2012 in review

Even if I don't blog here as frequently anymore, I still had to pop in and do my annual year in review.

It started out looking like 2012 was going to be a repeat of 2011.  Nate was still stressed at work, we lost his grandpa, we lost my family cat, it was just feeling like every day was kind of blah.  But then somewhere around late March/early April things turned around and started improving.  We ended up having one of the best summers we've had in quite some time, even with extreme heat.  Fall was wonderful and we had a good holiday season as well.  So, in the end, looking back at 2012 I feel pretty good. 

A specific recap -

January - I started homemade cupcake baking, we discovered the world's best barbecue place (at least we feel like it's the world's best), we did our first Living Social adventure taking a Glassblowing class in NE Minneapolis and I finally had a chance to meet some of the other local MN fashion bloggers at an event.

February - We attended our second Winterfest event, but that weekend turned sour when we lost Nate's grandpa Pete after a brief illness.  We said our goodbyes to him.  We celebrated Valentine's Day at a new to us restaurant and discovered a whole new style of Italian cuisine.  I continued experimenting with cupcake baking.  We bought a pretty new pantry for our extended kitchen area from Ikea and managed to rearrange and reorganize. 

March - We attended the Russian church 40 day traditional service for Nate's grandpa. Nate made his very first batch of Russian Sausage and started smoking various types of meats in his brand new meat smoker.  I made delicious Irish carbomb cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day.  My family said goodbye to Cleo.  We did something out of the ordinary for us and went to a late night showing of the Hunger Games.  We finished out the month staying at a fantastic bed and breakfast in Duluth for a little time away together.

April - We celebrated Easter, my mom's birthday and Russian Easter.  We made more Russian Sausage and the Russian traditional food known as hrutka - an egg cheese.  My work began a large construction project in my building.  We started gearing up for the upcoming golf season and bought new bags for our clubs and registered for lessons.

May - We took golf lessons to work on our skills and spent a lot of time at the driving range.  Nate continued experimenting with his meat smoker and we enjoyed many delicious things.  We celebrated Mother's Day with both sides of our family.  We started enjoying eating outside as the weather was definitely nice enough most of the month.  We celebrated six years of marriage with a date at a movie and out to the same restaurant where we celebrated Valentine's Day.

June - We continued working on our newly learned golf skills and got out on the course once or twice.  We decided to pass on this year's Rock the Garden when the weather was threatening to be as bad as last year's.  My fashion blog celebrated one year of existence.  I started working on my spiritual life with She Reads Truth.  We enjoyed the nice weather whenever possible by eating outside.

July - I had a little mini break at the beginning of the month and enjoyed a beach day on one of the hottest days of the summer.  We celebrated the 4th of July with family and Praise Project friends on the absolute hottest day of the summer.  Despite the heat we continued trying to get out to a patio at least once a week.  Nate started brewing beer again to gear up for Oktoberfest and took an all grain brewing class and from there on out brewed strictly all grain beer.  We finally got to do a Surly brewing tour. 

August - We went to Itasca!  We had a wonderful few days up there with Nate's family and could not have asked for better weather.  We made more beer for October.  We went on another Living Social adventure to the Leinenkugel brewery in Chippewa Falls and also got to go tubing down the Chippewa River.  We finished out the month going on our annual trek to the State Fair.

September - Continued enjoying the nice weather as much as possible.  Started getting the house ready for Oktoberfest.  Started staining and sealing our deck.  Attended a fun Living Social boat ride on Lake Minnetonka and visited the Excelsior Brewery.  Also finally got to check out the new Indeed Brewery in NE Mpls.  Started catching all of our favorite shows as they were back on the air.  My work completed it's construction project and we opened the brand new clinic on the 2nd floor.  We spent our annual weekend at Marie's cabin with Praise Project.

October - Oktoberfest!  Need I say more?  But seriously, it was a great Oktoberfest.  We also did an Oktoberfest boat ride down the Mississippi River on the last nice night of Fall.  We went and visited some wineries in the western suburbs.  We opted to not do a darn thing for Halloween and that was ok.

November - I flew solo at work for a bit while my boss had knee surgery.  Work was a little busier for Nate and we were also a little busier with Praise Project so we didn't have much time for adventuring.  We did have a fun Sunday date at the movies and saw Argo.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with Nate's family as always and then celebrated our birthdays.  We treated ourselves to a renewed Science Museum membership as a birthday gift to ourselves.

December - My dad treated us to a fabulous dinner for his birthday at Erte (I know he treated for HIS birthday).  We decked the house all out for Christmas. Nate finally got me back to the gun range - a mere several days before the tragedy in Connecticut.  I still haven't been able to write my thoughts on that and I'm not sure if I will.  Did loads of Christmas shopping - including some last minute scrambling for Nate's gift after Living Social let me down and cancelled the gift I had bought him.  We celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family and had a wonderful time with both.  We went on a mini-adventure this weekend to the Como Zoo, to get my ring cleaned at Arthur's and then over to Cossettas in St. Paul to see their new space.

And that brings us to today.  There are many other things I didn't mention in the recap - such as Nate losing weight, I don't like calling attention to it because it was very personal for him, but I am so proud of him for doing it.  He has made a lifestyle change that he's been able to stick with and he's come so far.

There were plenty of ups and downs, but all in all, it was a great year.  I had so many moments that were just so amazing in that particular moment and I look back on them and smile.

I don't make resolutions and I don't set out with expectations anymore at the beginning of a year - not because I'm pessimistic, but because it helps me better take each day as it comes.  And it feels good living life like that. 

When we got back from our adventure the other day, I told Nate "I really love our life right now" and he said "I love our life right now too."  I can't ask for more than that.

Happy New Year to you and yours!!

Christmas Check In

Gifts: All bought

Wrapping: Not done yet

Movies watched: Home Alone, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Muppet Family Christmas, Garfield's Christmas

Movies/specials to watch this weekend: Elf, Muppets Letters from Santa and most importantly Charlie Brown.  If time, White Christmas or the Santa Clause

Parties attended: 2

Cookies baked: Gingersnaps, Thumbprint Cookies, Cream Wafers (my mom did the rest on her own)

Cookies to bake: More Gingersnaps.  Nate loves them.

Holiday drinks we've tried: Indeed Brewing Old Friend, World Market Holiday Blend coffee

Holiday drink still to try: Sam Adams Gingerbread Stout (currently sitting in my fridge at home)

New Favorite holiday music: Holidays Rule CD and almost everything Sufjan Stevens has done.

Where we will be Christmas Eve: Brunch for the two of us at Hell's Kitchen in the morning and then dinner and presents with Nate's family

Where we will be Christmas Day: Church in the morning, my parents house for presents, then my aunt's house for dinner.

What I'm most excited about: After tomorrow I don't work again until January 2nd!!!

Currently...

Currently...

Listening to: Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas Singalong

Drinking: A bottle of water

Thinking about: Christmas gifts I need to buy

Wishing: I could go on a warm vacation somewhere

Eating: Nothing at the moment, but I had a turkey wrap for lunch.

Reading: Divergent by Veronica Roth (not like this second, but it's my current book)

Waiting for: Snow (yes I said it)

Wondering: What Nate will get me for Christmas

That about catches us up.

I probably won't blog here again until my end of the year recap I'm sure.  Might be time to retire this one.  I'm not sure yet.

Thankful Monday

So I skipped my Thankful Thursday post last week.

Truth be told, I had a tough week and I was not feeling terribly thankful.  And while I could list things I was thankful for, I didn't want to sound like a broken record and list the same old things.  So I just said, I'm not going to do a post when it feels almost forced and repetitive.

Today the whole mess of ick from last week is done, over and buried.  What happened does not matter at this point, what matters is I'm feeling better.

So today I'm being thankful for a fresh start, for clarity, for understanding.  I'm thankful for the busy week to come in family celebrations.  I'm thankful for the rainbow I saw as I drove into work this morning.  I'm thankful for my birthday coming up and being able to celebrate another year of life.

I'm just overall THANKFUL.  And that's plenty enough I think.

Thankful Thursday, Week 2

It hasn't been the greatest week. Between election grumbling, Nate working a lot of long, tedious hours  this week and my own work week being kind of up and down I wasn't even sure I was in the mood to come here and do a Thankful Thursday post today.  But then I realized, no, this is exactly why I should do a Thankful Thursday post, I need a dose of gratitude.  I may steal a little of my friend Samara's blog and take a different approach to this week's Thankful Thursday too.

For example - there was a lot of election grumbling this week, but no matter the outcome, and even with the ugliness, I'm thankful to live in a country that allows freedom of speech and gives the people a say.

Nate worked a lot of long tedious hours this week - but I'm thankful he has a job.

My work week was crazy and frazzling at times - but I'm thankful I have a job.

The sunshine gave me a bit of a headache this afternoon - but I'm thankful the sun has come out to brighten things up, especially now that the hours of daylight are shorter.

I'm not super excited to have a bit of a busy Saturday on tap between singing at a wedding and doing a gig at a less than ideal place with Praise Project - but I'm thankful for the extra money from the wedding and I'm thankful for time with my second family that I love dearly and that we can face the challenge of the less than idea place together.

Facebook led to some of the above mentioned grumbling and makes me wonder why I bother with it sometimes - but I'm thankful for a way to stay connected with friends around the world, including a sorority sister who welcomed a baby girl this morning in New Zealand.

So there you go.  There were things that made me mildly cranky at times this week, but I'm just keeping it all in perspective - it could always be worse, I still know people on the East Coast who do not have power.  So I'm thankful for where I am at today, even in the yuck.

Thankful Thursday, Week 1

After a very grumbly post in my last post, I'm changing it up and offering a positive post instead.  Now that it's November (!) I thought I'd bring back my Thankful Thursday theme.  It's always good to stop and reflect on what we have.

So this week I am thankful for:

~My kitties

~Friends

~Wine

~The election is almost over

~We've had good weather this Fall

~Jobs and a roof over our head

~Chocolate

~Coffee

Simple list, but seriously, things I probably take for granted and shouldn't.

Tuesday truths

Fact - I have no right to grumble given the stuff the folks are dealing with on the East Coast, but I'm gonna do it anyway because I can.  It's my blog and I'll write what I want to.

Fact - I really, really stink at word games.  I cannot win a game of Words with Friends or Scrabble to save my life.  I guess I have been out of school wayyyy too long now.

Fact - I ordered something from an online company that was doing a "surprise sale"  You paid one price, gave your size, they send you something they want to basically get rid of.  I received the most adorable dress.  It does not fit.  Not even close.  Normally you can return stuff, but not on this sale.  Sad panda.

Fact - I'm super disappointed in myself, some already know, I have lost the battle I fought very publicly on this very blog of no longer picking my fingers.  Yeah.  We're not going to say HOW long ago I fell off the wagon, but I'm making a new resolve to quit this really gross and bad habit.  I have already bought myself the reward present - trying some reverse psychology with it, as long as I'm "clean" I can have the reward, if Nate catches me though, he gets to take it away (it may be something I am addicted to that rhymes with murse).  And once again, I'm making this public to hold myself accountable.  My goal is a manicure for Christmas.

Fact - Contrary to all the things I have said I have bought recently, I'm on another shopping ban.  Though I'm going a jewelry party tonight, anything I buy is going on the shelf and I can have it for my birthday as an "after the ban" treat.  Otherwise I'm totally on a clothing shopping ban.  This time it's not so much a budgetary thing, it's more because my birthday is in less than a month and I just don't need to buy myself more clothes right now.

Fact - My workdays are super long right now while my boss is on a medical leave.  Though I am betting by the time she comes back I'll be so used to this, I'll not enjoy it so much when she is back.

Fact - One of my favorite shows (Community) finally announced it's return date as it had been postponed indefinitely   I'm glad it's finally coming back, but I have to wait until February.  February?  Seriously?  Wow.

Fact - I'm really not as cranky as this list would have you believe today, but just needed to get that all off my chest.  There you go.