Pre-Christmas at the Johnahues

This past weekend, we celebrated pre-Christmas at our home,

hosting the whole Donahue clan for dinner.

I had a grand time decorating our new dining room

"Martha Stewart" style with a table set for 10!

Just for kicks, I did the kids table up too~

I was surprised to learn that we indeed had enough chairs!

All the guests brought a little something to share;

Julie brought this adorable cheese!

It was too cute to eat - we just took a picture of it.

The cow seemed to watch over our appetizer table for the rest of the night.

Gifts were shared and laughter was heard; it was a terrific dinner with family.

Our china is now fully broken in and all the nieces

raised their champagne ciders to toast to the holiday season.

We are off to sail the Virgin Islands for the holidays!

Wish us well against the Pirates of the Carribbean

We are sure more adventures are sure to await us in 2009!

Stay tuned...

Graduation!

The time has finally come that I can say I've gone and graduated...again. This time, I'm excited to say I've completed my MBA in Nonprofit Management at Suffolk University. It's been a 3 1/2 year process, going part time at night/on weekends while working full time during the day.

This past weekend, we celebrated with a dinner downtown;

a number of my classmates from the Germany trip were there also!

Our graduation gift was a pen/business card holder set.

Congratulations to the graduates of December 2008!

Christmas photos

We had our first snow (just a dusting), and Sox was very curious about this "white stuff" on the ground. He had a grand time in the snow last year, but he was so small it often was hard to play in. We're hopeing for some great pictures of a bouncing snow pup later this year.

It's that time of year to get the fun family foto taken for the Christmas cards. This year, we decided on a little retrospective - last year at this time, we were finalizing the deal for our new home AND our new puppy! So it was last year's photo and this year's edition that both made the card. It was great to see how far we'd come in a year ... and to see how much our little Soxie had GROWN! We knew he'd be big, but he went from 25 to 85 in his first year with us. I remember when he graduated puppy kindergarten...sniff sniff! My how fast they grow up.

Here are a few favorites from us by the new pellet stove. Sox just LOVES to stare at it. He watches the flames fly with his ears perked, or just snoozes in front of the warmth. Either way, it's adorable. Hope your days are filled with as much warmth and love as our house is nowadays!! XO

Turkey Travels, Birthdays and International Relations

What a wild and crazy Thanksgiving full of family and friends! We traveled to Falmouth Thursday morning to dine with the Donahue clan. All of Mike's brothers, sisters and nieces visited "Nana and Papa's" house! It was a crowded table...in a good way!

After an early afternoon dinner in Falmouth, we traveled back home to Holliston to host Amy's parents, who drove in from Indiana! Luckily there were leftovers from the Donahue's, so the Johnson's got to eat the same meal...only later.

Friday, Mike and Amy went to work, while the Johnson's visited Grampy in Somerset. He was in good spirits and they spent the afternoon and dinner with family there. This was good for us, as the finishing touches were still being put on the hearth pad. :)

Saturday was a big day for Grammy Esther - we all celebrated her 98th birthday! It was a great celebration, with 4 generations of family there. She heard us all singing happy birthday to her and she clapped and smiled - it was such a beautiful sight. We are all so blessed to have her in our lives.

Sunday, we said goodbye to the Johnson's as the headed back to Indiana and HELLO to our friends Rich and Steph who were visiting from South Africa! Unfortunately for them, they hit the brunt of Thanksgiving traffic traveling northeast from Connecticut and suffered the wrath of those without a FastLane pass...waiting and waiting to see someone about a toll. The 3 hour trip took twice as long and although spirits had sunk a bit (what with all that car talk...) we certainly livened things up with a dinner out together. We caught up on the politics in both countries, current and future job prospects for all and generally got caught up since our wedding. A late night turned into a late morning where we enjoyed cheesy sausage eggs and coffee in a leisurely fashion. Love those lingering pajama mornings...

It was a wonderful weekend of visitors and family events - even Sunny and Sox cuddled up together for some together time. (awww) Sox had turned his head all backwards and jammed up against the corner of the couch. How did he do that???

Injured Johnahues

Recent injuries have plagued the Johnahue household. First, our poor Sox was limping around favoring his back left leg. We took him to the vet, only to discover that he was 12 pounds overweight AND had a partially torn CCL (knee). He was put on a diet and bedrest - walks only to do business and not for fun, and on a short leash. No more trips to the dog park (boo hoo!) for at least 6-8 weeks!

Poor Sox doesn't understand all of this short-leash business and is none too happy about not being able to chase squirrels, rabbits, deer or other woodland creatures in our neighborhood, but the alternative is Surgery! So we stick to the regimen as a money saver.

Just as Sox was on the mend, Momma strained her back in a severe way, with muscle spasms, stiffness and a full-on trip to the ER (her first ambulance ride...as she recalls!). It was a totally random occurance, just twisting and leaning on the couch in an odd way after a long long day of work and class. After a few shots of muscle relaxers and pain meds, we all went home at 3 AM. It was bedrest for me too for the next 4 days until movement was possible without discomfort. Pretty random, and it just reinforced my need to do like Sox and lose 12 pounds (or more!).

All in all, we are both on the mend, and you might never know anything happened if you didn't see or hear from us in that 2 week stretch. So alls well that ends well I guess!

November work

It's been a while since the last post and man has it been busy! We raked and raked and raked all the leaves in our yard. I think we filled 30 bags of leaves! The fun part was we got to use a new toy - the backpack leaf blower. Unfortunately there are no photos of that, because Mike and I used it when the other was working. Probably best not to have evidence.

The floor in the laundry room is all tiles, and photos will be coming soon! We're still painting and re-hanging trim, but that project will soon be finished.

Our big event was the arrival of our new energy-efficient wood pellet stove! Mike installed it himself, building the hearth pad in his own design and venting the hole through the side of the house. I think it turned out great! Already, we're pumping out good heat to the bedrooms upstairs and our only challenge is to figure out how to get it to flow around corners to the kitchen and family room. :)

We've also got enough biofuel to get us through the winter - although this means the loss of our garage! Two tons of pellets takes up a lot of space! The good news is that we've always used the garage as manspace and not for either of our cars...so the loss isn't that big. :)

October - where did it go?

October is already gone, and I can't beleive it. I'm thinking back over what happened...it's not that we didn't do anything, it's just that we didn't write about it! We experienced the beauty of New England foliage, but more in the moment (sorry, no pictures). Leaves are still falling off the trees and we'll have rake again soon. But I digress - back to October! I'll take it week by week so you don't feel left out. :)

The first weekend was a celebration in our town. There was a parade with floats and everything, one of which was from a group I'm involved in...it was a pirate ship and it won first prize! I think it looked great - although you can see I'm on the sidelines taking the photo. It was a family thing and I felt it would look odd if I was the only one on without kids. (DOH!)


As part of the pirate theme, bandanas were being passed out to folks, and I picked one up for Sox. It turned into his halloween costume, but he did take some chunks out of it before the end of the month. He's such a good sport to wear "clothes." Though you can see from his expression, he's thinking, "What does she think she's doing making me wear this thing..." Sometimes he's so serious!

Mid-month, I went to Chicago for a training and stayed at the old homestead in Granger visiting the fam. It was a gorgeous weekend; a record high of 84 was set. Wouldn't you know that I didn't pack for such warm weather...who above the Mason-Dixon line expects 84 in mid-October? Anywho, we had a beautiful road trip up to a town on Lake Michigan...I forget which one...but it was so neat to see all the boats out on the water. It almost felt like the coast. We watched a lot of Red Sox games and discussed plans for our family vaca to the British Virgin Islands. Can't wait for that one.

Since I live my life project-to-project (or so it seems), when at home, Mom and I collaborated on making drapes for our new dining room. Luckily JoAnne's was having a 50% off sale and we found the perfect grey silk with a lavender pattern on it. Together, we banged out 2 panels and a valance (turned runner) on a Saturday afternoon. They came out awesome and are just in final hemming mode now. They really make the room look luxurious. Again - who's coming to dinner!?

The third week was a blur, as Mike was sick and I was readying for my last mid-terms...EVER! It was not pretty around here...I think we were both just wading thru waiting for the storm to blow over. Luckily it has. (and a side note the midterm grades were very favorable)

Then came Halloween. So exciting to host trick-or-treaters for the first time! The weekend before, I had gotten that cobwebby stuff to put on the shrubs - Mikey came home and announced, "We have spooky shrubs!" Too funny. We got two big bags of candy and carved out a quick jack-o-lantern Friday night and waited for the door to ring. We had more than 50 kids, which was great...some amazing costumes; others were...well let's just say short on creativity. I had received a pumpkin hat as a present, which I wore as a kind of costume. The kids called me pumpkin-head...is that good or bad? Either way, we had fun and got rid of *most* of the candy.

The jack-o-lantern was supposed to match my hat...can you tell? I did it in like 20 minutes...

Hopefully November will bring more adventures!

Labor Day weekend & beyond

Labor Day weekend Mike and I spent on the Cape. We welcomed my brother into town with a fun evening of lobstahs and beahs at the trailah. (sorry, had to get the Boston accent into the story). Mikey of course is the loan meat-eater. We always say that I like just about anything with "fins" and he likes anything with "feet." What's for dinner?? Fins and feet for us! LOL After dinner, we met up with some of Eric's buddies - one of whom was getting married the following weekend - for some out-on-the-town fun in Dennisport. For those of you who've been there, you can appreciate this t-shirt hung on the ceiling...we've all been there (in Dennisport or not)

As you can imagine, the beahs were flowin and the camera was out, so a couple of wacky shots came to be...many of my friends might be surprised to see my "little" brother all so grown up.

Mikey felt the love too...

We did manage to get a decent shot of the three of us before things got too out of hand.

After the weekend on the Cape (Sox was with Uncle Jimmy), Eric came back to our house for a few chilaxin days in our new-to-him house. We were surprised he brought Christmas presents with him (from last year), one of them being a gift card to Lowe's. As many frequent readers know, this is a favorite of ours. We decided to make a brother-sister project out of it and got a new mailbox for our house! All things considered, it was a pretty easy job (what am I saying, I just supervised. My only real task was to measure how high to make the mailbox off the ground...and to decorate it with the numbers). Now we're ready for all those letters!

Thanks Eric & Holly for the gift card - you have made a permanent improvement in our curb appeal!

Next Project: Laundry Room

Well, it's hard to say our laundry area is a full fledged "room" but we're still gonna work on it like it was one! It all started when we decided to take advantage of sales tax free weekend and get a new washer/dryer. Our old ones were circa 1980 and made so much noise you could hear the dryer running when you went to get the mail! I'm surprised our neighbors never complained.

Once the old machines went out, we figured we'd get rid of the nasty, stuck-on floor pieces. Many were coming up anyways and it's not good for Soxie to gnaw on this stuff.

Once the floor was up and the new machines were delivered, Mikey built a platform for them to stand on so it would be easy to get things in/out. We looked into the platforms that are made for them, but they were $400 - this box was about 10% of that. :) Props to Mr. Handy-Mike!

and here are our new, energy star, using-less-water, super powered appliances!

We have also taken on redoing the closet that was in the laundry area. We're thinking of putting in a table on which to fold laundry or put some of the larger, lesser used appliances (breadmaker/mixer/etc). Shelving will go up on the wall and maybe some cabinets to make better use of the space. Just recently, Mikey added a light on the ceiling, which will definitely come in handy! Before it was split into two sides, and you can see where there was a huge piece of plywood going vertically down the middle. This open space will be much better we think - and maybe in the future offer an extention of the kitchen!

We have picked out the tile that will go down on the floor in the laundry room and our 1/2 bath (the ocean room) and Mike plans to put some white wainscotting over the box to pretty that up a bit. Some skim coating and a fresh coat of paint just make me want to spend more time (gasp) in the laundry room! The goal is to have this done by Halloween. Not for any particular reason, just to keep the projects on schedule.

A note from Sox

I have been missin my daddy, who has been working very hard and coming home way after dark. Momma and I play after she comes home, sometimes going to the dog park, sometimes playing at home. But most nights, after dinner, I wait patiently at the front door for my Daddy:

When Daddy is home, he's often working around the house (Mom can tell you more about that later). But I like just spending time with him. When he mows the yard, I usually watch, although that big red thing is a little scary. It tears up all my sticks - I DON'T like that.

I still love to play soccer ball in the yard and have really perfected my Goalie skills. It's rare for a ball to get by me. If anyone wants to practice, I'm happy to play.

I have had a few sleepovers with friends. Taylor and Ceder came to visit and we had a great time in the park together. We went swimming and played fetch and everyting. Mom said we looked like a three-headed stick tugging together. What do you think? We also played at the house. I especially liked tugging with them with my ruff-toy, although it was hard to coordinate with the three of us. For Labor day I got to spend the weekend at my cousin Mocha's house while Mom & Dad went to Cape Cod. We had a lot of fun and Uncle Jimmy is very good to me. I would like to stay there again sometime.

Then, just when I thought things were getting back to normal, my other cousin, Dylan the pug, came to stay with us. His family was going to DC to participate in a tee-ball game at the White House! I was a little unsure of having another dog around for so long, but we got along great. He doesn't like to tug as much as me, so mostly we just lounged around together.
That's about all I've been up to! If any of you want to come and play with me, I'm happy to lick you and wag my strong puppy tail in your general direction. I'll let Momma have the computer back now...

Pooped out puppy

Well, it's another funny Sox picture, though this time more about what he's NOT doing! Last weekend we went on a long hike around the lake in the local state park. That's 4.5 miles of trails, plus swimming and chasing fellow hikers/small woodland creatures. Sox was a bit tired after all that excitement!

When it was time to go home, we meandered over to the parking lot and I opened the back door to my SUV with the full intention of helping him jump up and in (he's not quite got the hind legs for it... yet?). Instead, he decided the dirt/gravel/mud parking lot was going to be where he stopped. And there he did:

He laid there for a good couple of minutes before I had to lift his wet puppy butt up into the car in earnest. He does love the dog park and *hates* to leave, but this was a new level of stubbornness, laced with exhaustion. Not a good combo! On a positive note, momma got some much needed exercise and her nature fix on for the week. :)

Terrific picture

Hi all! August has been relativly quiet around here...I'm finishing my summer class this week and I'm totally sucked into the olympics. It's fascinating what the Chinese have done to show themselves to the world.

It's been raining a lot and Holliston has been whacked by a number of thunderstorms - there was even hail last weekend. Poor Sox hasn't had much time with his buds at the dog park. Today was a different story - although it was raining at the house, we went up to the park where the sky looked blue. We walked over to the lake and I was able to snap this shot - I'm so pleased with how it came out...on the cameraphone! It may be my new wallpaper on the computer.

Love our little Soxie!

Beautiful Holliston Sky

As we were readying ourselves for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on 8-8-08 and the sun was setting in the Holliston sky, some amazing cloud formations caught my eye: