Yearly Recap: 2013.

It was a long year and one that definitely felt like 365 days. But it was successful and fun and full of changes. Here’s a look back on the last twelve months.    

January: I vowed not to be so afraid of food in 2013 (and ended up trying shrimp for the first time in August… success!). I had a run-in with Mother Nature and almost crashed my car and told myself that getting an SUV was a must. Sean sent me flowers at work just because. I totally fell on the ice and had to crawl around a parking lot at 6AM in the dark. Sean started a new band with his friends. We went to a release party for our friend’s clothing line and had professional pictures taken.

February: We had a huge snowstorm and everyone was talking about Nemo. I recapped our love story around Valentine’s day. Every single Sunday I dragged Sean to time-share talks because I was positive we were big winners of trips they had promised over numerous phone calls. I started watching The Brady Bunch every day and slept a lot.

March: Apollo turned one. Breaking Dawn, part II came out on DVD and I became obsessed all over again. I went to a punk concert and thought I may be too old for that sort of thing. I bought my first car, ever. I started following blogs via bloglovin’ and posted my first vlog. I chopped all my hair off. Sean turned 27 and I wrapped his presents like brown paper packages. We celebrated Easter with family.

April: Sean chose our date night movie and I realized I can no longer watch horror movies. My heart grew and I was obsessed with getting a new kitten. Blogging became really hard. I had really hard conversations with children about the Boston marathon bombing. I organized and attended our annual Scrapbook Weekend. We brought our new kitten home and named her Artie. Our washing machine flooded our entire apartment, twice. We finally explored the area we lived and went for walks around the reservoir and around the town square. 

May:  Sean quit smoking (yay!). We pledged to buy, shop and eat locally. I blogged every single day. I went to the doctors and they found something alarming. My mom introduced me to Candy Crush. We hosted a Mother’s Day brunch and finally used our wedding china. We went to the drive-in. We attended a wedding. I got sun poisoning and we spent Memorial Day with family.   

June: I made a lot of summer plans and goals. I finished my 4th year of teaching. I talked about successful ways to bring a second cat into your home. We lived 30 days without accessories. I went to a bridal shower and a bachelorette party and realized how strange it is to go out without Sean. We attended a wedding. We participated in our town’s yard sale. I got my very first excise tax bill and it threw me over the edge.

July: We went camping over the 4th with our friends. I realized I wasn’t all that good at keeping up with social media. We went to Puerto Rico and visited with my great grandmother. I totally failed at being in the ocean while Sean tried paddle boarding. I added “flying” onto the list of things I no longer enjoyed. I was floored by the verdict of the Trayvon Martin case. We celebrated two years of marriage and tried to take a family shot. We went for rides on Sean’s motorcycle. I dragged Sean to the Taylor Swift concert at Gillette and it poured. I got to see Lilyana and Easton.  

August: We flew to Seattle and spent time with family. I finally got to go to Forks, Washington. We drove down the Oregon Coast and then stayed in San Francisco for two nights. We stopped in the Redwood forest. We ended our west coast trip in Southern California. I drove a Camaro for the first time. Sean’s band released their first album. I bought a new blog domain that I still haven’t talked about. We went on a Boston Harbor cruise and I got another sunburn. I realized Apollo was depressed and we invested in Feliway (a life-saver, by the way!). I started my 5th year of teaching (first year as a Head Teacher) and I talked about why I love Montessori.

September: Artie turned one. I got a MacBook Pro. I fell off the blogging train and didn’t really jump back on the rest of the year. We spent time with friends in Providence. I made some fall goals (most of which I achieved).  We attended a wedding. I turned 27 and got a polaroid camera. We spent a weekend camping in the same cabin as the 4th of July. We spent time in Vermont and went apple picking. Sean sold his motorcycle and traded in that hobby for brewing beer. I joined a book club and signed up for Zumba classes.

October: I spent a weekend in the Cape for Girls Weekend. Sean started his first batch of beer. We found “our house” online. We spent a weekend in Maine and watched the sunrise at the lighthouse where we got engaged. We accepted the counter offer for our house. Sean left his band and decided he wanted to focus his time and energy into other things.

November: We dealt with a lot of bank paperwork and shed some tears here and there. We also had our house inspection where we found out that it’s old. We saw Macklemore in concert. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family and cooked a turkey. I barely blogged.  

December: Sean made homemade donuts that were delicious but he got seriously burned in the process. We packed up our apartment any chance we could. We paid the penalties of breaking our apartment lease. We closed on our house. We sent out our annual Christmas cards. We settled in and decorated for Christmas (tree, lights and all). We made way too many trips to Lowes and Benjamin Moore became my BFF.   

I’m not totally sure what 2014 will bring but I’m excited to find out. 🙂