You Are My Heroine. And By Heroine I Mean Lady Hero...I Don't Want to Inject You and Listen to Jazz

Well, it seems we have some catching up to do...Just to try something a little different, I think we'll start with today and work our way backwards so you can find out about all of the glorious things that have been going on in our lives.

Nicholas recently found out that he passed the first part of his dental boards. This milestone in his dental school education brings him one step closer to this

 

And it brings me one step closer to this

Once we've paid off our hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, of course...

In the meantime I've been raking in the big bucks (HA!) working as a therapist for adolescents with diagnoses of chemical dependence.  My first day official day of work was January 7th and the experience thus far breaks down as follows:

What I think I do

What my patients think I do

Ah, just thinking of the Ken Kesey classic makes me nostalgic for the days when you could still lobotomize unruly patients. 

Before that, we were back in Philadelphia babysitting for Becky's son, Jake, celebrating the holidays and Chloe's 3rd birthday.  Chloe made a beautiful birthday girl.

She loved all of her presents

Cousin Jake was wildly unimpressed

Before that, we were back in Cleveland, where we always have so much fun and do so many fun things.

Footage Not Found

Actually, my dad came to visit us and we celebrated his birthday and Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, Nicholas' mother and grandmother came out here and celebrated with us as well.

Karen and Gram

Dad over-selling his "Oh my gosh, I love this tie!" face

Nicholas and I were a little short on cash because we're both students and we already own most of the cats in Cleveland, so this year we just re-gifted with each other

Everyone was polite enough to at least pretend they liked their gifts and I food-poisoned absolutely no one, so we're gonna call it a win.

Let's see now, before that our yard played host to another sickly raccoon--apparently it's becoming an annual thing--who had clearly mistaken death's doorstep for our doorstep.

The ex-raccoon

Mercifully, after having been here for a year and a half, we knew how to deal with the problem...Cleveland-Style

Nicholas with his patented prod-n-scoop manuever

Proof that we have finally become white trash

In his final resting place on our tree lawn

And as far as everyone knows that raccoon was not, I repeat NOT what I actually made the roast out of when I hosted Christmas Eve.

Before that we were home for Thanksgiving and celebrated Molly's 35th birthday by dressing up like Harry Potter characters and listening to Mom mispronounce Hermione.

And before that  I was in the Cleve writing this blog entry
Consider yourselves caught up.  AND fin.