Who was it that said, "I think, therefore I am"?
There is something wonderfully and uniquely human about the fact that we are able to think and reflect on our lives, realizing what is special and precious in this life, rather than just moving through life in a mission to survive.
So, to review the year 2013 as it happened to Hubster and I:
January:
We rediscover our love of skiing on Superbowl Sunday with good friend, Tyler, spending the day on the Tetons rather than in front of the TV, watching football and overrated commercials to sell us stuff we don't need. It was GLORIOUS!!!!
February:
Hubster and I celebrate the 1 year anniversary of our meeting (I realize that this anniversary falls four months into our marriage, and you can do the rest of the math...things moved fast once we met) and my %^th birthday by taking a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We stayed at the gorgeous Inn on the Creek (check it out here if you want to take a romantic trip to Jackson), skied Teton Village (which, I will admit, nearly killed me), and ate so much good food I could have died happy.
March:
I traveled to Portland, Oregon, to celebrate a Bachelorette weekend with my best friend, Jess, who was set to wed Hubster's best friend, Doug in May. We played in Portland and shopped and ate dinner on the 39th floor of a high rise in downtown Portland, called the Portland City Grill. Then we threw Jess a Bridal shower at my parents house outside Portland.
Hubster's parents make plans to leave Wyoming in the fall, and his dad procures a new job in Portland as well, so our parents will then live only 30 minutes from one another. Convenient for visits, but given that our parents are, like, friends with each other, potentially weird, given that we will likely be receiving phone messages with pictures of them all hanging out without us.
Hubster makes a trip to Oregon to celebrate former roommate Cody's impending wedding, to take place in July. They paintball, drink beer, stay in a gorgeous house on the lake, and go skydiving. Well, several of them go skydiving. Hubster does not. He felt ambiguous to the experience, so he deferred to my I-would-prefer-to-keep-my-husband-for-a-long-long-time feeling.
April:
Hubster travels to Oklahoma, his former state of residence, with Doug and Ryan, to go play in the sand dunes with their motorized "big boy toys" for Doug's Bachelor party. The happen to arrive in this tiny place in the middle of the annual--get this--Waynoka, Oklahoma Rattlesnake Round-Up. Yes, you read that correctly. There are so many rattlesnakes that they ROUND THEM UP and put them in pens and PLAY WITH THEM. They auction off the meat of the really big ones (does the thought of a nine-foot long rattler make anyone else want to run around squealing like a girl?) and you can even have one of the rattler wranglers pick one up and hold it up beside you to take a picture. If you don't believe me, check this out (click on view all photos and scroll through them). But I digress--the boys sped along the sand and talked and drank beer and watched the rattlesnake insanity and toasted the end of Doug's bachelor days.
May:
Because Hubster's parents decide to leave Wyoming, the issue of the family ranch is now put on the table. We start working with lawyers and accountants and each other to make a plan so that Hubster and I can purchase and move to the ranch when the In-Laws move in November. *GULP*
Jess and Doug tie the knot on Cinco de Mayo in a lovely outdoor garden wedding, on the most beautiful May day the Pacific Northwest has seen in six years (seriously, we looked at the weather history. For six years previous, it's rained on Cinco de Mayo). Hubster and I played the parts of Best Man and Maid of Honor (matron, technically, but Jess and I thought that sounded old, so we left it as maid ;-).
We get call from the Pacific Northwest, from Hubster's grandparents, who have just discovered that Hubster's grandpa Jerry has been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. My MOG (Mother of the Groom; these nicknames stem back to the wedding planning madness of 2012 and just stuck) heads to Washington immediately and the doctors surgically remove the tumor. Grandpa comes through surgery just fine, though very weak.
Hubster and I decide to plant a garden, with corn and pumpkins and potatoes and carrots and onions and cabbage and peppers and jalepenos and all kinds of other things too.
I receive a letter from the American Heritage Center in Laramie, informing me that my application for a travel grant to study in their archives has been approved. I have moola to go research for a book that I want to write!!!!
Memorial Day marks the start of my most glorious time of the year: Summer Vacation!!!!!!
I start my Library Media Certification program classes online through Montana State University, and I love the feeling of studying again ;-)
June:
Hubster and I begin the process of getting our house on Zig Zag Road ready to sell.
I spend a lot of time writing, feverishly trying to get novel rewrites finished.
Winchester, our puppy, meets his match in my gelding, Gunny. Despite our efforts to get him to stop chasing the horses, Winn insists and that results in the inside toe on his right paw to meet its death there in the corrals. It was effectively severed everywhere but the pad, and the vet had to amputate the toe. That toe became the most EXPENSIVE dog toe, EVER.
July:
Hubster and I spend the Fourth of July at the lake with friends. We camp on a gorgeous beach for four days, doing little else besides soaking up the sun, swimming, boating, BBQing and enjoying the beautiful summer.
Hubster's youngest sister, Amanda, travels to New York with her boyfriend, where said boyfriend bends a knee and pops the question, thus becoming her fiancé. Tentative plans put the wedding for July or August of 2014.
Hubster and I have dinner with my FOG (Father of the Groom), who is a bachelor with MOG in Washington, and hear a funny noise beneath the sink. FOG investigates and discovers that five foot deep crawl space beneath the house is three feet deep in water. Plumber reports, and discovers that a dead mouse shorted out the hot water heater. Flooding ensued. Pumps, dryers, and a dehumidifier follow. All is well and FOG calls me the heroine for hearing the gurgling noise under the sink.
We travel to Portland and travel south for the wedding of friend Cody and his lovely bride, Katy. Jon is best man, so we go through the gamut of duties, including rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, then attend the actual wedding on Saturday, which was held in the beautiful Oregon Gardens in Silverton. We had a great time wishing Cody and Katy well on their way, then spend some time with my parents and grandparents before heading home to Wyoming.
Hubster's other sister, Meg, calls with the news that she and her husband are expecting baby number 2, making Ruby an older sister. Inquires to our baby-making plans and is disappointed with answer.
Grandpa Jerry is doing well, though still ill. He begins an intense round of chemo and radiation because they got the tumor but still found cancer cells in a lymph node.
My MOG finally returns to Wyoming from Washington.
August:
In an interesting twist to the selling of the Zig Zag House, we have a buyer approach us before we even get the house on the market and offer to buy it. He draws up a contract, puts down earnest money, and we begin the house selling project. Where'd that EASY button go?!?!
My parents come for a visit, and we have a great time playing and working around the house. Mom and Dad help me repaint the living room and bathroom, and it's sooooooooo good to spend time with my parentals.
Winn is finally healed up enough to go around without a bandage. He's seems no less worse for the wear, though he no longer chases the horses.
We go on a weekend camping trip with Hubster's grandparents, aunt and uncle, MOG and FOG, and Amanda and her fiancé, Ryan.
The In-Laws purchase a house in Portland, Oregon, and make plans leave Wyoming the first of November. Hubster and I make plans to move the first of November too.
Volleyball coaching begins when school does, and life as I know it is over....
Just kidding!!!! But things do heat up, and we keep plenty busy.
September:
School is in full swing, and so is volleyball. The girls, young as they were, go to the 3A Douglas Tourney and kick butt to come in 3rd place (we're only 2A)
They also win the Thermop Invite and the season, though it has its ups and downs, looks promising.
House appraisal comes back: We have to paint. Everything. The house, the fence, the barn, the shed. So Hubster commences painting. And the weather commences RAINING, which rarely happens in Wyoming.
October:
We sign papers to sell Zig Zag, with a clause that says we don't have to move until November. WAHOO!!!! We're mortgage-free!! Oh, except now we are, sort of, homeless...
Hubster and I celebrate our first anniversary!!! Though I was in Big Piney coaching on the actual day, Hubster skipped out of work, surprised me after the game by showing up in his wedding clothes (he was so handsome in those jeans and boots and hat ;-) and whisks me off for a romantic evening.
Dad comes to visit to hunt his deer tag. I have to coach on Saturday, but he and Hubster take two horses (Cyrus and Montana) up to the Owl Creeks and Dad gets his first deer. There was much celebrating by all!
Amanda offers to sell me one of her horses, a sorrel gelding I love named Spur. I immediately accept and my herd grows a little more.
We discover that Meg will be having a boy, and dear friends Tom and Sarah discover they are expecting a little brother or sister for their boy, Lamb (check out Sarah's awesome blog here). I also get news from back home that my childhood best friend, Kylie, is expecting her first baby. Babies EVERYWHERE!!!!!! I want one...
The volleyball girls head to the Regional Tournament and take 3rd place. We head to the State Tournament, and in an upset, we take our first game against Wright, which sets us in the semi-finals. We end up 4th in the state, which is pretty impressive for a team that was never ranked during the season and most didn't expect to see even go to the state tourney.
We sign papers to take ownership of Sage Creek Ranch, meaning that we are no longer homeless!!! Oh, but now we have a mortgage.
November:
IT'S MOVING TIME!!!!
The In-Laws get packed by movers (perks of moving to a new job) and we just pack. They exit on a Thursday, and we say a tearful goodbye (well, I was tearful and MOG was tearful. FOG and Hubster were not). They head off to the Pacific Northwest and their new adventure!
We have a generous and kind moving crew of friends who come bearing trailers, and they get us moved in one Saturday. We feed them pizza and beer and enjoy the fact that we live at Sage Creek now.
Holidays are a little strange now, but that's okay. We'll roll. Hubster and I brine and cook a turkey, and my awesome college and now fellow teacher friend, Heather, brings wine and yummy cranberry bread and we have Thanksgiving in our new home. We eat until we can't move, then drop in front of the TV to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The day after Thanksgiving, Hubster and I pack up and head to Jackson Hole, for a lovely little getaway, staying once more at The Inn on the Creek. We discover that November is the time to go to Jackson, eating at several restaurants under their "two-for-one" deals, which were awesome. It snowed while we were there, and we walked through town, saw the lighting of the square, visited the Wildlife Art Museum, and took a drive to Slide Lake. It was a great way to just chill out and spend time together after such a hectic fall.
December:
We kick off the holidays by heading up to Sheridan Creek, above Dubois, with the puppy and the four-wheeler, to find a Christmas tree. We do so, and bring it back and set it up, digging the Christmas decor out of boxes to make the house festive.
Hubster's Christmas party for work is held at the Safari club in Thermop, and we have a great time there. We eat a good dinner, hang out with his buddies, dodge a few dinner rolls (long story), and soak in the thermal hot springs. The company even sprung for rooms so no one would have to drive home.
My work party is held at the Bull, and largely characterized by delicious hot buttered rum and a raucous game of White Elephant.
We attend a showing the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with Heather and another teacher friend, Mona. There is much sighing over Legolas and giggling at Bilbo.
Christmas break finally arrives (YES!!!!) and it is a laid back time. I bake like a possessed woman (and if you saw how much powdered sugar there was in my kitchen, you would know why), and Jon and I get ready for a quiet Christmas at home.
Christmas Eve finds us at our church's candlelight service, and we open one gift each. Hubster gets a new sweater (which sounds boring, but he loves them), and I get a lovely surprise: a black hills gold band to wear on my right hand or use as a "spare" ring when we go in the mountains and I leave the diamond at home.
Christmas Day is a White Christmas and I love it! We open presents, take a nap, and talk to both sides of the family on the phone.
We head to Cody the day before New Year's Eve, to spend a few days with family friend Sandy. She had a cabin just five miles out of Yellowstone, so we head there and settle in to watch it snow, read by the fire, snowshoe, snowmobile, xcountry ski, and enjoy good company. Ryan and Amanda come too, and we play games and do New Year's Resolutions just before midnight.
WOW!!!
I just read through that list, and I have to say, it's been a busy year! Not sure it was as busy as 2012, but definitely still keeping up a crushing pace, that's for sure!!
We have been talking about 2014, and thinking about some of the new things that it will bring with it. Lots of exciting possibilities! I can't wait to see what the new year gives us, and what we decide to make of it.
And as I reflect over 2013, I am once again reminded of how blessed I am. Three years ago, my life looked so different, and I could have never imaged that the Lord would be so faithful to me to give me such a full and abundant life. Hubster and I are humbled and awed often at the ways that He provides for us and opens doors.
I hope that as we go into 2014, the Lord will continue to provide us with opportunities, and that some of those will be the chance to share our blessings with others.
We are also hoping, maybe, that the time will come for us to be blessed with the chance to start a family, and what an adventure that will be!
So here's to 2014: a new year full of new opportunities!
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