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!