2019 Year in Review

Here we are again.

I’m not even going to say how can another year already be over, this year flew by so fast, where did the time go?

Nope.

Not saying it.

JANUARY

I flew to North Carolina at the beginning of January to visit my good friend, Christina, of Mrs. Winter’s Bliss. We only taught first grade together for three years, but we have stayed close ever since (almost 20 years!).

The primary purpose of my visit was to get my Weekly Emails set up and ready to go! We worked pretty much for twelve hours every day for three days straight, only taking breaks for a morning walk, food, and getting her daughter off to school (and back again).

I’m telling you . . . it doesn’t sound like a lot of work to send out a weekly email to people who might want to hear from me, but my brain hurt. Seriously. But Christina did not give up on me, and I was able to send out my first email that week which means . . . some sweet soul has been a part of my email family for almost AN ENTIRE YEAR! I feel like I need to figure out who that sweet person is and send them a teddy bear. Or a pair of shoes. Or some money.

🙂

If you feel like my weekly blog post is just not enough ME in your life, and you’re NOT a part of my email family, well then, you should definitely SIGN UP! Because I’ll send you an email every single Tuesday, and I’m my usual funny, witty, ridiculous, obnoxious self! 🙂 Plus, I include lots of freebies!!

Have I convinced you? Sign up {HERE}.

February

In February, Steve and I flew to Vegas for the weekend to meet up with his brother, Travis, and his wife, Christina. This was our third time meeting them there and we had a great time! We ate A LOT, did a little gambling, and a lot of talking. It was super fun hanging out with them.

The story behind this trip is that Steve and I were SUPPOSED to fly out on Saturday morning and get there before lunch . . . but it was POURING RAIN and our flight was delayed FOR HOURS. In other words, we could have driven there in the time we waited around for our flight.

Instead, we got there around dinnertime, and left around lunch time the next day. We literally flew to Vegas and back in less than 24 hours.

I do not recommend this unless you don’t sleep while you’re in Vegas. I hear lots of people don’t sleep at all while in Vegas, but these people are not my people, nor my age, nor my friends.

Obviously.

Plus, when you stay at The Venetian (and we do), you WANT to sleep in your room, and just hang out in your room because the rooms ARE AMAZING. Trust me on this.

March

In March, Steve and I met my parents on Coronado Island to see a hilarious play called Chaps at the Lambs Theater. We went to lunch first, then saw the play, and ended our evening with ice cream.

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE.

DAY TIME PEOPLE.

AND PEOPLE WHO EAT AND THEN WATCH WHOLESOME PLAYS.

Anyways . . . my parents were only there for the day, but Steve and I stayed until Monday!!

Here we are at the Del Coronado Hotel, people watching. We actually stayed at the Loew’s Hotel (super cool patio there), and spent most of the weekend eating, resting, walking, and hanging out. It was AWESOME!

April

I can’t believe this, but I have ZERO pictures of April. So I took it upon myself to use Bitmojis to show you what April was like for me!

Kerry came out during my Spring Break and so all you have to do is picture her in all of the above pictures, and THERE YOU GO.

NOW YOU KNOW.

THAT was the highlight of my April.

We walked every day, went to the movies, went out to eat, etc etc etc.

I guess we were having so much fun, and living “in the moment” that we didn’t even stop to take any pictures.

And I guess that’s totally okay!!

May

May was a WHIRLWIND! I mean, it was all that end of the year school craziness: assessments, report cards, awards assemblies, our class play, Field Day, Class Party, Game Day, etc etc etc. BUT I SURVIVED! You can read more about my thoughts on the the 2018-2019 school year {HERE}.

One of the highlights of May (pictured above) was volunteering at a water station for the Orange County Marathon!

It was super fun, and I would totally do it AGAIN!!

June

Kerry, her husband, and my niece and nephews came out for summer vacation! We had SO MUCH FUN with everyone (my older sister and her family, my brother, my parents, Steve, etc)! It was seriously one of our best trips yet! We were busy, we relaxed, we ate, we went to Universal Studios, the movies, we had pool days and beach days, and mani/pedi days . . . It was FANTASTIC!

I. LOVED. EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. OF. IT.

Summer Vacation is good for me!!

July

I met up with Christina in Austin, TX for the TpT Conference. We had a blast together! This girl and I are great roommates and she LOVES chocolate and snacks just as much as me!

We worked hard during the day — that conference is NO JOKE with all the information, and I tend to get to a point at the end of Day Two where I start to glaze over and my brain no longer accepts words or sentences in the correct order . . . that’s where Christina is a very good friend to me because her brain power and stamina are ON POINT!

In the evenings, when we were FREE, we would eat yummy food and share a bottle of wine and just talk talk talk talk talk and then head back to our room, and pretty much just keep talking until we fell asleep.

Christina went back to North Carolina on Friday, and then . . .

Steve flew into Austin, and Kerry and Robert drove in from Dallas, and BAM! The four of us spent a long weekend exploring the city, hanging out in the hotel pool, driving to Gruene, TX to visit the Gristmill to have dinner and walk around (SO COOL), stopping at Buc-ee’s (I can’t even explain this gas/shop/convenience store extravaganza, but if you ever get the chance to go to a Buc-ee’s, DO IT), eating ice cream, eating pasta, and going on a boat ride to see the bats under the Congress bridge.

We packed it all in AND HAD THE BEST TIME!!

Later that month, it was my mom’s birthday so my older sister and I took her out to lunch at Javier’s. 🙂

August

August was BACK TO SCHOOL.

That’s it. School began, I put my head down, and that’s all I really remember! I finally have a little “live tour” of my classroom on Instagram. You can find it on the Highlights of my Profile Page or just CLICK HERE! 🙂

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my class. We are not at all perfect (that includes me) but we definitely became a family pretty quickly, and we have a lot of fun together!! AND BONUS – I only have 25 kiddos this year so I feel very blessed and thankful.

September

We turned our lives upside down for a bit to get our house painted, the kitchen cupboards repainted (with new doors and drawer fronts), trim and baseboards finished, and some new flooring in one of our rooms.

This led to us MOVING OUT SPONTANEOUSLY because we just could not take the upheaval and the plastic and all the chaos. Feel free to read about that HERE. We also got to spend some of that time with friends at their river house for a long weekend, too, but I didn’t take any pictures while we were together so, once again, I was living in the moment!

It was a CRAZY TIME!

October

I felt bad, but . . . I left Steve with the mess of the house while I went on a PRE-PLANNED trip to Texas. It wasn’t like I left on purpose. I’d just like to put that in writing right here.

Once again, heading to Texas in the fall is so much fun for me! On this particular trip, Kerry’s husband and youngest son were away on a rock climbing trip (my nephew, Caden, is a rock climber!! Like, on a team!!) so it was just Kerry, Madison, my nephew, Collin, and me for the long weekend. But Collin made lots of plans to be out of the house – who can blame him? – so it sort of turned into a Girls Weekend.

We ate, we shopped, went to the movies, we got ice cream, we watched Collin play basketball, we went to The Star to watch Madison dance at the football game . . . etc! SO FUN!

Then . . .

Our house was *FINALLY* put back together!! You can see some fun before and after pictures in THIS POST.

November

In a super surprising, never expected this to happen type of way, Deedee Wills picked me up from my parents’ house and we traveled to Redondo Beach together for a little TpT Meet Up!

Deedee Wills! And me!

Like WHAT?! Is this real life?!

You may remember that a long, long, long time ago, I’m talking at least five years ago, probably more like six or seven, I met Deedee Wills at the very first or second TpT conference in Vegas! And she was on a blogging panel and SHOUTED ME OUT.

So now I feel all big and special and semi-famous because DEEDEE WILLS PICKED ME UP. IN HER CAR. AND SHE WAS STUCK WITH ME FOR HOURS ON END. AND THEN SHE DROVE ME BACK.

The meet-up was fun, informational, and there was FOOD.

But the highlight for me was Deedee, seeing Aris, and meeting Toluca!

Also, in November, my dad grew a beard!!

I about died when I walked in and saw him with a beard! My entire life, he has NEVER EVER had a beard!! On vacations, he wouldn’t shave, and he would rub his stubble all over our cheeks to get us to scream and squeal, but he never ever grew a full beard!

Just when I was getting used to it, he shaved it off.

🙂 He’s still handsome, either way!

And then Miss Murphie turned SEVEN!!!!!

December

December was NUTS.

I still can’t believe we only had three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break. It was GO GO GO GO GO!!!

And then it was Christmas! We had Steve’s family over to our house for Christmas Eve, and then we went to my parents’ house for Christmas Day. Kerry and Madison flew in that day (her husband stayed with the boys because they had tournaments) and we’ve just been living our best lives ever since!!

And that is 2019 in a nutshell.

At the end of my 2018 Year in Review, I talked about how it’s not all rainbows and butterflies . . . and the same is true for 2019.

I had friends who lost their parents this year, and I can’t tell you how much that makes me want to hold onto my parents with all that I have. I am so so so thankful for them and never want to take them for granted!! Sometimes, when I’m at their house for dinner, and I know I need to get on the road to head home (I’m about 40 minutes away with no traffic), I don’t want to leave.

LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

I have so much to be thankful for – my three friends who had cancer are now in remission! And the retired teacher who had triple negative breast cancer is NOW A VOLUNTEER IN MY CLASSROOM EVERY SINGLE THURSDAY. She is seriously the biggest blessing to me and my kids.

I am also always thankful for ALL OF YOU! For reading my weekly posts, commenting, keeping up with me on Instagram and Facebook . . .

I hope you have an amazing break AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!