BUSY BUSY BUSY

Well I believe fall is finally here. The weather has cooled down tremendously and has actually been enjoyable. Hans is busy with Hormel, they have him coming in later now which is great, only 12 hour days at the most instead of the 14/15 hour days that he was putting in!!!! I myself am busy with school in Rochester. Taking classes to get my associates degree in Intensive Care Paramedicine! Very exciting, but a struggle at the same time. I am also working for Mayo Health Systems in Mankato which is rewarding but stressful due to the long drive both to Mankato and Rochester almost 7 days a week. However today I learned I can take a bus to Rochester from Austin which means only driving a couple days a week which I can handle! Austin makes for a short drive being that it is only 20 minutes from our house and in the winter it will be great not to have to drive on the snowy icey roads that Minnesota is known for. I am actually in the process of applying to local nursing home St. Johns so please for those of you who read this say your prayers that I will at least get an interview because that would mean a 20 minute comutte compared to 80 minutes. It gets old 80 minutes both ways 7 days a week and doesn't leave a whole lot of time for sleeping, eating, and having much of a social life.

Since I have been out of Mayo things have been going well. Liver enzymes are still significantly elevated which they are working on to figure out why, because at some point as they said it could become detrimental to my health. All the tests they have done have come back negative which is good, but at some point there has to be some reason for why they are at the levels they are at.

Hope everyone is doing well and we hope to hear back from someone at least one person would be nice. We have not gotten any responses back on any of our blogs which is quite disappointing.

Take Care
Love Liz and Hans

Mayo Clinic

Hope everyone is doing well....sorry it has been so long once again since we last blogged; however Liz decided that she was going to have surgery in an URGENT fashion. Needless to say we have become well acquainted with Mayo real quick. So August 8th...a wonderful Friday night Liz ended up in the ER here in Albert Lea due to upper right abdominal pain which is where your gallbladder is, running 102 fever and lots of other crap going on. So they did the usual ran lots of tests the normal CT scan and blood and 8 hours later diagnosed Liz with are you ready for this......the STOMACH FLU! Absolutely crazy! The doctors told us that all of her labs were normal and that the CT scan was normal as well so we got sent home. However none of this went away so Tuesday morning Liz got an appointment early that morning and saw her family doctor who ran LOTS of tests and looked at lab results from ER and found that everything was NOT ok at all. Liz's liver enzymes were severely elevated and the CT scan was not the right test to perform so we ended up wasting lots of money that night. So that morning (Tues) she had labs drawn again and an ultrasound. Well nothing came back normal so to make sure of what he was seeing, he ordered a Hida scan which blatantly displayed an ABNORMAL gallbladder so it was Tuesday evening when we got all these results back and were told to get to Rochester you are very sick and indeed she was, and knew but could not get the ER here to understand that simple little point. So we ended up at St. Mary's at Mayo and got put in the critical care wing and had surgery consult that night! However there were absolutely no operating rooms available that night or Wednesday so despite liz being crazy sick she had to wait until Thursday afternoon to go to the OR where once they were inside took a little bit of time to remove the wonderful organ. So in the end Liz had her gallbladder taken out and was released Saturday afternoon. Needless to say any badluck that could have come our way in particular towards Liz it has this summer. Poor girl. However we manage to hold our heads high and move on.

One good thing about Liz having this operation and being so sick is that her mom was able to come up Saturday and pick her up from the hospital and bring her back home to Albert Lea. So her mom got to see the house and stay with us overnight and relax.

So no lifting anything over 10 pounds for 2 weeks and not a lot of stair walking is encouraged so I believe Liz will be resting on the couch right up until school starts and even that first week of school since school starts the 26th~

Hormel is doing well even though Hans was not there for a week. Trying to catch up on paperwork and payroll due to being gone at the hospital with Liz.

Not much else to report, just tryin to get settled into a routine before classes stsart.

Take Care everyone

SORRY!!!

Wow it has been well over a month since we posted here on our fabulous web-site; however so much has been going on that we haven't had the time to even think about it! Liz got her cast off yesterday FINALLY after 6 weeks so now she can start walking and doing more around the house which we are both happy about because Liz does not like to sit around and do NOTHING!!!! We also got the master bedroom closet completed so the primer is finally going on and then the paint! All the wood is bought to make our shelving units and dowels to hang our clothes from which is absolutely fantastic! Hans is still working like crazy, however his superiors realized that working him 13 and 14 hour days was a little to much and finally cut him back to about 12 which is LOTS better.

Liz is getting really excited to start paramedic school at the end of this month. Which we are both quite sure is going to bring about many changes due to the amount of hours that is required for paramedic schooling not including her work schedule, and somewhere in there she may find some time to sleep.

Liz has lost 13lbs so far which is really exciting and hopefully now with the cast off, will be able to shed some more. The goal is 20 so only 7 more to go, however if it keeps coming off the more the better!

Oh and the most exciting addition to our lives is our new nephew. Liz's sister Kelly had a baby boy Jacub on the 21st of July coming in at 6lbs 3oz absolutely adorable so that has been something new and exciting and hopefully we will get to see him around our birthdays or Thanksgiving! Cute little guy!

Liz also got a huge surprise when she called the first day of the fair to see if Emerson Drive who played live with Ashton Shepard had any reserved floor seating left for ONLY $20, and sure enough row 4! WOW was Liz excited!!!!! To make it even better during the encore the fiddler from Emerson Drive stood on her bench and played the Devil Went Down to Georgia and I don't think I have heard the end of that excitement yet it made her night which is totally awesome she has been waiting a long time to see them in concert and she finally got that and more :)

Oh and we have a new addition to our family....no not a baby! However Hans treats it like a baby and that is the Wii and in specifically the Mario Kart game. Hans absolutely ADORES that thing, but it keeps him occupied and he enjoys as a good stress reliever!

Hope everyone is doing well and that maybe we will get a few comments back! Didn't upload any pictures this time, but will try to do so in the near future!

DARN CAT

Cats! I hate them!!! So there is this stupid orange tabby cat in the neighborhood that when it is garbage day, decides to destroy and eat everyones garbage...so I called animal control. They came and set up a cat cage with cat food in it. Well the cat food wasn't exactly cutting it, so today I threw a pork chop in there and it snatched the cat. So I called the PD to come pick up the cat, however the cat was so crazy and flipping out in the cage it managed to push hard enough just as he was putting the cage in the car and the cat got away! DAMN CAT! So now we are back at square one all over again. So please pray that MR. kitty comes back to the pork chop and we catch him again. Only this time we will employ better measures to keep him contained. AHHHHH!!!

CRAZY

Well, life is going swell here in the wonderful state of Minnesota...EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is BACKWARDS! I tell ya...well anyways I took my boards but was a little late getting there, and in the process, fell and broke my foot! Hooray for Liz. So now I spend the rest of the summer in a cast, how wonderful huh...Hans and I both took our drivers license test today, we both passed however, Hans failed to mention the fact that you have to bring your birth certificate along with you, so I took the test and passed but have 30 days to present my birth certificate. Everything is going well, Hans works many many hours, and this weekend he is even lucky enough to work again. 1 day off...fabulous! Oh well such is the life of people with degrees so he says. However since I passed my boards I can officially start taking Intensive Care Paramedic Courses. Those courses start in August and go an entire year, so I will be a busy gal along with clinical and ride time as well. Other than that, not much else to say. Getting excited to be an Aunt. JULY 23 is the day the baby is coming so lots of fun and excitement coming up, despite walking/hobbling around in a cast!

NERVOUSNESS

Well the day has finally come! Liz is taking her EMT-B boards! 6 months of schooling and studying and taking care of crazy people on the ambulance and she finally gets to prove what she knows! She is taking her boards in Mason City; it was either there or Rochester and Mason City is much easier to navigate!!! So for anyone who reads this PLEASE pray that the LORD God watches over her and takes her through a very difficult test. She knows her stuff now she just has to enter it into the computer! Hooray for computerized tests...Right? Hans is keeping busy working every night and gets home around 1am, which is kinda sad, because we are not able to spend much time together. With Liz working in the morning and Hans working in the evening we spend about 2-3 hours together depending on the day! However life is going well up here, the weather is gorgeous, not to hot, not to cold, not a lot of humidity and the city sprays for mosquitoes at least once or twice a week which is a huge perk so not much to complain about. However laundry really takes up a lot of time. Especially when some days we both have two different sets of clothing. Oh well such is life, preparing us for when kids are around and the laundry gets 10x worse. Well not much else to say, not sure if anyone reads this but it is still fun for the both of us to do! Take care and we love you all! Liz and Hans

Cousins!

We are so excited! Liz's cousins are coming to visit today! Kristin and Kelly. They will be our first official visitors to our new house, however it is still very messy and torn apart....ahhh! Oh well at some point it will all come together!

Already HOT

Well it is only 11am and it is already extremely hot outside. Don't think either of us will be running this morning. Hopefully later this evening I can go for a bike ride while Hans is at work and after it cools off a little! Hans got up nice and early despite another late night and is working on getting my desk put together! Crossing my fingers that a majority of it is done or even all of it, before he goes to work for the day. I am still studying for my EMT boards which are on Tuesday evening in Mason City. Starting to get really nervous but should be ok as long as I keep preparing. I also get the lovely job of cleaning all the window sills at some point today. They are absolutely disgusting and since we moved in, that wasn't on the top of the to-do list.


Another reason we are cleaning so vigorously is because we are having visitors!! HOORAY! My twin cousins are coming on Sunday afternoon and are going to spend a couple of hours with us. They might spend the night which would be awesome. The two of them are running Grandma's Marathon for the first time ever so between Hans and I we are trying to convince them that they should stay here overnight and rest up and then head the rest of the way back home to Iowa another 4-5 hour drive. We'll see.


Otherwise not much else is new since yesterday. The same 'ol cleaning, studying and putting stuff away. We want all of our family to know that we miss you all lots and can't wait for a visit from some of you! It would be nice to grill out with others and have other people to talk to once in a while face to face! So give us a call or send us an email if you want to come and visit. We have plenty of space!

Love you all!

Our First Post

Well it is 2:30pm and Hans is off to work. He works as the night supervisor for Hormel (lots of responsibility)! He absolutely loves his job and loves working with everyone there. I am here at home CLEANING! It is absolutely amazing how much we still have to clean, label, pack away and organize. I thought by now things would be more organized but such is life. The previous owners of the house PAINTED EVERYTHING WHITE!!! Underneath the white cabinets is solid oak wood however it is unfortunate that we are going to have to replace everything. The cabinets are over thirty years old as well, so it is time to do a little updating in there. However the kitchen is the last room that will be updated because we can live with it. We already re-did the laundry room which is about 10'x3'....SOOOOO small. However they also painted everything in there as well including the bricks. So we had to clean and prime and re-paint which took us an entire day but it is really bright, and small but it holds our new front loader washer and dryers which is fabulous!! Right now we are working simultaneously on two separate rooms. Hans is working on the office, because we bought a new desk for me since I am still in school. So he is trying to get that all put together so I have a place to study for my EMT boards which are next Tuesday...PRAY FOR ME!!!! In the office we are also trying to get all of his old textbooks, notebooks, and binders etc. all put away on a book case. Then there is the upstairs master bedroom closet. The previous owners painted it MIDNIGHT BLUE! It is absolutely HORRID looking. They used really cheap paint so it was peeling off the wall, so now we have no choice but to finish the job. However it shouldn't be to much longer before we get the closet done which will be great! Right now we have all our clothes and dressers in the upstairs spare bedroom which is functioning as our "closet and dressing room." Not much else to share at this point. I have attached some photos and as we update the house I will update on here. We absolutely love our house, and are looking forward to possibly having a big get together towards the end of the summer once we have everything organized and put away which would be great! Hope to hear from some of you!!!