A Year of Yes

Howdy Howdy Howdy, it's been a while! I actually started this blog right after the new year, so it was going to be a "year in review" entry. You know what? I think it still will be. It's over half done already and I've decided that 2016 is going to be a "year of yes,"  so i'll just go for it.

Looking back, I think my 2015 was pretty alright. Actually, no, I can say it was a good year. Nothing terrible happened, no big changes in my life and mostly good things were going on around me. The only weird/bad thing that first comes to mind is Andriy's sudden necessary gall bladder surgery, which meant a night's stay in the hospital and bills bills bills. But we survived that with just some tummy scars (him, not me.)
Other than that, I did mostly what i wanted to do without too much interruption, aside from, you know, having to work for a living.

Here are a few things I LOVED about 2015:

Travel is almost always at the top of my list. This year, I traveled to the East Coast twice. First was to visit Maine and Vermont with my husband, ending with a visit to our best friend Jdo in Ohio. Maine was AMAZING, especially where we were, which was Bar Harbour/Acadia National Park. It's SUCH a beautiful place. Here's a photo, just to brag/reminisce.

Yeah, it was so good. Go there.
Then we spent a week in Vermont, because it is our plan to move there in 2017. We have set a year. Now we just need to figure out how the HELL you move to a brand new place where you don't know anyone or have a job. So, we're going to figure that out. But we're going to do it. We love Vermont so much. We spent a week there, exploring different areas, scoping out the neighborhoods in Burlington, checking out job availability. I even spoke with someone at the New England Culinary Institute about their programs. I'm not saying that's what I'm going to do, but it kind of sounds like something I might really enjoy. We'll see.
After hiking/driving/eating our way around Vermont, we headed home, but not before stopping and visiting Jeremy Doughty in Bowling Green Ohio. I'm so glad we got to see where he's been spending his time recently, earning his doctorate (way to go, Dr. Doughty!)

I also took the opportunity to visit my sister, Jessica, in Maryland. Mom and Dad were going and asked if i wanted to join them. I thought about it for a half a second and then said YES of course! Jessi and her family moved there in December of 2014 and I hadn't seen much of them since then. So, we had a lovely visit with them, spending a lot of time with her and her sweet, beautiful daughters. We did a little hiking, a little exploring. I was so happy to see their nice place and that they live somewhere that's actually really pretty. Now I want to bring Andriy back so we can explore more.

More things I loved:

After hurting my back doing something boring and normal (didn't love that,) I started doing yoga very regularly again. Since I'm cheap and impatient, I decided to explore the options on YouTube. I found Yoga with Adriene. And it is great. Adriene is so laid back and kind of silly, not so super serious like some yoga instructors I've encountered that take themselves and their practice waayy too seriously. So, she fit right into my life. I've been practicing yoga from home since early last year. Check out her channel on YouTube if you're interested in adding some yoga to your life.

I tend to not talk about work much, but my business did relocate to a new, much better location. The move was a lot of work, and I had to miss a family reunion because of it, but it's done. And I had the opportunity to have the layout exactly as i want it/need it. To get the updates on what's happening there, like us on the Facebook page that I manage: https://www.facebook.com/ProductionXpress/

Andriy and I have taken a new fun step into nerddom. We started watching Doctor Who and we LOVE it. It's got the right mix of playfulness, dorkiness and Britishness. I find it very comforting to immerse myself in the world of Doctor Who. I find that as time goes on, we find ourselves watching more and more British TV...we're a couple of angliophiles over here. Thanks Netflix & Hulu!

Wrapping this one up for now. More soon...

We built Tent City.

First camping trip of the year? Check.
April 19th found us at Sangchris Lake State Park, on the point with our tents and chairs and the magic V. Pete was kind enough to get there early to save our sweet spots overlooking the lake, although with the impending cold weather, we weren't too worried about them being taken from us. By the time Andriy, Witherbee and I showed up, he had pretty much set up camp. We assembled our tent and the spare tent we brought to share, cracked a beer and settled in. Before long, Ashleigh and Sculley arrived and our first night's crew was complete.

That first evening was cold and windy, but sooo wonderful. I have sat around countless campfires with these wonderful people and I never get tired of it. There are always refreshments to keep us happy/relaxed, there's usually a guitar with someone to play it and we just sit around like happy hippies, enjoying the outdoors, the fire and the company.
When we were younger, this was a familiar scene. When the weather turned nice, inevitably someone would bring up having a campfire at the lake, they would spread the word and we'd all meet up. It started out at South Rock Point on Lake Jacksonville, a very remote spot that was almost never occupied. I'm sure we weren't supposed to be out there, but no one ever stopped us.
South Rock Point got to the point where it was so overgrown that we couldn't get back there anymore. The city was either ignoring it, or they intentionally let it grow wild to keep us out. That didn't really stop us from campfire time...we just found a new spot. There are great memories there too, but nothing ever quite compared to South Rock Point.
Sorry about the digression...back to April 19th.

Once the sun set, it really got cold. In fact, temps were near freezing. But, the wind started to die down, we enjoyed Pete's homemade chili, brats, refreshments, a nice hot campfire and soon we weren't feeling the cold. Happy times.

 

Chukins were in charge of breakfast the next morning, and desperately in need of coffee for hangover headaches, so we were up early. The Saturday crew slowly started to filter in. Margie & Dennis arrived first, followed later by Joe O'Neal. Denver was to arrive that evening after work (poor schmuck.) We had big plans for hiking, badminton, baseball and washers. The group decided to split up - hikers in one direction, game players in another.

 

The hiking crew set off for the trail. It was a really nice day - some sun, not too cool, fresh spring green starting to show in places.  We came across, to no surprise, lots of flooding over the trail. Thankfully, we were able to blaze our own trails around the floodwaters and find the path on the other side.

We were feeling confident we would be able to continue to the end of the trail, since much of it was high above water and we were fortunate to find paths around the low wet spots. That is, until, we came across this place:

There didn't seem to be any way around it and the water looked deep enough to be unpleasant. Dennis braved out on the log, hoping he could find a shallow enough spot to jump. Unfortunately, one step too far and his boot sunk in the water. Ashleigh and Margie, being the bold adventurers they are, were convinced we could take a nearby fallen tree, lay it across the water and walk across it. That sounded like famous last words to me, and I'm a baby and didn't want wet feet, so I turned around and started backtracking. The rest of the group followed and thankfully we found our way back to the trailhead. A certain time of day was approaching and we had business to attend to.

We met up with the rest of the crew back at camp to learn that they had enjoyed some home run derby and washers. Sculley cooked us some burgers while some of us relaxed by the fire and the rest went to play badminton. 

Finally, Denver arrived, our camping party of 10 was complete, and our Saturday evening continued into some unknown late hour. 

All in all, it was a successful inaugural camping trip for 2013. Hopefully it won't be the last. Although, next time, let's hope the bottle of Goldschlager isn't polished off so early.