Winter Wonderland

Here is a quick photo tour of our last month. Fred and Teresa visited us for Thanksgiving. Here we jumping with downtown St. Paul in the background. The weather was frigid! We stumbled upon an awesome evening at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul where we watched Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" from on-stage. The live show was impressive and we are hoping to go again in future months with future guests!
Here is our studious dog. She likes to sit on the desk chair and watch all of the happenings on the street. She keeps us pretty entertained with her fun personality.
In early December, we spent a short week in Montana. We had a great time visiting both sides of the family. All of Kon's cousins are having babies, and they are all growing so fast and are so cute! Kon and I tried to spend some time in the mountains. It was too early to ski but we did spend one morning picking out a Christmas tree, and hiked up the "M" on the Bridger's a couple times too.
The following is Kon's artistic picture.
Rochester has been hit with some snow over the past couple of weeks. Here are some pictures from today. Emma loves the snow and does a great job of playing in it even when it is deep.
This is the view of our home this afternoon. It is blanketed!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Love, Stacy

The Emma Story

Kon asked me to share the story of how Emma became a part of our family. Really, I should wait a few days as he just posted a new blog entry yesterday, but here it is ...

On the first full day that Fred was in town, Fred and I took a walk on the trail behind our house. On our walk, we met Emma, who was being walked by a volunteer from the shelter. We stopped to pet Emma, and the volunteer told me all about how I could become a volunteer too (I thought that would be the perfect way to spend time with dogs without actually taking one home). Emma was super friendly and so excited to have us pet her that Fred and I walked to the shelter and picked up the volunteer paperwork. Over the course of the day, I kept thinking about Emma and then looked her up on the shelter website and found out she was a Cockapoo (a breed that is supposed to shed less and be hypoallergenic). I was sold. I begged Kon to go to the shelter with me that afternoon, but first we all had to go to the hardware store. I typically hate going to the hardware store, but tagged along, in hopes that afterward we could go see Emma! Well, by the time we made it the shelter, I was told that there were already two families who had filled out paperwork to adopt her. We left immediately, and I was crushed and crying.

I spent the next 2 days browsing the internet for dogs to adopt in Minnesota, all the while watching the local shelter webpage to see if Emma was going to move from the "available dogs" column to the "adoption pending" or "recently adopted" column, but she didn't. So I emailed the shelter, and she was still available!!! One woman couldn't take her for a month and the second wanted a running dog and thought that she was too small. So, that Friday afternoon, hours after I received an email that she was still in need of a home, Kon, Fred, Teresa and I went to the shelter, and came home with Emma. She has been fantastic so far. She's only peed in the house once, and that was at my Aunt and Uncle's house (sorry!). She is a snuggler (perfect for me) and a playful, fast runner in the dog park (Kon loves to take her). Anyway, we're excited for everyone to meet her!

Introducing Emma and Judah

It has been a long time since my last update...a lot has happened, but I will just share a brief overview (and some pictures). Sorry to those of you who have checked for updates during this long dry spell. In particular, sorry to Grandma and Grandpa Kessler (pretty sure you have checked more than anyone), and to Nicole as you have watched for pictures of Emma.

Stacy and I returned from MT and Mom's funeral to jump right back into residency stuff. It didn't feel right for quite a while, and it still has its times when things just seem a little off. Stacy came back to cardiac intensive care, while I came back to anesthesia and psychiatry (interesting combo, but it worked well). We each had three weeks of that rotation before starting our next ones.

In October, Stacy was doing neurology, and I worked all night shifts in the emergency department. I moved the guest bed into the basement, so I could sleep in the darkness during the day. The last week of the month I left Stacy home alone (well, almost...more to follow). I went with all of the first year emergency medicine residents (except Niels...also more to follow) to Chicago for an emergency medicine conference. We had a good time there.

Earlier in October--Dad from the 13th and Teresa from the 16th, both through the 20th--my family came to visit. It was so nice to see them. While they were here Teresa helped with decorating our house.This is a picture of our bedroom. If you compare to the earlier bedroom picture you will notice the new lamps and the new rug (thick and cushiony...feels great on bare feet early in the morning). Teresa also helped brain storm a lot of other changes. She will get to help again when they visit around Thanksgiving.

While they were here I also got help from Dad on a couple of house projects. We put some lights in the back porch and moved a couple of light switches among other things. The changes are great, and I would be happy to share them with anyone who chooses to visit us.

Another big change happened while they were visiting. We got a new dog.
Emma is just over one year old. She is half poodle and half cocker spaniel. She may be the sweetest dog I have ever known. Perhaps Stacy will update the blog with a more complete story behind the adoption at a later time. Emma likes to rest with people she loves...here you can see that she and Dad get along quite well together.This is Emma at one of the dog parks in town. She thinks it great fun to play with the other dogs and to meet many new people also.Judah Niels Harden was born October 22. Niels (his dad) is one of my emergency medicine co-interns, his wife Karly is a nurse at Mayo, and together they are our best friends in Rochester. We get to see them pretty frequently, but we look forward to spending more time with them in the future. This is Karly and Niels when they visited us the other night for dinner. It was the first time Judah had been over to visit.

Dad and Teresa will be coming in just under 2 weeks. They will be here over Thanksgiving, and I am really looking forward to spending more time with them. Stacy will be working that week, but I have the week off (we each have 3 weeks of vacation this year...2 of our weeks are at the same time, and we each have one week where we are on vacation alone).

That's it for now. We hope to do updates a little more regularly in the coming weeks, but we are making no promises.

God Bless,
KON

Here is Mom's obituary...I tried to just find a link for it, but it didn't work. Teresa was the primary author, and I think she did a great job. Anyway, I thought it would be fitting to include this in our blog. Kessler, Phyllis A.
Phyllis A. Kessler, 53, of Belgrade passed away Aug. 24, 2008. She was born March 10, 1955, in Bozeman to George and Thressa (Danhof) Kingma. She loved Jesus. She was beautiful, very gifted and she loved life and everything about it, especially babies, Earl Grey tea and crossword puzzles. Phyllis grew up in Bozeman the eldest daughter of George and Teddy Kingma's five children. After Phyllis graduated from Manhattan Christian High School in 1973 she had planned on refining her natural artistic abilities at an art institute, but she met and fell in love with Fred E. Kessler, a Bozeman native and son of Fritz and Lillian Kessler. He was the love of her life and she his. Together they raised two children, Konrad Lee Kessler, who is training to be a doctor of emergency medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Teresa Renee Kessler who is working creatively, inspired by her mom, at Shack Up Interior Design Studio in Bozeman. She was very proud of them both. They lived together in Belgrade for 31 years where she worked alongside Fred in their business, Kessler Dairy Supply. Phyllis was a wonderful, dedicated, loving wife and mother, amazing daughter, sister, aunt and friend, and she loved to extend that love to others. She was a volunteer with Love In the Name of Christ, coordinating volunteers from her church with needs in the community. She was also active in Bozeman Christian Reformed Church, teaching Sunday school, leading craft lessons, and hosting small group Bible studies. Every fall she looked forward to the beginning of Bible Study Fellowship where she was able to meet and make new friends and deepen her relationship with her Savior. She enjoyed family time, having fun and laughing, traveling, reading, painting, making jewelry, sewing, skiing, fishing, going on walks with Fred and eating Blizzards. She especially enjoyed spending time at Ennis Lake where God welcomed her home while water skiing on Aug. 24, 2008. She is survived by her husband, Fred; son, Kon and his wife, Stacy; daughter, Teresa; parents, George and Teddy Kingma; siblings, Tom Kingma (Judy), Jan Stehman, Ken Kingma (Sandy), Tammy Marcotte (Jerry) and many nieces and nephews. She touched many lives with her tender heart and will be missed and continually loved by them all. Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at Bozeman Christian Reformed Church, 324 N. Fifth Ave. Visitation at Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Memorials in her name may be made to Love INC, Love In the Name of Christ, P.O. Box 7117, Bozeman 59771.

Sad Happenings...

Since the last update a lot has happened...probably most people who still tune into the blog already know.

On the evening of Sunday, August 24, my family including Mom, Dad, Teresa, Uncle Tom, Aunt Judy, Danielle, and Grandpa and Grandma Kingma were at Ennis Lake. They were having a fun day, it was getting close to dusk and the last opportunity to water ski before BBQ dinner and then heading home. Mom, who is typically quite timid when it comes to water skiing and never (or at least never that I can remember) wants to be the last person to ski, was excited to make one more run. She got up and dropped one ski to be skiing on one. She was skiing, as Teresa told me, with far less fear than she normally has. They were in a canyon heading toward the dam on the lake as it is protected from the wind and typically has smoother water. The norm is to get near the dam and to turn around at a slightly wider part of the canyon. Dad was driving and turned the boat as he always does. Mom went outside the wake and skied too wide beyond the path of the boat. She ran into the rock slide on the edge of the lake and died that day.

I learned of Mom's death late that night after I had gone to bed. Stacy and I contacted our residency programs immediately and flew to MT the next AM. That night was very difficult with much crying, wailing and confused and jumbled thoughts as we tried to get our things packed and to get our house ready to be empty for an unknown period of time. We reached Bozeman by 1pm on the 25th. We spent almost 2 weeks in MT planning the funeral, mourning deeply, and remembering the gift that God had given us in Mom, lovely Phyllis Kessler.

Family, friends, church family, community, and business contacts from Mom and Dad's business were great. I have included in the blog post today some pictures of Mom and a few of our time in Bozeman. I hope you can enjoy and remember Mom with me...

this is Mom at Ennis Lake on a beautiful summer day

this is a picture of Mom with Teresa somewhere in Europe...not sure if this was when Mom and Teresa went to Europe together or if this was when Dad and Mom visited Teresa during her year of school in France

Mom and Dad together, I think somewhere in Italy...don't they look nice together

Mom, Dad, and me in Alaska 3 years ago

during the summer a couple years ago Mom, Dad, and Teresa visited Seattle and we drove over the North Cascades highway



Pictures from our time in Bozeman...just a few

hiking on my birthday to Mt. Blackmore...Stacy, cousin Jeremy, Dad, and Teresa...trying to get at least a little jumping done

preparing for a big jumping pic...little hard to see everyone...L to R: Teresa, cousin Gretchen, cousin Marlo, me, Dad, cousin Eugen, cousin Tucker, cousin Anna, and cousin Heidi

and with all of our feet off the ground! Pretty good!

Mom was great and we will miss her greatly. Please pray for us to continue taking comfort in Mom being home with Jesus in Heaven and that we will be strengthened by God to continue to function while remember Mom and being thankful that God gave her to us for her 53 years of life...God Bless, KON

NEW STUFF!

Our new couch on the car...I think it looks pretty good.
The couch also looks nice inside (check back for photos when it is unwrapped). Also note the new rug.
I tried to turn this photo sideways...it didn't work. Anyway, this rug andthis one are both from Azerbaijan. Stacy's parents brought them back when they recently moved back to the states. Thanks to them. These rugs are very nice and they look great.

Here is our bedroom. We have new blinds from our last set of photos. They do the drop from the top or up from the bottom thing, and they completely block out the light. They are very nice for when one of us has to sleep during the day.

Check out the new furniture too. We got these last week.
We also got the new headboard and the nightstands. Quite an upgrade from the rubbermaid containers. I am especially happy with my orange nightstand.

Last, but not least, I got new license plates last week. These ones cost a little extra, but the money goes to support homeless veterans. I thought it was worthwhile.

Things are going well here. Not much news to share. My next post will hopefully show some jumping pictures sent from others. We have some good ones from Laura, but no one else has shared any. We are still looking for some good photos from other people. Until then,

later,
KON

Something...finally.

Just a quick update...I had hoped to be a little better a doing regular updates (it doesn't take me very long), but with limited free time I find other things to do--this residency thing sure makes me feel like I don't know much and that I have a lot to learn in not that much time...I have been trying to read as much as possible. Also, we now have to think about the house, the lawn, and all that goes along with these things. There always seems to be something to do.

Anyway, now that I am done making excuses about my poor blog updating performance, I will try to briefly share an update on what has been happening in our lives.
These pictures of our cars were taken as sales tools. "What?" you say? When we started working in the hospital, we quickly learned that we will not be driving often. Stacy walks about 5 blocks to work, and I bike about 7 (we work in the same hospital, but it is very big, and we use different entrances). We decided that it would be very reasonable for us to be a "one-car-family". We posted my Suby (actually "our" car, but much more explanatory when the possessive is added) to craigslist. There was a little interest, but we decided that we should try posting Stacy's car as well to see what would happen. We sold her Saturn the following day. We are now hoping that the Suby will perform alright and that we will not regret our decision.

On Tuesday of this week Stacy and I had our only day off together for the month of July. We went up to the Twin Cities, ate Japanese food, bought Asian groceries, and went to the Mall of America (it is a BIG place). We were able to find some clothes to supplement Stacy's wardrobe. She only wears a suit about half of the time now, but next year she will be needing to dress up nearly daily. There is (at least I am told this is the case) still room for growth in the wardrobe, but we made some headway. Here is a photo of me in the Emergency Department. One of the other residents took this picture during our first week in the hospital. I was really green at this time, so I now look much more professional and knowledgeable while working (many of you have probably guessed that I just wrote with sarcasm, and that this is pretty much how I look every day). If you really zoom in you might be able to read that my name tag reads "Konrad Kessler, MD".
This weekend (8/2-8/3) Stacy is travelling back to Walla Walla, Washington to attend her good friend, Ashley's, wedding. She gets to dress up as a bride's maid (or matron now?), so maybe we will have some pictures of that to come.

Also, Stacy's parents, Steve and Narumi, are back from Azerbaijan and will be driving up from Houston to visit us next week. The are driving a Uhaul to bring boxes of Stacy's childhood belongings. We hope to get to have some fun time with them. I get me schedule for August in a few days, so we should know by then.

Until next time,
KON

Fun with Cousins and Introducing Dr. Stacy

Two weeks ago, my cousins from Arizona - Kyle and Colin - along with their parents my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill were in MN for a Boy Scout Canoe Trip in the Boundary Waters. I met up with them at my Uncle John and Aunt Mary's house about 1.5 hours Northeast of Rochester. Kon was working in the Emergency Department that day, so he missed out on the fun. Uncle John and Aunt Mary grilled a 20 lb turkey and made up some delicious fixings -- and sent me home with leftovers, that fed us for a couple nights!

I had my second overnight shift in the hospital this last week. I usually have to wear a suit to work .... but on the overnight shifts, I wear scrubs and a long white coat. Kon met me for dinner in the cafeteria and he was able to take a couple of pictures of me, looking like a doctor.
Today is my day off!! It feels great to be home and relaxing!! Take care!!

Walk-through tour of our house!

Here are some pictures of our house (this is how it looks today...I just took the photos). Lots of pictures...hope you enjoy. This is the front of the house and the front entry as seen from 2nd St NW. You are looking north and a little east. You can see the west and south sides of the house from here. The windows in the middle of the picture are in our bedroom.
As you enter the front door you pass a coat closet on your right and you can see the dining room ahead of you.

We are entering the living room...more furniture on the way.Here is the dining room. Now, back up and look through the living room at the dining room from a different angle.Turn around to look at our office area. Stacy is a big fan of the roll-top desk...I think it is nice too.
Our new chairs. I think they are very comfy.While in the dining room, you can see the kitchen to your left--the living room is on your right.Take a look at the dining room from the other side, and you can see the bathroom.It's kind of tight, but it works well for us.Now back out of the bathroom and look to your left (south of the bathroom). You get to go into our bedroom. Our nightstands are rubbermade containers now, but we are looking for something a little classier.Don't you love our lace over the windows? I think it will be going away before too long. Turn around to head back out of the bedroom. You can see our closet from here. On the other side of the bathroom is the spare bedroom.It is a bit of a mess right now, but we are slowly working on putting things away. It helps to have places and furniture in which to put these things.Now we will walk back through the dining room to the kitchen.On the other side of the kitchen you can see the back door going into the screened porch. This door also leads toward our basement.Down to the dungeon...not really that bad. Let's take a look. This is the laundry area.My workbench and chair for hanging out when it gets too warm upstairs. I like this part of the house.Notice the platform for the washer and dryer? That is my addition, and it looks much nicer than it did before if I do say so myself...and I just did.Now we will head back upstairs for the rest of the tour (notice the storage under the stairs on the way out...very handy).Into the screened porch.A great place for some patio furniture...we are looking for some.The garage is quite a bit newer than the house.A great place for our bikes, not to mention the car.Notice the garage door opener. It is new...I installed it, and it works great.Now we are in the back yard and looking back toward the screened porch.We have a playhouse. Ideas for using this? Let me know.The gate leads out to Cascade Creek.Looking through the gate.I think this area is pretty.

Hope you liked the tour. Stacy and I are doing well. She is in the hospital more than I am right now (she is on a medicine service and spends every 6th night in the hospital, I am in the Emergency Department...not right now, I'm at home today...I work fewer hours, but I will work more in other months).

I hope this update finds you all doing well. I am liking it here, but I do miss seeing many people that I know well and love.

later,
KON