My Decade in Review

I don't know about you, but I always anticipate the start of a new year. It feels like hitting the "refresh" button and encourages opportunities to set new goals, make changes, and ignites a desire to chase dreams. A start of a new DECADE seems like even more of a push to really dive in and get after those dreams.

As much as I'm anticipating all the new year and the new decade will bring, I've also been thinking back to the beginning of this decade and how much things have changed.

In 2010 I was a freshman in high school. The high school I attended was very small. It was actually a middle/high school combined. High school was *overall* enjoyable-it was when I started dating and fell in love with my husband after all. It was full of fun, crazy times, and also a lot of difficult, heart aching times.

I was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities- basketball, volleyball, Student Council, FCA, class secretary, National Honor Society, etc. I know that sounds like a lot, but this was actually not unusual for many students at my school. As one teacher put it once, "If you do one thing at Sale Creek, you do them all". As mentioned previously, our school was very small, so our class that only consisted of 55 students felt more like a family. We literally grew up together. Most of us even attended the same elementary school, so we basically knew everything about one another from a very young age. I didn't realize it then, but this would actually have a major affect on me and my relationships later in life.

Here's a peek back at some of my favorite times from these years (2010-2013).

Excuse the horrible blurry cell phone photos lol

During these years I got to go on many trips with my family and travel to another country for the first time during one of my summer breaks-SPAIN!

I graduated high school in 2013, and chose to attend college at ETSU (4 hours from home). I thought I would love leaving our small town and meeting new people, discovering a new place, and broadening my horizon. However, it was not at all what I expected it to be, and it actually left me feeling very lonely, sad, and unmotivated. As much as I tried to keep busy and be involved (joining a sorority, playing intramural sports, etc.), I just couldn't shake that homesick feeling, and it led to skipping classes to stay in bed, resenting all the people that lived in Johnson City that got to go home whenever they wanted, letting my health go down the drain, and lots and lots of tearful phone calls to my mom. I went from seeing my boyfriend and friends everyday and knowing not only every person in my graduating class, but the names of almost every student in my school AND a lot of their family members- to knowing basically no one and having no one that REALLY knew me. Before the first semester was over, I decided I did not want to stay there. I chose to move back home and attend our local community college (I'm sure my parents didn't mind that extra money in their wallets- Ha!).

From there, my happiness and motivation returned. I spent time and took trips with the people I love, and I continued to pursue my dreams of becoming a nurse. In August of 2016, I did just that. Nursing school is no joke, and I'm so thankful I was home surrounded by my family and friend's support while going through it.

I also got engaged in February of that year, so planning a wedding on top of the normal stress of nursing school would have definitely been too much without their surrounding encouragement. Oh, AND I had a tonsillectomy while in school. (I do NOT recommend doing any/all of these at once!)

After graduation, I quickly began my job search so that we would be able to find our own place to live before our quickly approaching March wedding. I started working at Morning Pointe of Hixson (an assisted living facility) that September.

In January of 2017 we signed the lease on an apartment in the middle of Soddy Daisy (the closest we've ever been to an urban area- lol!)

We were married on March 18th, 2017 and celebrated afterwards on a 5 day honeymoon cruise to Haiti and Jamaica. We lived a pretty normal newlywed life, both working full time and spending any of our free time together.

We celebrated my baby brother's high school graduation and both of our best friend's college graduations during this time too.

Remember that tonsillectomy I mentioned? I had a freak abscess/cyst/no-one really knew what the heck it was- come up on the right side of my throat in June of 2017. I went back to my ENT to have it examined, and after talking with me about wanting to take me back to the OR to remove said freak thing, he practically offered me a job right there on the spot. So, at the first of July, I had surgery once again on my throat, and after healing went to work at Chattanooga Ear, Nose, and Throat.

On August 17th, 2017, we closed on our first home!! We moved all the way to Dayton to a newly developed neighborhood, which put us right in the middle of both our families, but also left me with an hour drive each way to work-yuck!

In October that year, we traveled to HAWAII!! We went with my parents, brother, aunt, uncle, and grandparents! My grandparents met and married in Hawaii (he was in the Navy & she was there for college), so visiting with them and seeing all of the places special and significant to them was really one of the most wonderful things I've ever experienced (we even got to visit the church they were married in!). That trip also led to the choice of the name of our baby girl (who we just had this May).

The rest of that year was so special celebrating our first holiday season as a married couple in our first home.

We also found out at the end of the year that my cousin (who was told she'd never be able to have another baby) was pregnant!

In January of 2018, our family received some really devastating news. My sweet Nana (my mom's mom) was diagnosed with lung cancer. The next few months would lead to many difficulties. Watching someone you love so much go through something so terrible is one of the worst things you can experience in life. Not to mention, seeing the stress and pain it put on all of your other family members too.

Time continued on, and we celebrated a gender reveal for my cousin at our Nana's house (it was going to be a girl!), and we celebrated our first anniversary with a trip to Pigeon Forge and visited Ripley's Aquarium & Dollywood. During this time, I also left my job at the ENT office, started taking classes again, and went back to work 3rd shift at Morning Pointe (where I still am today).

On May 23rd, 2018, sweet Nana Faye went to be with Jesus. I remember the day before she passed and the next several days that followed like they were yesterday. As difficult as they were, they really put things into perspective. Losing someone makes you realize how short life really is.

As a result, shortly after her passing we decided to stop waiting (because we knew the time would never be completely ideal or perfect) and decided to start trying for a baby. Because like I said, life is short. We wanted a family, and we were planning to wait a little longer, but again, our perspectives had changed.

We went to the beach for a week with my husband's family that August, celebrated one of my best friend's weddings, and welcomed sweet Kinsley Marie (my cousins baby girl) into the world (3 months to the day after our Nana passed).

4 weeks later, on September 8th, 2018, we found out we were PREGNANT!! We'd bought a test the day before because we both were pretty certain that I was, but I wanted to wait a full week after my missed period. I took the test in our bathroom, sat it on the sink, and went to wait the 3 minutes for it to read with my hubs in our living room. Once those 3 minutes were up we practically raced to see what it would reveal. Kota beat me there, and when he saw what it said he immediately broke down in tears, and so did I! What's even crazier is that when I did the math to figure out her due date, it was to be May 12th (my Nana's birthday- and also Mother's Day in 2019).

We wanted to wait until it was confirmed by the doctor before sharing with anyone else (including our family), so that's what we did. That was extremely difficult to do because of how often we see our families and how sick and exhausted I was, but we were able to pull it off!

We planned a surprise 50th birthday party/dinner for my dad and his twin sister at Amigo's, so that's how we revealed it to my family! We gave him a t-shirt that said "Only the best dad's get promoted to Grandpa" and a little onesie that said "Grandpa's fishing buddy". Everyone was totally surprised! And practically everyone there cried at the joyful news.

We told Kota's family the following day by giving his mom a t-shirt that had a bear on it and said "Grandma".

From there we kept quiet with everyone else until we were out of the first trimester. We made it "Facebook Official" on Halloween with a sign that said "No tricks, the sweetest treat, our family is growing by 2 little feet!" and also took a picture with my husband wearing his work vest and hard hat, and me wearing a sign that said "Bump Ahead".

As mentioned, the first trimester was pretty rough with the sickness and the exhaustion (I would literally fall asleep as soon as I sat down), but after that it was pretty much smooth sailing (besides constant reflux) until I got closer to delivery.

We went with my mom's side of the family to Universal/Islands of Adventure and Seaworld over Thanksgiving of that year. I was super bummed not being able to ride ANY rides, but I did get to visit Harry Potter World (and drink butterbeer!) and watch all the shows, so it was still an enjoyable trip.

We found out just 5 days before Christmas that we were expecting a little GIRL! We went out to eat at Amigo's (again-lol), and gave my parents and Kota's mom little ornaments with pink sprinkles inside and a pink ribbon that said "It's a girl!" We made that announcement "Facebook Official" on Christmas Day.

We had 2 baby showers that spring, one at the Community Center in Meigs County on March 23rd, and the other at Sale Creek Fire Hall on April 6th. Both were pineapple and flamingo themed (what we decorated her nursery in), and let's just say that our silly girl was spoiled rotten before she ever even took her first breath.

Pregnancy continued on fairly smoothly, then I entered my 3rd trimester.

I was having ultrasounds done at almost every visit, due to a medication I take for my heart potentially leading to lower amniotic fluid levels than normal. At 28 weeks, everything was measuring perfectly and baby girl was head down. By our next visit she had flipped back right side up (so butt down).

This is about the time that we started going for weekly checkups, so every visit they would do an ultrasound to check her position, and every time it revealed that she still hadn't flipped back over. My doctor told us she could try turning her, but after explaining how it could be extremely painful and even in some situations dangerous, and doing a little more research ourselves, I decided I didn't want her to try doing that and risk anything, so if she didn't flip back around on her own we were to schedule a c-section.

At our next visit she was still butt down, so we scheduled a c-section for 6am on Wednesday, May 8th, 2019, and at 6:36am that day our sweet girl entered this world!

We've celebrated so many milestones with her this year, and just wrapped up her very first holiday season.

To this point, she's 7 months old, weighs roughly 20 pounds, has her 2 bottom teeth (and is working on some more), rolls over, army crawls, sits up, eats food, laughs, squeals, waves "bye bye", blabbers Mama, Dada, and bye bye (we're still counting them), jumps in her Minnie Mouse jumper, LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, sleeps in her own bed, and RUNS in her walker. She's my whole world and I'm so blessed that she's mine.

2019 was also the year I started my photography business, and while I have so many exciting things in store for that, becoming a Mama has definitely been the highlight of my year, my decade, heck, I'm gonna go ahead and say my life. I'm so excited to continue watching our sweet girl grow, and I can't wait to see what all else God holds in store for us in the next year and the next decade.

xoxo,