Off the 2014 Roller Coaster

2014 is coming to a close and everywhere you look you see the best of, here's what happened and reviews of 2014. I usually am kind of meh about those sorts of things and have the mind set of yeah we were all there we know.

This year though was such a roller coaster in my world I want to close out 2014 with a little bit of closure for myself.

January started off the year with a pretty good start. I was doing really well with my job almost a full year at full time. We found out that the artificial insemination had been successful for my brother an sister in law. Then the roller coaster hit it's first major downward turn. My Dad went in to the doctor for what was thought to be something minor but ended up being diagnosed with a tumor pressing against his bladder.

The rest of the winter and into spring was spent pushing that car back up the tracks.  Learning from my parents how strong they are and working on a plan to fight the cancer. My own car had a bit of a dip this spring when I was insanely over stressed by work that I needed a jaunt to the ER. Right at my birthday time too! Still never seem to be totally well around my birthday haha.

The spring stalemate at work continued into summer and brought with it the excitement of friends visits, trips and friend's wedding festivities. I loved that I was able to see my best friend Becky and couple that with a day in the city, a fest and seeing Stache play ... Still three of my favorite things! I finally crossed one of my bigger 101 tasks off my list in July and headed west to Seattle to represent my Gamma Phi alumnae group for the international convention.

Everyone, especially mom and I were in full on new baby mode by the middle of summer. We then had a pretty shaky low with Kevin's job telling him in one breath that things weren't working with him as a project manager then in the next saying they didn't want to loose such a hard working and dedicated person like him.  I was finally able to take Kevin up to Minnesota to see my aunt and uncle's fishing resort near the end of the summer. Since we got together I've been telling Kevin how much he was going to love being up there and he definitely had a blast. It was amazing to get to see so much of the family and celebrate Baby G with the family baby shower.

Just a week after the reunion and the day after my parent's 40th wedding anniversary we experienced the lowest low. My dad passed away. After battling the cancer and getting a bad infection he could not fight off. This low has continued for the rest of the year for me, affecting so much of daily life. A good friend of mine, who lost her mom five years ago, said to me this week that you never really get over it and the void will never be truly gone. My fall and beginning of winter has been a little shaky as I've been working through my grief and how life has been since losing my dad.

September brought multiple celebrations though. Starting off with two of Kevin and my good friend's wedding. The end of September gave us my sweet baby nephew Lane! Not gonna lie being an aunt is a lot of fun. It's great to get to spoil the kid, have fun with him and yet not have to do too much of the other serious stuff if you don't want to!

 Starting off the holiday season with Thanksgiving we've been able to see so much of both our families. Kevin's uncle Mike came up from Dallas twice, which I loved because he's definitely my favorite! It also brought with it Lane's somewhat last minute baptism, Kevin and I were asked to be godparents and Kevin has approached the role with a lot of seriousness and excitement (which has been somewhat surprising to me).

Getting to spend Christmas Eve and day with family was wonderful, bittersweet and just a little concerning what with Kevin's trip to the ER (he's all good though!!). As I hang out with my mom today on New Years Eve, just an hour away from starting to get ready for our fondue dinner, I'm a little torn about how I feel about 2014.

Overall I'm ready for 2014 to be over I think. For all it's ups there were too many extreme lows this past year that I'm just ready to leave in this past year. Even through I'm ready to move ahead I'm definitely taking the lesson's I've learned into the new year. It has really been made more evident to me that we're only living one life and to not be comfortable in bad situations, let the drama consume me, get bogged down in stuff, etc. etc. 2015 will be a better year and a year of major changes!