January
When you start off the year with a Rose Bowl win, it's pretty obvious the year is going to be amazing. I spent the final days of 2010 in a strange hotel room battling the flu, recovering in the last few hours of the year, just in time to wake up on New Year's Day to catch the 8am party bus. Surely every year should start this way? I'm known for exaggerating things a tad here and there, but 1.1.11 was perhaps one of the best days of my life. Family, friends, and a huge football win on a national stage? Go Frogs.
The rest of January was, well, a little slow. But that's what you expect when you have the best day of the year the first day of the year. There was a lot of snow (eww) and snow days (yessss) and a lot of house redecoration. We achieved a lot during those long, dark, cold winter days and nights. I was sort of resentful at the time, and this blog gave me a lot of motivation to stay on top of our projects, but looking back, I'm proud of everything we accomplished.
February
More DIY / house redecoration to pass the time during the long winter days. Did I mention it snowed? A lot? Well, it did. We spent the weekends finishing house projects and picked up a couple pretty pieces for the house at the auction. But honestly, February was pretty boring. Sorry!
March
Spring was just around the corner and we were just starting to come out of our winter hibernation. We continued with the house redecoration, prepared for the kitchen renovation, scored some more amazing deals at the auction. (You do remember those Crate & Barrel chairs, right?) Mr. B surprised me with an early birthday present: a beautiful painting of pansies by a local artist. Mama H. came to visit at the end of the month and we all spent some quality time....decorating the office? Perhaps not every one's idea of quality time but we had fun, laughed a lot, probably dropped a few strong curse words here and there from our mistakes and were pretty happy with the final result.
April
Mr. B and I finally escaped the gravital pull of TAH and headed to Ithaca, NY for a long weekend. We were treated to beautiful weather, food and wine, and some "gorges" scenery. (Ha, like what I did there?) For Easter, we spent some long overdue catch up time with Mr. B's brother and sister-in-law who visited all the way from Pakistan as part of a long trip through the US. (We tried to reciprocate with a visit to Pakistan this year but didn't fit it in. I usually have no regrets but that's probably one trip I wish we had done! C'est la vie.) And in between all of this, I was up to my eyes with preparations for a big work gala. It was a reallly fun night!
May
Ah, finally, warm weather. We moved our house projects outside to tackle some much needed lawn/yard projects. That damn rhodie. Mr. B hurt his back really bad trying to pull that stupid thing out, but in the end, we prevailed. (Let's be honest. While Mr. B was laid up in bed, I called a tree removal service. I learned that one the hard way.) So since I had some time to myself, I invaded the barn to refinish the rocking chairs in time for summer. It was an easy project and worth every minute of it. And perhaps, most importantly, we started the kitchen renovation. It would be a long, expensive project, but worth every minute and penny in the end.
June
Dust, dust and more dust. The entire month of June was a blur thanks to the kitchen renovation. Mr. B did his first vlog, and we returned home from work each night anxious and excited to see what new developments took place in this exciting project. My birthday at the end of the month gave us a perfect excuse to get away from the house for a long weekend. We met my parents in Washington DC and escaped to the country to a beautiful B&B and then went to the final round of the US Open on Sunday for Father's Day and my birthday. Considering my dad and I both love golf, it was pretty much a perfect day.
July
For as slow as the winter was, summer was busy, busy, busy. We started off the month with a quick trip to the Jersey Shore to see our friends Colleen & Joe and their precious twins Gavin & Brayden. The kitchen renovation continued on and on and on. It seemed like the house was in a perpetual state of disorder and chaos. Funny, that's sometimes how I feel about my life. I am convinced there is a link between the two! We finished the month with a secret trip to south of the Mason Dixon for Mr. B's final interviews and so I could check out our possible new hometown. I kept it quiet from you friendly readers, but newsflash, that little weekend away we had? Yeah, that was our trip. Oh, and in between all that. We had a creeper and I did some trashdiving. Just the usual.
August
More kitchen. But that started to get old, so I was lucky enough to fill my weekends with some fun distractions. I headed to the great State to spend some quality time with my bestie, Whitney, and her sister before her wedding. Mr. B and I spent a beautiful summer night at the local fair. There was the civilized afternoon at the polo. And of course, there was that crazy toilet paper graffiti at work. And in the middle of all this, and unbeknownst to yall, Mr. B had a fantastic job offer and we were debating the pros and cons of uprooting our life and moving to another new city leaving behind the TAH. You could say it was an emotional and anxious time for me.
September
Work hard, play hard was our motto that month. We travelled our patooties off: London, Minnesota and Colorado in two and a half weeks. It was worth it. We knew the next few months would be challenging so we savored some time away from reality before reality kicked us in the butt. We celebrated a wedding anniversary and our first anniversary at the TAH (funny that!) and moved Mr. B to his new home down south.
October
With the kitchen officially finished, it was back to the random house projects, but this time, the reason / purpose was radically different: we prepped the house to put it on the market to sell it. Ouch. We finished painting the foyer and the hallway and bedrooms, we got new carpet and a new kitchen table. To be honest, it was a difficult month for me because I was doing this all by myself while Mr. B was gone. I'm a pretty independent girl, but managing all this stuff, on top of a full-time job and my MBA was a challenge. I did it though! Oh, and Mr. B, he turned the big 3-5.
November
We're moving! We had to keep it quiet for a few months but we finally fessed up. The house went on the market and on the same day, we hosted a rager party to kick off the farewell tour. The stress of being alone and moving was starting to take a toll and I got a little emotional, but I appreciated all of our kind words and messages. We celebrated Thanksgiving, with so much to be thankful for, and I continued to miss Mr B while he was at his new home and I was at TAH.
December
I pretty much don't remember much about December (as evidenced by my complete lack of blogging!) I was beyond busy with packing, finishing work, MBA finals, farewells and finally, the move. Christmas and New Year's with my family in Dallas was just what the doctor ordered and Mr. B and I got to spend some time away outside of San Antonio (think wine, massages and poolside!)
Which leads to me today: 1-1-12. January is a month of new beginnings, and this couldn't be any more true for me as we start our new life in a new city.
So glad I was able to fit into your December! :-)
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