Thanksgiving 2008 Road Trip

We concluded yet another 1000+ mile road trip, underscoring our desire to get out of Kirksville at any cost!
We started our trip out going to see Tim & Allison & Cameron in Des Moines, then Allison went with us to the 3D/4D Ultrasound (see post below). We then headed up across Minnesota and over to Amherst to Mara's parents where we had some relaxing times (almost too relaxing!). We ate Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa Hansen's with the Aho's and Aunt Mary. It was a nice day of food & football.
Friday we had our Bacon side baby shower where we had more great food and some great gifts from everyone. There were so many little cousins running around it was crazy! But everyone had a good time and no one went hungry...:) We had so many great gifts we had to actually leave some behind and we'll have to get them when RAS is born. From the pictures you can see the dogs didn't enjoy our pack job. The first leg from Dan & Holly's the pile shifted and "buried" the puppies under a pile of gifts. Linus kind of freaked out and dug deeper into the pile. We had to open the door just to see where he was. Hilarious picture...:)
We headed to Milwaukee to see Nikki & Crawford and Austin & his family. It was great to see Tina & The Erbe's (friends from the lab) and catch up over Crawford's infamous curries & some good wine. We had a blast!
The ride home was a little iffy. We were afraid the weather wasn't going to cooperate, with lots of snow & ice forecasted, but we mostly had just wet roads and temps hovering just above freezing, but the roads stayed warm enough to not freeze.
We had a lot of time in the car, with all our gifts, and the puppies too, but it was worth it to see everyone. Next weekend is the Syring side baby shower so we'll be on the road again, but probably the last time we'll venture on such a trip before RAS comes.

3D-4D Ultrasound

We had been waiting for our 3D-4D ultrasound for quite a while. We originally scheduled the appointment at Prenatal Vision 2 months ago and the quarter couldn't get over fast enough! We stayed with Tim & Allison & Cameron the night before and Allison & Cameron were able to come with us. It was a lot of fun to see the kid in high definition ultrasound quality, but there was one problem. Like most Syring's he didn't cooperate. Most of the time he had his hands in front of his face. The tech had Mara walk around to try and get him repositioned, but when we got back he had BOTH HIS FEET crossed at the ankles, in front of his face! She did offer to give us a free screening in December since we didn't get many good photos, so we'll try to get back up there over our X-Mas break.
Here are some stills from the ultrasound. You can see quite a bit of the features, but just never a full facial photo. Enjoy!



FYI, we will post a ~40 minute video of our full appointment. I won't post it here, but I will provide a link for everyone when it's uploaded.
Here is the link to the video. It's 36 minutes of dizzying ultrasound, but hopefully you'll stay oriented. I highly recommend muting it. The music begins to grate on your nerves after about 1.4 seconds...
BABY SYRING ULTRASOUND VIDEO

Controlled Chaos

This post is going to be completely random, we've been holed up in front of books and notes and lost touch with the world outside Kirksville.
Where to start...FINALS are OVER! These last 2 weeks I had 10 exams and Mike had 3 that pretty much consumed every waking moment (and a few nightmares). Even though we left the house only for work/school/working out the time flew by!
This quarter had a few new classes for me including Neuroscience, Principles of Medicine (pretty much learn everything clinical), Pharmacology, Infectious Disease, Pathology, and continuing OTM. I really enjoyed having the variety and finally getting our feet wet with the clinical courses. It was a challenging quarter but VERY interesting topics...most of which definitely don't count as dinner conversation (mummification in pathology, anything infectious, and drug contraindications...).
Mike's been working on his research project, working, and loving Biochemistry!
We've included some study pictures, our stack of notes/notecards for the quarter (yes, that really is just this quarter), puppy study breaks and a few randoms.

We took a video of Linus test driving the frontpack, as you can see he was more than happy to just hang out.

Next week we are excited to be spending our week off traveling to Des Moines, Amherst, and Milwaukee. It will be really nice to see family and friends that we haven't seen for a long time, not to mention getting out of Kirksville:) We'll be sure to post pictures and videos of our "vacation". Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!

Study Break Fun

With Mara & I holed up in the house for the next week, we know it's important to get out and get some air, unhunch our shoulders and give our brains a brief rest.
The dogs also need to get some exercise in a little too, so we usually take them to the park across the street from our house to run. Linus found himself on the other side of the creek at the park and we called him back over. We didn't have our camera with us so the video is shot with my camera phone, so the quality sucks. You can tell by the water whether he made it or not. Comedy is comedy, despite the pixelation...:)



Lucy also found a puddle to "cool off" in. It's 45°F outside and somehow fatty is warm. This is another good video of Linus' tendency to just space out for a while. Linus is nice & warm in his polo, but it was a little wet at the park so we need to wash it. Linus jumped at the camera and splashed muddy water all over my face & coat. Luckily I cut the video just as the swearing began...:)

29 Week Ultrasound

We LOVE our baby doctor. He loves to do ultrasounds, which means we get to see R.A.S. (AKA Baby Syring) more often!
He did some tricks with the ultrasound wand and actually got a little bit of 3D depth with the shadowing of the ultrasound waves. He said he was actually pretty proud of the pictures he took; he really did seem pleased with them.
The first photo is "face-on" and you can see his lips where it looks like he's smiling. The second is like some of the others where he looks like a little alien. The ultrasound depth is a little deep, but you can see the eye orbits pretty clearly, as well as his hand by his face (under his left eye). The third is the best. It looks a little abstract, which actually reminded me of a Picasso painting called "La Lampe"...:) I labeled the photo afterwards in case you couldn't orient yourself.
All & all pretty good day. Mara had her Infectious Disease final this morning, and I took my 5th Biochemistry exam before the final next Friday. We'll pretty much be stashed away in the house or library or lab studying hard.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Last Post Before Finals (Probably)

Well we are headed into the "full swing" of things. I guess if you don't count the 1,000 hours of studying/week previous as not the full swing...:) This might be our last post for a week or so with all we have going on. I doubt there will be too much to update anyone on. What more can we say about studying? :)
We had a really good time with Michelle while she relaxed, did a little work, and watched the first season of The Office. She was patient enough to wait for Mara and I at the local Java Co Coffee Shop while we were at class, but then we had a chance to hang out and B.S. for the rest of the day/night. She brought some pretty crappy weather with her so she couldn't run outside as much as she wanted, but 33 miles in one week is probably good enough...:) We did find time to work out every night, which has been the norm for Mara and I for a while, and it's a GREAT way to burn off the stress! We were really glad to have Shell down since we haven't seen much of her (or anyone else for that matter) for a while.
Saturday I helped Tim & Allison (& Cameron) move into their kick ass house in Des Moines (Bondurant). Nate & Tim loaded the whole freaking 26' truck themselves in Lincoln, no to mention Tim's 7 hours of box moving from the basement by himself. I bet he had a little help from Uncle Jack though...:) We had some held from Tim's parents who also helped entertain Cameron. Tim's Mom actually slept in the closet with him since we were too loud for him otherwise...or maybe she just likes closets... We unloaded half the truck Saturday and the rest on Sunday, then I had to head back. I didn't even get a picture with Cameron! Every time I thought about it he was sleeping, and I definitely don't want to be the one responsible for waking a sleeping baby! I got two pictures of the garage after we moved the big stuff inside. We thought it was funny that all you can see are bright red Grainger boxes (where Nate & Tim work).
Shell posted a couple of pictures from this weekend on her blog, since I failed to take any while she was here. Actually I did get 2. One from the morning & one from the afternoon. Amazing what a new brush can do...:)
Mara's finals started already. She had an Infectious Disease exam this morning (hence all the studying while Shell was here) and she has another exam Wednesday, then an Infectious final on Friday. THEN finals week finally starts, so needless to say...it's going to be crazy for her! I only have a Biochem exam Friday and the comprehensive final next Friday, so compared to her, my week will be easy!
Enjoy the photos!

Speeches

If you have some spare time (and haven't heard these yet) I would take the time to listen to Obama & McCain's speeches after the election. I was very impressed with Obama's amazing speech, but also with McCain's concession speech. They were both very respectful (except for the McCain crowd at a few points), and both did an EXCELLENT job.

Obama's:


McCain's:

Happy Voting!!!!

We'll give you a hint...

Wtih about 3 months until baby Syring makes his entrance we decided to give everyone something to talk about. We have a first name picked out but we're going back-n-forth with a couple of middle names. So, for your entertainment the initials will be R.O.S. or R.A.S.
Feel free to guess what the name is, we may even let you know if you're right:)
Here are a few recent pictures, mostly kitty: