Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News!

Can you believe we're halfway through the year already? About 2 weeks prior to July 4th people started setting off fireworks in our neighborhood which is pretty much the only reason I realized that we were almost to July. What a strange year it has been so far... I hope that in this year you all are able to find some silver linings, to learn and grow from things being exposed in the world, to get creative with family and friends, and to find some sense of normalcy! We are trying to do all of those things the best we can here!

There have definitely been some exciting things happening for us that have been silver linings in this time. For one, I graduated with my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Regis University! Oh yeah!! The whole reason we moved here to Colorado! It was hard not to end the program in person with my classmates. We went through so many experiences together that it felt like it needed a more conclusive ending, but my family put together this amazing virtual graduation ceremony for me and some of my closest friends from school. If you are reading this blog, you were probably watching that in fact. But it was really amazing and really made it feel like a satisfying conclusion to so much hard work! I mean they even played an old Regis commencement speech, got one of my professors to create a video speech, and gave us each a little time to say a few things. It was really cool. And I know I have said this on our blog before, but it has to be said again. Don't I have the best family??

Regis DPT Class of 2020!

A couple of weeks after the virtual graduation ceremony I took the long-awaited NPTE, the national licensure exam for PTs. I was originally supposed to take it April 23rd, but because of Covid things got postponed. It was a bit of a mess there for awhile and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to take it until July, but I was able to secure a date in May thankfully. I put a ton of studying into this exam. I was really proud of how much I prepared and I felt ready to crush it. But then on May 18th when I walked out of my exam I felt crushed because I really did not feel good about it. I pretty much was immediately convinced that I had failed it. Poor Jeremiah had to listen to all of my concerns/frustration/sadness for a week while I waited for the result. And then a week later I found out I passed!! It was immediate tears of joy and relief when I got that result. With that I officially became a licensed PT: Hannah Dwight, PT, DPT (yes, that is the official way it is supposed to be written. Seems redundant, I know.)

Studying outside with Lexy!

During that week of waiting on my result, Jeremiah and I rather spontaneously decided to take a weeklong trip to AZ! We were both anxious to see our families and we love an excuse for a good road trip. Beautiful scenery and I mean, road trip snacks. Enough said. I was up to absolutely nothing and fortunately Jeremiah's work is flexible enough currently that he was able to work from home that whole week! So Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we took off from Denver, passing through Durango on our way to Phoenix. It was a route we had yet to do so we were happy to see some new parts of CO. We started the week of staying with my parents, then the second half of the week with Jeremiah's parents. We always try to do an even split, and it usually works out pretty well! With my family we had a few big family dinners, a pool day for Memorial Day, a Memorial Day "Murph" workout with my brother, took some new family pictures, Jeremiah golfed with my dad and brother, a couple of nice walks with my mom, more pool time/playing with all of the kids, and a bike ride with my dad. It was on this bike ride that I found out I passed the NPTE. We were at a stopping point and I quickly pulled out my phone to check if the result has been posted and sure enough it had! That's when the tears exploded immediately. I think my dad was a little surprised because he didn't even know I was checking at that moment, and I just shouted, "I passed!" I called Jeremiah right away to tell him and I think he was just as relieved and happy as I was. He definitely went through school right by my side the entire time. The rest of the bike ride was pretty carefree after that and certainly made the rest of the week in AZ a little extra happy! At my sister's house that night she even had decorated with streamers and balloons and bought a cake! So fun!

As I said, the second half of the week we were with Jeremiah's family! With them we played games, went to our first meal out since the start of Covid, saw Jeremiah's grandparents from a distance, worked on a puzzle, and helped make arepas for the first time! That was fun, and also delicious! I love having two very different experiences with each of our families. Mine is busy and loud most of the time, and Jeremiah's is quiet and simple. We always look forward to having both. A trip to AZ isn't complete without either! And while we were in AZ of course we had to stop by Tommy and Emily's to see them! We just ate Crumbl cookies and talked! It was great!

Happy third anniversary, my love!

On our way home we drove up through Moab and across all of Western Colorado. We just wanted to see the red rocks of Monument Valley and Moab, but turns out this wasn't a great idea because the Native American Reservation we drove through was supposed to be closed to through traffic even though there weren't any signs indicating that. But we got pulled over and warned that nothing was open and we shouldn't make any stops. He also warned us that we could get pulled over again from another officer and be fined $1000/person in the car. I was just a touch anxious driving the next two hours while we were still on the reservation but fortunately we had enough gas and were not pulled over again!

Once we got home I started to loo more seriously at jobs and one of my classmates posted on our class Facebook page that one of the sites she had a clinical rotation at was seeking to hire someone. I quickly reached out and went in just a couple of days later to speak with the Therapy Director. He pretty much offered me a "PRN" position on the spot. PRN just means "as needed," essentially a substitute teacher for physical therapy. Things moved rather quickly and I was suddenly at my first day! The thing about PRN is that it should be someone who is pretty independent and can just pick up and go, and as a new grad I am not exactly confidently independent. So for better or worse I was given a quick morning intro/orientation and then thrust into patient care! Fortunately they only started me with a couple of patients and I have been slowly ramping up numbers since. Also fortunately, everyone there is very willing to answer my many questions and they check in on how I'm doing pretty regularly. So the PRN position started about a month ago, and just last week they offered me a full time position which I happily accepted! I didn't expect to find a job this quickly in this crazy Covid job market right now, and it is adjacent to what I want to be doing long-term, so I feel very fortunate. I will admit it has been hard though, because I want to be a really good clinician for my patients and as a new grad I just feel like I am trying to stay afloat, rather than really providing the highest quality of care at this point. There is so much paperwork to stay on top of too that I am struggling to keep up a little bit, but also trying not too focus too much on the paperwork so that the patients are my number one focus. Needless to say, it's been an adjustment! But I am trying to remember that I am just doing my best and my goal is to do something a little better each day.

My first day!

Meanwhile Jeremiah has been so supportive and as always, my biggest cheerleader this whole time! I saw him go through many of the same things I am currently going through when he was starting out his career at Lockheed, so he has been a great empathizer. Now it is about time I update you on Jeremiah! Whenever I update the blog I talk way too much about myself. Sorry, Jeremiah!

He has continued working about three days in the office, two days at home, so I have selfishly enjoyed having him at home a little more often throughout this whole thing. Also, I didn't mention but my current work schedule is Sun-Wed so we only actually have one full day off together. That really stinks. But that makes it even nicer to just have him around at least one other day at home while I'm off. He has been rather busy at work lately! Which he is simultaneously grateful for, but I think also a little ready for it to slow down a bit! He is currently on multiple projects and helping to onboard a new test engineer so he is spread a little bit then. And if you know Jeremiah, you know he really likes to invest time in things to be detailed and give his full attention to, so that has been a challenge for him. But I think the end of this busy season is in sight, and regardless, he still manages to find a way to do high quality work for everything assigned to him! I mean I guess I don't really know that because I'm not working with him, but come on, we all know he is. I also think I mentioned that he has gotten more into bread making lately. As I am typing this he is carefully inspecting his sourdough starter as he is preparing to make a loaf this weekend! Most recently he made a couple of delicious white and wheat sandwich loaves. My mom had just given us a jar of her homemade jam that we were able to use on it, and there is not much better than a hot, fresh piece of white bread with homemade jam on it.

Another one of Jeremiah's bread creations: Focaccia! So delicious!

A couple of weeks after we were in AZ my parents flew up to us and we drove into the mountains for a weekend in Leadville. Leadville is the highest elevation established town in the US, if you didn't know! Jeremiah and I were supposed to be going to a friend's wedding nearby, but she had to limit it to immediate family only unfortunately. Still I got to celebrate her the Friday before her wedding with a "Bride's hike" and picnic lunch. It was a really happy, celebratory time regardless of the situation! The rest of that weekend Jeremiah, my parents, and I did an 11 mile hike/nature walk around Turquoise Lake right outside of Leadville and an 8 mile hike the following day to Chicago Lakes near Idaho Springs, along with wandering around the town of Leadville and Idaho Springs a bit. Both hikes were beautiful and it was so great to have three days of hiking in a row. I love just being out in nature and enjoying the quality time!

The adorable picnic lunch off of the beautiful Twin Lakes as part of celebrating Mel and Mason! 

Mel and Mason are on the ones sitting in the middle! 

Jeremiah's graduation gift to me was a weekend trip of hiking in Beaver Creek, camping somewhere in the mountains, and going white water rafting! So a few weeks ago I cashed in on that and we had such a fun weekend! We drove up Friday morning and found a campsite at Guanella Pass and set up our stuff, then drove up to Beaver Creek for a hike to Beaver Lake. It was so quiet up there, it was gorgeous. We have only ever been in the winter so it was fun to see it in the summer. We were speculating whether we could sneak into the Timbers (where we stay in the winter) for their 3:00 cookies while we were there, but alas we decided not to! We wandered the village for a little while, but most places were closed so then we just headed to our campsite to enjoy the evening. It ended up getting super cold that night so we probably weren't quite as prepared as we should have been, but we still enjoyed ourselves! The next morning we got up and headed to our rafting site. They supplied us with full wetsuits and booties so we couldn't feel the full effect of the 38 degree water! Really it wasn't bad at all with the gear. Neither of us fell out, and we got to be in the front of our raft so we were definitely in the full splash zone! A job well done to Jeremiah for planning such a fun trip and graduation gift!

Beaver Lake

Last weekend (4th of July), Tommy and Emily came to town for a visit! We were not sure basically up until they were on the plane whether they were for sure going to come or not because of Covid. But they came and we just tried to be extra cautious with the activities that we did, and we had such a great long weekend! We went on a beautiful hike that quickly turned into a freezing, rainy hike, we watched probably 30 fireworks shows happening from the top of the hill that our apartment sits on, we bought paint supplies and found a spot to paint the scenery, we picked out beers to make our own flights at home and ranked them, we played a bunch of games, and of course ate lots of delicious food. I did have to work the last day they were here, but I got three full days with them still. The one day that I worked Jeremiah took them to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and got sushi (since I'm the only one who doesn't like sushi it was perfect). We slacked on pictures both for this weekend and the whole week we were in AZ, but that just means we were having too much good, quality time!

Other miscellaneous things that have been happening in our lives (that I will fill in with pictures as well) include celebrating our third anniversary. We were in AZ on our actual anniversary so once we got home we went to Fleming's Steakhouse and Little Man for ice cream which was a very nice date night! I have been consistently running with my friend, Liz, we have gone on bike rides. We have had dinners with our friends Scott and Liz, Tyler and Emily, and Lexy and Jared. We went on a hike and had a picnic lunch with Emily and Chris. I hung out with my friend Stacey and said goodbye to her for awhile as she just moved to Gunnison, CO for a job opportunity there. I have gone on multiple other hikes/bike rides/walks with friends, we have been reading new books, I started a small garden, we have enjoyed continuing to try new recipes, and watched plenty of good shows and movies!

I surprised Jeremiah with a date night to TopGolf!

Easter breakfast! Jeremiah made both the cinnamon rolls and the sourdough toast that you see! He was especially proud of these cinnamon rolls. 

Date night to Oregano's where we picnicked in the back of my car! 

Boba date with Lexy!

So we are settling into more "normal" life since we last updated the blog, branching out with the people we are seeing, but being diligent about wearing our masks, don't worry! I hope those of you reading this are staying healthy and finding some silver linings and things to enjoy.

There is no shortage of outdoor activity to enjoy here in CO in the summer and we are doing out best to take advantage of it.

Plans? What Plans?

Well if there was ever a time in my life when I realized how futile planning the future is, it is now. I have been looking forward to 2020 for a long time. In fact, if you go back and read our last blog post I detailed many of the things that Jeremiah and I have been looking forward to in 2020. Wrapping up my final clinical, graduation, graduation party with friends and family, three different graduation trips! ...Then coronavirus rolled through... No more plans!
I don't think I am alone when I say I definitely underestimated Covid-19. It was another distant thing happening in another country. Then it felt like suddenly it was in the US and cases were exploding and before I knew it, restaurants were having to close, schools were switching to online, and then we were in a full "shelter-in-place." While things were starting to ramp up I was in the midst of my clinical rotation at Children's Hospital of CO. I was absolutely loving it. It was really challenging, but I loved the things I was learning, the patients I had, the people I got to work with, and the environment! Unfortunately my time there had to be cut short because both Regis and the hospital viewed students as non-essential and using up extra resources. Therefore it was highly recommended that if my clinical instructor approved me as entry-level PT I end my rotation early (without sacrificing my qualification for graduation). My CI and I fought for me to stay a little bit longer to gain as much experience as I possibly could out of it so I worked many days in a row just to get a little bit more out of it and ended up losing only 2 weeks of my rotation rather than 3. I was happy to get anything more, because also unfortunately like many places, they are on a hiring freeze now.
Also amidst my last couple of weeks there I found out that my graduation ceremony was postponed, possibly cancelled altogether... That one made me really sad. I was very excited to come back together will all of my classmates, all of us who have worked so hard for this, to have that celebration with so many of my family members there to celebrate too. And we were going to have a party at a local brewery with friends and family. But, we will celebrate at some point with friends and family, it will just look a little bit different. And on May 2nd, my commencement date, Jeremiah and I will find something fun to do in the comfort of our own home! It has been suggested that I wear my cap and gown and walk across the living room while Facetiming family. We shall see! One other note on this, my family was so thoughtful and generous and all pitched in to pay for me to get professional graduation photos taken. They know how important this graduation is and wanted to honor it in some way. They are the best. Have I ever mentioned that before??
So now I have been at home "quarantining" for over a week now. In fact, Jeremiah and I got in the car to go on a hike today and I realized I hadn't been in a car since the previous Saturday's grocery shopping. Weird. Though something I think has helped me has been to keep up a relatively "normal" routine. I wake up about 7-7:30 (sleeping in!), eat breakfast (usually in bed, this is not normal, but one of my favorite things ever), exercise in some form, running outside on the nice days, strength/yoga/HIIT type classes on other days. I have also been very consistent with my study routine. I have to set timers for myself, 30 minutes on, 5 minutes off, to keep myself on task, but it has been helpful. But then just yesterday I got an email saying that my test has likely been postponed or cancelled. Not sure which yet, and technically it hasn't been made official yet, but no email is very clear these days. So I don't know how my studying will be effected by that. I will probably back off for a little while, studying less, until whatever new date it is gets closer and I can ramp up again. This is another frustration because it means that it will take me longer to become a licensed PT and the few jobs that may be available right now likely will prioritize someone licensed. Oh we also have three trips planned in May and June that are currently still set to go, but we are anticipating at least two of them to be officially cancelled any day really. One of these was my family's cruise at the end of May. It has been planned for literally an entire year and we were so looking forward to it... We are just hoping we can make it happen a different time if it does in fact get cancelled. Anyway, with all of these frustrations I try to frequently remind myself of the many things I still have to be grateful for and try to put into perspective what others may be going through right now too. One thing I am very grateful for is that Jeremiah has a secure job! He is continuing business more or less like normal. He has transitioned to two days/week at home and three days/week in the office. His company is considered essential since they supply medical devices, even though his particular division handles primarily elective surgery equipment. When he does go into the office there are only a few people in there at a time, about 10% or less of the normal occupancy. I am very happy to have his company at home a little more often on the other days, and like I said, just to know that he has a job is very comforting and we are both very grateful. Other things I have to be grateful for are everyone in my family has stayed healthy thus far, we still get to enjoy being outdoors, it's kind of fun ordering takeout since we rarely ever do that, and we can use this time to rest and recharge a bit. The list could keep going, and quite honestly, I would recommend actually writing those things out if you get a chance because they are great reminders when you are stuck in your thoughts! Jeremiah and I would generally both consider ourselves introverts and homebodies, so to be honest many of our days look relatively the same, but it is weird to just not have the option to go out at all! In our other free time, we have been filling it with puzzles while listening to podcasts, walks, reading (though sometimes I have to force Jeremiah into this...), games, and new shows/movies. I would love to do more baking, but I am concerned about having too many yummy baked goods in our apartment!! I also am considering starting a little patio garden. I would love to grow my own herbs and some simple vegetables, but definitely need to research a little bit more before I dive in. Jeremiah and I hope that anyone reading this is finding fun or new ways to keep themselves occupied, remembering things they are grateful for, connecting with loved ones, and taking time to rest and being okay with that. Or if you have kids at home, that your kids are staying more or less behaved, and that you can find some portion of your day to do something for yourself! Knowing how crazy this time has been for my siblings with kids, I know that is easier said than done. If I could virtually babysit for you, I would!

Before I wrap up I did want to backtrack even farther, because I will say it was a great start to 2020! We flew to Rochester for my grandma's 90th birthday! I have a lot of family who still lives there so of course we saw all of them, as well as most of my family in AZ flew back to meet us there too. We had a really nice dinner celebration, another get together for games/mingling, and lots of casual family time. While we were there it actually coincided with my great uncle Jack's funeral as well. Due to that we were able to see even more extended family than we otherwise might have and we were very glad we could be there to celebrate his life and support my great aunt Doris. She and my grandma Warren had this moment at the funeral where they stood up in the middle of the church and shared this long hug and I pretty much lost it then. They are two amazing ladies and their sister relationship is so incredible and admirable really. So much love and support for each other! Anyway, it was a really awesome trip, and we lucked out with relatively good weather too! I'll fill in the rest of the last couple of months with photos.

My Grandma Warren! One of my favorite people ever! 

"High Falls" in Downtown Rochester

Jeremiah got free tickets to a DU Hockey game! 

Jeremiah has been taking up bread-making and I can't remember if this was included in our last post, but he went to a Sourdough Class at a place called Rebel Bread here in Denver. He loved the class and has really stepped up his bread-making game! In fact he made 8 loaves one weekend for everyone in our small group. 

First day at Children's! Wearing scrub pants was very nice. 

Presenting our research poster at the largest annual PT conference that happened to be held in Denver this year! 

A quick weekend visit from the Dwights! Wynkoop Brewery in downtown Denver for dinner. 

While the Dwights were in town we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science that had a "Science Behind Pixar" exhibit that was really fascinating. 

A Pixar puzzle that Jeremiah's brother got us at the museum! 

Another one of the puzzles we've done. A pretty scene of Downtown Denver. In fact this would be the view if you were standing in front of the museum! 

I worked on Saturdays while at Children's and we always did fun group therapy projects/activities on those days. This was the "pie" we made for "Pi Day" which landed on a Saturday this year. Unfortunately not allowed to take pictures of my cute patients who made these! 

My CI and I on my last day at Children's.

Finally using the pasta maker we got forever ago to make homemade linguine for pasta carbonara! 

We had a FaceTime date with Tommy and Emily while we both made the pasta together in our separate kitchens and then enjoyed the dinner together, followed by games! 

Another example of the delicious bread Jeremiah has made lately. This was a French loaf and made for an excellent addition to these already incredible sandwiches! We love cooking new things, and pretty much try something new at least once a week. I am currently obsessed with the recipes from "Half-Baked Harvest."

Meeting with our church small group via Zoom. 

Giving Madeline a lesson on the heart via FaceTime. She took it very seriously, taking notes, and asking some very interesting questions! 

What an interesting time we are living in right now everyone! New things every day that we are having to face and figure out. As much as we try to plan our futures, it doesn't always turn out the way we expect and plans are flipped upside down. My big comfort through all of this is that God has a plan better than any of us could imagine, we might just not know it or see it yet. I hope that is a comfort to you as well! With that, thanks for reading and happy "quarantining"!

Virtual Christmas Card: 2019 Edition!

Happy New Year everyone! This holiday season felt a little bit different for us because we did not go home for Christmas/New Years, in fact, we were working right up to and around the holidays this year! But first, I will back up to where Jeremiah left us off in October. Right after he posted that blog post we did make a trip to AZ for a few days! I had about 5 days off before starting my clinical rotation so we took advantage of that time to spend with family. While there, Jeremiah finally met our newest niece, Mae! We got to spend a lot of time with her and all of our other nieces and nephews. We also had to see our "Best Couple friends" Tommy and Emily! We went to a place to play Archery Tag which was super fun but also a little painful if you got hit! Then we decided to do a cooking competition between the couples! We had four ingredients that we were required to use between two different dishes, along with a time limit for both the ingredients shopping, and cooking. We had done something similar with them before, but Jeremiah and I definitely did a lot better this time because we've had a lot more cooking experience!

The final presentation from our cooking competition! The ingredients we had to use were strawberries, zucchini, ricotta, and macaroni. Ours are the two on the bottom part of the picture. 

Tommy and Emily!

Then I began my 12 weeks at National Jewish Health! This was an outpatient pulmonary rehab clinic in which we saw a variety of complex patients who all had one thing in common- a pulmonary condition, meaning some sort of lung condition like COPD, ILD, etc. It was a really great learning experience. I had my best clinical instructor yet who I could tell really cared about my learning and goals, helped me improve my patient education, documentation, and some of my technical skills. During this rotation I really started to feel like my own practitioner, part of the team, who could really take care of my own patients! It was fun to really start to come into that and feel like a "real" PT!

Amidst my time working and doing patient prep, Jeremiah and I managed to do a bunch of fun things! Many of which are just pictured below all of this writing as well!

We went to Beaver Creek for our annual family trip! We had told my family that we wouldn't be able to drive up until Friday night, but were able to surprise them by getting up there on Thursday night! It was a really fun surprise and it was so great to have that extra time with everyone there. We skied, we talked, we enjoyed the grotto... Not much better than that!

We did make another quick trip to AZ for a big occasion: Nathan's graduation! Jeremiah's brother graduated from ASU this winter and we are very excited for him and excited to see what the future has in store for him! I was there for literally less than 48 hours (Booo) but managed to see all of both of our families while there thanks to my whole family being invited to Nathan's graduation party! It's pretty awesome to have your in-laws get along so well with your family. Besides that I spent the 48 hours just hanging out with the Dwights, playing games, and enjoying each other's company! Jeremiah stayed for an extra couple of days so that he could be at the actual graduation ceremony. He was able to sneak in a quick visit with Tommy and Emily, play plenty of video games with Nathan, and even hang out with some of my nieces and nephews for an afternoon!

The whole gang! 

As I mentioned our holidays looked a little different this year. We were not home or with any family for Thanksgiving so we went for a really nice walk in our very snowy/icy neighborhood, watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, and Jeremiah spent a lot of time making rolls, before heading to our friend's Tyler and Emily's for dinner with them and a few other friends. We contributed the rolls, Green Beans Almondine, and tried and succeeded making Apple Fritters for dessert! We also played a couple of games while there and squeezed in a FaceTime with my family where my cousins Sarah and DJ announced the sex of their baby that is due in June!! They haven't announced the sex to Facebook so I will keep that to myself. We are very excited for them! Onto the next holiday, we both had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off fortunately, so on Christmas Eve we slept in, went to the gym, FaceTimed Jeremiah's family, decorated gingerbread houses, watched a Christmas movie, and went to Tyler and Emily's house for a very nice Christmas Eve dinner! They are excellent cooks, so they challenge us (in a good way) to try to step up our cooking game especially when we have them over! We then did something very different and went to our church's "midnight mass" which was at 11:30 pm and went right into Christmas Day. It was really reflective, more quiet than normal, and we both really loved the experience and really welcoming Christmas Day reflecting on Christ's birth. Christmas Day we slept in before making a special breakfast of english muffin breakfast sandwiches (special for us, because usually we just have oats!) while listening to Christmas music, then opened presents from each other and some of the presents that our family had shipped to us. We got some really fun, great things! Then we FaceTimed my family for quite some time, because my sister had put together clues for my nieces and nephews to participate in a scavenger hunt to find presents that we told them the Grinch stole and hid around the house. It was really fun to watch them and see everyone opening some of their presents as well to feel like we were there for a little part of it! We then spent a good part of the afternoon making our special Christmas dinner! We were inspired by Great British Baking Show (one of our favorite shows) to make a Raised Pie. Ours was Indian inspired so curry was a predominant flavor, and also had potato and chicken as main ingredients. It turned out really great! And took us a few days to finish off. Then onto the last of the holiday season. I had to work New Years Eve but only until 3:30 so we still had all evening together and both of us also had New Years Day off. New Years Eve we went to a place called Boardgames Republic for their NYE celebration! We met our friends Chris and Amanda there where we played games all night, enjoyed food and drinks, and I even won a boardgame! It was such a fun way to ring in the new year! New Year's Day we went to the gym of course, went over to a friend's house for a little get together for a bit, and made pierogis for dinner! All in all we had a wonderful time just the two of us this holiday season! We are very thankful for technology that connects us to our families from afar because that really did make it easier to not be there in person! We also are very thankful for some wonderful friends that we have made here in CO who help make it feel like home. So our celebrations were simple, but we just did what we wanted to do and had a great time doing it!

Our self-timer iPhone photo in front of the tree!

Jeremiah has continued to enjoy his work at Stryker over the past few months. He loves his coworkers and the working environment, and has even gotten into a nice routine of fitting in the gym before work. But the exciting update for him is that in the month of October he was awarded employee of the month (after only having been there since April!) and then in November found out that he got a promotion to Senior Test Engineer! How cool and official does that sound?? I frequently say this on here, but he is an incredible hard worker who I think any company would be lucky to have so I am very grateful to Stryker for acknowledging that and rewarding him for it. He definitely earned both of those achievements!

Highlights of the year include:

• Trip to NYC and DC! So many sights, so much good food! 
• Making it through a really crazy Spring semester. Possibly my hardest ever!
• Jeremiah got an offer from and started a job at Stryker!! A really great fit for him.
• I spent 8 weeks in Kansas on my second clinical rotation.
• Finished didactic work and moved on to my full time clinical rotations
• Participated in a beautiful Blessing of the Hands ceremony at school
• Roadtrip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with my parents
• Jeremiah was promoted to Senior Test Engineer!
• A few more trips to AZ
• A few more 14ers climbed

Things to look forward to in 2020:

• Rochester trip! My grandma Warren turned 90!
• Starting and completing my last clinical rotation at Children's Hospital of CO on the Neuro Rehab floor
• Graduation baby!! I am going to be Dr. Dwight come May 2, 2020!
• Family cruise over Memorial Day weekend. Sooo excited to take this family trip. 
• Hopefully getting a job and starting to work with my own patients! 
• A couple other fun trips are on the agenda, but not officially booked yet so you will have to check back to see what is to come in 2020...

Lexy and Me

Photos from our "Blessing of the Hands" ceremony at school before sending us off on clinical rotations to bless our patients with the use of our hands! 

Stacey and Me

Me presenting with my research group during my final week of didactic work. 

Most of the DPT class of 2020 after the Blessing of the Hands! 

Jeremiah and I having boba together for the first time. My second time ever but I think I am hooked now! 

Celebrating my friend Jess at her Bridal Shower in Erie, CO! Wasn't able to get down to Tucson for the wedding itself so I was very grateful to celebrate her this way!

Pumpkin carving! Can you guess whose is whose?

I decided to chop a lot of hair off and am loving the change! 

A ski weekend with my parents right after my third clinical rotation ended! Two days at Copper Mountain.