Last year I sent out Christmas cards to family and friends. I baked dozens of cookies and other holiday goodies. I climbed a very big mountain and lived to tell the tale. But this year, I did none of those things. Well, I still baked my Christmas goodies but I only finished delivering them this afternoon. And I never did send out those Christmas cards like I meant to. Since I never got to send my yearly update, here's a look back at what David and I did in 2009.
January - We became better friends with a couple in our ward. We explored more of Oahu by hiking, driving around the island, and went on a whale watching tour.
February - David got his official orders to Korea, we celebrated our birthdays (David's on the 6th, mine on the 8th) by eating at our favorite restaurant Roy's on the 7th. We adopted our crazy cat Suyom from our friends the Bartlett's and David made his first blog appearance in honor of my birthday (and my incessant nagging).
March - My sister Cassy and her adorable family came to visit us in Hawaii. I met my niece Anna for the first time and fell quickly under her spell. She flirted with my husband. We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center and went to the beach. I made several trips to the dentist. Two thousand dollars, two months, three cavities and one root canal later, I'm cavity-free.
April - I'm nearly eaten by a centipede in my sleep. David and I take a short trip to Kauai where we hike the Kalalau Trail, kayak down the Waimea River, and eat a mangosteen.
May - I get so stressed out that I literally break out into hives. I have outpatient surgery and my last day of work at the Hawaii Department of Education. We inventory and pack up all our belongings to have them shipped around the world, paint our condo, refinance our mortgage, sell our cars, and say our good-byes. Three days before we're supposed to leave Hawaii, the Navy finally sends us our tickets saving me from having a mental breakdown and David thoughts of divorce.
June - Visit our families in San Diego and Atlanta. We had a wonderful time with siblings and nieces and nephews. We miss our families! We celebrate our one year wedding anniversay. David finishes another semester of school (more A's, of course) and we move to Seoul! Within a few days, we've moved into our beautiful apartment in Huam-dong.
July - We make it through the monsoon season and take some time to explore Korea. We visit Changdeokgung Palace and become obsessed with eating Korean food. Our household goods arrive and it finally starts to feel real that we live in Korea.
August - David and I are called to be the Activities Chairpeople in our Branch. I'm also called to teach the Sunbeams (4 year olds) in Primary. We hike Seoul Tower and try to survive the heat and humidity of Korean summers.
September - David starts school again and I join a knitting group where I make some wonderful friends and also learn how to knit in the process.
October - David and I organize our first big ward activity, a picnic/BBQ that required a lot of work and planning. We visit Gyeongbokgung Palace (my favorite spot in Seoul so far) and attend the Navy Day Ball at the Hyatt. We attend another awesome Halloween party at the Bartlett's and David makes his second blog appearance.
November - We hold our second ward activity, celebrate Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends here and finally buy a car!
December - Our church congregation (the Yongsan Military Branch) and the Seoul English Branch combine to form the biggest branch in the world. David somehow manages to finish his two classes despite his ridiculous work schedule and miraculously (though not surprisingly) pulls out two more A's. I start taking a Korean class but I still can't say more than 5 words in Korean.
2009 has definitely had its ups and its downs, but it has also been an exciting year for David and I. But I can't help but think that 2010 will be even better. We're looking forward to a full year of living in Korea and possibly having some family members come to visit us. We're taking a trip to Taiwan during the first week of January (which we super excited about) and have other fun things in the works.
Yep, I definitely think 2010 is going to be a good year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What a crazy, stressful, and (hopefully) fun year! A good adventure to have with your hubby though. By the way, the other night I dreamed that I went to Korea to visit you. Exciting! But then I realized it was a dream...sad.
I wish that dream were real too! I've been having a series of weird dreams involving cast members from my favorite television shows.
It's funny how you can think that nothing exciting happened in your life and then when you think about what you really did, you realize that life is pretty exciting and fun at times.
Post a Comment