Since most of you followers are from Northfield/Minnesota, you may know this already, but the Cannon River in Northfield has flooded. :( I came across this website of photos that show the damage, but also a community that comes together in a desperate time of need.
http://picasaweb.google.com/northfieldminn/HighWaterOnTheCannonRiverSept2010#
Northfield, you are in our thoughts and prayers!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
FINALLY! New post :)
Hi all! So I am feeling really behind with school (and pretty much everything!) and since we have our first Anatomy exam on Friday, I thought, why not procrastinate more and write on the blog! So, I will keep this short.
There is no way to catch you up on all of the events that have occurred this past month... but I will start with today. Today we had our third exam in Biochemistry. While biochem is the class that I have done the best in while at med school, today to say the least was just a bad test day. My test fell on the floor... twice! and I just felt out of it... I was like nucleotide... hmmm... oh yeah... it's DNA stuff... that was the point that I knew it was going to be a bad test day! Oh well! The score was higher than I had thought it would be so I will take it and cut my losses. The last two exams are on genetics and cell bio and I LOVE genetics and cell bio. John on the other hand did AWESOME! Yay! So glad are doing this together and we pick up each others bad days :) Also, we had the privilege to be partners today in OMM lab. Our lab TA did not know we were married and was like "wow, you guys give great, honest feedback! Great confidence and hand placement!" After awhile, we just had to tell her! Today in lab was our first day of learning treatments. SO GREAT! It was called Soft Tissue Technique. But there is one that is kind of awkward if you are not used to doing it often... it is called ischial tuberosity spread... I'll leave you to google that! Good thing my partner was my husband! During the busy weekend of studying for about 14 hours everyday, I had a wonderful break and was able to skype with the one and only Meredith Wheeler -- FROM FRANCE! It was so great to hear her voice and see her :) :) :)
John says "hi" -- he is busy watching the end of Monday night football and hoping his fantasy team pulls off a win...
We also celebrated 3 wonderful, amazing months of our marriage! It was mostly spent studying, but we made a delicious dinner together.
Ok, I better start studying! Thanks for reading!
Love you all!
There is no way to catch you up on all of the events that have occurred this past month... but I will start with today. Today we had our third exam in Biochemistry. While biochem is the class that I have done the best in while at med school, today to say the least was just a bad test day. My test fell on the floor... twice! and I just felt out of it... I was like nucleotide... hmmm... oh yeah... it's DNA stuff... that was the point that I knew it was going to be a bad test day! Oh well! The score was higher than I had thought it would be so I will take it and cut my losses. The last two exams are on genetics and cell bio and I LOVE genetics and cell bio. John on the other hand did AWESOME! Yay! So glad are doing this together and we pick up each others bad days :) Also, we had the privilege to be partners today in OMM lab. Our lab TA did not know we were married and was like "wow, you guys give great, honest feedback! Great confidence and hand placement!" After awhile, we just had to tell her! Today in lab was our first day of learning treatments. SO GREAT! It was called Soft Tissue Technique. But there is one that is kind of awkward if you are not used to doing it often... it is called ischial tuberosity spread... I'll leave you to google that! Good thing my partner was my husband! During the busy weekend of studying for about 14 hours everyday, I had a wonderful break and was able to skype with the one and only Meredith Wheeler -- FROM FRANCE! It was so great to hear her voice and see her :) :) :)
John says "hi" -- he is busy watching the end of Monday night football and hoping his fantasy team pulls off a win...
We also celebrated 3 wonderful, amazing months of our marriage! It was mostly spent studying, but we made a delicious dinner together.
Ok, I better start studying! Thanks for reading!
Love you all!
Monday, August 9, 2010
FIRST DAY OF MEDICAL SCHOOL! :)
Wow. Did today really happen? Wow. It feels great to be doing something you have dreamed about and worked so hard for the last 6+ years! It felt very surreal just to be sitting in the lecture hall this morning at Des Moines University... I had to keep pinching myself! Today started off with three nice/easy lectures of Biochemistry. In the second lecture they wheeled in "Steve" our life-like manican, who was unresponsive at the time. He had real stats and was progressively getting worse as the lecture wore on. He even had "sweet" smelling breath - how cool is that! He was having some acid/base issue and we had to figure it out. Talk about a clinical spin on biochem :) I had already deemed him as having diabetic ketoacidosis (which ended up correct!) I did not let my first patient die. Yippee! To say the least, I am loving medical school!
Orientation was last week, and we both felt very welcomed. DMU has such a great community and wonderful people. We will be very busy over the next 2 years, but it is so nice to know that we will be surrounded by people (professors, faculty, classmates) who really care about us. We have met 3 people that graduated from Stillwater HS as well 4 people who graduated from Olaf - what a small world and that does not include either of us!
John and I have gotten into a routine here in Des Moines and I love it! We have gone to the wonderful Farmer's Market twice now, went to a Cubs game, ate at Dos Rios - we are slowly becoming Iowans. We have found a lovely LCMS Church in Urbandale (suburb of DM) called Gloria Dei. Dad - you would be proud! It has an alter, candles, a huge cross, and we say the Apostles Creed ;-) We also go on walks every day (about 2.2 miles) around our quaint neighborhood of Windsor Heights. Many students live right across the street from DMU, and we are about 3 miles away, but I really like. It is so nice to come home and be "removed" from school (even if it is only for 45 mins :) Every Tuesday night we walk to Hyvee (yes the grocery store) and get $3.99 dinner of chinese food - it is good! It is our weekly date! Other than that, we cook all of our meals! John is quite the chef - I am more of the preparer, but we do make an awesome team. We have gotten to know two other students who are in our class that live in the same apartment complex as us. They are really nice and we hang out with them quite often. One of them is Meredith's (one of my best friends and roommate from Olaf) cousin! Again, small world!
On a much sadder note, I would like to take a moment to reflect on life in general. Just 3 days ago I was contacted with some awful news. One of my friends from elementary school was killed in motorcycle accident in Hastings. His name was Jake Benesh and he was 22. (check out this article online: http://www.twincities.com/ci_15706401?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1) Now, I did not stay close friends with him through college or even High School, but I really wish I had. He was such an awesome person. A wonderful servant of the Lord. He always had a smile on his face and was one of the most upbeat and optimistic people I know. I would regularly check his facebook as he usually had a great, uplifting verse as his status. He will really be missed. Hearing this terrible news threw me aback. He was now the second person to pass away from my small elementary school class at Withrow (our class size was about 27). I will never forget the time we were on a VAA school soccer team together in like 2nd grade. He was goalie and I was out on the field. Someone tried to kick the ball into the net, but Jake saved it and was going to kick it away from the goal. Well, I was standing in front of him just watching him. I probably should have moved, but I didn't and the ball came right at me and as a reflex I kicked. Yes. I kicked it right into the goal. Our goal. We were on the same team. I was so embarrassed! (even though it was my first and only goal of the season!) Jake was so nice about it! Even at a young age he knew what to say to try and make me feel better. I will never forget that moment. I never told him this, but Thanks Jake for not making me feel bad, but instead trying to uplift me. Also, I remember when your mom came to our first grade class and taught us how to use chopsticks! We practiced with M&Ms. I thought you were so cool! I am going to miss you and that awesome smile of yours! I am so sad I will be unable to attend his funeral. I know Jake would not want any of us to be sad, but to rejoice now that he is in Heaven. I know he is in Heaven and that is so comforting to me, so I will try to keep a smile on my face even with the sad news.
I would like to mention that I love married life! We have been married for 51 days now, and yesterday we celebrated 1 since our engagement (again, met with severe storms in DM. 6 inches of rain!) John is so much fun; we have had so many good times. We really do make a great team in all that we do. I miss both of my families dearly but we will see them at the White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 28th - I can't wait! I definitely miss all of my friends from home and Olaf too! Really. Come visit :)
Well, I think my adrenaline for the day is running out, and I must get some sleep because tomorrow is another day of school (yay!) and John is already sleeping. Thanks for reading all of this rambling nonsense, but I find it very therapeutic! More to come later as our adventure continues! I hope everyone had a great day! How could you not?! It was 8-9-10. I love things like that! Also, Happy Birthday to my dear aunt Sally! :)
Orientation was last week, and we both felt very welcomed. DMU has such a great community and wonderful people. We will be very busy over the next 2 years, but it is so nice to know that we will be surrounded by people (professors, faculty, classmates) who really care about us. We have met 3 people that graduated from Stillwater HS as well 4 people who graduated from Olaf - what a small world and that does not include either of us!
John and I have gotten into a routine here in Des Moines and I love it! We have gone to the wonderful Farmer's Market twice now, went to a Cubs game, ate at Dos Rios - we are slowly becoming Iowans. We have found a lovely LCMS Church in Urbandale (suburb of DM) called Gloria Dei. Dad - you would be proud! It has an alter, candles, a huge cross, and we say the Apostles Creed ;-) We also go on walks every day (about 2.2 miles) around our quaint neighborhood of Windsor Heights. Many students live right across the street from DMU, and we are about 3 miles away, but I really like. It is so nice to come home and be "removed" from school (even if it is only for 45 mins :) Every Tuesday night we walk to Hyvee (yes the grocery store) and get $3.99 dinner of chinese food - it is good! It is our weekly date! Other than that, we cook all of our meals! John is quite the chef - I am more of the preparer, but we do make an awesome team. We have gotten to know two other students who are in our class that live in the same apartment complex as us. They are really nice and we hang out with them quite often. One of them is Meredith's (one of my best friends and roommate from Olaf) cousin! Again, small world!
On a much sadder note, I would like to take a moment to reflect on life in general. Just 3 days ago I was contacted with some awful news. One of my friends from elementary school was killed in motorcycle accident in Hastings. His name was Jake Benesh and he was 22. (check out this article online: http://www.twincities.com/ci_15706401?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1) Now, I did not stay close friends with him through college or even High School, but I really wish I had. He was such an awesome person. A wonderful servant of the Lord. He always had a smile on his face and was one of the most upbeat and optimistic people I know. I would regularly check his facebook as he usually had a great, uplifting verse as his status. He will really be missed. Hearing this terrible news threw me aback. He was now the second person to pass away from my small elementary school class at Withrow (our class size was about 27). I will never forget the time we were on a VAA school soccer team together in like 2nd grade. He was goalie and I was out on the field. Someone tried to kick the ball into the net, but Jake saved it and was going to kick it away from the goal. Well, I was standing in front of him just watching him. I probably should have moved, but I didn't and the ball came right at me and as a reflex I kicked. Yes. I kicked it right into the goal. Our goal. We were on the same team. I was so embarrassed! (even though it was my first and only goal of the season!) Jake was so nice about it! Even at a young age he knew what to say to try and make me feel better. I will never forget that moment. I never told him this, but Thanks Jake for not making me feel bad, but instead trying to uplift me. Also, I remember when your mom came to our first grade class and taught us how to use chopsticks! We practiced with M&Ms. I thought you were so cool! I am going to miss you and that awesome smile of yours! I am so sad I will be unable to attend his funeral. I know Jake would not want any of us to be sad, but to rejoice now that he is in Heaven. I know he is in Heaven and that is so comforting to me, so I will try to keep a smile on my face even with the sad news.
I would like to mention that I love married life! We have been married for 51 days now, and yesterday we celebrated 1 since our engagement (again, met with severe storms in DM. 6 inches of rain!) John is so much fun; we have had so many good times. We really do make a great team in all that we do. I miss both of my families dearly but we will see them at the White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 28th - I can't wait! I definitely miss all of my friends from home and Olaf too! Really. Come visit :)
Well, I think my adrenaline for the day is running out, and I must get some sleep because tomorrow is another day of school (yay!) and John is already sleeping. Thanks for reading all of this rambling nonsense, but I find it very therapeutic! More to come later as our adventure continues! I hope everyone had a great day! How could you not?! It was 8-9-10. I love things like that! Also, Happy Birthday to my dear aunt Sally! :)
Monday, August 2, 2010
Reunions and get togethers
The rest of July was filled with reunions and get togethers. The weekend after the Fourth of July Amy and I headed up to my cabin for the Schantzen Family Reunion. We had a great time catching up with everyone and relaxing outside. A lot of basketball, croquet, and fishing was done over these three days. We even had a huge wiffle ball game on my Uncle Mark's birthday. It is fitting that it was his birthday because he nailed the wiffle ball into some pine trees out in left field and had a game winning walk off grand slam! After the reunion was over, Amy and I headed back to Iowa (yeah I drove 8 hours straight) to finish making our apart into a home. We stayed in Iowa from until the following Monday when we drove up around Cross Lake, MN where we would be staying in a cabin by a golf course with Amy's family. The week was filled with golf and cribbage games! I played two 18 hole rounds at Golden Eagle Golf Course (Amy played 1), we rented a pontoon boat and a jet ski one day, and we had lots of fun. When our stay in Cross Lake was over on Friday morning all of us drove over to my cabin in Dent, MN. We went out that night to The Little Otter Supper Club and participated in the meat raffle. We won 9 ribeye steaks and 3 pounds of bacon!! Both our families decided to donate all of this meat to the poor medical students (jackpot!). On Saturday I accompanied the girls into to town while the other guys went fishing. While the ladies looked at quilts, furniture, and knick knacks in the shops, I sat outside on a bench and read my book. I would have loved to go fishing, but I think Amy was happy a decided to tag along with them. When we got back to the cabin we were surprised to see that the rest of the guys had started getting a fish fry ready! While we were gone they had gone out and caught 18 huge sunfish (I'm told my dad Mike caught most of the fish but I cannot comment on the validity of these claims). No matter who caught the fish they were still delicious! We left the cabin on Sunday morning for the long drive home, and after what seemed like forever, we finally arrived home in Iowa.
The Move
On June 30th Amy and I made the drive down to Windsor Heights, IA (it is basically a suburb of Des Moines). Upon entering our new apartment we were excited to see that our brand new king size bed (finally I will have some space when we sleep together) and our bedroom furniture had been delivered and were set up perfectly. The landlord even had a bag of chips, a container of salsa, and two pop cans for us to indulge in while we unpacked the trailer. I spent the rest of the day unloading the trailer and putting together all of the target furniture that we bought. I never expected Target furniture to look so nice! Check out the picks to see what I'm talking about. I finished putting the furniture together around midnight, and then went to bed.
The next day both of our parents came down to help us move the rest of our stuff in. Our huge sectional from Costco fit perfectly in the living room! The rest of the boxes we found spots for and then began the long and arduous process of unpacking all of our things. Luckily, we had breaks for meals during this time. For lunch all of us went to Dos Rios which is a Mexican restaurant in the Court Ave. district of Des Moines. The margaritas were fantastic!! They even had homemade guacamole that they made right in front of you. The food was amazing and needless to say we will be coming back to this place many a time over the next few months. After lunch we went back and continued to unpack. For dinner we went to the Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed some big steaks. Amy's parents stayed the night at our new place and continued to help us unpack. The next morning Amy's parents left and we were left to fend for ourselves now that we were on our own in the real world. Yikes!!
The next day both of our parents came down to help us move the rest of our stuff in. Our huge sectional from Costco fit perfectly in the living room! The rest of the boxes we found spots for and then began the long and arduous process of unpacking all of our things. Luckily, we had breaks for meals during this time. For lunch all of us went to Dos Rios which is a Mexican restaurant in the Court Ave. district of Des Moines. The margaritas were fantastic!! They even had homemade guacamole that they made right in front of you. The food was amazing and needless to say we will be coming back to this place many a time over the next few months. After lunch we went back and continued to unpack. For dinner we went to the Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed some big steaks. Amy's parents stayed the night at our new place and continued to help us unpack. The next morning Amy's parents left and we were left to fend for ourselves now that we were on our own in the real world. Yikes!!
Honeymoon final days
The reason the honeymoon posts stopped was because we did not do much the last few days....because we we were in a tropical storm!!! It wasn't that bad, just a little wind and it rained pretty much off and on all day. So we spent a lot of time in our room reading and watching the bachelorette (yes Amy forced me to watch it and now I am hooked). It was disappointing to not be able to lay out in the sun but we still had a lot of fun. We made it back to Minnesota safely, and just two days after coming back we left for Iowa!!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Updating blog soon - WE PROMISE!
We are currently vacationing up near Crosslake, Minnesota with the Deeg family sitting in a little ice cream store with free wi-fi. We promise to update our blog next week when we return to Iowa. We now actually have internet hooked up there too! Finally! Here is a photo of John the golf course - yes - John had already played two 18-hole rounds and has done phenomenal :) :) fitting in the Deeg clan already.
Monday, June 28, 2010
HONEYMOON !!! DAY #3 & 4!
So, we have combined days 3 and 4 since they pretty much were the same thing! John and I could definitely get used to this routine! We woke up, went to the awesome buffet breakfast at Toscana (this would even put the Olaf caf to shame!) - it was SO good!! Then we found a nice spot by the pool where we would trade off from going from the shade to the sun to the pool, swim to the swim-up bar, swim back, nap and repeat. We did this for the entire morning, took a well deserved break for lunch and continued our tedious lifestyle. Finally, around 3:00pm we were exhausted so we went back to our room for a nap, showered, then went off to dinner. The weather has been beautiful up to this point - sunny and breezy.
Dinner of course has been awesome - the third night we tried Barcelona which was fabulous but by comparison our least favorite - which is incredible because it was awesome! Then we went to our special Excellence Club Lounge where we ran into a couple that were married on the same day as us! Imagine that ;-) They were at the bar chatting with the bartender. He was mixing a shot called the brain hemorrhage - peach schnopps, baileys and drops of grenadine. It looked really cool! John drank it. Then somehow, I got roped into it and I tried a Tequila shot with sprite, but he slammed it on the table before I had to take it so that it fizzed. It was pretty cool. The bartender was on fire! He kept making up new drinks for us to try and since it was all free of course we joined in! He was so excited to tell me about his new favorite drink that was really new - unfortunately I had already heard about it - the Scoobie Snack. Very good of course. Our new friends from North Carolina were also in on all of this, trying drinks the bartender cooked up. At the end we all took a "Mind Eraser": grey goose and sweet cherry stuff, then it was time to go to bed!
The fourth night we ended up going to dinner with a fun couple that just got married (same day as us!) in Iowa! He noticed John's DMU shirt and we all started chatting. We went to Agave for dinner - again, excellent, but nothing compared to the French and Asian restaurant . We had great conversation and ended up catching the last bit of the Michael Jackson Tribute at the outdoor theater - this was great!! Of course he was lip syncing, but it was AWESOME! The dancing was spot on!
BEACH!!
I love my husband! :)
POOL!
My scoobie snackWednesday, June 23, 2010
HONEYMOON!!! Day # 2
Woke up to fantastic breakfast in bed!! Mimosas, fruit juices, omlettes, pancakes, you name it and it was waiting for us on our room's balcony. After gorging ourselves on awesome food we took a nice long relaxing swim in our jacuzzi! Next up we went down by the pool and laid out in the sun. As you could have guessed we were both reading our books. After a while we jumped off our chairs into the water, and paddled up to the bar that is in the middle of the pool. With drinks in hand we grabbed two floating chairs and floated away on the lazy river. For lunch we went to the lobster house and ate some amazing seafood! Feeling full and lethargic, we decided to crawl into a canopied bed sitting by the pool and take a nap.
Once we were fully rested we went back to the room, showered, and got dressed for dinner. Tonight we decided to try out the French restaurant "Chez Isabelle". The food was amazing as usual! We had quiche for an appetizer, and Amy had the sea bass while I had the venison. Amazing!! We finished the meal off with some chocolate cake and ice cream. Dinner ended just in time for us to make it to the theater in time for tonight's entertainment. A Magician. It was spectacular. I loved it, but Amy was not too thrilled because she could not figure out how he was doing all of his tricks (duh it's magic). After the show was over we took a nice walk around the resort and then we decided to hit the sack to get some rest for tomorrow!
Our glorious breakfast!
Breakfast!
Jacuzzi Tub
Floating in the pool!
At lunch - of course, my head is cut off...
Dinner at Chez Isabelle
Once we were fully rested we went back to the room, showered, and got dressed for dinner. Tonight we decided to try out the French restaurant "Chez Isabelle". The food was amazing as usual! We had quiche for an appetizer, and Amy had the sea bass while I had the venison. Amazing!! We finished the meal off with some chocolate cake and ice cream. Dinner ended just in time for us to make it to the theater in time for tonight's entertainment. A Magician. It was spectacular. I loved it, but Amy was not too thrilled because she could not figure out how he was doing all of his tricks (duh it's magic). After the show was over we took a nice walk around the resort and then we decided to hit the sack to get some rest for tomorrow!
Our glorious breakfast!
Breakfast!
Jacuzzi Tub
Floating in the pool!
At lunch - of course, my head is cut off...
Dinner at Chez IsabelleMonday, June 21, 2010
HONEYMOON!!! Day #1
After a wonderful, perfect, beyond our expectations wedding we are now sitting in our room in Playa Mujeres, Mexico (just north of Cancun). Today started early around 3:00am... After an outrageous fee to get to the airport from Woodbury ($70!) we hopped on a plane to Chicago. We had to sit on our plane in Chicago for an hour on the runway due to bad weather, but we finally got into the sky. We arrived about an hour late but customs went really fast! We arrived at our BEAUTIFUL resort around 2:15pm. It is even better than we expected!! They greeted us at the door with cold, wet towels :) then we were given a short tour of the place and then went to our private excellence club check in area. They had mimosas for us, coconut shrimp, portabella mushroom things, and other little finger food while we waited.
Once we checked in we walked across to our hotel room - we are on the 3rd floor and our room overlooks the ocean! It is so beautiful! There is a little sash on our door that says "HONEYMOON" - so cool! There was chilled champagne in the room when we walked in along with beautiful towel swans with rose petals and a rose on our large king size bed. We have full bottles of jose cuervo, jim beam, dry gin, and smirnofff on our shelves and a fridge stocked with pop and beer and snacks - they refill every day! There is also a list of activities every day and they have a turndown service. We had room service deliver homemade pizza and we had that as a late lunch.
After napping on our outside bed thing on the porch we showered and went to dinner at SPICE. It is an Asian resturant and you can order anything on the menu! Never have to pay anything! We had sushi, pot stickers, egg rolls, an asian salad and I had a really good steak noodle thing and john had a good shrimp squid thing. Then of course we ordered desert - banana fritters - SOO SOOO good!!! We just got back from checking out the place and walking on the beach. It is already really dark here. When we go out it hardly seems like there are other people here! It feels like we have it to ourselves and everybody is SUPER nice here! We set up specialty breakfast to be served to us on our terrace tomorrow morning - it comes with mimosas! Crazy! Now john and I are tired and going to watch the bachelorette then go to bed :)
Once we checked in we walked across to our hotel room - we are on the 3rd floor and our room overlooks the ocean! It is so beautiful! There is a little sash on our door that says "HONEYMOON" - so cool! There was chilled champagne in the room when we walked in along with beautiful towel swans with rose petals and a rose on our large king size bed. We have full bottles of jose cuervo, jim beam, dry gin, and smirnofff on our shelves and a fridge stocked with pop and beer and snacks - they refill every day! There is also a list of activities every day and they have a turndown service. We had room service deliver homemade pizza and we had that as a late lunch.
After napping on our outside bed thing on the porch we showered and went to dinner at SPICE. It is an Asian resturant and you can order anything on the menu! Never have to pay anything! We had sushi, pot stickers, egg rolls, an asian salad and I had a really good steak noodle thing and john had a good shrimp squid thing. Then of course we ordered desert - banana fritters - SOO SOOO good!!! We just got back from checking out the place and walking on the beach. It is already really dark here. When we go out it hardly seems like there are other people here! It feels like we have it to ourselves and everybody is SUPER nice here! We set up specialty breakfast to be served to us on our terrace tomorrow morning - it comes with mimosas! Crazy! Now john and I are tired and going to watch the bachelorette then go to bed :)
On of the pools at the resort
Dinner at the Asian restaurant - SPICE
View from our room!
The alcohol already in the room - shoot! John and I are going to have to become drinkers - there is no way we are going to use all of this!
The Love Birds on our bed :)
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