PET Scan Results

So, as many of you know, Scott had his PET Scan this morning.  I had to work.  :P
The scan was at 7:30am and we had the results by 10:14am.
Good news:  The radiologists were baffled.  Everyone is baffled.  They pulled up the scans and the lymph node that was big and abnormal looking last month is now completely normal.  It's uptake time of the radioactive dye was within normal limits (the cancer cells uptake the dye quickly because they think it's delicious, so that's how you can see the abnormal cells on the scan.), and nothing around it looked suspicious either!  They looked through the rest of the scan of his body and could find NOTHING - meaning that Scott doesn't have to have surgery for now!   I wanted to jump up and down the hall at work when I heard the news and scream it in everyone's faces!  We are so happy and thankful that our prayers were answered beyond what we even dreamed we could have hoped for!
We still don't know why Scott's calcitonin levels jumped so quickly and we will have to continue to monitor that closely.  He will probably have another one drawn soon.  The PET Scan can't really detect anything smaller than 1cm, so we will have to repeat it in a few months to make sure nothing is growing. In the meantime, a copy of today's scan has been mailed off to Dr. Moley, our specialist at Washington University, to review.
We feel like we live in a world of emotional extremes right now.  We've spent the last few weeks completely accepting this surgery and diagnosis, only to have it wiped away.  I'm thrilled - completely thrilled - but still can barely believe it and don't really know what to do with myself.  It's a total shift of thinking again.

SO, thank you all for all of your prayers and encouragement!  We know that God had His almighty hand in this and are grateful most of all to Him.  We'll keep you updated as we follow this over the next weeks and months.

Oh. Hey Mom,

I was just... Uhhh,  ...decorating?

I have been blessed

A peace has settled over me today and I am ok with cancer once again.  I have come to an acceptance point I guess, and although I do not like it one bit, I am not going to let it control my attitude anymore.  For now. This morning a friend called asking for advice.  Someone she knows was recently diagnosed with cancer (a different kind than Scott's) that presented much the way his did.  His prognosis is not as good as Scott's though and his treatment will be worse in some ways, making for a difficult road ahead.  After talking with her I felt a burden lift off of me and Martina McBride's song "Blessed" has been running through my head ever since.  Hearing a story similar to ours snapped me out of my sulky bitterness I've been walking around with since we got Scott's CT results.  Scott and I definitely don't have the best circumstances all around at this time, but when I consider how much worse things could be, I have nothing to complain about right now.  God has dumped more grace in our laps than we know what to do with and I am stunned at people's generosity and kindness continuously.  So basically, I could blabber on about this longer, but it all boils down to the fact that I have chosen to be thankful today for the good things we have in our life.

We met with Dr. Abbas, a cardiothoracic surgeon (the best we've been told) at Ochsner today just to get another consult.  We have a new game plan that has developed over the last 24 or so hours and he agreed with it.  We have Scott's PET scan next Tuesday and it will be read immediately.  If the lymph node in Scott's Mediastinum is still the only thing they see we will probably be having surgery here in town by the first week in August with Dr. Abbas.  If there are more areas of concern - say in Scott's neck, or elsewhere - we will stick with our surgery date of August 25th in St. Louis with Dr. Moley and Dr. Patterson, the cardiothoracic surgeon he works with.  The surgery to remove the lymph node we know about is rather basic for a cardiothoracic surgeon and, if possible, it would just be easier to be here in town where we are close to home and know lots of people.  So, please pray that there are no other naughty spots to deal with and that we can hopefully get this all over with sooner, rather than later.

Escape Artist of the Day

Beatrice is naughty.  I guess she has been feeling the spirit of competition with Winston ever since his courageous adventure a few weeks ago and had to prove herself.  Here's what went down today:
Scott built the chamelions a little sunning post outdoors that they were starting to outgrow, so today he concocted a new one.

Much thought went into this - it's supposed to be high enough that they would stay in it, but low enough that if they somehow managed to fall out they wouldn't be hurt hopefully.  He even added the safety measure of a barrier ring on the ground so if they should by some random act of God happen to fall out (or jump) they wouldn't be able to go far (the metal ring was more buried yesterday).  Well, Beatrice outsmarted us.  She is an odd one, that's for sure.  Chamelions crawl up generally - they want to be high and safe - it's instinct.  She doesn't.  She likes to be low to the ground and hides on the bottom of her cage all the time.  So, we took them outside to the sunning spot and Winston climbs to the top, meanwhile Beatrice goes right down as low as she can and hangs off a little vine over the edge by her tiny back foot and tail.  We kept checking on them and she stayed there.  I tried to help her in once and she went right to that spot again.  I walked in the house for a few minutes, came back out and she was gone.  

We searched the yard high and low.  Pouring sweat in the heat of the day, crawling around under the stairs, searching through the vines and grass, checking every inch of the house, fence, stairs, any surface we could see while hoping we didn't step on her.  After inspecting our whole yard and digging through the only bush we have several times, we gave up.  The only thing we could think is that she had somehow jumped from that little vine and cleared the metal barrier on the ground before scurrying off across the yard.  We solaced ourselves that we had gotten her to be a big enough girl that she could hunt on her own and hopefully we would someday see her as a huge colorful chamelion running wild in New Orleans.  
Tonight we went to dinner at our neighbor's house.  On the walk back we decided to look for Beatrice in one last valiant attempt.  Our only hope was that it was dark, and she turns bright green when she sleeps and is easy to spot.  Perhaps she  would be in the bush we had looked through all afternoon?  Scott put his headlamp on and marched outside.  Immediately, this is what we discovered.

Beatrice was sound asleep on a leaf at the top of that blasted bush we had dug through so many times!  We pried her off carefully, marched her right back inside, plopped her in her cage and latched the door.  Hopefully we don't have any more scares from these two rascals anytime soon!  Although, I do wonder how long she would have lived in that bush if we let her...

Winston and Beatrice back together again

Baaaaah

So, we got up early this morning and left the house by 7:00 for Scott's PET Scan.  Got to Ochsner, drove around hunting for parking, traipsed across the hospital double-time (because they moved the scanner apparently since December?), and arrived in admitting only to discover that his appointment is NEXT Tuesday.  I guess we should have asked the date, and not just the day, when the nurse called to inform us of the appointment.  Such a waste of a perfectly good morning to sleep in when we are both off work together...

Gas

Oh. My. Word.  I cannot even believe Lucy tonight!  She must have snuck some of Ariyah's food today.  At first I thought I must be mistaken lying here in the dark when I heard the sound of a little fart coming from her side of the room, but nooooo.  She keeps passing gas like a college-age boy who just filled up on beans and beer, without the slightest bit of regard for the rest of us here in the room!  Scott is softly snoring beside me and Ariyah is chomping away on her rawhide, while Lucy sounds like she got a hold of a whoopie cushion in her kennel.  At least the smell is staying by her and so far my nose hasn't been plagued by her stench.  Here's to hoping I can fall asleep before the smell creeps across the room.....  Ugh, there she goes again.

Off to Texas

We flew to Amarillo on Thursday and spent this weekend in Panhandle, TX.  We went to visit our really good friends, Adam and Jessica Young, who are going to be having a baby any day now.  Jessica's twin sister, Emily, who we are also good friends with, drove out from Oklahoma City and it was great to see her as well!  Scott and Adam went to college together and were in the same Fraternity and are pretty much the best of friends.  We always have so much fun together and it was great to be able to catch up on everything with them.  They have been completely remodeling a home and so much has changed since we were last out there, over a year ago.  We were able to help get quite a few projects done, celebrate Adam's birthday, and even squeeze a little relaxing in there.

Me, Jessica, Emily, Adam & Scott out to dinner in Amarillo

Scott & Adam at the Birthday breakfast

Emily, Jessica, and me at Adam's Birthday Breakfast

Emily and I helped Jessica get the nursery painted & finished some last minute shopping to prepare for baby.  We just wish he would have decided to come see us while we were out there  :)  

Bummers

This last week has been full of calls to insurance, consults with doctors, making appointments, and lots of cell phone minutes used talking to friends and family.  We talked to Dr. Moley after he reviewed all the reports and he has said the lymph node needs to come out within the next month.  We are also getting a PET Scan (basically a detailed CT Scan) on Tuesday morning to look at the rest of Scott's body and make sure nothing else has popped up.
Dr. Moley contacted one of the Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons he works with to do the surgery.  Scott will need to have a Microsternectomy, which makes me sick to my stomach as they will have to cut through bone to get to the lymph node(s) behind his sternum.  After Dr. Moley's scheduler worked for a whole day, re-arranging schedules, the soonest time we are able to get into an OR at Washington University with both of these doctors is on August 25th.  Because Dr. Moley originally said he wanted to do surgery sooner than that, we are still waiting to see if this date can be moved up.
Scott is still consulting with other doctors and we are going to try and see a Cardio-Thoracic surgeon here in town this week to get more opinions on the plan of care.  We may also talk with another Ear, Nose and Throat doctor and see if they have more ideas.  We want to continue to explore all of our options, to be absolutely sure of our choices.
As a result of all of this, I will be calling Frontier School of Midwifery tomorrow to decline my spot to start the Graduate School program this fall semester.  The week of orientation would start a few days after Scott's surgery and we both think school + work + cancer are a little too overwhelming at this point.  We are also going to miss two weddings we were really looking forward to, and our two week vacation out of the country  set for the beginning of September.  Major bummers all around, but we are moving on and trying to accept it all.  We hope that we can get this icky stuff out of the way now, and we're sure there will be plenty more vacations later.
Thanks for the continued prayers and calls and texts and comments and love you send!  We are so grateful for it all :)

Cancer Frustrations

Well, today was disappointing.  It has been almost six months since Scott's surgery and we had our big follow up appointment with Dr. Panunti, our Endocrinologist at Ochsner.  Earlier this week Scott had a CT Scan of his chest and neck and repeat labs drawn.  We had three goals for today:  1-Calcitonin levels would be below 500.  2-Scott's thyroid levels would be within normal range.  3-The spots on Scott's lungs would not have increased in size or number since the last CT Scan.

SO, the good news:  We achieved one of our goals!  The spots they saw on Scott's lungs are still the same, meaning they are probably just granuloma's (scars from a previous sickness of some kind).  The bad news though, is that Scott's Calcitonin levels have increased to 800 in the last two months.  Normal range is 0-15, Scott's were almost to 3,000 before surgery, and have been at about 500 since surgery.  The increase is an indicator to us that cancer is growing again somewhere.  Dang it  (confession: I said a much different word to myself in the office).

The CT Scan also found an enlarged lymph node in Scott's mediastinum, the area behind his upper sternum (breast bone).  Also another dang it.  I tried to take the news in stride and managed not to cry in the doctor's office in front of her and her fellow and the medical student following our oh so very interesting case.  I think Scott was trying not to just get up and stomp his feet and yell like an angry 2 year old.  We both did a pretty good job controlling our emotions.  Dr. Panunti says it's time to go somewhere else again for further care.  Scott's is the second case she has ever seen and it's time to go to the experts.  It's hard hearing a really good doctor say she doesn't know what to do with you anymore.  This means either back to Washington University in St. Louis where Dr. Moley is, or to MD Anderson.  The news is so frustrating.  We wanted so badly to be normal again.

We faxed all of Scott's results to Dr. Moley and will probably hear back from him next week.  The next step will most likely be to biopsy the lymph node that is enlarged.  Then we'll probably have another surgery and possibly try a new experimental drug that just came out.  It's overwhelming thinking about doing everything over again that we recovered from in January.  What happens to grad school?  And now I really need to stay at least part time at my job when I start grad school because we need my benefits since they've already approved everything and cover everything so well. That overwhelms me that it's no longer just an option, but a necessity.  What happens with residency?  Scott's program has been absolutely AMAZING and so gracious in dealing with him and his sick self throughout this last year, but if we need another extensive surgery or experimental chemo it's hard to take any more time off than he already has.  What happens to our vacation we were going to take in September?  And getting chickens?  And who will take care of the dogs when we go out of town?  And feed the chameleons their gross bugs that Scott doesn't mind? And is this going to be something we have to deal with for the rest of our lives???  When will we ever have kids if we're always fighting cancer?  Why Scott? Why us? All these questions have been flooding my mind since the appointment and trying to swallow me up.  I'll be the first to admit I'm being a little irrational and over dramatic about it all, but that's my first reaction.

Now I'm just trying to take deep breaths and not freak out too much about next month and two months and six months from now.  I'm going to put my makeup back on and go to dinner and laugh and carry on like a rational human being.  We're just going to continue to take it one day at a time and deal with it.  I remember feeling this way and much worse when we first got the diagnosis in December and we came through that first surgery just fine.  Everything will work itself out along the way.  Stressing just gives me an ulcer and makes me want to cry all afternoon.  Which I still did for a while anyways.  And then napped.  We are thankful it's not Scott's lungs.  And that it's only one lymph node so far.  And that we have great doctors who are willing to go the extra mile for us.  And amazing family and friends who pray for us everyday and are so supportive.  Life will be ok.  It's just going to be more work.

*Heavy sigh*  Alright, done ranting about all that.  Last thing from the appointment is that Scott is now Hyperthyroid.  Meaning he's got all sorts of extra hormones in there going crazy.  He feels the best he's felt since last spring though, so for now Dr. Panunti says it's alright.  The benefits out-weigh the risks.  He's not symptomatic and so we'll just continue to keep an eye on it for now and let him be happy and have energy.

Adjustments

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at how crazy our house has gotten with two dogs.  Lucy passes gas in front of guests without guilt, snores, drools and doesn't wait her turn.  Yet we can't stay mad at her for more than two minutes because she is SO cute.  Her mannerisms are hilarious!  Ariyah doesn't know what to do with her half the time.  She has really started making herself quite at home, especially in the last 48 hours.  She is testing the limits to the max, attempting to see just how far she can go.  Her and Ariyah are T.R.O.U.B.L.E when unsupervised.  So far they have pulled pillows off of the couch and bed on separate occasions to use as they please (luckily I have caught them both times before any holes were chewed).  Yesterday I left them in the bedroom for three minutes and Lucy had her way with the corner of a text book of mine that was on the floor.  That bought her a nice time out in the kennel.  Our backyard is fenced in (thank you Jesus) so we can put them out there whenever we need to.  Well, last night we caught Lucy trying to dig through to China in a little patch of dirt between the concrete patio and the brick wall.  That bought her a good scruff-grabbing scolding from Scott and a bath (which she didn't seem to mind - her feelings cannot be hurt...so we thought).  Until she punished us for her punishment by leaving a gift of poo in the dining room five minutes later.  This bought her a good forced inspection of said mess and 15 whole minutes in the kennel.  She finally calmed down after that and just wanted love the rest of the night, which we will happily give.
So far today she has chewed off the end of a football (much to Ariyah's grief as that football is one of her favorite toys), attempted to chew up Ariyah's dog bed, and been caught in the act trying to steal pillows again.  All of which have gotten her good scoldings and several nice shots in the face with the spray bottle of water (which she detests).  It's like watching a naughty toddler!   She has had a year of bad habits instilled in her from her previous family that we are gradually going to have to train out of her. We have faith that she will learn and this is just an adjustment period that any adoptive family would have to go through, but still.  It's work!

          My Nursing Textbook....

Exciting changes

Scott is done with his first year of residency!!!!  Yesterday marked his last day as an Intern and today he starts his second of four years.  He'll be working a few less hours and be able to Moonlight now (work as a doctor in other ER's or Urgent Care Clinics when they are short staffed, to get paid real money).  I can hardly believe we've lived here for over a year now and come so far!  It has flown by and I am so proud of him and the rest of the resident's he works with for doing so well.  The next two weeks he has "orientation" again where they work with the new, incoming Interns to teach them things, and also learn how to take on the leadership position they will have as second years - making more independent decisions in the care of patients.  He'll be working only a few hours each day and it's going to be really nice to have him around.

In other exciting news, I was accepted to graduate school last Wednesday!  I applied to two programs and have yet to hear back from one of them, but Frontier School of Midwifery accepted me for the Master's program to become a Certified Nurse Midwife!  I'm so excited and leaning towards their program anyways I believe, but still waiting to hear from University of Cincinnati before I whole-heartedly accept.  Hopefully I will know in the next week or so.

We love Lucy

Meet Lucy - the newest addition to our family!  I know, you probably think we're joking, but it's for real.  We've doubled our numbers now in the last two weeks with the chamelions and her.   

Lucy is a 13 month Old English Bulldog we adopted today from a family north of the lake.  We heard about her earlier in the week and were interested, but then didn't think it was going to work out as it sounded like she was going to someone else.  Her family had three other dogs, three young children and dad was on duty with the military, while mom kept up her other job.  It was just too much for her previous owners to handle and feel like they were giving her a fair enough amount of attention.  This evening we got a call saying if we wanted her we could come and see her.  So, we loaded Ariyah up and drove up there on the spur of the moment to meet her.  I knew the second I saw her come romping out of the house when we arrived that Scott would never be able to leave without her.  He has been wanting a bulldog since college.  Maybe even before.  He checks Craigslist and Pet Finder, along with a bulldog rescue site religiously for the perfect one.  And now here is Lucy, who just tumbled into our lives through the friend of a friend.  It's fate.  Ariyah and her got along instantly and we decided it was a good match.
There will be some work as we figure out a new pecking order and some training needs to be done, but we're hoping to get settled in without too much drama.  The two of them have been running up and down the house playing like old pals for the most part and we're glad they seem to be happy as sisters so far.

Cancer Update

It's been a while since we've updated so I thought I better catch you all up on everything.  People have been sheepishly (and boldly - our favorite) asking here and there so it's time to put it out there.  Really we haven't been talking about it much because there isn't much to talk about lately as we are in a waiting period.  This is a good thing I believe.  We don't mind sharing though, so don't be afraid to ask :)
Scott had repeat labs drawn the end of May for his Calcitonin (this type of cancer's marker basically) and Thyroid hormone levels.  As you may remember his Calcitonin was up near 3,000 before surgery - the normal level for someone is 1-15.  His levels have now dropped to around 550 and are holding steady.  As long as they aren't increasing we're happy for now.  His Thyroid levels are also back within range and we can definitely tell!  He says he feels better now than he did before he had surgery.  Looking back, I think he has more energy now and generally feels better than he has since the end of 2008.  That's how subtle this sneaky devil of cancer crept in. Our Endocrinologist has been very aggressive with his hormone regimen and we are so grateful for her.  It took quite a few months but he finally has the energy to be somewhat more of his normal self.  It is great.
We're coming up on six months since surgery at the end of July already!  This means more follow up tests again, including the more in depth CT-Scans of his upper body to see if the spots on his lungs have gown or changed and if there are any new masses.  This is also done to make sure they got all the tumors out of his neck.
So, that's where we're at.  Thank you all for your prayers and support.  We'll continue to update you as we know more.

Full House

Since Wednesday we've been busy hosting.  We have had some Spanish Couch Surfers staying with us, who left today.  They were great guests - polite, cleaned up after themselves, were happy to entertain themselves or hang with us, and even fixed us a traditional Spanish meal one night.  It was delicious!  We have Couch Surfers stay with us on a regular basis now that we live in New Orleans, a city people are constantly wanting to come visit and see from a different perspective than just the party of Bourbon St.  We have these guests so often that I've never even thought about blogging about it.  The concept freaks some of our friends out, and others love it.  Through Couch surfing we now have friends in France, Spain, the Isle of Mann, England, and Germany we can go and visit.  We have had nothing but positive experiences having these guests find us and stay with us.  

Spanish cuisine with Arnau, Roser, and Scott

Dinner at Restuarant Atchafalaya last night with Arnau, Roser, and Sofia

We have also been dog sitting Trinka, a weimaraner, for a friend.  Ariyah is in 7th Heaven having a constant playmate and the two dogs have been running up and down and up and down our shotgun house chewing each other's heads off and jumping around.  They're in love.  

Ariyah and Trinka

Timeout from playing to check on the neighborhood

New Arrivals

Hey everyone!  We are pleased to welcome TWO new members to the Mackey family!

Winston and Beatrice came in the mail last Thursday and have been settling in quite well.  They are just a few weeks old and much tinier than we anticipated.  They hold their own though and spend their days basking under their heat lamp and hiding from us in the leaves, while occasionally coming out to eat a bug or two.

This is Beatrice - hiding in the back of the cage

Winston pulled a sneaky trick two nights ago and we thought he was gone forever.  Scott left the doors to the terrarium open for a few hours while he went to watch a Soccer Game with some friends.  We've been leaving the doors open almost constantly because they normally hide out in the back of the cage.  Well, when he came home there was only one Chamelion in the cage.  He looked high and low.  All over the dining room and behind the cage, on top of it, underneath, but to no avail.  When I came home from work Scott was quite disappointed - the only thing we could think of was that Ariyah must have eaten him if he was near the opening.  We just couldn't imagine how he would crawl out, down the glass.  Unless he fell out, and if he survived that fall, Ariyah must have found him on the ground.

We decided to go for a quick bike ride before it got dark.  After riding along for a while we came to an area where we always let Ariyah off the leash so she can run back and forth freely for a while, to take care of her business.  When Scott stopped again to put her on the leash he let out a cry of shock and jumped off his bike faster than I think I have ever seen him move!  I stopped short panicked and for a split second couldn't figure out why he was reaching for the tire with such excitement, until I saw him.  Little Winston had somehow crawled (or fell, poor thing) out of the Terrarium and crawled across our whole dining room to where Scott's bike was parked.  He had been clinging to the spokes on the bike with his tail wrapped around several times, for over a mile!  We had sped and bumped along over curbs, cobblestones, and gravel, and he stayed on, just rolling round and round!  Scott carefully pried him off the spoke of the tire and put him in his hand and had to ride the rest of the way home one handed while Winston crawled around on his fingers.  We are SO happy Ariyah didn't eat him and that we found the little guy!  He's back wandering in the cage doing just fine, but we're keeping those doors shut now unless we're watching them or feeding them.

Blah

I'm on day 9 of a headache/migraine.  This thing has GOT to go...

Scott has tried all sorts of different medicines on me but we can't seem to find anything to break it.  I've tried some alternative stuff too, but to no avail.  Please say a little prayer for me.

Garden - week 3

Our upside down garden is doing fabulous!  Here are some pictures so you can see for yourself.

Sorry, it's kind of hard to see with all the greenery behind.  They are growing so big though, and two plants are already blooming!

Also, coming soon to Casa de Mackey: a vailed Chamelion!  We are ordering him this week and he should come in the mail Thursday.  Scott is thrilled.  I am trying to get hyped up.  

OklaHOMa

 Warning: I got a little carried away with this post and it's long - feel free to skim it.
The last few days have been busy, busy for us!  We just got back from three great days in Tulsa, visiting friends and family over the weekend.  Scott's little sister, Elena, graduated from high school and we were able to move a few work days around, with help from some friends, to go back and celebrate with the family!  We drove this time so that we could take Ariyah, and left on Thursday evening after we got off of work.  We made it to northern Louisiana and had to get a hotel room and then finished the drive on Friday.  Ten hours in the car is just too long after a few straight days of 12 hours shifts...  Elena's party was Friday evening and went great!

Scott's brother Kurt and our niece Becca were able to fly in from Chicago to be with us as well so it was a great family affair.  

We spent the day Saturday by the pool and lake with our friends the Crouches.  Us girls laid out and swam with the babies, while the boys fished, read, played Ninja games and were their normal wild selves.  

Elena, Clover, Me, Tiffany, distracted Anna, and Esther

We grilled out and enjoyed dinner on the deck.  This was taken right before the wild boar came out of hiding and wandered across the embankment across the lake.  Luke and Tiffany had their Great Danes over to play with Ariyah and we're very happy they didn't notice and decide to start a hunt.

Saturday night we went out on the town with more friends.  We tried to be really fun and exciting, but by that time both Scott and I were pretty pooped.  We still had a good time though.

Fun with Josh, Keith and Ellen

Sunday was wonderfully relaxing.  We grilled steak with the family and sat on the deck for hours together catching up

  

Arguably one of the most exciting parts of Sunday was the fact that Scott and I were finally able to get our fresh 1st Wedding Anniversary cake from Ludgers and completely indulge in it with the rest of the family.  I've been craving it for several months now (basically since our wedding) and am so happy we finally got it!  In a perfect world they would give us one for every Anniversary I think.  It would be such a good added incentive to stay married forever and ever ;)

We spent some time with the Crawfords, before Scott's dad took us flying.  Another exciting part of the day for me is that Dadoo gave me my very own Flight Log Book so that I can start logging my flying hours and work towards getting my license if I want!  We went out to a grass strip a few miles out of town and worked on Landings by doing Touch and Go's in the Piper Cub.  The weather was perfect just before sunset and all the world seems to be just right when you've got a birds eye view.

This morning we were up early and on the road before 6:00 to beat the afternoon traffic in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  We made it back in record time - 9hrs and 49minutes.  We raced the GPS estimated time of arrival the whole way and are quiiiiite proud of ourselves (Scott being the especially proud member of the family).  My bladder was pushed to the limits towards the end there, but Scott insisted we persevere.  I survived, but am happy to be free of that car finally.  

Upside Down Garden

Last fall we talked about planting a garden this spring and it never really happened. Other things seemed to get in the way somehow.  We've still been wanting fresh vegetables of some kind, but haven't wanted to go to the effort of tilling up a patch of land so late in the season.  Scott found the idea for an upside down garden while perusing the internet and we've decided to try it.  We have an old swing set frame in our back yard that we've been wondering what to do with since we moved here and now we have found the PERFECT use for it!  Today we went and bought our little starter plants and potting soil and then Scott drilled a 2" hole in the bottom of each bucket and planted them.  Now we'll just be watering them and hoping for the best.

Our Jalapeño Pepper, Cherri Tomato, Yellow Pepper, & Grape Tomato plants

Wedding Season

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan King!

May 14th, 2010

Our friend's, Nate and Lauren, were married on Friday evening this weekend in Baton Rouge.  Scott went to undergrad at OSU with them, so we were able to see a few of our Oklahoma friends there as well!  Lauren's family is from Lafayette, so we were really excited the wedding was close enough that we could make it with Scott's work schedule.  It was so great to be able to see everyone.  Scott had his 30hr call day for the weekend starting Saturday morning at 6am though, so he was exhausted yesterday afternoon when he finally got home.

The wedding was beautiful - they had the ceremony at St. Joseph Cathedral and then the reception was at the Louisiana State Museum.  Lauren and her bridesmaids were gorgeous.  Plus, there was lots of good Louisiana food, an open bar, and dancing (more like sweating) the night away outside with a great band.  We had a blast. 

All the OSU kids with the Groom's Cake

Happy to see the Willards

I witnessed my first "Cake Pull", a tradition the girls down here in Louisiana do that baffled us girls from up north (i.e. myself and the Oklahoma ladies) at first until someone explained it to us.  All the girls from the wedding party, or whoever else the bride chooses, pull a special surprise charm out from under the cake by a ribbon - a baby carriage, rings, keys, a horseshoe, etc - which signify various fortunes.  Kind of like catching the bouquet means you'll be the next to be married.  In further battering people with questions about it, I found out that lots of the girls make special charm bracelets or necklaces with all the pulls they get from weddings.  All very exciting things for me to learn, considering I love discovering new things about Louisiana whenever I get the chance.  

The girls ready to pull their charms out