Happy New Year

So this is a little late but December flew by! 2015 was a very busy year for the Pandas and since it was such an eventful year, I thought it would be good to do a Year in Review post.  

So without further ado, an Ode to 2015: 

January started out on a bad note as we suffered a miscarriage at 9 weeks gestation. The rest of the semester (and really most of the year) was spent dealing with the aftermath of that. For more info on what happened and how we dealt with it, read this post, this postthis post, and this post. Chris also traveled to Michigan with Princeton's Touring Choir. While he was there, a huge snowstorm blew in and delayed their flight for 2 days. 

February led to healthy lifestyle changes. For various reasons, Chris and I decided that we needed to lead healthier lives. For motivation, we made a bet that whomever lost the most percentage of their body weight would have to pack up the apartment when we moved out of Princeton. This post has more information (and before and after pictures!). 

March saw me getting a more full time job (not just day to day subbing). I worked as a Leave Replacement Teacher (long term sub) for a 6th grade Special Education Teacher out on Maternity Leave. I taught Science, Math, and 2 sections of Social Studies to kids who had severe learning disabilities (but normal IQs). It was a challenging position to say the least and I learned that teaching middle school is NOT my calling! (And God bless the people who are! They deserve raises!!)

April brought better weather, a lovely Easter, and a week of Spring Break! Chris also led a touching Sedar service on Maundy Thursday, which meant that I got to plate 80+ Sedar plates (with some help)!

May was very busy as we ran our first 5K together, drank cider, and Chris twisted his ankle on the orchard course one Saturday.  We went into NYC one afternoon and saw a taping of The Daily Show (and saw Jon Stewart from a distance!). This was a check off the Bucket List for me!! Also, in the middle of all that, Chris took his final Final Exams, graduated from Seminary, and mastered divinity

June was very busy as Chris drove back to Missouri to get final approval from Heartland Presbytery to be ordained and took the train back to Princeton for free (on a voucher that we got from our crazy train vacation of Summer 2014). Then he spent the rest of the month packing up our entire apartment while I finished my teaching job and then went to the Shore with a few of my friends to celebrate the start of summer! His folks flew out the last weekend of the month to help us drive the moving truck and my car back to Missouri. A trip in which lots of caffeine and chocolate were consumed and a fish transportation device was fashioned! (I wish I took pictures of that!)

July was a whirlwind of visiting friends, family, and doctors.  At the beginning of the month, 2 good friends from Princeton flew out to celebrate the 4th of July with us. We were all excited to shoot off fireworks, as it had been 3 years since either Chris or I had done so and since our friends grew up on the East Coast, they had never shot anything. On July 5th, Chris was ordained and officially became Reverend Miller. It was a beautiful service and he was lucky to have many friends and family there to support him. A week later, we drove to Colorado with my parents and spent a week in Golden Gate State Park visiting my brother, who was seasonally employed there, and other family in the area. When we got back from that, we participated in the Bubble Run 5K with my parents and had a blast running through piles of bubbles!  And in the middle of the month, we got to celebrate my uncle's 80th birthday and spend a day with family I hadn't seen in years!  July ended (as it usually does!) with us at Heartland Camp directing Friendship Camp, a camp for adults with developmental disabilities. It was a blast, as always, and Chris especially enjoyed being able to participate again after 3 summers in Princeton. 

August saw us packing our suitcases and moving the rest of our belongings into a storage unit. We said good-bye to our family and friends and moved to Northern Ireland mid-month. After a week of recuperating from the move, we flew to Amsterdam and took a train to Bruges, Belgium. We spent several days there, several days in Brussels visiting my former roommate, before venturing back to Amsterdam for 2 days. We saw lots of neat things and it was a pretty laid back trip. (Just what we needed after the constant motion of July/early August!)

In September, Chris started his new job and we settled into our life in Groomsport. I started applying to substitute teach while over here and learned that bureaucracies everywhere are very slow! 

October found us making day trips around the area and seeing fantastic scenery. We also went to the hospital and got a 20 week scan of our precious Little One. We did not find out if we will have a girl or boy but we assume that we will have a human… (although the pictures do look a little alien!) We look forward to welcoming the new panda mid-March! 

November brought celebrations of Remembrance Day and later that month, a 4 day weekend trip to Rome and Vatican City. 

In December, I learned that teaching bureaucracies are STILL very slow!  We also  spent a week in Germany visiting friends from Princeton and my former neighbors from when I lived in Hanau. We saw lots of Christmas Markets and spent several days on their trains (much to Chris' delight!). We also spent a day each in Heidelberg and Neuschwanstein. It was a fun, relaxing trip and a great way to spend my 32nd birthday!  About a day after we returned to Groomsport, our friend from camp who is spending a year studying in London spent a 4 day weekend with us. We toured around the area and visited the Giant's Causeway. It was fun to play tourist for awhile. Then Christmas came, along with new traditions, and head colds. Chris and I both spent most of Christmas Break laying around recuperating. Lucky for me, I seemed to recover pretty quickly!

So 2015 has ended and we look forward to a wonderful 2016. There will be lots of visitors, many side trips, and a healthy baby to look forward to!  And as always, even though our calendar is filling up, there are still plenty of time to come visit us!  

See you in 2016!!

Mary Erin Miller1 Comment