2010 was an amazing year full of many trips to CA and time spent with family and friends. We had great bachelor/bachelorette parties in Las Vegas and had an amazing wedding in Santa Rosa, CA. After all that awesomeness, we decided to top it all off with a spectacular South Pacific honeymoon. Wow! So, what's been going on since then????
Right before the wedding, I applied to graduate school and was accepted. In August we took a trip to Williamsburg to visit Kathy and Alex before they made their trek to Michigan for Alex's exciting new position as the head men's cross country coach. Then, a week later we headed out to CA to look at our professional wedding photos. We also go to visit Jamie, Nick, and Kinley in Sacramento. On that same visit we saw quite a few other friends and as always, I was was anxious and sad to see the summer come to an end.
The school year began with a bang. Starting grad school was a good idea, but it has limited both my time and motivation to make time for "gym" on a regular basis..sigh. It's supposed to be a "lifestyle", right. This year I have a great class, but 25 kids is more than I've had in awhile and there are some other strains that have come with those numbers. Thankfully, these kids really love school and I always have a few fun stories and something to smile about everyday.
Grad school has been a whole new experience. The ages of the students range from 24-late 50's. It is an interesting group full of varying personalities and motivations. So far the program has been A LOT of reading and web based projects. Considering it is a technology program, that is not too suprising. One of the downfalls of the program thus far is that many of the lessons that we've been creating are not realistic for the amount of time that my students have access to computers every week. Hopefully this will be changing in the near future, but we're not there yet.
We also made another quick trip to CA in September to celebrate Dallas and Stephanie's getting married. It was great to be there, but the quick cross country trip always takes a toll. Damn only having 3 personal days!
Moving on....in October Kristan came for a visit and we had a lot of fun in DC and at the Battle of Manassas. The next weekend Andrew and I took a short vacation to Orlando, Florida. We visited Harry Potter land (the butter beer is yum yum!) at Universal Studies, Disney's Magic Kingdom, and Epcot Center. During the month of October Epcot has a food and wine festival. It was awesome! Every single country/area of Epcot has little food stands with small samplings of food/beverages from that country. It was a great way to sample lots of food and wind through the park. Next time we do this trip, we'll definitely plan to have a few more days or just go to one park. The month of October ended with Halloween (our 2nd engagementversary). We tied the dog up to the railing so she could see all the cute little kiddos coming to the door in their costumes. We ended up with lots of extra candy and will definitely buy less next year.
November was a blur of grad school assignments and prayers for Thanksgiving to come sooner rather than later. For Thanksgiving we traveled to CA and visited with lots of friends and family. We stayed with Kristan and Paul for a few days, Sophie and Aaron, and even with Kole and Brian in Salinas. It (as always) felt much too quick, but we were happy to be able to see and visit with so many people. Maybe one day people will come visit us???? We have a cozy guest room ;).
December brought some light snow and the end of my first semester of grad school. I am happy to announce that it was a stressful, yet successful semester. My goal for my second semester is to learn some balance and to spread out my work. Thankfully, I was dedicated enough to do most of my homework on weekends (some people were doing last minute all night writing of papers), but I really need to dedicate an hour or so everyday and it would probably help me feel less pressured on the weekends. I say this with still having 2 weeks until the new semester begins.
This year we celebrated Christmas and New Years with the Gibbys. As always, the Gibbys are amazing hosts and we were fed well. I added a yummy parsnip bread pudding (thanks K!) to the Christmas dinner table and it was well received. This being my first year as "official" family, I really wanted to make a bit more effort than green bean casserole. Andrew spoiled me with a new Lumix ZS7 camera and a coach purse (I've been wanting one forever!). I got Andrew a Kindle, and quite a few items of clothing (because he never NEEDS anything...but really he does).
As we begin a new year, I am looking forward to some good times.
January- Andrew's birthday, helping the Gibby's host a going away party for friends, a break from grad school
February-Elisha's birthday, a trip to Wisp, MD for some skiing (lounging for E) with friends in a cabin for President's day weekend
March-hmmmm need a plan for this month!
April-possibly a girl's trip for spring break, visiting Tevis and Katrina in PA, spring break
May-Jared and Melissa's wedding in CA, finishing semester 2 and beginning semester 3 of grad school, Memorial Day.....miss the Lake days
June-school is out!, Kim and Dave's wedding <3>
July-finishing 3rd semester of grad school, our 1st anniversary...thinking about a trip, 4th of July
That is all I know for now. I am sure there will be more adventures coming our way. Happy New Year!
