What an amazing year 2013 has been. After a rocky start with the lingering effects of loosing our dog Bosley on Christmas Day 2012, the year that has become 2013 turned out to be a pretty great year.
The year started with my mother and sister continuing their visit, and us taking a couple of road trips as part of their “experience America” tour, including a trip to New Orleans. Chris and I love that place, and it was the first time I had been back since Katrina devastated the city.
The biggest news of 2013 was Chris and I getting married. It was an amazing adventure as we trekked off to Vancouver and then continued our journey through Hong Kong to Australia. We had a great visit with my family and our friends. We also had time to get away from it all with a week in Palm Cove and found a new place to re-visit (we added it to the places we could retire to). Oddly enough, married life has not been that different to our previous 14 years of life together (which reinforces what our friends have said many times: “you are just like a married couple”). To me though, I still feel that it is different, but in that good way!
During the early part of the year, we also put a pool in. We both love it and very happy with the end product, even with some speed bumps in the journey to get it finished. We put this down to a learning experience, and blogged about some of the things you should look for when building a pool. All the issues have since faded away as we have spent countless hours enjoying our new backyard environment. We still need to do landscaping, but little steps.
2013 has also been a year of transitions, and we are very thankful for our friends who remain an important part of our lives. We are super thankful that we have developed some new friendships, and look forward to continuing to build those relationships. Over the past year, I have learned the true value of friendship, and plan on building on the foundations that we have established over the coming years.
Our year has also seen our continued relationship with our Little Brother, Trey develop. Both Chris and I have seen him grow up and he is has moved from being this cute shy kid, to an amazing young (tennis playing machine) man. Trey has become such a part of our lives and we both continue to be thankful for Big Brothers Big Sisters for making this possible.
Another huge change in our life this year was my transition to a permanent resident. As I explained in my earlier blog post, this “little” change has had a major impact on our lives. None of this would be possible without Chris, and we both often sit there blinking as if we are in a dream. The great thing is that it is not a dream!
A month or so ago, I made a post about the things that I am thankful for. Since making that public I have resolved that these are the important things that I should be focusing on in the new year. My next post will be about resolutions for the new year.
2013 has been a year of change, and for the most part, this has been a very positive year. This is the first year (in a long time) that I can report I’m content. And that, is a good thing.