Funny E-Mail

I got this joke e-mail from Allison a long time ago when they were living in St. Louis. It's a perons's recount of thier new move to a hot climate. I changed it a little to reflect Phoenix, but it still hold true...:)

May 30th:

Just got moved into our new home in Phoenix . Now this is a city that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! I watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:

Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshiper.

June 30th:

Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:

The temperature hasn't been below 105 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:

Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:

I missed Kitty (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Kitty had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $2,000 leather upholstery. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and shits. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

July 25th:

The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:

Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. $1,500 in damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th:

It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85, but this freaking humidity makes the house feel like it's about 95. Stupid repairman. I hate this stupid city.

Aug. 8th:

If another wise ass cracks, "Hot enough for you today?" I'm going to strangle him. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th:

Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and sat on the black leather seats in the ol' car. I thought my ass was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and ass. Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and baked cat.

Aug. 10th:

The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this damn desert? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus just might dry up and blow into the damn pool. Even the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

Aug. 14th:

Welcome to HELL!!! Temperature got to 120 today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you to day?" My wife had to spend the $1500 house payment to bail my ass out of jail. Freaking Phoenix. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here?

Family Pictures

Before we left "The 'ville" we had our favorite photographer (Crystal) take some family pictures. Needless to say, with Rohan's cuteness, they turned out great! :)  We took them at a playgound/picnic area at Thousand Hills State Park outside Kirksivlle.  Not much to say about them other than we LOVE Crystal's work!
Enjoy:

The Syrings Have Invaded The Southwest

It took 32 hours but we FINALLY made it!  We stopped for a quick nap in Amarillo, TX, and had some aweful construction in Kansas City and New Mexico.  The truck was a little hard to handle in some parts, but some how we got through it.

Heather & John (Mara's Aunt & Uncle) came and took Rohan for the night so we could get everything unloaded and get a head start on the unpacking.  Greg & Nicole came and helped unload the truck and the whole thing took only a couple of hours!  We couldn't have gotten in if we didn't have so much help both in Kirksville & Scottsdale.  We are really thankful to both our Dads and Michelle for their help.

We'll update everyone as we get things settled in, but for now, here are some pictures of our epic road trip:

On The Road!!!

I set this up to automatically post around the time we leave since we may/may not have internet access. It's been spotty since the "Kirksville Hurricane".
Anyway, since we can't post here on the road, we set up another blog a while back that we can upload pictures from our phones to. It works pretty good, but there usually isn't too much typing since it's hard to write that much with your thumbs!
Anyway, check out http://syringmobile.blogspot.com/ for "On The Go" photos and such. Shouldn't be too interesting, but we share what we can...:)

Bittersweet

Just 1 more day of classes on Thursday, ACLS testing on Friday and then we're off for AZ!
On the one hand we are really excited to move to AZ and on the other we are very sad to be leaving some close friends. It's awesome how many terrific people we have met here in Kirksville. A lot of our friends are also coming to AZ for clinical rotations but some are staying here in MO, while still others are going to IA, KS, IL, MI, OH, CO, and PA. After spending nearly everyday for the last 22 months with everyone, it's hard to believe in just a few short days we'll go our separate ways. It will be a lot of fun to keep up with everyone and compare crazy hospital stories over the next couple of years!
Rohan is also excited for the move, or just excited in general, we can't really tell:) We do know that he (& us, too) will definitely miss the daycare girls. He absolutely LOVES daycare, especially Miss Tiffany! He has been going there since he was 2 weeks old and they treat him like family. He greets them every morning with his signature double dimple smile, gotta love that! We are really sad that we can't take them with us and we hope we can find a daycare in Scottsdale that loves him as much as they do.
This last week has flown by (at least the time spent outside the lecture halls...)! We planned on trying to see people outside of class time but with classes from 8-5 daily and our evenings consumed with packing and various last minute details, we didn't see as many people or do as much as we had planned.
I would say that nearly 90% of our house is packed into boxes and ready to go the minute Mike get's back from Des Moines on Thursday with the Penske truck, the rest is mostly things we'll need in the next day or so. Dan, Larry, & Michelle will be heading out in just a few hours and should be getting to Kirksville early Thursday afternoon. With all that help, maybe the truck will be packed by the time I'm done with class:)
We have a ton of pictures to post, some from daycare with Rohan showing the girls some love and we should also have our family photo's back tomorrow as well. We are really excited to show those off (we got a sneak peek at a few and they turned out terrific) but we'll likely have to wait on posting those as our internet will be disconnected and our computers packed up.
I'm sure we'll post as soon as we get there!

Congrats Wyatt & Jovanna Conrad!

Mara and I had the pleasure of seeing Wyatt & Jovanna tie the knot this last weekend. It was a blast to get everyone together and Jovanna's friends and family were very gracious.
We used the run up to the weekend to also throw Greg a bachelor party on Thursday. Greg & Nicole are doing a destination wedding in Mexico next week and then having a reception in IA, neither of which Mara nor I can go to...We'll have a wedding dinner for them when they come back then...:)
Friday was the rehearsal and dinner, and the wedding on Saturday. Everything was perfect, and the reception was an absolute blast. Since we don't see each other as much as we'd like we got caught up with what everyone has been up to the last few months/years. By the end of the night it was like we were all still living together.
Rohan was a ham all weekend. He cheesed at about everyone that walked by, and was passed around to all sorts of people. Wyatt's sisters Emily & Cody took him for hours at a time, which was extremely helpful and allowed Mara and I to mingle even more! I think they are both naturals...:)
It was a great weekend and the bride was gorgeous, Wyatt looked great, and the best man didn't screw anything up. Actually, Tim was probably top 3 in the All-Time Best Man List. Nice job Tim!

Here are dozens of photos from the Peets, Caldwells, and Syrings. There are plenty of Rohan in his tux...Sally...

Almost out of Kirksville!!!

Hey everyone!

We just wanted to give an update of our plans for the big move out of Kirksville! We are incredibly excited about moving to AZ! Mentally we are already there, with just enough brain power left to finish finals, pack, and drive!

Thursday I am going to pick up the Penske truck and bring it back to Kirksville (one more thing Kirksville doesn't have!). Mara's Dad, Dan, my Dad Larry, and someones sister, Michelle, are all coming down Thursday to help up pack up the truck and probably to see Rohan one more time too...:) Mara has "orientation week" this week at school (don't get us started on that) and will be done on Friday, probably around 10. After she gets back, and we say our good-bye-for-nows, Mara, Rohan, me, the puppies, and that stranger Michelle will all be heading out towards AZ!!! One person will be in the Penske with the dogs, the other two will be in the RAV4 with Rohan.

The plan right now, with Rohan's cooperation, is to drive as far as we can Friday. 16 hours (with stops) puts us in Albuquerque, NM around 4am. We are hoping with the drivers, and as many Starbucks as we can find, it shouldn't be a problem. We'll stop when we need to, and we won't be too daring if we are getting tired or anything. We have PLENTY of time to get there if we need to stop, but if we can, we'll get there as early as possible.

After a quick nap in NM, the plan is to drive about 3 hours to Petrified Forest National Park where we thought of getting out and going on a "quick" 3 mile jog to stretch our legs and see the park. When are we going to get the chance to jog through PFNP again? We might as well take the opportunity now. After the jog we are hitting the home stretch of 3 hours until Scottsdale! With a nap in NM, jog, etc, it should put us to our apartment around 1:30 in the afternoon AZ time. Just in time for the HEAT of the day! Lately it's been around 100°F so we'll be sure to turn the AC on ASAP! Heather & John offered to watch Rohan while we moved our stuff so that will help immensely!!! Greg and Nicole (soon to be The Caldwell's) also offered to help so it should be a pretty quick move!

There is some debate as to which route is faster. The interstate route takes us from Wichita, KS through Oklahoma City, OK, Amarillo, TX, then to Albuquerque. However, there is a route on HWY-54 from Wichita to just outside Albuquerque that we've heard is slightly faster. The problem is, the route is 100 miles shorter, but it's a 2 lane highway, not an interstate. Our gut says to take HWY-54 since it's shorter, but is it faster? I did talk with Greg and Nate (who had made the trip several times) and they recommended staying on the interstate. With the 2-lane and Memorial Day weekend traffic, it could get really slow. I think we will stick with the interstates and "main roads" for cell reception and food options, gas stations, etc. Although we will have to get out in NM or TX and check out the stars. We did that in Wyoming last year and it was amazing what no light pollution allows you to see!

This week we've been packing things up, and donating to the Salvation Army anything we don't want to move. It's amazing. When we left Milwaukee we through out, literally, a mountain of stuff we didn't move, and donated just as much. Now we are still finding things we look at, which have been sitting in a box for 2 years, and ask "Why did we keep this?". We should have even less in this move then from Milwaukee, so it should be easy to pack/unpack!

Another treat in AZ is on Monday Chris & Jackson are flying in to spend the week with us! We are so excited to see Jackson for longer than a day and a half! We're excited to see Chris too, but he understands we miss Jackson too...:) There are plenty of things to check out during the day (mostly air conditioned), and at night we can try and find some of the trails we've been scoping out on Google Earth, namely the Camelback Walk. Should be a great time exploring our new city/state!

If you were at all curious about our route, and what it looks like, I'll post a map below. It has both routes on it so you can see just how in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas the alternate route (light blue) would take us...:)

View MO To AZ Trip in a larger map

More Tornado Footage

Here is a little video a storm chaser posted on YouTube of a Kirksville area tornado. Fast forward to ~30 seconds to see the tornado, the first part is just them driving to get a good look at it.


CBS News had some additional footage as well:


Here are more pictures in an around Adair County:

Kirksville Tornado

If you didn't hear yet, we had several tornadoes touch down in and around Kirksville this evening around 6:00pm.  We had a couple of friends lose some personal belongings, but everyone seems to be OK.  We've found a few pictures online of some of the damage we thought we'd share.  Hopefully this will be Rohan's first AND LAST tornado!

We spent the tornado time in the dairy cooler in Hy-Vee.  All in all we spent about 15 minutes in the cooler with Rohan and ~20 of Kirksville's finest.  No one was panicking, but there were  a couple of insane kids that were really trying our nerves...:)

Mother's Day Pt. 2

I just wanted to make one more note about Mother's Day, OK, 2 more. First, my Dad made the funniest damn card I've ever seen. He couldn't find the Print Shop CD (as the card states in rhyme) so he made one. Classic Larry.

Outside of card:

Inside of card:

Second, Mara and I found some time between my packing and her studying to go for a run. It was only going to be about 2 miles at the most but it turned into an 8K! That's 5 miles for the conversionally challenged (I had to look it up too). We were tired from this weekend, so we didn't think it would feel that good, but it felt great! Rohan was awake for about half and then snoozed the other half. He just watches the trees go by, happy as can be. Occasionally he'll catch one of us looking at him and start smiling. It makes you forget you're running, so that definitely makes the run better...:) Here is a little chart from our Mother's Day 8K:

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, Happy FIRST Mother's Day to Mara!  She has been an amazing Mom for the last 4 month with juggleing school & Rohan (& me!).  Second, Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers in our family!  We've had so many additions in the last couple of years, the dynamic of the two families has changed dramatically, but definitely for the better!

Mara is spending Mother's Day studying for her Principles of Surgery final she has tomorrow, as well as the other 5 exams she has this next week.  Like I said, amazing she can juggle all that.  With only 11+ days unitl we move, we've been finding things to pack up, and trying to focus on what we have left to do before we leave here.  Mentally, we have already checked out of Kirksville, and we are already on our way to AZ...:)

Last week we had some outside time with Rohan, and judging by his face, he loved every second of it  We also have some comparison shots of him from the last few months because he was 4 months old earlier this month.  He got his second round of shots last week, and did pretty good.  Some loud screaming, but no fevers or reactions to the shots, so that was nice.  HIs 4 months tats are 13lbs and 23 3/4 inches.  He's still in the 15th percentile, which is more than we can say for the last 4 months!
While we were at the Dr.'s some lady hit our car.  She had 2 of the most nightmarish kids we've seen, and she said they were distracting her.  After seeing her kids, we understand...  Anyway, we should be able to get it fixes by the end of this next week, but we'll have to have a rental for Wyatt's wedding next weekend.  Yippee...  Oh well, what ever we have to do before we leave, we'll get done!

Here is Rohan taking a pull off Mara's Camelbak bottle:

Rohan Pics & Videos

We had some time so we'll post some pictures & videos.
Last Wednesday our Daycare had a BBQ for their 1 year anniversary and one of their workers sister came to take photos of the kids. She was GREAT! We got some really good pictures for just being a spur of the moment photo op. Some are repeats in color/B&W/sepia but she did a great job. If you're in Kirksville and need photos we recommend our photographer Crystal. Here is her MySpace page if you are interested.
After a long week, we took a trip to Columbia to walk around and visit some stores we don't have in the 'ville, namely everything but Wal-Mart. We also found a Jimmy Johns and soaked that up since we just found out there are NO JJ's in Phoenix! That should be illegal... We also found a pimpin' tux for Rohan to wear to our friend Wyatt's wedding next weekend. We'll have PLENTY of picture of him in that later. It was cool though, when Mara took him into the changing room I was waiting outside and one cashier kept looking in the fitting rooms, walking out, then looking at me. I felt a little out of sorts... After the 3rd time she came up to me and asked if my wife was coming out with the baby soon because they wanted to see him in his tux. I turned around and there were 4 cashiers all standing there waiting for them to come out. I've never seen anything like that before. When they came out, everyone, including customers were stopping to see him in his outfit. It was a lot of fun.
Enjoy the pics:


Rohan has fun at Jimmy Johns in Columbia:


Rohan Studies Chronic Ischemic Myocardial Infarctions: