2012 Year in Review

2012 was a pretty amazing year for us! My brother-in-law (woah, that's weird) asked how 2013 is going to live up to this past year after seeing our Christmas Card and he's right...it's going to be hard to top 2012.  While this past year was filled with wonderful memories and fun adventures, I'm looking forward to what 2013 will bring!

So keeping with yearly traditions here is the 2012 Year in Review!  Happy New Year!

January

I traveled to St. Louis for a girls weekend with 2 of my best girlfriends (Jamie - currently in Denver and Sarah - currently in DC) and it was wonderful!  Sarah started her drive in DC, picked me up in Pittsburgh and we drove the rest of the way together while Jamie flew from CO.  All went wonderfully minus the freak snowstorm we hit roughly 2 hours from MO which caused me to freak out and drive like an 'ol granny.  Safety first!

February

Big wedding decisions were made including designing, printing and putting together our Save the Dates, picking out the bridesmaid dresses, and tasting and picking the reception food - which meant there was also another trip back to MO!

March

Match Day. 'nuff said.

April

We made yet another trip back to Missouri and packed it full by house hunting and had my wonderfully amazing bridal shower and bachelorette party!  Back home in Pittsburgh we attended our last PNC Park baseball game and we celebrated Miley turning 2 all the while creating, printing, cutting out, glueing, addressing and sending out our wedding invitations!

May

While working on wedding details and favors we threw the remaining energy we had at one of my least favorite things: packing.  Packing up our little apartment was sad, but we were both so excited about the upcoming changes that it actually helped in making the time fly by.

June

You could say June was our biggest month: Russ graduated from Medical School!  We moved back to Missouri!  We got Married!  Honeymooned in Oregon!  Purchased our first home!
With the exception of purchasing our first home, everything else in June happened within the first 10 days of the month.  My advice for anyone planning on graduating, moving, getting married back-to-back? Don't. It's exhausting.

July

We moved into our new home and started painting...and painted, painted, painted.  Russ started off his residency in mid-June and was working nights so I found I needed to keep busy during the day otherwise I would go crazy.  So I job hunted while hanging out with my family - taking trips, making jam, and getting Miley a new tag for her collar!

August

I got to celebrate my birthday with my family for the first time in 3 years!

September

I joined the world of the employed again and have since been loving my job at the University of Missouri!  What a blessing it was to finally work again!  We attended got the opportunity to attend the roots n blues n bbq Festival which took place in CoMo and was so.much.fun!  So many great bands and with a legend like Al Green it was a 2-day concert extravaganza for the books!

October:

We traveled back to PA for a wedding and got to see some dear friends in OH on the way!  I also got to experience my first baseball playoffs game which ended terribly disappointing, but at least the company was great :)

November

I got the chance to go to the ballet with my Mom where we saw The Great Russian Nutcracker preformed by the Moscow Ballet - it was such a fun treat!  My sister made her first trip home since our wedding in June and I had so much fun soaking up as much time with her as possible before she returned back to Texas.  With her visiting the week before the holiday we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early at my Mom's house!

December

We decorated the outside of our house (along with the inside) for Christmas and I got into the Christmas Spirit by baking until I couldn't bake no mo'.  My Mom, Larry & I also went to St. Louis and saw Wicked at the Fox Theater the weekend before Christmas - it was my second time seeing it (their first) and I loved it just as much as the first time.

There it is! Our 2012 Year in Review.  A long one, yes.  But one that I think is pretty amazing!

Some unique-to-us 2012 stats:
- We essentially traveled to MO once a month until we moved there in June.  That's a minimum of 7,500 miles.  Yikes.
- total concerts seen: 4(ish) - Ingrid Michaelson, Wilco, Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ which included several great bands along with Al Green and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.