Looking back: Part One

Bloggers do this thing...the year in review...and I think, okay..I'll look back. It was a year to remember as I'm sure the current one will be. I want to remember everything...in broken sentences, list form...easily digestible.

January: Our house is officially on the market. Move into Houston apartment, explore, enjoy the weather while folks at home are snowed in. Spend time almost every day at a park. Mimi (my mom) comes for a 4 day visit and helps celebrate my second chance at having a 3 year old. At the end of the month we move across the city to a small hotel room...the hotel room I smoked out. Settling into this new life with some whining along the way. Mimi thinks she caught a cold on the flight home.

February: Visit the Houston Space Center. Celebrate Bug's 5th birthday. Drive home mid-month and evaluate the public restrooms we have experienced in our travels. Survive a night without heat and have a double birthday party with our homies. Sweet Man takes me along to Vegas for his annual meeting. Ahh, yes, the spa and the pool and the sun...and the bathrobe....what? oh yeah, where was I? We part ways at the airport as he flies to Texas and I head back to Ohio. Mimi is diagnosed with pneumonia.

March: Feel a little blahggy...not much to say...(do I ever have much?) Visit Grandma K on St. Patty's Day where Bean charms an older man. Feel so restless this month...already missing the traveling. Spending more time in the Valley while Sweet Man remains in Houston. He'll be there just a few weeks longer...not worth the 3 day drive there...or is it? Mimi still feels rotten.

April: Sweet Man comes home. I attend the Ohio Tea Party with Mimi. We celebrate Easter. My mom undergoes testing and is diagnosed with lung cancer on Sweet Man's birthday. Four days later, he gets a call to go to Wichita and leaves the following day.

May: Life goes on...many prayers are offered to figure out where I should be. The kids and I travel to Kansas after a fun stop in St. Louis and a harrowing drive through some of the most beautiful country I've seen. Wichita is wonderful and we enjoy 2 weeks there, packing a ton of activity in. But I feel the tug to come back and check in with Mimi. Sweet Man has a weekend break and we go camping with friends. He returns to Wichita.With a little help, I conquer our albatross...that damn pool. Mimi has begun radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

June: Lots of berry picking. We make our annual pilgrimage to Creation Festival in PA. The kids and I talk about safety scenarios. Summer is good. We spend more time at our house and much time cleaning for showings.

Throughout the year, I question the purpose of this blog. It seems that our orbit has come surprisingly tighter and tighter to home...not so difficult to keep track of us. What started as a way to let those at home know where we are and what we are doing, became an important record of life for us.