Highlights of Our First Thanksgiving

Okay, okay, technically this is our SECOND Thanksgiving as a married couple, but last year at this time we were barely married. Also, this is the first year in our new house, for Thanksgiving, AND the first year I cooked a turkey. It was really fantastic! So I thought I would share some highlights. I am one of those people who love holidays, so even though I was dreading this year, celebrating the first holiday season with my parents separated, it actually wasn't that bad! It was fun to have it at our house, and the food was really good. So here are the highlights:

prepping the turkey:



Hanging out, waiting for the turkey to cook:



First cooked Thanksgiving turkey! I forgot to take the giblets out, but it turned out okay anyway. :)



Sitting down to a small but delicious thanksgiving. :)



Pies! Coconut Cream and Pumpkin, made by yours truly.



We also acquired and decorated our first Christmas tree in our new house. :) The last picture is of me bundled up to go out at midnight to an outlet mall. It was nuts, but I had never done it before, so it turned out to be kind of a cool experience.





And then, then day after Thanksgiving, I went out with some friends to see the "circle of lights" ceremony where they light the giant tree on the Circle in Indy.

Holidays approaching...

I realize that it's been FOREVER since we updated this thing, but since the one of us who updates has been in grad school... life's gotten busy. :) I cannot believe how fast this first semester has gone. I equally cannot believe that at this time next year, I'll be seeing clients and doing therapy for the first time. Crazy, huh? Meanwhile, I've been having a really fun time meeting/hanging out with new friends, getting involved in some cool research projects, and memorizing the nearly the whole DSM-IV-TR. (that last one is not so fun.) The 1st semester is drawing to a close, and as far as I know, I'm passing, so that's great. Everyone's already getting geared up for applying for practicum placements at the beginning of next semester, and matching with dissertation advisors in April.

Meanwhile... the house is really starting to feel like "home" now that the holidays are almost here. Adam put up lights, we winterized the lawn, I planted bulbs for the spring... It's great to have a place to come home to and not have to feel like it's only temporary. What a blessing! We're looking forward to doing a low-key thanksgiving at our house. Then I get a a WHOLE MONTH off, which is probably the best Christmas present ever, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself. Sleep, probably. :)

Some exciting things coming soon:
January: niece Lilly turns 1!!
February: Alisha & Jeff's baby due
March: I'm going to Disney World for my sis' final national cheer competition, Chris & Michelle getting married!!!
June: My sis graduates high school!
August: TRIP TO GREECE!!!! Amy & Dave getting married!

I always feel like I should post pictures of things we've done, but we haven't really done anything worth documenting since the last post, so here's a picture of me trying to work, haha:

A recap of our first year as newlyweds.

Adam and I have officially been married a year. :) I won't lie, it has been one hell of a roller coaster ride. In most ways, our marriage was the most stable thing in both of our lives this year, and for that I am grateful. The things we have endured together this year, both joy and pain, I feel certain I, at least, could not have endured alone. Anyway, on a lighter note, I thought I would post some photo highlights from our first year as married couple....

In october, right after we got married, we went to Kauai for our honeymoon and it was the BEST VACATION EVER.



Then we came home and we got a rabbit by accident, but we named her Lucy.



After that the next exciting thing was pretty much Christmas, which we celebrated as a married couple for the first time.



We celebrated New Year's Eve in St. Martin, which was great!



In January, after we came back, we got a new niece, born on election day, named Lily Kate Johnson.



And then in February, we went skiing/snowboarding with our good friends Mollie & Martin!



After that we pretty much just hung out until May, when we became homeowners for the first time! :)


The summer was a whirlwind of vacations, family reunions, and weddings.







After that I went to grad school, which has no accompanying pictures thus far, and then the twins turned 2....



Then finally, we celebrated our first year anniversary by going to a B&B in Brown County, Mountain Biking, and eating the top of our wedding cake. :) (Which was still really delicious, by the way!)








All in all I would say it was a pretty good year, and that we're definitely looking forward to the next one. :)

A long-overdue update

Lots is going on here in the Johnson household! We've pretty much put all the home decorating and updates on hold indefinitely, since the real work has begun around here. :) Adam and I have shifted roles slightly as a new chapter of our lives is unfolding. I am now starting my third week of grad school and am officially the "student" of the household. It has been a really busy time so far, and I am getting in the groove of reading/studying/spending time with my new classmates. I guess going into this I kind of thought it would be like college on steroids, but it's really not at all. It's a totally new type of thing, and on the first day on campus we took an oath, much like the hippocratic oath. It seemed kind of silly at the time, but it really set the precedent for the fact that we are no longer students. We are doctors in training. We are being trained to assimilate vast quantities of knowledge and also to begin thinking of ourselves as doctors, to begin thinking like clinicians. One of our professors said to us on the first day, "You may feel like your professors are asking too much of you, and that every professor thinks that their class is the most important class. Well, in a way, every class is the most important class, because every class translates into patient care, and your first patient won't be a cadaver."

So that's a little bit what my transition has been like so far. And of course there's the more practical fact that in the first two weeks, I've already gone through a ream of paper and an ink cartridge. :) We're doing about 300+ pages of reading for every week, so it's a really good think I've got a study group. And we haven't even really started doing tests/assignments yet!! At least it's all interesting. :)

Adam has shifted into the role of primary breadwinner, and I will confess that this has been a bit stressful for both of us. When I quit my job, we lost about a third of our income, so he's now in charge of the finances and has been working a lot of overtime (while searching for a new job) in order to compensate. Also with my new, erratic student schedule, it's harder to find time to be together. We did get to go home this weekend for the twins b-day, spent sometime with his parents, and then went mini-golfing/go-karting today (Labor Day) so we have a little time together. Next weekend we're going to brown county for a much-needed weekend away to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. :) Also we're getting some 1-yr anniversary photos done, so look for those to come. :)

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this, but both of the birds are fully-flighted now, so that's exciting (Malcolm really enjoys testing the limits of physics and flying as close to your head as possible), and we're currently trying to match the bunny with a friend. :) We took her on a bunny date last weekend and she met Bill, who accidentally humped her head. She then attempted to claw his eyes out and came home friend-less. It was not a match. Stay tuned as we go through the rabbit version of "The Bachelorette".

The Johnson Household: Design-on-a-Dime edition

It's really hard to believe that the summer is almost over! I have orientation for school in a couple weeks, and my brother goes back to school a week from Tuesday (really early!) so I decided we should share what we've been doing all summer! Adam and I spent a lot of time apart this summer (unfortunately) while I was off doing things with my family, but when we were together, we did a lot of stuff at the house! Mostly cosmetic stuff, of course, but the house looks totally different! I thought it would be better to "show" rather than "tell", so here are the before and after shots.

The Garden
Before:


Labor Day:


Aug. 1st:


The Backyard
Before:


After:


The Living Room
Before:



After:



Kitchen
Before:


After:


Master Bed
Before:


After:


Master Bath
Before:


After:


That's the house! The office and the hall bath look pretty much the same... and I didn't take any before pictures of the guest bedroom, but it looks AWESOME and it's almost done, so stay tuned for more pictures. :)

The Great Dirt Redistribution Project

This weekend, we endeavoured to fill in the pit in our backyard with dirt, so that we could plant grass seed there. On Friday, we had 10 cubic yards of dirt dumped on our driveway, which we proceeded to take wheelbarrow-load by wheelbarrow-load back to the back yard and spread it out. It took two days, and my dad calculated that we spread about 12 tons of dirt. Ouch!

Before:


The mountain of dirt:



I'm happy because I haven't actually started doing anything yet...



The finished product!:


The after-effects of hauling 12 tons of dirt without wearing sunscreen....



So, after 2 days and 12 tons worth of dirt, we're both really sore and really sunburnt! But we got it done. Hallelujah.