I'm going to go ahead and blame a busier than busy work schedule, an Apple bug that hasn't let me upload photos from my phone for a while, and well...a rocky road to the end of 2016.
All that said, I couldn't be happier to say "So long!" to 2016 and welcome 2017.
I am very much looking forward to welcoming the new year in a very different way than ever before. "You're going to a new, crowded and expensive bar?!" "You're going to a crowded and expensive bar with new friends?!" "Okay I got it. You're flying to a new state to go to a crowded and expensive bar."
Nope.
I'm hiking a mountain in Boulder at 11pm tonight, a mountain that beholds a golden-lit star at the top, and we are shooting to reach the star at precisely midnight.
If that's not a great way to welcome a fresh start, I'm not sure what is. Golden.
The news run-down:
We'll start with the most boring.
Work: Is busy. I'm teaching 6 classes of 25 (-ish) kids daily, and doing two large side projects for the ELA department in my spare time. One is writing curriculum for other teachers to subsidize the one we have. One is training other teachers in our curriculum (which I've been piloting for a few years...remember all the people in suits?) on Saturdays! It's busy. But in the end I do enjoy it all. And it's great experience. And it's going in flashing lights on my resume.
Switzerland: I've decided to forgo the Swiss adventure this summer. I am of course disappointed to not live in a magical land for 2 months with a lot of great friends, but there are more important things happening here at home, and truthfully I'm really looking forward to not going straight from 12 hour work days here to 16 hour work days there and back again. I kinda just want to watch the Today Show and drink coffee? Oh and go for a walk! And camp.
Trips: I traveled well this summer and fall. While in Switzerland, I went to Copenhagen and Sweden with my dear college friend, Daphne. I also took 14 teens to Interlaken, Switzerland for a Swiss Alpine adventure up a few crazy mountains and waterfalls. A highlight was ditching the movie theater on the itinerary (really?!) and taking aforementioned teens, half of whom had never ridden a bike (really?!), on a bike ride along the Aare river. This fall, I went to CA for Halloween and carved pumpkins and trick-or-treated with Alex. Headed to VA for Thanksgiving and carved a turkey with Teddy. Also was handed a sonogram and told to go up to the guest room to find some PINK (...pink!) curtains recently hung. Be still my heart. Not a week later, I flew to Texas with my aunt and cousins to watch my other cousin's son play basketball in a big tournament and get recruited by what seemed like every college around. And last but not least, headed out to CA for Christmas to be with everyone, the whole fam, for a crazy Christmas filled with toddlers and waddling pregnant sister-in-laws. I've certainly never lacked amazing travel and people to travel to and with.
Family: We are growing! Heather is due in February with a boy. Stephanie is due in April/May with a girl. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, it's about damn time. Being an aunt is a new kind of love. Alex not only doesn't hate me anymore, but he's actually quite fond of his Auntie...Amy. We're not quite sure where Amy came from. We told him the entire week of Christmas, "No, Alex, K-K-K-Katie" to then it became, "K-K-K-Amy!" Warmer.
I love them. I'll take it to my grave that I won the family lottery. There is nothing we can't handle and we will handle it all with love.
Future: I might move home this summer. I have loved, loved, loved my mountain adventures. Even when I was homesick and sad the first few months, I don't think there was a day when I regretted it. I've climbed mountains alone and with new friends. I've succeeded further in my career than I ever did in FCPS. I have survived in a 275 square foot shoe box where food that I chop in my kitchen often flies into the living room and lands on my couch. I have found a new love for beer. I bought a pink bike. And roller blades. I never smoked pot. But Colorado is far away. It's far from friends and it's far from family. And if I've learned anything in my 34.5 years, it's that there is nothing more important than those two things. I wouldn't go home defeated. Or not having found what I was looking for. The opposite in fact. On a tough weekend in November, the weekend that I decided I'd probably be moving home, I was walking home from church and I passed this sign.
And that is precisely how I'd be coming home.
Not 100% decided, time and a possible work opportunity will tell. Stay tuned.
Happy New Year everyone. Cheers to 2017.
-Katie
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