2015 - My Year In Review

Happy Tuesday guys and dolls! Hope you're Monday flew by without any issues.  I did the year in review last year and I knew I wanted to do it again this year too, so here we go: (however, please excuse the weirdness of the post - on my screen the pictures are all beside each other - I don't know why they aren't that way when I actually post - sigh......

December (2014)

• Went into hospital mid-December with a gallbladder attack and had to have surgery later that same day.  Poor Mr. A. slept on the cold hard floor because he was afraid of leaving me and there was no room in the bed

• Celebrated Christmas at home soon thereafter and relaxed the rest of the year. You can read about that here.

• Went to the Arkansas vs. Texas Long Horn bowl game here in Houston with my uncle and his girlfriend and celebrated a HUGE win over the Long Horns

January  -

• Celebrated Mr. A's 46th birthday 

• The very next week while house hunting, and sitting in McDonald's having a cup of coffee with our realtor, we got the call that my cousin (who was my best friend, and more like my big brother, and only 4 months older than me) had just passed away.  He was the ripe old age of 47. This literally KILLED MY SOUL and I will never be the same.  He truly was my very best friend in the entire world that I grew up with since we were born and I miss him something terrible, every.single.day.

• A week later attended the funeral and visited with family that we never get to see but from time to time. Needless to say, it was a bittersweet family reunion.

February - 

• Celebrated Valentine's Day with Mr. A

• Bought our 3 acres of Retirement Land in our beloved State of Arkansas - and it has a view of this across the street - Lake Beaverfork

• Celebrated my son's 21st birthday

March

• Found out our baby girl was pregnant with our first grandchild - we were ECSTATIC and OVER THE MOON.  This picture is when we learned that our sweet baby was a boy!

April

• I flew to Missouri to help my daughter and son-in-law finish up packing and loading up the U-haul to help them move and drive them to Texas to live with us

May

• Took a road trip with my mom and spent the first week of May in Florida with her, my baby brother and baby sister and celebrated both mine and my nephew's birthday. (we celebrate the same day - he was celebrating a year old and I celebrated 47 years).

Nephew baby A digging into his first cupcake (his mama doesn't let him have sugar - so he really enjoyed it - LOL) 

The next week after I got home, I celebrated my birthday on my actual birthday 

with the kids and Mr. A

And YES, they put a total of 47 candles on my cake!! ACK! LOL

June

• Hung around the house mainly but took one quick weekend getaway to see our besties back home

July

• Mr. A. and I took a week long vacation on a cruise to rest and relax and just have some alone time to catch up on sleep with no plans to be anywhere at any time, and it was SO wonderful. Usually when we go on cruises we are going non-stop, so this trip was just a complete rest and relaxing time and the perfect get-away for us.

August 

• The first week of August consisted of me crying for a few days straight as my daughter and son-in-law decided to move back to Missouri because they didn't really like it here in Texas due to the extreme heat. Needless to say, it completely broke this mommy's heart MAJORLY. We ended up taking a road trip to Dallas to see my cousin and his wife and daughter to get my spirits up. I love family - especially those who are always there when you need them. Drinks and laughter with family was just what the doctor ordered.

September

• Hosted our baby girl's baby shower back in Arkansas where all of our friends and family could attend

October

• Attended another family funeral - my husband's uncle passed away. Spent time with his side of the family.

• Celebrated 18 years of marriage with Mr. A.

November 

• Drove to Missouri to meet our new grandson - made it there before he was born and got to spend a few days with them and helped them get home and settled in before we had to travel back to Texas.  

• Spent Thanksgiving at home in Texas with our son and his girlfriend. Cooked a lot of extra food to take to Mr. A's team who were working on Thanksgiving Day and couldn't be with their families. This has been our tradition for the last 4 years now and we do it on Christmas Day as well.

December 

• Celebrated a year from having surgery last December at this time. 

• Celebrated Christmas a week early with our son and his girlfriend since we would be in Arkansas and Missouri with my mom and our daughter, son-in-law and grandson and Mr. A's family

• Drove to Arkansas Christmas Eve to see my mother and spent the night.  Me, Mr. A and mom drove to Missouri on Friday morning to spend Christmas with our daughter and son-in-law and our grandson. My mom had yet to meet her first great grandchild and was over the moon to meet him finally.  On Saturday after Christmas we met Mr. A's brother, mom and her husband for a late lunch and then the boys went to the gun range while I went after Christmas shopping. Headed back to my mom's Saturday night and then drove back to Texas on Sunday morning bright and early. A very quick and exhausting trip to say the least, but so worth it.

Whew, all in all, a great year and we are looking forward to an even better 2016! Happy Tuesday and thanks for stopping by! :)

Lots of love and hugs,