Snow Storm

Well the snow started last night around 11:00, and when we woke up this morning at about 7:00 it was still coming down pretty heavy. It snowed pretty steady until about noon, then stopped for a while, and Ann just called me and said it's starting to snow some more on campus. We took Raider for a walk this morning, he just loves the cold for some reason. It was REALLY cold this morning. It was about 13 degrees with a wind chill of about -5 or so. We could see traffic on Indiana Avenue from our front yard so we figured the ice on the roads would be melted down from all the cars, so we went out for a drive to get some pictures, and the roads were still really icy. We got to the light at 50th street and traffic was stopped, and when we tried to go again, my car just slid down into the curb and we were stuck there for about 30 minutes until the police drove by and helped us. There was an SUV in front of us that was stuck and a couple cars behind us. After they pushed us out, it took about an hour to get back home. We were only about 2 miles from the house, but since the roads were so icy, we had to stay in the center of the road and make left turns only to avoid sliding down the slope towards the gutter again. We literally had to drive halfway around the southwest side of town just to stay on roads that were in decent enough shape for us to drive on and make left-hand turns. Here are some pictures, I'm sure Ann will make some CD's and bring them home for at the end of December to show everyone.

Snow!!!!

Lightning Storm

(by Ryan)

Tonight we decorated the house a bit, put up some lights outside, and about an hour or so after we got done a lightning storm came through that lasted about 30 minutes or so. I stood by the sliding door of my bedroom with my camera to get some short video clips of the lightning, and decided to step outside on the balcony to pick up some of the sound. There were a couple pretty good flashes and you could hear the thunder and everything, and then this one lightning bolt struck pretty close and was REALLY bright. The video doesn't do it much justice. We were able to pause the video and watch it in small increments, and we were able to pause it during the strike, and one frame right after and the whole area we live in was so well lit you'd think it was recorded in the middle of the day. I still see the lightning strike in pretty good detail when I close my eyes and I took this video about 30 minutes ago. There are some buildings across an empty lot in front of our house, they're probably 200 feet or so away from where I was recording, and the 3 other video clips I got you could clearly see the lightning strike several miles behind those buildings, but this one clip you can actually see the lightning bolt in FRONT of them. What's strange is that the sound doesn't come until a second or two after the strike. I guess we'll go out in the morning and check to see if it really did strike in that field right across the road, but I'm thinking it has to be some sort of optical illusion. I just can't think of any other way you can explain the lightning bolt appearing in front of those buildings. Those of you who have been to our house know how close they are. I uploaded the video to YouTube, I'll try to post it in this message, but if for some reason it won't play you can just go to this link to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMsgkFXMGu8




ok i was finally able to isolate the frames showing the lightning strike and then the flash of light afterwards and make jpegs out of them.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I got into a baking mood this morning. I made these cute little cookies, an apple pie and almost made a pecan. But I decided that it could save that for another day when I need some sugar!! Yesterday I also made pumpkin bread for Ryan and I.


Ryan and I had our first Thanksgiving by ourselves yesterday. It was nice. I missed the family, but it was different just to cook for us and then relax before I went to work. Once it came time to go to work, I really regreted that I had switched with Danielle to work on Thanksgiving. It would have been nice just to take a nap with Ryan. He was sleeping with Star when I left. I cooked a big lunch for us though-Turkey, Mom's sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and cresent rolls. It was really great, so great that Ryan actually ate leftovers today!!! That NEVER happens. Ryan wasn't too happy that I made him take a shower and get dressed to eat lunch with me, but I wanted to take some pictures.

Thanksgiving Blues

This is a picture from Saturday night. Lauren had a party at her apartment with all the girls.

As you all know, Ryan and I will be spending Thanksgiving here at home. Thankfully we will be able to see his family this weekend when we drive to Stamford though. I can't decide if I want to try to cook a turkey or just buy this turkey meatloaf thing I have bought before. Plus as of right now we havn't finalized our plans. We have invites to go to a work friend's house, Jordan's house because her fiance has to work, or just cook here for Ryan and I. I do have a menu planned though for whereever we go!! I have to work at night so for lunch Ryan and I plan on making green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing(from a package) and then somekind of pie. I am not sure how much Ryan is going to eat of the sweet potatoes, but those are a favorite of mine since mom always makes them! :) I hope everyone else has a great Thanksgiving and I can't wait until Christmas!! I still won't be able to see some of you, but at least I will be able to drive home.

Ryan and I have started Raider on a "diet". First plan-take him to the lake or for a walk everyday. Second-weight loss food. Third-read the book I got today at the vet!!! The book is about you and your pet losing weight and staying healthy together. It was free and the recetionist insisted I take more than one. So, I took one for Taco too!! hehe Mom already knows about it.

About the lake-Star loves going!! There are so many geese and ducks out right now and Star will run up and down the shore chasing, barking, and hoping in the air to try to catch them. It is soo funny. We have a video to show, but I haven't uploaded it yet. Yesturday their undersides were completely covered in mud and yuck from playing by the lake. I felt bad though because every two feet they got stickers in their paws. Ryan and I ended up carrying them.

This is when Star was running after them.

Chunky Butt

Yup....my dog is a chunky butt. He weights 20 lbs!!! When we got him fixed this summer he was only weighing 14. That is a lot of weight in a little amount of time. I might actually take him to the vet to get his nails trimmed and other things soon and aske them how I can bring his weight down. He is really cute chunky, but I want him to be around for a long time and all that fat isn't going to help him with that. He can still jump though....onto the bed, into my lap as I am studying, just about anywhere. That is good news!

I hurt myself last night at work. Our carts that I have to push are pure stainless steel and really heavy. Several of them need new wheels or just need to be replaced, but the hospital won't do it. Anyway, I had one of the bad carts last night and when I tried to back up to let a patient by, it would not budge. Finally with a hard pull, it suddenly moved and rolled right over my foot; not the wheel. The cart caught me foot underneath it, flexed! Since I couldn't keep my balance then because it kept on rolling, I fell down to the ground and stopped it with my body!! It sounds pretty bad and funny, but luckily it really only hurt my ankle. I made a report about it just in case I have problems in the future with it, but now it is fine still.

Finally cold weather!

Well, as the title says, we finally have some cold weather. Yesturday with the high winds, the news was saying it felt like it was in the single digits! I was able to wear my fabulous new jacket that the Quala and Randy sent me early for Christmas. Just about all the girls in my classes yesturday loved it! Last night we had our fireplace going as Ryan and Allison were watching tv and I was studying for a test today. ( still not ready for it) I have come to a stopping point this semester where I just don't want to do anymore school work. I have to force myself to study and to do my assignments it seems. Usually I do better when I study with a friend, so I have been trying to do that a lot lately.

I was off yesturday so we went to Target. They have puppy winter clothes in their dollar spot. There are cute reindeer costumes and snowmen outfits, but the cutest I saw was snow jackets for the dogs. Needless to say....I bought one and hence the following picture. Star has one too that matches but was too stubborn to take a picture. There wasn't any booties to match though! ;(

A really great movie...

I am sure all of you are going to think it is a grown up movie that I love so much. The truth is though...I love Cars!! Ryan and I finally watched it and it is soo cute! Not only is it a little cute movie for kids, but it has adult humor in it to. I only hope that Disney and Pixar can keep making movies like it for my kids someday! Ok...I really have to go to bed. It is One thirty and I know I am going to be up this late or later tomorrow night too!! Have a great weekend everyone!

New Roommate

It's official....Ryan and I are going to have a new roommate in January. His sister, Allison, will be moving up here to go to PT school at Tech. It will be nice to have cheaper rent! :) She was here this weekend to meet with an advisor and brought some clothes and shoes with her to put in the closet. So, that pretty much made it official. It also made for a busy weekend. Since last Sunday was Ryan's birthday and my friend's birthday, I promised her I would go out with her on Friday( the 3) wherever she wanted to go. It turned out to be a lot of fun! A lot of us girls went out together and met up with another friend, her boyfriend and her parents! They were so much fun though. Her dad was out on the dancefloor with us shaking his booty! Plus, it is fantastic going out when you are 21!! I was pretty tired for the game then on Saturday, but made it there and then to work.

I also have been studying for a biochem test while all of that was going on. I was off yesturday and spent a good protion of the day studying. I thought I knew it all, but he put exactly what he told us not to study on the test. Therefore, I am not looking foward to seeing that grade tomorrow!

Ryan had big plans for today too....a root canal! About a week or two ago one of his fillings fell out. Turns out that there was still more dcaying tooth under the filling and caused it to pop off. At least that is waht I think. Anyway, he went today to get the root canal done, but they actually had to just pull the tooth. According to the doctor, the decay was all the way down to his jaw bone. It is really cool though because the doctor put small bone particals down in the hole that will heal and form into his jaw bone to fix the part they had to remove. Once that is all healed and set(a couple of months) then he will be able to get Ryan a permenant tooth. I was pretty amazed. I am sure Ryan could explain it better, but he will probably come on the blog and fix this before you all read it anyway.

Other than that stuff, we have a messy house, no food and I don't have time to do anything about it! :) Just kidding...we are great!