2014 Year in Review

It’s been a while since I published anything so figured what better way to start off 2015 than to recap our year in 2014.  For the most part, 2014 was a great year for us.  I did have some health scares in March, November & December that have tested me in many ways.  I am physically much better now and I know the mental part will follow in time.  But for now I am SO ready to see what 2015 has in store for us.

January:

-      We closed on our new house.  I call it our forever house because not only do I love it, but I am NEVER moving again.

-      The Hudson Valley (and most of the country) had record breaking freezing temperatures.  Per weather.com, the core of the cold came Monday, Jan. 6 (the day we closed) and Tuesday, Jan. 7 (the day the movers came with our things).

February:

-      “Snowpocalypse 2014” was in full effect this month.  We received over 30 inches of snow here in the Hudson Valley that month. The 2013-2014 winter was the 7^th snowiest season in 120 years.

-      Our son and I attended the Valentine’s Day dance held at his school (on one of the few days it didn’t snow).

 

March:

-      I had surgery to remove the left half of my thyroid.  Thankfully all tests came back normal and I am doing just fine now :)

-      Hubby and I celebrated our birthdays!

-      The snow and cold continued…..

April:

-      The start of a new t-ball season

-      Our son turned 6!!!

 

 

May:

-      Our son attended his first Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work day at my job

-      Our son had his kindergarten artwork displayed in a district-wide art show at the town library.

-      Completed my second Spartan Sprint and beat my previous year’s time!

 

 

June:

-      Myself, our son, my sister and my nephew participated as extras in a movie being shot by my friend locally (check out Mother of the Week here)

-      Our son graduated from Kindergaren (yay!) and started summer camp

-      We welcomed the birth of our friends twin boys

-      The end of t-ball season

-      We held a housewarming party to welcome our family & friends to our new house 

 

July:

-      Spent 4^th of July at home watching fireworks in our neighborhood

-      Spent a week with my family on our annual family vacation.  This year’s destination was a resort in West Virginia

-      Attended BBQ’s and birthday parties for family/friends

\

 

August:

-      Weekend trip to Virginia to celebrate our nephew’s birthday

-      Spent the day in NYC with just our son and I having a “Mommy & Son” day complete with a trip to the Avengers Station & Museum of Natural History

-      Held our annual clam bake BBQ party with our friends

-      Attended 1^st grade orientation at our son’s new elementary school

 

September:

-      Our son started 1^st grade in a new school       

-      Apple & pumpkin picking at Barton Orchards

-      Attended my very first US OPEN (loved it!)

-      Took our son to the Shriner Circus in Orangeburg, NY

-      My company was announced to Working Mother Magazine’s Top 100 Companies to Work for and I was named as Ogilvy & Mather’s Working Mother of the Year

 

October:

-      Received my Working Mother of the Year award from Working Mother Magazine at their annual Gala Dinner in NYC

-      Spent Halloween trick or treating with our best friends

  

November:

-      We took our son on the North Pole Express train ride in CT

-      Spent Thanksgiving with my husband’s family here in NY

-      Took our traditional black Friday trip down to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to buy seafood for Christmas Eve

 

December:

-      Our son participated in his very first Holiday Concert at school

-      Hosted our very first Christmas Eve dinner in our new house with both of our families

-      Took our son to see Aladdin on Broadway with my family and were privileged to get a backstage tour.

 

A Long and Overdue Update

This update is WAY overdue.  I’ve had only one post since the New Year (bad blogger) and to say a lot has happened since Jan 1 would be an understatement.

Besides our normal work schedule and holidays, over the past six months we’ve celebrated our birthdays (mine and hubs); Anthony turned six!! (omg); I trained for and finished another Spartan race – beating my previous time;  Anthony came to my job for his first Take our Daughters & Sons to Work Day; Anthony was chosen to have his artwork displayed in a district wide art show;  Mother’s Day;  Father’s Day;  and on June 13th Anthony graduated from Kindergarten (omg again!)  We’ve been quite the busy family that it’s left me barely any time to catch my breath, let alone time to blog about it all.

But probably our biggest news of all is that we moved!!  You may have caught it at the end of my 2013 recap post (if you read the whole thing LOL) where I mentioned that we were packing up the old house and were closing on the new house.  We sold our townhouse on December 27^th and on January 6^th closed on a gorgeous 4 bedroom home a couple towns over.  We are beyond excited and are in love with our new space.  We truly lucked out finding our dream home. 

taken the day our offer was accepted (November 2013)

Moving was one of the most stressful experiences of my life and to do it in the middle of snowpocalypse 2013/14 made it all the more challenging.   We were scheduled to move out of our townhouse on the day a blizzard decided to descend upon New York.  Luckily I was able to get the movers to come a day early and they kept our things stored on the truck for the weekend until we closed on the new house.   It was a good thing we were able to do that because the day after the blizzard all of the moving company’s trucks were frozen solid because the diesel fuel in the trucks had frozen!!  You seriously couldn’t have made this stuff up.  It was just insanity.  Certainly not the time to be moving, but we had no choice.  We had to go.  The day we moved into the new house it was minus 5 degrees outside.  I felt so awful for the moving guys.  I bought a few boxes of coffee and some doughnuts and that helped make for happy workers (and a faster move).  Although I’m sure the cold certainly helped them work a little faster.

So as you can imagine, a lot of whatever free time I’ve had over the past 6 months has been spent focusing on the house and doing projects.  We were lucky that the house didn’t need any renovations, but of course there were cosmetic changes we wanted to do to make it our own.  Slowly each room is coming together and it’s starting to feel like home vs a rental vacation home.  More to come on the house as we finish off rooms (and more pics too!)

For now, I’ll leave you with some picture highlights from the last 6 months and the promise that I really will come back to blogging, even if only for short quick updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

2013: A Look Back

2013 will be over in just a few hours and I have to say that I’m more than ready to ring in 2014!!   2013 brought with it a lot of personal accomplishments for me.  I lost 38 lbs and completed 3 races, including my very first Spartan Sprint!  The past 12 months have been a fun and busy year for our family filled with parties, vacations and outings, but I’m excited to start 2014 and begin a new chapter in our family’s life.

See ya 2013…..Bring on 2014!!
 

January

• Started Weight Watchers
• Bowling outing with Anthony & Me
• Taylor’s Birthday party
• Family fun day at Sport Time USA
• Kindergarten Registration
• All three of us got sick with the flu :(

February

• Fun in the snow (Nor’easter blizzard)
• Swapping valentines at school
• (another) week with Wally (preschool project)
• Girls weekend trip to Foxwoods & Mystic, CT

 

March

• Tae-Kwon-Do trial lesson
• Trip to Florida to visit my mom & stepdad
• Easter egg coloring & hunt
• My birthday brunch at Xavier’s on the Hudson
• Bowling play date with Anthony’s BFF, Tyler

 

April

• Anthony turns 5!
• RJ’s Birthday Party
• Anthony’s 1^st day of T-Ball

 

 

May

• Mother’s Day dinner at Restaurant X
• More T-Ball games
• Gavin’s Birthday Party
• Crazy hair day at preschool
• The pool opens!
• Memorial Day Weekend BBQs

June

• Anthony’s “graduates” from Preschool
• Gilly’s graduation party
• Matthew’s Birthday party
• More T-Ball games
• Swimming and outdoor fun
• I completed my first Spartan Sprint!

 

July

• Watching 4^th of July fireworks from our window
• Vacation with my extended family to Niagara Falls
• Damian’s 1^st Birthday party
• Anthony gets a new pair of glasses
• Crazy hat day at Preschool
• More swimming
• Birthday parties for Chase & Aiden
• Kindergarten orientation day
• Had family photos professionally taken at a local park
• Put our 1^st house up for sale (eeek!!)

August

• Soaking in the final days of swimming
• Kindergarten bus orientation
• Fishing at the local lake with Daddy
• Birthday parties for Gilly, Vinny & Quincy
• Found a buyer for our house & intensified our search for a new house
• Girls weekend trip to Hershey, PA to see Justin Timberlake/ Jay Z concert

 

September

• Anthony’s 1^st day of Kindergarten
• I completed my first 5k Color Run!
• Stephen & Petra’s Engagement party
• Play date at Sport Time USA with Anthony’s BFF, Tyler
• Attended the world’s largest picnic in NYC (a Guinness World Record) sponsored by Hellmanns
• Hit my weight loss goal!!
• Continue the search for a new house

 

 

 

October

• Family apple picking trip at local farm
• Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
• Birthday party for Connor & Paige
• I completed my first Ridiculous Obstacle Race!
• Continue the search for a new house

November

• Celebrating thanksgiving with our family
• Steven & Colette’s Wedding
• Trip to NYC to see Lion King (Anthon’s 1^st Broadway show)
• Found our forever home!

December

• Ride on the Polar Express (Essex, CT)
• Celebrate our last Christmas in our house
• Continue to pack up the house
• Close on the sale of our 1^st home

 

From our family to yours.  Wishing you a very Happy New Year.  Cheers to 2014!!

A Letter to my Son on Kindergarten Eve

To my number one man,

Only five short years ago we brought you home from the hospital and tomorrow you will embark on a whole new journey. While maybe it shouldn’t be that big of a deal since you’ve been attending an all day program since you were 17 months old, tomorrow morning marks a different kind of a milestone.  You will start your academic career which (I hope) will last for the next 14+ years.  I am such a mixed ball of emotions tonight as I sit here and listen to you sleep.

Excited:  I’m excited for all of the new things you are going to see, hear and learn.

Sad:  Truth is, it makes me a little sad to see my baby boy growing up so fast.  Tomorrow may only be the first day of kindergarten but it snuck up on me so quickly that I can only imagine how fast your elementary school years will fly by.

Nervous:  I know what a caring & gentle soul you are and I am nervous that others won’t treat you right and that bullies will try to take advantage of you.  I know that you need to learn for yourself who to listen to and how to stick up for yourself but the protective mother in me wants to shield you from all of that.

Proud:  Our hearts are just bursting with pride when we think of just how successful you will be.  You are growing up to be a sensitive, strong, independent, talented little man, who spreads joy to everyone who spends time with you.

I know we can’t protect you from everything.  You will have good days, and bad days.  You will get tempted to make bad decisions.  Not everyone will want to be your friend and there will be times when your feelings will get hurt.  I will help to soothe your broken heart and do my best to arm you with the tools you need to make your own decisions.

Always do your very best and treat others with respect.  Remember your manners but don’t forget to come home and hug me tight every day after school (until you graduate from college).

I love you to the moon & back.