It is safe to say that 2013 was a challenging and exciting year. It was full of ups and downs, as I suppose most years are. However, I can say that it was definitely a year for the books. While there were certainly struggles, it is the good things that I know I will remember as time continues to pass (way too quickly, it seems). Here are some of the things that we celebrated in 2013: Enjoy!
January marks birthdays for my mom, my two older brothers, and for myself. I turned twenty-three this year, and we celebrated all of the birthdays as a family at Dave and Busters. It was a blast, though our family outings always seem to be.
Also in January, I looked into the idea of doing a gluten-free diet. I have had stomach issues for ages, and we were desperate to try anything to make it a little better. This did not work, which was probably a very good thing since I could not stand to eat this bread!
February marked our sixth Valentine's Day together since we began dating. Since it's always so crazy on Valentine's Day (and we were both working and everything), we decided to go out to eat the weekend before the 14th instead. It was much quieter and less busy than it would have been on the actual day, and we have a very nice evening.
March was cheerleading tryouts, which meant for some very long nights (and weeks) for this cheerleading sponsor. It was a lot of work between getting the packet ready, going to required meeting, holding parent meetings, finding someone to teach them tryout material, spending evenings at the school to have the girls learn the material, hosting the tryouts at our school (meaning being there late on a Friday night to set up), and being there all day on a Saturday for actual tryouts.
April was Easter, where Michael and I exchanged Easter baskets with one another (since we don't have children), and we spent time at my parents' house instead of doing the tradition Easter egg hunt and things with Michael's family like we did every year before.
May consisted of having an upper endoscopy done in hopes of finding out more about my stomach problems. Needless to say, I was terrified, and was glad to have my husband and mom there for support since I do not do well with medical things. It was the first step in finally finding a successful solution.
May also meant traveling back towards our school town in order to attend my best friends' baby shower. I hate that we live so far away, so it was great that we were able to take a weekend down in order to see her and her husband. I hated that we couldn't stay too long, but it was a wonderful trip.
The rest of May/Beginning of June mostly revolved around spending time with my brother and his (then) fiance. We attended some soccer games with them, enjoyed some Chikfila, as well as went to a Rangers baseball game with my parents.
June was all about stress for me as I finished up my first year of teaching (middle school, at that) and had to begin thinking about the next year. I knew that I did not really want to stay at my current school, so I began the search for a new school in the future. It took up quite a bit of my summer, in fact, and unfortunately was not successful.
June also marked our honeymoon. As we were both just starting our new/first jobs when we got married, we decided it would not be best to take our honeymoon right away (especially since I don't get too many days off). Instead, we waited until June and went to the Sandals resort in Bahamas. It was definitely a nice vacation after finishing up the school year.
Part 2 coming...probably tomorrow! :]
