two thousand fourteen.

There's just about three days left of this entire year and I gotta tell you, they're going to be busy.

I'm working long hours at my daycare to try to pull in some extra money, Daniel starts physical therapy, and Daniel gets an MRI on his back (finally).

So, thanks to all that chaos and confusion that's going to be going on in the next few days, I decided I should do my 2014 Year in Review and my 2015 "Resolutions/Goals" now while I have the time and the sanity (that may be questionable).

January - January is the month where I finally started student teaching. The last three years at Drake University all led up to this moment. I was finally going to get to apply what I had learned and see if I could make it as an actual teacher. The first three days I was so nervous that I threw up before even leaving my apartment, but after that, I fell in love. I knew this was what I was meant to do. 

February - In February, I "celebrated" one whole year of being a Christian. It was February of 2013 that I prayed for Jesus to come into my life and in February I reflected back on that choice and what it had done for my life.

March - Well, in March of this year my dad moved away. For the first time he wasn't just a 2 hour drive away. He's now about 11 or 12 hours away. His job forced him to move from small town Iowa to Nashville, Tennessee. It was kind of a tough transition for everyone and to be honest, we are still getting used to it. My mom and brother joined him later on in July and I've now been there to visit once, so things are getting better and easier.

April - In April I had my first grown up interview for a teaching position. Luckily for me, it was at the same school I fell in love with while student teaching, so I already knew the questions they were going to ask and already had a decent relationship with the principal. I was pretty confident things were going to go well and when I got a call literally 20 minutes after leaving the school, I was psyched!

May - In May I said goodbye to my home of the last 4 years. I got all dressed up in my cap and gown and walked across the stage, diploma (case) in hand. It was surreal. I still sometimes can't convince myself that I graduated college with a Bachelor's Degree. It literally does not seem like I'm old enough to do that. But I did. And I'm pretty proud of myself. (My brothers graduated high school 2 weeks later. What?!)

Yeah, I'm REALLY short compared to them.

June - This was the month I'd been waiting for all years. Really, for 4 years. In June I finally ended my four year engagement by marrying the love of my life. Words cannot describe how much I love this kid and all the things we've learned together in the last six months. 

July - Fourth of July weekend we took our "honeymoon" to Hannibal, Missouri and St. Louis. We toured the Mark Twain caves (I married a history nerd) and then went to Six Flags with his cousin. We also went to the Monumentour with Fall Out Boy and Paramore, which was, fantastic.

After surviving our first roller coaster - the Batman.

August - Technically I started teaching in July (Yeah, school started early) but I spent August still trying to get used to things. I'm still trying to get used to being the new teacher. I am mostly ELL, but I also teach a class of middle school reading which has taken a LOT of adjustments. 

September - I literally have no recollection of the month of September...

October - In October I got a visit from my blogger/best friend in real life Meghan and we went and saw the wonderful(ly attractive) Brantley Gilbert in concert. October is also the month I went and visited my family in Nashville and got to go see Craig Campbell, Charlie Daniels Band, and Rascall Flatts (and more) at the Grand Ole Opry. It was a good month for concerts.

 

November - November 26th I marked two full years of being self-injury free. That's not something I've written about a lot in this blog yet, but it was a big part of my life for approximately 9 years. As of November, I'm two full years into recovery.

December - December was my staff Christmas party where Daniel finally met all the other teachers that I work with on a day to day basis. Luckily, they all got along. We did an Amazing Race around Des Moines and our team won!! December is also the month that my grandpa officially was diagnosed with cancer. We're still trying to figure out what this all means.

Album - 1989. Oh my golly this was a good year for Taylor Swift.

TV Show - Red Band Society, How to Get Away with Murder, and Black-ish.

Movie - A Million Ways to Die in the West. (Unfortunately, I still haven't seen The Fault in Our Stars, Divergent, If I Stay, etc. or I'm sure they'd be on the list!)

Book - Tuesdays with Morrie, Taking Chances

Song - Blank Spaces, All About That Bass, Black Widow, Bang Bang

Games - Trivia Crack & Subway Surfers. I can't stop.

How About The "Worst Of" or "Things I Wish Would Go Away"?

Things I Wish Would Go Away - Everyone's obsession with Miley Cyrus. Is she doing drugs? Is she not? Is she having inappropriate sex? Is she not? Oh no, Hannah Montana is being naughty. Seriously, I'm over it. Whether I was a die hard supporter of Miley or not, how is it any of our business to judge her? She's not 14 anymore. She's an adult. And she wanted to break out of the Hannah Montana thing. I get it. Sure, she went a little overboard. But so have many other child stars. I'm just over seeing her name in the headlines. Unless people wanted to start talking about the good things she's doing.

Things I Don't "Get" - Leggings as pants. Year after year I still don't understand this fad. Sure, they're comfortable. And some of them look okay. But there's some that just look awful.

Things I Started Saying As A Joke, But Now Can't Stop - I literally can't even, YOLO, ratchet, bae, on point, basic

Things I Definitely DIDN'T Start Saying & Hopefully Never Will - thot, fleek