Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Year in Review

Soooo my BFF Robbin just posted a year in review and it was very interesting and good so it made me wanna try it too. Also, I think it will kinda help me gain some perspective about what's really going on with my life. Some of these things are gonna seem dumb but they are landmarks to me lol.Sooooo here we go........
Right after Christmas last year Travis and I FINALLY bit the bullet a
nd bou
ght a new piece of furniture..the sofa we have been wanting ever since we first got married. We finally said goodbye to that "purple" Goodwill sofa that I bought for $40 dollars right after we got married. We bought a nice leather sofa, that doesnt look 4th hand and looks nice in our house. We are quite pleased with it..even though the cat....aka dr evil ha
s made some claw marks on it. I know buying a sofa doesnt seem like a h
uge deal..but you'd have to know the lawhorne's to understand...we buy l
ike a piece of furniture every 5 years....in other words it was a big deal. I do admit though..I was kinda sad to see my purple sofa being eaten by the garbage truck :0( To the left is a picture of Travis and Robbin
chilling..she is sitting on my new sofa :0) Im silly, I know!
Soon after buying the new couch, my husband got laid off from his job
of many years. It was a hard hard time in this household. It was especially bad because he h
eard the news the day after returning from a wonderful cruise va
cation with our wonderful friends, Robbin
and Gary. We were so upset, because we would have never taken a big vacation like that if we had known he was about to not have a job. Travis and I were terr
ified
and had fears of not being able to pay our bills..all kinds of craziness. We definitely went through feelings of disbelief, shame, and total and complete FEAR! It wa
s a terrible time, but he went back to work basicall
y prn with no benefits at all, just to get the bills paid. Thankfully after sever
al months of working with no benefits, he was able to land a new job at Akima Infrastructures. So all was good with that.

I had a very scary encounter with my baby(dog) Delilah this year. She ha
s always been a very happy, healthy girl and more than anything..she LOVES her mommma. Delilah will always come
to me when I call her no matter what..so of course one random morning when I called her to come inside to eat her breakfast and she didn't come right away..it scared me. Her "sister" Lacy of course came running..being the lil piggy she is.
Delilah just looked at me with a VERRRRRY strange look on her face and acted like she was frozen and could barely ma
ke it up the 2 lil steps off the back. As soon as she got inside, she collapsed right there at my feet and was not responding to me. This of course, sent me into hyste
rics...annnnnnnnd to top it off, this was Travis's first day at his
new job 45 minutes away in Hampton at Akima. I literally lost all rational thought and called him ON HIS NEW JOB! hys
terically crying.... My baby could clearly hear what I was saying to her
because her tail would move when I said her name..but she couldnt lift her head. My mom came rushing over and said we needed to get Delilah to the vet ASAP. I cried all the way there. I went in and told the Dr. this was just not norma
l for
her and I wanted her tested for EVERYT
HING.I told the vet I had no way to know if she had gotten into anything, because this dog puts EVERYTHING in her mouth..even though I am very careful to keep th
ings safe f
or her. The vet could not find a
nything wrong with her but I insisted I was not leaving until I knew what wa
s wrong with her. It was until I c
ontinued to tell the dr about her incre
asing weight and not great appetite that they decided to test her thyroid. As it turns out the vet immediately called me and said Delila
h had no thyroid function at all and this verrry likely was her problem. As it turns out..thyroid issu
es in dogs ca
n do veeery weird things to their bodies..such as neurological problems..confusion..fainting etc. Well ever since then, Delilah has been taking her thyroid pill every day and she is doing GREAT. She feels so great, she
thinks she's a puppy annnnnnd her fur has turned soft as cotton! I love her and I'm so glad she's feeling better! That's her laying in the middle of the bed with her mommma, who I think was sick that day. That's her little sister Lacy Loo next to me and their brother "nipster"

Throughout the summer months, Travis and I made many trips down to OBX, Water Country,
and spent many weekends playing in our little pool.I know that thing is silly..the water only comes up to the middle of my thigh LOL, but its fun and it feels so good. My ultimate dream of course is to have a poo
l of my own and have my own
backyard vacation anytime I want it..little did I know..this dream w
as going to come true later in the year...more on that later on :0) This summer, Travis and I joined Golds Gym! We absolutely love it and have started the whole "Body P
ump" program. My friend kelly really got me interested in this and will say..I truely love it! I can see changes in my body and Body Pump makes me feel strong and confident! When I'm done with each class I genuinely feel that I have accomplished something!
Summer is my favorite month and I feel like that's really when I come alive! My BFF Robbin and I made a few trips to OBX, v
egged on the beach and even ate pizza in our bathing suits! I absolutel
y love going down and there and especially spending time with my b
est friend in the whole world. We love to go down
there, eat Little Ceasar's $5 PIzza (LOL) drink wine, and talk about "important" things whilst sitting on the porch LOL This is s
omething I look forward to every yea
r:0) This summer we also made the grand opening of Trader Joe's...LOL we are bi
g nerds but we were s
ooo excited
and took pictures of o
urselves standing in line :0) Travis an
d I of course celebrated our anniversary with our annual trip to OBX and eating
at Th
e Black Pelican which we love...while others I know hate it LOL. Kathryn and Marcos came down to the OBX that we
ekend too to help us celebrate. La
ter in the summer, Kelly and Colin came down for the weekend and w
e had fun playin
g cornhole at Mexicali Brewz.We had some much fun with those crazy Woods' :0)

As the summer came to a close, I was sad as per usual..but we still had things to be excited about :0) We had a great time Halloween nite at Kelly and Colin's annual Halloween Party. Travis made his debut as "big red hand" (not really but we like to tease him) I was a ultra mod, Judy Jetson looking pumpkn girl, Kell
y was a patient with a
big butt LOL, Colin was a gangster and Robbin was a verrrry creepy looking geisha. We had lots of laughs that nite and even had a pinata:0) In that same month, Tra
vis took me on a great trip to Charlottesville to see U2..which is something I have allllways wanted to do. On the way home, he also took me to King Family Vineyard for my birthday! We had a great time on my birthday wee
kend. Robbin was on her fantastic Italian cruise this month and so sadly we missed each other's birthdays :0( Before she left we celebrated, ate cupcakes an
d
exchanged very fun presents. I know she especially enjoyed her "fancy" pj pants and her "Fangtasia" t shirt. Speaking of Fangtasia..this was the year we alll and when I say all..I mean everyone I know was watching True Blood..like whoa! I believe this was the month we took a girly trip to Eastern Shore and saw
wild ponies and took the craziest boat ride of my life. I peed in the tiniest, sill
iest toilet I have ever seen, right in the middle of the boat with a shower curtain type thing wrapped around me! I laughed hysterically and somehow got over my shy bladder! LOL Robbin and Leslie documented this whole episode of cou
rse! We met a very kind man named Capt. Dan who shared with us his grief over the loss of his dog, Madeline. He missed that dog ter
ribly and actually cried a little bit. H
e loved that dog and he was such a nice man. During the early fall months Travis and I attended two weddings of great JMU frie
nds..Kim and Don and of course Laura and Ben. Both weddings in the Northern VA area. We had a great time at both and were glad to be a part of these events! Congrats to both of these happy couples!
As the days grew cold, Robbin and I started back with all of our crafting antics that we so dearly love. Gingerbreads and cupcakes and all the crafty things I love. This year we started a new project involving lamps! We have been so excited about this project and even had a "Lamp Day" at my house! We have been buying up lamps from thrift stores and doing all kinds of wonderful things with these monstrosities LOL! I gave one to my nana this year decorated with gold leaves, butterflies and birds and she absolutely loved it! Can't wait to do some more!
We took our annual trip to NYC ad had a blast as per usual. We saw a great show called Oleanna and waited outside and saw Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles!!!! We are sooo starstruck!!!!!! We did some of everything that weekend! Went to Serendipidy, had frozen hot chocolate, ate Thai food, went to Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, got some great deals in China Town and stayed in the craziest ultra mod presidential themed hot
el in Times Square you have ever seen! It was a great time and I treasure this annual tradition!
Our gingerbreads this year were magnificent. Gary built them for us and we decorated our hearts out! I love gingerbread day soooo much. We also made our annual trip to Kelly's work party in Richmond and shopped all day in Short Pump which I
dearly love. Travis joined the trip this year and had a great time hanging out with Colin and having a midnite snack and Denny's with kelly and Colin as his lovely wife slept soundly in her hotel room bed. Travis came in the room talking like nothing's going on a
s per usual in the middle of the nite LOL. All in all, Robbin declared that Travis doesnt make such a bad roomate LOL. We had been quite concerned about accidental nakedness and noncompliance with the rules of the bathroom whilst sharing a tiny hotel room with two ladies :0) All in all it was a great time! Also in Dec we went to see the Nutcrack
er and all I can say is......that male dancer was quite exposed in the nether regions OMG!!!! It was bad. I wasnt sure if we were at the Nutcracker or some type of weirdo peep show with a Christmas theme. LOL. For Christmas thi
s year, I got Travis a very special present...a kayak. This is something he has been drooling over since we went on a kayak trip with some of his work buddies several months ago.It was a hilarious and kinda scary ordeal getting that 18 foot long joker home..but oh so worth it! Thanks Jesse!!! But really and truely the biggest thing that h
appened during these winter months was buying our new "forever home" in
Kilby Shores!!!! We were so
ooooo sad the day the "For Sale" sign went up in our yard..but the dream of owning this home that was perfect for us kept
us going through some of the really
tough times of this ordeal. Our new home has everything that we need..a great fenced in yard for our babies, lots more room
, more bedrooms for our friends to come and visit, the possibility of a craft room for me:0) a man cave for travis and yes folk
s....a freakin swimming pool! It is truely a dream come true!!!!! So we will be moving into our new home some time mid January
! The whole thing is bitter sweet for me.I love love love the house we live in now. We put so much blood, sweat and tears in here and made everything our own. It will be both the happiest and saddest day ever for me when our ho
use in Kingsboro sells. Its going to be soooo hard for me to say goodbye to it, but I want to believe that buying this new house was a dream come true for us. It was just too good to it get away from us. Travis and I are of course scared to death of currently owning tw
o homes, but are going with our gut and trying to following our heart. This feels right to us and so we have gone on nothing but FAITH that this was the right decision for us.
We felt in our hearts that we had to go for it and everything would work out as it was sup
posed to. If you are reading this...say a prayer for us that we have made the right and responsible decision. We are both very conservative when making big decisions like this...but this time we just went with what felt right.....
After Christmas, Travis and I hosted a Post-Holiday Ugly Sweater Party at our house. We had a great time celebrating with frie
nds and laughing at everyones's ridiculous sweaters. We pulled out Rock Band and laughed at everyones "musical talents" LOLI was ridiculously tired from the holidays but I still treasure each and every time I get to hang out with good friends.Thanks to everyone who came out!
The usual things continued for me this year that I dearly love. I'm still going to dance every Mon nite. This will make my 18th year of dance..and I'm still loving it:0) I look forward to tap, jazz and ballet every week...nerdy as it may be. I continue to hold my secret wish of being a Rockette :0) LOL. Bookclub continues to roll on every month.I believe we are moving into year 3 of this???? I still love it and enjoy the new friends I have made and all the interesting books we read! Some of the highlight books for me this year were A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Help, This Much I KNow is True, Peace Like a River, Sarah's Key..and many more. I look forward to our annual "Dirty Santa" gift exchange this year..I can only hope I get some fancy crotchless underpants this year LOL!
This Thurs is New Year's Eve...we plan on celebrating with our good friends Kelly and Colin who I sadly say we will be saying goodbye to very soon when they move back to Boston. This is going to be one of the sadest goodbyes I will have had to do since leaving some dear friends after graduation at JMU. It is going to be so hard, but I know we can stay friends despite the distance :0(
As the year comes to a close it's nice to reflect back on where we have been and where we are going. In writing this year in review, it has helped me remember some of the great times, and some of the not so great times I have had this year.But more importantly it shows me that no matter what...life goes on and we get through it! It's easy to forget all the little things that happen to make us who we are. One thing I have learned about myself is that I am forever greatful for my wonderful friends who are there for me and keep me on the right path. I love you all and dont know what I would do without you. I am especially thankful for those friends that helped me through a REALLY rough and scary time this year and have helped me get back on the right path and reminded me why its good to me alive.
I also realize in writing this that TRADITION is something that makes me feel comfortable and good. I love those things that I can count on each year. They are often simple things....but they are the things that get me through every day, every month and every year. For those things I will say THANK YOU.