2014 In-Review

In an attempt to get back into the swing of blogging, and update all of my readers (maybe 5 of you?) on what I've been up to in life, I have put together a review of the the past year. Some months it was hard to pick just one picture to represent the month. Enjoy!

January:

We rang in the new year in Mexico at Gran Bahia Principe Tulum resort. We had waited to celebrate our honeymoon until it was cold in MN. It was definitely cold January of 2014, with record breaking cold days that caused school to be cancelled multiple days.

February:

During February, my dad's mom, Eleanor passed away at the age of 95. I was so lucky to have my grandma with me for so long. These were the cards I got from my students. February is also when I began grad school in literacy education, and Erik and I celebrated Valentine's Day with fondue at home.

March:

March is Erik's birthday month. We celebrated his 28th's birthday with a 500 card party. We also enjoyed a winter weekend at my parent's cabin in March.

April:

In April I had to work on a grad school project that showed how I teach literacy in my classroom. I'd love to show you some of the more "cute" pictures with my students, but I just can't do that on the blog. So, instead you get to see this picture taken by one of my third graders of me teaching. Since I spent much of my time teaching in 2014, I can't not put a picture up of me at school. In April we also enjoyed spring break, I went to the Macy's Flower Show, and Erik and I went down to Northfield for the day.

May:

In May I traveled to New Orleans for the International Reading Association Conference. I traveled with 5 other co-workers, and also got to meet up with some Olaf friends while I was there. The extra excitement was having our flight cancelled, and spending an extra day in Louisiana. In May we also hosted the annual Syttende Mai part at my parent's house.

June:

June was a busy month for me with regular school finishing, and then I started my first of three intense summer sessions of grad school. Weekends were spent with friends at Courtney's cabin, and camping with this crew at Afton State Park. Erik and I both also tutored throughout the summer.

July:

I continued with grad school on July, Erik was working and tutoring. Our Fourth of July was spent at Davey's parents' house. We had a lovely weekend of eating, boating, relaxing, and watching fireworks from the boat. We also went up north with Erik's family to a cabin outside of Hibbing, MN.

August:

By August I was finished with grad school for the summer. So we took some time off from tutoring, packed up our car and headed east. We first stopped in Chicago, then headed to Buffalo, NY and saw Niagara Falls. From there we went to Boston, MA, then went to Philadelphia, PA, and ended back in Chicago for one more night on the way home. Our Subraru Forester did great for the thousands of miles traveled!

September:

In September we headed back to our normal school year routine. I started my third year teaching third grade, Erik cut back hours of regular work because he needed to begin his school counseling practicum. We also started back to grad school classes in the evening. Labor Day weekend of 2014 marked Erik's 20th anniversary of living with diabetes. So, obviously we threw a 20 year anniversary party! Here's hoping for many more decade parties! (or even better, a cure!)

October:

In October we enjoyed a weekend at St. Olaf celebrating homecoming. We also traveled to Leech Lake with my parents for a fall weekend of relaxation. For Halloween, Erik and I dressed up as the Bunyans.

November:

November was cold in Minnesota, with an early snowfall. We celebrated Thanksgiving with all sides of the family, and I made lefse with the other ladies of the Carlson family.

December:

December was busy with lots of Christmas celebrations. Erik and I got a tree from my school tree lot. We went to the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, enjoyed Christmas parties, and traveled to Fergus Falls, Edina and Cannon Falls to celebrate Christmas with family.

2014 was good to us, here's to more great life moments in 2015!