Alrighty kids, it's time for a yearly review! 2011 was an extremely awesome year, and I can't believe all the things that have happened! Keith and I both got new jobs, we bought a second car, we saw lots of people get married, visited a few states, celebrated our first anniversary, ate at a lot of amazing new restaurants, played tourist in our own city and then Theo learned how to catch snakes (boo!) also, it was certainly the year for weddings and babies!! haha Here is our list of highlights:
In January, we rang in
2011 with friends Ryan and Chelsey and then
visited New York City to have a belated Christmas with my parents and brother. We played lots of
loaded questions with friends, and I took my students on a
field trip to the museum. We became official
Tennessee residents, it snowed a bunch, I got some awful food
poisoning, helped friends move and then our blog turned
one!
In February we started the month with a new
job for Keith! Carolyn had a
baby shower, we hosted a
super bowl party and I discovered
nutella cookies. I got
nostalgic about old roommates, we finally organized our
guest room, my cute
valentine gave me the best gift ever: shaving that beard! and then I watched an inspiring
film. Also, we bought our very own
washing machine and dryer, and then I baked my first
cake entirely from scratch!
March started with a Black History Month program at
work, I baked a delicious
crumb cake and our friends Isaac and Carolyn had their first child: the perfect little
baby Sage! Keith came along on a field trip to see a
Predators game and the next big event? MOM AND JOE-DAD GOT
MARRIED!!! At the end of the month we enjoyed some great weather in the park with
friends, there was an extremely scary
shooting at work :/ but on a lighter note, we got to spend more time with beautiful little
Sage.
April was pretty awesome! It started with Keith treating me to a
Krispie Kreme date (or two), and then we road tripped to Georgia for Braves
opening day. I helped throw a baby shower for
Chelsey and we started our love affair with
food trucks. Then it was party time! Keith and Jordie shared a
birthday and Keith celebrated by getting a
big green egg!
May: my parents came to Nashville for the first time! We had an awesome time
sight seeing with them, and we even went to our first
horse race in Kentucky. Then we hosted a pre-Easter
BBQ to test out the grill, we got to see
Jackie play roller derby in Clarksville, and played with Sage
even more. Lastly? I took my students on a treacherous
field trip to the Georgia Aquarium and wrote a manifesto about surviving such events haha.
June was packed and brought with it lots of heat and a ridiculous amount of cicadas :( but my camera was
broken so I didn't take many pictures :/ we went to our first
food festival, and I relished in my love for
Keith after he surprised me with an iphone 4! I visited family in
Florida for my cousins graduation which was bitter sweet because Keith couldn't get off work to come with me. But! when I returned we got to celebrate with Ryan and Chelsey as they welcomed their son
Elliot! Keith and I got
baptised, I went to
Ruby Falls, we bought a new
car! I had a yucky
root canal, we
BBQed with more friends, played with their babies and I got to teach art. Awesome, yet super busy month!
July was another crazy busy month, it started with my aunts and cousins
visiting us from Florida. We got to do so many cool things with them, like taking a tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery and Mammoth Caverns. I got to spend a day hiking and exploring
Clarkesville with my friends Sara and Sarah, my students made even more
art and I got home sick for
Philadelphia. Then we flew to
Florida for a long weekend to see our great friends Catie and Erick get
married! I scanned some old
family photos,
camp finally ended and I worked on our
heirloom book.
Then there was August... a trip to
Georgia to have fun at 6 flags turned into me getting a horrible eye infection, I worked with a different
camp for a week, I hung out with Chelsey and
Elliot a BUNCH and Cheryl and Andrew stopped by for a quick
visit. Keith refinished his
drum set, Theo got
fleas, and then we celebrated our first wedding
anniversary with a trip to the zoo. We
reminisced about our amazing wedding, then ate our delicious year old
cake haha. Some other highlights were taking our first trip to
Arrington Vineyards with Carolyn and Isaac, making
dried fruit strips, and bringing Keith to my ultimate favorite vacation spot:
Bald Head Island. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene had other plans for us, but we finished our vacation inland in
North Carolina. Lastly, our first car
Marty turned one!
September started with our beautiful friends Katelyn and Anna
visiting from DC. We took an extreme amount of pictures, and even jumped off
cliffs and danced at the
Parthenon! I made
recycled art with my students, and we had our first
Mas Tacos experience. Then we enjoyed the weather
cooling off, Keith started a
band, Ben and Jackie
visited, and we went to Georgia and stayed with Dane, Deb and their adorable
children. Lastly, I got ready to start my new
job, and Theo brought in his first
snake, ugh.
In October I blogged a lot! We started the month by taking advantage of the
Goodwill half off Saturday, I
zumba-ed, watched
Elliot grow up so fast, and laughed when my friends joked about my hatred of
horses. Then
Jonathan and Erin visited, I went on my last
field trip, started
running more intensely, watched
football with friends, celebrated
Theo's 2nd birthday! and had a going away
party for our sweet friends Ryan, Chelsey and Elliot. Theo continued to bring in more
snakes, I made wedding
decorations for Jonathan and Erin, we
bowled with Brad and Jen, I made
Reese's cups, Keith carved a ridiculous
pumpkin and played
ultimate frisbee, we said our last goodbyes to
The Meyer's and I showed you a glimpse of my life as a portable
art teacher. OH! and I made a dinosaur hoodie for a Halloween costume. Woof, that was a mouthful haha.
November was full of traveling: it all started with Keith's
band playing a show, then we went to
Philadelphia for Dan and Aly's
wedding. Within a few days of returning, we left town again for Jonathan and Erin's
wedding in North Carolina. Both were EXTREMELY beautiful and so much fun! Out of nowhere we surprised everyone with news of Keith's new
job, we had an awesome
friends giving, and I celebrated turning
24 with a brand new computer! My friends threw me a
party, I baked a
pie, we had
Thanksgiving in Georgia (with no arrests!) and my students made some awesome
projects.
Last but not least... December! Thanks for hanging in there if you've read all of this haha. We started the month by joining a
CSA, then we got a
Christmas tree, I had lots of fun at a
girls night, we got our house all
decorated and festive, I learned about the
bike share program at the park and we got to babysit
Sage. We celebrated the two year anniversary of our
engagement, I cooked with
purple peas, my students had an
exhibit, we went to a Christmas party at
Steve's, and I made a new year's
bucket list (of which I've already crossed a few things off!) Our big December adventure was heading to
Florida for a week to celebrate
Christmas with my family and soak up all the warm weather that we could. Lastly, I shared this years
Christmas card.
2011 definitely came with some highs and lows, but if I'm being honest, most of those lows hardly feel memorable at this point. We got to experience some amazing milestones, share our city with the friends and family that mean the most, and we got to visit so many of the people we love. This past year was filled with so much joy that we can easily brush the pain and the struggle aside, and move forward having learned valuable lessons. I can hardly believe how blessed we've been, and hope that that is just a sign that 2012 will be even bigger and better. I am so excited to see what is to come in the year ahead!
Lastly, I want to thank you all for reading our blog so faithfully, and taking the time to catch up with all that we have going on in our world. It means so much to hear that people enjoy reading what we have to say, and is such an encouragement to continually record and reflect on our lives. Love you all! Happy New Year!
