All about Max

Maxwell has taken over our lives, and for now he will take over this blog.  This is Max in his "bed".  I bought him his own laundry hamper after I caught him curled up in mine when we got home from work one day.  Also we are poor and didn't buy a kennel.

This is Adam and Max with friends Jimmy and Cali.  Even though Max is homeschooled, we are trying to socialize him.

This is how Max eats out of his food bowl.  He lays down and just sticks his face in it.  Who doesn't like to relax while they eat?

The next two pics are when I gave Max a bath.  You can see how skinny he really is.  He was acting pretty pathetic the entire time, but he had no choice.  He was filthy after our YI Leadership Bible Study camping trip.  I think he is still recovering from nonstop play time with the other puppy Rylie.  (more socialization for the homeschooler)

Here is a video of a regular evening at the Johnson's.  Adam is "busy" and Max is trying to destroy the laundry hamper.  It is such a great toy/bed because when he attacks it, it springs back into its original shape.  It's okay if it gets destroyed because it was $10.

I hope you enjoy these pics as much as we enjoy spending time with our puppy (impossible).  Next time I will talk about the YI camping trip...

puppy love - part 2

I had to post this video we took of little Maxwell today.  I love the way he runs!

Something is wrong with the microphone on my digital camera so just ignore the static noise.  In fact why don't you just mute it.  Also, here is another pic.

I promise I'll try really hard to talk about other things besides our puppy.  But he is all I can think about right now.  :)

puppy love

Adam and I were really blessed this weekend.  We have had puppy fever for a LONG time now, okay about 6 months.  We decided on a labradoodle around Christmas time, and I have to admit that I have spent many moments of my life searching for them online.  There happened to be a breeder in Georgetown where my parents live!  For the past couple of weeks, the breeder has had the perfect chocolate boy puppy with adorably curly hair.  This weekend we were able to take him home and we have officially added to our family!!!!!  It was love at first site.  This dog is amazing.  He is super mellow and loves to cuddle.  He is absolutely perfect and for some unknown reason as of now, God wanted us to have this puppy and we are thrilled!  Introducing...

 Maxwell

In case you are wondering, we named him Maxwell after the physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Quantum theory.  You can read about it here.  Or maybe we named him that after the coffee company since he is a chocolate color...

Mmm Mmm Good

It was a Happy Easter indeed. My parents and their puppies came to College Station for Easter this year and we had a whole Easter meal for the five of us (mom, dad, adam, kristen, alison = nosila). Alison (my sis) is now the family pro cook/chef/baker and for Easter she made Pavlova.

At first, everyone was afraid because the outer crust was so hard. We had no idea what was waiting for us in the center! She spread home made whipped cream on top along with strawberries and blueberries and cut a piece. When she pulled out her piece it was like a light shown down on it and the angels sang. You could see the soft inside that melted in your mouth. Mmmm it was so good!

Way To Go Adam!!!

On Good Friday, Adam participated in an aerospace competition and got third place!! The competition included a written 11 page max report and a 20 minute presentation. He presented on his master's research which is about the effects of space weather (specifically protons) on satellite imaging detectors. He did awesome!!! The competition was at the AIAA Region IV Student Conference 2010 located at NASA JSC in Houston, TX. The conference even put us up in a hotel for free! There were about 12 students in the master's division and Adam did a great job! After the awards ceremony, I made him pose in front of the podium even though he didn't want to. He will thank me later.

Isn't he a cutie.

less than a week, less than a week

While we were dating, I had an internship in the Washington D.C. area for 12ish weeks. Every time Adam and I would talk on the phone we would chant, "less than a week, less than a week" even though most of the time it was way more than a week until we were together again. It made us feel better. So now, "less than a week, less than a week" until we can stop this graduate school nonsense. I think if we didn't have each other, this would be impossible for both of us. Thank you Jesus!

This week has been very research heavy for both of us and that is no fun to blog about. I am putting off my extreme budget spreadsheet and house buying calculator for a while because I was slacking in the areas I get paid for [read: not as fun things]. I hope we can both finish in the June time frame so that we can go on a little vacation before Adam has to start a real job in July.

On Friday night, we had a Disciple Now type thing with our Youth Impact junior high and high schoolers. It was fun/crazy! I think the kids loved it.

Last post I was already over the "that's all for today" sign off, but I'll try it again today.

that's all for today

The beginning of home hunting

We spent the second half of spring break in the Dallas area hanging with friends and looking for a home. We checked out two apartment complexes and talked to a mortgage guy. No offense, but apartments are just lame. We only looked at two, but they were highly rated on apartment finder. Why would I pay someone $1000+/month for a teeny kitchen?? It just seemed silly. I'm pretty sure that we would have to sell 30% of our belongings before we fit into one of those.

The meeting with the mortgage guy went great! I was very impressed about how much they will let us borrow just based on Adam's salary (because we don't have a number for mine yet). And then I was even more impressed when we realized how big of a house that would buy in this fantastic home market. We are pretty much sold on buying a house, now we just have to figure out the logistics. It's like a multi-variable optimization problem... if only one of us had taken optimization. It is just like Dr. Hurtado tells me, life is a two point boundary value problem and we are just trying to figure out the path between the end points.

The problem is that we have no savings and our mortgage guy says we have to pay at least 3% down on closing. We will have that money once Adam starts working because they were so sweet to offer him a signing bonus. So then we wait until after he starts, but where will we live until then???? Also: When do we start really looking for houses if we aren't closing until August? Who knows a real estate person that we can trust that knows the Grand Prairie area? 1 million other questions... to much to think about now. It is fun to see who can find the cheapest and best house online. Did you know that google maps has a real-estate feature. Very helpful!!