Meet Me in St. Louis

We have returned from our last summer getaway for the year. It was wonderful. The pictures show how beautiful it was, but they do not appropriately portray the heat! Saturday was a balmy 100 degrees and sunny. I probably saw ten brides walking around downtown and I felt sorry for them. I don't know how they could wear a thick, heavy wedding dress in that heat...

In a weekend Ryan and I managed to squeeze in eating at a Mobster Italian restaurant, make $50 at the casino, tour the Budweiser Brewery, see the Missouri Botanical Gardens, have a picnic in sweltering heat, see One Republic in concert, watch a fireworks show, and a visit to the Cathedral.

I had such a good time. Our hotel room had a great view of downtown St. Louis (see picture). My favorite part of the trip was going to St Louis Live off the Levee last night.

The evening brought me back to being younger again, with no responsibilities or worries, though I am not sure why (maybe it was the mass of teenagers around having no cares in the world) . While listening to One Republic I looked at Ryan and was reminded of how much I love him. It's not like I forgot, but I was brought back to the feeling I had when I only knew him for a few months. The Butterflies. Maybe it was the lyric of the song, or the ambiance of the evening, but it was wonderful. If this is what comes of getaways, I'm up for more. There is nothing better than being married to love of your life and your best friend.

My Studs...

Alexandra's House

I have recently begun to volunteer at Alexandra's House, a perinatal hospice house. It is a not-for-profit ministry that provides spiritual, grief and practical support to families pregnant with terminally ill babies and for families whose young children have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. When I tell people I'm doing this, I often get a "why would you do that?" response. For me it's simple. I lost a baby sister Dec 1994 to a rare genetic disorder. I feel a connection to these families and can sympathize with what they are going through, though I do not know what it is like to lose a child.

I attended my first quarterly support meeting with parents of babies who have went to be with the Lord. I am amazed at the strength these families have. I cried with them and exchanged hugs of encouragement. To me, there is nothing more powerful. It brings meaning to my role as a person in this crazy world we're living in. God has a purpose for every being in this world, even if it is only for a few months... days... hours. I am thankful to be a part of something so beautiful.

Roman Candles on the 4th

Last weekend was one of the best I have ever had. It was a combination of being around the most important people in my life, doing the things I like to do best, and just having good conversation.

The first day in Osakis, we met up with Ryan's family (Tim, Cindy, Donna, & Mike) as well as my mom and dad's side to go pontooning. It was pretty relaxing. Afterwards we had a barbeque at my mom's house. The weather was perfect.

Friday on the Fourth we started out the morning with a round of golf and taking family photos. I tell you it is near to impossible to get my uncles to take a picture, they were being real putzes. I have also discovered a new interest... Missouri fireworks in Minnesota. Ryan and I bought some fireworks on our way to Minnesota and we didn't know quite what to expect, but did we sure get a show! The roman candles and fireballs were the most fun, we will definitely have to bring those out again.

Saturday was Kristin's baby shower and our golf scramble and Bug-a-Boo afterwards. We all had a good time.

The weekend made me miss being in Minnesota, especially during the summer. Kansas City is warm, humid, and the drivers are inconsiderate. I wish the weekend would have never ended. The best part was Ryan's family and all of mine were together. I was telling Ryan it seems that when I come home it is a struggle to see everyone and split my time. This weekend was not like that. We weren't driving all over the place and being rushed. I felt able to relax and just enjoy the company. It will be a while before I am home again. I am glad the weekend went well.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the kittens. Joey's cat Millie had 5 baby kittens about 2 weeks ago and we all enjoyed cuddling with them... if they would have been a little older I think I would have been tempted to take one. Good thing they aren't old enough :)

Mud Daubers

So, as much as I like living in Kansas City there is definitely a down point... the insects! They are not only three times the size they are in Minnesota but there seems to be a lot more of them (all except for mosquitos... I still have not seen one since living here).

Our new insect infestation are Mud Dauber wasps. Now, this wouldn't be as much a problem if there weren't 7 nests in the closet on our deck! Yes, Ryan and I spent a good part of the afternoon trying to destroy the nests... The problem is, I really don't like dealing with the creatures and Ryan is terrified of wasps and bees. If you were at our wedding you would know this because when Ryan was younger he screamed bloody murder over a lady bug in his tent which was mentioned in the sermon (homily). We did successfully get rid of them now, so hopefully they won't be back.

On the bright side, my herb garden is flourishing. I have an abundant supply of cilantro, basil, rosemary, and green beans. Yum! Well back to studying for my exam in the morning.

The first picture is from a couple of weeks ago when we were ravaged by nasty thunderstorms and Ryan caught a picture of the skies from our deck and the other is Ryan reluctantly looking into the closet wary of the wasps! Oh brother...

Our Weekend Craziness

I know it is almost another weekend upon us, but just thought I'd update you.

Ryan and I left last Friday evening on our way to Howard's Grove, Wisconsin. We decided that day to go there because Ryan's uncle, Keith's, funeral was going to be that upcoming Monday and we decided just to make a weekend out of it. However, our trip did not go as smooth as we initially planned. On the way there right before getting into Cedar Rapids we were quickly stopped... all the bridges crossing the Mississippi were closed because of the flooding. Our options were to go back 3.5 hours to Des Moines and go around (ICK!) or drive 1.5 hours South to the only bridge that was not flooded over yet. Hence, our trip was 3 hours longer than expected and it made for a very crabby Ryan and Raquel. It sure was nice pulling into Tim and Cindy's driveway at 4:30 AM Saturday morning when the sun was starting to come up... we slept in the next day so it worked out okay.

Saturday, we went to a friend of Ryan's family's graduation party, Kelsey Vander Bloomen and spent the night at Ryan's grandparents house in Green Bay that night. Ryan has one grandma (Mamie) and one grandpa (Norman) who are very sweet and cute. It was Norman's 80th birthday party on Sunday which was fun. Ryan and I had the whole room trying to figure out the Jahnke family tree. I told Ryan before we got married if I was going to be a Jahnke I wanted to know where the name came from. It was interesting to say the least.

Then came the sad and long Monday. All said their goodbye's to Keith and we just visited. It was so hard to see Jill (Ryan's aunt and Keith's wife) and Jenna and Julia (his daughters). I feel so bad for them and his whole family. They should not have to go through all that. I will say one thing though, those two little girls are very lucky to have such a strong mother!

The service was done by Mike Vander Bloomen who also did Ryan and my wedding service. He is such a wonderful speaker. At the end he read a poem that Jill had wrote to Keith and I don't know how he got through reading the whole thing. It was very beautiful what she wrote. They finished by playing Jill and Keith's song, "Have I Told You Lately that I Love You". It was very nice, but man it made me cry (as well as everyone else in the funeral hall). Anyway, didn't mean to be such a downer, just wanted to share.

His family wrote a very nice obituary for him. If you want to look at it here is the link:
http://www.ryanfh.com/obituaries/people/Keith_Perock.html

After the funeral, we headed out of Green Bay at about 7:30 PM and got back to Kansas City at 7 AM Tuesday morning. What a long trip. I am very glad we went though, I think it meant a lot for Ryan and I to be there along with the fact that we really wanted to be there.

Never forget that a long life is not a guarantee... I guess Keith and his love for life taught us all to appreciate every day we do have. God Bless you Keith!

A Tribute

"Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death."

To Keith Perock, who lost his battle to brain cancer this morning, a life which ended too short. I wish you all the joys in heaven. I pray for your family in this difficult time. You will be missed by all.

Camping and Osakis

Wow it has been a busy two weeks. I returned back from Osakis as 5AM Monday morning and I started my MBA classes at 8AM the same day... I don't like to leave myself any extra time I guess. It was okay though because I was riding the Greyhound back so I was able to sleep... I am not going to go into the story but in a nutshell, I no longer like Greyhound. They never showed up to get me in Alexandria but thank goodness my Dad and Nancy were able to drop me off in Minneapolis on my connecting bus. Phew!

My weekend in Osakis was very relaxing. Friday night I took my mom, Grandma, Savannah, Peyton, and I out to dinner (it was for a late Mother's Day outing). I forget the name of the place we went but it was decent. It was fun for all of us to chat and just spend some time with the girls because that does not happen enough anymore.

On Saturday I visited Grandma and Grandpa Walsh before we had a golf outing, cook out, and bonfire. It was a very fun day. The funny part was my dad ended up spending a lot of the day with us golfing and even coming over to my Grandma's... My parents have been divorced for about 21 years now but it is nice everyone can get along and have a good time.

All in all, it was a really nice visit home. It is never long enough but you do what you can. I feel I got to spend a little bit of quality time with everyone back home and for that I am grateful. Sorry this blog got so long, just wanted to update on my recent travels.

The pictures above I still hadn't posted yet from our camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. The two in the kayaks are Joe and Angela. Joe goes to medical school with me (and is doing the MBA with me too). He and Angela are planning to get married December 27, 2008, exactly one year after Ryan and I were married, cool huh? Just thought I'd add a picture of them so you can put faces to the names.

Lots of work to do for my MBA already and not enough time to do it, so Ciao!

Catching Up...

Just thought I would write a quick blog. Ryan and I just got back from our camping trip to the Lake of the Ozarks which was fun... will add pictures later.

I am currently in Kenyon, Minnesota visiting my dad and the family and it is nice to see them since I have not seen them since the wedding in December. Sometimes I don't realize how much I miss people until I see them again, maybe it is because I try not to think about it. When I think about how much I miss everyone I get very sad so I avoid it altogether.

Savannah and I also got to go visit Tessa and Adam tonight. What a wonderful visit, it was not long enough. I love hearing about her pregnancy fun and just catching up. It always amazes me that though we do not see each other very often we always seem to catch up from where we left off, which is very nice. I don't have many friends like that so it is a real comfort knowing you do have one... love you Tessa more than you know :)

Other than that just enjoying spending time with Savannah, the little ones, my dad, and Nancy. On Friday Savannah and I are heading to Osakis to visit there for the weekend before I head home back to Kansas City to be with my wonderful husband. Will update on the Osakis visit and camping trip soon.

Raquel

DONE and Happy Birthday Ryan

I am officially done with my 1st year of medical school. I had my cumulative final yesterday and finished up today with two patient interviews. It has been a difficult year but from what I hear it is the worst so I'm counting on that! I now have a week and a half off before MBA classes start... it never ends.

I also wanted to share a picture of Ryan from his birthday. It is kind of strange being the only two here because Ryan and I celebrate things with just the two of us which I am not used to, but I tried to make it special. We went golfing, had a nice evening out to dinner and a movie, and I made him a homemade key lime pie. It was very nice.

As for me, I am taking the next couple of days preparing for our camping trip this coming weekend and just getting things done that have not gotten done for four months! I don't know about what the weather is like there but it had been beautiful here the past 8 days! (80 degrees and sunny).

PS. Did I mention I think Ryan is very cute? Just had to throw that in there :)

The Women In My Life

The Women in My Life

To the beautiful women in my life,
The ones that have made me into the woman I am,
The ones who comforted me in times of need,
The ones who have always been there.

You are my inspiration, my guide
For your compassion,
Never failing,
I am grateful.

As this life moves on,
May you always know your worth,
Priceless in my eyes,
For your constant selflessness and strength.

To the women in my life,
I love you all.

Just wanted to extend a belated Happy Mother's Day out there. I have many women in my life that have made me into the person I am today and I could never thank all of you enough. Especially to my mother and grandmother's, I love you. You are the reason I am.

Happy Mother's Day,

Love~ Raquel

Everything Has Beauty, Not Everyone Sees It

I just took my last final for medical school in the renal section... all I have left is to take my cumulative year one exam and I am done. I am thrilled! No more memorizing massive amounts of information until August again. I am taking classes for my MBA all summer but I think it will be a nice change.

Nothing else real exciting going on in our neck of the woods. We are planning to go over to Joe and Angela's tomorrow night to play tennis, have dinner, and plan our camping trip. I am very thankful that Ryan and I have found people that we have become close to here in Kansas City, it is a true blessing.

I thought I would share some pictures I took from outside our apartment. Everything in Kansas City has been in full bloom and I thought it was beautiful. You just have to take the time to notice it... I feel sometimes life goes 100 miles per hour but to truly enjoy it you have to slow down and take a closer look. Will post again soon.

Our Weekend Escapades

Sorry I have not updated in a while. Not much exciting going on in this part of the country. Ryan and I had a relaxing weekend together. It is weekends like this I wish we were closer to home because I feel we miss out on everything which not only stinks sometimes, but I feel bad about it... If only we had more time.

Friday I got home to a spic and span apartment (to Ryan's credit) and then we ran errands and went shopping, it was much needed. When we came home we caught up on Lost and The Office before we turned in.

Saturday we had an early morning (woke up at 5AM). Ryan's work (Hallmark) had a volunteer event at the Topeka, KS zoo where we planted trees and put up new fences. It was actually more fun that I thought it would be, plus I got to put faces to the names I hear about all the time!

One thing I did notice was that many of the people working at Hallmark are chauvinistic. Here's the story... On the task of putting up the fence surrounding the porcupines, we were supposed to be measuring each post because the ground was not level. The girls were meauring and having the "men" cut the boards so they were all even with each other and looked nice. Well, when I told this man who had started in the middle of the project we should probably cut the boards a bit he told me, "Well little miss pretty, this doesn't have to be perfect!" in a very mean tone. I was quite offended. Needless to say, I stood by and watched from then on (and the fence ended up being uneven, what do you know). Apparently, the women are too incompetent to drill a screw into a piece of wood... I guess I should have been in the kitchen with the other real women making lunch (give me a break)! I wonder if he would say that when I'm in my orthopedic surgery rotation drilling screws into people's hips, doubtful (well actually he probably would). I think I get this attitude from my mother. Thanks Mom! If he had not worked at Hallmark with Ryan, I definitely would have said something. Ryan did not know the guy so that's the way it goes.

Anyhow, when we got home we were both exhausted so we just relaxed and had a wonderful salmon dinner (Recipe later... a must try!).

Today, again has been uneventful. I have been studying and playing catch up. Last week at school was just awful. Not only is studying the kidney's difficult but time consuming. I only saw Ryan twice last week and was running off of very little sleep! I have been utterly exhausted. Only one more week of class, 1 finals week, and 1 cumulative final until I am done for the year, thank goodness. Hopefully will update soon.

SALMON RECIPE (I halved the recipe)

Ingredients

8 salmon filets
1/3 C EVOO
1 t sesame oil
5 T soy sauce
4T balsamic vinegar
3T honey
3 t brown sugar
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1 t red pepper flakes
2 green onions (I omitted this)
3 cloves garlic

Place salmon filets in large resealable plastic bag. In separate bowl, combine rest of ingredients (I blended the rest of ingredients in a food processor). Pour mixture over fish in plastic bag and then seal bag tightly. Marinade fish in refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

GRILLING: wrap salmon filets tightly in aluminum foil. Spray inside of aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray before adding salmon. Lightly oil grill grates. Grill salmon for 15 minutes per inch of thickness on a medium hot grill, or until salmon flakes with a fork. Turn salmon half-way through grilling.

BAKING (For those not fortunate enough to have a grill :( ) After marinating salmon overnight, place salmon filets in a glass baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Pour leftover marinade over the salmon. Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for about 20 minutes or until salmon flakes easily with fork.

DELICIOUS!! (and healthy)

My Great-Great Grandparents

I present to you Carl and Gurina Bolken. I found a site online that had a wedding picture of my great-great grandparents on it. I am a big fan of knowing your ancestry and was of course quite excited when I found this. I actually found out that the woman who produced the site is a cousin of mine I have never met (far removed). The wonders of the internet and google! I'm doing well today, two posts!

My Energetic Husband

Oh my husband is so incredibly energetic. For all of you who don't know, he works nights. He sleeps during the day and as soon as he wakes up in the afternoon, he's a ball of energy... and I have the picture to prove it. When I got home from school on Friday this is how he greeted me! I am so lucky :) In all seriousness, he works very hard. I just find it comical!

We had a good weekend. On Saturday we went to a Gospel of Life convention. I am not sure my stance on all the political topics but it was good to hear a different version of things. Ryan and I also had some friends over last night for some games, snacking, drinking, and listening to hits from the 90's. Boy that is a good way to get to know people really fast. We all knew the songs but it had different meanings for all of us. It turned out to be a nice evening. I only wish that the weather would have been a bit nicer. Maybe next weekend. Take Care.