Interview Season

We are just coming out of a busy couple months full of oral surgery residency interviews for Michael. He traveled to interviews almost every week on top of school lately, and needless to say he is sleeping on the couch while I write this. There are a lot of great programs and we are having a hard time ranking our list together. 

He visited Nashville, TN; Richmond, VA; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Boston, MA; Oklahoma City, OK; Cincinnati, OH; Charleston, SC; Fresno, CA; and the program here in Indianapolis. Westin and I joined him on a few of those and we loved that. Except babies hate hotels, and people in hotels hate people with babies. Sigh. But for a lot of the interviews we've had sweet, kind friends that he has stayed with. We rank these programs and the programs rank their applicants, then a computer matches everyone up to their bast case scenario. We'll find out the results on January, 25th. Luckily we have the holidays and family time to help the waiting speed by.

We had quite a few days at home without Michael during it all, and that gets rough. But honestly it was probably a good prep for what residency will be like -- we are not going to see as much of Michael over the next four years as we did during dental school. This picture is Westin with an ear infection at an unexpected trip to the pediatrician. Sick babies are so sad!

Michael has worked so hard and I'm so grateful for him. This interview process has been really draining, and I just admire how much he continues to do his best at everything that he has on his plate. Westin loves him so much, and I love watching those two. We are excited to enjoy next semester together before a busy residency. It feels great to have interview season behind us and strange to start the waiting game. We're excited to spend time in Cedar City and Louisville with family this month. That's the happiest distraction we could have.

Boston & Finishing Third Year

Michael finished his finals and is now a fourth year dental student. Woohoo! He has worked so hard these past three years. Even though there are still residency applications and boards and some other time consuming hurdles in his future, this was technically his last full on finals week. We won't miss them.

We had fun meeting up with Michael in Boston when he presented his research project over Spring Break. He looks pretty good with that poster of his, right? They've spent a lot of time together.

Westin did pretty good on our cold adventures through Beantown. He started being a terrible sleeper on the trip, though, and I just figured it was from traveling and time changes. But then Michael the Dentist noticed that two little teeth were almost in, which was probably the culprit of those rough nights. He had two teeth erupted at three months old, which was an appropriate thing to accomplish while visiting dad's dental conference. But in terms of nursing, I consider it an inappropriate accomplishment. Who needs teeth at three months old? Sigh.

Even with freezing temps and chilly winds and an uncooperative knee (Michael, church ball), we managed to walk the whole Freedom Trail and grab some favorite cannoli's at Mike's and favorite sandwiches at Al's. Thank heavens for Uber and our ride home from the end of the Freedom Trail though... we just couldn't feel our toes quite enough to make the walk back to our hotel.

This was Michael's first time to Boston, so I loved being there with him. I miss having sister visits in that city; I have so many fun memories there from when Alison lived there for five years. Michael did an externship there the week before I came, so Boston will be on the list of places we apply to for oral surgery. If we end up there I'll be forced to learn to parallel park... probably not a significant factor on our pro/cons list, but still, I think about these things.

Recently Michael had two banquets in one day at the dental school where he was inducted into an honor society as well as recognized for being in the top 50 graduate students at all of IUPUI. This husband of mine is a genius, plus the hardest of workers, so it's a serious combination. We had never left Westin with a babysitter that wasn't family before, then suddenly he had two in one day so that we could attend the banquets together. Thanks, Becca and Summer, for watching our little guy! 

I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that we are fourth years. Every year in May we lose some of the dear friends that we've made here, then every year in July we get a handful of new friends who are starting this same road of ours. It's hard to believe that we are next to leave. I knew these four years would go by fast, and they definitely have.

Here's a group of my friends out at one of our favorite dessert stops, Mrs. Curl's, for a goodbye party for this year's graduates and movers. I just love these ladies that I've crossed paths with here in Indianapolis, and I know we'll stay in touch with so many great friends from this part of our life.

You Gotta Regatta

We met Michael's parents and his little sister Rachel down in Louisville last weekend to go to the temple with them. It's so fun to meet family down there, and we magically hit no traffic on a Friday afternoon and made it to Louisville in record time. Those bridges can be brutal.

We all made a late night drive back up to Indianapolis together after that so we could go to the IUPUI Regatta the next morning. Michael was in this canoe race last year and it was a blast, so I was excited to watch him again. The school puts on the race and teams sign up in male, female, or co-ed categories. The dental school always sponsors a few teams, and for some reason one of those teams seems to win it every year. Those dental students just have competition in their veins.

Michael rowed down the canal with his friend Derek, and then their friends Brian and Garrett rowed back the other way. They all go to dental school with him, and their team was named the FluoRiders. Good stuff.

They almost made it to the finals, but not quite - next year for sure! We had fun cheering them on and walking around the booths and listening to the live music there that day. I even ran along the canal to keep up with them during their race, which was a sight to see. This bump sure takes away whatever grace I once had. The canal is such a fun spot in Indy's downtown, I love being there. The race was pretty entertaining - a surprising number of teams flipped their canoes over, had collisions, or found themselves going backwards. We were loving it.

We love it so much when family comes to visit! Rachel is getting married this week and we are SO excited for her, and for even more family time :) Fall is just shaping up to be a party this year.

So You Married a Dental Student...

Let's talk about dental school. It's been a little while since we discussed that, right? We'll start with the big news... Michael passed his boards! He took them in the middle of January, which was pretty dang early, and he rocked it. I've been sitting on that happy news for a while now, unless you're hanging out with me over on Instagram. He studied so.many.flashcards. Sometimes I would read them to him while we were driving and I just cannot comprehend how he memorizes the things he memorizes. I'm so proud of him! He is, at this moment (which is after 11pm on a Tuesday), still in his lab at school. He has a lot to get done before Spring Break, and we just have not seen a lot of each other the last little while. I sure love this kid and how hard he works. 

And now, a couple of the random joys the dental school experience offers that no one tells you about...

Below you will see what was waiting for us on our porch last week. Bottles and bottles of mouthwash. A dentist's personal spam mail. Johnson & Johnson is already schmoozing him. Getting "fresh", if you will. I could not stop cracking up at this sight. I mean, for real? I was just loving it.

Also, I visited Michael in his lab bearing Chipotle a few weeks ago, to see him in his element. He looks so smart in his element! Am I right? The glasses. The beakers. He was using a machine that would stir his beaker for him when he pushed a button. I mean, he just looked like a natural up in there. My last lab experience was back in the AP Chemistry days of senior year in high school, with my best friend Kindal as my lab partner. We put a permanent burn mark on the ceiling. Our teacher still loved us though. As I stood there in awe of Michael's awesomeness that night, our conversation went something like this:

Me: "You look so smart right now. I'm gonna 'gram this."

Michael: "Nooo, no pictures right now."

Me: "When you married me you gave me copyrights to your life."

Then I 'grammed it.

And, what happens when the spam-mailed dentist is married to an Activity Day leader? Creativity, people... even if the activity this week was about budgeting, the mouthwash just had to play a role.

Today is your FRESH start...keep a budget!

Yeah, I know. I know. But I got rid of 16 bottles! And the girls were thrilled? In fact, one of them came up to me and said, 

"Do I do this in the morning or at night?" 

"What, budget?"

"No, the mouthwash!"

"Oh... I don't know. Do you want one for both?"

But she didn't. Just 32 bottles to go.

See, the poor and tired student life does have some random laughs and perks along the way. Perks being mouthwash, yes, but also much better things. Like just loving life with friends who are in your same boat. Or having a Redbox Saturday night after a test week (although in this week's version Michael fell asleep 10 minutes into the movie, but it's still going down in the books as a date night...poor guy). We are happy, and this stage of our life is flying by so fast. I knew it would going into it, and I feel it happening now. Almost halfway!

*This post is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson! (Sort of...) Simply become a follower of the blog and leave a comment below for a chance to win a FREE (and fresh and cool and minty) Johnson & Johnson product! Winners will be notified by email, and will receive multiple free products even though they only probably wanted to win one. Good luck!

Us and Every Day

I think I only blog about the highlights of our life. The trips and the fun things we do here and there. It's easy to think only eventful things are worth talking about, but I don't want to forget about what our day to day life is right now - our routine, our little home, this early stage of our life together. It's a good time. I want to remember all these details. So, here are a few of them.

Here's our tiny front yard, landscaped by the one and only Michael Daetwyler. There's no one else you want in charge of your plants. Next to that is our view from our bedroom window over our two cute cars - our navy Corolla and our little blue truck, 89' Chevy S10. It used to be Michael's grandpa's truck. Those little blue cars are good to us. We have already put quite a few miles on them together.

We carpool with each other every day, which is the best bonus. It's an extra 45 minutes of our day that we get to spend together, and I love it. Sometimes we just fill it with NPR, on test days Michael studies the whole way, but sometimes we just laugh and laugh. 

Michael goes to dental school at IUPUI, and rocks it. He puts in so many hours. He's in his second of four years, which is the infamous year of the dental school experience. Third and fourth years are mostly clinical, so this year is just packed with bookwork and tests and boards. We hear it's a crazy busy time, especially second semester. You can usually find him studying, which means that sometimes you'll just find him passed out on the floor. It's pretty relentless, dental school. I'm so proud of Michael and how hard he works.

As for me, I retired from homework. I work in marketing for a work site healthcare management company downtown, just 5 minutes from the dental school. There has been a definite learning curve with this job since I've never worked in healthcare before, but it has been really good for me. We leave an hour earlier on Monday mornings so Michael can listen to an oral surgery meeting, so I go on a solo breakfast date. I kind of love that tiny window of time before my week starts...it slows me down and gives me a minute to think and read. One of my favorite places to go to lunch downtown is the Indianapolis City Market, just a few blocks south of my work. Markets are the best part of any city, in my opinion. I love being so close to Indy's...and its Blue Bell ice cream milkshakes. :)

When we're not at work and school, we love exploring this new city of ours. Downtown Indianapolis is really transforming into something great, and there are some beautiful spots and fun events around. The pictures above are from last Thursday's concert on the canal that we just went to, after taking advantage of a free museum day. We love free...blame dental school. And we love that Indianapolis is the "crossroads of America"... there are so many cities nearby that need to be explored! We've made quick trips to Louisville, Cincinnati, Des Moines, Chicago, & Milwaukee, and we still have a long to do list.

But sometimes we don't explore, because staying home is so fun, too. We are surrounded by good friends here. GREAT friends here. Just in the town homes around us are about 15 other young families that go to our same church, and we all have so much fun together. Most of us are far away from our families, so we lean on each other for help and for fun. I absolutely love my friends here, and their kiddos. Mostly their kiddos. Just kidding. But seriously, their kids are really cute.

You can frequently find Michael checking on his plants, and me checking with my sister to see if my outfit is ok. I think drill team in high school has given me a permanent crutch for needing opinions - I got ready for high school every day with all my friends in the locker room after practice. You can't just get ready all alone after that. Sisters are such good sports.

We have some fun neighbors around here who just love when we play outside with them. From the second we pull up into our parking spots, there are little boys who rush over asking "Michael, football?" And inside, our little apartment is finally feeling pretty homey. It took about a year of project lists and Craigslist searching and whatnot...but we are feeling pretty settled now. Making a little home is a good, good feeling.

Our random sources of income really crack me up. I choose traditional full-time employment, but Michael has very different ideas to work with his student life. He has a profile online with a dog sitting company, so we have some random visitors here and there. Truth is, we'd probably babysit cute dogs for free, but we're more than happy to get paid for it, too.

Michael is also an avid mystery shopper...meaning that almost every time we go out to eat it's either free or we even make money off of it, because we fill out surveys afterward. It's a sweet gig, and it lets us try a bunch of places we would otherwise never be able to afford right now. If we're not mystery shopping, we probably have a Groupon. Gotta love the student life.

And a few times a month Michael talks me into transcribing one of his dental school classes (they pay students to transcribe every class so that everyone has the lectures to study from word for word), which is always an experience... Last time I transcribed an hour lecture about something called "Hairy Tongue" and I squinted the whole time so I didn't have to look at the PowerPoint pictures. Those harsh conditions usually lead to me justifying clothing purchases with verbatim money because...those are just not fun.

And besides all of those things that keep us busy, there always seems to still be fun moments full of just nothing, really. That's when Michael plays a little guitar or takes a lesson from YouTube. He would play name that tune with me as long as I would let him. Or we just stare at our hummingbird feeder until we get little visitors. I once heard that Hawaiians will ask their children "have you seen a bird today?" if they feel like they're moving too fast or getting too busy. I like that little check. We're definitely ok there. 

I think having a little cat around encourages some slow down moments as well. She is just tempting us with naps all the time... we love her. And we don't love cats. Just this one. She's part of this little routine we have going on now too.

So that's our Indiana life. We have been here one year this month, and it FLEW by. I'm positive the next three will fly by, too. Life just picks up speed, right? I'm grateful that I have a life that I want to slow down.

Real Time

Last night he...

Studied and studied and studied. And studied. This week, he studied and studied. And studied. And ate a lot of chocolate chip cookies and the last Easter bunny of the Easter stash. So that he could keep studying.

Last night I...

Studied and studied....a new skill? No, I didn't study. But I appreciated Michael's studying, and told him so, and worked hard on this new found [developing and not quite yet a] skill. It makes me feel very...mature? And kind of like I have ADD. And no, I'm not crocheting a Yamaka.  The beginning stages are just a little deceiving.

And tonight we...

Are off to see and hear good music. With good friends. Then we'll get home so Michael can study and study...

And study.

Can you even handle the excitement that is our lives this week? This weekend looks promising though.

A {late} New Year's Post | 2012

I almost decided it was too late and too daunting to do a little year-in-review post.

Then I thought, wait a second...2012 was a pretty.big.deal. The biggest yet.

So, scratch that decision - we're doing this. Ready for a rewind?

My first full month of being engaged to THIS guy. 

He proposed to me after picking me up from the airport from a trip for work,

right before he went home to Indiana for the holidays. I was one happy girl.

I flew to Indiana after Christmas and had so much fun spending New Year's with his family.

We went on a date to St. Louis during that trip,

and ate dinner with a beautiful view of the arch.

I remember feeling so happy and at peace and more than ready to marry this wonderful man.

After the holidays, we went home to wedding plans,

Michael's last semester of school, and my job at Imagine Learning.

It was such a fun time. I loved living with Logan and Jenny's family SO much.

Here's a snapshot of one of the many memorable Family Home Evenings we spent with them. 

We still eat pizza on Mondays to carry on their little tradition. 

For some reason I just like eating pizza knowing there's some pizza-eating going on in Lehi, too.

February was the busiest, craziest month at my job. I loved it.

We had a conference in DC at the end of the month,

and it felt so good to be back there. I love that city.

 I visited Ali in Boston before going back to Utah,

and we had a blast.

We watched the Super Bowl, gave Toby Keith a chance (mistake),

ate all our favorite Boston foods, and just loved seeing each other.

Then it was time to get back to Lehi, and spend time with these cute kids.

At this point we found out that we were Indiana-bound come July,

so I was soaking up my time with them.

February marked the start of the pinwheels...

Oh we just made SO many of these for our wedding reception.

I am forever indebted to Michael and my sister-in-law Jenny.

Pretty sure none of us got anything out of all four sessions of General Conference,

but those pinwheels kept us awake, at least.

We.made.so.many.

And February 2012 marked the best Valentine's Day yet. 

Michael and I passed each other on University Ave in the morning,

dropping off little surprises on doorsteps and desks.

Everyone at my office passed out Valentine's, and we had a pink breakfast.

It was the best love day so far.

 March was FULL of wedding prep,

and I'm pretty sure poor Michael almost burned all those pinwheels.

The only thing that got us through stuffing all those invitations

was the promise of a Sammy's burger and shake after.

I started getting a little nervous about the whole marriage idea,

(it's a big big deal,)

but then something would always remind me how completely 

excited I was to be with Michael forever.

I drove that I-15 stretch from Provo to Lehi and Lehi to Provo WAY too many times that month,

WAY too late at night on WAY too little sleep. It was great.

 My sweet friends at work threw me the most colorful and thoughtful bridal shower.

It was so fun to spend eight hours a day with them. Best part of my job.

 I took a lonely trip to Philadelphia for work,

but eating every meal at Reading Market and spending time

with the author of this blog definitely brightened things up.

And my boss at work taught us all how to make a pie.

So Jenny, Lydia, Jaren and I ate it outside on the porch,

and life was just so good.

Michael graduated on April 20th, and I was so proud of him.

He spent so much time helping me with all sorts of wedding things,

but he still managed to be the smartest kid at BYU. I'm sure of it.

Then the VERY next day, was a beautiful spring morning...

and we were married.

For all eternity.

It was perfect, 

and I am so grateful for every single thing (and person) 

that led us both to the Jordan River temple that day.

We had such a party after. 

It was the most incredible feeling to have SO many people we love in one room,

for such a happy, happy occasion.

Heaven is going to be such a good time. That's what I learned that night.

Our families made that day so beautiful. We are so grateful for them.

And I am so grateful for Michael. 

You guys, he danced that night like it was his favorite thing in the world.

It was the best.thing.ever.

I replay that in my head so often,

nothing makes me smile faster.

(And IF you want to replay it in real life,

you can come to my house and watch the DVD. 

We maybe shouldn't tell Michael though?)

I felt like our reception was 8 minutes long,

I was just so happy and loved everyone in the room so much.

Then suddenly, we were running through sparklers and we were outta there!

 And away we went to Mexico.

We went from the busiest, craziest month,

to absolutely nothing to do but see how many pina coladas we could drink in one day.

(A lot.)

Danny and Diana sent us parasailing for our wedding present,

which was SO nice of them. We both loved it.

(Michael definitely loved it more than our paragliding experience...)

That week was so wonderful. And considering it's just 19 degrees outside my house right this moment,

I think I'll just keep thinking about Mexico for another two hours.

We flew from Mexico City to Amsterdam. ? 

I'm sure the airport was convinced we had drugs on us.

We met Michael's parents, Rachel, Katie & Ryan there,

loaded up our bikes, and explored the tulips.

It was so beautiful there. Windmills and water everywhere,

and we just could really get used to that carefree feeling that comes after weddings and graduations.

And I could really get used to eating Kinder bars every day.

We loved being there with Michael's family.

Even in the moments when it hurt to sit on our bikes,

or anywhere else for that matter.

Luckily those 20-40 mile bike rides each day were pretty much 

as flat as you could hope for, so we could keep up with Michael's parents.

They were much better at training for that week than we were...

Thank you, Daetwylers, for those great memories! 

And the motivation to get on our bikes more :)

We came back to Utah for just a short couple months,

and we loved that brief time of two full-time jobs and lots of time to play with friends and family.

My aunt Tanya married her best friend Dan in May, 

and my family was thrilled for her. She's one of the best people I know.

Then after three weeks of being married,

I left for a few days to go to Texas for work.

Michael missed me. And I missed him. And I never knew Texas could look like that.

When I got back from Texas,

we got to work on our Utah to-do list.

We had to fit in all our favorite things before Michael left for school!

My beautiful friend Jaclyn married Mark in June,

and I loved that we were still in the same state for that sweet day.

She was my random roommate my freshman year in Heritage Halls,

and we just loved each other from the start.

We lived together for three years at BYU,

and I learned so much from this girl. Mark is one lucky guy.

 We took a red-eye flight straight from Jaclyn's reception,

to meet Michael's family in Florida.

Michael has driven down to Florida once a year his whole life,

and I love all his stories from those trips.

We loved being there with our cute nieces and nephews,

and spending time with Michael's family. 

He spent the majority of that time playing "ninja" with his nephew,

but I think he liked all the other parts, too.

 Right after Florida I went to my last conference for Imagine Learning in San Diego.

That was a bittersweet trip...bitter because I was so sad to leave my job,

and sweet because look at all the cupcakes I ate while I was there.

Sprinkles, you guys. I had to.

I even went on a solo date to Wicked one night,

and felt like the luckiest girl.

Logan and Jenny had pizza night and Family Home Evening in Provo land one night,

and Jaren and Lydia loved the duck pond. It was so fun living close by.

We went to one last show at the Hale to see my friend Deb,

before she left town to make it big in NYC. I know her guys. Let it be known,

before she gets super famous and you don't believe me.

And then for one weekend Michael and I pretended we knew how to be parents,

and we took Jaren and Lydia to Cedar City while their parents visited Ali in Boston.

We don't know how to be parents.

But, we're a pretty good time, so I think we'll be ok.

Right after we unpacked our first little tiny home,

we packed up our first little tiny home.

So sad, right? But I loved it there, and we'll always remember it.

Michael left early in July for Indianapolis,

to start dental school. 

His mom was SO nice to help take our stuff and drive with him to Indiana from Utah.

So, recap: in our first three months of marriage,

we spent more than three weeks apart.

It kind of felt like we were doing the whole marriage thing wrong.

 I stayed in Lehi for two more weeks with Logan and Jenny,

to work one last conference in Provo for work. 

This was our yearly conference where all our off site employees come to Utah for a week.

I was so glad I could say goodbye to everyone before leaving.

My company had a barbecue up the canyon that week,

so Jenny and I brought her kids and their friends to it.

You can see that Kamden was all about the candy explosion,

but Lydia had some serious anxiety about the blow up slides.

I was even there for Jaren's birthday during those two weeks,

so that was really lucky!

This Spiderman boy just loved turning five.

Then I said a sad goodbye to these two and their family.

Thank you, cute Miner family, for taking SUCH good care of me last year!

Then my sweet parents drove me yet again to the Vegas airport.

We have taken that route together quite a few times,

which always involves good talks during the stretch of road that I can actually stay awake on.

Then I landed in our new home, Indianapolis!

It was so good to be with Michael again,

but it sure felt surreal to land in a city for the first time knowing that you live there now.

We spent a lot of time that month putting together our new apartment,

and driving around getting Craigslist finds. 

Oh, and I ran out of gas. And didn't know where I was.

And...ok, the transition was a little rough. But now it's funny, right?

I still refer to it as "the time that the truck broke down,"

and Michael tries to tell me that nothing is actually broken when you forget to put gas in a car.

Whatever. I'm in a better place now, and the gas gauge hasn't gotten the best of me since.

My sister quit her job in Boston this year, 

to start the Speech Language Pathology grad program at BYU.

We planned from the day she moved to Boston five years ago 

that we would drive across the country together when she was done there.

So, in early August, Michael and I did another two weeks apart,

and I flew to Boston for one last perfect day in that city with my sister.

My parents met us there, too,

and then began the road trip of all road trips. Seriously. 

It was so crazy long,

and we loved it.

Then I left these two again,

and they were getting tired of me dragging out this goodbye process.

But that just goes to show you that goodbyes with family don't ever have to be sad.

You'll always make time to see each other and find a way to make it happen.

(Like...when they all come out for the fourth of July this year! Be excited.)

So I waited for my plane with this bird,

and went back to Indiana for REAL this time. 

No more of that two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off type of marriage.

September was birthday month,

and it involved a lot of raspberries.

That's kind of just what it was. Birthday month and berries.

 In October we met Michael's parents in Loogootee, Indiana,

and visited a lot of Amish shops and farms.

Michael was in jail for part of the time,

but I had to let him out to ride in a buggy with me. I couldn't let him miss that.

The people there were so nice, and we loved meeting them. It was a beautiful day.

Dental school continues. And this really is their homework.

It's the real deal.

 Our weekends started filling up with things that pop up when you Google

"top things to do in Indianapolis."

Like the art museum, up above. Being held up by a thousand tiny hands is definitely something.

Other big news in October was starting my new job, 

and finally finishing our first nightmare of a project 

(that we now love and hold no hard feelings towards).

 

November meant BIRTHDAY time for Michael,

(complete with a week-later sunny trip to the zoo and a Pacer's game),

late night dates with election results,

finally finishing the table of popsicle sticks,

and a new little nephew in our life. Nice work, November.

 We watched Fall fade away with some sadness

(goodbye, frisbee after work & school),

but Thanksgiving in Evansville got us in the mood for the holidays.

 

Then suddenly, December. That month that is always here so suddenly.

It brought beautiful sunsets, just like all the others.

 We put up our tiny Christmas, and loved the one downtown as well.

Our holidays came on fast, and we loved it.

I'm sure you remember our Christmas in Utah, 

 and New Year's in Evansville.

We were so lucky to be able to see both our families over the holidays.

And let's be real. We were so lucky to experience everything we did in 2012,

and to be sealed together for eternity.

I loved last year, so much. I know that it was more than these highlights and pictures...

I mean, weddings and moving and job searching, 

those big changes don't come without opposition and discouragement, and little freak outs.

But when I look at what I'm blessed with, and who I'm blessed with,

those moments fade away fast. And these are the memories that stick.

I loved last year, and I am so grateful for everything I learned during it all.

So here we go, 2013. 

I'm ready to let you be your own kind of wonderful,

because I think 2012 is going down in the books as pretty unique,

and better than I could have ever planned.