Today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11, now called Patriot Day. Everywhere I look on Facebook and Twitter I see mention of this day in some capacity and with good reason -- this day in history changed many things about the way we live today. It is amazing that I cannot remember what I was doing at a particular time last week or last month (I can remember exactly what I was doing on this day last year -- Happy 1st Anniversary to my dear sister, Kelly and her husband, Tim!), but I can remember exactly what I was doing on that Tuesday morning 10 years ago; and this is a sentiment I have read today over and over again.
When I learned what was happening on that Tuesday morning, I was still a newlywed, having gotten married barely two months earlier. I was sitting in lecture with my fellow third year veterinary students learning about laryngeal surgery in small animals with Dr. Roberto Novo and my husband was supposed to be traveling to Green Bay, WI for work. My class day was cut short and Kevin never made that trip that day.
So many things have happened in my life since that day 10 years ago -- My dad survived colon cancer; I graduated from veterinary school and started my first, second, third, and fourth job; I stood up for and celebrated the marriage of many of my closest friends; I had my daughter; I had my son; I celebrated with my brother and sister-in-law when they were married; I celebrated with my sister and brother-in-law when they were married; my grandmother (maternal) has been in and out of the hospital and several transitional care centers more times that I can count; my grandfather (paternal) died of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma; celebrated 10 years of marriage; my daughter started kindergarten; I decided to go back to school and specialize in veterinary spinal manipulation therapy; and I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world. Despite this list, however, I can still remember that Tuesday morning like it was yesterday and as I watch the footage on the television today and hear the names of those that lost their lives and think about the their loved ones and the first responders, it's like hardly a day has passed.
I think the take home message for me and everyone that can remember that day is that we will never forget.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Sofia's First Day of Kindergarten
It's official. Sofia is in kindergarten at Aspen Academyin Savage.
I dropped her off with her homeroom teacher (Miss Houglum) for an hour this morning. The purpose for today was to allow the teachers to get a better feel for their new kindergarteners and assess their skills. This was also a chance for the new kindergarteners to meet all three kindergarten teachers and check out all the kindergarten rooms since they will spend some time in all three classrooms. They asked that we leave our kids there so they could see how each of the kids interacted with the teachers and other students without parental interference. I'm not sure how the other parents felt about this but I thought it was a great plan because Sofia tends to be much more cooperative when I am NOT there. Sofia was actually a little bummed when I showed up to pick her up an hour later; she is just so excited to take the bus and on normal school days her day care will pick her up in the Kids Count bus!
Tomorrow morning is her first full day of kindergarten and she'll even get to ride on the bus. I am so excited for her as she embarks on this new journey and hope that she loves school and everything she's going to learn.
Only two more years and we'll be sending Ethan off to Kindergarten, too. He was very excited for his big sister today (or maybe just the bribes I had for them if they smiled for the camera...).
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I dropped her off with her homeroom teacher (Miss Houglum) for an hour this morning. The purpose for today was to allow the teachers to get a better feel for their new kindergarteners and assess their skills. This was also a chance for the new kindergarteners to meet all three kindergarten teachers and check out all the kindergarten rooms since they will spend some time in all three classrooms. They asked that we leave our kids there so they could see how each of the kids interacted with the teachers and other students without parental interference. I'm not sure how the other parents felt about this but I thought it was a great plan because Sofia tends to be much more cooperative when I am NOT there. Sofia was actually a little bummed when I showed up to pick her up an hour later; she is just so excited to take the bus and on normal school days her day care will pick her up in the Kids Count bus!
Tomorrow morning is her first full day of kindergarten and she'll even get to ride on the bus. I am so excited for her as she embarks on this new journey and hope that she loves school and everything she's going to learn.
Only two more years and we'll be sending Ethan off to Kindergarten, too. He was very excited for his big sister today (or maybe just the bribes I had for them if they smiled for the camera...).
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
My Ragnar Experience
"PICTURE THIS: A Minnesota relay race where teams of 12 run 192 miles along the world-famous Mississippi River ultimately ending in the Twin Cities. This running event winds along the Great River Road starting in Winona, cuts briefly into Wisconsin, runs through the streets of St. Paul and finally ends in Minneapolis. If you have never run a Ragnar, you better hold a place on your calendar; this is a running race you would regret missing.
This isn’t your average 10K or half marathon, this is Ragnar!" As read on the Great River Ragnar website
This all sounds like fun, right?!?! I thought so when I first caught wind of such an event. My good friend and training partner, Meghann Kruck brought it up one day last winter when we'd met to pound the pavement for a few miles. When I got home that day, I googled this event and thought, "Hey! That sounds like a lot of fun" and I sent Meghann a message simply stating that I was in. As the day kept inching closer and closer on the calendar, I realized that saying "yes" was the ONLY easy part!
So, now what? I'd said yes, so we had a team of 2! Luckily, it wasn't too much harder to find several other people that thought this sounded like a great idea, too! And so Team Suburban Assault (#136) came to be and on May 5, it became official after >$1000 landed on my credit card statement and I was the team's captain (which at the time meant nothing more than creating a Facebook page to create an easy way to keep in contact with everyone). Unfortunately, the easy parts were now crossed off the list and there were several hiccups we encountered on the road to race day, which was August 19-20, 2011. Seriously, who would think that keeping a team of 12 together for 4 months would be so difficult?!?!
In an ideal Ragnar world we have 12 team members and 2 drivers split up into 2 vehicles. I had heard from a few different sources that we would go insane if we tried to cram 7 people into a minivan or even a Honda Pilot that seats 7 (because let's face it. A Honda Pilot that seats 7 comfortably seats 2 adults and 5 people that have much smaller bums {i.e. children}) since we also had to fit all of our gear and food for 36 hours into the same vehicle. So with input of several of my team members, I went on a mission and booked two 12 passenger vans for 48 hours so that we wouldn't have to sit sweaty shoulder to sweaty shoulder in the van and we would have room for a few bottles of water (or 48+ bottles of water as the case may be). This was, by far, the best decision I made the entire time as captain for Team Suburban Assault. I'm not sure if the rest of the team agrees with this sentiment (or my husband, for that matter, since that slapped another $600+ onto our credit card), but seriously, we all got along splendidly in our 12 passenger vans and I'm not so sure we would have the same outcome (i.e. 14 live bodies by the end of the race) if we'd traveled in any other way.
Before I knew it, August 1 had come and gone and we had less than 3 weeks before the grand event. We were still shy one team member in Van 1 due to a work conflict and had an injury to contend with in Van 2 so the hardcore recruiting began. We could have run with just 10 team members, but that would entail either 3 members in each van picking up one extra leg OR 1 member in each van picking up three extra legs. The biggest problem in Van 1 (my van) is that the position we were trying to fill had the longest legs and no one really jumped to it to tackle the extra mileage -- I offered, but was not overly enthusiastic because I knew that the legs I already had to run were going to be a huge challenge for me considering the longest race I'd run thus far in my so-called running career was 7K... Luckily, only 4 days before race day we found a runner to take on Position #5 in Van 1 and those of us in Van 1 all breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. OK, I cannot speak for everyone else, but I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. No matter how hard we looked, though, we could not find a replacement for our injured runner in Van 2, but with a couple of weeks off, he felt comfortable jogging his legs at a slower pace, so we were ready to go as a Team of 12 runners and 2 awesome drivers!
It's now the week of the race and our Team's start time was set for 6:00 am. Whoa, what?!?! 6:00 am?!?! Isn't that still the middle of the night?!?! There were conflicting opinions as to whether we should stay in the Cities and drive to Winona on Friday morning or whether we should book a hotel room in Winona or La Crosse. We needed to check in at the starting point one hour before actual race time, so we booked a hotel in La Crosse, crammed 7 people in for a very short night of sleep, got up at ~4:00 am and ended up checking in at the starting line about 5:20 am. Team Suburban Assault was a GO for 6:00 am and Betsy started us off with head lamp, reflective vest, and flashing LED butt lamp along side the lovely Mississippi River.
Betsy passed to Meghann. Meghann passed to Pete. Pete passed to me. I passed to Jack. Jack passed to Phil. And at about 12:15 pm, 6 short hours after we started this adventure, Phil passed to Kalynn who started the journey for Van 2 and the baton (i.e. slap bracelet) was passed to Mark, Melanie, Aaron, Sam, and Maren. Each van controlled the baton three times, so each runner ran three times. My personal lengths were 6.2 mi, 5.0 mi, and 4.2 mi. Each leg was labeled as Easy, Moderate, Hard, or Very Hard -- those labels, however, are very subjective because although my 4.2 mi leg was labeled as only moderate, It was by far my hardest leg -- maybe it was my pessimistic and negative attitude towards hills (that hill was a b!tch) or maybe it was because I'd only gotten about 6 hours of sleep total in the last 48 hours, but regardless I passed that baton to Jack for the last time with a huge smile on my face because I had done it! I had completed my 3 legs and would cross the finish line and that was a WIN in my book!
Will I do it again next year? Yeah, probably. Because, if nothing else, that was a great group of people with which to spend 48 hours in very close quarters. Thank you Suburban Assault for a weekend of great memories! And a huge Thank you to our drivers, Mary and Paul and our volunteers, Matt and Steve!
This isn’t your average 10K or half marathon, this is Ragnar!" As read on the Great River Ragnar website
This all sounds like fun, right?!?! I thought so when I first caught wind of such an event. My good friend and training partner, Meghann Kruck brought it up one day last winter when we'd met to pound the pavement for a few miles. When I got home that day, I googled this event and thought, "Hey! That sounds like a lot of fun" and I sent Meghann a message simply stating that I was in. As the day kept inching closer and closer on the calendar, I realized that saying "yes" was the ONLY easy part!
So, now what? I'd said yes, so we had a team of 2! Luckily, it wasn't too much harder to find several other people that thought this sounded like a great idea, too! And so Team Suburban Assault (#136) came to be and on May 5, it became official after >$1000 landed on my credit card statement and I was the team's captain (which at the time meant nothing more than creating a Facebook page to create an easy way to keep in contact with everyone). Unfortunately, the easy parts were now crossed off the list and there were several hiccups we encountered on the road to race day, which was August 19-20, 2011. Seriously, who would think that keeping a team of 12 together for 4 months would be so difficult?!?!
In an ideal Ragnar world we have 12 team members and 2 drivers split up into 2 vehicles. I had heard from a few different sources that we would go insane if we tried to cram 7 people into a minivan or even a Honda Pilot that seats 7 (because let's face it. A Honda Pilot that seats 7 comfortably seats 2 adults and 5 people that have much smaller bums {i.e. children}) since we also had to fit all of our gear and food for 36 hours into the same vehicle. So with input of several of my team members, I went on a mission and booked two 12 passenger vans for 48 hours so that we wouldn't have to sit sweaty shoulder to sweaty shoulder in the van and we would have room for a few bottles of water (or 48+ bottles of water as the case may be). This was, by far, the best decision I made the entire time as captain for Team Suburban Assault. I'm not sure if the rest of the team agrees with this sentiment (or my husband, for that matter, since that slapped another $600+ onto our credit card), but seriously, we all got along splendidly in our 12 passenger vans and I'm not so sure we would have the same outcome (i.e. 14 live bodies by the end of the race) if we'd traveled in any other way.
Before I knew it, August 1 had come and gone and we had less than 3 weeks before the grand event. We were still shy one team member in Van 1 due to a work conflict and had an injury to contend with in Van 2 so the hardcore recruiting began. We could have run with just 10 team members, but that would entail either 3 members in each van picking up one extra leg OR 1 member in each van picking up three extra legs. The biggest problem in Van 1 (my van) is that the position we were trying to fill had the longest legs and no one really jumped to it to tackle the extra mileage -- I offered, but was not overly enthusiastic because I knew that the legs I already had to run were going to be a huge challenge for me considering the longest race I'd run thus far in my so-called running career was 7K... Luckily, only 4 days before race day we found a runner to take on Position #5 in Van 1 and those of us in Van 1 all breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. OK, I cannot speak for everyone else, but I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. No matter how hard we looked, though, we could not find a replacement for our injured runner in Van 2, but with a couple of weeks off, he felt comfortable jogging his legs at a slower pace, so we were ready to go as a Team of 12 runners and 2 awesome drivers!
It's now the week of the race and our Team's start time was set for 6:00 am. Whoa, what?!?! 6:00 am?!?! Isn't that still the middle of the night?!?! There were conflicting opinions as to whether we should stay in the Cities and drive to Winona on Friday morning or whether we should book a hotel room in Winona or La Crosse. We needed to check in at the starting point one hour before actual race time, so we booked a hotel in La Crosse, crammed 7 people in for a very short night of sleep, got up at ~4:00 am and ended up checking in at the starting line about 5:20 am. Team Suburban Assault was a GO for 6:00 am and Betsy started us off with head lamp, reflective vest, and flashing LED butt lamp along side the lovely Mississippi River.
Betsy passed to Meghann. Meghann passed to Pete. Pete passed to me. I passed to Jack. Jack passed to Phil. And at about 12:15 pm, 6 short hours after we started this adventure, Phil passed to Kalynn who started the journey for Van 2 and the baton (i.e. slap bracelet) was passed to Mark, Melanie, Aaron, Sam, and Maren. Each van controlled the baton three times, so each runner ran three times. My personal lengths were 6.2 mi, 5.0 mi, and 4.2 mi. Each leg was labeled as Easy, Moderate, Hard, or Very Hard -- those labels, however, are very subjective because although my 4.2 mi leg was labeled as only moderate, It was by far my hardest leg -- maybe it was my pessimistic and negative attitude towards hills (that hill was a b!tch) or maybe it was because I'd only gotten about 6 hours of sleep total in the last 48 hours, but regardless I passed that baton to Jack for the last time with a huge smile on my face because I had done it! I had completed my 3 legs and would cross the finish line and that was a WIN in my book!
Will I do it again next year? Yeah, probably. Because, if nothing else, that was a great group of people with which to spend 48 hours in very close quarters. Thank you Suburban Assault for a weekend of great memories! And a huge Thank you to our drivers, Mary and Paul and our volunteers, Matt and Steve!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Robert M. Malone
Robert Michael Malone July 14, 1921-May 27, 2011
An Irish Blessing for my grandfather, Robert M. Malone:
May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
And happiness be with you now,
And bless you evermore.
He died this morning at home in Minneapolis from metastatic large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, an extremely rare form of cancer, only two weeks following his diagnosis.
This photo was taken shortly after Sofia was born (nearly 5 years ago!) so that one day I could show her a picture of four generations. We talked frequently about taking one with Ethan, too, but of course there was always next time. I've got some action shots of Ethan playing tickle with him at the annual Malone gathering in Chetek, WI (because Ethan does not sit still for pictures) and those will have to do. They'll always bring back great memories! (Similar to the time he was babysitting me one evening and decided it would be funny to draw a mustache on my cherished Madonna poster hanging on my bedroom door... Hey! I can laugh now!)
"He passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by the family he loved. He is now in the company of angels and saints in the arms of wife, BJ, and son, Michael."
We'll all miss you, Gramps (Sofia wonders why someone just cannot kiss him to make him wake up, which continues to bring a smile to my face), but I take comfort in knowing that you are no longer in pain. Rest in peace.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Veterinary Related Peeves
I thought I'd start this one with a little humor (well, at least I think it's funny...).
These are the Top 10 Peeves Dogs have with Humans as read on Petplace.com
1. Blaming your farts on me..... not funny... not funny at all !!!
2. Yelling at me for barking. I'M A FRIGGIN' DOG
3. Taking me for a walk, then not letting me check stuff out. Exactly whose walk is this anyway?
4. Any trick that involves balancing food on my nose. Stop it!
5. Any haircut that involves bows or ribbons. Now you know why we chew your stuff up when you're not home.
6. The sleight of hand, fake fetch throw. You fooled a dog! Whoooo oooooooo what a proud moment for the top of the food chain.
7. Taking me to the vet for "the big snip", then acting surprised when I freak out every time we go back!
8. Getting upset when I sniff the crotches of your guests. Sorry, but I haven't quite mastered that handshake thing yet.
9. Dog sweaters. Hello ??? Haven't you noticed the fur?
10. How you act disgusted when I lick myself. Look, we both know the truth. You're just jealous.
OK, now this veterinarian's top peeve of those same owners that care for their "animal companions" (in quotations because I am still not sure how I feel about the term pet being derogatory and offensive towards animals. I mean really? You can call a dog Dumb Ass in a high pitched happy voice and it will come running to you with it's tail wagging. I'm just sayin'.): hobby breeders.
You are not going to make any money breeding purebred dogs. The costs associated with appropriate care of mama and puppies is (should be) too high to break even or make a profit on the sale of the puppies. Did you know that American Bulldogs are prone to hip dysplasia? A responsible person that wants to breed American Bulldogs should know this. They should also know that it would be the responsible thing to have mama and papa OFA certified indicating good or excellent hips before breeding that pair to try and decrease the number of dogs affected by hip dysplasia and the pain associated with that particular orthopedic disease, especially since this dog was originally purchased from a pet store with no information regarding the hip health of her parents. They should then also know that the OFA will not certify a dog's hips until it is two years old. It is ideal for that same person who waited until the appropriate time frame to have radiographs taken to also completely understand the labor and delivery process of their dog so that this veterinarian does not have to perform a caesarean section on your dog to remove a dead fetus because she went into stage 1 labor three days prior to calling the me "because I've been through this before with my dad's dogs and I am completely comfortable with everything" and "because I really wanted to avoid going to the emergency clinic." I guess on the plus side, they didn't wait until mama was two years old, so they saved $205 on sedated radiographs + $30 for OFA hip certification which was then put towards the $700 bill for caesarean section (well, sort of. This same person didn't have the money to cover the cost of potential complications associated with labor and delivery, so she had to borrow from a friend.) Unfortunately, they declined ovariohysterectomy (spaying) at the time of her caesarean...
There are already hundreds of dogs and cats that need homes in humane societies and rescues all over the country. Lets focus on saving those animals and find a new hobby other than breeding.
I will now step off my soap box.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Three Years Old
On May 1st, Ethan turned 3 years old.
My baby is 3 years old! (And, please don't read any more into that statement, Grandmas. I am not feeling nostalgic for pregnancy or the baby years. There will not be any more babies in this perfect little family of four.) I just cannot believe that 3 years has passed already, especially when every morning we fight about getting up and getting dressed for school and every night we fight about going to bed ("I don't want to go to school" has been a daily phrase uttered by Ethan since he started day care in November - It's gonna be a long 15 years, my boy) and I think to myself, "could this week go by ANY slower?" But, next thing I know it's the middle of May in the year 2011 and I wonder where the last 3 years went? What have I done in that time?
Well, apparently I have shared in the process of raising a little boy that weighs 31.8# and measures 37.1" tall. He can sing the alphabet, count into the teens, and knows all his colors (Dr. Judy was very impressed with his knowledge of counting and colors at his 3 year physical today :) ). He has a very large vocabulary of which Kevin and I can understand most (though we do need to have Sofia translate every so often). He loves dinosaurs and cars; he has a new fascination with Iron Man; he loves playing outside and riding around the cul-de-sac on Sofia's pink princess motorized trike; he still wants mommy to kiss his owies before covering them with superhero bandaids; his favorite food is ketchup; he insists on wearing footed jammies and being tucked into 4 blankets at night no matter how warm his bedroom is (yes, he wore footed jammies and was sweating profusely under 4 fleece blankets this past Tuesday night after we hit the low 90's during the day); he can dress himself and is out of diapers during the day. He is a very friendly and outgoing little boy and looks up to his big sister for EVERYTHING.
It's definitely been a roller coaster of a ride, (let us all try and forget the day you REFUSED to get dressed and missed half a day of school due to your very strong-willed personality - I prefer to call it a contrary attitude - I mean, really. You chose to have a time out, and you HATE time outs, rather than get dressed for school!) but the last 3 years have been full of laughter and love Happy birthday, Ethan, I love you!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Disney Vacation: Day 9
The only family photo from Disney Vacation 2011.
Luckily we had a late enough flight back to Minneapolis that we were able to sleep in on our last day in Orlando. The kids slept until 9:00 am! We went down for breakfast, finished packing, and checked out of the hotel by 11:00am. Overall, it felt like a smooth exit. We got to the hotel and made it through security in good time. Our flight was slightly delayed so we got some snacks and beverages in the Delta Sky Lounge (which had a very nice Southern hospitality motif going for it).
The airplane was only half full, at best, so we were able to spread out across 6 seats which was nice. Sofia sat quietly and watched a movie then took a nap. Ethan, on the other hand, single-handedly tried to RUIN the ENTIRE vacation in the last hour of the flight. I was THAT parent with THAT horrible unruly child. He kicked. He screamed. He blubbered. He refused to wear his seatbelt during the descent so I was literally sitting on him while he kicked, screamed, and blubbered. I seriously contemplated tossing him out the emergency exit door. It was embarrassing. As soon as we were at the gate, Ethan crawled on to my lap, lay his head on my shoulder and instantly fell asleep. It still took awhile for me forgive him. We were on better terms over the weekend then he pulled the evil 3 year old personality out of his back pocket again today, but that's another story for another post (I'll just say that he missed 1/2 day of school today because he refused to get dressed!).
I walked away from this vacation with a much greater knowledge of Disney World but know there is a lot more to learn before our next trip. We definitely need to plan a little more and may also need to expand our horizons (Harry Potter World at Universal Studios!). But I did start my Disney Pin collection so I can start trading as soon as land!
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