Matt looked over at me on New Years and said, "It's going to be a good year". We have been lucky enough to have had 8 great years together and I love knowing that I will get to celebrate every New Years with him.
2012 started with the first launch at Kiwi Fitness! We actually just celebrated our 1 year anniversary at the club. It has been such an awesome journey and I am glad I was asked to be a part of it. I have met so many new people and I love seeing them reach their goals. We also were lucky enough to have the Super Bowl come to Indianapolis! The week before the Super Bowl was just as much fun as the actual day. They did an awesome job transforming downtown. The weather was unusually warm. I think I even just wore a North Face down there one day. Link to blog post
here. In January, Matt was working as a part-time supervisor at UPS and I was picking up crazy overtime to cover for it.
In February, Matt was still part-time at UPS. He was working hours that made him able to come to my BodyPump class on Mondays which made me SO happy. I wish he could still do that. We had a pesky cat in our crawlspace in February which ended up being our neighbors cat! February weather was very mild until Super Bowl was over...and then the chill set in again.
March brought on the Les Mills Quarterly! It was SO cool. It really was the best time and we all still talk about it. It was when we traveled to Chicago with the Kiwi family and 300 other Les Mills lovers to spend an entire day doing Les Mills group fitness classes. 8 classes and 9 hours...I about cried when Matt put his hand on my leg on the drive home because my muscles were so sore. (See
here) We started transforming our yard in March. Matt started leveling the dirt and planting new seed in the front yard to even out the grade.
In April, Matt was promoted to a full-time supervisor at UPS! It was a super exciting time because it meant more hours and more dinero :). I celebrated my birthday at work which was actually really fun. I mean who doesn't love 20+ different people telling you Happy Birthday all day long?! We also had our 2nd Kiwi launch which was an even bigger turn-out.
In May, we started planning our landscaping dreams for the front yard. We took a couple trips to Allisonville Nursery to check out our options. We ended up with 2 trees, 5 small shrubs, and a hydrangea bush. I can't wait to see what they look like this year when they bloom and grow. I also started orienting a new RN to our unit which a new experience for me. It was challenging, but very rewarding. It almost reignites your love for what you do (which I'v never really lost). I planted my first ever tomato plants which ended up growing like crazy and gave me a ton of little cherry tomatoes. I'll have to plan ahead for this next year and decide what I want to plant. May also gave us our Murano! Buying a new car was super exciting and a cool experience for us. I love the Murano!
June brought a Fitness Challenge at Kiwi where we had people come and be tested in certain areas. We broke them into groups and assigned them to an instructor for motivation. We retested them 6 weeks later to see the progress they made. I also (with the help of my Dad's girlfriend) planned a surprise 60th birthday party for my Dad! He was truly surprised and it was a great moment for me to be able to do that for him and pull it off! Matt and I also planted all of our plants we had bought at the nursery in June. It made a huge difference in the look of our front yard. My mom came down one weekend and we planted some pots of flowers for the back of the house. We also went to our annual Dave Matthew Band concert in June. It was a blast like always :).
We were in the middle of a drought in July which meant nightly rituals of watering all the plants and potted flowers. The summer was HOT and DRY. With our planting of everything new, we were worried they would die before they even had a chance to grow. My friend Abby came home from CA and I drove to Ohio to spend some time with her. We traveled up to Michigan City to spend a weekend with family up at Lake Michigan. We relaxed, laid in the sun, played in the water (which was unusually warm for July), and had burgers at Redamak's and ice cream at Oink's. At the end of the month, we celebrated Lauren and her bridal shower! It was a great day.
August was busy with work. Matt was working 10-11 hour days Monday-Friday and I was working 4 days a week while the NICU was steady at 80 babies. I got my first speeding ticket. The NICU picnic was in August. It was where all babies who were discharged from the NICU can come back to spend the day saying hi to all of the doctors and nurses who took care of them while they were in the NICU. There were horse rides, blow-up bounce houses, face painting and tons more. August also brought the annual May Beer Pong tournament where Matt and Grandpa May won for the THIRD year in a row. To eveyrone's (including my) surprise, my partner and I actually almost beat them! We took home second place :).
September-we ran our first 5K! It was the Color Me Rad run at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It was more fun than it was a run. Every half-mile or so they was a color-bombing station where they threw colored cornstarch on us. We also celebrated our second anniversary! We celebrated with Fogo de Chao, a motorcycle date to Oliver Winery, and then we were off! We cruised away to the Bahamas for the weekend which was a much-needed and very-appreciated vacation.
In October, we hosted a party for some of our family at the house. A very belated house-warming party. Taco bar and margaritas...good times. We also celebrated Matt's birthday and my friend Lauren's bachelorette party. I was also forced to go to a Haunted House...I just don't like that stuff! Matt also switched jobs to AAA Cooper from UPS in October.
November brought weddings! Brian and Erica got married in TN the first weekend in November. Some of our family traveled down and rented out a cabin. That was probably one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time. Staying up until 5 am singing and playing cards, getting up the next day for breakfast, and then to do it all again for the wedding. The very next weekend we finally got to celebrate Lauren and J Dan! I was a bridesmaid for my very first time and it was a blast! Their wedding was so much fun and we were so excited to be able to be there to celebrate with them.
In December, I went back to Purdue to give a guest lecture in the Maternal/Child Health class about the NICU! It was so strange to be back up in class, but to be lecturing and not taking the notes. I really ended up loving it! We had our first real snow, which the news deemed "Blizzard 2012" the day after Christmas. NYE was an absolute blast. We went with some friends up to the Hoosier Park Casino. The best way to spend a New Years-with people you love and a NYE kiss from my husband :)
Happy New Year and Welcome 2013! We are excited to see what you have in store for us!
