On New Year's Eve Dan and I had some time to think about how our past year went. Overall, 2009 was one of our best years we've shared together. Mostly, we were so thankful for the blessings of being near family and continuing (and finishing for me!) our education.
The past few years Dan and I have posted our highs and lows of the year. Some of my blogging friends chose to do this with pictures, so I am going to attempt the same. Enjoy our year!
January -
If anything, the start of 2009 made us so grateful to be back in Oregon with our family and friends. We had spent winter break with family, enjoyed celebrating the new year with our friends (even if it cost us an arm and a leg in p-town), played in the snow and I enjoyed going to Halfway to hangout with my bestest friend Natalie (she was home from the peace corp in guatemala). I think at this time, we were really getting into hanging out with the Stuart's/Sperry's and then my MAT friends and their sig. others. January was all about friends and loved ones!
February -
This is the month I started student teaching - boy was that nerve-racking at first! I can't believe I now teach everyday! Dan spent most of his days at home, cultivating a love for Vampires (Bella and Edward), Dragons (Eragon books) and Sookie Stackhouse. I was completely jealous of him the whole month! We also got terribly sick and I tragically lost the 10 lbs I had so happily gained while in Florida! :( I also found out my good co-worker from Target in Florida died of lung cancer. That was pretty sad, but expected.
March-
Most of March consisted of long days waiting for Spring Break to come, a nice relaxing Spring Break and then a few days of wishing it was still Spring Break. By this time, I was getting completely used to teaching at South Salem HS. I was also super involved with coaching track (which I grew to love!). Dan still kept up his reading and working on his artwork. For Spring break we went hiking at Multnomah falls with Dan's family and then splurged a little on a trip to Seattle. We walked around the city, ate good food, went to the Aquarium, the space needle, shopping. It was great! Of course, we still kept up with our Sunday dinners and our FHE Mondays! Such great Salem friends...
April -
April was the best month as it was completely loaded with track meets, somewhat sunny(ier) days playing outside (but also such freezing cold ones at the beginning of the month!) AND I found out I was the first one in my MAT program to find a REAL LIFE TEACHING JOB! The only downer of the month was that my last work sample was due. At this point we also found out that Dan was accepted to PNCA and we were just giddy with our new life plans! Dan had been waiting to go back to school for over a year and the time had finally come, much thanks to his service in the Coast Guard and the GI Bill.
May -
May was a busy month! But it was finally officially warm weather season and we played out doors A LOT! We watched Eddie and Leila a few times in April/May as Dan's brother had to leave for his 3rd tour of duty in Iraq. Dan finally decided that it was time to go to Europe again before art school started and so thanks to a VERY GENEROUS gift from his parents we had tickets to Europe and a vacation to plan for! Unfortunately, vacation planning didn't really happen because I was busying finishing up and GRADUATING from Grad school at Willamette! How thankful I am for my MAT degree....phew! It was a long intensive 10 months, but so worth it!
June -
If May was busy, June was even busier. I had to wrap-up my time at South...I was sad to leave, but glad for warm weather and summertime! Dan and I frantically searched the area for apartments and somehow managed to coordinate us moving and getting ready to go on vacation seamlessly. Thanks to help from great friends, we moved up to Wilsonville and speed-read our Let's Go Europe travel guides. We also desperately tried to hang out with our Salem friends before we had to move away. With the beautiful weather I also got some good practice in with our Sony Alpha. By the end of the month we had painted our new apartment and were ready and packed for Europe!
July -
There is no small way of explaing how a trip abroad impacts your life...so I refer you to our posts in July. Europe was a blast...again. We are now ready to move on to other regions of the world and hopefully with some family or friends next time!
The rest of the month involved more playing outside, catching up with friends over yummy dinners and long hikes. We love summer time!
August -
August was truly the lazy days of summer month! We continued to play outdoors, despite the heat waves. We went to weddings, did crafts/art projects, made our apartment our 'home,' read books, hung with Eddie, Leila and Anita and enjoyed life before school started and life got crazy! At the end of month school started for the both of us....we were so excited!!
September, October, November -
These two pictures are our second homes. To be honest, these 3 months kinda blended all together. Sure there were highlights (having our Sunday dinner get-togethers, our birthday month, Thanksgiving) but we mostly struggled to keep up with our new lives. We spent most evenings at home, watching TV and cooking yummy food together (that is, when weren't stressing about school). If you've been keeping up with our blog or talk with us on a regular basis - you know how busy we've been.
December -
Well, we don't really need to go over that again do we? :P We're not that exciting.... (also the new The Bachelor season starts tonight, so I'm kind of obligated to quit blogging and go watch because I'm completely obsessed with the dumb show!)
In summary, it really was an amazing year, full of exciting changes and lots of time enjoying being married together.
Bring on 2010!
