Reflecting on 2013

This past week, I have allowed myself a blogging break.  We have been thousands of miles across the country, focusing on family, connecting with friends, celebrating a wedding, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and preparing for the arrival of our little nugget.  I will try to cover some of the highlights of our recent travels, but blogging during all of the aforementioned excitement just wasn't a priority.

That being said, Hubby and I JUST arrived home from our ten days of travels, and we are so grateful to be safely home with our critters, and the baby still in utero.  We now have almost a full week to soak up our fleeting time "just the two of us", unpack, and organize our house for the arrival of the baby (and the arrival of company that will happen soon after the arrival of the baby).

Before we get to all of that, however, I want to take a minute to reflect on 2013.  The crazy, unexpected, beautiful, challenging, rewarding, blessed year 2013 has been.  Throughout some of this year, I did monthly collages with significant pictures from each month of the year.  I think re-posting some of those is the perfect way to round out 2013.

I hope your year was as blessed as our has been:

January and February 2013

 
March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013 -- and we learned we were expecting a baby

July and August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

What a year:

• Graduate School
• Degrees Earned
• Internships
• Travel
• Time A Part
• Weekend Getaways
• Our Last Months Before Expecting a Baby
• Learning We Were Expecting Our First Baby
• Skiing
• Lexie and Lloyd
• Michigan and St. Louis
• Football and Baseball
• Schedules and Surprises
• Family Weddings and Baby Showers
• Our First Niece, and a New Sister-in-Law
• A Shrinking (in the waist) Husband, and a Growing Wife
• A Mother- and Father-To-Be

What a year we have had.
Thank You, Lord, for blessing us beyond measure.

October Highlights

October was such a great month... I am sad to see it go because it really is the BEST month of the year!  Here were some of our October Highlights.

From top to bottom, and left to right...

• My best friend, Kelley and I had some great times in Austin while I was there.  In this picture, we're kissing a mannequin at a two-step dancing club.
• My hubby surprised me in Austin and we had an amazing 32 hours together... including time at Buy Buy Baby.
• Hubby surprised me at the two-step dance club with the help of Kelley.  It was unbelievable and so special!!!
• Hubby and I have been out shooting in the cool, fall weather.
• While Hubby was in Austin, we went to a Baylor football game with my friend, Obinna.  Baylor best West Virginia!
• Hubby and I have been out hunting a little this month.
• Lexie was SO excited to get me home from Austin.  I was also very excited to be home.
• Our little niece, Zivah, all dressed up for Halloween.
• Hubby organized a big school fundraiser, which was a huge success.  The night included him in the dunk-tank.  I was the first to successfully dunk him, which he found surprising, and his students found awesome!

September Highlights

I was so excited about writing about the start of October yesterday, that I didn't actually sum up September.  In sum... September was crazy.

September was a whirlwind.  The first three weeks of the month were spent soaking up as much time as possible with my husband, who I was not with for the majority of the summer... but this time was far too little given that we were both back to work with a new school year.  My work was made especially complicated in September because most of the month was spent trying to create a system for my students to survive when I left for Texas for my last practicum placement on Sept 23.  September was a blur... which is all the more reason to highlight a few of the best and memorable parts of the month.

Some highlights include:

• Canning pears (and peaches) with a few of the free moments I had -- I love canning in the fall
• Fun times at the Texas State Fair
• Away from my hubby and animals again, Hubby and I are loving FaceTime to see each other while we talk... in this picture, he is holding Lexie so I can see her too.
• Hubby's 33rd birthday on Sept 13!  I am so thankful for this man!
• Hubby and I went out to a nice dinner to celebrate his birthday
• We got to see our little Nugget on the 20 week ultrasound.  The little Jitterbug was moving like crazy... in this picture is a head on the left and a foot right in the middle.  We opted not to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, but we are so grateful that everything looks healthy.
• My first night in Austin, my best friend Kelley took me to a Texas Long-Horns football game!  Hook 'em Horns!
• My friend Obinna and I had a blast in Dallas at the State Fair of Texas
• Lloyd was happy as a clam to have Chris and me back to together and at home for most of the month.  Have you ever seen a more relaxed or contented dog than the one in this picture?

Adios September.  Welcome, October!

Summer 2013 Summary

Adios, Summer 2013.

Top row left to right:  Positive pregnancy test; Meeting our little Nugget with our 8 week ultrasound; Hubby and I were a part all of June; Lloyd competed in Dock Dogs

Second row:  Lloyd won a lot of medals; We bought our first outfit for our little baby; I completed my blindfold course; I saw my grandmother in Arizona

Third row:  Our niece, Zivah, entered the world; We were in St. Louis when Zivah arrived; While I was living in Tucson, I got to live with a tiny little dog about the size of our cat

Fourth row:  Hubby flew to Arizona to help me drive to Michigan; We were finally reunited with our Lexie-Girl; Momma had her 60th birthday; We announced to the internet world that we are expecting a baby

There are the good parts of the summer.  In between the lines feel free to read "working hard, time away from my husband, nausea, exhaustion, heat, and studying."

Capturing the Simple: June 2013

From top to bottom, and left to right:

• In June we celebrated our wonderful fathers on Fathers' Day
• Lloyd Carr competed in the Vail Go-Pro Dock Dogs competition.  It was a fun weekend.
• Hubby and I celebrated the end of the school year, beginning of summer, and Hubby being awarded a district teacher award with a dinner in Greeley before we parted ways for the month.
• Me made the most of our limited time together this month and appreciate each other all the more
• June 25 marked our 2nd wedding anniversary
• I completed the June graduate class and am done with the coursework required for this O&M certification... now 9 weeks of practicum
• A picture of my class on our last day
• Lloyd turned 2 years old on June 25... he has really grown into the best dog!
• Grad school involved a drop-off assignment where I was dropped-off in a residential neighborhood blindfolded and had to determine my orientation, and then find my way to a specific address using my skills and a white cane... this picture shows how I studied for this exam

Welcome, July!

Friday Letters: Capturing the Simple May 2013

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Dear May, You have been a crazy month.  You have been awesome, beautiful, full of love, full of adventure, full of twists and turns and highs and lows.  May is always one of my favorite months, and this year was no exception.  May, you are my last month with my sweet Hubby and living in our cozy little home.  Starting tomorrow, I leave them both for the entire summer.  May, you were so perfect.  I do not want you to end.

Pictured below are some of our highlights of May:

Moving from left to right, top to bottom:

• Hubby was awarded teacher of the month for his school district -- and only one of these awards is given per school per year -- so its teacher of the month for the district... but also a form of teacher of the year for his building!!
• We went to St. Louis over Mother's Day weekend to spend time with Chris' family and my mom, and to co-host a baby shower for his sister and brother-in-law.  It was so much fun to spend time with family and celebrate Baby Nugget Rodriguez.
• While in St. Louis, I get to meet my future sister-in-law, and the whole clan -- Millers and my mom had a great time.
• Hubby and I had our May date and Lloyd-ey came along for part of it... in the picture we think it looks like he's smiling.  :-D
• My Hotshot Hubby looking handsome in his suit!  He was all dressed up for the end of the year middle school award ceremony.
• We sent our sweet Lexie Girl to Michigan for the summer to be with her Gammie and Papa.  I cherished every minute I had with her, and I'm so glad she's safe and happy and loved with my parents.
• Our friends, the Selbigs, welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Ellery, into the world and we got to meet her and practice for when we're holding our soon-to-come newborn niece or nephew
• Over Memorial Day weekend, we helped throw a retirement party for my dear colleague, Barbara.  It was a beautiful day and wonderful to see so many people come out to celebrate her 30+ career in education.  This picture is of Barbara and one of her most recent students.
• Hubby and I enjoyed the retirement party and the beautiful view of Mt. Sopris

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How was your May?

Capturing the Simple - April

  Here are my simple moments from April

 From left to right starting at the top:

• We had April showers the entire month -- April snow showers!
• Lexie Lee keeps us on our toes, like always
• Bacon theme at food club complete with a bacon apple pie
• Little Lexie -- my sweet girl!
• Hubby and me cheering for Michigan in the NCAA Basketball Finals
• Brother Nick proposed to Mandy back in Missouri
• Hubby and me with beautiful Spring apple blossoms
• Sister Becky gets bigger every week as she's growing our new niece or nephew
• Lloyd-ey loved his first swims of the season!  He loves even the cold spring water!

April was a great month for us.

Capturing the Simple ~ March

Amy at Filled With Praise has started a monthly blog post where you choose 9 pictures from your month post about them.

I thought it was going to be hard to choose only 9 pictures, but the truth is, 9 pictures covers the month pretty well... and now that I look at the collage, somehow I ended up with 10 pictures.  I'm not sure how that happened when I chose the 9 picture collage... oh well.

  Our pup, Lloyd got left out of this month, but I'm sure he will make an appearance in the April pictures.

Here is my March collage and below are the picture descriptions:

Starting top left and working left-to-right:

• Amazing view from Blue Sky Basin while skiing
• Church basement transformation for a baby shower I hosted
• A little relaxation during a VERY busy month!
• Lexie helping me choose a ski run for the day (she's looking at the grooming report)
• Date night with hubby at Micky's new restaurant
• Ski picture with Hubby -- the first of our little family
• Ski picture with my cousin, Elizabeth, we had a blast skiing together
• Ski picture with my brother
• Baby shower flowers -- white roses, mums and mini roses in mason jars with lemon slices -- I was really proud of these flowers and I loved having all the vases around my house for the next week
• It was great seeing my cousin for a few days

That's a fun way to re-cap the month... but I just remembered I forgot the Easter sunrise service on the top of Vail mountain... I'm sure I'll get better at this in months to come.

 Happy April!