Our 2012 Christmas Card

I'll admit I'm not on the top of my game for Christmas. I decorated our apartment in a frenzy upon returning to the States 15 days before Christmas, but you won't be receiving a Christmas card from the Dahls for their first married Christmas and you definitely won't be seeing us hosting a Christmas party. But it's okay because I'm back in America and I'm soaking up a lot of relaxing time at home with my husband and close friends. In my home. Eating a lot of cookies. So here is our own Christmas card of sorts, with a recap of my/our 2012:

2012 has been perfect in so many ways, yet I have never been so s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d as I was this year. And there were LOTS of big milestones hit!! Shall we look at the highlights?

1. Foot surgery happened at the end of 2011, but I kicked off the first few minutes of 2012 by attempting to play Just Dance in my parents' living room in my awesome post-op shoes. It was interesting. My new walking skills were compared to those of a stork, baby fawn, and a one-year-old child. Needless to say, we grew as a soon-to-be-married couple when he carried me to the bathroom and washed my hair for me. How cute. One year later, I have beautifully scarred and bunion-less feet!

2. With the wedding coming up, I spent all of my free time creating wedding things and attending bridal showers. I have sweet friends! When I wasn't doing schoolwork, my days were consumed with creating boutonnieres and finding the right clothes for the bridal party. David helped eat shower food and nod his head in approval of every item we registered for. Actually, that last part isn't 100% true. Woohoo for wedding planning!

3. Big Milestone #1: Renting our first home. One week before the wedding, we moved into the most PRECIOUS townhouse apartment in Louisville. I love love love our first home; it has been a huge joy to spend our first year of marriage in this area!

4. Big Milestone #2: Marriage. On May 19, I married my best friend and promised to love him forever. It has only gotten better since then, and I'm oh-so-thankful for a husband who has grown and matured in 7 months SO much more than I ever could have anticipated. The love fern we planted on that first day of marriage is still thriving in our living room, even though D didn't water it for the entire month I was out of the country... even so, the fern thrives!!! What does that tell you about our AWESOME marriage?! We also went on a honeymoon to Jamaica, where we stuffed ourselves with good food and slept like there was no tomorrow. Weddings are exhausting.

5. With our wedding over, it was time to get ready for another family matrimony! David's sister Jamie got married to sweet Blake in August. We went to lots of weddings for friends this year, but this one was definitely the most special. I loved getting to meet many of David's family members and spend some time getting to know them. And now, even more exciting news... we will be aunt and uncle to sweet little Brantley in May!! We're so excited for the Harwoods!!!

7. Big Milestone #3: Student teaching. D worked full-time (and usually overtime) at his job so that I would be able to do student teaching without worrying about working. That man is a GEM. Student teaching was a precious experience that confirmed for me what the Lord has created me to do. I loved teaching those 1st and 3rd graders, but it certainly kept me busy! Through my students, I learned to see the gifts that God truly has placed in each individual person that could uniquely give Him glory. I learned to embrace the gifts He has given me so that I can serve Him in the best way I know how. One artistically-gifted child chose to depict me on a unicorn, riding on a rainbow, as a departing gift for me... how ironic.

8. The last month of my student teaching was spent in Quito, Ecuador. I worked with a kinder class and a wonderful teacher in a K-12 bilingual (ish) school. D was such a trooper for letting me go on this trip that I had planned for since sophomore year of college, and I am so thankful!! This month was a strengthener in our marriage and an affirmation that we definitely work better together than apart.

9. Big Milestone #4: Graduation! Less than a week after returning to the States, we graduated from college! This is a photo of the other student teacher at my elementary school. It was so sweet to graduate with each of the people who worked so hard with me to complete each semester. I'm thankful for WKU and all that it has meant to me over the past 4 1/2 years. I've got prospects for teaching jobs in the future, but I'll share more when things are more definite!

That's our 2012 in review. It was a big year for us with a LOT of changes... but we are looking forward to 2013 with big expectations and lots of hope! Merry Christmas :)

Love,

The Dahls

Recovery

I've been called everything from a stork to a skiier, but in most recent news I was able to hobble into my friend Annie's house this morning without a wheelchair! I'm becoming so independent and self-sufficient. This past week has taught me many things:

1. Being a toddler isn't so easy. I ran into a lot of people while shopping this week because I couldn't see them while sitting low to the ground in my wheelchair.

2. Being old isn't so easy. Relying on others (read: David) to throw me over their shoulders and carry me up & down stairs or to wash my hair, or feeling pain with every movement (even when trying to sleep) isn't too fun. I don't like walking to a staircase and praying that there are handrails. I feel for the old folks.

3. I will never be a good couch potato or lazy person, because sitting on a couch for an entire week left me with a numb rear and antsy appendages! I was so ready to start walking around again, and I got tired of watching TV after Day 2. However, this has provided ample time to get excited about wedding planning, and I am LOVING that!

4. Being entirely helpless teaches a lot of humility and patience. I must be patient when my dearheart brother doesn't listen to a word I'm saying about directions when maneuvering my wheelchair around WalMart. I must be patient when I have to go to the bathroom at 3 a.m. and must wait for my precious mother to get my text and come downstairs to push me in the swivel chair to the bathroom before I burst. I become humble when I beg for someone to hand me my ringing phone that is just out of arm's reach, but I can't quite grab it. I become really humble when my friends come to visit and I haven't bathed or looked at a mirror in 4 days. Initially, it's kind of nice to be "bossy," but after a week of begging people in the kitchen to bring you something that is one foot away from you in the living room... it gets a little old.

Today, I reached the milestone of texting & walking at the same time... multitasking!! Who knows where the coming weeks will lead me  :)

[caption id="attachment_447" align="aligncenter" width="284" caption="Washing my hair while keeping my feet dry demanded bucket-bathing skills from Africa :)"][/caption]

Finals and Foot Surgery

It's 5 a.m., and I'm sitting here on the couch at home waiting for my drowsy pain meds to kick in. Finals week ended for me on Monday night in a flurry of packing, pacing, and cramming for the last English final of the semester. I rang in Christmas Break with foot surgery on both of my feet to straighten out the bunions on my big toes. I'd like to clarify for the world that my bunions are structural and hereditary issues- not those naaaasty callouses that form as a result of wearing heels one too many times. This chick doesn't even like to wear heels. In fact, I don't really even like feet.

This awesome man has been a champ- he's watched me be way too giggly before surgery, when I almost answered the anesthesiologist's question of "is there anything that hinders you from doing anything physically?" by saying "well, I can't fly, if that's what you mean." (it was a lot funnier when I was on pain meds) He's watched me cry way too much and mope way too much and demand for him to drag me around the house/bring me things. He's the bomb.PS- I don't have any recollection of this being taken. All I remember is that they played Justin Timberlake in the surgery room.

It's been quite a week. I hardly remember now the blur of a week I just had studying for finals. However, here's a recap of the 7th finals week of my college career:

• I scheduled one too many dinner dates with people, attempting to cram them all in before I left to go home. Oops. But it was well worth it :)


• On the first day of "my finals week" (last week), I gave 3 presentations. Every single one of them were made up on the fly, with Powerpoints as my guide. By the end of it, I felt full of myself and felt like I was standing on an enormous soapbox. Yeehaw.


• Let's just say that I have had some issues with laptops this semester. The sound on this borrowed laptop and my headphones were seemingly "out of order." Unfortunately, my go-to study spot is Barnes & Noble, and you would be surprised at how many people talk at an alarming noise level in that little cafe. Needless to say, I learned a lot about cat litter and honors thesis projects and a lady's irritating rash over the last week...


• The night before a huge lesson was due, I camped out at Starbucks until they closed. I returned to the same table the next morning. Starbucks employee: "wait, did you stay here all night?" Yes, yes I did.


• Ladies and Gents, I pulled my first ever all-nighter on the night before 2 papers and one final were due! I got so much done- both papers, the final, some overdue sewing, etc. Who knew you could be so productive in the early morning hours? I began to rethink my decision as I sat in the food court at 7:45 a.m., waiting to go to work, staring blankly ahead and holding an uneaten Poptart. Early mornings (and long nights) make me do strange things, like eating a Poptart. I got a 97% on that dang paper, and my professor commented on it with "a very thorough and well-thought paper. a pleasure to read." Ha.


• By Friday, I had found some awesome ways to procrastinate on any form of studying or paper-writing. Included: begging Erin to let me open my Christmas present, checking Facebook, complaining, Zumba, looking at high school photos, complaining, thrift store shopping, taking Photobooth pictures on D's iPad, reading adoption blogs, complaining, etc...


• By Sunday, my brain had turned to mush, and I realized it officially when I listened to a song off JB's Christmas album (given to me by a precious high school young lady!). The lyrics: "Leave me some cookies, I will eat them all." What I thought it said: "If your lips were cookies, I would eat them all."


• As I drove to my last final on Monday night, I left the music off in my car and didn't talk to a soul on the way into class. My reasoning? I needed to attempt to hold in all the information that I just crammed into my brain, because it would fall out/get lost if I spoke or listened to anything else. That was a legitimate fear.

On today's to-do list: sleep, eat, take medicine, get carried/dragged (drug?) to the bathroom, watch TV. Maybe I'll even get around to reading a book or knitting- we shall see what I have time for ;)

Day 30: Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

I get a little tingly feeling when I think about where I'll be on December 7, 2012. Life will look so different in a year, and I'm thankful yet terrified. Where will He lead me? Where will I be? I have so many plans, yet they all rest in the Father's hands and He can do whatever He wants with them.

This time next year, I hope to be married to D and keeping up with a precious little apartment in Louisville (location TBA). This exact time next year, I hope to be finishing up the tail end of my student teaching by spending a few weeks in Quito, Ecuador with some bilingual students at a ridiculously expensive P-12 school. I pray, so much, that my time in Ecuador will have been preceded by some student teaching with ESL and elementary students in Jefferson County. I will be dreaming of walking the line and ending my time at WKU in December- finally.

I really really really hope it doesn't rain the week before May 19. I really extra super hope that it doesn't rain on May 19. I've put in a couple requests to the Weather Man up there in the sky, but you never know what He'll have up His sleeve :)

I'm dreaming of a summer, after finishing Block 2, of simply working and decorating a new home. I realized yesterday that I haven't spent a whole summer in Louisville since my sophomore year of high school, and so it will be interesting to experience my hometown once again in the middle of the hot months!

I'm really hoping that my foot surgery goes very well in order that I can get back into running. I've always loved running, and often get in these weird moods where all I want to do is burst outside and run a mile or two (mostly happens when I'm hunched over Microsoft Word for hours), but the combination of weak knees/shin splints/hurt ankles/bunions (go ahead and laugh) have kept me from running since I joined the track team in high school. Once my crooked toes are straightened out, I really hope I'll be able to run without pain!

I'm dreaming of getting involved at Americana once again after moving back home. In fact, I'm dreaming about all the possibilities for working with immigrants & refugees that Louisville has to offer- especially in the summertime, when I'll have (a little bit more) free time!

There's so much more I'm hoping for... but we'll see what happens :)

Day 29: Goals for the next 30 days

One more day of this, and I'm DONE with the 30-day challenge that seems to have lasted 30 years. I'm so ready to be done with this list, although it has been fun! Who knew that the girl who loves planning would want to break free of structure?! My mind has been flying in one million different directions... and I'm excited to share what's been going on inside of there.

My goals for the next 30 days revolve around the foot surgery I'm having on Tuesday. One week from today, I'll be a crippled shut-in, coaxing my family members into entertaining/feeding me for a few weeks. I would say that a goal of mine would be to get as much running & jumping in as possible before next week, just to get out all that energy and take advantage of my working feet, but I have 2 papers & 2 finals which call my name instead.

Goals for the next 30 days:

1. Finish making Christmas presents


2. Watch 1,000,000 movies since D thinks I'm "uncultured" for never watching Adam Sandler or Braveheart


3. Wedding plan out the wazoo (but this is the FUN PART- wedding party attire, decorations, planning the ceremony, etc. etc. etc., and REGISTERING!!!!!)


4. Use the power chairs at Wal-Mart (because I can)


5. Teach the BFF how to knit

I honestly don't know if I'll be able to handle sitting still for weeks... but we shall see! Come visit me so that I don't go crazy :)

But first: write that 10-page paper. Tonight.