Life in 2012 (aka, the year of the puppy)

I love facebook at this time of year, because everyone manages to put together a one sentence summary of the year, and for the most part, those sentences show how happy and wonderful life is. The unexpected, the scary, the disappointing, and heartbreaking are sure to be scattered throughout the year, but I truly believe that the happy conquers all of that, or at least fills in around it enough to cushion the blow of it. Or maybe I'm just way too positive for my own good. One of my middle school students chose the word "cheerful" to describe me, and I'd say that's pretty much spot on. I decided I needed more than a sentence to summarize this past, so here's 2012 (get ready for a lot of puppy):

January

Will and I got engaged! After nearly 7 years of being together, I thought when we got engaged it might not be all that much of a change in our relationship. I was wrong. It was exciting and fun and a huge moment for us. And I LOVED my ring!

February

I traveled to Florida with my mom for a 5 day vacation over my  mid-winter break from work. It was a last minute decision to go, and I'm still so glad we did! We had perfect weather and enjoyed time on the beach, shopping, and visiting some historic sights too.

March

Will and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary! I had a late night at work that day, and I came home to Will making a delicious at-home seafood feast courtesy of Whole Foods :-)

My little brother became a teenager! Insane!

 We also reserved our wedding location during March, and finalized our wedding date of August 9, 2013.

April 

Will had his first job interview. After being called back for two more interviews after this one, he got the job!

I also got my wedding dress, but no pictures of that on the internet until August! Ask me if you want to see a picture and I'd be more than happy to show it off :-) :-)

May

We celebrated my amazing Grandma T and her 98th birthday!

June

June was a busy and exciting month for us!!! I finished my first full year of working, earned my full professional certification (MA, CCC-SLP)  and started summer break! After cleaning out my office on the last day of school, I met Will in Detroit for the wedding of our very good friends Zack and Samantha. The next morning, we left directly from our hotel, and headed south to Ohio to pick up a very special new member of our little family, a 10 week Corgi-Jack puppy we named Abby.  The next few weeks were a lot of work and adjustment! Luckily I was off of work otherwise I have now idea how we would have handled it. In the last week of June, Will finished his last on-campus class towards his degree, and started his job at Quicken Loans the very next day.

July

I started working in the Ann Arbor public schools 3-4 days a week doing early intervention language therapy with babies and toddlers. It was a perfect summer job since I was only a few minute drive from home and it still left lots of time for puppy-raising, which dominated my summer! I also took Abby up north for the first time over 4th of July and she got to experience Lake Huron and the beach. She would run around like crazy, and then fall asleep on a beach towel or in my arms.

August

Puppy, Puppy, Puppy. I finished my job in Ann Arbor for the summer, and oh yeah, more puppy, puppy, puppy. Will was working a ton in his training at Quicken Loans (8am-8 or 9pm, 5-6 days per week), so Abby and I spent a lot of quality time together. Over the summer she learned sit, down, off, stay, wait/go, and shake. Potty training was still a work in process, especially since we were in our 3rd floor apartment. Almost daily we would go on a walk at Gallup Park or County Farms Park in Ann Arbor, two of my favorite places in the city. Such happy, relaxing times together with my pup :-)

 In August Will finished up his very last class towards his degree (while also working full time!) and my mom and I  took a trip to Mackinaw Island and stayed there for two nights.

September

 I started my second year as a public school SLP. Starting the year after doing it once before was so nice! It definitely still had its challenges, but it was overall a huge improvement. I had a lot of fun, as usual, getting my office cute for the kids.My little brother started playing middle school football, and I went to one of his first games. Although I got freaked out whenever they started ramming into each other, it was fun to go cheer his team on. We also had our engagement pictures taken during the last weekend of the month, with our wonderful wedding photographer, Stevie B Photography.

We also found out about the house being for sale, and did our first walk through! We submitted our offer at the end of the month.

October

October was busy and stressful! Our offer was accepted on the house, but we spent all of October dealing with the loan and inspection process. Since the house was being sold as-is, we had lots of fixes to do to the house for the city and our FHA loan inspector. 

November

We closed on the house on November 1st!!! It was so amazing to have the stress of the loan and inspection process over and just focus on things we really wanted to do the house. We spent most of the month getting the house clean and ready to live in. On November 21ist, the day before Thanksgiving, we officially moved the last our furniture, boxes, and pets, and moved in!

December

By December, our house was very comfortable. We had new windows installed, which was a huuuge improvement. Of course lots of projects remain, but most of the house focus was on Christmas decorating, which I had been looking forward to since closing day! My best friend Diane and I baked christmas cookies, and the kitchen just felt so happy that afternoon :-) A huge event was that Will graduated from EMU!! I was so, so proud to watch him walk across that stage.We ended 2012 in our "new" home, comfortable with our pets, planning our wedding, and so looking forward to everything that is ahead of us.

Cheers to 2013!