Aloha!

Happy New Year everyone!  2013 was a year of some major change and excitement in our lives and as cliche as it sounds, I'm really not sure how 2014 is going to top it, but we're ready and waiting with open arms!  The completion of Paul's grad school classes, my new job, and of course our wedding and the weddings of some of our very closest friends and family were our major hi-lights of the year.  We ended 2013 with a delayed week-long honeymoon to Hawaii and had an absolutely amazing time.  Since I want to be able to re-read this for years to come and remember our vacation I'm going to split it into a few {probably very long} posts.  So, you're stuck with Hawaii memories for the next few posts.  Try not to hate us as the temperature in Wisconsin hovers slightly above and mostly below zero!

So, here it goes.  Hawaii trip part 1.  We left on a Monday and though we didn't have to leave the house until 5:30 at the very latest I was wide awake at 2:30.  Talk about a long day. Paul's aunt and uncle gave us the great idea to take a picture next to the sign at the bank that displays the temperature.  We both decided that 14 degrees was too darn cold to get out of the car that early in the morning.  Little did we know it would be even colder when we got home!

Without shame I pulled out the "We're on our honeymoon are there any upgrades you can give us?" line at the check-in counter.  The lady laughed at me and said that no, that doesn't actually happen in real life.  Bummer.  Our flights to Hawaii went absolutely perfectly.  Everything was on time which is almost unheard of whenever I travel.  Our only issue happened in Madison as we were hardly even through security when Paul realized he had lost 2 of his 3 boarding passes.  I'd just like to point out that this was after I offered to put them in my purse for safe keeping not even 5 minutes earlier.  He was confident he could keep track of them without any problems...famous last words.  No worries, we found them and were on our way.  We flew to Chicago, then to Honolulu, and finally to Kona.

We arrived at night once it was already dark which was kind of a bummer.  Neither of us were expecting it to get dark so early and we were both tired and kind of crabby at that point so the lack of ocean view didn't help.  Then we started driving down the hi-way with the glowing yellow street lights.  My husband is color blind.  Yellow lights are not helpful.  I seriously thought we were going to crash as he was telling me over and over that he really couldn't see very well.  I was in charge of giving directions to turn onto streets that I couldn't pronounce.  So, I made them up.  Made total sense to me!  Paul on the other hand was NOT amused.  Apparently Khaki, Kiwi, and Queen Latifah are NOT the same as Kuakini, Kaiwi, and Queen Kaahumanu.  My bad.

Tuesday was brew day.  We went to the Kona Brewing Company for a tour and lunch.  Fun fact - any Kona beer that you drink from a bottle is actually bottled on the mainland, not on the island.  

After the brewery we went to the Greenwell Coffee Farm.  It turns out there's A LOT of work that goes into making coffee.  Definitely not a job I'd want.  The lady giving the tour made a point to tell us that they get snow in Hawaii after we told her we're from Wisconsin.  This is something they're pretty proud of since we heard that fact multiple times on our trip.  Paul and I just secretly laughed each time they'd tell us they get up to 12 inches a year at the top of just one mountain and it all melts within an hour.  Sorry Hawaii, you don't know what snow is.

Original coffee bean tree on the farm

Pointsettia TREES

We spent a good majority of the afternoon planning out the rest of our week then went to Huggo's on the Rocks for dinner.  It was a restaurant that faced the ocean and most of the seating was in beach chairs in the sand.  My kind of dining!  We saw a whale jumping out of the ocean and though we only saw its tail, it was still pretty awesome.

Friends-Giving

Happy December!  We hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  We were lucky enough to spend our day with both of our families.  Double the turkey double the fun!  

We've had a weekend full of fun with friends and had an absolute blast.  We spend Friday with PT friends at a Pat McCurdy show.  Some friends that have been away from Madison for their clinical placements were there so it was great to catch up with them.  

Yesterday some of our friends came to town for Friends-Giving.  These girls were my roommates in college, some of my bridesmaids, and know WAY too much about me to ever stop being friends!  HA!  We managed to cook one of the most sophisticated meals the four of us have eaten together.  We've come a long way from Topper Sticks and Chips and Salsa!  Though let's be honest, I'd totally eat chips and salsa every day if we had a Chili's in Verona.

We decided to include ugly sweaters in our plans.  Apparently Paul and I took this a little more seriously than everyone else did.  I wish I had taken a picture of the looks on their faces when we walked out wearing our fancy outfits.  Priceless.  It's hard to tell in the picture but even Millie was decked out in her ugly hat!

No ugly sweater party is complete without photo props.  Notice that 2 of 4 of us missed the sweater memo.  Step it next year, ladies!  Cameraman Paul even did some fancy camera work to include the frame prop in our photos!

I got our tree today while Paul was at work and managed to get in in the house and set up ALL BY MYSELF!  I was pretty proud.  I think he was just thankful to avoid the "The tree's about to tip over, turn it around, no turn it back the other way." battle.  As a continuation of the handy camera work in celebration of our first Christmas while married we took some pictures of our rings with our tree.  Can you tell my ring hasn't been cleaned since our wedding?!?!?  Yikes!

Happy December!

This One's For You, Kayla!

We were at a friend's house watching the Packer game last week when one of the friends there quickly turned to me and said, "Hey!  You haven't had a blog post lately!  How am I supposed to keep up with what's going on with you and Paul?"  So Kayla, this one's for you!

Let's see, we need to rewind a bit.  October came and went in a quick hurry.  We didn't even carve pumpkins like we normally do but instead stuck Mr. Potato Head like pieces in one pumpkin and I quickly carved a moon into the pumpkin I used at school for a couple of lessons.  We did manage to attend a costume party for a friend's birthday.  Me as a Minion and Paul in his {supposedly couple's costume} banana outfit.  Apparently a Minion was the way to go this year since my kids at school are still talking about my costume!

November is slipping by as quickly as October did.  We celebrated Paul's 27th birthday with friends and family and had a great time.  He is about 1/2 what through his second clinical and only a few short months away from graduation!  We've managed to sneak in a couple of family game nights of course with our faithful fur ball nearby.  She'd hate to miss out on the fun!

Last weekend my mom, brother, and sister were out of town at a cattle show.  Anyone who knows our family well knows that if mom's not home, dad doesn't eat.  Well, not more than eggs, cereal, and left overs at least.  So, in exchange for fixing our toilet and my pencil sharpener we had dad over for supper.  Again, with the faithful fur ball nearby.

When we were watching the Packer game last weekend Kayla mentioned that in addition to knowing what's going on with Paul and I she can also use our blog to keep up on the latest Millie stories.  And of course, no blog post would be complete without one!  Let's go back to that dinner with dad.  I bought a bag of rolls to go with dinner and at the time we left for the Packer game the next day there were EIGHT rolls left.  Let's just examine the "crime scene" I found when we returned home:

Ok, I'm sure you saw where this was going.  We came home to find an EMPTY roll bag on the kitchen floor.  We instantly turned to Millie and honestly, laughed about how she ate EIGHT rolls in just a couple of hours.  And managed not to choke on the bag.  However, did you see this turn of events?

That's right, when I walked into the bedroom I found just one lonely roll on our bed.  Upon closer inspection...

...I realized that no, Paul didn't leave it there for a late night snack {kidding, though how thoughtful that would have been!}  No, our chunk-o-saurus dog was too full to eat the last roll and instead left it for later.  When I started laughing and called Paul into the room to look at it she jumped on the bed and just stared as if to say "Sorry mom, I just couldn't eat the last one, but it still looks really tasty!"  So, for the rest of the night our chunky monkey laid around looking like a kid who ate too much turkey on Thanksgiving.  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We have many things to be thankful for this year and are glad we can spend our holidays surrounded by friends and family.  Oh and Kayla, don't worry - I didn't delete you from Facebook for stalking us!  :)

That Time We Went Camping

Alright, this story is long overdue.  The week before Labor Day we realized we had yet to use the camping gear we bought after the wedding with our registry discount.  The thought at the time was that if we didn't buy it, we'd never go.  Turns out we bought the stuff, and still hadn't gone.  So, in true Paul and Julie fashion we decided Monday to go camping on Wednesday.  No big deal since we didn't plan to go too far.

Wednesday arrived, I headed to school, and promised to be home by lunch.  Paul spent the morning packing the car and the cooler.  Not only packing, but preparing food, drinks, and more food.  It was fantastic.  I swear we had enough stuff to eat for a week.  

And then we stopped at A&W.  You can't drive by without stopping.  :)  Let's not forget that the day we went camping was one of the few super hot days of summer.  That's key to this story.  We set up our campsite, went on a short hike, took Millie swimming, and took a nap.  We slept in the tent.  That's also key to the story.

By this time it was about 4:00 and boredom was starting to set in.  We (mostly Paul) don't do well with boredom.  And for as bored as we were the dog was equally as unsettled by all of the noises and people going by.  We were spending most of our time trying to keep her from barking and were worried about the night ahead.  We made dinner, went to the camp store to buy an extra bag of wood thinking we'd run out, and made plans for s'mores and campfire games.  Around 8:00 Paul mentioned his idea - if we were still awake at midnight we should go home.  My response - Why are we waiting for midnight?  Enter: ATTACK of the mosquitos.  We instantly became a bug buffet.  So, pack it up we did.  And were home by 9:30 with the thermostat in the car telling us it was well over 85 degrees out still.  Ick.  But, we DID sleep in the tent.  It totally counts as camping!

Now our entertainment consists of staying inside and playing Princess, Hunter, Beast.  It's kind of like rock, paper, scissors except Paul insists we stand facing opposite directions then jumping around to show...

Beast

Hunter

and Princess

Princess wins over Hunter, Hunter kills Beast, and Beast eats Princess.  Unless you play by my rules.  Then Dragon wins over all.  Don't worry, we'll make it through a full night of camping some night!

Exhausted

Dishes are piling on the counter.

The mail hasn't been sorted through in days.

Laundry hasn't been done in 3 weeks.

The weeds outside are growing taller than I am.

All signs point to....the start of the school year.  And this girl is absolutely exhausted.  I LOVE my job and wouldn't trade it for the world.  But, I put every ounce of energy into my day starting the minute I walk in the door.  So, in my classroom?  There's no laundry, dishes, or weeds.  All of my notes, papers, and projects are neatly organized and put away.  I can't stand it when my classroom's a mess.  Not to mention all of the teaching and learning that goes on during the day.  Our house on the other hand takes a quick turn towards trashed alley.  It's get cleaned up...later.  

I'm not complaining or asking for pity.  I promise.  It's just what's real right now so I'm sharing.  And warning you to stay away because under no circumstances am I allowing anyone in our house right now.  To those of you that have a key - you've been warned.

The end of the summer absolutely flew by.  I have no idea where August went other than most of it was spent at school at all hours of the day and when not there then in our newly created home office working on school items.  Time for a story.  When we got Millie we bought her a lion.  His name is Leo.  She has slept with him in her cage every night since the day we brought her home.  I started to get worried that if we ever lost Leo or he became broken we'd be in trouble.  So I bought another one.  And then another.  She now has 3 Leos that rotate their way into her nightly bedtime routine.  {And a few more stashed in the closet.  I'm a loving and prepared doggy-mommy.}  Ironically enough Leo is the only toy she has never purposefully chewed up.  Apparently all of these extras aren't necessary.  

So, to my point.  All of my back to school planning in August totally put a stop to Millie's daily routine of snuggles, walks, and belly rubs.  And, she totally let me know she was missing out.  While working one day I found this little friend in my tub of school work...

I also received many of these "What in the Hello Kitty are you doing staring at the

computer so much for?" looks...

Before school started and Paul started his first clinical we snuck in a few goodbye parties for PT school friends, campfires, an outdoor movie, and the Taste of Madison.  Last weekend we made our last trip of the summer to Appleton for Brittni and Scott's wedding.  We had SO MUCH FUN.  My voice is still hoarse from singing over the band {and the first week of school and my new-school-germs-cold.}  Unfortunately we never took a picture of our dressed up selves, but I do have this fantastic picture of us girls getting ready.

This summer has by far been our most favorite ever.  We had so much fun and made more memories than we ever could have imagined.  Though we're sad to see it go we're excited for what the rest of the year will bring and are happy to have a bit more of a regular routine, as crazy as it may be, back in our lives.  So for now we'll look forward to changing leaves, pumpkins, and cooler days and night.  Oh, and Thanksgiving.  I saw a Thanksgiving related recipe on Pinterest today and am totally craving Thanksgiving food.  And the best news of recent shopping adventures?  Candy pumpkins are back in stores.  I may have eaten an entire bag already.  They are my absolute favorite fall candy.