2019, I don’t think you lived up to what I’d hoped for you. A year ago I’d hoped for a year of spending less, saving more, stressing less, eating better, hiking more. I’m not sure any of those boxes got checked. But we made it through.
I have a hard time putting this year into words. It’s been a tough year. I’m stealing a line from Michelle Obama, with saying there were a lot of “tough moments we persevered through.” A five-month battle with the city over missing permits, a half-assed landscape company that made me lose my sh#t, a massive tornado that was way too close for comfort, rains that never seemed to stop. Water that started pouring into the basement. Countless gallons of water being sucked up. Rains that only happen once every 500 years. Twelve inches in an 8 hour time period. So much lost sleep and what felt like ptsd every time it rained. A lot of crisis management, a lot of fixes, and finally a big dig to fix a crushed drain tile and seal the walls. The deck is currently gone, the backyard oasis is a giant mud pit, but we finally feel like perhaps when it rains, we’ll be dry. Fingers crossed.
2020 will have a continuation of some of these projects. One more piece of drainage work, regrowing grass, redoing some grading, rebuilding the deck, redoing the rock patio, recreating our backyard oasis. There is much work yet to do, but we feel like we’re finally on the other side of the giant hill.
We made some incredible memories and took several trips. An awesome jaunt to Austin, TX, for my love’s 40th birthday. A hiking trip to Eureka Springs, AR, with my best friend and a scenic drive through the flint hills. An anniversary trip to Colorado to explore some new areas, including the absolutely amazing Great Sand Dunes National Park. A fall trip back to Arkansas to hike and see family. Pool parties with family, lots of softball and volleyball tournaments to see my niece play, an incredibly fun house party with our friends and family. Live concerts of Gov’t Mule, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, Black Stone Cherry, Brandi Carlile, and Jason Isbell. And a True North band highlight of opening up Live on Mass Street for Cody Canada and Jason Boland.
We both paid off our cars, I hit the 20 year mark for working with my agency, and I wrote in July that my husband is soul-soothing. He truly is. Throughout this whole year, we have laughed like lunatics, sometimes out of disbelief, sometimes out of hilarity. We’ve worked together as a team, and through it all, I can’t imagine anyone else at my side. Our mantra seems to be this: no matter the stress, life is good, because we have each other.
So, here’s to a new year, a new decade. A reboot. A refresh. I’m gonna copy paste from a year ago, and intend to get it right this time. 2020, let’s spend less, save more, laugh even harder, stress less, sleep and eat better, hike more, find more backroads. And keep laughing our way through life.
Happy New Year.
Sunflowers and Fog 