2011 Highlights Part I

2011 has come and gone, thus warranting a little reflection on the year.  I was reading through my journals this afternoon and was amazed at how much has happened in one year.  It was just too juicy to keep to myself, so I decided to share the highlights and even a few journal excerpts of the year. ( Don't get too excited though, I obviously left the juiciest stuff out...)

The post is a tad long, as I am covering a year's worth of material, so I have broken it up into two parts.  Today is the highlights from January to June.  Tomorrow you'll get July to December.  Try to contain your excitement as you wait for part two, will you?  I know it's tough. 
 
 
January: 

• Start wedding planning.  Realize I hate wedding planning.  A journal entry from January 9, 2011:  "I am a stressed out mess everytime the wedding gets brought up.  I seriously can not handle it."
• I realize that I am making the absolute right decision in marrying Greg when he starts trying out all his accents out on me.  Journal entry from Jan. 19, 2011:  "Hello!  The boy does a Scottish, British, Russian, Indian, Mexican, Australian, and German accent.  Who wouldn't love that?"

February: 

• It becomes all too clear to me that being engaged is a terrible experience.  Journal entry from February 9, 2011:  "4 weeks and 2 days.  Not that anyone's counting down.  I swear I'm never getting married.  The wait for something has never been so long in my life.  I'm dying.  Absolutely miserable.  I can't handle the stress.  The planning.  The never ending details.  Not seeing Greg every day.  The sexual frustration.  I would say that being engaged is on my top five list of worst experiences.  Dating Greg was amazing. Being married to him is going to rock my word.  The engagement, however, is like cruel and unusual punishment."
• Hubs goes up to the cabin with me and my family and experiences his first time on a snowmoblie.  I'm in shock.

• Traffic ticket.  Journal entry from February 27, ,"In other news, I got a ticket for running a stop sign.  I'm such a careless driver.  My insurance is off the charts.  FML."

March:

• Journal entry from March 11, 2011- the night before my wedding:  "The real reason I'm writing tonight is so that I can look back on the night before my wedding and have my kids read it and know how supremely happy and one hundred percent confident their mother was before she married their father.  I've never been so sure of something in my life; I have absolutely no doubts.  When I think of the future I feel joy, peace, and overwhelming calm and assurance.  I know that marrying Greg is the right decision and I am so excited.  So so so so excited.  And happy.  Sooooooooooooooooo HAPPY.
• Wedding day!  Journal entry from March 12, 2011:  "From the first word that Pres. Backman spoke to us in the hall to the end of the sealing, I don't think I stopped crying.  I just felt the spirit so strong and I was so crazy happy and I felt dad so close to me and I just couldn't believe that I'd finally found someone who makes me so incredibly happy.  And as I sat there, squeezing Greg's hand, tears rolling down my face, I could feel both my father and my Heavenly Father cheering me on.  Saying "Way to go, Bop,"  "Atta Girl," "I love you, sis".  I know both my fathers approve whole heartedly of my decision to marry Greg. 

• After the endless pictures at the temple, we make a stop at McDonald's.  Journal entry, March 12:  "We were both starving so we drove through a McDoanld's  I think this will always be a funny memory for me... driving through Mickey D's on the wedding day.  I had changed out of my dress, but Greg was still in his tux and I remember asking him, "Should we tell them we just got married?  Tell them we just got married!"  I also remember looking at the person at the window and thinking, "March 12, 2011.  The day I've been looking forward to for months, counting down to.  The biggest day of my life and what have you got on your schedule? The afternoon shift at McDonald's.  It's weird that the most important day in my life is just an ordinary day to everybody else in the world."

April:

• Newlywed life begins.  April 3, 2011:  "We have had to move in to our apartment, open, organize and return gifts, get back to work and school, etc.  It is a whirlwind, but at the same time really exciting and fun.  It's just so exciting to start your life with someone, to move in to your first home together, to make your bed that you share, to have everything together with someone you're madly in love with.
• The Jazz's season officially goes down the drain.  I don't cope so well.

May:

• Newlywed life continues.  I go three and half months without writing in my journal- the longest I have ever gone in my whole life.  I was clearly distracted.
• In a moment of insanity, Hubs and I decide to blow every penny we've ever earned (and then some) to go to Europe for four weeks in July and August.
• I receive my second traffic ticket of the year, this time at 6:30 am.  It causes some tension between Hubs and I.  Hey, you can't just go throwing away money on speeding tickets anymore.
• Hubs plays a woman in a play.  I've never been more attracted to him.
• Hubs' first wife leaves and he gets a second wife.  In other words, I dyed my hair brown.

June:

• I survive my first year of teaching and I think by the end of the year everyone at the school realizes I am, in fact, not a student, but an actual teacher.  I think.
• Summer begins and I get a job working at Old Spaghetti Factory.  Let's just say it was shortlived.
• I turn 25.  My expectations for my birthday are way too high and Hubs gets stressed out living up to all my birthday demands.  One thing we learn quickly:  There's a huge learning curve the first year.  And that's ok.

TO BE CONTINUED...