Fall and football

Oooh football and fall time, how I've missed thee.....

Now if the weather would just cool off, I'd be on cloud nine. I guess I should mention though, Saturday was only in the low 80's, the coolest temps since early May. And now we're back into the 90's for the unforeseeable future. Great.

I did order the game Saturday night. $40 was a bit pricey, especially since I was the only one home to watch it. I had to keep myself entertained somehow. Dave was on call, a lot of our friends were out of town for the weekend. So it was just me and the dog, and some good ol' Chinese take-out.

I wore my Nebraska shirt to clinic on Friday (It's been approved for the fall time b/c these people are obsessed with football down here.) Needless to say, I got a lot of comments. Especially by one of my teenage patients, (he reminds me of Alex, actually....a smart *$$) This is what I hear when I open the door. "Well looky there....nothing good comes from Nebraska, except maybe corn....and Ndamukong Suh" I responded to sit down in his seat and get comfortable, because he just bought himself a free ticket to spend the rest of the afternoon with us. I was going to keep him in clinic for as long as I could. That shut him up. (It was all in fun, don't want y'all to think I was being for serious.)

On to other things, I think we've beat the fleas. I have switched Oscar to Confortis, one of the strongest flea fighting medications out there. He's done very well with it. And we've been flea free for over 2 weeks! Hooray, Hooray!!

We really haven't been up to too much recently. Dave is now on Pulmonary wards, so he's back into the crappy hours. Puppy is growing. And I'm still working. The 3 day weekend this past weekend was wonderful! I wish I could have those every week! Oh, we started a financial bible study this week. It went really well, it's a 10 week course, and really just puts everything into perspective. It makes me think before my impulse buys, so that is good. Dave is appreciating it too. :)

Well, that's all I know for now. Hope all my Nebraska friends are enjoying the cool weather that I've been hearing about! Sounds lovely. I'm coming home in October for my friend Erin's bridal shower, and am soooo excited for the weather! And the football. (Happens to be the Texas game) Okay, talk to y'all soon!!

Unrelenting heat!

Seriously, I can't take this heat anymore. The weather man announced that we are 60 some straight days with 90 plus degree highs. (And that was about 10 days ago.) I'm sooooo OVER it! Tops of some trees are fried and have turned brown and the leaves fell off. It's very sad. And is it bad that temps like 91 or 92 don't feel that bad anymore? If only the humidity would let up a little bit we'd be in great shape! I'm just so ready for fall..... and football!

Dave's on GI consults this month, so he's working 8-5ish with weekends off. Last weekend we laid around ALL weekend. It was raining too, so we never got off the couch. We were laughing because we thought it was just the best weekend and thought, this is what normal married couples feel like. They get to see each other most weekends. It was glorious!

I thought this weekend was glorious too, I don't think Dave did so much. We were up bright at early Saturday, and had went through the basement and had it organized by 9:30am. It felt great to get that done, and we went through all of our drawers and closets to take things to Goodwill. Let me just tell you that Dave has about 5 boxes full of CD's and a few DVD's, and 10 boxes of books!! I told him to not even worry about going through all that until we move somewhere more permanent. We've already decided that we're paying someone to move us to the next place. Well, more like my dad TOLD me that we were going to pay someone to move us, because he's never doing that again.

Oh, I don't think I ever mentioned that we found 2 fleas on Oscar about a week or two ago. I freaked. I mean, most of you know that I'm already pretty anal about things, and my whole deal with having an indoor dog is that when you walk into my home, I want there to be no indication that an animal lives here. And fleas.....wellllll, that's an indication.

I called the vet, got a special pill on top of the monthly treatments he gets to kill the fleas. I bathed him in Dawn dish soap while Dave went to Walmart to buy a yard treatment spray and Bo-rax (I'm not sure if I'm saying it right, is that a southern pronunciation? These new words, I don't even know anymore if it's the first time I've ever heard of it.) Well anyway, you put the bo-rax on the carpets and sprinkle it on the floors to kill any flea larva that has fallen off. The good thing is I don't have any carpet, only area rugs, so it's easier to get all the flea larva. I may have went a little overboard, Dave told me if someone were to walk into our house, they'd think that we were crack heads with a ton of cocaine all over the floors. (Because bo-rax is white and powdery for those of you who were unaware of it's existence, as I was.)

Anyway, we are still seeing a few fleas on him, so we did the whole thing over again yesterday. I also gave him some benadryl for the itching, and the poor thing, Dave was pulling him to come over, and he just went and fell right on over! Not graceful, straight legged and all, on his side. He was a drunk puppy. Poor baby.

As many of you have probably heard, my cousin Preston was very sick this past week up in Omaha. It really has been a very looong week. I can only imagine how long it has been for him, and my aunt Pam and uncle Steve. He's doing better though, thank the Lord for that!! Again, it puts things in to perspective and reminds me that I really want to get closer to home. There's nothing we can do about that now, but just praying that for fellowships we will be able to be closer. I mean, ultimately we want to be in Omaha, but I can't get my hopes up. If you'd like to visit his carepage the link is below.

Read the update now: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/PrestonVikingFan/updates/2758709?client_code=chsomaha&ipc=mur

Hope all is well with everyone up north! I'm sooo ready for Husker football! Unfortunately, we won't be getting many of their games until next year when we're officially part of the Big 10! Okay, talk to y'all soon!

Love,

sarah

Holy cow! It's been over a month!

So I just got back from home and had some requests to post more often. Which I will try to do, but last month.... Well....let's just say I was living by the motto, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Last month Dave was on his first rotation of his 2nd year, it was GI (gastroenterology) which he wants to do, so he enjoyed it. I, however, didn't. He was regularly working 80-90 hrs a week. One weekend I saw him for 4 hours. The combination of never seeing your husband and wanting to go home makes me into an emotional wreck. More of an emotional wreck than what I normally am; which, I know is VERY hard to believe. I did however get flowers at work, which was very nice and thoughtful, but still doesn't replace having him home. It was hard because I was under the impression that 2nd year was going to get better and I was very disappointed.

This month should be much better though, he's on consults which means he works no weekends! One of my friend's down here, (another wife) and I were talking about how great it is to just have them home for a whole weekend, it feels so surreal. Like we live a normal life with normal hours. Her baby turned 1 in the middle of July. And it was funny, because I went over to help her set up for the party and her husband made it home and was able to feed their baby, Kate, dinner for the first time all month. It's the little things in life....

We've started going to another church here in town, well, it's in Homewood. A lot of residents go there, and one of our couple friends go there. So that's nice. Funny story though, the week before I left to go home, so about 2 weeks ago, the pastor stopped by one evening to drop off some information and to chat. Well, Oscar was in the back yard, and that the very same time I let him in, Dave had the front door open and Oscar bolted! I was out there in my bare feet running into our neighbors yard, and Oscar's running from us like it was a game. I was just worried he'd get into the road. I was yelling at Dave, and yelling at Oscar....the whole time not realizing that the nice old man standing at the door was the pastor of the new church we'd been going to. I was a sweaty mess by the time we got him corralled, and by we I mean Dave, I, AND the pastor. The secret trick: Doggie treats with peanut butter. Peanut butter will stop him in his tracks anytime---anywhere.

So anyway, back to my time at home. I was there for a week, and it was sooooo great! Michelle and Alex were there, and it was very relaxing. It FLEW by, which is very unfortunate, but I expected that. We had a weenie roast one night (my little cousin Will referred to it as the wee-wee roast. He's 2, and he was terrified, of the "wee-wee roast") I could hear the concern in voice one afternoon on the way home from the pool when he was questioning it. I did frequent the pool with my little cousins. Will doesn't like me to touch him or play with him much. At one point I tried to play with him, and he told me to go sit back down on the steps. He went back to jumping around, turning in circles, and singing "Mary had a Little Lamb." I'm sure I looked like a very negligent baby-sitter. Sitting on my butt while the child is singing to himself. His brother Henry, who's going into the 1st grade, was practicing his dives one day. And as I'm sitting on the edge of the pool I look across and see writing on the other side. I then proceed to lift my butt cheek and I see that right by the "NO" on my left, says "DIVING" under my a**. Oops.

All in all, leaving home was hard. I'm never one to wish my life away, but I cannot WAIT until we're back in Nebraska. Hopefully this month will be MUCH better, so then I'll post more because I'll have nice things to say. I'm sorry if you get tired of hearing me complain, I'm really not totally miserable. OH! Oscar got a hair cut....a SHAVE! It's not like a buzz cut, but it's verrrry short, which is good for this heat. It's been 90-100 + for the last few weeks, months for that matter. He now looks like an anorexic giraffe. We really do feed him, he's just lean like his parents. Hah! Hope all is well....can't wait for fall time and football, and more importantly cool weather.

Can you imagine wearing sweats and a good ol' pot of chili?! MmmmmMmmm...can't wait!

Southern Culture that I've embraced:

I'm going to write mainly on things in the south that is second nature to them, but to a northerner, rather odd. And as I am writing this Oscar is running the complete length of the house and top speeds, running into the walls (because we have no carpet and he can't stop) then turning around and going the other direction. All of this because it's too hot for him outside. He goes out, pees, and sits back at the door giving us one bark to tell us that he's through. Yesterday we tried to go to the farmer's market, and were only there for 45 minutes. We pick out our fresh veggies and left because it was 9:30 and 88 degrees. Yesterday we had a couple over and at 10:00 pm it was 82....but felt like 87. Needless to say, we ate inside in the air conditioning. Hot and humid, and I really wish it'd rain because I'm sick of watering my flowers.

Anyway, back to the subject. These are the things I've absolutely fallen in love with in the south. First, let's start out with the way they dress. For the men: polos, shorts, and loafers. A lot of boys and men have the comb over swoop, which I think is funny. One patient's mom told me, "I can't wait til his hair get's longer and I can part it." I giggled. (Dave hasn't conformed to the loafers, his feet get too hot) The women I've noticed always wear dresses, and now I understand why: it's cool. I have went on a shopping spree when it comes to dresses. I no long buy shorts/ jeans, just dresses. If I go out, more than likely I'll have a dress on. They're so easy, you don't really have to put an outfit together, just pick out shoes and jewelry. And speaking of jewelry: Pearls. Here's the thing with pearls, they can be worn casually, but are also classic. Love it. That was Dave's best purchase for me. Oh~ Also, the smocked dresses on little girls, with bows in their hair. My girls will wear this attire, even if we are back in Nebraska!

On to the next thing, and that would be ferns. I have 7 hanging fern baskets. They line the carport and it ultimately incloses it. This is one thing I DON'T like, there are a TON of carports! But back to ferns, they make me feel happy inside, and I'm not sure what it is about them. I also love the tree's down here! Well, there's TONs of trees, but my two favorites are the Magnolia and Crepe Myrtle's. I wish we could have them up north, because they're beautiful!! However, the climate doesn't allow it. Darn winters!

People down here obviously speak a little differently from us. I don't think I've picked up the accent yet, (I do say y'all quite a bit) but another thing is Miss, Mrs., and Mr. For example, one of the nurses I work with is named, Miss Ruth. I don't think I've ever called her just Ruth, it just sounds wrong. I'm trying to get in the habit of doing this all the time, like saying "Yes ma'am, no sir" etc. I don't want people to think I'm being rude.

Anyway, that's really it for now, or all that I can think of. Hope everyone's doing great!

Dave's on Cardiology....enough said.

Well, followed by the great weekend Dave started one of the worst rotations. There are however, only 3 more weeks left of intern year! Hooray for that! He gets a week off so one of his friends is coming down and they are going to spend the weekend in Atlanta. They'll go to some breweries and hit up some Brave's games. I can't get any time off because two people are out on maternity leave at work and it's just hard to get time away. But anyway, when he's on these rotations with time intensive call, I find myself getting very emotional and cranky. Let's hope that since this is the last month, it'll be a smoother for both of us!

This week I went to see Sex and the City 2 with a few girl friends, all of whom husbands are also interns. It was nice to go out and to share our complaints. One girl, bless her heart, just took the bar in February, passed, but cannot find a job to save her life. She was a lawyer and had a great job back in N'Orleans, but was uprooted to come here for her husband's surgery residency. I feel terrible for her, because I know that feeling of not being able to find a job. We decided we needed to get together often, just for our sanity.

Oscar is doing well, we got him this bark collar that when he barks he gets sprayed with citronella. It's kind of funny because it scares him.

Oh, sad news. Thursday when us girls went to the movie, another girl that will usually hang out with us was at the beach with her kids and family and said that started to smell the oil. She was at the same beach, Orange Beach, that Dave and I were just at last weekend. I guess they're also seeing tar balls. It makes me sick to my stomach, those beaches are so beautiful, not to mention those poor people who's lives and income depend on the ocean. Sickening. Anyway, I suppose that is all for now.

Random note: Sometimes I wish I was a teacher so that I'd have summers off....just saying.

Memorial Day Weekend Extravaganza!

This was the first year that I've ever missed the Pawnee City Fireman's Pancake feed. It's usually my birthday weekend so I'm home, but this has been a year of changes and firsts. Not that I can complain about my weekend. It was full of friends, food, beach and beverages.

Dave and I left for the long weekend Friday after I was done with work and drove down to the beach. He had a conference down there that he had to present a poster on one of his patients. It was titled "An Uncommon Heachache" (or something to that extent.) I really can't tell you what it was completely about because I, of course, was on the beach at 8:30 am and stayed all day. No worries, I wasn't being a terrible wife, because all the other wives and children were right there claiming their lounge chairs and umbrella's with me. Dave did his 30 minute presentation, we ran to Publix (the local grocery store) to grab some food and beverages, then returned to the beach for a day long drink/lounge fest. There weren't really any wives down there that I knew, but as long as I have my iPod and celebrity magazines, I'm totally entertained. (I somehow forgot a good book.)

Although Dave was under the umbrella 95% of the day, he still managed to get burned....with sunscreen! Our poor children have no chance to be good tanners, unless some recessive gene presents itself. It was a good time though, we came home Sunday because Dave had to go in on Memorial day, but good thing we did. My friend who was also down there said it took her 9 hours to get home because of beach traffic all heading back north on Monday. Usually it takes 4 1/2. Did I also mention that we didn't have to pay for it? Since Dave was presenting UAB paid for it. That made it even nicer!

Monday we went out to on of our friends parent's house. They had a pool and we BBQ'd and it was wonderful. Oscar gets to go to, because Harper's mom has 4 dogs, one of which is Oscar's half sister, Anna Belle. So, needless to say, Oscar got to try the whole pool thing. He was terrified, and wouldn't go back in. The water was a little chilly, so I'm hoping he'll warm up to the idea. Harper and Matt's little daughter, Hannah Kate LOVES her "Ostar" She call's him her Ostar buddy. You can her here in the video too, saying, "poor baby, poor baby" My mom loved this video, so hope y'all get some enjoyment out of is as well.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day! Our little town put's flags in the island on the main highway, it is really beautiful. It makes me smile.

Alabama Life

Yesterday Dave asks, "Are you doing laundry this weekend?"

I respond, "Yes, honey, I do laundry every weekend. Otherwise we would not have clean clothes during the week..."

He replies, "Oooh yes, that's why our water bill has tripled since you moved down. I only did laundry once a month." ----Lets pray that was a joke-----

He continues to make me laugh. Okay, side note, as I'm writing this, Oscar is barking obnoxiously outside....I need a shock collar. So I don't have to move, I can just push a button and, wham...disipline. That would truly be lovely. Does anyone have one that I can borrow?!?

Both of our works are going well. We're both busy....clinic has a been nightmare-ishly busy lately. Just crazy busy! And Dave's at the county hospital, and that's....well.....always interesting. Entertaining, rather.

He's working on a poster that he's going to present and some conference at the beach, which is great..I love being within hours of the beach. It's great for weekend get aways.

Today I went out to watch a friend of mine's 3 week old baby. Her, her husband, 2 year old, and family went out to Talladega and her husband got to drive a Nascar car. That sounds really red-neck, but they're really not. What guy wouldn't want to drive a car at 170 mph around a track? I thought that it sounded like fun, until I learned that the car is not air conditioned and there's not radio. Totally not down with that. How do those people drive for 2 hours in those races? I'd be board out of my flippin mind! Back to the baby though, she's suuuuch a doll. And I held her from 9-2. I gave her to Dave when I took "bathroom breaks"...just love those little darling babies!

It's been a little warm down here, today it was 95 and the humidity makes it hazy. You go outside and feel sticky. I've been wearing dresses. A year ago I would have never imagined running around in a dress, but it's really the coolest thing you can wear. Now it's pretty much the only thing I'll buy.

Well, I need to get going, Dave's brewing beer, the house reeks, and Oscar is trying to help. My job now is to keep Oscar away so he doesn't "contaminate" it, is what Dave tells me. We'll see how this goes...

The happenings with the in-laws...

I thought I'd let y'all know what we did while Dave's parents and his sister were in town:

They came in on Friday evening and we went out for some good ol' BBQ at Jim 'n Nicks. Denise (Dave's mom) was in love. We are too...they have great cornbread/cheddar biscuits and brisket. Yummy!

Saturday morning we went to the local farmer's market which was wonderful! Oscar got to go too...and he was the best behaved dog...I mean, seriously, he was fantastic. I'd never seen him like that before, and I wish he'd do it more often. I really think he was just overwhelmed with the people. People would stop to look at him and pet him, and at any given moment he'd have 5 kids around him petting. He just sat there like a good boy and didn't even flinch. He enjoyed being the center of attention. He was the cutest dog there and stole the show. (Okay, I may be bragging a little...)

Dave and his dad and sister went and played golf that afternoon while Denise and I napped. We took several naps over the weekend. It was wonderful, and relaxing! Saturday night we did take them to a crawfish boil. It was a ton of fun! It was a benefit for one of my patients and all the proceeds went to our hospital for our Phase I (1) study research. We do Phase I studies on patients that really haven't responded to anything and this is just therapies they're "investigating". Anyway, it was a good time, people from work were there, there was live music, it was a beautiful evening, just all-in-all fun.

We also did some hiking....and got lost. We wandered around the forest going in circles for 2 1/2 hours. Fortunately it was only in the low 80's and it's obviously all shaded, so it wasn't terrible. Oscar however was pooped. We took several water breaks for him in the stream. We did some shopping, more eating, and Dave, Rich and Lindsay played some more golf. Rich, Denise and Lindsay tried a new BBQ spot for almost every lunch. Denise said that she didn't fit in her pants once they left, but I gave her my solution: wear pants with drawstrings. :)

They left Thursday, but it was so great to see them!! It's very quiet around here now, and Oscar doesn't know what to do. He has no stimulation now. Well, that's all for now! Hope things are getting warmer up in Nebraska! We had great weather down here for them (since they're not used to humidity being from North Platte, NE), I was nervous because it had been pushing 90, but the whole time they were here it was low to mid 80's with hardly any humidity. Praise Jesus!

xox

Happy Momma's Day!

Well I write this sitting here Sunday evening, after walking and driving through our neighborhood this afternoon and seeing all the families together for lunch and dinner. It really makes me yearn to be back home. I really did take for granted how easy it was to just drive home for the day, or make it home for random get togethers. Dave and I were talking about this earlier, I have a feeling that when we do move back to Omaha we'll be making very frequent visits to North Platte and Pawnee City. Or, what I'm really looking forward to is having our families over for Sunday lunch.

Anyway, hope everyone had a happy mother's day! I sent cards to our mom's, but neither of them have received them yet. They'll probably get them tomorrow....or Tuesday. I'm still trying to get used to the number of days it takes for snail mail. I guess that Wednesday was too late. :(

My sister sent me this text this morning, "Oscar told me to tell you, 'Happy mother's day. Thanks for being the greatest dog mommy ever. Please let me chase the squirrels.'" I smiled. If only he knew it was mother's day, my mother's day wish would be that he would nap all day and stay out of my way watering flowers. Oscar did get a mother's day surprise though....well, and so did we. We ran to the pet store to pick him up some more dog food and we were looking at kennels. The kennel he currently has is getting pretty tight. He can barley stand in it, so we've been looking to get a new one. However, new large kennels were running about $150 to $200 (and that was on Craigslist.) It was just a little to pricey at the moment. So anyway, I could tell this lady was kind of watching Dave and I contemplate these kennels, and she came up and said, I have a large kennel like this, and I'm really wanting to just get rid of it....I'll just give it to you. I was floored, we of course told her that we'd have to pay her something, so we got it for $50. She lived near our neighborhood and it had only been used for 1 hour, it was for a rescue dog she had fostered, but then had been placed within a few hours of being at her house. I was just soooo excited!! We now call it his mansion, no longer 'the kennel.'

On to another subject. I believe that I have become more...hmmmm....what's the word for it. Well I know the word, because I think it rhymes with witch, but we'll just call me assertive. :) No, actually, I think I've just developed an attitude. I've really always had it, just recently it's been coming out more and more often. I think it's due to the south and how a lot of ladies here act. They're sweet and charming, but you don't cross them. I think all the ladies I work with have rubbed off on me a little bit. Well, maybe a lot. Dave said last week, "Geez, you can be so pleasant and then you just snap into one of your 'moods'." ----I'm really trying to work on that.

Well, Dave's parent's and sister are coming on Friday and we're just sooo excited! So is Oscar, he's going to the bath house and spa on Thursday to get ready to meet them for the first time. It's funny that you can choose between and facial, massage of extra teeth cleaning. He'll be getting the extra teeth cleaning. Yikes, how do you give a dog a facial?? They don't have skin! Or at least his is covered with hair.

Okay, well I better get going, Sweet Home Alabama is on. It makes my heart smile. It's crazy to think that I was obsessed with that movie when it first came out. And here I am, in the heart of Alabama. Well, I guess I should specify that I live in the city. People who come into the clinic.....I can tell who lives in the city and well.......who doesn't. It's very obvious. Hope y'all are doing well! Have a good night!

May. :)

Oh what a month April has been! Dave and I both had trips to Vegas within 2 weeks of each other....yes, we went separately....and I'm thankful we did. :) Dave went out for a friend's birthday, and had a great time. They gamble and do that side of Vegas. And my group of friends....well, we don't. I did gamble 3 dollars. I lost.

I went for a bachelorette party for my friend Kelli. There were 13 of us total, 11 of us girls from my sorority and then Kelli's mom and aunt. Who were sooo wonderful! Let's just say it was a wild and crazy time. We had a panoramic suite at Planet Hollywood and overlooked the fountains at the Bellagio. (Not sure the spelling.) Anyway, it was amazing. Our large whirlpool tub was transformed into a cooler for our drinks. We went out on the strip that night, just walked and stopped at several bars, we spent most of our time at Caesar's Palace. We were bought drinks after drinks...this led to our demise. Six of us headed back at around 3:30, and the other 5 went to another club. At around 4:30 I heard a racket and one of the girls comes to where I was sleeping looking for the cot that I was on. This was her quote exactly, "Get up! Get up! Taryn's in a wheelchair and we need the cot to lay her on!" I popped up, obviously in very sober fashion and go out to the living room to find our good pal Taryn in fact in a wheelchair, with a paramedic or security...something...trying to arouse her. I'm laughing typing this because after the initial scared feeling, she started to come around and was going to be fine. The next morning was rough.

Saturday night was the actual bachelorette. We went to Thunder Down Under. It's these gorgeous guys that do these little skits and strip...kind of. They go down to Speed-o's. It was hilarious. We also had a limo and went to this club at the Wynn called Tryst. It had an amazing waterfall...just unreal. Vegas truly is another world....I was in bed Saturday night at 4am, and up at 5:30 to catch a cab for my 8am flight. I made it....however, I don't remember the plane taking off. Not because I had been drinking, I was just sooo exhausted. I bought on of those nerdy neck pillows at the airport and used it. The whole. way. home. I slept the entire 4 hour non-stop flight into Birmingham. Oh, wait, I did get up once to have a drink of Sprite to take some Ibuprofen. Pretty sure the two guys beside me were praying the whole way that I wasn't going to suddenly vomit, because I know I looked awful. It was a great time. I'm sure it will be fun to go with Dave....but only with my girlfriends can I have that much fun!

On to other things in our lives.....hmmm. I'm trying to think what else! Dave's parent's and sister are coming down in 2 weeks. We're so excited! His mom has never been down before so I'm excited that he'll be able to show her his first house. :)

Oscar is doing okay. He weighs 51 lbs and does still believe he's a lap dog. He's also learned how to jump onto the bed. So if he's sleeping in our room, he'll jump up, like my face, then go back down to the floor. He doesn't like to stay up there because he can't stretch out. And he likes the wood floors, I'm guessing it's a lot cooler. Oh, there was one cute thing. He has this blankie that he's had since we bought him the first night. It really is his security blanket. He'll drag it out of his kennel and lay with it around the house. This particular night it was already in the hall and he was on the bed. He sees the blanket, jumps down and grabs it, then jumps back up and lays in my spot....with his blankie...like he's down for the night. It's slightly obnoxious.

Dave's been in the medical ICU this month. He's been doing TONS of lines, taps, codes, etc. He'll put a needle in anything: spines, tummies, lungs, necks, whatever is needed. It is kind of morbid when I call and he doesn't answer I just figure he's coding someone. It's usually at 7 am of 7 pm....for all of my nursing/medical people you'd understand. Shift change: when all codes happen. Starting Monday he's back at the "Coop" It's the Cooper-Green Hospital, the county hospital where anything and everything goes. They let the resident's run the show. Very scary, but the place has one of the highest patient satisfaction scores in the country! Kind of impressive.

Well, that is all for now. Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the lovely spring weather. It was so humid here today it was hard to breathe. Oscar was struggling on our walk this morning. He was panting like crazy and plopped down on the cool tile and under the fan as soon as we got home. Talk to y'all soon!!

I'm really going to try to get back into this!

Okay, sorry for the long lag between posts, or maybe y'all didn't even notice! Anyway, I'll just start rambling about our recent happenings and hopefully you're bored enough to read it!

Lets start by going back to mid-March. It was the hardest time for us down here yet. Dave thought that the hospital was "sucking his soul" and I felt that it was in fact sucking mine since I never saw him. Dave was on call every 4 nights, and the oncology service was really wearing on him. Now he's on call q 5 nights which actually makes it feel a lot better. (For the non-medical people, "q" means "every") Anyway, now he's on MICU (medical intensive care unit) so he's getting more great experiences. His first night on he put in 6 central lines, ran a code, etc. He got 45 minutes of sleep though, so that was good! At that point I think I'd just rather not sleep. So anyway, so far this month has been going better hour wise. I just don't sleep well when he's not here, I hear strange things. However, our alarm is set to instant, meaning that if something moves, it's going to go off...so that gives me peace of mind.

As I'm sitting here, the National Championship basketball game is on. Michigan State lost in the final four. It was heart breaking, but Dave took it pretty well. I think he's learning that there's always next year....or maybe it was the fact that a couple of friends showed up with 5 minutes left so he was forced to be a little more controlled.

Oscar has been doing well. He's nearly 50 pounds at 6 months, and he still continues to grow. A few weeks ago he was playing outside and hurt himself and I was convinced that he had hip dysplasia. I didn't sleep all night, I just kept thinking that what a long life that would be for him and if they made such things as puppy insurance. Are all pet surgeries out of pocket? I wish I could have him covered on my insurance so that I would only have to pay co-pays. I wonder if my health savings could be spent on my dog. I may try it....

However, Oscar is doing great now, besides the fact that he doesn't think he's a dog. (We're to blame for that) We've been running every morning and he enjoys that. So many times I'm whispering to him, "Oscar, let's slow down." And by whispering it's because I'm so out of breath I can hardly utter words. The whole time while Oscar is happily trotting along. Really, for him it's more like a fast walk. I have a video of him sitting at our front windows watching squirrels outside, I may have to post it. It's funny to watch his head go back and fourth.

On another note, Dave and I are going to Vegas this month! Not together, of course, with our friends....on different weekends. :) He's going for his friend Brant's birthday, one of Brant's bands, Muse, is playing out there the same weekend so he'll be able to go to the show. I'm going a few weeks later for a bachelorette party with a bunch of my sorority girls. Love those girls, and I can't imagine the fun we'll have. We're staying in a suite, it's probably going to be something that rivals "The Hangover". Only request: no tigers.

Our Easter was nice. It was the first time to be away from family with no family here at our home either. Dave was on call, so I went to church by myself which was fine. For lunch we, and by we, I mean Oscar and I. We went out to one of the girls I work with, Harper's parent's house and had lunch with her, and her family. She and her husband have a little girl, Hannah Kate, who is a doll, and loves Oscar. (She's two) She calls him "my Osca" and likes to take him on "walks" aka lead him around on the leash have him chase her. If she runs, he follows. She even fed him birthday cake. She's his new best friend.

It was great to have some place to go yesterday though, it made if feel more like Easter. I did take Dave up some leftover lasagna last night. We sat in an ICU conference room and had Easter dinner. A few of his upper levels joined us, it was nice.

Yesterday I broke down and turned on the air conditioning. It's been in the mid 80's, but yesterday I started to sense some humidity, so it was kind of warm. And it was 81 in our house, so I figured it was time. I'm still hot, and it's suppose to cool down back into the 70's but the pollen is getting bad that it's turning everything yellow. They advised to leave all windows and doors closed. Looks like it's just going to have to stay on then.

My mom, Michelle and one of our family friends that we grew up with, Ashley Bender is coming this weekend. We're going to do some spring planting and spruce this place up a little. I can't wait!! This yard needs to be whipped into shape. It should be a fun girl's weekend though. Ashley is coming over from Memphis, TN which is about 4 hours from here.

Okay, enough rambling for me, I wish I had better stories for y'all. I'll try to do better with keeping up on this! Happy spring to everyone, especially the Nebraska folk who have started to see the sun!! Much love!

The monthly update....it seems.

So it's been almost a month it seems that I've updated! So here we go....

Dave and I just got back from our honeymoon in Mexico on Saturday night. It was wonderful! We went to an all inclusive resort just south of Cancun. It was beautiful, and one of the best beaches in the world, and did I mention that it was all inclusive? That was enough for us. Free food, free drinks= pure delight. We also somehow were upgraded to first class on the way down, and you could definitely tell we were novice's. They offered us drinks right when we got on, so of course we ordered one. Or in Dave's case, two. The flight attendant gave him a weird look...and come to find out we needed to drink those drinks before we the runway. So we chugged, pretty sure she thought Dave was an alcoholic. We did get a hot meal, with wine on the plane too. It made me laugh.

Overall our honeymoon was amazing, relaxing, and all we did was sit on the beach, eat, drink, read, snorkel and we did some parasailing. (I was a little nervous since I'm quite afraid of heights.) On our way home though we were both depressed that our vacation was over. However, Dave was excited because he could buy duty-free scotch and it was a lot cheaper in Mexico than Alabama. So anyway, we're late getting out of Cancun, and have 45 minutes from the time we land in Houston to get our bags, go through customs, recheck our bags and go back through security then onto our flight (which was 3 terminals away.) Of course our bags were the last ones of the plane, so we were running. Once we got to security to re-check our bags (and everyone was running) Dave says, "Hold on, just give me a minute!" He needed to repack his scotch so it didn't break. I said, "NO! We have to go!!" So, he of course pulls out of the traffic opens up both our suitcases, unpacks and then repacks his scotch in clothes. I was livid. And to be honest, I left him. Steam was pouring out of my ears, but I dropped my bag at the check and ran to security. Dave eventually caught up with me and was able to cut through the line at security to were I was. This was then the conversation: ME: "I'm a little more concerned about making our flight than your scotch. It's the last one into Birmingham for the night." DAVE: "I'm more concerned about my scotch than our flight. (Then added in) I didn't want it to break all over your clothes." Whatever. It's funny now.

So we got home, picked up puppy, and went to bed. Puppy had another idea, he wanted to play. I think he was up maybe 5 times. Very painful. He's been sneezing a lot. We've diagnosed him with allergies. So starting last night we've started giving him benadryl. He slept through the night needless to say. :) He's also been teething....I thought he was chewing on something last night, he shook his head and out flies a tooth into my lab. Very gross. I don't do teeth.

Dave and I are still couponing. We're slightly obsessed, but still have to get better. We spent $70 and saved $55. We still have a ways to go. That's all for now, my eyes are getting tired. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and Dave's on Hematology/Oncology this month. Last night he had 2 codes, 5 admissions, and 1/2 hour of sleep in 32 hours. Welcome to oncology!! :) Poor guy.

Our Valentine: The Swine

Hola friends! Hopefully everyone's Valentine's was romantic....ours was somewhat. We did dinner Saturday night at Brio, it's a little Tuscan cafe close to us. It was very nice, but also very packed.

Dave worked all in the ER all weekend, so Sunday I spent the day with Oscar. He was a good date, we took a nice long walk. We did meet my great-uncle Marv and my 2nd cousin Mark for dinner. We took them to a sports bar, On Tap, that has tons of beer on tap. It was a lot of fun, and great to see people from home. They're in town for a soy-bean conference. It was nice.

For Valentine's day I bought Dave an overnight shoulder bag to take on is night calls, because before he was taking a recyclable Publix bag. (Publix is a grocery store here, absolutely love it!!) Anyway, I guess some of his guy friends were giving him crap about it, haha, I decided that maybe I should be a better wife and get him a respectable bag. He wouldn't get it for himself, because he really sees no problem with carrying a grocery bag to work full of his clothes.

Speaking of Publix, Dave and I have gotten very in to cutting coupons. There's this website, southernsavers.com that is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It tells you what's on sale, where to find the coupons (from the Sunday papers) and then you can even print more of them off online. There's a special class that the lady puts on that one of the girls from work is going to have at her house in March. I will be attending, as will Dave if he's not working. It's a game to see how much we save. Last week we spent $80, saved $60. Hopefully we'll get much better! I do feel like my Grandma Marceille, I remember her sitting at the kitchen table on Sunday's going through the coupons. :)

Dave has the swine flu. He just went to a doc-in-the-box this afternoon, and tested positive. We don't own a thermometer (until tonight, b/c we just bought one) but last night he was fever-ish and chilling, and just miserable. Not to mention super congested and coughing. He moved to the guest bedroom at around 11pm, the living room at 1am, etc, he just couldn't get comfortable. It was a long night for me..... Haha, just kidding, I felt really bad for him. He got 2 shots in the butt, and is on a couple of antibiotics not to mention hydrocodone cough medicine..... Which is great since our honeymoon is within the next week. I also am taking Tamiflu to prevent me from getting it.

We're soooo ready for our honeymoon. All inclusive resort in Mexico= pure delight. Oscar is going to the nanny's with a lot of other puppies so he comes back so tame and exhausted, we love it. It's a win-win for both parties involved. Okay, well it's after 10, so I'm late for bed. Hope all is well!

Catching up

Hello all! It's been awhile, so let me catch you up....My parents and Michelle were in here last weekend. That was fun, we did nothing but wedding things. This means spending 50 million hours at fabric stores and Hobby Lobby. I spent about 49 million of those hours in parking lot waiting in the car. (I do love Hobby Lobby though, don't get me wrong.) My Dad did random things around the house which was much appreciated. He always needs things to do, he can't just lay on the couch all day, which I don't understand.

They got to meet Oscar in all of his glory! My dad did well with him, he kept him under control on his leash while Michelle's wedding dress fabric covered the dining room floor. Oscar did jump on it a few times when we weren't paying attention. :) He's just excited....he gets to be a ring-dog! We're really excited, and hopefully he'll be very well behaved and not chase squirrels. My sister's wedding is going to be outside. I want my mom to make him a little vest out of Michelle's dress material, but a bandana like scarf may suffice.

Oh! So Dave was working in the ER Tuesday night and they were slow, so he came home early. At 4 am. And did not call to warn me. I thought I was dreaming of our alarm beeping. I roll over and happen to peek my eyes open to notice the hall light was on, then heard something drop in the kitchen. At this point my heart is pounding and I'm brainstorming of what to do next, hide....call the cops....get something to knock this robber out? Then I heard my so-called ''robber'' peeing. I figured that if this was a real robber, he wouldn't stop to pee. Then Dave walks in. He didn't want to wake me up by calling me, so instead he woke me up making me have a heart attack. Of course, the dog didn't bark....at all. He was in his kennel, and he doesn't bark when he's in there. Instead I hear these big happy yawns....thanks for protecting me.

Then while Dave was sleeping during the day, he let Oscar sleep in our room. He normally does well during the night if he's in there, but he's not dumb. He knew it was day time and he should be playing. Or chewing on my rug, same thing. Well, Dave woke up at noon to little Oscar destroying our rug in the bedroom. He had unraveled one whole corner of it. And when I called him at 3 to wake him up, I asked, "The dog didn't eat my rug, did he?" And Dave responds, "Yes." I thought he was kidding, because I always tell him, DO NOT leave that dog out while you are sleeping during the day. When I came home both father and son accompanied me to the bedroom, with heads hanging and their sad little puppy eyes. They both knew what they had done, I didn't have to say anything. Needless to say, I'm getting a new rug.

Yogurt Mountain is still our weakness, we frequent it waaaay too often. Dave thinks we need to open one up someday. We'll see...

Oh yes! And fellow Nebraskan's would appreciate this: our gas bill last month?? $400. Not kidding, houses must not be nearly as insulated down here. (The lows were down in the teen's last month, and our heater never shut off) I wanted Dave to call and see what was going on, since I'd never had a bill that high in Nebraska....where it was -18. But he says to me, "Sarah....do you think they're going to care?" Whatever. Come to find out, a lot of people's gas bill were comparable to that. I think we may add more insulation in our attic before next winter. Dave doesn't know this yet, but we will.

Well, that's all for now! Have a good weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl! I'm really excited for the commercials! We're going over to a friend's house, with other friends...all of whom are from New Orleans. They're going to have Louisiana themed party. (Food wise) I'm excited!

Puppy needs disobedience.

Well just an update on the training. He was the most well behaved dog during and after the trainers left. However, now......he's mad. Very mad. He's on a leash with us in the house (unless we're playing) and he does. not. like. it. It's been a parenting lesson to us. I'm tempted to send him to my friend Erin's elementary classroom up in Omaha, for children that cannot function or behave properly. He needs a beating.

Come to find out, though not surprising, Dave is the sympathetic one, and I'm the enforcer. I relate it to the fact that I'm the primary caregiver to Oscar most of the time, so sometimes I'm about ready to kill him. I did about kill him last night with the scissors after I found a large tuft of wool missing out of my new rug and had to cut the wool to make it look normal again. Dave protected him. We've had some 'come to Jesus' parenting talks, about how he's like a toddler and he's walking all over us. It's exhausting.....this is why we don't have children.

Completely random but funny thought for the day: I was walking through our waiting room the other day to hear a 5 year old try to explain to an innocent volunteer, around my age, ''about how those tubes in my head work to wash my brain." It was quite amusing. She had a perplexed look on her face. Love it.

The puppy is puking.

So this week has been eventful (with the dog.) Oscar has been sleeping in our room instead of his kennel....he loves to be under the bed. So, Dave was on call Wednesday night so it was just me and puppy. At around 2 am I hear Oscar pop up under the bed (he forgets that he can't stand while under there.) He then starts heaving, and pukes. I flip on the lights, and check on him because he's never done this before. On the floor I find this big ol chunk of something that looks very similar to poop. I clean it up---thank God for hardwoods!-- and even smell it to make sure it's not poo. Sorry if that grosses people out but I wanted to make sure he wasn't obstructed and puking up bowel contents. Anyway, we go back to bed and have no more problems. People at work reassured me that's what puppies do, and there vomit is always chunky depending on what they got in to.

So the next day I tell Dave, but puppy is still fine, so we think nothing of it. That evening Dave was in the shower, and I was in front of the TV, and Oscar....wellll, I thought he was eating. Dave gets out of the shower, and I hear a "SICK! OSCAR NOOOOO!!!" Oscar had gotten into my box of tampons, and was eating the cotton absorby things. I thought we had gotten them all away from him, but come to find out at 2 am again Thursday night that he had eaten another 2 and a half. It came out again in his puke. Dave came to the end of the bed when I was cleaning that mess up, and says, "Sarah....that could kill him! But I could see how thought that could be poop." Thanks honey, I know that it could kill him, it's not like I put the tampons in his food bowl and begged him to eat it. It's been quite the conversation piece. :)

Other than that, we have discovered our new guilty pleasure. It's a wonderful, magical place called Yogurt Mountain. Holy smokes, it's a little piece of Heaven in our mouths. They give you a bowl, there are like 15 soft-serve style yogurt options on the wall, and then on the other side there's a ba-zillion toppings. You then weight it, and pay. It's dangerous. Dave said we're going to have to work that into the budget every week.

Oh, and we're very excited that the dog trainers are coming this evening, in about a 1/2 hour. Oscar is getting very nippy/barky/hyper. Things that we don't need. This program is supposed to be wonderful, and they come and work with us and Oscar for around 4 hours. It's called How to Talk Dog, and we've been looking forward to it all week. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Maybe I'll be able to move my trash cans and plants back down to the floor and he won't eat them. That's a wonderful thought.....

Sorry I'm always talking about Oscar, but he's our little toddler. Our pride and joy. Most times.

When Dad's away, the child will play.

I thought I'd share this with all of you. It's amusing. This was the other night when Dave was on-call, I hear lapping water and walk in to find this.... He's never been big enough to do this!

He always behaves worse when Dave is gone.

Another on-call day and I'm bored....

Oh goodness, I really need to start updating this more! The first half of the month has gone by quickly, and we've been busy!! Dave's on gastroenterology (GI) right now and is on call every 4 days. He's been learning a lot I suppose, but it just feels like he's never home. (He feels the same way, it's not just me whining.) But we're going on our honeymoon next month to Mexico so we have that to look forward to!

Let's see....oh yes! Alabama obviously won the National Championship. Most everyone was very happy at work---except the Auburn fans that were cheering for Texas. :) I was dying laughing because they were displaying the trophy at local Walmarts, but was quickly informed that it had something to do with the a deal with Dr. Pepper? I guess that makes it a little better.

Work has been really busy!! I am starting to get into the swing of working 5 days a week. I'm not as exhausted as I used to be, and the weeks normally fly by! I still really enjoy the weekends though, and this weekend we get a 3 day one because of Martin Luther King day. I love clinic hours!!!

I was just complaining to my mom about my Saturday routine: cleaning and catching up on laundry. I wish I could teach myself to do these things during the week so it doesn't ruin my weekend, but I'm just too tired once I get home. And Dave doesn't clean up to my expectations, so I don't even ask him to do it.

Speaking of Dave, he made the comment this past week that he feels poorer now than he did when he was in med school. I assured him it's because he's now making his own money, instead of spending the bank's loan, so you feel worse about spending it. He has us on a strict budget. It makes me smile....he'll sit on the computer for a long time and look at our budget through Quicken and try to cut back on things. It's cute. I brought up the fact that maybe we could get rid of the satellite and just stick to cable. We couldn't have that though, we'd lose our Big Ten channel (i.e. Michigan State Basketball) and then the world just may end. It's been an adjustment to have joint accounts....I can't just go out and buy things anymore and just tell him it was on sale. He can see how much it was. :( Sales in my eye's are a little different than sales in his eyes.

Oh! Also, he has decided on a career path. He is going to do his fellowship in GI (gastroenterology or the gut) and then he wants to specialize further into hepatology, more commonly known as liver. The only bad thing, GI is quite competitive so it makes me nervous about where we'll be going for fellowship. Also, the fact that it will probably be an additional 4 years after residency. We were talking about it at work the other day, and he'll have either been in school or training for 15 years after graduating high school. Yikes, I wonder if pre-med college freshman think about that? Maybe that's why so many change their majors. Probably a smart choice.

Oscar is getting big! I took him to the vet this morning and he weighs 21 pounds! The vet told us he'll most likely be over 60 pounds. He still thinks he's a lap dog. Next weekend we're doing a training session with him, trainers are coming to our house, so we're really ready for that! He's at the groomer's right now, getting his toe-nails cut so he doesn't scratch our wood floors, and just getting trimmed up around his privates so he stays clean. Mommy's anal about cleanliness.

Hope everything is going great for everyone back home! I hear some of the massive amounts of snow are melting! Praise God!

Our little family

This is an updated picture of our little family....I have no make-up on so try to look past that. It's new years day and I had a late/crazy night of watching TV last night, so I was too tired to do anything with myself today.

Oscar is getting big, and we get many compliments on how cute he is. (He gets it from his momma, obviously!) He was able to go leash-less today so he was quite the adventurer in the boulder fields. Jerris, Michelle's boyfriend, told us about it when he was up from Florida because there are HUGE boulders that people rock climb on. It's very pretty.

Lindsay, Dave's sister and her boyfriend are down for a few days so it's been great to catch up with them! Lindsay took this picture from her phone, so it's probably not the best quality...but it definitely works! Happy 2010 to all!!

Is it weird for anyone else that we're no longer going to say o-9 for the year, or 0-8? Now we just say 10, and that seems odd.