Christmas Card 2014

Fine, it's not Christmas yet, but seeing as how the last time I updated this blog was last year, and next week is Thanksgiving, I think I can be forgiven for invoking the spirit a bit early.

A lot has happened in the last year! I moved into a group apartment in Silver Spring in January. I am please to report after almost a year of living here, there is no drama! No 7-year-olds throwing temper tantrums! People who clean up after themselves (mostly)! My own bathroom! Space for a queen bed! It's heaven.

Once our crazy cold, snowy, wet winter left us, I finally got the requisite DC experience out of the way. That's right, I'm talking about the cherry blossoms! The first year I was in DC I went on my birthday during a day off. It was windy and frigid and they had not bloomed. The next year it was warm, sunny, the day of peak blossoms and crowded as heck!

And now I'm happy that I never have to go through that again! Ha! Over Memorial Day, I took a trip back to ND for my niece's high school graduation. It's crazy to believe that she is in college now. This is a picture from Danielle's baptism. I clearly developed the "Not Impressed" face by a young age.

I also got the chance to make the rounds in Fargo with a few of my good high school friends and reconnect in person after being gone over a year and a half. We also went up to the big town of Aneta, ND. It was nice to have made the trip, as Grandpa Richard passed away in July.

I went home for the second time in as many months in July to attend the funeral and so did a lot of the extended family that I don't get to see often (or even ever!). Amazingly enough, this photo below is the best of about 500 shots. I guess we need to go back to Posing 101.

At the very end of July, we got to welcome Jeff and Stacy's first baby to the family. That makes me the aunt of a brood of nine nieces and nephews (eight of them boys). Although I haven't gotten to meet him yet, he looks like quite a happy baby. My sister and brother-in-law's younger ones continue to keep them busy, too.

But life wasn't done being a roller-coaster quite yet. I had started a half-hearted job search, looking for something new, around February. As time went on, it was clear that my job at the time was not going to turn into anything interesting or meaningful and so I got the feeling it was time to move on. In April I made it (for a second time) to the final round of interviews. While I wasn't chosen, that experience made me realize how much I longed for something new and challenging, and so in May I committed to applying for new opportunities in earnest. I went on a decent amount of interviews, always making it to the end-but-not-quite. At the beginning of August, I was offered a new position, gave notice to my job, and have been with my "new" employer since then. It's a great variety in a very small office and just this week I submitted my first grant proposal!

Probably the nicest photo I managed to take the entire year. I guess he's a good influence!

My mom also came in the middle of October for two weeks. She managed to see pretty much every museum on the mall that she wanted to and the monuments. We also got to get out of DC for two days. One trip we went to Washington's Mount Vernon while another we went into Baltimore (although that was less of a success). Mount Vernon gave us a great opportunity for silly poses and pretty gardens. It was mostly great weather while she was here, aside from a few rainy days.

Perfect for silly poses. Or whatever it is Tim's doing.

Not too much to report for November! It's hard to believe that in January I will have been living in DC for two years. It's the longest I've lived somewhere besides college. Things are going great, and I hope they are for you, too!

[insert Happy Holidays message, because we all know the odds that I will update this thing before the end of the year are slim.]