Tea Party - we even made tea bags and wore them on our backs

Roller Derby girls!

My friend Marissa & Kaytlin came from WI for the weekend

We are now off to enjoy NOLA in the sunshine for the day.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

A little behind:

Sometimes I get so behind on blogging that I just don't even know where to start.  Because to tell one thing leads to another, and then another, and pretty soon we have a whole freaking book on our hands and everyone is bored by the details.  SO, I will summarize.
1.  Last Wednesday we drove to Little Rock, AR.  In a minivan that we rented.  With the dogs.  It was a hoot.  Not really.  Eight hours on the road and I got my first speeding ticket ever.  Ugh.

2.  Last Thursday we had testing for Scott.  In Little Rock.  They were interested in Scott for a study drug.  They wanted to screen him and so they did a bunch of testing.  Things got mixed up, tests got ordered wrong and he ended up spending a total of  5 1/2 HOURS in the MRI machine.  His blood tests came back pretty good - the calcitonin is holding steady, he is a little less Hyperthyroid (closer to normal), the bone scan was negative for cancer, the MRI of the head was negative, and we're still waiting on results from the MRI of his entire body.   Needless to say we are having doubts about this study now that we are seeing how unorganized things seemed to be.

3. Friday we drove to Tulsa (four more wonderful hours in the car) and spent the weekend in Oklahoma.  We went to OSU Homecoming and got to see lots of friends which was a blast!  We also got to spend a good amount of time with the family and our Tulsa friends.  All in all it was a great, busy, fun weekend.

4. Tuesday we drove allllll the way back to New Orleans.  The dogs did great and spent the trip staring at (and sometimes jumping and biting at) light spots that moved across the ceiling of the van.  Scott and I spent the trip talking about lots of interesting things in life - including how sick of the car we were getting :)  We made the trip in 10hrs and 10mins and are quite proud of our time - even with almost three stops!  We're quick man.

5.  We've both been working since we got back.  We work tomorrow, then my friend from college flies into town and we go to a Halloween party! I need to get my costume ready now, so that's all folks!

P.S.  Next Tuesday we are having more testing done here in town that the study didn't cover (an Ultrasound of Scott's neck, and triple phase CT of his chest and liver), as Dr. Moley has recommended he have these.  Hopefully they're clear!  And then we'll be done with stuff for another three months :)  If not, we go from there.

Instructions on how to have a good time - From Lucy and Ariyah

1) Make one dog (Lucy) stand on owner's bed in play position 

2) Have another dog (Ariyah) race up and down the length of the house repeatedly with her butt tucked, past the first one (Lucy) as fast as possible.  

3) Every now and then add a bark to make sure everyone knows this is the best. game. EVER!

Disclaimer: This game works best in a shotgun house.  Must have at least two dogs.  Dogs must be able to bark and growl for extended periods of time to show delight and disrupt any work being done by owners.

Update on Scott:  It is time again for repeat testing!  October 21st (next Thursday) is Scott's follow up day.  We're going to be having all the regular blood tests, as well as some additional scans done to see where we're at with cancer.  Or hopefully our lack there-of, right?  :)

Date Night

We've still got it.  Last night Scott and I had an all out date night - a really fun, live like we're college kids again date night, complete with pizza and music.  After I worked my 12hr shift yesterday (which included delivering a beautiful baby boy named Tye, who decided he just couldn't wait for the doctor to arrive), I rushed home to quick clean up in time for us to grab dinner before the show.  One of our favorite bands, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, was in town and we've been looking forward to this for the last few weeks. A groovy new band, He's my Brother - She's my Sister (who have a tap dancing percussionist), opened for the Zeros and we really like them now as well!  We stayed out late and danced the night away until 2am - even after the piece of glass I got lodged in my big toe and Scott almost getting punched in the face by some little twerp who kept trying to shove in front of us.  It was an exciting night and we had today off to sleep in until the afternoon.  I love our lives.

Light at the end of the tunnel

A week later and I am finally starting to feel better (after sleeping the day away on the couch again yesterday)!!!!  This plague lasted for over two weeks for me. I've only had two uncontrollable coughing fits in the last 12hrs (better than the hourly sessions we were experiencing), and I'm finally starting to cough stuff up, instead of the dry smokers cough.  I'm trying to stay positive with all the loss of productivity and chapped nose I experienced, but the only two good things I could see to come out of it were:
1.  Weight loss of > 3lbs, due to not having as much of an appetite aaand
2. A more toned tummy from my constant core workout.

Let's just say there are better ways to get those results in my book, and I'm happy to see this virus heading out the door.

Sick

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in ages, but there's absolutely nothing to write about.  I'm sick.  Scott's sick.  We have some nasty virus that will not go away!  So, until we recover and are among the living again, doing something more interesting then calling in sick for work (me - Scott still has to drag himself there) and drinking down bottles of Nyquil (and Barley Green mom, don't worry), that's all I've got.

Pictures...

Hey everyone - scroll down to our posts from Argentina if you want to see pictures from our trip!  I've been adding them slowly and will add more tomorrow or Monday, so check back if you want more :)

Happy Saturday!

For today we've decided to finally buckle down and be productive....or not.  It's wonderful to have a morning of peace with no agenda except for sleeping in as late as possible and chewing on lots of raw hides.  *Happy Sigh*

Reunion

I spent the afternoon and evening with some of my favorite ladies and their babies.  Life is really, really good :)

Happy Birthday

to my beloved Grandma Knapp, who is 85 this year!!!! 

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and I'm so glad I could be there to celebrate with everyone!

P.S. Happy Birthday to Erica and Kate too  :)  Love you!

One more...

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Josh Anderson!

They were married yesterday in Red Wing, MN and I am so glad I was able to be there!  Jessi & I have known each other our whole lives - our mom's were friends when they were pregnant with us and we played at each other's houses all the time when we were little.  Although we went our separate ways for a while in the middle there, we ended up going to the same college and becoming good friends again.  Some of our other best girlfriends/room mates from college were also able to make it and we had a blast!!!!  It was so great to be able to catch up on life, dance our feet off together, and have a giant sleepover at the hotel (minus Jessi of course).  

Me, Nici, Jessi, Marissa, & Cat

The newlyweds!

In a minute...

I promise pictures from the trip are coming soon.  As soon as I can catch my breath and sit down for more than five minutes to edit and post them.  In the meantime I am packing AGAIN.  I've worked the last two days and I fly out tomorrow morning for Minnesota.  I bought my plane ticket last week so I can make it up there for my womb buddy, Jessica's, wedding.  We've been friend's since our mom's were pregnant with us.  I'm also going to be able to celebrate my Grandma Knapp's birthday with the family and see some of my favorite people in the world.  Scott has to stay home this time because of work.  So, hopefully sometime by the end of next week I will have some time to catch up on pictures, cleaning, dishes, laundry, eating healthy, and everything else I've been neglecting in the name of having a good time.

Home, Sweet Home

We're back!  After 27 hours of traveling we are finally home.  And exhausted!  We had a nine hour bus ride (which was gorgeous!) and then a 10 hour flight, with a couple of time changes, taxi rides, and about three hours worth of custom's shenanigans with border crossings, and we are pooped.  Fortunately, neither of us have to work until Thursday so we have a day to recover and unpack.  First thing on the list: one giant nap.

Wine

Yesterday was such a lovely day.  We could not have asked for better weather on this trip.  It is sunny and cool enough to be completely comfortable walking around in jeans and a t-shirt or light jacket.  We love it.  It is spring here and all the trees have started blooming this weekend.
We did our wine tour yesterday and had a great time.  We went with five Australians and our guide Mattius.  We were able to see three different wineries and were gone most of the day.
Achaval Ferrer was the first winery and vineyard we went to.  It was a ¨small winery¨ - they only make 200,000 liters every year.  We got the grand tour and then tried their wine.  We were not overly impressed and when they brought us the price list we were shocked.  The only wine we had somewhat liked was $100 per bottle!  After the wine, we tried their olive oil and that was delightful!  We bought some of that, and now wish we would have gotten more.

The outdoor sitting area where we did the tasting session

The view of the mountains all around us was gorgeous!

Balasco de Baquendo was our second winery, which exports most of their wine to the USA and other countries.

Our less than enthused tour guide - we were glad to have Mattius whispering extra interesting details to us throughout the tour

The tour was quick, but their claim to fame was their sniffing room.  They had a huge room lined with little stations where you could smell the primary, secondary, and tertiary qualities of wines, as well as the defects that you may find in some.  It was a very interesting little lesson.  It´s so amazing that grapes can go through such a transformation to create such different smells and flavors of various fruits and flowers with nothing else added.

Following the tour we were led to the third floor of the winery for our lunch.  It was a four course meal with wine parings and a spectacular view of the Andes Mountains.  We were able to visit out on their huge patio while we waited for lunch and we could have stayed there all day.

Following a very necessary coffee after our huge meal, we all headed off to the next winery desperately in need of a nap.  We woke up though when we arrived at the smallest of all the wineries in the tour and were able to meet the owner Carmelo, who is good friends with our tour guide.

Carmelo has such passion for the art of making wine and does most of the work himself.  We learned how to inspect the cork when aging wine and many other things.

Upon arriving back at the hostel everyone dispersed for a nap before the evening.  Dinner is not eaten before 9:00pm so we had plenty of time to rest up in preparation.  We were invited to a BBQ with the owner of the hostel, Lucas, and his family and some other friends of theirs.  We went and bought meat, which they prepared for us in the Argentinean manner and drank more wine and visited and talked and laughed until at least 2:00am, while the kiddos ran around and played.  I finally tried the blood sausage (which is ok - Scott loves it of course) and we were especially amused by Diega, Lucas´ three year old daughter, who refused to eat any of the other meat besides the blood sausage.   It is her favorite! 

Mattius & Lucas

Diega showing us her harmonica

Cooking our meat on the outdoor grill

We have been having such a good time here and I´m glad we decided to come.  Today we are going to have a picnic in the park, attempt to buy some wine to bring home, and enjoy our last day in town.  Tomorrow we plan on taking ¨the most spectacular bus ride in Latin America¨ through the Andes Mountains to Santiago, Chile.  We will be flying to the states tomorrow night and should hopefully be home by Tuesday night.

The first few days

(This post is more an update for myself and the family - so that I remember what we´ve been up to and they can keep track of it - so sorry if you get bored.  Feel free to skim :)

We have had a great time in Argentina so far.  We spent the first two nights in Buenos Aires.  Three days was a little long for us there, as neither of us are especially fond of big cities in foreign countries.  Argentina has suprised us with how westernized it is.  The city was cleaner than we expected and style is very important to the men and women here.  The shops were bountiful in leather bags, boots (all the women here wear leather boots almost go to their knees with either skinny jeans or leggings underneath), and belts.  I was a little depressed to find that although there were so many beautiful leather things, the prices were not that much better than they are in the states.  Usually when something is so plentiful in another country you can get it for cheaper, but most of the things I found were not cheap enough to be worth stuffing into my pack and hauling around for the next few days.  So, I have travelled on sans boots.

How we start our days: Medialunas, Cafe con Leche, & sometimes jugo de naranja

We did some other fun things besides shopping (fun for Scott I guess, as he was rather exausted by the shopping).  Our first night there we went and found a wonderful little restaurant and ate more than enough beef to last us for several days.  They really take their meat seriously here and we were not let down.  Our favorite is a cut of ribs special to Argentina (which I have forgotten the name of and will have to look up again).

Our second night in town we went out to another steak dinner (a more expensive restaurant that wasn´t quite as good, in our opinion) and then to a Milonga - a tango dance.  It was at an old club and we took an hour long Tango dance lesson before.  This dance is tricky!!  Our backs and shoulders were getting so sore towards the end of the lesson because of the posture you have to constantly hold.  It was quite fun though and we now know the foward and backward eight-step.  Impressive, eh?  After out little lesson a live band came in along with lots of other couples.  Most of them were in their 40´s-70´s.  And did they dance.  Scott and I just sat sipping our water at our table completely amused and impressed.  It was wonderful.

Tango Lesson

One of the couples dancing behind us

We wandered the city one last time on our third day to wear ourselves out as much as possible before getting on a 14 hour bus ride accross the country to Mendoza, where we are now.  I was really nervous due to my history with long bus rides in the past (which involve severe nausea and usually vomiting and falling in the mud, but that´s another story).  I prepared for the worste by bringing three strong plastic bags, 7up, and crackers and I ate nothing too heavy before-hand for a few hours.  I took two Dramamine and had the best bus ride I've had in my entire life! It was a double decker and rode like a train - it was the smoothest ride, even on the upper level where we were.  They gave us two meals and we slept like babies (following my half of an Ambien and Scott´s whole one). 

They even brought us Champagne to start the ride off!

Itty, bittiest sandwich ever

We arrived in Mendoza early this morning and wandered around town.  We love it here.  It is quieter, cleaner, and there are parks everywhere.  Wonderful compared to the three sprigs of grass I saw growing in Buenos Aires.

We took a nap early this afternoon and when I woke up Scott rushed me out the door and into a jeep to go PARA GLIDING.  I wanted to throw up and pee my pants I was so nervous.  The jeep ride up the mountain was horrifying.  We bounced along the edge of the cliffs twisting and turning and bouncing over rocks in 4wd and my arm is sore tonight from how hard I was gripping my seat.  By the time we got to the top I had NO interest in going back down the mountain the way we came up, and the Para Gliding was looking much more appealing.

Our jump site

Getting strapped up and ready to go

Scott and his guy had a bit of a rough start - they ran first and took off into the air about 10ft before bouncing down to the ground and then immediately catching the right wind and soaring up into the air again.  My guide acted like this was nothing, told me to run, run, run and not sit down (so much easier said than done) and off we went.  Him running awkwardly beside me (because of the big bulky parachutes strapped to us) and another man dragging me forward right for the edge of the cliff!  Ahhh!  The anticipation and preparation were the scariest, but once we were soaring up it was great!  So quiet and beautiful!  And cold!  We circled around each other in the air and just floated along like birds up above the world. 

Scott's view of us a minute to two after taking off while I was getting ready to go

The guys we flew tandem with

Para Gliding is something I´m glad to have done once, but don´t really feel the need to do again. Scott and I both agreed we're good to go in that department now.  :)

Internet time is up.  Love you all!  Tomorrow we are going wine tasting alllllllll day long as the best Argentinean wines come from here.

Hola from the bottom of the world

We had a great weekend in Austin!  Both of us have until September 15th off of work and we were planning on flying to the Pacific Northwest to finish our vacation out there, but were a little deterred by some tight flights.  (As many of you know we often fly stand-by under Scott's dad)  So, yesterday morning we decided to see Argentina (or at least a little bit of it) instead!  We took a 10hr overnight flight and arrived in Buenos Aires this morning.  We are staying at the Art Factory Hostel for the next two nights and are enjoying wandering the city.  We figured we could not go wrong here when we discovered that they are one of the highest consumers of sweets and ice cream (my favorite) per capita and that the steak (Scotts favorite) is plentiful.  We are getting excited for some good eats and will update you as we go.  I will have to tell you all about Austin and post pictures later on as my internet time is limited.  Adios!

Our Vacation Kickoff

(Wrote this yesterday and forgot to post so here ya go folks)
We've officially been on Vacation since last Friday.  It is heavenly.  All we've done is an exceptional amount of socializing and laying around.  Laying around talking, laying around reading, reading, and more reading (I cannot put The Help by Kathryn Stockett down!), laying around internetting, laying around snacking, laying around watching TV, aaaand I think you get the point.  We were in Oklahoma City for the weekend and have been in Tulsa staying with Scott's parents since Sunday.  We've enjoyed a wedding (Congrats Thomas and Betsy!), an engagement party (Wahoo Stephen and Cristen!), Sunday Brunch with the gang in OKC, pool parties, lots of meat from the grill, and plenty of dinners and drinks with friends.  We've been playing with babies and dogs and new cars and just generally catching up on life with the people here that we love, and it is great.

The Smackeys and The Johnsons

The girls with the engaged couple

Tomorrow we head to Austin for the weekend with two other couples to explore the city and enjoy our Labor Day.  Hope you all are having fun making plans for your holiday!