Winter Fun!!

Here we are!!! The seasons are changing and it's starting to warm up, here at least. From the sounds of it, most of you have been more than warm for some time now. We're not jealous. We love having 4 seasons, instead of maybe 2. It's almost spring time so there's buds on the trees and the geese are flying back. The animals are coming out and there's new life all around. Pretty soon there will be flowers of all colors everywhere we go, it's beautiful! Back in February we went hiking, or snowshoeing rather, and we've had pictures to post, just a little behind. The day before this snowshoeing trip it snowed most of the day, so it was the perfect time to go out. Fresh, soft beautiful snow. Our All-Time-Favorite thing about Winter is just after a fresh snow, the snow sticks to all the branches of the trees and you can see every branch outlined in white. It's beautiful. Just driving down the street, everywhere you go, a pretty white winter wonderland. The best time was driving home during the snowfall. The white outline was even MORE impressive. Unfortunately, that night while we slept we got a good amount of wind, so it wasn't as impressive, but still pretty enough to show you what we're talking about, hopefully.

What we see on the side of the road as we drive. Probably a little hard to see the pathway (white on white) but if you look closely I think you can see it. At the top of the picture above the mostly snowed over creek is the bridge we walked over. The North end of Mallett's Bay all frozen and snowed over. (Mallett's Bay connects to Lake Champlain) Not sure what I'm pointing to, pretty sure I didn't know Greg was taking the picture. We are walking along the edge of the bay, so on the ice at that point. I'm not brave enough to go out too far and had to, as usual, stop Greg from doing it a couple times. Funny, right? New Mexico Aggie shirt, standing on the frozen bay. Notice that he's wearing a t-shirt....it may look crazy cold, but once you get out and walking around you quickly get pretty hot and have to take your jacket off to welcome the colder temperature. Signs of a local woodpecker. So long Winter Wonderland, we're ready for a pretty Spring! Hope these helped cool some of you down.

Pretty Kitties!

We got another kitty at the end of the summer! I know, everyone thinks we're crazy, but we don't care. We now have 3 cats! All girls! Greg is outnumbered. The older two girls are about 7 and 8 years old and we thought it would be nice and do them some good to have a young energetic one in the house; get them running around and playing more. It worked, kinda.

Meet Maple

This picture (above) was her first picture. We introduced them in one of the rooms. We tried to make it as easy of an introduction as possible. It didn't go too well. The older two didn't like her at all! But they warmed up, eventually. At least Lily did, Sage still doesn't like her and turned into a real grump.

Isn't she a pretty kitty???

We could tell right away that she is going to be a big cat when she's grown! Look how long she is already!




Very curious!

It didn't take her long at all to adopt the same ways of the older two. They all love to lay on Greg's clothes. Sometimes just seconds after he takes them off, there they are. Sage is the worst about that, though.



And she just keeps getting longer and longer!

And now.......

Meet Lily

Lily is the oldest of all of them. She's also the most skittish. She's a very nervous cat, for some reason. We don't totally know why. We can think of a few instances when she was young where she got in trouble but not a whole lot. She's just really sensitive. It doesn't take a whole lot to get her to cry, and I don't mean meow, she really has tears come out! It's the saddest thing.

She loooooves her Momma. Her favorite spot to lay is on my leg (only if I'm wearing pants). She'll follow me around, or just sit and stare at me until I notice that she's there. That can be annoying sometimes, but nice to have someone that idolizes you, I guess. Most of the time if Greg's home but I'm not, she'll want nothing to do with him. She'll wait all day until I get home and then beg for attention like she's been starving for it. She's definitely a Mommy's girl, while Sage is the Daddy's girl. Not sure about Maple yet.


Lily isn't usually the cat in the box but occasionally she'll get in. She plays only in secret. Like I said before, very nervous. When she does play, we can't watch. The second she notices that we're watching her, it stops. So we have to just watch from the corner of our eyes. She's the fastest and most skilled one of the 3 for sure. She's got mad skills, just doesn't show them often.


Isn't she a cutie? Don't you just want to pick her up and squeeze her? That's the problem. She hates to be picked up and loved on, but she's so irresistible at times

Now that we live in cold Vermont, in the Winter you'll find Lily where ever the heater is. Poor baby doesn't like to be cold. She must be a desert cat. They all like to sit in front of the big main heater, though. Sometimes we sit in front of it too, so we can't blame them.


Last September I woke up and noticed little bloody spots all over the sheets! I looked all over the house and found no huge blood spill or anything. There were a few on the computer chair but not much. I started checking out all the cats and found that some of the nails on both of Lily's back feet were all bloody and mangled! We have no idea what happened! We thought maybe her nails got caught in between the wooden slats of the floor when she was running around playing but it was strange that it was both feet.

When we took her to the vet, they were perplexed as well. They said with the injuries that she had to her feet we should see "the scene of the accident" somewhere in the house. Like big bloody area. We scoured the place, and nothing. Lily had to have surgery so they could clean it all up and cut the nails down to the quick. Ouch! She stayed over night and bandaged her up.

Poor little baby! But look at her cute little pink booties!

We had to cut those off and re-bandage her feet every 2 days for a week, then twice a week for 2-3 more weeks until they checked them out and said she could go without. Not to mention we had to pill her with antibiotics every day for about a week. It was horrible for all of us! She's all better now, but we still don't know how it happened!

Below is a video example of our little nervous cat!

Please excuse our somewhat messy house!


Now meet Sage

Sage is (or was before Maple) our most personable cat. She loves to play and loves to get loved on and is the first to come out and meet people when they come over. She is a BIG lick-er. She'll give us kisses on demand and sometimes would rather lick you than be pet.

She's our little box kitty. Anytime we have an empty box of any kind she will almost immediately climb into it and adopt it as "her box". It's for this reason, that we pretty much always have some sort of box lying around, despite it not exactly going with the decor of the room. She's actually lying in the box cleaning herself right now as I'm typing.

Paper box, shoebox, makes no difference. We bought a box of oranges from Costco not too long ago, so now it's the bottom part of that box. We thought it might give her an orange-y scent but haven't noticed yet. She especially loves the ones with handles in the sides so she put her paws through and get us.

Doesn't look very comfortable, does it. She chose that spot though.

There's a lady that I work with sometimes that has a relative that is a Lobster-man just outside of Boston. So twice a year she takes orders and you can buy however many lobsters you want at the cost the restaurants buy them for! She brought them back up to Vermont and we went went and picked them up. Yes, they are still alive. It was such a great deal, that we bought 8 of them. The only thing was that we had to cook them pretty soon, before they died. So we cooked 4 of them the first night and the other 4 the second. They just stay in a paper bag in the fridge until you're ready for them. Weird, huh? We were warned "do NOT put them in water in your bath!" It seems like a fairly logical thing to do, but apparently it kills them (you know the whole fresh water, salt water thing). If you've ever had a lobster whole, then you know, they're a LOT of work! We cracked them up and got all the meat over the two nights (eating 2 of them for dinner the first night) and froze the rest of the meat in those vacuum freezer bags. So delicious!!

A while back we found these bow ties and thought we might actually get the girls to wear these. They're kinda like a collar. They let us put them on, but didn't really care for them.

We don't really have any pictures yet of all three of them cuddling up together. Lily and Maple lay together some, and obviously Lily and Sage lay together lots, but Sage hasn't warmed up to Maple enough to lay very close, let alone cuddle. She'll come around eventually. I think she's just suffering from middle-child syndrome or something. =)

Sweet girls!

I know, I know!

Yes, we know we've been completely lazy when it comes to updating the blog, but we're going to get better. I'm working on one right now! And I don't mean this one.

I Passed!!!!!!!!!

For the last 3 months or so, I've been studying to take my Neurosonology Registry Exam. It's been long hours, evening after evening, but I finally took it a couple weeks ago, and I passed!!!! It's such a relief!

Let me explain what this is, exactly. I'm sure you all are like, the Neuro-what? What is that??

So, technically, to perform Ultrasounds in the United States, there is no National certification required like there is for X-Ray or Nursing, etc. This is due mostly to the fact that it's never been proven that getting an Ultrasound is harmful to the body, which is why it's an imaging tool best known for pregnant women and children. There are a couple of states that now make it a requirement to work in that state you must be a "registered" sonographer. (New Mexico was one of the 1st!!! Thanks to my sonographer friends and teachers @ DABCC) Most facilities (esp. hospitals) around the country require a sonographer to be registered in at least 1 area, for their insurance purposes, mostly.

There are various areas you can be registered in which lead to various initials after your name.

RDMS- Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (5 different specialties)
RVT- Registered Vascular Technician
RDCS- Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (3 different specialties)

For those of you who don't know, Ultrasounds are VERY technician dependent. They're not like a CT or MRI, where the patient lies on a table and is put through the machine while the technician is in the other room manipulating the quality of the image. In these cases, even if the technician doesn't notice the pathology, the information is all there for the Radiologist to interpret.

With Ultrasounds, the technician is deciding what to take an image of or not, while also manipulating the machine to produce an optimal image. It's up to them to know that when they see certain things, they may need to investigate further in other places in the body in order to help the Radiologist obtain the most accurate diagnosis. If performing an Ultrasound of the kidneys (as was ordered) and they happen to see that the person has gallstones or a liver mass, are they going to take a few images and document that, so it can be fully looked into at another time? Or are they going to completely ignore it because that wasn't what was ordered?? This is why it's important to have a good Ultrasonographer performing the exam.

So, how do you know if you have a good Ultrasonographer performing the exam?? Well, the sad thing is that you can't always know, but there are things you can ask to help you distinguish.

The 1st thing that I would ask: Is the sonographer Registered?
If so, then: What are they registered in?

Like I said, there are many specialties within the categories, so the more registries they have, the better I would feel that they know what they're doing (even if the exam they're performing isn't one of the areas they're registered in). The fact that they're not registered in a specific area does not mean that they don't know what they're doing (which is why I said you can't always know) but if they have multiple registries, you should feel assured that they take their job seriously and don't just do the minumum requirement. If a person only has a registry in 1 area & has been a sonographer for many, many years raises the question of, are they just doing what is the minimum of what is required and no further, or are they just not good test takers and are actually good sonographers. You never know. Simply the fact that you are asking, should let them know that you know a little bit about their job & they'll probably take the extra time to be extra cautious not to miss anything.

So what am I registered in, you may be wondering?? Within the RDMS (registered diagnostic medical sonographer) there are many different specialties. I have been trying to get registered in as many of those as I can. I graduated in May 2006 and in September I recieved my registry in OB\GYN. After that, I followed in October of 2006 with my registry in Abdomen. And now, Sept. 2010 I now have Neurosonology.

There are many different ultrasound exams that can be performed on an infant that can't be performed on an adult or child because of the fact that the bones calcify and we can't see through them. So in an infant we can see inside the hip & look for hip dysplasia, inside the spine, looking at the spinal canal because the spinal bones aren't fully calcified, and inside the head at the brain because the soft spots of the cranium provide an optimum window by ultrasound into the brain.

So the Neurosonolgy registry is all about the newborn brain and spinal system. It may sound like not that much but, holy cow!!! There is so much to the brain that I didn't even imagine!! I've been doing newborn head ultrasounds for years now and had no idea of the complexity of it all! Luckily there's been a fully qualified radiologist interpreting the exams so as long as you take good images and good short videos clips through the brain, it all gets seen (hopefully). But can you image what little amount falls through the cracks with a sonographer that knows what they're looking at, so that they can get optimum images to tell the best story of what's really going on?

That's the importance of continuing your education and obtaining different registries. I'll have to get continuing education credits, of course. There's even an upcoming requirement for mini-tests to ensure that we stay up to date and knowledgeable in each field we obtain registries in. It's all for the good of the patient, because that's what we're all doing it for, really.

Hope this helps you all know exactly what is required of the sonographer that performs your next Ultrasound. Feel free to ask questions. Just don't expect them to tell you what they're seeing (because while they probably know, they're not supposed to interpret).

4th Anniversary and 4th of July

We try to go on a trip every year for our anniversary (at least while we can without kids), and since it's the day before Independence Day, it works out really well to get time off . Plus, we always get fireworks in celebration for our anniversary, right? =)

So this year we decided to go to Washington DC. It's about a 10 hour drive from here, so the 1st day we went about 8 hours and stopped in Hershey, PA! We had to stop at Chocolate World!

About 2 weeks before we went there, they started a Create Your Own Candy Bar! It's like Build-a-Bear, only with chocolate, of course. You pick what's put into it, design the wrapper/cover, and watch as it's made. It was kinda fun....and oh so yummy!









This is the World's Largest Chocolate Bar!!




The next day, we left early and went the 2.5 hours to DC. The hotel let us check in early and upgraded us to a nicer room and gave us free breakfast since it was our anniversary! We love Marriott's!

The Washington Monument.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get in! It was extremely busy while we were there, since it was 4th of July weekend, and there were lines and waits to everything. You apparently had to get in line at the crack of dawn to get tickets inside the monument.

This is one of the more recent memorials. It's the World War II Memorial. And this is only 1/2 of it! There's a wreath pillar for every U.S. state & territory.

The White House

White House at night.

Can you see the sharp shooters on the roof?? We didn't either, but we're sure they were there. This was taken 4th of July, right after the firework show ended. The security was obviously heightened, we weren't allowed to get any closer than across the street.

Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam Wall Memorial (with the Washington Monument in the reflection)

The National Archives.
We weren't allow to take pictures inside this building, so the outside will have to do, but we were able to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution as well as many other historical and old documents. It was amazing!

We visited the American History Museum. Among many historical American artifacts, they had the original United States flag! It was HUGE!!!! We'd never seen a flag so big! Of course, no pictures allowed of this either, so you'll have to just visit it yourselves.

The Capital Building

Arlington National Cemetery.

JFK and Jackie's grave sites.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

There was some type of Memorial that was taking place as we were waiting for the Changing of the Guard. We never found out why, but I'm sure it happens a lot these days.



Guarding the Tomb, 24/7

After visiting the Cemetery, we headed South to Mt. Vernon - George Washington's home.

Front of the mansion (especially for back then!) And again, no pics inside.

The Washington's view of the Potomac River from their back porch.

Back porch......chairs lined up across the whole thing. Supposed to be historically accurate

George and Martha Washington were both buried at Mt. Vernon grounds in the exact location that George requested in his writings (probably his will).

Martha Washington

President George Washington

For the 4th of July, we did a lot of walking (actually we probably walked 5-10 miles every day). There is a festival every year that celebrates different countries around the world. (We thought this a little strange, since it is our Independence Day) This year it was Mexico and Asian Pacific Americans. So we walked around that for a while and saw a few of the exhibits, and had some Mexican food. It was sooooo hot that day though, that all we really wanted to do was duck inside an air conditioned building and wait till sundown! Seriously!

We walked about 8 more blocks though, to visit the American Art Museum. We're not usually ones to visit Art Museums, but starting that week and continuing until next January, there was a Norman Rockwell exhibit! All the paintings were from both Steven Spielburg and George Lucus' private collections. It was soooo cool! He was an amazing artist that was able to say so much with just one scene. Hence, the reason the two directors admired him so much. Of course, no pics allowed....again. So you will all have to take a trip yourselves to visit it before they're back in the director's homes and offices or where ever they keep them.

We went back to where the fireworks were going to be set off about 2 hours early to camp out and insure that we had a decent spot. They expected about 2 million people, after all. We could have gotten closer if we wanted to stand in more lines with probably no shade until sundown, but we didn't want any of that. So we sat and chilled under some trees with tons of other people and when the time came closer, moved. We ended up literaly sitting in the street in front of the Washington Monument. It was so amazing and patriotic to have the fireworks going off right there with the monument!

Here's the finale for you all to see!.......Sorry it's sideways!



Our thought to get out of there after the firework show with all the madness was, to walk around & see the White House at night, let it all calm down a bit, ya know? Seemed like a good idea at the time, anyway. We waited about 45 minutes and got into the subway terminal to this.....(Not even on platform yet!)

These are all the people that were waiting on the platform, trying to get into already jammed packed trains! When we finally got onto the platform, we had to wait through 3 or 4 full trains, before we were lucky enough to find a car that could fit us! Every stop from there, 3 or 4 more people tried to get in. We were packed in like sardines!

Needless to say, we learned that we should have just made a mad dash for the subway right away and not waited. Oh well, we made it back to the hotel and drove the 10 hour drive back home the next day. It was a long drive, but we saw a whole lot and packed a lot in! We needed another vacation, though, by the time we were finished. Isn't that always the way!