Equine Surgery

I just finished (well by 8am tomorrow morning I will be finished) my equine surgery/medicine rotation.  As many of you know I am not aspiring at all to become the next great equine veterinarian, but I did enjoy this rotation.  It was fun (and a little scary at times) to work with such large powerful creatures.  The two pictures below are from a colic surgery I assisted with last week.  It was a mare that come in for a severe colonic impaction.  You can't really see that this is a horse as she is covered in a sterile drape, but that is her colon laying out on the table being flushed with sterile saline.  We ended up pulling out about 80 lbs of dry manure.

This last picture is a horse who had melting corneal ulcer (among other eye problems).  When surgery is done on a horse it is knocked down (chemically) and then picked up with a winch of sorts.  Then the operating table is moved under them and they are lowered down.  The table is then pushed into the OR.  Once they are down with surgery they are placed in a heavily padded recovery room as they can wake up in a very violent manner.

Apple Festival

Brielle decided she would drive us down to the Apple Festival this past weekend in Charlotte (for those not from Michigan it is pronounced Char-LOT not char-lut).


They also have a pumpkin patch, but we're waiting until it gets closer to Halloween to actually get pumpkins to take home. And of course I'm planning to get one to make our traditional stew-in-a-pumpkin. James is NOT excited about it, but I keep thinking one year he may actually like it.


We got lost in the corn maze. I thought if we always turned right we would know where we were. That worked until we kept running into dead ends and having to turn around, then we lost track of where we were.


Ellie enjoyed making her bee hat. Obviously.

13 down 27 to go

If you come up and ask me "Megan are you pregnant?" I'll tell you yes. Otherwise you might not find out, because I find it extremely awkward to bring up in normal everyday conversation.
It sounds something like this:
You: "Hey isn't it great that Michigan State beat Notre Dame?"
Me: "Yes, and did you know I was pregnant?"
Not so smooth is it?

So, I give you full permission to gossip. Go ahead and tell anyone you think might want to know that doesn't read my blog. No, I'm not just getting fat, (although I haven't been exercising due to laziness and exhaustion) I do indeed have an excuse.

Yes, I am 13 weeks pregnant (about 3 months), the due date is March 29th!

Mmmmmm

We took Brielle to the MSU dairy store this weekend. She knows the sign for ice cream and was asking for it, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to let her have her first cone. The video was taken on my cell phone, so the quality is not the best, but the experience sure was. As a side note, the creamery sells 3 gallon change-over buckets for 12 bucks. Any one up for some ice cream?

Good Little Helper

A few moments earlier I had a squealing, crying toddler tugging on my legs...trying to get attention from her distracted mom. In my head I'm thinking, just five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes and the house will be clean so we can play. I know she doesn't understand that logic though, so what do I do? I move the pile of dishes, pick her up and plop her in the wet sink, clothes and all. To me washing dishes is a chore, for her an adventure.
Maybe in a couple of years she'll decide she doesn't like washing dishes after all. But maybe, just maybe she'll still love it.

Weekend Road Trip

The day after getting back from Utah, we packed our bags and drove to Ohio to visit James' Grandparents. We had a great weekend spending time with Bob and Georgine, going to dinner, to the zoo and to the Blossom Music Festival.


This is Brielle sitting in her Great Great Great Grandfather's rocking chair. She loved that it was just her size.


Enjoying the day at the Akron Zoo


Ellie loved being able to pet the sheep and goats.

August Vacation

Ellie and I had a great trip to Utah. We missed James, but loved hanging out with my family. It was so nice to have a huge supply of babysitters on hand so I could enjoy Education Week at BYU. The first day was tough, since I am out of practice in sitting still and paying attention, but It got better.


Ellie loved playing with her Aunt Katie.


Exploring Liberty Park


Ellie was trying to get through the gate so she could play at in the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point Gardens