hello again! i think it has been... well... forever since my last post. september? oh my. well, i will try to update you thoroughly (yet briefly) about all that has been going on since we last spoke.
as i mentioned in the previous post... i took the physical therapy board exam over labor day weekend. after much angst and stomach panging, it turns out that i passed! whoo hoo! i now work as a pediatric physical therapist for california children's services (ccs) in the county we live in. while it is challenging to start any new job (let alone, a career), i feel blessed to be working where i am. my supervisor is fantastic and my co-workers are so supportive and encouraging. of course, the children i work with are incredibly inspiring and teach me new things everyday (for example, one of my 6-year-olds recently told me that i really should be whitening my teeth more... oh dear :)). it is a great place to learn and grow as a new pt. i have been there for about 4 months now and am just starting to feel like i'm finding my groove... finally!
amazing things are coming from paul's lab as he works full days/nights to get closer to finishing his phd. in the past month or so, they finally achieved combustion and have been moving full-steam ahead ever since! despite breaking a quite expensive sapphire window in his experiment earlier this week, paul managed to still give a fantastic presentation to a bunch of important people which - i'm sure - will result in some great funding for his project! (i have to brag on my hubs... several people told him that he had the best presentation of all at the conference... way to go, love!)
in other news, i have made a pact with my dear friend meghan (she lives back in nc) that we will run the san francisco marathon together this coming july! that being said, training has begun and, thankfully, i have several girlfriends out here that i run with pretty regularly... they are such great motivators! i'm quite excited to achieve this long-time goal of mine... stay tuned!
i will leave you with several photos to visually catch you up on what we've been up to over the past 4 or so months... here's to hoping i update y'all more often!
todd + maria mack were married on september 18th! maria + i went to college together, suffered through being biology majors together, were in axo together, and lived together... can you tell we love each other? :) we traveled back to raleigh to celebrate and it was an incredibly special day to see these 2 finally tie the knot. thanks for letting us be a part of your special day, macks!
our sweet nephew, scott, turned 2 on september 19th... my, how time has flown! continuing with the celebrations, we learned that scott will have a little baby BROTHER come may this year! we are so pumped to have another precious nephew in our family to spoil!!! congratulations to diane, jason + scott!
i turned the big 2-5 this year and got to celebrate a little early with the fam while we were home in raleigh. sweet granddaddy is such a good sport - every year he lets us decorate him with our birthday bows... what a sweetheart!
our other little nephewlette, tasman, turned 1 on october 28th! unfortunately, we were not able to be in denver to celebrate with him, but i'm sure he could feel our love flying across the country towards him! his uncle paul + aunt megan got him his first klean kanteen with sippy-cup top attachment this year... as his adorable momma would say... "moosh!" we also learned on tasman's birthday that he will also have a new little brother or sister this coming july! how exciting!!! we love that our family will have grown to have 4 little ones running around within 3 years... we sure are blessed to be an uncle and aunt to these wonderful children! congratulations to sarah, charles + tasman!
paul carved a great pumpkin this year, which is definitely blog-worthy (even though it doesn't include unc at all)! look at that talent! (+ i might say, that pumpkin has one great stem!)
livi learned how to play frolf (frisbee golf) in golden gate park!...
... and she took her first visit to fort funston in the city!
we became those people who dress their pets up in t-shirts... well, at least on rare occasions when we thing it's hilarious :)...
we went to tahoe for our first thanksgiving on the west coast with some of our friends from stanford!
livi LOVED the snow... and even loved swimming in the frigid lake tahoe!
paul especially loved snow-tubing behind our condo. it's too bad that all of the fun ended with his thumb badly sprained! (i don't think that will keep him from wanting to do this again, though... i mean, look at that smile!)
we made gingerbread houses with our thanksgiving clan after getting back to the bay area...
we longed for the puppies that were in the windows of macy's and saw the big tree lit up in union square with our friends, the paschals, during the holiday season (we went to high school with lindsey and now she + her husband, trey, are living out here! we are so lucky!)
we took our christmas card picture with our new family of 4! (the following is 1 of many takes)
we made the trek back to nc for christmas with our families and enjoyed some great snow while we were there! unfortunately, we didn't get to take that many pictures with our camera, but trust us... it was a blast! such a wonderful holiday blessing to be with family and friends who we don't see very often! (this is one of my personal favorites of me + my sissy cuddling with scarlett, the clarke family pooch)
our friend chris (c-mac) came to visit in january while he was on a business trip in san jose!
and that same weekend i went up to ukiah with my dear friend deana to get her new puppy, sig! here is deana, her husband danny + siggy after arriving back to sf.
finally, to round out january, we cheered 'happy birthday' to our sweet livi-dog on january 20th as she turned 1! i can't believe our puppy is not technically a puppy anymore! where would we be without this face?...
did i say i would be brief? thanks for sticking with me... that was one long update! 'til we meet again... much love!
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