Highs and Lows of the Past Year

I am incredibly grateful that this past year has been filled with WAY more highs than lows. We know that we are blessed beyond belief and sometimes that I fear everything is going too good and that at some point it’s going to all fall apart. But I have to try to put those thoughts aside and have faith that no matter what, all will work together for good as God promised us in Romans 8 (I talked more about that in this post, but it is something I consciously and consistently have to work on).

So let’s talk about the last year! These are some of my favorite moments of the past year, in no particular order.

Highs of the past year

Family Caribbean Cruise – Swimming with dolphins off the shores of Mexico will always be a favorite memory of mine. The girls loved it and it is something they still talk about. Little Audrey, who wasn’t even 2 at the time, would get so excited and tell people “I swim wif a doffin, I kiss a doffin, I petted a doffin, I dance wif a doffin!”

Watching the girls learn to swim – This has got to be in my top 5 proud mom moments EVER! Just seeing how they progressed in such a short amount of time was incredible. Now Raley, who just 2 months ago was afraid to get her face wet, asks constantly to go back to Mrs. Ashleigh’s house and jump off the diving board.

Mommy and Raley days – Last year Raley’s dance class was on Tuesday mornings so she did not go to school those days. Those were our special “Mommy and Raley days” that we had to spend together, just the two of us. I will always cherish those days that I got to focus on only her.

This year Wednesdays are Audrey’s days and I decided to keep Raley out of school every other Tuesday so we can still get that much needed time together before she goes to school next year. I have a feeling I will never regret taking this one-on-one time.

Last Christmas season – We were busy or out of town literally every weekend during the months of October and November last year, so we decided to slow it way down during the month of December and focus on what the Christmas season is all about and on being together. I’m thinking we will do the same this year, because it truly was the best Christmas season we’ve had so far.

Grandpa’s 80th birthday – We were excited to be able to celebrate David’s Grandpa’s 80th birthday last year. He lives in Illinois and is unable to travel long distances so we don’t get to see him often. This was Audrey’s first time meeting him. I’m so glad we were able to take that time to visit and spend his birthday with him.

Weekend getaways with David – I talked a few weeks ago about how important I believe it is to take time away with your spouse. We were lucky enough to have two opportunities this year to get away for a weekend. We stayed in a cute little cabin in Gatlinburg for his birthday in February and we went on a marriage retreat last month with our church group.

Raley learning to stay in bed – Yall, this may be the highlight of the past year. If you’re new here, we struggled with Raley staying in her bed and going to sleep at night for probably a year. We’d put her to bed and she’d still be awake 2 hours later because she would not stay in her bed. We tried everything and nothing seemed to work. Until one day everything just clicked. You can read about what we called “the bedtime struggle” and what we think helped her finally learn to stay in bed, but really, we don’t know exactly what did it. But praise the Lord that something worked, because we were losing our sanity!

Watching both our favorite football teams win the championship – Some may think it’s silly that this is a high of my past year, but I was pretty darn proud to watch the Tide and the Eagles march their way to a championship. #rolltide #flyeaglesfly

Lows of the past year

Unexpected financial issues – Like I said we haven’t had any true lows, but something that we have had to deal with is several unexpected expenses. When I decided to stop working full time at the hospital we felt good about where we were with our savings account. It wasn’t robust by any means, but we felt comfortable that if anything were to arise, we’d be able to cover it, and we also thought we’d be able to continue to add to it a little bit each month.

Well, within the first few months of going PRN we had thousands of dollars of unexpected expenses pop up (just one of which was that we had to have the compressor replaced on our A/C unit and the price tag of over $2000.) Well, literally, as I’m typing this, we are getting an entirely new A/C unit installed. If only we’d had a crystal ball, we would have saved the money last summer and just got a new unit then. What makes this even more frustrating is that our house is only 6 years old, which means our unit should still be under warranty. However our builder failed to register the unit, which meant it wasn’t under warranty at all. (ahhh!)

If we could we’d move out of this house today. I’m not sure that Hunter Homes is still in business, but if you’re in the Madison/Huntsville area DO NOT use them. We have had several problems in our home that are due to lazy, cheap labor.

The toddler struggle –  Again, I’m not sure I’d call this a low, but it is something we’ve been struggling with.

Audrey is definitely in the prime of the “Terrible 2’s!” Boy oh boy is she hard headed (this is definitely my pay back because she’s just like me). She wants to do everything herself, and if you don’t let her do it herself, she will undo what you did (or try to) and then re-do it on her own. If you don’t let her undo it, she throws a tantrum.

The toddler thing is tough, yall. It may be the reason we don’t have another child. I can’t completely blame it on Audrey, because Raley had her own toddler issues, but no matter what their issues are, it’s not easy. I’m hoping for her three’s are better than two’s!

That’s a wrap! Some of my favorite moments + a couple of tough issues, but thankfully nothing terrible. This is another great prompt from Kait’s September blogging challenge. I am loving discussing these new topics and reading all of her posts as well! Check back tomorrow for 5 celebrity crushes!