To date 2011 was been the busiest year of my life filled with both great accomplishments, joys and its fair share of trials and tribulations. I'd love to share them with you but truthfully most of the year was a blur. So here's the recap or at least what I can remember.
I was still working at my middle school when the 2011 rolled into town. We were both employed full time and had a house full of beautiful children. Life was good.
In February, we started the year by putting our house on the market. We thought this process would be lengthy but much to our surprise it ended up short. Like one week short. Within the week of listing, we had not one but two full price cash offers and were on our way to being homeless. We were thrilled and then panicked all in the same breath. We kicked into high gear, began the escrow process, packing and looking for new digs which turned out to be tougher than we thought. Oh yeah and our oldest celebrated a milestone birthday by turning 13 and officially becoming a teenager.
My assignment ended in March which worked out quite nicely since March was equally as busy since we were knee deep in the house hunt and planning our first real family vacation--a trip to Maui in April. I'm sure more happened but it is all a little fuzzy.
April brought several events to note on this timeline. We found out we were pregnant again which was an amazing blessing but made moving a bit tough since my husband wouldn't let me lift anything! That didn't stop us from officially moving to our new house on the first. Moving is tough in and of itself but it's even tougher when you are only in your house for less than a week when you need to start packing for your family vacation. We departed our new digs for Maui just one week after moving in. Maui was heaven... except for the plane ride there and back since the little guy didn't want to leave Daddy's arms the whole time. Two days after arriving home, we hosted 20 people for Easter dinner and a small celebration to mark yet another milestone birthday--our youngest turned one! Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it and we're only four months into the year!
Thankfully, the summer was much less hectic. Our middle boy celebrated his first double digit birthday--yet another milestone! My Gramma decided to move in with us so we could help take care of her which was a big adjustment for all of us. We enjoyed a rockin' block party on the Fourth of July with our new neighbors and enjoyed some much needed family time.
In the fall, the school year resumed which meant back to school for both the kids and I. Our taxi cab days resumed with driving the kids to and from all the places they needed to be and we longed for the lazy days of summer. In October and through most of November, we began what seemed like a never ending list of preparations for both the birth of our son and the Christmas holiday which was right after his birth. There was LOTS of shopping during that time as well as several trips to the hospital for both Gramma and I. In late November, our last little blessing made his way safely into the world and our world changed again. His birth rounded out a very busy year and was the best early Christmas gift ever.
December was a month of mixed emotions. Gramma's needs changed dramatically and my ability to help her did as well. Having my son via c-section meant that I was unable to do any lifting and that was a big part of caring for her. Trying to manage scheduling family and care givers to be here for her 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 6 weeks plus readjust to being a new mom proved to be overwhelming and tiring. In the end, Gramma decided it was best for her to move in with my mother. On one hand I am relieved to be able to focus just on my family again but on the other I miss my Gramma and feel like I failed her.
My husband dedicated much of his time this month to a good cause--the Spark of Love Toy Drive. This is always challenging but reached new levels this year. I needed him to help out with the baby (which he did) but he had all the underprivileged children of Riverside needing him to put his full attention to the toy drive so that they could have a merrier Christmas. His obligations to the drive added to the scheduling challenges but we managed to deal with them and as a result 7,000 plus kids had a better holiday.
Sadly, we ended the year with some unfortunate news of the very tragic passing of several family and friends. It was a terrible way to end the year but served as a reminder for us as we entered the new year that life is precious and fleeting. So as we enter 2012 we need to remember to cherish the moments instead of just "get through" them. That is something this family will be doing more of in the coming year.
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