Going Down the Bayou!!!

We are going to Louisiana!!!! Ben matched at LSU and we are headed to Shreveport, Louisiana the middle of June!! We are so excited!  Ben will be an anesthesiology resident, I will appreciate southern hospitality and my kids will learn to love shrimp!  And we will live near the Boggy Bayou, the Black or Red Bayou, or whatever bayou we so desire.  Ands we will be warm!!! No more snow for 4 years!!!
Shreveport is on the banks of the Red River.  There is a Board Walk with nightly light shows, casinos (which keep the property tax down), parks, shopping, street festivals, rose parks, lakes, rivers, fishing, year round golfing, camping, hunting, swimming pools, and the church!!  We are planning on a house hunting trip and the end of next month.  Ben was only in Shreveport for a day so it will be fun to go and check it out properly.  The kids are excited to play outside year round a pick up an accent.  Bronsen is most excited about seeing an armadillo! But we are so blessed to be able to match with a residency program where Ben will get real one on one training and be able to do what he has wanted to do for so long.

Our Trip to Puerto Rico

Last month I was able to spend 5 days in PR with Ben and Finn.  The weather was so so perfect! It was so nice to be back in the sun and the surf.  I really have missed so many things about PR.  Ben was so good about doing everything I wanted to do.  He was trying to make up for the last 9 months that I have been a single mom most of the time.  He held the baby the for both plane rides and I don't think I changed a diaper all week! So we hit the beaches, Luquillo and Cerro Gordo were both perfect.  But I think Finn would disagree... He liked sitting on the blanket, but we hated the sand and the water!!! 

We went to my favorite part of the island, Rincon, and watched some surfers and looked for whales. And this guys kept us company...

 So while we were living in PR one thing we never did was go whale watching. They migrate past the west part of the island in February and March  and we never had a good break then to go. I always complained about it and so Ben finally made a point to take me.  You look for them in the morning at the Rincon light house.  So we were waiting for about 20 minutes at we see this big slash!  We looked where it came from and a humpback whale jumped out of the water!! (The picture above is where er saw him).  It was so amazing! So for about 5 minutes we saw sprays from them , about 3 whales, surfacing to breathe.  Then they were gone.  We waited another 30-40 minutes for more whales, but were skunked. We were the only people at the light house then, so I like to think that that one whale jumped just for me:) It really finished off the list of amazing things we did in PR.

When we were at luquillo they had the PR flag for visitors to sign so we put are names on it. We also went to the Ventana Caves.  This was a really easy hike and it was awesome, beside the bats. 

 This is Ben and Finn walking on the trail to the cave.  Poor Finn even in the shade, with a hat, he had to squint.  He didn't know what to do with all that sunshine ;)

 This is the end of the cave.  It drops off a shear cliff and looks on this beautiful valley and river.  It was so pretty.  More like a painting really...

Us at the end of the cave.  The baby could finally see in the pitch black cave, so he was happy.  It was cold, wet and dark... more like Utah is guess.

As part of the trip I also went to dinner with some beautiful friends, but forgot the camera that night, so if any of you took a picture that night I would love a copy to put below... :)

It was a great trip overall and I am so looking forward to coming back for graduation in June!!

You know you're in Puerto Rico when...



What is going on with my life?

Two years agao I had a tumor removed from my nose.  It had caused my nose to bleed at least twice a week for almost 10 months.  It was getting worse (a nose bleed everyday) when I finally made it to the doctor.  The day of my doctors appointment the surgery was scheduled and after months of nose bleeds I did not have another after that day.  iI like to look at it as one of the Lord's tender mercies . He made it bother me just enough so that I would HAVE to take care of it.  And I am very glad he did because the tumor ended up being cancerous.  So I had another surgery to make sure they got all the margins and the pathology on the 2nd sample came back clear.  Yeah! 

So here I am with another lump and another scheduled surgery.  The tumor is back. I will have two surgeries done again, but the first one is to just biopsy it to see if it is cancerous and if it is then we try to figure out what is causing it, rewmove it and try to avoid it again in the future.  I am not sure if that would be chemo or ratiation or other drugs, but we will come to that road when we get to it I guess. 

Now here is the fun part... the day of my surgery is Match Day for residency!  Ben needs to be in PR that Monday- Wednesday to be there if he needs to scramble for residency.  I have to have it done that day because it is the next availible day and it has to get done ASAP, especially if the tumor is the aggressive cancerous kind.  So, what is going on with my life?  I have never liked the month of March, it always has brought me bad news and terrible luck.  I am hoping that this March can redeem its self!