the Ingram quarterly

Another few months have flown by, with several wonderful events going un-blogged.  To remedy this blogging disgrace...

November.

The highlight of this month was, for sure, my Mom and Dave coming down to visit for Thanksgiving.  The night that they arrived, was a very special night, as Dave presented my Mom with a beautiful ring, and they became officially engaged!  It meant so much to me to be present for such an exciting event and, needless to say, I am very excited!  Congrats Mom and Dave!!  Love you guys!  :)

With so much to be thankful for, we celebrated Thanksgiving a couple of days early (as I had to work on the actual day of Thanksgiving).  I have a new found respect for cooking holiday meals -- what a lot of work!  We were cooking all day!  But, if I do say so myself, the meal turned out delicious!

To document the excitement of the season (and, let's be honest, we were feeling the pressure to take a Christmas Card-worthy shot), we went over to the park that is just behind our house, to take some pictures before Mom and Dave left.

Isn't Emmilou the most photogenic dog you have ever seen?!
Mom and Dave, you guys look pretty good, too.  :)

And the picture of us with our dogs...where we look like we are practically strangling them in order to get them to sit still for the picture.  

Red Door!

Congrats, Mom and Dave!  Can't wait for the Big Day! :)

December.

Ry and I had made the decision, several months in advance, that we weren't going to travel back to Colorado for Christmas but, rather, spend it at our new home in Arizona.  Regardless, I started to have a twinge of sadness as the holiday approached, but it actually turned out to be very wonderful.

For starters, we entered the First Annual Gingerbread House Extravaganza with all of Ryan's side of the family competing by emailing pictures/videos of their house, as we could not all be together for the festivity.  However, due to some *cough, cough* spiteful family members, I believe our gingerbread house was disqualified.  This is obviously because it was too beautiful to be in the same competition as the other lowly submissions.  Bitterness aside, we had a blast decorating the house, joined by our awesome friends Jessica and Andy, while watching Elf.  "Buddy the elf.  What's your favorite color?"

Jessica and Andy!

I mean, com' on people, we obviously should have won.  :)

It was fun to spend Christmas in our own house, I have to admit.  Ryan's favorite gift:  a new bike.  Sarah's favorite gift:  fuzzy, warm slippers from LL Bean!  And we again joined up with Andy and Jessica, Christmas evening to have a yummy dinner and play games.

A few days following Christmas, Steve, Diane and Hayley drove down to spend a few days with us.  It was great to have visitors again...  I love having a full, loud house!  As Steve and Ryan set out to accomplish household missions (like refurbishing and antiquing an ugly $25 Craiglist old dresser and making it look awesome shabby-chic!), Diane, Hayley and I had fun hanging out and exploring Prescott.

Spending some time with the favorite grandchild.  ;)

January.

It all started a few months ago when a friend from our small group told me I should run the P.F. Chang's Half Marathon.  I half-begrudgingly, half-excitedly signed up, and the "training" began.  I then called my mom, and told her she should run it with me because, ya know, misery loves company.  She said she would.

Training did not go so well for mainly 2 reasons:  1.  I work a bajillion hours of a very physical job every week which, as it turns out, is not conducive to allowing for 2-3 hour runs on a regular basis.  2.  I developed really bad foot pain, causing me to purchase 2 new pairs of running shoes, neither of which eased the pain, and trial various other remedies, none of which worked.  Can I just say how frustrating it is when you are a physical therapist who's job it is to heal other people of such injuries, and you can't figure out what is going on with yourself?!  Anyway, out of pure desperation, I returned to my 7ish year old running shoes and was able to again start training, pain at least minimized.

January 15th arrived, and on a beautiful Phoenix morning, we set off with 1 goal in mind: finish.  Mom and I had fun running and the miles actually ticked off rather quickly and before we knew it we were at the finish line, roughly 2 hours 20 min later... no record, obviously, but we had a lot of fun celebrating with high-fives at every mile!

There were several comical signs displayed by various spectators along the route.  My personal favorite said:  "Worst.  Parade.  Ever."  Clever.  Ha ha.

Jogging with 15,000 other people is kind of fun!

I'm quite pleased to say that we beat this gentleman.  

It has been a great couple of "Blog-worthy" months.  :)

a shout out to MVRRH... and all medical peeps, in general

It is 8:00 and I feel ready for bed.  My whole body is tired and I can honestly say I gave my all today.  I got to work before 8:00 and left at about 6:30.  Working 10+ hour days and getting paid for 8... oh yeah, that is just what we do.

On my way home from work today, despite my fatigue, I was immensely proud of the gang that I work with at Mountain Valley Regional Rehab Hospital.  What a crazy talented, compassionate and fun crew to work with.  There is a reason that our hospital has been named in the top 10% of all inpatient rehab hospitals in the U.S.  -- 4 times the passion, baby!  :)

So, I just wanted to give a shout-out to my awesome colleagues.  And, really, to all medical professionals nation-wide.  Because, we really do give it ALL - blood, sweat and tears... time, energy, and a life outside of work.

So, next time you are sitting in a physician's office and he is 15 min late, it would be great of you to think, "Maybe he isn't late because he is out back eating donuts or on Facebook updating his status.  Maybe he is late because he is patiently answering 5 bajillion questions from concerned family members regarding their mother's health.  And, what a great guy, he will probably answer my 6 bajillion questions once I get sick, too."

Everyone raise your glass... Here's to the people who rejoice in your first steps after suffering a stroke.  Here's to the people who rack their brain to come up with devices and manners in which you can manage simple daily tasks after a devastating amputation.  Here's to the people who will help you toilet when you are unable to stand.  Here's to the people who will teach you to swallow so that you can enjoy the taste of a hamburger, again.  Here's to the people who don't spend holidays with their family because they are spending it with yours in the hospital.  Here's to the people who will stay after work to transform the therapy gym into an olympic arena and conduct "Rehab Olympics" so that, just for a day, you forget that you are sick.

Here's to the people who haven't given up on you, even though you have given up on yourself.

Mountain Valley Rehab team, to you, I raise my glass.

quick-ish catch up

Seeing as it has been several months since I last updated our Blog, I wanted to do a quick catch up post, lest you all think Ry and I lead a boring life.  Seeing as it has been anything but boring the last couple of months, I am just going to hit the 'high' points...

I guess the rest of August wasn't too interesting, because I can't really remember anything that happened after the Grand Canyon visit...

So, moving right along, that brings us to September...

During the beginning of the month, we were visited by Steve and Diane.  It was a wonderful visit, but I think it was far from a vacation for them, as they dedicated their time in AZ to assisting Ryan and I with home modification projects.  I am still in love with my RED front door.  So great!  The other wonderful thing is that they gave us an awesome swing for our front porch!  

Red door love.

Red, of course!

While visiting, we discovered Bin 239, where we went for an early birthday celebration for Ryan.  The food was all around amazing, but the bread pudding was pretty much to die for.  Yum!  

A week or so later, Brian came to visit, taking the opportunity to carelessly travel prior to starting his NEW JOB!  It was a great weekend for him to visit, as it was the Arizona Best Fest -- an awesome event celebrating the centennial birthday of Arizona!  There were different sections devoted to various cultural aspects of the state, including the military, the hispanic population, being environmental friendly and a, uh, beer garden.  Even Wayne Newton performed, which we actually missed, but I heard it was a... memorable performance.  

We also got lost in conversation and ended up hiking amongst the Prescott Dells for hours one day...  love ya, bro!

During another weekend in September, we darted back for the wedding of my cousin Craig to his beautiful wife, Jenna.  It was a fantastic ceremony that was delivered by this pastor-dude that was from some far-off country and had an awesome accent that made his speech/sermon even more amazing.  At one point, I swear he said "childhood obesity" but I don't know what that has to do with getting married, so I guess I heard wrong.  He was absolutely wonderful to listen to and it was altogether a Beautiful wedding!  Welcome to the family, Jenna.  

Finally, in September, we celebrated Ryan's 26th birthday!  We recall that we went back to Bin 239 for another wonderful Bread Pudding dessert, but that is all Ry or I remember about his birthday.  Obviously I made it super-memorable.  Way to go, wifey.  Psh.  Must do better next year...

I love you, Ryan.  :)

Moving on to October...

What a busy, busy month.  It started off with me flying to Boise, Idaho for a Neuro IFRAH (Integrative Functional Rehabilitation and Habilitation....whew) certification course.  I have been SOOOOO super excited about getting certified and it was a crazy, enlightening week where I learned techniques for treating individuals who have suffered a brain injury or stroke.  After 8-9 hours of class for 7 straight days my brain was absolutely Fried, but in a good way.  It has been awesome trying out all of the techniques over these past couple of weeks and seeing such amazing results!  This is good because I go back in just about a week and a half for the second half of the course!

At dinner one night of the week, while I was at this course, this is the fortune I received in my cookie.  Encouraging.  :)

From Boise, I trekked across the country to Maine, where Ryan met up with me and we spent the week with the Allen family, including their newest little addition, Melanie.  What a blessing to be able to spend time with this family and get to know our little niece.  It was a definite perk that Maine is absolutely stunning this time of the year.  

Meeting little Melanie for the first time!  Love her!!

While out on a run!  

On one particularly beautiful fall day, we went apple picking at a local little orchard.  You are encouraged at this particular orchard to try apples while you are picking to make sure that you get the kinds that you like.  We took this one step further and decided that it would be best to try out the apples while they were still attached to the tree... hence, the evolution of "Hard-Core" Apple picking.

Post-apple picking endeavors included the baking of two Grandma Jo-style apple pies, fresh apple sauce, and a butternut squash and apple casserole side dish.  And we still weren't 'appled-out.'

Other Maine Highlights included:

Heading to the L.L. Bean Flagship store.

Mel-Beans and Uncle Ry Ry exploring L.L. Bean

Carving Moose-inspired pumpkins.  But seriously, what other kind of pumpkin would you carve while in Maine?!

Cool as a Moose

Braving the rain to see the Portland Head Light.

And, of course, falling in love with our new little niece.

At the end of the week, we were, of course, reluctant to leave.  But, never the less, our plane delivered us back to Arizona where we got back to a relatively normal life.  

What a joy-filled couple of months!