Oh dear. I just looked at my blog for the first time in over a year. So sad. So neglected. I don't think it recognized me. Poor 2014. No updates all year. How depressing. I nearly scrapped the whole thing and started a brand new blog. Best to erase past mistakes and start again, right? I mean, who ignores their blog for 20 months?? Pathetic. But then I started reading through my previous posts...and looking back on the beginning of the Smith family's adventures...and smiling at all the memories. I can't scrap all that, no matter how neglectful I've been. Maybe this will be a re-boot. Maybe in 2015 I'll become an avid blogger, and my witty posts will rival those of The Pioneer Woman herself. And then again, maybe this will be my only post this year. If so, oh well. Such is life. Sometimes you have enough time and energy to live your life, but not enough to write about it.
The last time I posted I was at our apartment in Temple, sick with mono, while my studious husband was traveling in China for an engineering trip. How do I catch up on our life since then? For starters, speaking of mono, my immune system has gone through the ringer. I've been working in the ER for 2 years now, and I wish I could see a list of the antibodies that must be floating through my bloodstream. Emergency nursing is definitely my niche. Of course I don't love it all the time, but overall I can't imagine wanting any other career. I've learned so much over the past 2 years, and am learning more every week. Currently, I'm working full-time at a level 3 trauma center as well as PRN at a tiny emergency room at a smaller hospital. It's fun to work in 2 totally different places - changes things up.
2014 was definitely intense for my hard-working husband. Pat finished up his basics at community college ("basics" being crazy hard classes like calculus and physics, which are both Greek to me), applied to several universities, and was accepted to his #1 choice - petroleum engineering at Texas A&M! His first semester at A&M was filled with even harder classes, acclimating to a new school environment, interviewing for summer internships, getting very little sleep, and making some awesome grades. Christmas break provided some much-needed and well-deserved rest, and now he's hitting the books again for semester #2!
Summer 2014 saw the Smiths make the great migration from Temple to College Station. What a hassle. I hate moving. Next time we have to move, I think I'll just hire some experts to manage my affairs, I'll go into cryo-sleep, and have them wake me up when it's all over. Actually, looking back, I guess it wasn't so bad. We had some wonderful friends in Temple who helped us so much with all the packing, cleaning, and moving. They were so generous with their time, and even drove down to our new place to help unpack the Uhaul. We'd met a great realtor in CS who helped us find a duplex in the school district we wanted for Madi, and we're definitely enjoying NOT living in a 3rd story apartment anymore. So much easier now to carry in the groceries! Also, we have a tiny back yard which is just big enough for my humorous attempts at gardening. My fall garden produced a few cherry tomatoes, a shriveled ear of corn, almost a pumpkin, and a handful of green beans. Better luck in the spring maybe?
And Madi? Well, she's just been living her life, going through her little victories and trials with the same sweetness she always has. Looking back over my blog and seeing old pictures of her made me sad though - she's getting so big! Her current passion is anything and everything that has to do with wolves. For Christmas she received several wolf-themed gifts, she reads everything she can about wolves, and at recess she organizes her friends into a "wolf-pack" of which she is, of course, the leader. So far, her favorite part about College Station is the little pet store in the mall, where you can pay a quarter to hold a puppy for as long as you want. She was ecstatic the day they had husky puppies! Closest thing to wolves, you know.
Well, those are some of our shenanigans from the past year and half in a nutshell. Until next time!
