Thundersnow

Today I experienced thundersnow for the first time.  It was lightning and thundering while it was snowing.  I happened to be a friend's house at the time and I had no idea why she kept calling it thundersnow.  I've never even heard of such a thing.  It was awesome.  Her house has big windows overlooking a few acres so it was the perfect place to be for such a storm.  We got a few inches of beautiful snow and even went outside to play in it.  The thing about Minnesota snow is that we get a lot of it and it sticks on the ground for months, but it is rarely warm enough to go out and actually play in it.  But when it snows in Februrary here, apparetly that is the best time because usually it warms up enough to go out and play.  We tried to build a snowman in the snow today but managed just a little one.  I shoveled my front walkway today for the first time too.  Usually the association takes care of it, but Mikey wanted to play outside and I figured it was about time I try it out for myself.  I have a great neighbor and we share the front walkway and she always out shoveling it.  I guess I can check that off my things I've done in this life list: "I've shoveled a entryway."  It's about time.  Guess that's what I get for living in Texas my whole life.  

Well, here are a few pictures of what Dan has been up to for medical school this week:

One of our El Salvadorian commando escorts

Rosales Hospital Infectious Disease Ward, San Salvador, El Salvador

He's got one adventurous life.  We can't wait for him to get back.  It's so quiet without him.  Oh, and Dan got his citizenship too.  We went up to the cities for the little initiation ceremony before he headed to Central America.  He began appling for citizenship when we got married.  Let's see, that only been what... about 5 years!  It's crazy how hard they make it to become American.  Those of us who were born here shouldn't take it for granted.  He can now vote and enlist in the army.  Congrats Dan.  Our kids get automatic Canadian citizenship on the other hand. 

Gustave & David's Delivery

Time is just flying by. After you have a baby, it seems like everything is just a blur for the first few weeks. We've had extra visitors and excitement at our house too. My sister and her husband came up to visit us from Louisiana evacuating from hurricane Gustave. Thankfully their house was not destroyed but their neighborhood was hit hard. The 91 mph winds tore up all of the big 20-30 ton oak trees down their street and left a mess. Here are a few pictures from their neighborhood.

Driving 17 hours to Minnesota from Baton Rouge was probably not essential but they wanted to make a road trip out of it and visit their newest nephew. :) We are happy they were able to come. They are now back home without water, power, sewage and gas and living in a tent in their back yard. Hang in there Stacey and Norman! Hopefully the next hurricanes stay clear of their area.

Well, David is the sweetest baby ever- rarely cries and is just content to be here. It is so nice. Mikey has been so sweet lately too and loves to hold Davey and lay down next to him. We find him saying, "Hi David" in this cute little voice many times a day. It is so much fun to have 2 little boys.

David's delivery went very smoothly. I started contractions at about 2am on the 26th. We reached the hospital about 3:30am and they hooked me up to the monitors - told me that it was most likely a false alarm since my membranes had been stripped the day before and were ready to send me home. When they finally checked me I was dilated to a 5 and they admitted me right away. They had me so worried for a while, making me think I wasn't really in labor. The epidural was nice and once I started pushing the baby came very quickly; so quickly that a 3rd year medical student delivered David (had Dan been scrubbed in, he would've). The doctor on call thought for sure I had a while to push and so he kept on leaving. The nurse kept calling him back in, but he kept leaving. And then the baby was here. I wasn't worried at all and thought it was pretty amusing. Glad there were no complications or anything. If anything, I'm sure it made that medical student's day. Afterwords we had about 6 people come in helping with everything so I still felt well taken care of. Mayo really has great facilities and my experience here was really positive. Seems like this recovery is going much better than with my first. Well, here are some more pictures for anyone interested.

Majestic Day

I am amazed at how beautiful it is when it is snowing. It snowed all day long today and it was just so peaceful and majestic. This is not to say that I love it when the snow is left over on the streets for days afterwards and it is -16 degrees F outside a few days beforehand, but as I took Dan to school this afternoon and was driving home in a quiet car (Michael feel asleep in the backseat) I just had to marvel at how beautiful falling snow is. And for that I think I can put up with a long, cold winter.

Sickness

I just got back from teaching my little ballerinas this morning- is cold day out with a new snowfall! Yea! We have been waiting for some more snow since everything was getting so black and dirty looking. I took Michael with me to class today because the usual sitter's son has a high fever. Since we have been trying to get over this month long sickness, I was happy not to bring him over there. I have literally been sick for a month- stuffy/runny nose, cough, and fatigue. I think we picked up a case of the flu and it has been morphing. Sure makes me grateful for good health. After Michael had a fever a few weeks back we took him in to the doctor and he got an antibiotic which I faithfully gave him, except for when I was supposed to wake him up at 11:30pm to give him another dose. After the 10 days were over, he seemed great, I didn't give him his morning dose. Bad idea. He's been right back with the same thing again. Guess the doctor really means it when you are suppose to give him all of it. So now I've been waking him up every night- so much fun let me tell you. I hope he gets better.

After ballet class today I was all ready to head out to pick up some new ballet shoes, since mine have a nice little hole in the right toe, but then after trying to get directions and Michael began crying in the car, I just didn't want to get Michael out and back into the car again with all the snow. So I'll just have to wear my holey shoes again one more time as I teach the adult class tonight and again until I pick up a new pair. Has anyone had success with ordering shoes online? Dan says you can try them on and ship them back if they are the wrong size, but is it really worth it?

Rain, Rain, Rain

We had the craziest storm two nights ago. I've never heard thunder last so long and seen so much lightning. It really affected neighboring counties with the death toll up to 6 now and some areas were evacuated. We got a little flooding down the street outside our home but nothing near the house, thankfully. You can see all the pictures and video on Dan's blog: http://danchanmd.blogspot.com/2007/08/floating-down-street-in-flood-water.html. Today, however, the street is all cleared up and I was able to take Dan to school without taking the back road. The forecast has more rain in store for the next few days still, but so far it seems like we'll be okay. There are some people out my window that are working on something with the neighboor's rain gutter, so it looks like our condo association here is taking all precautions. Crazy stuff. Our first taste of Minnesota rain.