Stories are Important

Three weekends ago, Kelsey and I picked up Jake and Marilyn and drove to Williamsburg to celebrate Alex and Kelly's wedding.

I can't look at the camera because safety first.

This was a big reunion for the group of friends who introduced me to Kelsey back in 2011 (and got a quasi-mention in my first blog post after meeting her.) 

Harking upon the gale just like old times.

The rehearsal dinner happened at one of the delis, where we used to eat food that was terrible for us but tasted great. The menu was the same, but since it was a rehearsal dinner it was classy.

I was a big fan of the "Norton for Mayer" buttons.

The actual day of the wedding Kelsey was busy all day doing bridesmaid things and so I flitted about Williamsburg with the significant others of the bridesmaids and groomsmen. It's still basically the same, which is a good thing to check up on every now and then.

The wedding party in front of the Alumni House.

After the wedding, the reception was held in the Alumni House. The wedding party danced in, which Kelsey hated but soldiered through admirably. 

The Best Man, Adam Cohen

The speeches from both Maid of Honor and Best Man were exceptionally good. Cohen's speech was all about stories- how they structure our lives and understandings of each other, and how they are ultimately the basis for everything important we do. By the end of his retelling of Alex and Kelly's story, Kelsey and most of the rest of the room was crying. 

Alex and Kelly listening to the speeches.

We ate, we danced, we took pictures and we celebrated with our friends.

One of aforementioned pictures.

An aforementioned picture of aforementioned celebrating.

Kelsey and the bride.

Everyone at the Leafe.

Kelsey and I shared a room with Jake and Marylin, who we are about to see again very soon when we head out to London. After we got back to our room on Saturday night I took out my contacts and put them in a cup filled with saline and placed on a high shelf, because I had forgotten my contact case. The next morning we discovered that someone (Jake) had, in the middle of the night, drank my contacts after mistaking the cup for a cup of water. It's a good thing we were going home that day. Kelsey drove. 

ACEd it & Hungry Harvest

There are a number of reasons why I decided to pursue a personal training certification. However, none of those reasons seemed good enough when I found myself with two weeks to go before the test, having not yet taken a practice test, and sure I would fail and be faced with paying another $200 dollars to retake the test. In my defense, I had not planned on starting a new job right after purchasing my study materials last summer, but there never really seemed to be a great time to hunker down and study after that. I also wasn't super motivated to study because I had no clue when I would ever apply any of the knowledge. If I could barely find time to study while working full-time, how was I going to find time to practice personal training while working full-time? So I still haven't figured out the answer to that questions, but here's the good news: I passed the test! And I actually passed by quite a bit, so I feel pretty validated in my new skillset!

It turns out I'm still pretty good at cramming, especially when it comes to multiple choice, long testing periods, and using information I have some background on. I took the ACE personal training certification test and I even have a fancy certificate and card that arrived in the mail. I'm indebted to Mike and my coworkers who put up with all of my "No, but I'm actually going to fail this test" talk. They probably now all think I was completely overreacting, but I actually did fail the practice test  and I just had to study my butt off after that! Mike also helped a lot with cooking dinner and picking me up from work when I studied late. He also didn't shame me when I watched all the Netflix instead of studying.

I mostly took the test so that I have a certification in my back pocket if I ever want to train on the side or if we end up moving somewhere, and I can't immediately find a job. Also, personal training overlaps a lot with coaching and counseling, and I love working with people one-on-one. While I don't think I'll be training actual clients anytime soon due to lack of time, I am going to try to shadow some personal trainers in the area, and I am going to try to get Mike to be my first client;)

Studying at Captain Cookie one night after work. Will study for cookies.

We celebrated me passing my test with a new sushi/ramen spot in Shirlington!

Mike and I recently signed up for this thing called Hungry Harvest. If you live in the DMV metro area, you MUST check them out!! I know I'm easily excited about things, but I'm honestly obsessed with Hungry Harvest. My co-worker actually introduced it to me after she saw them on an episode of Shark Tank (which they won on). Basically it's a business that gives produce that would otherwise be literally thrown out because it's not the right size or shape (yes, this is a thing) a new home and for every box of "recovered" food they sell, they donate a meal to a family in need. Even if you don't live in the DMV area, you should read all about their story here: http://www.hungryharvest.net/ A young 2014 UMD grad started the company, which makes me love it even more.

Here are the things I love most about our harvest boxes:

• We get a 1/2 recovered harvest box ($15) every week (we can always pause a week if we're going out of town) and we find out what we're getting on Friday by email so I can meal plan! They also offer recipe ideas with the fruits and veggies they are giving you.
• Not only has it definitely increased our fruit and veggies intake, but we have gotten to try lots of fruits and veggies I would never buy on my own. In the box below, there's a rutabaga and acorn squash which I can't ever remember having. I had to learn to cook them, and they were delicious! It's so fun learning to experiment with new foods every week, and they also try to give you foods that are in season.
• They text you when they are about to deliver AND after they deliver the box. Plus you can exchange your old box when they deliver so that they can reuse it. I've never had something wrong with my box, and sometimes I have something extra thrown in. I can't believe I've never had any issues with all the growing they've done in the past month or so.

One of our Hungry Harvest boxes! Look how pretty!

My new Fitbit!

I don't know how much we've talked about our budget on the blog, but I'm sure you can guess that because Mike is in charge of it, it's pretty complex and intense. I have a love/hate/mostlylove relationship with it. We have a bazillion different "funding categories" and I hate tracking everything I spend, but sometimes it's super sweet to be saving money for random purchases in advance, the most recent example being my new Fitbit. Over the weekend at Kelly's wedding, I saw a Fitbit that tracks your heart rate and, since I know about heart rates and health and fitness now, I instantly wanted one! Unfortunately, I'm not known for having a lot of personal fund leftovers, but I realized that this counts as technology (another fund), and we were able to get it! It tracks my steps, heart rate, tells me the time, how many flights of stairs I've climbed, wakes me up, and tells me how long I slept! Mike told me he was going to wait to decide if he wanted one after seeing if it was useful for me, but I think he's basically already decided to get one:)

And finally, this is my treat to everyone who waited so patiently for this blog post....

Has there ever been a better face ever? No, there hasn't. You're all welcome.

-Kelsey

Wetting down, Macbeth, Valentines, Food

Kelsey's top priority for the past week has been reminding me to write this post. My great achievement has been forgetting to do so. Well, tonight she is at a work event the dentist (the work event was last night when I ALMOST finished this post) and so I remembered.

First, some more pictures from my promotion ceremony:

Kelsey pinned on my bars...

They let me talk for a few minutes...

And we all shook hands and hugged.

That Thursday, we went to go see GGSS's production of Macbeth. Emily Goo was in town, so it was a true GGSS reunion.

Getting some food before the show.

The next day was my "wetting down." This is a tradition that I believe exists because everyone in my office told me it exists, and it involves me buying all of them drinks for several hours. 

Since that wasn't starting until 7PM and I finished with work around 3PM, I took the opportunity to go tour some museums. Since Kelsey wasn't with me, I got to go to the insect exhibit in the Natural History Museum. 

And then I sent her this picture. I named him Shuffles.

Then I headed on over to the bar that Dan and I had rented out (Dan promoted as well). The night was bittersweet because it was also a farewell to my first boss, Andrew. He was a big part of what made my trial rotation something I looked forward to almost every day. In court I would hand him notes - sometimes with useful things to say on them, and sometimes with quotes from movies. He would read off of both. 

Current and former Blue Team members gathered to commemorate the occasion.

Alex, Kelly, and Absi also came out!

We stayed until midnight, which is officially the latest that Kelsey and I have been at a bar in D.C. since the night we met. We are not late-night partiers and have difficulty pretending to be so.

Of course, we couldn't stop celebrating because it was also Valentine's Day weekend. So...

Brunch at Tazza Kitchen the next day.

Part of our Valentine's Day meal. We made this: http://www.eatout.co.za/recipe/jamie-olivers-skinny-carbonara-smoky-bacon-peas-almonds-basil-2/

The card I gave to Kelsey. She cries at every card so at this point I've just started getting cards that I enjoy.

For Valentine lunch we went to Daikaya. 

If you have lived your life, as I have, assuming that ramen only comes in dry packs and should be eaten only as an indicator that you can not afford anything else, then I highly recommend finding a Japanese restaurant that makes real ramen. Then order a dozen or so extra eggs, because the best part of real ramen is the soy-poached egg that sits inside it and tastes like a savory custard. 

For after-Valentines meals (I mean, we still had to eat, right?) I roasted a giant lamb something. Leg? It might have been leg. It lasted for an entire week of lunches alongside the pictured roasted potatoes that Kelsey made.

So that catches us up to mid-February. More to follow from Kelsey.

Kim visits and Mike gets promoted!

For a few days, this was what the path to our bus stop looked like. 

Hello bus stop! So close yet so far away.

So very far away.

By Wednesday, the roads were better. It's a good thing, too, because Kim came to visit!

We showed her how much Rupert liked to play Parachute Panic with bedsheets.

Brian and Kay also came over to play games! I don't remember when this happened. This post is no longer chronological but I wanted to remember this time when they came over.

Saturday we traveled down to visit with Kelsey's family. I got to have some Uncle time. For the first time, Ashton consistently remembered my name and even said "Uncle Mike" a few times. Then we popped bubble wrap for a good hour. All of the bubbles were popped after five minutes, but he seemed to think it was just as fun to continue jumping on the bubble wrap and yell "BUBBLEPOP" so that's what we did.

Sisters and Ashton at lunch.

Ashton was not a huge fan of his grilled cheese and french fries, even though they were delicious, so later he let me feed him and Mickey some plain greek yogurt. Well, I thought it was plain greek yogurt. There was fruit on the bottom. There was no discernible difference in Ashton's enjoyment between eating the plain unmixed yogurt and eating all of the fruit in the bottom at the same time. 

The label said nothing about there being fruit on the bottom. That was not my fault.

Bubblepop is a portable game.

On Sunday we went to see a show at the Shakespeare Theater. It took far too long for us to realize that those two gentlemen on the cover are the same person in two different roles.

And on Monday I promoted to Lieutenant. Kelsey was there to pin my new bars. Now everyone will expect me to know everything, which is stressful, but when I call people I can just say "This is Lieutenant Johnson" and they won't think that my first name is "J.G."

The View From Our Window

Since I made it to Rhode Island just in time for the biggest snowstorm ever last year, I figured that I might have a temperate winter this year. Nope. So here are a series of shots starting from Friday around noon and ending Saturday around three. 

Good thing we aren't planning on grilling anytime soon...

Happy 2016 and 1 Year of Marriage!

Before we get TOO far into 2016, it's necessary to stop and take some time to reflect on 2015. After all it was a big year and very good to us! We entered the year as newlyweds and ended it with our one year anniversary. I started a new job, and after Mike finished a long winter in Rhode Island he finally started his new job! I didn't want to forget all of the special blessings this year brought us, so here is me trying to capture it in a few different lists.

Traveling:

• Puerto Rico for our honeymoon (pina coladas enlightened us)
• Newport, RI while Mike was at ODS (snow mountains frightened us)
• Pawley's Island, SC for annual beach trip and lights festival (twinkle lights delighted us)
• Cumberland, Burlington, Raleigh, and Bealeton for family visits (the best North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland have to offer!)
• Abingdon, VA to see Emelie star in Anything Goes (we have many talented friends)
• Chapel Hill for Rachel's graduation (we realized that we're old)

Adult Points Won:

• Kelsey started a new job career coaching 
• Mike did real lawyer things
• Kelsey took an Amtrak for the first time
• One of Mike's coworkers did our wills and other important documents (This is actually the thing I'm probably most proud of. I obviously hate talking about death and anything requiring paperwork, so let's give Mike most of the credit for getting this done and getting me on board.)
• We paid off my school loans! (see YNAB below)
• Kelsey was in Pirates of Penzance and sang for her audition. Kelsey gets brave whenever Mike is gone. 
• We ran our first half marathon together! (Mike bled from the chafing and still immediately set his sights on a full marathon)

We also learned a lot about being married this year. Most of it is just a continuation of lessons we were already learning (with the renewed recognition that we'll be learning them the rest of our lives), but we started using a couple of pieces of software that made thigns a

• YNAB

• It stands for You Need A Budget and it is how Mike and I organized our finances once we combined them. It's software that follows the zero-dollar budgeting system and it has forced us to think carefully through our financial priorities. 

• Evernote

• Evernote makes it super easy for Mike and I to share articles, documents, and lists with each other and to hold onto them for future use. This will come in super handy when moving. I love using Evernote to meal plan and then starring the recipes we'll be using for the week so that Mike can find them easily. 

Our intentions for the New Year:

1. Getting better at meal planning! We aren't horrible. At some point when we both started working full-time, we began meal-prepping all of our lunches on Sundays. We could be a lot better, though. I want to reduce food waste, cut back on eating out, and also try new things to cook...for fun! We have so many awesome appliances to cook with, we might as well use them!
2. Taking the lead in making plans with other people (especially inviting people over to our place). Mike and I LOVE hosting our friends. However, since we've always lived in a group house environment, it can get kind of tricky to randomly have people over, especially in winter when we can't grill outside. We need to be better about planning these things in advance and taking the lead on hosting friends for parties or group evenings out. Although I generally hate learning new games, I like games once I've learned them, and I love our friends...so we're thinking of more game nights or trivia nights and Game of Thrones watching parties in our future!

Here's to a brand new year (of marriage)!

We loved ringing in the New Year with Brian and Kay....who are practically neighbors with us now!

Every Day is a Holiday

Kelsey is going to post a year-in-review sometime shortly after the New Year. At least, now she is, since I wrote that she was going to. I subscribe to the "if you build it they will come" mentality.

For the past month and a half we have been in full-on holiday mode. Thanksgiving potlucks, Christmas potlucks, work parties, friend parties, anniversary celebrations, Star Wars viewings, family gatherings in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina.... I know, poor us. 

1789 found a table for us right where we said our vows.

They are very nice to us.

Bet you can absolutely guess which one we wrapped.

Kelsey let me try it once. I just put a whole gift in a Trader Joe's bag and stapled it shut. Apparently that is not the appropriate method. 

Kelsey's Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary Present Story

I have been waiting to tell this story because of the extent to which I wrested a great surprise from the ashes of abject defeat. I got Kelsey a number of small gifts for her birthday/Christmas/anniversary this year. I was told that I was not allowed to get her just one gift for all three, so I diversified and I think I did pretty well. For her real gift, though, I wanted to get her tickets to see Adele. Kelsey loves Adele, Adele just put out a new album, and Adele rarely goes on tour. I thought it was very fortunate, then, that Adele announced a tour that was coming to DC next October. Tickets went on sale on the 17th, and so I put a reminder in my calendar to get the tickets. 

A few days before the 17th, I realized that I would probably not get Adele tickets just by trying to call the ticket line on the 17th. I was not a math major, but I had a feeling that the tickets were going to sell out instantly. Also, I would be at work, so I shouldn't be on the phone trying to buy tickets anyway. My solution was to use the Amex concierge service for the first time ever. I called them up, asked them to buy tickets for me, and they took my seating preferences. They made it so easy to spend money, which is exactly why the concierge service exists. This was going to be a huge Christmasbirthversary surprise and Kelsey would have no idea that it was coming! She didn't even know that Adele was going on tour, as far as I knew.

So far so good, right? On the night of the 16th, I was telling Kelsey that I potentially had a great present for her. She told me that she thought she might already know, and I scoffed at the idea. Maybe she knew what was in the stapled Trader Joe's bag (it was a puzzle), but that was it.

"You know what is in the Trader Joe's bag, don't you?" I said.

"No.... but.... check your calendar." It took me about five seconds to realize that when I had posted a reminder to myself to purchase Adele tickets, that reminder had also gone to Kelsey because we are married and share electronic calendars or some stupid thing like that. I immediately crumbled in shame and despair that I had made such a rookie mistake.

That's the last time I plan anything.

So I told her about the concierge service and how they were going to try and get tickets for us, and she was very happy about the possibility of seeing Adele and tried to pretend like it was no big deal that she found out early. 

On the 17th, I saw online that everyone was freaking out about how quickly the Adele concerts had sold out, but later that day Amex let me know that they had successfully gotten me two tickets to the concert in my first-choice seating area. Hooray for the concierge service, but I was still bummed that it wouldn't be a surprise.

But then....

I did exactly this.

And I called the concierge service back one more time, thanking them for securing the tickets and asking if they could do me a favor that was sort of off-the-books.

Which I then sent to Kelsey, who was sad but understanding.

And then I said nothing about Adele at all until yesterday, when I told Kelsey that I had a belated Christmas/early birthday present for her and showed her our seats. Kelsey then buried her head under a pillow and cried for five minutes because this is the same woman who cried when I gave her a DVD of Tim Allen's "The Santa Clause" a few years ago. At the end of it all, I am no longer the worst at surprises.

So now we are looking forward to DC settling down for its long winter's nap. The weather has not been cooperating so far, but I have no doubt that we will have a January or February snowpocalypse of at least a half inch of snow. More than enough to shut down DC, at least. We wish everyone a safe and happy New Year!