My funny valentine

I always feel like Valentine's Day is really only acknowledged by two groups of people: Those who are single and feel like everyone else is having the greatest day of thier life, and those who are in a new relationship and really are having the greatest day of thier life. For the rest of us, it's pretty much just an ordinary day. :) But nonetheless, not focusing on valentine's day too much this year made it probably the greatest valentine's day of my life thus far, so here's a rundown of our celebration:

Adam and I have almost never celebrated valentine's day ON valentines day, as a result of the fact that he usually has to work and we both feel like it's just another stupid day anyway. But we do usually use it as an excuse to have an extra-special date night somewhere around Feb. 14th. This year we celebrated by getting couple's massages on Thursday, which was the BEST PRESENT EVER. I suprised Adam with it, but next year we decided to forego the suprise and just make it a tradition. He brought me flowers on Monday and Thursday of this week, so that was lovely :) and on Wednesday I got my real valentine's present, which was a Fruedian magic 8 ball. :) I love it! We also went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.

The rest of the weekend Adam pretty had to work, but on Friday night I made the most fattening and delicious homemade alfredo sauce, and on Saturday morning some friends and I went to the Indianapolis Winter Farmer's market, which I highly recommend for good bread, tea, and meats! (Not too much produce this time of year, but still a good time.) My favorite part was the highly pissed off rabbit sitting in a cage who's feces were being sold as plant fertilizer.

Saturday night was the Brazilian Carnival adventure-- we went to The Jazz Kitchen in BR for their celebration of Carnival. It was SUPER PACKED. Nonetheless we drank some traditional Brazilian drinks and danced to what appeared to be a soccer team playing in a drum circle. At some point a creepy Brazilian guy started dancing with me, and me being totally naive and unfamiliar with the culture of clubs or Carnival, thought he was just being nice. Of course, before too long he started trying to kiss me, which I akwardly avoided. Then he said "kiss me" and I said, "No! I'm married!" and he said "It's okay, I'm engaged!" and then I ran for the hills. Everyone (including Adam) thought this was hilarious except me.

On actual V-day, my friend Mollie came down, and we ended up meeting Adam after work and my dad at The Claddaugh on the northside, which was nearly deserted. I had the best time drinking beers and laughing it up with good friends and family, and eating the best comfort food in Indianapolis, in my humble opinion. With the olypics on in the background, ridiculous 90s romance music (Think Kaci & Jojo's "All My Life") and hilarious stories going all around, I couldn't have asked for a better (yet unromantic) Valentine's Day. :)

New Office!

So, we finally got around to redoing the office!! We had been meaning to do it for a while, ever since the rabbit started eating huge holes in the carpet in there. It was necessary to put new flooring down. We finally got our new home buyer tax credit, so we bought some high-end laminate flooring. Since I also happened to be on break, I repainted the room. Adam put down the floors ALL BY HIMSELF, and redid all the trim too. :) So now I have a new office for the new semester. If I do say so myself, it looks great! Here are the before and after pictures:

Before:




After:



I love my husband!! And I love my new office!! :)

We made it 2010.

There comes a time in which the circumstances in your life seem so impossible and unpleasant that it becomes difficult to update blogs/send letters/tell others how you are doing. This is that time.

This is the blog entry to let you all know that we are still alive, that Christmas was bearable but not notable, and that the house has not burned down or been consumed by the rabbit (yet).

Better updates to come in 2010. I hope.

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".