I'm a terrible Blogger

Christmas Greetings

Hello Friends and Family-

Since we don't see or talk to everyone on a regular basis, I thought it would be fun to bring you up to speed on what's been going on with us in the last year. Just because we don't see you often, doesn't mean that you are not always in our hearts and thoughts.

This spring we had a big change by moving into a new home. We still live in our same little town of Oregon City, but we were able to buy a little bit bigger house with a bigger yard thanks to the lovely buyer's market we are experiencing right now. This made our two dogs (Rusty and Marley) very happy. We also have room now to store trailers and stuff of the side of the house, which makes Brad very happy. I got an exercise/game room (happy me), and Elyssa got an awesome bedroom and now she doesn't have to share a closet with anyone.

We decided to keep our old house for now and maybe try being landlords for a while and see how that goes. We spent a good part of the summer fixing up the old place and getting it ready for renters while at the same time paining and moving into our new home (whew, that was a lot of work). In August we were able to find a young couple who were really excited to rent our old place. So far so good, besides a pipe breaking in the extremely cold weather we experience a couple of weeks ago.

In our work lives, Brad continues to work for Morgan distributing selling Anheuser-Busch products. He has been working there for many years and has worked his way up in the company. He has been with his current clients now for two years and has developed a strong but sometimes difficult relationship with them (you can call it a love-hate relationship). He recently got a new district manager and is curious to see how that goes.

For myself it has been kind of a trying year. I have been working at Providence Willamette Falls Hospital now for about a year. I'm told the first two-three years out of nursing school you feel like an idiot who didn't learn anything worthwhile in school for the "real" world. Well, that held true for me. Some days I wonder what the heck I'm doing and others I feel like I'm doing awesome. Go figure! But I did get lucky enough to get into the area of practice I wanted right out of school which was labor and delivery. I spent the first part of my year learning to care for the post-partum patients (after birth) and then this spring/summer I went through long extensive training to have labor patients and C-sections. It's been a lot of learning and gaining the confidence to say "I can do this." Every day I get more and more comfortable in my job. Since I'm only part time at the hospital I still work at the pharmacy I've worked at since I was 18 to fill in extra hours here and there. It's a joy to go back there and work with my old buddies and do a job I feel more confident in. So hopefully next year I will continue to grow and develop my skills and confidence.

Our dear daugher (well my step-daughter) Elyssa started high school this year as a freshman. Man she is growing up so fast. She's a little lady now. It's great to see her personality coming out and discovering who she is going to be. She is doing amazingly awesome in school and is getting straight A's.... go girl!!!! We are sure she is bound for a great college and will be doing great things someday. Elyssa is getting really into creative photography and loves to display her work on her Facebook account. The stuff she does with pictures is pretty cool, I must say. She is also an avid reader, which is something after my own heart. We are excited we are going to have her for Christmas and New Year's this year (this means a guitar hero rematch from last year).

As far as hobbies and friends. I made a couple of girls only trips this year, two to Vancouver BC to check out a favorite movie of ours being filmed up there, and a trip to the beach cabin in Netards. I also had my friend Shawna trow me an 80's themed birthday party and slumber-party afterwards. All of it was great. I recently started a 90 day work-out program called P 90-X which has been kicking my lazy butt into better shape. Brad has been fishing several times with his buddies and has gone to several Trail Blazer Basketball games this year. Brad just purchase a new dirt bike last night and he can't stop talking about it. It's a 2008 Honda CRF 450X. He can't wait to get a free weekend to take it out and get the lead out. So I'm sure now that we both have 4-wheelers and he has a new dirt bike the next year will consist of several riding trips.

We were lucky this year and got to take a few awesome vacations. In May Brad and I flew down to Northern California and spent several days exploring the vineyards around Napa Valley. It was our first official wine tasting tour. We had a great time. Then we spent a day following the coast from Half Moon Bay down to Carmel. We finished off our trip with a couple of days in San Francisco and had the best time; taking the trolly, visiting Alcatrez, seeing China town and biking Golden Gate Park. So much fun, we fell in love with the city.

In early September we took Elyssa up to Vancouver BC for Labor Day weekend. We had a blast looking for Twilight movie sites and just exploring the great city of Vancouver. We ate at some of the best places in Yaletown and drove around and saw lots of beautiful scenery including some wild black bears right up close and personal.

Toward the end of September Brad and I took our long awaited trip to Europe. We've been saving for this trip for a long time. We started off in Paris France, saw the city, the louve, Notre Dame, and ate some fabulous french cuisine. Then we headed by train through central France to Nice. We enjoyed some sun there and then moved on to Venice, Italy (which I adored). From there we hit the Italian Rivera and hiked the difficult 7 mile Cinque Terre trail. We then travelled east and spent some time in Tuscany including Florence and Sienna. Finally we ended our trip in Rome. We both loved Rome and want to go back soon. We saw Vatican City along with the Roman ruins and many other things I won't boar you with. All in all we had 16 days of amazing adventure and fun and took over 1000 pictures of our trip. So fun. Hopefully someday we'll find our way back.

Now things have slowed down and it's time to remember family and friends. The decorations are up, presents are wrapped, cards are mailed. But we wanted to take a special moment to thank you for being in our lives. And also to thank God for all the blessings he has provided us in 2009 and every year of our lives. God bless you all and we hope you have a very happy and fulfilling holiday season.

Love always,

The Johannesens