Happy Halloween!

Tobias Fünke & Cleopatra.

If you've never seen the show Arrested Development, Scott's costume will probably make no sense to you.  We were surprised by the number of people who actually got it though while we were out wandering Frenchman St. with all the other costumed New Orleanians. I only wish I would have thought to get a close-up picture of my makeup.  We had a great evening though!

Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst...just in case

Scott has been activated for disaster response.  Meaning we have today to get ready and he has to report for duty before 0700 tomorrow morning.  After that he'll be cruising with EMS until this thing blows over and everyone calms down.

Although the prediction is a Category I at this point, we are preparing for the possibility of a Category II since Scott will not be able to come back and do these things later if needed.  It's the most beautiful day we've had in quite a while, so it seems silly to be boarding up windows.  We've moved anything that could be picked up by the wind and whipped around through windows, under the house or tied it down and closed.  Scott gave me a refresher course with the shot gun and we have plenty of supplies and dog food.  The generator is out and ready and I believe we're set to go!  So - moral of the story, don't worry too much family and friends that are out of town!  This will probably just be a little rain storm and a lot of hassle for nothing.  Love ya lots and we'll update more if anything exciting happens, as long as we have internet and phone.

Isaac

Dear Family,

We are ok :)  The sun was shining all day today and the impending gloom and doom of Isaac has not hit us.  We went out and bought a few sheets of plywood and 30 gallons of drinking water - just in case.  We also filled our extra gas cans and both cars have full tanks.  Just in case.  We have a generator and a gas stove and we are as prepared as we know how to be at this point.

Scott is assigned to the disaster response team with EMS - meaning that if this thing gets crazy, he will be riding around in an ambulance for the next several days.  Today they called him and told him to pack five days worth of food and clothes... just in case.  We find out tomorrow morning at about 10:00 what the verdict is - whether they will activate all the disaster teams or if this is just going to fizzle to nothingness.

We're still trying to decide what to do about me and the dogs at this point.  As of right now it looks like Orleans parish will not be implementing a mandatory evacuation, but that could possibly change.  The wonderful thing is that history is on our side.  Our house is in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Orleans Parish, we are a full twelve feet above sea level, and it has never flooded in 200+ years.  The only thing we worry about is the electricity going out and accessibility, as the Mississippi river is between us and the main part of the city.

So, tonight we wait for Isaac to work his ornery self around the south tip of Florida, and see what direction he decides to head in.  And tomorrow we will make further plans.  Until then, please just pray for the Gulf Coast and that this storm starts to fizzle out, instead of picking up more speed as it heads this way.

Clinical Bound

This morning I gathered up my bags and headed off to the airport again - for my fourth trip within a month.  This time I'm going without Scott.  We're going to be apart for TEN whole days.  When we were dating, and lived 12 hours apart, this would have been no biggie - being apart for a month at a time was the norm.  But, I do believe this is the longest we've been separated since we got married.  It makes me a little homesick looking at it from this end and thinking about it all, but I know the time will fly.

I'm headed back to Kentucky, to my school in the mountains, Frontier Nursing University.  I've completed most of the book work portion of my master's program and now we have orientation for clinicals!  The exciting, real life, action part!  When everything we've learned over the last 18 months finally gets tied together and put into practice.

While at Clinical Bound, we'll be learning and practicing all the hands-on skills we need to master during our clinicals: physical assessments of adults and infants, pelvic exams and paps, learning what various infections look like under the microscope, birth and birth complication drills (on simulators for now), and suturing, along with lots of paperwork and documentation training!  I'm also getting to see many of my classmates and friends again that I've been interacting with online and on the phone, since I was in Kentucky for my first school orientation.  It's going to be a packed session and I'm both excited and very, very nervous.

So, if you think of us, please say a little prayer that Scott can manage to keep track of his wallet and toothbrush, has enough clean clothes and that the house doesn't fall to shambles while I'm gone (only slightly joking :).  Also, that my brain doesn't explode from the overwhelming amount of information that's going to be pumped into it.

Auntie time!

I spent five days over the last weekend in Chicago with my five nieces and nephew taking care of them (one isn't exactly my niece, but I've known her since she was little and she lives with them for the summer, so we'll count her) and the two doggies while my brother- and sister-in-law were in California. Scott had to work so wasn't able to come enjoy the ruckus. The five of them cover quite an age range (16 years to 17 month old twins) which made everything more interesting. It was challenging, and fun, and exhausting.

We played dress up...

...and board games,

...and went to the park,

...and played on the slip 'n slide,

I figured out how to make food for everyone, while carrying around two clingy babies

....and we enjoyed meals together

...and took nightly baths that got very splashy, with me usually ending up soaked as well.

I managed to keep everyone fed, and cleaned, and clothed, the house is still standing, and other
than a few little bumps and bruises, and one nasty little sibling bite-mark, everyone came out
alive and well! We made it to gymnastics (a few minutes late due to some navigation errors) and
were ready on time for the twins PT appointment. So, overall it was a success and I'm so glad I
got to spend so much quality time with these kiddos that I love!

Survival

I'm in that mode.  And it is not pretty.  I'm sitting here with frazzled hair hungrily gulping down a hot dog (yes, I just admitted that) on toast because I'm just too brain dead and lazy to think of anything more creative to make myself for dinner tonight.  No worries, my neglected husband is not being subjected to this meal, but is out enjoying the evening with his fellow residents as the Senior residents graduate.  One final is done and I have two left to take by Tuesday!  And then I will blog.  I promise I will blog.  About our time in Tulsa in May and Erica & Roman visiting, and Scott's latest lab results, and then about our upcoming trips to Wisconsin and then to San Francisco before the month is up.  I promise that once I survive this term, I will be back.  Until then, hope you're enjoying your last few days of spring!

Gardening

Well, so much for my lofty goals of blogging at least once a week.  Last week came and went so fast with school and work that this got pushed way to the back burner.  I promised my mom some pictures of the garden though, so I guess it's time to take a few minutes and put them up!
Our tomato plants are out. of. control.  Some are over 9ft tall!!!  I was talking to my Grandma last week and she said we need to just give them a good pruning session and hack the top right off of them.  Scott's still trying to work up the courage to do that though, fearing he will kill them.  Desperation may require it though and he will probably have to do it tomorrow.

This was our garden two weeks ago:

Please note some of the tomato plants are about 6ft tall....

And this is Scott in our garden today.  This is not an optical illusion. 

 He is standing right in the middle of those giant tomato plants! 

Like I said, completely out of control.

Another view of it from today:

He's running out of options for keeping to plants from falling over, but up until now he's been stabbing bamboo stakes into the ground beside the tomato and then using this really cool velcro "tape" to gently secure the plants to the stakes. He's also tying string at opposite ends of the row and weaving it tightly in between the plants, to create an additional matrix to hold them up.  Maybe you can tell from this picture?

Maybe not...  Well, you can at least see the weed cover (that black material on the ground) we use - which we completely love.

Anyways! We're getting cucumbers and cherry tomatoes already and the eggplant and squash are all blooming.  The okra hasn't started producing yet, but any day I'm expecting him to come inside with one for me to fry up.  (We like to do really healthy things with our produce here)

Our little lime tree is going crazy too!  We have fruit on it this year for the first time and I'm so excited.  We're hoping it ripens well and tastes limey

So, that's the garden.  Even being the tangley jungle that it is, we're pretty proud of it.  Scott is out there every day checking on it and taking care of it.  I mostly support him from the deck, where the mosquitoes and other bugs aren't as bad, although every now and then I wander down to help out a little too.  

A deck!

Scott has been on Toxicology rotation this month - meaning that it is one of his "easier" months of residency where he acts as a consultant when patients come into the ER who have put a few too many toxins in their body.  He was needed if patients overdose on crazy drugs, or combine dangerous new ones that the doctors don't have much experience with, or get into poisons - including venomous snake or spider bites.  He's seen some very interesting things this month, and although he was on call nearly every day, it was from home, and he didn't have to go in very often.  SO, he has had plenty of time to get a lot of house projects done that we have been talking about doing since we had our rush move-in in November before his big surgery.

He finished some wiring and we put in several light fixtures that we've wanted to put up, but haven't made time for yet because they weren't necessary.  As you saw in a previous post, we spent two days insulating the attic, and he's been working on various other projects here and there.  The biggest project we've been wanting to do is our back deck.  The old one was ugly, and rickety, pretty much becoming a hazard, as you can see in this picture....

So, after looking into hiring someone to build a deck (which was looking to be about an $11,000 project for the size we were talking-OUCH!), we decided this was definitely something we could take on by ourselves.  Scott ordered a book online, and hired a man to help him.  Well, he hired two, but one decided it wasn't really his thing after a day and a half of work.

On Monday Scott ordered all of the supplies and they ripped down the old deck and broke it apart and trashed it all.

On Tuesday morning supplies got delivered, everything was measured out, holes got dug for the pilings and all the cement for those was poured.

View out the back door:

On Wednesday the frame went up, along with half of the deck boards on top.

On Thursday the rest of the deck boards went on and the stairs were cut and built.

And we finished on Friday!!!!  All the railings went on and the last screws, and finishing details were added.

We love our new deck and are very excited to get lots of good outdoor time on it.

Absent

Hey all,

We are still alive and well.  Sorry we've been missing from the blogging world.  I just haven't really felt very inspired lately to write, although we have had plenty going on to fill numerous posts with.  It may just be that we've been too busy in fact, that I haven't made time for myself to sit and think and process, which is what I find this blog helps me to do sometimes.  And if I'm not processing much, at least I'm keeping somewhat of a public journal, if not for anyone else, mostly for Scott & I, of lots of the fun, sad, and exciting things that happen to us.  I think I may still have one or two readers out there somewhere, so I've decided I'm going to set a goal for myself to start doing at least one post a week now.  Hopefully if I just get into the swing of it again, the words will start coming easier.  So, for those of you who care, if there are any out there who do, tune in tomorrow, and I will have a post for you - most likely with pictures.  Get excited!

Happy Sunday!  ~Megan

What we did today:

Scott crawled around in the attic with the hose, while I fed the machine bale after bale of insulation.  Hopefully this helps cut down on our heating and cooling bills now because we are sore and tiiiiiiiired.

Traveling

Well, we are off on another adventure! I finished my fifth term of school last week and Scott is on an elective rotation, so we decided to take a trip. We had been wanting to see our good friends, Adam and Jessica, for a few months now and decided to see if they were up for an adventure as well – turns out they were. We needed a place where Scott could work on his medical spanish, Adam could surf, and we girls could work on our tan.  El Salvador is what we decided on – close enough for a quick trip, but far enough to get away. So here were are in El Zonte, on the coast, renting a little house on an amazing piece of property. We can hear the sounds of the crashing waves all the time, and see them everytime we look outside. It is perfect!

This is the view from our balcony

Scott flew in last week ahead of us to have a little more time to work on his elective, and the three of us joined him on Saturday, once I had finished my finals and Adam's vacation time from work started. We have been exploring the little village down the beach, and checking out the neat little tidal pools outside the property walls. We've also been reaaally busy laying by our pool, reading books, developing all sorts of new drink concoctions, and eating delicious food.

We have an amazing view of the sunset from our yard and are thoroughly enjoying it

The weather has been fabulous – 80 & sunny, and the surf has been huge here! We rented a car yesterday to have for the rest of the week and today we are exploring more of the little villages around us. We're in El Tunco, which is an amazing little surf village, with smaller, gentler waves, and more options for Jess and I to shop

After my post last night, it only seems fitting that I should wake up to this:

Apparently 36 hours straight of pouring rain is STILL more than our yard can handle. 

And you're getting an "after" picture much sooner than you probably would have.

The sod is cut out and spaced like that because St. Augustine grows outwards so fast and we have been assured that it will take over the back yard.  Well, yeah, we'll see if flooding affects that I guess....

On a positive note: at least we don't have to water for a few days!

Weekend Projects

Spring is here!  It's been here about a month now and we are completely enjoying it!  Our winter garden finally started kicking out tomatoes in high-gear about three weeks ago.  We enjoyed a final harvest of cabbage and lettuce before Scott and Francois tilled everything up when I was in Minneapolis.

Also, our Lime tree flowered for the first time this spring and now little buds are growing! 

We're really excited, especially since our Mojito Mint (Yes, that is it's name - it's a little sweeter, developed just for mojitos) is growing like crazy.  Our neighbor's tree puts out TONS of limes each year so we're anticipating great mojitos on the porch with everyone soon!

As we prepare for summer, we decided it was high time to get a lawn in our back yard.  When we first bought the house, it was a dump back there!  There was a ratty fence, garbage, abandoned lattice and carpet buried in two feet of leaves (that were composting very nicely - but allowed for no grass to grow).  We cleaned all that up and trimmed as many branches up as we could, and then discovered that every time it rains hard, we get three inches of standing water in the back yard.  So then we got 4 sq yards of dirt delivered and Scott planted grass seed.  No luck.  Next he attempted to transplant plugs of St. Augustine grass from the next yard over.  Some took off, but it was too thin and frail and mostly the dogs just destroyed it running around the yard.  Also, we still flooded with rain.

Our last ditch effort entails ordering the dirt and sod and going big, doing the whole yard at once.  In preparation we had the broken cement next to the house pulled up, and yanked the chain-link fence out between us and a neighbor.

Saturday morning I freaked out a little when the giant semi truck first pulled up LOADED with pallets of sod and thought perhaps our neighbor and Scott got a little over-ambitious.  No fear though, the driver unloaded our two pallets and continued on his merry way.  Five minutes later the dump truck came and deposited 12 sq yards of dirt on our driveway.  We only ordered and paid for 8, but the truck driver accidentally loaded and brought too much, so just gave it to us.

Sunday I finished up a class for school and then headed out back to help Scott for the day.  We spread dirt for quite a while and then began the sod-laying.  Just when we were starting to get rather grumpy and tired our wonderful friends Hunter and Sashi showed up and helped us finish everything, which made the whole process so much more fun.  

Pre-dirt and sod (Saturday morning)

Almost finished 

(I am just now realizing I didn't take an "after" picture. Sorry. I will soon, as I am far too lazy to get up now and go out in the rain to get one for you).  All I can say is that it is going to be awesome and I am so excited for it all to take root and start spreading out!  We've been watering twice a day (except the last two days as it has poured and poured) and are really hoping this works!

Oh, and last thing!  Here is our NEW garden that Scott has been working on for the last week!  If you look closely you can see our version of "Wilson" (Home Improvement - anyone? anyone?) over the fence behind :) 

The Arlich Hitch-Fest

This last weekend Hannah, who I have been friends with fooooooreverrr, finally ran off and got hitched. To a really fun, really tall & good looking, really all around great guy.  I couldn't be happier for her!

She looked absolutely stunning and I still just can't get over how perfectly the whole weekend went!

The weather was astounding for March in Minnesota.  I woke up on Thursday morning in a little bit of a panic to see that it had lightly snowed the night before.  All week long I just prayed no freak blizzard would come along, and we were so blessed!  Saturday, the day of the wedding, was bright and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky and it was 60 degrees!!!  We took pictures outside and basked in the glory of it all.

(Their amazing photographer, Emily Steffen, took this picture and I nabbed it from her site)

The wedding was an absolute blast!  Hannah and Jerod did a fabulous job of planning every last little detail out.  Everything from their personally written vows and the readings they chose for the ceremony, to the decorations and place settings, was unique and very original to them.  It was so refreshing to be at a wedding that was different enough, but still just traditional enough as well that it didn't seem weird.  All around I just can't stop raving about it and how much fun it was!  

I was just bummed that Scott had to miss out due to his ICU rotation and needing to work the whole time.  However, it did give me tons of time to catch up with some of my bestest girlfriends that I've been missing so much. 

We had pretty much the best wedding party ever and danced the night away.  Today, four whole days later, I am finally not achey.  We were all so sore from dancing for so many hours, that on Sunday morning I really thought my knees and all the muscles in my legs would just give up and buckle right out from under me when I was walking around - especially climbing stairs.  I would say that's a sure sign of a great wedding though, so, once again...

CONGRATULATIONS Mr & Mrs. Jerod Arlich! 

 I love you two and wish you many, many, many, many years of wedded bliss together!

Three month labs

This happened like 2-3 weeks ago now and I completely forgot to update it on the blog here!  Sooorry!

Scott had his three month post-op labs done and his thyroid levels are finally good!!!!!  We have worked on getting to this point for over two years now, since they removed his thyroid, and never dreamed it would take so much work.  He's yo-yoed up and down and we've changed his Synthroid dosing several times.  But, he is feeling great now and we are thrilled he's leveled off and we're finally at a good dose!

His calcitonin levels (markers for MC) are still about the same.  We were hoping they would drop off, but no need to worry too much until after we hit the six month mark.  We're in the process of consulting with some other docs from MD Anderson again regarding the whole situation, just to get their opinion and see if they have any other ideas.  As of right now though we don't really foresee any big changes in the plan and are just hanging out.

Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers!  Hopefully there won't be much to report for a few more weeks.

Neighborhood Watch

Our front porch is one of our favorite aspects of this house. And by 'our', I mean all four of us. Not only do Scott and I love to sit out there and drink our coffee in the morning, or eat lunch together in the sun, or enjoy wine with the neighbors in the evening, but Lucy and Ariyah love that thing just as much as we do, and possibly more.  It runs the length of the front of our house and was very poorly built.  All of the rails are unequally spaced and the nails are rusting out of it.  The dogs know where the wider-spaced rails are and their favorite thing is to stick their head right through those and watch the world go by

This allows them to get as close as possible to all dogs walking by on the sidewalk, which of course makes them believe their obnoxious greetings are even better.  Every now and then they forget about the particularly narrow spacings when they're really excited, which causes momentary panic as they twist and turn, trying to free their big heads.  No worries - they've never been permanently stuck and I've stopped being concerned about that.
We put up a baby gate to when we first moved in here so that we could leave them on the porch unattended if we're home.

This way they can bask in the sun for hours at a time, wrestle noisily, and chew their rawhides to their hearts content, without getting my floors any dirtier than they already are.

This is their daily routine when we're around, and it hasn't changed much in the three months we've been living in this house.  Until this morning.  This morning Lucy decided that resting her chin on the lowest bar of the railing no longer provided a satisfying enough view of the neighborhood.  No, she needed to be even higher than an entire 8 feet off of the ground.  So, as I casually glanced out the window while walking by this morning, I had to do a rapid double-take, and then burst out laughing when I saw this:

Lucy sitting in our chair

No guilt. No shame.  Just enjoying the view like she's a human.

She is such a mess.

Three down, many more to go

Today's our Anniversary!!!!  Yep, 1,095 days have passed since we said, "I do" and there have been lots of exciting adventures along the way.

Scott had to work the afternoon/evening shift today so we decided to switch it up and work right along with that schedule.  I waited until up he got home from work last night (at midnight on the dot I might add) and we rang the new year in with champagne.  Today we got all gussied up for lunch out at Commander's Palace.  It was my first time there and we were treated like celebrities, as I think everyone is when they go there, which is always fun.  It was delicious and we had a great time!  We both decided we need to start doing lunches out a little more often.  It's a blast!

Family visits!

Warning: as per my usual, this is a picture-filled post...
The first week in February my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were all able to come visit!  It's the first time my mom and Tyler have been able to come down since we moved here, so we were happy it finally happened!  It was a little chaotic combining all the napping schedules (Roman would fall asleep, and then dad would figure he should nap as well, so then Scott or Tyler would too, but then Roman would wake up, and by the time we would all finally be ready to leave Roman would need a nap again...) but we made it happen!

We had all sorts of exciting adventures.  We spent one day wandering the French Quarter and showing them around our neighborhood.  The next day we spent an afternoon wandering uptown; riding the street car, eating at fun restaurants, and checking out all the beautiful houses on St. Charles St.

 Walking to Audubon park

We took a swamp tour the next day.  This time around we did the more "mild" version (we decided an air boat might be a little too intense for a 6mo old) and all of us piled on the pontoon boat together for a leisurely ride through some canals and bayous in the swamp.

On the boat for the swamp tour!

The younger alligators were brave and came swimming right up to our boat so we could get a good look at them.  We saw a few birds and one gross snake as well.

This big guy was bored with us...

Towards the end of the trip our guide pulled out his "pet" gator and wrapped a little hair binder around his (her?) nose so we could hold it.  I was slightly worried, but we all decided to brave it. I mean really, it was a little one and Scott's seen worse bites from them in the ER so what's the worst that could happen? Right?

Dad may have gotten slightly carried away...

Hopefully my mom doesn't have to worry too much, I doubt they would do well as pets in Wisconsin.

Scott had to work for a few hours on the Monday before everyone left, so I took my parents out to Oak Alley Plantation and we got the tour.  It was another great day of seeing more of Louisiana and getting to spend some very enjoyable time with them.

We all had a great time together and I'm so glad we were all finally able to get together here.