Tis the Season/Reminiscing

Well, happy post-holidays to everyone! Amazing, another year has flown by. I have been off of school the last week and we have had a very mellow and laid-back holiday week. We had a wonderful little Christmas on our own complete with a small Christmas bush and gifts from our families. We spoiled ourselves and ate homemade bread, soup, chocolate cake and eggnog for 2 days.

We have spent much of this break taking advantage of one of our Christmas gifts-a six month subscription to Netflix. We have utilized the "watch instantly" feature of the subscription (where you can watch the movies online and on demand-we watch everything on our computer anyway since we have no TV, so doesn't bother us much). We spent all of Christmas evening and the next day watching episodes of "The Office" from season 2 on; we finished season 5 yesterday. Don't even tell me how many hours that is...I haven't quite decided yet if the subscription is a good or a bad thing...

Other than escaping to the world of Dunder Mifflin, I have spent a fair amount of time studying for school this week. It has been a bit overwhelming. Our first major test is a week from tomorrow and the sheer amount of information we are responsible for is mind boggling. I think the next month and half is the most intense portion of the course; I know I will make it through just fine. Although I have done my fair share of school and studying, I am finding this to be a different experience because the way I am used to studying is with the primary focus of passing a test or getting a good grade (and learning some). However, with this, I desperately want to actually KNOW all the information upside down and backwards (and backside up and frontwards) because it will only make me a better massage therapist. Basically, I know I could pass the test without knowing everything in this way, but don't want to settle for that. This is a very good thing, but it is interesting to balance this desire with the need to pass the test (with so much info, not everything can be reviewed in detail); basically it means I will be studying after the test too...it's a different feeling as far as school goes, but makes me feel really good about what I am doing.

We rang in the new year on our own with a bottle of wine and chocolate chip cookies-what a contrast to where we were last year in downtown Sydney! We have been thinking back to a year ago quite frequently. It was the second of January last year that we took the L90 into Sydney and visited the Office of Births and Deaths to find out more about the logistics of being married in Australia. Over lunch at a Vietnamese cafe we decided to sign up and get married in one month and a day (the legal time required in Oz). One of the craziest, hardest, easiest, best, and most unexpected decisions I have made in my life up to this point!

2009 was a year of change and craziness. period. In brief:

January: In Oz with Noah at Kristen's house; bought a wedding dress; went on a roadtrip up the Australian coast.

February: Got married on the third in Sydney!! Flew home (finally) 7 days later, moved into mom and dad's basement with Noah. We started re-painting/cleaning up rental house to move into.

March: Started working the Junior Jazz program in Driggs (Noah ran the clock, I reffed); moved out of the basement into our own house; had a reception in Driggs with friends and family from close and far (thanks again mom and dad!!)

April: Submitted Noah's immigration paperwork to USCIS; completed a spring cleanse; took a 1 week vacation to Las Vegas with my parents; started working at Teton Valley Health Care.

May: Traveled to Walla Walla for my sister's graduation; turned a quarter of a century old; sat through several meetings of the TVHC hospital board...

June: Met my mother in-law and aunt in-law for the first time when them came to visit Driggs (thanks for coming mum and Auntee Gail!); Noah received his work permit and our interview date for his green card; managed to persevere through June snowstorms with frequent trips to the driving range when the weather lifted.

July: Passed our permanent residency interview!! Noah gets his green card!

August: Attend a Hansen family reunion in Leavenworth, WA and roadtriped all the way down the coast to the Bay area and home again with Noah over a 12 day period.

September: Visit Noah's friend in Albuquerque along with Santa Fe, Taos and the surrounding area; apply to massage school at CFMNH in Asheville; get accepted and decide to move.

October: Give 4 week notice at TVHC; visit Noah's family in London, ON for a long weekend over Canadian Thanksgiving (I get to meet nearly everyone for the first time!); begin training my replacement at work only to have her quite after 1 1/2 weeks; start packing; rent a house in NC.

November: Train a new replacement in 1 week; last day of work!! Ship all of our stuff out to NC; drive across the country to our new home; start massage school on the 31st of the month.

December: Survive Winter Storm 2009; start settling into our house; Christmas & New Years....

What a year! Thank you for all those who were a part of it! We would not be where we are now if it weren't for all the love, support and help we have received over the last several months from everyone we know. May 2010 be just as wonderful.