Well here it is! The last day of 2014! The time flies by so quickly... it seems like only a year ago I was in Rhode Island with my Knight, saying farewell to 2013. It was a good year, overall. There was definitely plenty of stress and tension and difficulties, but there was a lot of good that came through. I grew up, learned a lot, made a lot of memories.
In celebration of 2014, I am linking up with House Unseen. Life Unscripted (which I found via Miss Iris at The Starving Inspired) for a look back at my year in photographs!
January was an exciting start to the year. In the first few days I had not one, but two flights canceled, which caused me to miss my dad's birthday =( but did allow me to spend two extra and unexpected days with my Knight =). Then not two weeks later I was off on another flight to Minnesota for my dear friend's wedding. She holds the honor of being my first close friend to get married, and the wedding and trip was awesome! Above you can see a photo of myself and a group of our friends that are normally scattered across the country, gathered together for a few days.
February was COLD, and a lot of snow and MORE COLD... but it made for good ice skating weather, and we got to take Sister T's friend (far left) ice skating for the very first time. Good times all around.
In March I turned twenty two (GUYS I'M GOING TO BE TWENTY THREE IN A FEW MONTHS HELP) and had an awesome birthday. I got to Skype with my Knight that day, and I had a birthday party at what is now my favorite Irish pub ever with some dear friends. Things weren't all awesome in March though... a plan for a visit with my Knight fell through, which turned into six months of not seeing each other. It was really rough, but it helped us to grow closer to each other and more dependent on our faith to support and strengthen us. (Oh yes - and March was when my blog got a remake!)
I must dedicate April to this dear new friend of mine... I think it was the end of March/beginning of April that we started piecing together that we knew some of the same people and after a string of Sundays where we showed up for choir with coordinating outfits we had officially become good friends by Easter. Funny story - when we were taking this picture, our fellow choir member taking it asked if we had known each other before Kathryn had joined choir back in January. We said no, as a matter of fact we hadn't. It was only after several more months that we slowly remember that yes, we had met before then - several times in fact!
May was the month when at last I was able to go visit my Knight again, and be there as he graduated from his college. I was so proud of him, and it was such a joy to be there and watch him walk across the stage. It was also the month that my grandparents celebrate 50 years of marriage to each other - which of course was celebrated with a great party! And in May I started my new job at the hotel, and it's the best job I've ever had.
June was more graduations... my big little brother graduated from eighth grade (where has the time gone?) and it was the month when what would have been my class graduated from the school I had to leave. I watched my brother with pride, and I finally was able to let go from the past.
Ah, July. That was a good month. I flew out to the East Coast for a beautiful week during which my Knight and I celebrated three years of dating. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how blessed I am to have him as my boyfriend. Given the choice of anyone in the whole world, I would always choose him.
In August I got to spend some family time... we had our second year of doing a "staycation/weekend at the lake" vacation where we biked through the *ahem* scenic city we live near. Most of it was through very nice nature preserves, but there was that nice little tour of the place by the highway/under the highway where the hobos live (because shopping carts don't walk that far alone) and then the part where the bike trail merged with the shoulder of a very busy trucking route and then went down along a stagnant and smelly canal. We are skipping that part next time. But the part where we went to the Lake and started our Pineapple tradition was fun!
I went back to school for my third semester at my community college, quit the job at the chiropractic office that I'd had for two and a half years and watched as three of my siblings tried out soccer for the first time. That's Brother A in the green shirt above, Sister MR and Sister R played as well and they were all pretty good at it! Brother T tried out flag football, and we are all hoping that next year we can find a football team for him to play on - with my cousins all graduated from college now, we miss our football games!
After almost a year of absence from the Midwest, my Knight finally was able to come back and visit (my brothers were ecstatic, haha). It was a blessing that he was able to come out over the weekend that marked the one year anniversary of my grandpa passing away... we had a memorial mass said for him, and then dinner with the family at my grandma's house. It's still really tough, but we laughed and it was good to be together and remember him. The pumpkins in the photograph are ones my Knight and I picked out together. He couldn't take his on the plane so I kept it and carved out the Bruins logo on his, and the Blackhawks logo on mine.
November started off with the wedding of my cousin and the really great guy who was brave enough to join our crazy family! The wedding was beautiful and the party was a blast. It was wonderful to have everyone together to celebrate the new life together of two pretty awesome people. The rest of November saw a bit of stress as I balanced two jobs (I started up my second one the last week in October) and increasing assignments from school as the semester got to a close. Oh yes, and I got my wisdom teeth out!
And that brings us to December! I will admit - while I was relieved to be on Christmas break, I was a little sad to say goodbye to the semester. I had some really awesome classes (See above? That was me serving wine as a school assignment) and I got to know a really incredible teacher, whom I am very much looking forward to having more classes with next semester. Advent came and went - too quickly, I think - and Christmas was beautiful, as always.
Now the year is drawing to a close... and I am very excited to see what 2015 holds.
Really enjoyed this post!
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