The lovely Morgan at
Let Me Help You Help Me did a wonderful post reflecting back on the past year. It made me realize how many huge changes i've made in my life over the last 12 months. I am borrowing her idea (with permission of course) because I think it's never too early to start reflecting and the perfect time to be thankful for all of the amazing gifts I have received.
In 2009, Life is Beautiful. In
January I made big changes in my life. I began the first step toward living the life I want...I began Grad School. I enrolled and was accepted into KU's school of Journalism to pursue a Masters in Marketing Communications. I eagerly attended my first classes and studied my heart out as best as I could.
In
February I began to realize I needed a creative outlet. I created this blog and slowly began sharing a little bit of myself with my VERY few followers, and anyone else who felt the need to look. I began to start discovering things about myself and what truly made me happy. My first post was titled
Hello World It was very basic. Just a few things about myself. I never imagined what this little adventure in blogging would evolve into, or how much I would learn to rely upon all of the amazing women i've met. :)
In
March my nephew
Collin Mitchell Osiek was born! He is the first baby we have had in our family in a long time and I loved being there for my sister while she brought him into this world. (all 10.2 lbs and 21" of him! ...mind you, my sister is 5'2") I have never been a baby person, but seeing my new little nephew was special, and it's something I will never forget. Spencer and I also took a trip to
Chicago in March. We went with Spencer's sister, brother-in-law, his brother-in-laws brother and his girlfriend. It was a lot of fun! We walked the streets all day long finding cute little shops and riding the train from one end of town to the other. It was Spencer and I's first vacation together and it was really wonderful. :) I love that we match one another and can take a trip without having a fight or getting frustrated with one another. :)
In
April I started out the month by taking photographs of my sister's new little family. Aren't they adorable!? We also entered and got accepted into Apartment Therapy's
"small is cool" competition! We were contestants for 2 years in a row! Wasn't our apartment adorable? I LOVED it!
This month we also made the decision that we had maybe out-grown our beautiful little apartment and we were ready to move on and grow our family ( to the 4-legged kind) and our apartment didn't allow dogs. We actually got on a waitlist for a beautiful little
german spitz puppy! The mommy was pregnant and was expected to deliver in June and have babies ready to go home by July! We signed up, and with deadline in mind began the process of apartment hunting....which then evolved into house hunting! Why rent when you can buy!?
In
May we found
our home. It was perfect. Exactly what we wanted! So we signed paperwork, put in our bids and waited... and we got accepted!!! We got our home and would be moving in 2 months! We were elated! and so excited to move into our home and grow our furry family...and then the news came. THe mommy of our puppy had had a false pregnancy...there were no puppies! Our little furball we had fallen in love with without ever seeing, was gone. I was deeply depressed. Spencer comforted me and told me that our puppy was still out there and that we would find her... We began researching breeds... we found the papillon and fell in love. We contacted a breeder who sent us puppy photos and it was done. We had found our baby.
Our Mia! (PS-
Vote for her) haha. I also finished my first semester of grad school with an A!
In
June we got excited and did a LOT of waiting. I started my second grad school class. It was a sustainability class and it consumed my every free moment! To pass the time we waited on pins and needles each week for photos of our little baby and packed. At the end of the month we got our keys and signed our lives away! After the paperwork settled we rushed to our new home paintbrushes in hand and began to
transform our house into a home.
In
July we officially moved! We spent 2 days getting settled and ready for our Mia and then set off on a roadtrip to bring her home. We picked her up, swung by my sisters house to spend the night and brought our little
Sock Monster into her home for the first time! We both had time off work so we spent a lot of time painting and decorating. I finished my summer class (thankfully! It was AWFUL) and we celebrated my 25th birthday!!! We spent a lot of time at home with our little girl playing with her, taking her to the park and running in the backyard.
August and
September blurred together for us. We were painting, refinishing our floors, unpacking, organizing, cleaning, putting in crown molding, doing yard work and planning our housewarming party that was going to happen in october. We really wanted everything to go smoothly and look nice. :) Spencer bought a second scooter and began working on it. Eventually it will be painted sparkle pink and be given to me! We got our stimulus money and bought new Ikea furniture, put in flooring and bought a few things to make our house feel special. :) Mia continued to control our attention and shower us with love...but at the end of the month we got a suprise from Spencer's sister. A little puppy needed a home. When her and Mia met they became instant friends. We couldn't turn her away. We brought her in and lovingly named her,
"The Betty Burger." 
In
October we celebrated Spencer's 26th birthday and got to know our puppies. We took a LOT of trips to the dog park where everyone fell in love with the two of them! We finally had our
Housewarming party and it was a HUGE success! Lots of family came by to say hello and we ended up having people at the house until 4am partying and hanging out! It was a LOT of fun, and it was nice to have a beautiful home to show off and get to tell people all of the hardwork we had done in the past few months to make it feel like home. :) Toward the end of the month our girls became
magicians and learned to jump over their baby gate!! We then ended October with a fantastic
Halloween party where Spencer and I won best costume! Yup, lawn ornaments. We were hot. :) Mia and Betty were the real stars though and stole the show dressed as a turtle and a squirrel.
and in
November so far this month has been fantastic! I have my 3rd semester class ending soon (and so far I have an A!), Collin has learned to crawl, our girls have been crazy little puppies and Spencer and I just celebrated a marvelous 3 years together. :) This year has been amazing, and it amazes me to think of how lucky I am. :)
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!! I will be posting Sunny-Side-Up a day early this week and taking thursday to relax with family and deck the halls with Spencer. :)
~Hugs~
Jenni
In March my nephew Collin Mitchell Osiek was born! He is the first baby we have had in our family in a long time and I loved being there for my sister while she brought him into this world. (all 10.2 lbs and 21" of him! ...mind you, my sister is 5'2") I have never been a baby person, but seeing my new little nephew was special, and it's something I will never forget. Spencer and I also took a trip to Chicago in March. We went with Spencer's sister, brother-in-law, his brother-in-laws brother and his girlfriend. It was a lot of fun! We walked the streets all day long finding cute little shops and riding the train from one end of town to the other. It was Spencer and I's first vacation together and it was really wonderful. :) I love that we match one another and can take a trip without having a fight or getting frustrated with one another. :)
In April I started out the month by taking photographs of my sister's new little family. Aren't they adorable!? We also entered and got accepted into Apartment Therapy's "small is cool" competition! We were contestants for 2 years in a row! Wasn't our apartment adorable? I LOVED it!
