2020… a new year, but more importantly, a new DECADE! Like many others, I thought it would be fun to go back and look at the biggest things that happened each year, and oh boy, this was quite the exercise in hilarity. I also had to go back and look through the ol’ blog archives to gather some of this information since my memory is pretty poor. Here we go!
Please note: all of the events within each year are in chronological order, not order of importance! Just in case you didn’t think my marriage and births of my sons were the most important happenings, because obviously they were. Ha.
2010
- I was in college at this point (junior then senior this year)
- I celebrated my one year blogging anniversary. Holy cow. Yes, all of my old posts dating back to 2009 are here on the blog and they make me cringe.
- Most importantly, this was the year I got hired at the library. Wow, this place and its people has seen me grow and change a lot. I was a 21 year old baby when I started!
✨My 2010 wrap up post (which was just my favorite books of the year).
2011
- I got my first promotion at the library.
- I graduated college with my Bachelor’s in English Literature.
- I went to BEA (Book Expo) in NYC for the first and only time ever! My parents took me as a graduation trip. It was amazing. I had dinner with Beth Hoffman and met Chuck Palahniuk, along with MANY other authors (but those were the highlights).
- I started graduate school.
- I got an apartment with an on-again, off-again boyfriend. That living arrangement didn’t last long – ha!
- I adopted Dakota, my first dog and first baby. He continues to be a pain in the ass, but he has been a companion to me through so many life changes.
- I left my very first job ever at Wegmans after 6 years. I was in grad school plus working at the library, so it was time. Very bittersweet. I worked in many departments over the years, but at the time that I left, I was a pharmacy tech. It required a lot of training and hard work, but it was work that I enjoyed… mostly!
✨My 2011 reading wrap up post.
2012
- I began self-hosting my blog.
- I started my first weight loss journey and hired a personal trainer.
- FINALLY got out of that terrible relationship for good and moved back home with my parents.
- This led me to meeting Jerry online in March. I spent MANY hours Skyping with and daydreaming about this future husband of mine.
- Jerry came to visit in June… and never left.
- I got my very first tattoo as a reward for losing 50 pounds.
- Jerry proposed to me in August.
- I ran my very first race!
- I ended up losing 92.5 pounds total this year.
✨My 2012 personal wrap up post, and reading wrap up post.
2013
- My fitness journey continued with hitting 100 pounds lost and running a 15k.
- Again with the fitness, I ran a half-marathon, which remains one of my biggest accomplishments of all time.
- I graduated with my Master’s in Library science with a 4.0.
- My very first nephew was born and I became an aunt.
- Jerry and I had two cool experiences resulting from our weight loss: we were in the newspaper, and we were invited to the Rachael Ray show. We took a whirlwind roadtrip to NYC with my dad for that one!
- I had two bridal showers and a bachelorette party!
- We got married in October and went on a FANTASTIC honeymoon. It was our first vacation together and first cruise and we fell in love with cruising.
- Right after we returned from our cruise, Jerry started a full time job, where he still works today.
- We moved into our house (though we hadn’t bought it yet… it was a house we bought from a family member, so we could move in early).
- We became foster dog parents. We sadly ended this the next year when one of our fosters passed away, forever traumatizing me.
- I started my first book club (still going strong today!).
✨My 2013 personal wrap up post and reading wrap up post.
2014
- We finally closed on our house and became first time homeowners!
- In the same weekend, I bought my first Jeep! I ALWAYS wanted a Jeep, so this was a dream come true. I still have this car and it’s wonderful and reliable. I will only ever own Jeeps from now on.
- I got pregnant with Caleb and we later held a gender and name reveal. We also had an awesome baby shower, followed by ANOTHER awesome shower put on by my coworkers.
- I decided to transition my blog officially from a book blog to a personal blog with books thrown in. I’d been incorporating more and more personal posts, but I finally made it official, and stepped back as a book blogger. It was the best blogging decision I’ve ever made. I LOVE sharing my life, and I can still talk about books once in awhile… I had just gotten too burned out on doing nothing but reviews.
✨My 2014 personal wrap up post and reading wrap up post.
2015
- I became a mama when Caleb was born in January!
- I officially became a working mom when I returned to work after my maternity leave.
- I had my first ever freelance writing gig with Desitin! Such a great experience.
- My grandparents visited from Florida and got to meet Caleb!
- I was the maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding which was such an honor.
- Jerry and I went on an overnight getaway to the Poconos for our two year anniversary. I drove the whole way, and it was absolutely the longest distance I’ve ever driven by myself! I used to have really bad road anxiety, and this showed how much I have overcome that… plus we had fun!
✨My 2015 wrap up post.
2016
- A year of home improvement projects, including a new garage door and a landscaping project.
- We also installed our barn door wall, which I still love to this day.
- My grandfather, Papa, passed away. It was awful, and the first big loss I have ever experienced. Man, do I miss his laugh.
- I got a major promotion at work. Not only did I go from PT to FT, but I got promoted from Library Assistant to Librarian.
- Jerry and I went on a childless vacation! It was our second vacation together AND second cruise. Caleb stayed with my mom, and we cruised out of Florida with my grandparents. I also got violently ill right before departure and was basically peeled off the streets of Miami by EMTs. I was rushed to the ER for a few hours, but we managed to make it back to the ship on time. I was sick and stayed in our room for most of the time, but we still had SOME fun. Sadly, this is the last vacation we’ve been on because now we have two babes and more financial obligations. Sigh. Maybe someday.
✨My 2016 personal wrap up post and book wrap up post.
2017
- I was unknowingly pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy which was an emotional and draining loss. We’d been trying to conceive and had no idea I was pregnant until I went the OB with some weird symptoms. I ended up having a D&C procedure as well.
- At 2.5ish, Caleb started to talk! He had a major speech delay, and after more than a year of speech therapy, he blossomed! Now, he never stops talking!
- Jerry’s father unexpectedly passed away and he traveled back to CA for the funeral. It was the first time he went back since moving here, because who knew that 3,000 mile plane trips were so dang expensive?!
- I became a Diplicious affiliate.
- We spent the rest of the year after the ectopic pregnancy TTC (trying to conceive), and it was a disheartening year of many disappointments and negative tests.
- It was also the year of movies for me (as was the first part of 2018). I signed up for MoviePass (RIP MoviePass) and saw a sh*t ton of movies in theater. It was the bomb. I was even going ALONE which was a first.
- I won a contest from our local baseball team, and the mascot came to our house to trick or treat with Caleb and his cousins.
- Jerry and I went to Yuletide in the Country for the first time ever and it has since become a yearly tradition for us. I love it.
2018
- After a year of trying, we found out I was pregnant the first week of January! This was literally days before we were supposed to go in for some fertility testing and to check my tubes. What a miracle! Dodged that bullet, huh?
- I launched a Forever YA book club at work, and it’s still going strong!
- Jerry went on days at work, after working nights for 5 years. It has seriously improved our lives.
- My best friend had a baby boy! He was born very early, but he’s so healthy and happy now. I’m also proud to call him my godson.
- Caleb transitioned to his big boy room and bed, and also started 3 year old preschool!
- My Holden Lee was born in September! I was induced two weeks early due to slightly elevated high blood pressure, but he was still perfect.
- My other best friend got married! I had been a bridesmaid but had to drop out because her wedding was out of town on the same weekend Holden was initially due. Luckily, due to his early arrival, Jerry and I still got to travel out of town (about an hour or two-ish away) for the wedding. Though we had to leave pretty early in the night (since we had a newborn at home), I was still so, so happy and relieved that I could still be there for her big day in some small way.
- My grandparents came to visit from Florida again and got to meet Holden Lee. Lee is my grandma’s middle name. We gave Holden her middle name because she and I are very close, so it was absolutely amazing to see them meet.
- We bought a treadmill!
2019
- I turned 30… which was not as scary or as bad as I thought it would be!
- Jerry’s POS car died, so we frantically had to find a new one, which we were not prepared for but are loving anyway: a 2017 Jeep Renegade.
- Our family friends came to visit from Ireland for the first time in 10 years!
- We had a long-time-coming falling out with a “family” member who is a terrible person. It was honestly a huge relief.
- I started to earn an income from my blog which is a big deal since I’ve been doing it for over 9 years now.
- I had my best reading year since 2013, with 46 books read.
…. and there we have it: the last decade of my life in bullet points. WHEW. This was quite a time consuming (and emotional) experience, as I had to go through each month of each year on the blog to remember the events of every year. Guess it’s a good reason I’ve been blogging all this time because my memory is s*it.
I guess what I can say about the last decade of my life is that it’s been a tumultuous, up and down, happy and sad journey. This last decade basically encompassed my 20’s which were years of learning, growth, change, and becoming me. In this decade, I finished my schooling, met my husband, became a homeowner, became a mom, and advanced in my career. My body has changed more times than I can count, I’ve (somewhat) learned to be an adult, I’ve done some cool sh*t, I’ve been THROUGH some sh*t, and I’ve been here… blogging about it all.
Thank you all for following along in my life and journey for all these years. You have literally seen ALL of these events take place, right here on my blog, from the happiest moments to the worst of them. Some of you have been here since the beginning (2009!), and have been fixtures in my life for as long. Some of you are newer friends, and I cherish you too, because honestly… in real life, I’m quiet. I hold back. I don’t express my feelings or thoughts or emotions very often. But on here? I let it all hang out. If you read my blog, then it’s safe to say you know me pretty well because this is the space where I feel free to be who I am and to share all of my feelings, the bad and the good. Thanks for being privy to that. Thanks for caring about me and my little life.
I hope to still be here (on this blog… I assume I’ll still be alive – ha!), in 2030, so I can recap another decade. In this next decade, I hope for less change, more routine, more growth… but also more cool sh*t to look forward to.
I’ll be sure to write about it all.
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