Week 52: One Year

Well here we are, one year of marriage! Seems crazy we've been married this long, but it also seems like it's only been a month! The past year has been hectic, we have been able to face some controversy, jump some hurdles, go on some adventures and really figure out who we are as a family!

After our wedding we went on our secret honeymoon to Gatlinberg and Pigeon Forge, which was a fantastic trip, then we went back to Wapak and started real life. Our honeymoon was a ton of fun and it was only made more fun by the fact that no one knew where we were. It was our little secret and, after being the center of attention for the day, we both needed some time to just be away from other humans. We drove home on Jonathan's birthday, got pizza and opened gifts in our apartment. It was such a fun day just enjoying home together. 

August was a good month, we got involved in a small group at our church there and they were a HUGE blessing in our lives. It was a place to be vulnerable about anything and everything and they quickly became some of our most favorite people on the planet. We also got to go to camp Friedenswald, in Michigan, with Jonathan's maternal side of the family, which is always a good time. It is a weekend with family we don't get the opportunity to see very frequently, so we enjoy every minute of it.

Every month I had a new rotation to go to since I was finishing up my last year of school. This was a bit of a challenge considering the fact that change is hard and new jobs are hard, so changing to a new job every month is kind of hard! September was one of the hard months. I was an hour away from my rotation, I did not enjoy it and felt like I was mainly just wasting my time. It was especially annoying because I absolutely ADORED my June and August rotations. First disappointment, which is always tough. So September was a little bit long, but we got through it. It wasn't super exciting, we just hung out and kept recuperating every weekend from the week before. We did take a trip home for Labor day weekend. It was short and came with some challenges, but we went to a festival with my parents and then got to go square dancing at the Stark County fair - a Haas family tradition of sorts. 

October was a pretty great month. My rotation was awesome, the only hospital I enjoyed working at. We went on a super fun framily vacation to Holland, Michigan, so see Shem with the Haas family, Prusias and Kyle. It was such a fun time, my preceptor was amazing and allowed me to have the day off to travel, we just had a great time. Even better - we got our Christmas shopping for Jonathan's sisters done while we were up there! For Halloween we participated in trunk and treat with our small group. We were Winnie the Pooh and company. Jonathan was Christopher Robin and I was Piglet. I ordered a super cute costume, which was a great plan, it arrived the day AFTER the event, so that was disappointing, but we made do and kids still recognized me as Piglet, so all was well.

November was a good month, I was back at the same place I did my August rotation, so I knew it would be fun. The holidays started, we ran our first 5K together on Thanksgiving morning in Pennsylvania, then we came home and had thanksgiving with the Haas family in the evening. Friday we went to the Landis' for a post-Thanksgiving celebration and spent the remainder of the weekend there. It was a great weekend full of food and family - two of our favorite things!

December seems like it was just a crazy mess! I was off work, so I studied a lot and enjoyed being able to make dinner. Most of the days I was in my pajamas all day long, but I would always put real clothes on so Jonathan couldn't tell that was the case. Jonathan started having stuff to do at work during this time, which was nice, but also a bit of a challenge since I was finally able to relax a little bit! We did our first Christmas together and I am so glad we waited to do that until we were married because I don't know if we would have continued with the plan if we had! 7 Christmas celebrations is a lot and it isn't super totally enjoyable all the time. For our Christmas, we spent 15 hours on the road, which doesn't seem like a lot to most people - but it was a bit excessive for us. Our own Christmas celebration was probably our favorite. Jonathan took the day before we had to leave for Indiana off and we pretended it was Christmas. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do everything we wanted since Spectrum turned our wifi off and gave it to our neighbors instead, but we still made the most of it! Opening gifts, watching movies, playing games, it was a fantastic first Christmas. Then the hectic craziness began! We went to Indiana for his maternal family Christmas, then we went back to the Landis house until Christmas day, we celebrated Chirstmas morning (which turned into Christmas afternoon) at their house, then in the evening we went to the Dickerhoof family Christmas with my mom's side of the family. On the 26th we had our Haas family Christmas just with my immediate family, which was a wonderful and relaxing day! We took two trips back for Jonathan's Landis family Christmas and the "big" Haas family Christmas was in there as well, I kind of forget how all of that went! New years eve we hung out with the Dickerhoof family at our house and got to spend lots of time with them, which was a lot of fun. 

Before we left home, we celebrated my birthday on the 1st, then headed back to Wapak. I love being home, so getting home on my birthday was wonderful. The next day it was back to real life. My rotation started and Jonathan went back to work. It was a pretty boring rotation month for me, I didn't enjoy it much, but we got through it. We had a lot of ice and snow, so that was a challenge, but it went okay. January was also the month that I signed with Drug Mart as a floater after graduation, so we finally knew where I was going to be, but it was the beginning of a lot of other changes.

February was a quick month, as usual, and probably provided me with the worst weather to drive in, period. We got through it and had a good month, but I don't remember doing a whole lot...to be honest. We started looking at places to live and tried to figure out where to move to, but didn't feel a whole lot of pressure.

March was insane, to be honest. I cried most days because I was miserable at my rotation site, Jonathan dealt with that so well and was really supportive, but we were both ready for the month to be over. Thankfully, we did have some pretty great weekends. One weekend we went home, looked at an apartment and got to help with maple syrup, which is always an awesome time with the Landis family. Another weekend we went to Chicago to see Dustin and Sara. It was such a great weekend and definitely helped keep our minds off of how rough of a month it was. The next weekend we came home to look at the apartment we now live in, so that took a lot of stress off for sure! Even though we didn't intend to live in Minerva, it is the perfect place for us to be right now, that is for sure.

April was a great month rotation wise, and it seemed to fly by. We were getting ready to move, figuring out what Jonathan was going to do for work and just trying to get our lives somewhat together. Fortunately, Jonathan's company loves him a lot, like everyone does, and wanted to keep him. Our duplex has plenty of space and allows for him to work from home, which has been amazing. We are so blessed to have this opportunity and it has allowed this transition to go really well! At the end of April, we moved back to Minerva and started to adjust to life back here.

May was crazy too, I had graduation and signing papers with Drug Mart. We made a few trips back to the other side of Ohio, but it was all a really good way to not have to say goodbye all at once. The last few weeks of May I started working as a grad intern and Jonathan really dug into working at home.

June has been a continuation of May, just lots of studying, working, family get togethers and quite a few weddings. It has been crazy recently and I am sorry we haven't been more active, but trust me, it is coming. July has been a crazy time as well and we are really excited to have more time here soon. Lots of studying for tests and trying to become a real pharmacist, but we are getting there. Just this week we finished reading the Bible in a year, which is something we started on our honeymoon. It was a fantastic way to spend our first year of marriage and I am so glad we did it, but it took some time, that's for sure! We have had a lot of support from a lot of people this past year and we are so thankful for those of you who have supported our marriage and encouraged us through this new phase of life. It has been a great year and we can't wait to see what the future holds! We love you all and will do our best to be better at keeping you in the loop!

Love,

Alli and Jonathan