Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2014. Where did the last year go? In fact, where have the last 14 years gone? I remember NYE 1999. M and I went to a friends house to celebrate with half our senior class. It seems like last year, not 14 years ago. December 28 marks our 14 year anniversary of being together. We're getting to the point where we've almost been together for more of our life that not. It makes me so proud and thankful. I can't imagine my life without him.

As I mentioned in my previous post, 2013 was a good year, but I'm really looking forward to 2014. Of course for the obvious reason, the baby, but for so many others.

Here are some of the highlights from 2013.

January - March - I don't think anything too exciting went down in the early months of 2013. My mother-in-law had been living with us, but she left in January to go and help my sister-in-law out; she was having a total knee replacement. She's been with her the last year, but she's headed back to our hometown tomorrow, so that's exciting. Aside from my family, both M's mom and my mom will be in the same place. In February and March, I stayed busy with work.

April - I took 4 students to New Orleans to a conference. They did great presenting their research, and we had a lot of fun. Mainly, I was busy with work and the end of the semester.

May - School's out for the summer! We had graduation and I managed to not tear up, which was quite the feat for me as I usually cry at anything even remotely sad or touching. At the end of the semester, three of my girlfriends were moving away, and so we went on an all girls camping trip in Arkansas. So much fun!!!! However, they left a week later and this city has not been the same without them. We didn't do much for Memorial Day because I left that Monday for France!!!!

June - I took a student to do a summer internship in France. We spend about 24 hours in Paris, and we saw as much of the city as we could. I loved, loved, loved the Lock Bridge and the Eiffel Tower. We then traveled down to Montpellier, where she was spending the summer. We saw a lot of the city, had many tiny coffees and marched in a Gay Rights Parade. Quite an adventure!

In June, I also took a week to watch M compete in his Ironman and then to Montana for a visit afterward. He did so awesome in the race. I am so proud of him and so impressed by his perseverance and will power. Unfortunately, I got the worst wife award while in CDA. I thought I was recording parts of his race, including the finish, but I realized after that I didn't get  a bit of it. I had the settings completely wrong. I was beyond disappointed, but thankfully, I did get a few pics. 

After the race, we headed over to Montana. We had a wonderful trip and got to enjoy Glacier and the beautiful weather. Although it wasn't super relaxing (it never is; we're always soooo busy), it was wonderful to be home. 

July - I spent the whole month doing research with my two summer students, but M and I did manage to sneak away for the weekend for our friends' wedding. It was the first time M and I had been to Delaware. Despite some major challenges getting there, it was a lovely wedding and we were happy to celebrate with them.

August - October - School started in August, but since I was off during the fall semester, it was kind of anti-climatic. I was busy at work, despite being "off". In the middle of October, we found out I was pregnant. M didn't believe it until he bought one of those fancy "pregnant/not pregnant" tests. Pretty surreal. At the end of the month, I had some weirdness going on and I thought I lost the baby. I have no idea what was going on, but a visit to the doctor confirmed that everything was okay. I even got to hear the heartbeat!

November - I spent most of the month with morning sickness. When I went in to see my doctor at 8 weeks, he reassured me that "it was normal and that it should only last for 6-7 more weeks". Sigh... November was busy with work as we're hiring, but we had our dear friends from California visit for Thanksgiving. Even though it's been a year since we've seen them, it was like no time had passed. We had so much fun, ate great food and even continued our annual turkey trot! I'm so glad we've continued spending Thanksgiving with them.

December - I was still feeling kind of terrible, but we drove to Iowa and then to Minnesota to see M's family for the holidays. The drive was TERRIBLE. I don't know if we'll be doing that again. The only good thing is that we can take the dogs. They were so good and had so much fun. We spent Christmas eve just the two of us and then went to a friend's house for Christmas day brunch. My mom came that evening and we spent the last week of the year being lazy and doing a few things to get ready for the baby.

January is going to be busy as well. After being off, I'm scrambling to get my act together for Wednesday when classes start. I'm really looking forward to 2014. At the end of the month is my best friend's wedding and I'm headed back to Montana for the wedding. I just hope I'll fit in my dress! We should also find out the gender of the baby. Yay!!!!

xoxox,
lw