House Centipede

This is a really gross post I know, but hey, this is The Snow Report and that is what we do here. Poopy diapers, spiders, hand lacerations and now this! The picture doesn't even do it justice because you have to see one of these things move.

I think most bugs are YUCKY! In fact, just the other night I screamed like a banshee after seeing a spider. Thank goodness I disposed of it before Madison ate it:) My scream woke up both Madison and Jake... and made one of them cry. It really is amazing that many of my summers were spent working at camps in the great outdoors. You would think I would have made peace with bugs by now.

I had told some friends here that I would post some pictures of this bug so here is the story behind what you see. When Jake and I first moved to Toledo we had an encounter with this aweful monster of a bug. Jake was doing the dishes, it seems he does that a lot in our posts. All of a sudden I saw something the size of a mouse scurry past his feet. I of course screamed causing Jake to almost drop the glass he was washing. Because of the lightening speed of this creature, I couldn't find it and I was very worried at where it might have gone. Just as I had thoughts of finding it again in our bed the creature came running out from under the door. At that point we realized that it wasn't a mouse but the weirdest insect we had ever seen. With quite a bit of effort Jake was finally able to stomp on it. I was worried that I would find more of these bugs in the house. The next day I did some research to find out what kind of bug this was (what if it was dangerous?) I found out that this insect is called a house centipede and that they are actually "good bugs" that eat other pests like spiders and beatles. They can span out to about 4 inches in length and they are really fast. They are pretty much the cheetahs of the insect world. I really didn't care if it was a good bug or not, I wasn't about to welcome anything with this many legs into our home. A few days later we saw one more, but we have been free of house centipedes since then. You really don't have to worry about making a visit to the Snow home, we are relatively bug free:)

Today in Sunday School however, we had another encounter with the house centipede. Luckily Brother Sacks took care of it leaving only a big smear on the wall, which he later cleaned up. I thought we should have captured it for Leisy, our Science teacher in the ward who loves bugs. Sorry Leisy, I forgot to bring my bug catcher to church this Sunday:) This picture will have to do for now.

Man Cooking Group?

These pictures were taken at the wonderful Easter meal that Jake cooked for us. Jake loves to cook and he is very good at it as you can see. I was a little bit intimidated to cook for such an experienced chef when we first got married. Somehow, I had made it all the way through our dating having never really cooked for Jake. Being busy as a junior high teacher with a 45 minute commute, a packed social schedule and the entire last year of our dating as long distance are a few excuses I give. He was so brave to marry me before knowing if I could cook:)

Now that we are married, I have seemed to manage alright. I have picked up some skills from a cooking group I go to. This last Tuesday I wasn't able to make it to cooking group because I was very exhausted and having a stress moment. Jake, seeing that I was very tired offered to take Madison and run some errands for me so I could catch up on some sleep. This included a stop-off at the cooking group where I was supposed to pick up a dutch-oven I was borrowing for Young Women's. It was so thoughtful! I found out later that it was also his devious little plan to get in on the Relief Society's cooking group:) It turns out that he stayed for the entire event! Thanks to everyone who shared their yummy recipes with Jake and let him partake of all the free food samplings. Jake never turns down yummy free food. I am sure there would be a few other husbands out there that would love to start a cooking group! The first event could be sharing tips on grilling their favorite meats! I think it would be very fun to watch!

Thanks Jake for letting me get some much needed rest and I am glad you had a good time at cooking group:)

Spring Break at the zoo

We took Madison to the zoo today for the first time. She loved every dog-gone minute of it! She seemed to make a special bond with the young polar bears that were swimming around. Check it out in the video.

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

Last Friday marked the end of a significant segment of my medical career, my third year surgery rotation officially ended! During three grueling months I slaved and struggled through long hours, difficult cases, demanding attendings and excessive time away from home. For three months I felt like Will Smith in the movie I am Legend, despite my efforts to maintain some normalcy in life there was always a zombie looming in the darkness waiting to attack and make me one of their own. I feel lucky to have escaped unscathed.
Jenny and I felt that such a successful feat as this deserved a little celebration so we ordered up a couple of Vito's, best in Toledo, pizzas and I went to pick up a couple of movies, Enchanted (Jenny's pick) and I am Legend (my pick). I must say that we really would like to have gone out on the town to celebrate but both Jenny and Madison were out of commission with a nasty cold.

We first watched Enchanted, which I loved, because the main character, Giselle, reminds me of my own little fairy-tale princess Jenny. Next up was I am Legend which I also loved because the zombies reminded me of the constant fear and danger that I had just survived during the previous three months.

Thanks to the proper upbringing that my mom and dad gave me, I am always more comfortable sleeping when I know that the day's dishes are washed and the kitchen clean... at least that is what I tell Jenny. In reality I am afraid of sleeping after watching a scary movie, they give me nightmares. Anyway, while Jen went off to brush her teeth, I went to the kitchen to wash what few dishes remained. Among them was a nice tall glass with window pane etching on it. It was the only glass of its kind remaining in our cupboard and comes from the set that I once used while living in Swan Park with Dusty during first year. As long as I can remember it had always had a little crack along the rim but perhaps for sentimental reasons we never thought to throw it out. It is hard to let go of my Swan Park memories.

As I stood at the sink thinking back on my triumph over the zombies of general surgery and comparing myself to Will Smith, I reached for that glass and started scrubbin' away. It was a tall glass, but wide brimmed, so I did as I often had before and pushed with my sponge to the very bottom to make sure it was fully clean. One twist with the sponge, then another and then one more twist of the wrist and then *#^&&#!! "JENNY", I yelled (quietly because the baby was sleeping). After my third time yelling her name she came into the kitchen to see what the fuss was about. She was shocked at the sight of so much blood and the gaping wedge of flesh that had been filleted from my hand. I told her that the zombies had come for one last attempt at my life. We would have to go to the ER... the UTMC ER!

Well, to make a long story short... oops, too late for that. Better stated, to put an end to this story, at around 1245 am we packed up the baby and headed out to the ER. To my, ehhm, surprise, the surgery intern in the ER that day was a guy that I had met and knew to be a excellent candidate for radiology... not surgery, nor even suturing... but for radiology he's top notch. Oh well, what was I to do. He went to work sewing up my hand and my mind went to work imagining if this was every going to work out. By about 215 we were done and ready to head back home... that is as soon as I put on my own wound dressing. The next morning, when I pulled back the gauze to see how we were lookin' I was not surprised to see that a little "tidying up" was needed. It was a fitting end to my surgery rotation. The surgery gods took one last swipe at me before allowing me to move on.

Happy Easter!

Four Months Old!

Little Miss Blue Eyes turned 4 months on the 21st! Yeah, so fun. We love to make her giggle and smile. She is almost ready to start rice cereal which she should enjoy a lot more than her first encounter with solids:) No more spiders for Madison:0

Hello! Thanks Grandma Tanner for the cute St. Patricks day dress! It's so much fun! Happy St. Patricks day everyone!

Digested Spider Link

I AM SO TRAUMATIZED!!!

I am so so so so grossed out!!! You see this picture! Well... this is Madison's little bib and that gross black thing is a spider's leg. This morning I went to wipe Madison's spit up and I saw this little black thing on Madison's lip. I wiped it off and looked closely to what in the world it was only to be horrified at my discovery. I had just finished feeding her 10 minutes prior to finding this and had no idea where it came from. I had set her down for tummy time while I got ready for our Sunday church meeting and so I looked all around her blanket for the rest of this nasty little creature hoping that the rest of this spider was lying somewhere other than my babies tummy. I couldn't find it and didn't know quite what to think at that point. Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrified of insects, especially spiders. I had even just dusted all around and behind her crib and room the day before which I do several times a week just to make sure there aren't any bugs around. I was running late for our stake conference, Jake was on call at the hospital, and so I tried not to think to much about it while I hurried to finish getting Madison changed and ready for church. I was all ready to go and had her all bundled up in her carrier when I heard the classic diaper explosion. I took her out of her carrier and carried her to the changing table to see if the outfit was spared. However, that was the least of my worries when I looked into the diaper and found the rest of the spider. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! My sweet little baby had swallowed a spider, and it looked like a big one! Not knowing what to do I called poison control and asked them if there was anything I should be concerned about. They explained how the average person will swallow 3 or 4 spiders a year and that as long as she didn't have any bite marks she probably just got a little extra protein in her diet. Gross, she isn't even on solids yet:( I have continued to watch Madison closely today and she seems to be fine. Poor little thing. I felt awful. Babies have a lot of firsts but this isn't one that I ever expected.
If anyone wants to know what a digested spider looks like, I documented it. It's totally disgusting. Lets hope that her next solid food will be rice cereal.

A Gold Human!

Jake finally let me take this picture of him (he is so modest;) This last Friday Jake was nominated to be a part of The Gold Humanism Honor Society. He was selected through a process including peer and faculty nomination followed by a review of each student's required essays, clerkship comments and record of community service to be a member of this national organization. This award is in recognition of exemplary service, integrity, clinical excellence and compassion as a medical student.
Jake had no idea when he went to the ceremony that afternoon that he would be receiving the award. I chuckled when he told me that he was planning on just sitting in the back and eating his bagel that he had sneaked in his pocket (my mind then thought of Napoleon Dynamite and his tater tots). He was prepared to not go hungry at what he thought would be a long boring required attendance event. Little did Jake know he would be sitting at the front of this required meeting receiving such an honor. Congratulations Jake on all your hard work! I'm so proud!

Madison's New Friend

Madison wasn't very happy when she discovered her new friend didn't taste very good:)

Blonde Moment

So...two weeks ago I planned a super fun activity for the youth in our ward. It involved getting on a plane and visiting different countries. We had our friends Dusty and Cortnee dress up in real pilot and flight attendant uniforms. Our Bishop was security and made sure none of our youth took anything fishy on the plane as they went through our pretend scanners. We even had the sound of a plane taking off and served peanuts and sprite on the flight. It was a lot of work and the day of the activity I was pressed for time down to the last minute. Jake barely made it home in time to help with Madison and just as we were leaving he looked at the passports I printed out and started laughing. I was confused and then he asked where I got the image on the front. I told him I got it from looking up eagle on insert images in word. He then let me know that the 16 passports I had printed all had the Nazi eagle on the cover and the inside. Who knew? In a rush I hurried and changed the image and made it just in time to set up for the activity which turned out to be a hit!

The Lion King

On my birthday Jake suprised me with tickets to the broadway musical the Lion King! He was so creative in how he did it too! He had a calendar made with lots of fun pictures of us on each month and in February he had our Lion King date printed on the square. What a fun suprise! Back in October he told me that he had my Christmas, b-day and valentines presents planned. I told him that was a suprise enough! Even if he didn't give me any presents the thought of him planning it our so far in advance meant a lot:) Thanks Sweetie!
It is an amazing show! The animals were beautiful and the singing was amazing! If you get a chance go see it! I loved it!

They shall not stray...

It has been said that if parents teach their children right and true principles, that throughout their lives they shall not stray far from them. It is with this in mind that I have taken it upon myself to teach Madison the importance of choosing the right in matters of Mountain West Conference athletics.
As one educated in an environment where I had the freedom to choose my own bed time and decide for myself the clothes I would wear; not to mention the freedom to drink a real Coke if I so desired, I of course have given Madison enough information about both sides to allow her to choose for herself. It is with great pleasure that I present to you her decision! You can just see the radiance in her smile knowing that she has chosen wisely. You can only imagine, in fact, you kinda have to imagine how happy she'll be when the Utes are actually good again.