Almost the end of 2014 and what a crazy year it turned out to be!  One year ago at this time, we were thinking the house closing was going to be in less than a month and we would be rolling along. However, life had other plans for us.

January:

– News came that the house closing was delayed for an unspecified amount of time. We were told 6 months to a year or possibly longer. Nothing like narrowing that down…   🙄  I have to admit that this waiting period was really hard for me because of the unknown.  It really set the year up to feel very unsettled.

February:

– My Broncos made the  Super Bowl and then proceeded to lay the biggest egg on the field.

We took our trip to New Orleans with my mom, which was fabulous!

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Then it was on to Colorado to visit John’s family! I wish they weren’t so far away.

 

The annual Healthy Heart Weekend was had!

March

– Since we were delayed on closing on the Manor, I decided to do a few ‘small’ projects around the old house and redid the countertops.

I really don’t know why we didn’t tackle that before. It didn’t take that long and wasn’t that hard, although I did slice my hand pretty good.

April

– More waiting on the house closing… and finally getting the bikes out for the year.  It was a slow start to biking season!

– This month started major work stress for me.  2014 was a rough year with the job, although it is much better now.

 May

– More busy projects to keep my mind off the house, including redoing a table and my dresser:

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June:

My birthday!

– With all the work stress, John asked if I wanted to get away for a weekend and we headed to Portsmouth, NH and it was so great to get away!

– I had a new iris bloom this year, the Honey Tiger:

July

– A good month of biking!

– I finished my very first upholstery project:

– After 2 years of literacy tutoring, it all came to an abrupt end with my learner and I decided that was it for me.

– I also started a second job, which I only did for a few weeks into August.

August

– My sweet hubby’s birthday!

– and FINALLY!!! after almost 9 months of waiting, we got the clear to close:

I have to say that seemed kinda like forever with no updates during that time. 

Then reno began:

That seems like eons ago…

September

– It seems like from here on out for the year it has been project after project on the house!  Oh right, that’s because it was…

We had hoped to move into the Manor by the end of the month, but didn’t quite make it finishing up the kitchen until that last weekend:

October

–Moving time!

– The dining room was finished  this month:

Just in time for the annual pumpkin carving party!

November:

– Finished the living room this month!

December:

– Finished the downstairs powder room.

One room per month is about the pace around here 😀

Then of course was the first Christmas party at Radiance Manor!

What a crazy, crazy year.   At least we know one thing for 2015.  No moving!! 😀

Another year in the books.  Seems like the older I get, the faster and faster time goes. It’s scary, actually.  Every year I do the lists. Not really resolutions because these are things for me to work on over the long haul and not something I am going to do for a week and then drop like a hot resolution potato. As you all know, I do like large scope goals and smaller ones. Anyway, it was fun to see what I thought about a year ago and see what came of that.

1.  Take a few guitar lessons.  I really wanted to do this, but was stopped by 2 things. Time and money.  I didn’t think I would be tutoring and figured that time each week could be for lessons, but then I got a new learner in February and we are still working together.  I did find a teacher, but lessons are $20 a pop and going only every other week is still a lot of money per year.  Maybe if things settle down in 2014.  I did keep practicing on my own, though, and did see some good progress. Not sure if I’m doing it right, but I am getting somewhere!

2. Bathroom update.  Did that and totally love it!!  Not just an update, but a remodel. Now I have another house to start remodeling next year 😀

3. Yep – lose weight again. Fail. I am 2 pounds higher than I was on this date last year. That doesn’t sound so bad, other than the fact that I was 6 pounds lower 6 months ago. So freaking annoying. This seems to be where my body likes to be, but I know I can be healthier.

4. Either do another 100 mile bike ride or some organized bike events. I decided not to do that as I was pretty focused on my total mileage. Not to mention these events can be expensive. Do you see a money theme here?

5.  Try to hit 2500 miles on the bike this year. Done and done!  That was quite the challenge and I just barely eked it out before weather forced the bike inside. I am pretty darn proud of this goal.

6.  Relax more.  I don’t know if I really relaxed more. I did read a lot more (see below), which did contribute to that, but I tend to be driven a bit and find it hard to just relax. I asked John if he thought I did relaxing and his response was “I don’t know. You seem like you relax sometimes.”   ❓

7. Read 30 books in 2013.  I did this and more! I read 37 books. All of them either borrowed through the library on my Kindle or the Amazon Prime lender’s library.  Sorry bookstores. I would buy, but that money thing again.

Now I actually have a day off on New Years, which is nice. Then we are bracing for a snow storm. They aren’t totally sure how much we will get, but we will at least have to be shoveling something 😀   I’ll be back on Thursday after I have thought of some things I would like to accomplish for 2014.

 

Have a safe and Happy New Year!!!

Love having the blog and I can see all that went on in 2013!  Here are just some of the highlights.

January: Billy the stray went to his forever home (sniff).

That was the month I started working on the bathroom remodel.

February – This was the month we started the monthly Adventures in Maintenance with my partners in crime.

Healthy Heart weekend, always fun.

I finished the bathroom, too.

Funny how living through the reno seemed forever, but it was maybe 6 weeks long?

March:  We bought the PRIUS!!

April – Quiet month. Work was getting pretty stressful around this time, too.  I did have a fun time with my sister at the Saratoga Battlefield!

May:  This was our fun, fun trip through New England from Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The fun part of this trip is that we went without any itinerary and just stopped wherever we felt like.

I was featured on a Half-Size Me podcast – which I have not listened to yet, can you believe it?

June: My birthday, of course!  45 mile ride for 45 years.

5 years of relative maintaining.

Becoming an Outdoors Woman weekend.  Always a good time, where I became a crack shot with a crossbow!

July: Another quiet month. Lots of riding, though!  And lots of gardening.

August: John’s birthday month.

Free concert to see Buckwheat Zydeco!

September:  My first trip to Las Vegas!

The local balloon festival. 

Lori and John anniversary (17 years)

October: Pumpkin party!

November:  I hit 2500 miles on the bike!

 

The family Thanksgiving.

December:  Another herniated disk. Boo.  It is almost all better, though. Yay!

The new Radiance Manor to be.

Thanks to all of you for coming along for the ride! All in all a good year with a few surprises in there.  The worst part of the year was all the work stress. Too many months of work stress in there.  It’s okay now since it is the slow season, but I sure hope it is better next year.  2014 should be interesting, at any rate 😀

If anyone else has a recap post, list it in the comments. I love reading posts like this!

Wrapping up the year!  It actually was a fairly uneventful year, which was kind of nice.

January started out with that health scare with my eyes when I went on the blood work trail with them thinking it was my thyroid and it turns out it was allergies. Yay for hundreds of dollars of tests for an uninsured person (at the time).

We also had our big vacation for the year to Disney!

That was a great trip, although I ended up sick and the end and lost my voice for several days.

February brought along the Healthy Heart Weekend!

We had lots of great participants.  Get ready for the 3rd annual coming up!

We also hosted our annual Mardi Gras dinner.  Love this one.

March – someone got some seriously bad karma because they stole my Buddha.

We got an early start on biking with the season in mid March!  I forgot how warm March was this year.

 

Global warming. April and John had the scooter out so we could ride.

 

Had a ladies weekend at the spa.

Note to self.  Do this again…. and soon!

I started the Female Body Breakthrough around this time, which took 3 or 4 months to get through.

In May I got to meet Sharon, a fellow blogger who was vacationing through our area!

 

June brought my birthday and turning  44.  So, I biked 44 miles that day to celebrate!

I remember it being quite cold for June, too.

July brought Becoming an Outdoors Woman weekend!

I did kayaking, bird watching, Adirondack Ecology and wildflower identification.  Probably will go again in 2013!

July also was another blogger meeting.  This time with Lynn!

We also got the new driveway put in during July.

Have I mentioned how much I love my driveway??

In August, John celebrated his 44th birthday.  Yay!

I had a new biking partner one weekend when John was out of town.  First ride ever with my sis!

We did a lot of home improvement projects this year, too.  In August I repainted the porch – which I am really glad I did, even though it took the whole month of August.

The garden was gangbusters this year.

I rescued stray kitty number 1, Mr. Boo, who went to a new home.

 

John and I celebrated our 20th anniversary of our first date in October (16 years of marriage) and I sprained my shoulder.

 

We also installed the laminate flooring downstairs.  Uber yay!!

November brought the rescuing of Billy, currently our shop cat until he finds a new home.

We biked until November 25th this year.  Total miles 2173 !!

Thanksgiving with family:

 

Then there was all of December and the holidays.  It was a good year and another one spent with John, my best friend.  I am a lucky woman.

I like seeing how my hair changed throughout the year, too LOL!

I need to make a post with links to my favorite rides this year.  I forget just how many rides there are when you do 2100+ miles.

Weight wise was interesting. I weighed exactly the same yesterday as I did on January 1st.  Mary Lou told me “Congratulations, you are at your starting weight”.  Not exactly the plan, but at least it wasn’t over that.  Also interesting that my weight was 8 pounds lower earlier in the year.

Thanks for revisiting the year with me!  Here is to a fantastic 2013!