January: Had 'Ukrainian Christmas' dinner with old roomie (and her husband and my soon-to be sister-in-law) at Applebees. Busy trip to Pennsylvania where we took the in-laws to visit my parents and we secured all the vendors for the wedding. Cake and Catering tasting. Tried to 'reboot' for the first time this month. Did 3 days and 'finished early'.
February: Tom sent me roses to work for Valentines, and my coworkers were convinced there that Tom was awesome :) Trivia night in the city was ruined by people using smartphones. Tom tries to make tofu taste like something good, but failed.
March: Height of my caffeine addiction, made worse by extreme wedding planning. Trip back to Pennsylvania to deliver decorations and spend time with my maid of honor and my flower girl. Movie night at a theater with Lazy-boys. Created invitations, working on assembling them over several Amazing Race marathons with Tom. Taught Dora to drive.
April: Starting to look like spring! Bachelorette Party in NYC at a karaoke bar and I got to play tour guide to my sister and maid of honor. Found adorable (yet embarrassing photos) of Tom, wondered if it would be inappropriate to use them at the wedding. Humorous cake topper from coworkers. Mailed out the invitations.
May: Met with my Ukrainian bridesmaid and her soon-to-be husband (married 2 days after Tom and I). Tom's nipple was rumored to have been pierced at the Bachelor party (they weren't). Tom's sister stayed with my at my mothers to help me finish up the last minute crafts. The groomsmen almost blew up my mother's house the night before the wedding with fireworks. Oh, and we got married!
June: After returning for a month to live at my old shoebox apartment, we found out we got the apartment we wanted and could move at the end of June. Went on our honeymoon cruise around the Southern Caribbean, and about that time got pregnant. Whoops :) Tried to explain how rhubarb (a vegetable) is amazing in pies, and told my coworkers that I would bring them some green tomato jam from my mom (which they loved). Got wedding photos back, and they looked amazing.
July: Moved! Spent the 4th of July at Jones beach, where I severely burned my feet. Furnished the entire apartment in one Ikea trip. Tom had his 26th birthday, but since we didn't have any candles, he blew out a lit match. Found out we were pregnant, and went crazy. Heard a lot of "took you long enough" remarks. Then realized that we would have to dismantle all the Ikea stuff in a few months to move things around, and laughed since it took us 3 weeks to assemble it all. Went to Maine on wknd on an impromptu 'Lobster
Crawl' where I just looked at the in-laws enjoy copious amounts of affordable lobster.
August: Laughed at the in-laws, who after seeing a raccoon run up on the roof decided to pursue it. Office party in Long Island, starting to fall into a nice routine of dinner at home with husband. Started feeling sick with headaches (pregnancy symptoms?) but then a week later started to bleed a bit. Took some time off work to deal with losing the baby. Tom cancelled trip to do missions work in Puerto Rico and we bummed around for a while. End of the month kind of fizzled, waiting for a conclusion.
September: We decided we should go to Pennsylvania and visit my mom for my 27th birthday. We returned to NYC and a week later officially miscarried, but life went on. Went apple-picking upstate with the in-laws and later I made natural applesauce that got RAVE reviews from the in-laws. They compared it to baby food, which wouldn't normally be a compliment. But it was, so I took it. Decided to take a day-trip to Maryland for some crab cakes where I got to eat along with everyone this time, unlike the lobster crawl in July. I got around my documents to get name changed on Oct 1st...
October: only for the government shutdown that started today to close the social security office I needed to be open for me to change my name. (Today, as I write this, I still haven't changed it). Returned to Pennsylvania (again) for my brother's wedding and to buy some autumn items. Bought my tiny pumpkins and took Tom through a great maize maze, that we wasted almost 2 hours in, and eventually gave up on. Drank a lot of cider. Took another trip to Lake George and enjoyed the changing leaves and saw our first drive in movie together. Surprised Tom by setting up the NES Nintendo games he used to love when he was.... 5? They still work too!
November: Started my new split shift, where I work from home (aka surf the net, answer emails and a phone call or two) from 6am-9am, and then work in office from 2-7. Love the change, and became a morning person. Started making breakfast every morning and waking Tom with coffee, and chatting before he leaves for work. We got pregnant again mid-November, but waited to test until we returned to Pennsylvania (6th and final time this year). Was hoping to surprise mom, but came up negative. We cleaned out all the wedding stuff mom has been holding for us. Caught sticker-pox with my adopted niece and went black Friday shopping. Brought home my old hope chest, which was filled with all the items I no longer needed. Blender from the 70s? Yep. My baby blanket? Uh huh. I explained the history of a Hope Chest, and Tom remarked about how old fashioned of my mom to put my sad dowry in there :) Came home, and had a positive pregnancy test!
December: Did a lot of decorating, cleaning, and stringing of popcorn around the apartment. Spent time with Tom's sister and in-laws. Did not go to Pennsylvania this month. Surprised? Me too. Spent the nights at home, feeling nauseous and getting migraines every morning. I baked a lot and I've gotten better than Tom at playing Call of Duty (half the time, I'm happy with that!) Learned my father-in-law loves cornbread, so I can add that to the approved list of recipes my in-laws love. Learned that hosting a Christmas party is a lot of work, but it's great to be the official 'entertainers' in the family. Made Jesus a birthday cake, and played dominoes. Got some fuzzy pajamas and lit a ton of leftover wedding candles.
And tonight, on New Years Eve, we are going to Tom's grandmother's where we'll play more dominoes, watch the ball drop and drink some Chardonnay grape juice from Trader Joes. I can pretend it's the real stuff, right?
Happy New Years to anyone who reads this, I hope you all have a wonderful 2014 that is so great that it leaves you sad to leave it next year. That's the dream, right?
