Our 2nd Anniversary

Today is a big day!  It marks two years of marriage for Scott and I.  It also marks our induction into the world of HOMEOWNERS to this house:

After a whirlwind 48 hours we never could have foreseen, the offer was accepted this morning for us to buy this house - three doors down from where we live now.  We never dreamed this moment would come so quickly or abruptly, but we are riding the waves of enthusiasm, shock, awe, and God's hand in it all.  We are taking on a huge project as this place needs to be completely renovated, but we will now have the funds to do it (pending the construction loan going through) as we have been blessed to get this house at much less than we thought possible.  We are wandering around our current house not quite sure what to do with ourselves, but so happy!

We are in San Pedro, on Lake Atitlan and this is the view from our balcony this morning.  

We spent two nights in Santa Cruz and then came here by boat yesterday morning.  We love this city.  It is quiet, and everyone is friendly, and we have discovered a pool (the water in the lake is preeeeetty cold (Approx 72F) making it a little uncomfortable to swim in - although the kids around here could care less).  There are plenty of little bakeries and shops and restaurants and everything is cheap, which seems to make all things more fun.  We are enjoying our usual traveling activities which include, but are not limited to, lots of reading, buying fresh fruit and avacados and treats off of as many little street vendors as possible, laying around and talking for hours, people watching, applying and reapplying sunscreen of the lowest SPF we think we can stand so we will still tan through it, living in our swim suits, sipping smoothies, and pestering each other.  Only two days left of complete relaxation and then we have to head home.

Finally made a decision...

and the country isssss.....Guatemala!!!

We arrived in Guatemala City after dark last night and got a shuttle to Antigua.  We had no guidebook for this country (although we had one for three other countries we had thought of as possibilities), but found a great little hostel (Hostel Cinco), got some dinner, and passed out in our bunk beds.  Today at breakfast we met a woman who is leaving and bought her Lonely Planet book right off of her and are so happy to have it to scour over for wonderful little places to explore.

First on the list seems to be Lake Atitlan, which is in the middle of a mountain that was once volcanic.  It is supposed to be stunning and we are excited!  For now though, this is the view just outside our door, off the roof of our hostel.

The mountain to the right still erupts "about every other day", but apparently we missed it as it happened two days ago.  

Adventure

Today we are acting as indecisively and freely as we can.  We are leaving the country and still literally have NO idea where we are going.  We met our friends Ben and Abby in Dallas last night, spent the night here, and today we are basically frolicking off to the airport and randomly picking a country to disappear to for the next 5 days.  The only requirements are sun, a beach, and a chill atmosphere.  It's going to be epic.

A week late....

Congratulations to Beau and Rachel Admire!  

They had a fabulous wedding at Latrobe's - a gorgeous, historic building in the French Quarter.  Every one of the second year residents Scott works with were granted the weekend off and we all had a blast!   Rachel was stunning, and everyone else cleaned up to look pretty smokin' hot as well.

Almost all the residents in Scott's class

All the ladies - doctors, wifeys, and girlfriends

Hope you two are having a great honeymoon!  And are blessed with a wonderful marriage!

P.S.  Here's the lovely Croquembouche, which is how Scott's messy shirt came about, after it was disassembled and drizzled with chocolately goodness.  Sweet heaven, it was sooo good though!  I'm needing some just thinking about it again!

I think we had a good time?

Today I have discovered little tiny drips of chocolate sauce scattered and smudged here and there, all over the shirt my husband wore to the wedding we went to on Saturday night.  Part of this, I believe, is due to the fact that my husband is clumsy, excitable eater and will drip on his shirts without fail, unless wearing a bib (I am often tempted to carry an adult size one in my purse, but resist and instead turn to my best friend Oxyclean).  The smudges on his back must be from others - and by others, I mean there is only a small chance they could be from me.  I have decided this means the Croquembouche was just so entirely tastey we felt the need to bring a memory of it home with us.  Makes for a crappy Tuesday morning though, trying to get it all out.

Snow Days

We are back from another great get-away!  We were able to sneak away to New Mexico to see our good friends, the Youngs.  It's been almost six months since we last saw them and we were finally able to meet Hudson!  Who is the cutest, happiest, chubbiest little bear ever.  As you can see here:

They drove in from Texas and met us in Santa Fe at the airport before we all drove up to Taos.  We rented an amazing house off of VRBO and set up camp with a glorious view of the mountains out of all our windows.  The boys spent as much time snowboarding as they could, while we girls shopped and explored the village of Arroyo Seco and a few fun little places in Taos, with Hudson.

When we first arrived, we were surprised by the balmy 70 degree, sun shiney weather, but that quickly changed after about a day and we got 8-9inches of powder dumped on us - the boys were in heaven.

Jess and I got out and skiied for one day while the boys were on baby duty....

It was a MUCH better experience than the other time I tried skiing when I was 13 (which may or may not have involved numerous incidences of sliding backwards and sideways down all hills into the nearest solid object, several awkward displays of the splits, a fight with the orange snow fence that grabbed me and tangled my skis & poles up, and falling off the J-bar lift only to get knocked in the back of the head by the next J-bar that snuck up behind me).  This time I took an actual lesson and can now stay in the upright position and turn and stop when on a mountain and strapped into those long, skinny, slippery buggers!!  I only had one major incident that involved me "stopping" while Stuart, the instructor, was yelling at me from the base of the hill.  It all ended with me skiing right into a building and knocking the wind out of myself, along with a movable panel on the building, much to everyone's horror.  The bruise on my ribs is turning a lovely purple today, but I'm fine other than that.  

All in all the time flew and nobody was quite ready for vacation to be over Wednesday.  After 14hrs of travel (due mostly to delays from flights because of the biggest snowstorm America acts like it has ever seen) we finally rolled into our house around 2:30am and were happy to be in our own warm, comfy bed.  I'm now playing catch up with school and Scott's back to saving lives in the ER, but before I leave you, here are a few more pics.

The view from our bed - day one

View from our patio while the mountains were being covered in powder

Scott and Jessica in the snow

The boys in the Hot Tub - where we spent every single evening after dinner.

Lovin' on Hudson

Money Saving in the Dog Department

We've been getting really frustrated with Ariyah's sleeping arrangements.  She treats her beds like she treats stuffed animals: they must DIE.
First, she shows them who's boss.  Lays on them.  Rearranges them a little in her kennel.  Gives them a low grrrrrrowl or two.  As they start to fear her, she reassuringly licks them to draw them in and make them think she loves them and will never hurt them.  Then, when they are least expecting it, she really gives it to them.  This is the skinning process.  A little hole is chewed, an eyeball or other embellishment removed, and bit by bit ALL the stuffing MUST come out!  AS.AP.
The only way to keep a bed alive with her is to keep it out of her kennel.  Which defeats the whole purpose of a bed.  We've scolded.  We've punished.  We tried wrapping the last one in two old sheets to protect the layer before the stuffing, but it did nothing.  She ripped right through those sheets and every morning or time we came home to her, new amounts of stuffing would be scattered all over her kennel and bursting through the holes to the outside.
We are going out of town this weekend, and I was so embarrassed to show up at the kennel with her bedding in the condition it was.  We had to figure something out as buying her dog beds has proved to be worthless and expensive.
SO, we zoomed off to Discount Thrift USA - the classiest of all thrift stores, I must assure you - and found some blankets!  Nice big, ugly colored, slightly worn blankets.  For $2.52 each.  She will tear a little hole in blankets here and there, but doesn't have the drive to destroy them like stuffed beds.
We brought them home, threw out alllll of her old messy bedding and washed the new blankets in hot water with some bleach, just to kill any lurking little critters that might enjoy their new found home at our house.  Last night she slept just fine in her new nest, and doesn't seem to mind the change at all.

We also found this treasure, which the girls have been thoroughly enjoying, as I will let you see for yourself:

Domestic Goddess in Training

Since we are no longer a Dual Income Family and I am home most of the time, we are trying to save money on things we did a lot of last year.  Like eating out.  Oooooh the wonderful money we spent on that.  We are really good at eating out in this city and we love to do it.  I wish we could get paid to eat out - but we don't.  SO, in an attempt to save money we are cutting back.  And I am trying to become a cook.

You see, Scott and I are good partners.  I do the laundry, and he takes care of the odd and end jobs around the house.  He cooks and I do the dishes.  He loves to cook - it's his stress relief.  And he's really good at it.  I don't mind doing dishes, I'm good at it.  However, when he works a lot there isn't always the time or energy to cook - hence the reason we are so good at eating out.

Now that I'm home with school I have time to cook.  SO - a new resolution for me: Get good at Cooking and better at Baking.

Cooking has become daunting to me though, since I've gotten out of practice.  I'm having to relearn how to do it and become confident and creative with it, so that we can go beyond the three basics of Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti, and Tuna Fish sandwiches.  (Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with those, we just might get sick of them after a week)  For now, internet recipes are my best friend.

Earlier this week we made stuffed chicken breasts with spinach, sun dried tomato, asiago cheese, and onions, with a side of Quinoa, which I loved.  Last night I made a Chicken Pot Pie (can you tell we got the super save bag of frozen chicken breasts from Sams?).  I've never made that from scratch and it turned out awesome.  A real ego booster.  So awesome in fact that it "may be the best meal [I've] ever made."  Yesssss!

So, now I can handle five meals.  We'll see how the next few weeks go.  Feel free to send me your favorite recipes that aren't TOO complicated.  I'll do my best at them!  :)

The Latest

I know lots of you follow our blog to stay updated on Scott's status.  As some of you know, this week marks one year since he received his nice, big, tough man scar across his neck and got his Thyroid and lots of cancer ripped out.  We've had our ups and downs since then - our roughest time being July when we thought everything was growing again with a vengeance.  However, we are quite happy that the cancer has seemed to calm down since then.
Scott's latest rounds of scans found absolutely nothing and the best thing out of it all was that his Calcitonin levels finally dropped a little bit!  749 is the lowest they have been since July (when they jumped from 500 to over 800) and we are thrilled!  We are planning some great vacations in the next few weeks and happy to not be thinking as much about cancer right now.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers - for now life with his currently-napping cancer is just the norm.

A letter to my ladies -

To all of my beloved Lamaze & Natural Childbirth Patients:

I am a nurse who completely understands where you're coming from when you say you want to do childbirth without pain medicine or an epidural.  I dig it, really I do.  I'm right there with you when you say you want intermittent monitoring, a hep-lock, and the freedom to sway, walk, and do your labor dance.  I am so happy when you come in and I can be your nurse.  I love to go above and beyond just my normal nursing responsibilities - to support you, to be your cheerleader, to whisper soothing words in your ears, and rub your back as you muddle through labor.  I'll be your advocate, support your family as they support you, and reinforce what you already know - that you are strong, and that you can do this.  The truth is though, that sometimes after I care for the few patients like you, who don't want the drugs as soon as they are told they're being admitted for labor (and usually even before that), I go home feeling just a tad guilty.  I leave feeling as though I didn't do a good enough job for you and it kills me.  Those evenings, I think about you on my drive home and as I fall asleep.

You see, as I care for you my day gets busy.  I get another patient, I get behind on my charting, I have doctors who need assistance, and emergencies happen on the unit that draw me away from the sanctuary of your room.  These things start going down and I cannot be the intensely involved nurse that I want to be.  While I am away, I see you get exhausted, your husband/boyfriend gets weary, and then you decide to get an epidural or pain medicine.

Now, this is not all bad.  Drugs are freaking awesome at times.  Most of you still feel pretty dang proud of how far you got, how little intervention you really did need, and you should feel that way!  You got further than most chics do these days!

But, in some of you I see the twinge of disappointment in your eyes before that sweet, sweet relief hits.  I see the remorse I sometimes feel - that you didn't do as much as you possibly could have.  Maybe this isn't always true - I've been known to read into some things a little too deeply.  SO, I've come up with a plan to help avoid this situation.

From now on let's make an effort to change things.  Please, if you are dead serious about wanting to do this whole labor dealio without pain medicine, get ready for it!  Psych yourself up. Psych your baby's daddy up.  Read every book you can. Take a class. Talk to your doctor early in your pregnancy. Not all doctors are into medicine free labor.  That's fine - change doctors.  Find a midwife.  Exercise throughout your pregnancy. Eat well. Take your vitamins.  Pray. Know that things, especially labor, will not go exactly the way you plan it, so be ready to just ride it out. And, most importantly, bring backup.

Don't say all you need is your husband or boyfriend with you.  You will usually need more than that. And please don't bring just anyone with you.  Bring a doula.  A good one that you like and trust, with good recommendations.  This doesn't mean you have to hire one.  A doula is a women's helper.  Bring women with you who have been there and done that.  A woman who has been part of a completely natural labor and can support you with your husband - especially when he and YOU start to get tired and panic, and this goes beyond what you think is normal.

As your nurse, I want to do everything I can for you, but we have got to start working better as a team.  We have to make it so that at the end of the day, when all is said and done, we both feel that sense of accomplishment and no guilt.

Best wishes, your labor-loving RN.

P.S. Most of these things go right out the window if you have to be induced.  At that point, we play a different game - but I'll still be your cheerleader :)

School

Starts tomorrow for me!!!!  I've bought my books, scribbled all over my planner, joined my study groups, and even looked at the syllabuses.  Some of my classmates have been really eager and even started reading and working on the assignments ahead of time!  I, however, have resisted the urge to become an over-achiever and have reveled in my last free weekend without work or school hanging over my head.   Scott and I have slept in late, laid around watching football, played with the dogs, mourned the Saints loss, and even made it to Port of Call with some friends last night for dinner after the game. I've been working hard on getting over my nasty cold by slamming gallons of hot tea and eating oranges with every meal, along with lots of vitamins, naps, and lemon honey water.  Today I am finally starting to feel better, which makes the thought of school not seem as daunting. I'm excited for everything I'm going to be learning about, and rest assured, you will be hearing lots more about it as the weeks go on.
Good luck to everyone else who starts classes tomorrow as well!  Yay for being students!

Epiphany

We celebrated by taking down the Christmas tree and our lights out front.  I'm in the process of organizing and boxing everything up for next year.  Now all that's needed is a King's Cake and then it's time to start getting excited for Mardi Gras!

Northern Christmas

We had a great time in Wisconsin!  Since we had five whole days there we got to catch up with almost everyone who I've been craving.  Plenty of family time and plenty of play time with friends.  Here's some pics from the last week...

Christmas at my parents and cooking with Grandma Knapp

Opening presents!  My parents & us

More presents!

Both of my Grandma's were there and it made me so happy to get to spend so much time with them

New Year's Eve Party with the girls

While the boys were busy playing games

Coffee with college roomies I haven't seen in far too long

Then on Sunday we headed to Chicago for almost two days and got to see more family! 

We spent Monday at the Museum of Science & Industry and had a blast!  Hopefully we'll be getting to go back soon and spend more time with them.

Best Decision of the Day:

A fast paced 30min walk at 5pm with the dogs and their crazy selves.  They have been snoring at my feet ever since.  Well, Lucy more snoring and Ariyah more running in place and fidgeting with her silly dreams.  Please note the time.  I am in heaven and afraid to move from this computer, lest I break the spell and wake them from their unusual response to exercise (usually it breeds more hyperactivity for at least an hour or two before they take a quick nap and then wake up and forgot they got exercise in the first place and think they need more).

I'm a ...clinic nurse?

Last I checked gas, indigestion, and one or two little squirts of diarrhea eight hours ago are not medical emergencies my dearest pregnant lovelies.  They do not require an ambulance ride to the hospital.  And they really don't even require a visit to the hospital.  We're ok with you having gas.  I really am just so sorry you gorged yourselves so heavily yesterday that you caused these problems which you expect us to magically fix immediately, but really.  I just don't think I could be happier to be done with you and your fragrant behinds and home with my exhausted husband.
Who is in the bathtub.
Watching How I Met Your Mother.
Because he is just that cool and only has 12 more hours of work before his torturous sentence is over.   

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

Only four more days until we fly to Wisconsin and get one!  Until then you can find us at the hospital, performing Christmas miracles and delivering Christmas babies.  Hoping everyone has a safe and joyous weekend!

Just call me little Susie Homemaker

How I spent today:

Rolling out Oreo balls for Truffles, which lead to this:

After cleaning up that mess I dipped all that chocolatey goodness into more chocolately goodness to make these....

and these...

Then I took a break from the candy and loaded the crock pot with this - 

and let that simmer away for the afternoon while I made these

Too many of those.  But they're one of my favorites, so I just had to.  And then finally, I foolishly dove into making a double recipe of these:

The delicious smelling dinner that was waiting for me once all that was finished was pretty much the most amazing thing ever.  Now, who wants to come and deal with this mess???  I will pay you well with goodies :)

This last week has been a busy one, and once again I'm behind on posting so - here ya go!

• We still have two dogs.  No one came and took them.  They did not actually destroy any presents - just all my wrapping.  
• It has been a year now since we got Scott's cancer diagnosis.  Wahoo
• Lucy had her uterus extracted on Monday.  We have been having some aggression issues lately with her and getting her spayed was the first thing all experts suggested.  She was rather mean and cranky for that first 30 hours or so after she came home, but has settled down now.  She has actually been the most playful and loving dog I've ever seen her to be these last two days now though.  I walked into the kitchen on Friday to find Ariyah sprawled out on the floor with Lucy standing over her gently licking her face, and her ears, and her neck just oh so lovingly.  It was a little awkward, but goes to show that they are quite happy with each other again.
• Scott's parents and sister came for four days and we celebrated Christmas.  By laying tile.  And eating out for almost every meal (which isn't bad at all in our city).  All of the linoleum came up in the kitchen and laundry room, we pulled all of the appliances out (including the water heater, which was a beast), and spent two whole days after that laying and grouting tile.  180 square feet of it.  And then we put all the appliances back in and hooked them back up.  We were beat by Wednesday night.  Absolutely exhausted.  I have not been as sore as I was on Thursday in forever.  My legs were killing me all day at work from squatting and kneeling so much.  Bah.  BUT!  We have recovered and the floor looks awesome!!!  We never could have done it without their help and I am so glad they were up for it!  Even aside from the work it was just so nice to have them here with us and I'm so glad they could come.  Now Scott and I just need to seal the grout and put the thresholds back in and we will be alllll done.    
• Scott is on his 32nd hour of work since Friday, as I type.  Only about 88 more hours to go between now and next Monday and then we will be headed to Wisconsin to celebrate a white Christmas!  Can't wait to see everyone!

Me? Be naughty? Neeever