2012 was a good year, well for the most part... as for most years, 2012 had its good times and its bad, but mostly good times.
Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the year... Hopefully I will be able to find pictures to add to this post!
In January we said "goodbye for now" to my Grandma Austin. She fought a good fight with the cancer that had stricken her body and was able to leave this world with grace and dignity. I know it may seem odd, but my family and I were relieved when she passed for Grandma was no longer suffering and in pain. When she passed, she was surrounded by her family that loved her dearly. She was able to see each of her great grandkids before she passed.
Me with Grandma Austin in August 2011 when we were home for our Tulsa Wedding Reception.
February brought my 32nd birthday and an unexpected snow day! We received 28" of snow overnight!!! How exciting is that! The snow was sooo beautiful! I wish we had been in the mountains to really enjoy the snow, but alas, we made the best of it in the city.
Buddy on our back deck unsure of what to do! The snow was higher than the poor lil' guy is tall! We had to shovel a path off of the deck and into the yard for the lil' guy in order for him to attempt to go out to do his business!
My birthday weekend was very eventful... on Valentine's Day just before I left to pick up our romantic dinner for two from Pizza Hut, our DVR decided to go on the fritz... cue an hour on the phone with the Customer Support people from DirecTv... So we had to wait for a new box to arrive... the next day, on my birthday, our remote went out and the other remote wouldn't work upstairs either... so another hour or so logged with Customer Support... the next day I found myself in a car accident as I was getting onto I-76 from Federal. A car, two cars ahead of me, decided to yield (about a block past the yield sign) and the car in front of me and I both slammed on our brakes. I barely tapped the car in front of me, big sigh of relief... then as I started to pull foward to get onto the shoulder of the on-ramp I glance in my rearview mirror to see an older minivan accelerating towards my stopped car... I am lucky and I have an amazing husband who spoiled me rotten that day!
I know it doesn't look like much... but... they had to replace my trunk cover, my bumper, the rear quarter panel on both sides, the cover thingy under my car and repaint the rear portion of my car... apparently my trunk was twisted and it almost needed to be replaced too!
March seemed to be anti-climatic after February. I'm going to have to look in my calendar to see what we did! Nothing is standing out to me as being good, bad or otherwise! We spent time with the Colorado Cousins and each other! One of the biggest UPS of 2012 was when my good friend Ed came home from Afghanistan after being gone for almost a year! He was stuck in Kentucky for rehab from an injury, but alas, he was HOME!!!
April Showers bring May flowers... or so they say... one of my close friends was married in April and the following weekend Ian's cousin was married. We were unable to attend either wedding as they were both destination weddings (one in LA, the other in Vegas) but we still sent our love to the newlyweds!
May found Ian finishing off his first semester of school!!! Yes! He went back to school part time!!! He LOVED his classes that he took and enjoyed learning new things! I found myself packing my classroom and moving all my stuff home. Change was in the air and I was looking forward to the change in work locations!
I started working for a pediatric home health company in June and found myself providing services for 6 kids after Summer School ended. The kids were a blessing in my life and I found myself remembering just WHY I got into this profession, and no, it wasn't because of the paperwork and politics in the schools... Also in June brought the arrival of our previous nephew, Henry Thomas! He is adorable beyond words and a joy to the family!
July... wow! It was a busy month! We spent the end of June in Aspen with the Keelty-Smith family celebrating the (long awaited) nuptials of Sheridan and Lo... it was great to see a majority of the family and see Sheridan and Lo tie the knot! We spent a great weekend in Aspen! Wedding and reception, night on the town with cousins, Aspen Summer Music Festival and some alone time... We spent Fourth of July with the cousins having a great BBQ. Then it was our 1st anniversary. We managed to get "THE ROOM" at our favorite hotel in Breckenridge. This was "THE ROOM" that Ian had been trying to get since the summer of 2009!
After our anniversary get-away, we had a week of working on Ian's first official "Black Dog Property Services" project before my parents came to visit us! We went to Silverthorne and subsequently to Steamboat with my parents. Mom sucked up her fear of heights and rode the gondola with us in Breckenridge too!!!
And finally, Jason came to visit at the end of the month! This brought a trip to Colorado Springs and a drive up Pike's Peak (and yes, you can drive a 2.0 ltr 4 cylinder Honda Civic coupe to the top of Pike's Peak)!!
Just before going back to work, we went home to see the newest addition to the Stiller-Titchener family... I took Jason to the airport Monday night so that we could leave early Tuesday morning for Tulsa ourselves!!!
School started for me immediately upon returning to Colorado and business took off for Ian. Life took a turn for the busy and not much time for anything else! We said our final goodbyes to the Jeep Grand Cherokee and welcomed the new Ford F-150 into our family. We did manage to find time to run off to Breckenridge for the Annual Ducky Derby (which we were late for because of the uber slow salesman at the dealership)... Unexpectantly, we got word that Uncle R.J. passed away from a heart attack around mid-month. He had been battling lung cancer and was showing signs of beating the cancer when he had the heart attack. Uncle R.J. was an amazing man, husband, father and grandpa and he is definitely going to be missed by all that loved and knew him.
The fall brought about new friendships and fun times. I introduced Ian to my old friends from Texas who had just moved to Colorado. We went out to Conifer to hang out with Jonathan one fall day while Amanda was out of town... I lost my digital camera, which Jonathan was convinced the deer had stolen... my shot improved dramatically since the last time I shot my bow!
The rest of the fall season seems like a blur of testing students, writing reports, meetings, Sewing club at my old middle school, private speech sessions for my 3 students and doing more paperwork! We found out that grocery shopping on Halloween is a good time to be out, very little traffic at the grocery store AND avoiding the kids going up and down the street trick-or-treating!!! Halloween also brought sad news to me and the rest of the BTW c/o 98. We found out that one of our classmates (and good friend) had passed away very unexpectantly leaving behind his wife (one of my close friends since elementary school) and a loving family.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with Jonathan and Amanda at their house in Conifer. It was fun and I hope we do this again next year!
Jonathan and Amanda- my friends from Ft. Worth! Crazy to think we met my first year teaching and now we are teaching together again in Jeffco!
The end of November brought sadness to my life as I found out that a very special woman in my life had gone on to an eternal party in heaven. She will always be remembered as being an angel to so many people whose lives she influenced and improved. May she rest in eternal peace and celebration with my grandma and others that we have loved and lost in the years past.
To end the year, Ian and I loaded up the new truck and headed back to Tulsa for a week with the family. We had a good time with the extended Keelty family on Christmas Eve, then the Stiller's on Christmas morning before joining my family for the afternoon. Our gifts from the heart were a big hit with the families and everyone had a great time! McKenzie turned 12 while we were home and we were able to go to both of her parties AND have her and Syrina spend the night with us at the hotel!
New Years Eve found the two of us at home hanging out together having a low-key kinda night. Christmas pictures will be posted in another post since this one is getting to be long...
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