2016 year in review

I didn't blog once in 2016. Maybe after you read about all the things that happened in 2016, you'll understand a little more. I have loved having this blog to look back on, to remember things, or to look up information I posted about and I'm sad I've lost a whole year of that, but when you barely have time to sleep, something's gotta give, and for me it was the blog.

For my memory's sake here's a 12 picture review of the crazy, awful, and wonderful year we've had.

1. I started paralegal school at Georgetown University

The main reason why this blog died this year was because of school. I enrolled in Georgetown's paralegal studies program and was working full time and going to school full time for an entire year. It ate up all of my free time, but I learned a lot and made some friends, and came out with my paralegal certificate in the end. Which then led to a surprise promotion at work. You're looking at the legal department's newest and only paralegal.

2. Hal started a new job

Hal very suddenly received an amazing job offer at a really cool biotech he just couldn't turn down. He said Bye Felicia to EY and working a billion hours and hello to growth, new opportunities and a company that is actually working to cure diseases and save lives.

3. We bought a house

After searching for a house for almost a year, we found our perfect little first house. It's exactly what we were waiting for, in the exact neighborhood we wanted to live in, and for the price we were looking for. Seriously, the planets could not have aligned more perfectly. We wanted something that was a good price and wasn't already remodeled, so we could make it exactly how we wanted. We bought a house and left for Asia the next day.

4. We spent 3 weeks in Asia

In January while we were snowed in a friend notified us there was a mistake fair to Asia. $450 roundtrip tickets and a break in-between semesters led to perfect timing to spend 3 weeks backpacking across Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. It was such an adventurous trip and we even came back with a huge dinner table from Cambodia. We had clothes made in Vietnam and ate all the pho, toured breathtaking ancient temples in Myanmar, got scuba certified in Thailand and went back to our village in Cambodia, saw our friends, family and students.

5. We gutted our first floor

We bought our house, left for Asia the next day and while we were gone, this is what our house looked like. The house was supposed to be almost done by the time we moved in, but we ran into some problems with permitting and plumbing, and it took a month and a half longer to finish than planned. Meanwhile everything we owned had to be in the three rooms upstairs, we had to live without a kitchen for two months and without running water for days at a time.

6. We remodeled it into a home we love

I literally just walked downstairs and took this photo since people had been asking for more photos of our house. While it was such a pain to live through the remodel, to say we're in love with how it turned out would be an understatement. We just ran with the ideas in our head, didn't listen to anyone else and are so happy with how it turned out. Now we get to slowly remodel the upstairs ourselves.

7. We expanded our animal farm

Little miss Maeby joined our family in July. We pulled the trigger right as our remodel was ending and rescued this snuggle bug. She was a breeder dog who was turned out and on death's door when the rescue found her. She loves people almost as much as she loves blankets and will snuggle all day long.

8. No more antibiotics

I took this picture the very first morning I didn't have to take antibiotics with my breakfast in almost 2 years. I still take quite a few supplements and tinctures, but my doctor has slowly been weaning me off of them, while ensuring my body will stay strong and healthy on its own. While my journey with Lyme isn't over, nor will it ever be, I'm finally on the up and up.

9. We went to Canada

Neither Hal or I had been to Canada before, so Hal planned a surprise anniversary trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto. Niagara Falls was breathtaking. And we stayed in Kensington Market area of Toronto, a wonderful hipster neighborhood which we loved. We also found Toronto was plentiful with mangosteen, our favorite fruit, which is hard to find in America.

10. Hal turned the big 3-0

Hal turned 30 the day after I finished school, and I was so glad we got to celebrate together. I threw him a surprise birthday party. We were so honored so many friends from all different parts of our life came together to celebrate Hal with us.

11. We ran a Spartan Sprint

Spartan Sprints are a 5 mile 25 obstacle race. I viewed this race as a sign of conquering Lyme Disease. For the first time in almost 3 years I had the energy to work out, so I set the goal to run the race with Hal's family. We had so much fun. We did it all together, helping each other and encouraging each other along the way. I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait until we do it again.

12. We survived

Hal and I enjoyed staying home for Christmas last year so much, we decided to do it again. We hosted Christmas Eve for some friends, then headed down to Williamsburg and spent some time in Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. It was so nice to have some time to do nothing but hang out and reconnect after such a busy, stressful year.  When 2015 ended, it was such a hard year and I remember writing the year in review just feeling like the hard times weren't over. While this list focuses on the wonderful things that happened to us in 2016, it was a hard year on so many fronts for both of us. We made it through remodels, awful elections, sicknesses and school and have finally made it to the other side of 2016. Thankfully it feels like 2017 is also going to be on the up and up. 

Christmas 2015 and Charlottesville

I'm so far behind in posting and I don't even care anymore. I'm working full time and essentially going to school full time, so if I get a chance to post, it's a lucky day.

We had such an amazing Christmas. After our trip to Cambodia fell through we decided to stay in the DC area instead of spending a million dollars to go home for the holidays. And honestly, it was such a great decision.

On Christmas Eve we had dinner and a little program with 3 other couples who also stayed home. Everyone brought traditions from their families and we played games and laughed and ate so much food. It was such a great night.

On Christmas we relaxed at home and opened presents. We were so lucky that we had such kind family who shipped us presents so we could still share the day with them. After sitting on our butts all morning we headed out to my family's tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas. I've done this my whole life and it's surprising how many people have joined in in the last few years.

Hal's work gave him a last minute gift and we decided to use it and go somewhere fun for a few days. We left Christmas afternoon and headed down to Charlottesville, VA. We took a little inspiration from A Christmas Story and tried to find a Chinese restaurant open for dinner. It took a lot of calling, but we finally found one open and had a delicious Christmas Chinese feast in our hotel room.

We started out our trip by heading up to Monticello. Unfortunately it was raining and super foggy the entire time we were there, but luckily it made for really cool photos. We both thoroughly enjoyed Monticello. It was really cool to see how Jefferson was impacted by his time in Europe and how he drastically altered his designs based on the inspiration he saw all over Europe. My favorite parts were the really cool clock in the first room of the tour, seeing his actual boots in his bedroom, and seeing his pulley door in the main sitting room.

That same day we headed down to see the Great Caverns. I realized I had never been in a cavern before, so I was pretty darn impressed. This is the longest continually operated show cave in America. On the same day Union troops and Confederate troops were given tours of the cave, within hours of each other. You can even see their signatures from their tours still intact. The other really cool thing about this cave is that instead of things growing horizontally they grow vertically, so the have some shapes that are rather unique to this particular cave. They also have a lot of shield shapes which apparently are very uncommon.

Our last day we decided to partake of the famous food in Charlottesville we've heard so much about. Duck Donuts, which we've had before surely did not disappoint again. We did finally get to try the famous Bodo Bagel and man oh man, we're both still dreaming of how delicious those bagels were. Plus it was an amazing 65 degrees that day, so we drove to a park and enjoyed our meal outside while being baffled by the December weather.

I'd highly recommend Charlottesville for a perfect little getaway. Just 2 hours from DC, it's very close to Shenandoah, and has delicious food; which is always the real motivator for us.