January
Justin and I began the year by seeing a few movies during our holiday break including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Saving Mr. Banks. I guess we just have a lot more free time to see movies during our holiday break. We were busy preparing for our trip to Europe, and I bought a new camera lens with some money I had won from a giveaway. Justin and I also took the time out to visit with Scott Jarvie, a photographer who was photographing temples all around the US at the time. Then to end our month with a bang, we got snowed in!
February
Before we knew it, February was upon us! We didn't get to celebrate Valentine's Day alone this year, but rather we spent it with a 4 year old instead. Then, to make matters worse, our landlord contacted us and told us he had sold the house we were renting. It was a rough month physically and emotionally since we weren't ready to move.
March
As March began, Justin and I started making some difficult decisions. What kind of position were we in financially? Could we afford to rent another house in the area we had come to love? Did we want to risk having another landlord sell the property we were staying at? Would we be better off saving money and staying further away from our work? To get away from it all for an evening, we went to the Fox Theatre to see Once. Even though I didn't enjoy the show as much as I had hoped, it was a fun experience I won't soon be forgetting. In preparation for our upcoming move, we bought a truck which was the first big purchase I had ever made. It was exhilarating even if I didn't want to move.
April
During the month of April, I set out to blog A-Z. I only made it partially through being interrupted by weekends and a trip to Europe. It was a fun experiment and I discovered a lot of fun blogs this way. We moved during the month and celebrated Easter right after. It was a crazy busy month that I am grateful I won't have to live through again (at least not for a while).
May
I didn't blog much in May because Justin and I were exploring Europe, the trip we had been planning for over a year (and that I still wasn't prepared for). Just as Justin and I settled back into "normal life", we went to Florida to visit Justin's family on their vacation. It was a welcome break as I was still dealing with a bit of post-vacation, post-moving depression.
June
We stayed in Florida through June 1st getting to enjoy the ocean for one of the first weekends of summer. It wasn't too hot and being able to walk in the ocean was AMAZING! :) (You have no idea how amazing it is until you go to Europe and are forced to walk on rocks at the beach. Ouch, ouch, ouch!) Other than our very short Florida vacation, we didn't do too much in June aside from an attempt to save money.
July
Over the July 4th weekend, I received a call letting me know that the children I had been watching were too old for a sitter and that I would need to find new employment for the fall. I spent a few days depressed questioning my life choices and praying that I was making the right ones before receiving a call at the end of the month for an interview with another family. Would I be employed for the upcoming year? Luckily I got to end the month celebrating my birthday in Charleston with my in-laws and eating a delicious homemade French meal made with French cookbooks. This was definitely a birthday to remember.
August
At the beginning of August Justin and I "celebrated" 10 years of being together. I spent a lot of time editing images during the month. At the end of it, we celebrated 3 birthdays including Justin's! I also successfully got through my first month watching the new kids; that was a feat in itself.
September
This month was pretty uneventful. We went to see comedian John Hodgeman for Justin's birthday and I took on a lot of blog projects. I took the time to do a mid-year look back which was interesting and allowed me to see all that I had already accomplished for the year. We celebrated Justin's dad's birthday with an expensive dinner and a trip to the Braves stadium to see a game. Before I knew it, one more month had passed and fall was on it's way…
October
In October, I challenged myself to edit one image a day. It didn't last, mostly because editing takes a lot of time and takes away from my blog post creativity. Instead of continuing to edit photos every day I began my Tuesday hotel review series (aka Travel Tuesday) which is now coming to an end as I run out of hotels to review. (Time for more travel?!) One of the most exciting things Justin and I got to do was fly up to see friends in Washington DC. It was an exhausting trip to make in a weekend, but it was sooo much fun!
November
We spent most of November shopping and preparing to take Thanksgiving dinner up to my grandparents in north Georgia. Luckily, we got a small bit of break in between planning when we randomly went to Asheville for a day. I simply had to get up there before the leaves changed. We had a lot of fun shopping on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday before the month came to an end.
December
The last month of the year started with us running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We had parties to go to, people to see, shopping to do, decorating to put up, and cards to make. There was far too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it all. For the first weekend in December we went up to Asheville, NC to celebrate my mom's birthday. It all went downhill from there. The good news is that we will be ending the year in one piece. It's so hard for me to believe that this year is almost over!
Hope you all have a fantastic New Years eve and I look forward to hearing from you in the new year!
P.S. Feel free to share your "look backs" with me. I'd love to see what all you've been up to this year and where life has taken you. This year has been a busy year for everyone!
