Goodbye, 2011. We'll miss you!

Ah, the end of another year. It seems like everyone from Dave Barry to Yahoo has an end-of-the-year recap, so here's ours.

January through March were kind of hum drum, as was the weather in Washington. We plugged on through work, school, and callings. Mike got deathly ill with influenza in February and felt so crummy he even asked to go to the doctor. He spent a week moaning on the couch and it took him a good month or so after that to bounce back to normal. However, Memory seems to be a fickle mistress and by the time flu shot season rolled around, the misery was sufficiently forgotten so that Mike was not even tempted to get a flu shot.

In April, I survived a week of being pediatric ward attending and was rewarded for my frustrations and angst with an awesome date planned by Mike, who designed and carried out a landmark "treasure hunt" that took us through historic Tacoma.

With the hope of the sun's return still far on the horizon in May and June, Mike and I took a trip to Disneyworld and learned a few lessons. #1: You never outgrow the magic of Disney. #2: The magic of Disney is hard to appreciate when you're forming new blisters with every step. #3: Break in new shoes before you go on vacation.

Mike and I celebrated our first anniversary in July. Our July 3rd anniversary allows us to take advantage of the Armed Forces tradition of the 4-day weekend around major holidays, so we took a drive up the beautiful Oregon coast, something I recommend be put on everyone's "bucket list" as something to do at least once during their lifetime.

We took another vacation in August/September to visit family in Utah, said good-bye to two siblings who are now serving missions, and welcomed my brother, Stephen, as he did a month-long ER rotation at the hospital where I work. Mike made Dean's list for Ashford University for the 2nd time in a row and I found out that my promotion to major came through but will go into effect during the first week of May 2012. Through the experience of commuting to Seattle three times a week, I discovered juggling work, church, and family life can get a bit dicey when Mike had less-than-stellar birthday festivities that were celebrated through my tears.

October through December saw a change in our blog name to "Semi-Bedrest Bulletin" since I was threatening miscarriage and had been ordered by the OB to keep activity to max of 4 hours a day. Trying to make lemonade out of some pretty big lemons, I imagined that I would use all the down time to get to all the unfinished projects and crafts that were sitting around taunting me with their incompleteness. What did I get done? Zilch. Nada. *insert spitty sound* As it turns out, when you're feeling exhausted and nauseated and bloated and crampy and light-headed all at the same time, you just want to lie down on the couch and do nothing. Even watching TV takes too much energy. Hence, the piles are bigger than ever and their friendly mockery has escalated into malicious persecution.

December 31st: I'm officially at 18 weeks and therefore I am off bedrest. It's such a relief and I know that we've been very blessed through the faith and prayers of our friends and family. Through all of our 2011 ups and down, I know more than ever that the Lord is mindful of us and continues to watch over us.

On that note, there's even more for us to look forward to in the year ahead. Over the next 5 months, we'll not only be preparing for the arrival of our as-yet-to-be-determined son or daughter, but we'll also be preparing to move. We've been told that barring any unforeseen circumstances, we're almost certainly, probably definitely going to DC after I graduate from my fellowship. This is as close to being 100% certain as you can get in the Army. DC is exactly where we want to go (except for the fact that we'll be farther away from family) and couldn't be happier with the decision.

In fact, we couldn't be happier. Period.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

A year after starting our Christmas stockings, I finally (FINALLY) finished them...with the invaluable help of my mom, who stitched together the fabric part of the stockings. Mike's is on the right, mine on the left.

In other news, we had another ultrasound this week and everything looks good. The baby was crossing his/her legs, though, so we still don't know whether it's a boy or a girl. Mike thinks it's a girl being modest. I think it's a boy being a stinker. Next ultrasound isn't for five weeks, so it'll be a while longer before we get another chance to find out.