2015: A Year In Review

This year has been so good to us, and it’s crazy to think back on all the big steps we’ve taken in the last 12 months alone.  Since I can’t send out a Christmas card to all of you (and let’s be real, our Christmas card doesn’t go into this much detail), I thought I’d take a bit to write down and remember some of the biggest events of our year.  Maybe more for us to remember than for all of you, but hey…that’s okay every once in a while, right?

Source: Haley George Photography

Winter 2014/2015

By far the biggest thing that happened this past winter is that we bought a house! We had been planning on waiting until spring but when we saw this one, we fell in love and pulled the trigger.  It was a beautiful, open floor plan that we loved in a great neighborhood and at a great price.  We spent lots and lots of days and nights repainting and working on the house in January-March and love how it all turned out! You can check out this post for our first home tour I shared last spring with some before/after pictures (or this more recent one with our Christmas decorations).

Our dining room!

Spring 2015

After some of the craziness of settling into the house died down, we soaked in some fun time with each other and family and friends.  We continued leading our church small group and getting to know those folks.  I took a trip to Nashville to visit my lovely friends Haley and Taylor and that time with them was such a sweet reminder that the best friendships are the ones that even time and distance can’t fade.

Jordan did about nine million races and triathlons, all leading up to a half-Ironman triathlon in Boulder, CO in June.  I was so proud of how hard he trained and how much he grew as an athlete and a person over these few months, even if I did complain every once in a while for another early Saturday morning alarm (learning to love my husband’s hobbies is a process, y’all).

One of the most fun developments of the spring was that Jordan officially got hired to start a new job working as a high school special ed teacher and cross-country coach.  We’d been praying for almost two years that he’d get a high school job (instead of elementary where he was) and this was so, SO exciting!

The best part of spring for me was starting this blog (you can read the story behind my starting it here). After dreaming about it for a while, I decided to just jump in and go for it.  It’s crazy how much it’s grown over these last 7-8 months and I’ve been so grateful for all the wonderful folks who’ve supported me, encouraged me, and been faithful to read and comment since I started.  Blogging has become one of my favorite hobbies and I’m so grateful for it! This was my original layout when I started and it’s crazy to see how much it’s changed since then.

Summer 2015

We both worked summer school in June, as hard as it was to jump into another month of work after the end of a crazy year.  We are SO glad we did work it, because my car’s engine completely died and we ended up having to buy a new one (to the tune of several thousand dollars, our combined summer school paycheck and then some).  Adulting is the worst, isn’t it?

Right before all that stuff with my car happened, we took a road trip to Boulder, CO for Jordan’s half-Ironman.  Boulder was a beautiful city to explore with so many fun restaurants and shops and we loved walking around.  Jordan rocked his race, a great way to end a season of intense training and growing as a runner.

And maybe the craziest part of our summer? On the morning after the 4th of July and the same day we left for a two week trip to Mexico and then California for my brother’s wedding, I took a pregnancy test and realized that our whole world was about to change (see our pregnancy announcement post here for more fun details about all that).

Twenty minutes after getting that positive result, we headed to the airport for our trip to Playa del Carmen.  Mexico was a slow, sun-filled week where we drank (virgin) drinks and dreamed about all that would change in the next year, and we loved that time to vacation together (even if it wasn’t much of an adventure).

After Mexico, we headed to California for my brother’s wedding.  We had so much fun sharing the news with my family and a few friends in California, and my best friend Haley was even in town to do a quick pregnancy announcement shoot with us.  I love how those pictures turned out and it’s so fun to look at them and know our little nugget was just a tiny little bean there (see more pictures HERE)!

Fall 2015

Jordan jumped into his new job teaching special ed at the high school and coaching cross-country in the mornings and afternoons.  He loved getting to know and run with his cross-country guys and it was so fun to see him fall so naturally into that coaching role.  I have a feeling it’s something he will do for many years to come!

I continued on in my third year teaching 8th grade Spanish 1.  At this point, most of my units are planned out, so I was able to spend more time refining them and enjoying time with students than just planning.  I felt so much more confident in my classroom management and my teaching this year, which is a great feeling!

ADDITION: After I published this post, my husband was shocked that I had not included anything about the Royals winning the World Series in October.  Let’s just say we watched a lot of baseball and did a lot of middle of the house (and street) dancing celebrations in October of this year! Kansas City turned Royal blue and we loved every minute of it!

Even though I dealt with some not so fun morning sickness through September and October, it was so fun to learn more about our baby and start to feel the pregnancy get more real.  In October we found out that our little bean was an ornery little BOY, and soon after settled on the name Caleb Jordan English for him.

I’ve been posting monthly “bumpdates” documenting the pregnancy on the blog, so you can check those out for more fun bump pictures and updates from month three, month four, month five, and month six.  Month seven will be on the blog tomorrow, so get excited!

At five months pregnant!

Since then, my decorating heart has been giddy as we’ve ordered some nursery furniture, painted the nursery, and started to see our little boy’s room come together (I haven’t done a reveal yet, but you can see the pictures inspiring me in this post!).  Once we get through Christmas break it’s just 10 more weeks (or more or less) until he arrives and I’m starting to feel the reality of that sink in.

It has been a sweet year filled with so much joy, surprises, and fun times with the people we love.  God has been so good to us this year and we are so excited for all that’s to come in 2016!

I am so grateful for you all and I wish you all the best in 2016 and the years beyond it! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!