so 2012 found me looking longingly at new cars. our xterra has been great but this salt air has really taken a toll on her and her rust holes are getting a little embarrassing. in all fairness, i never had any intention of trading her in. i figured we’d get a little car that is good on gas and keep her for in-town hauling stuff. after all, we can’t get kayaks or surfboards or lumber into a little fuel-efficient car. yep, we were going to be a two-car family again for the first time in over a decade. we looked at cars pretty heavily back in the summer and then hubby decided to buy a new house so i joked around about how his house trumped my car. i guess the poor xterra must have misunderstood me and thought i was really trying to get rid of her. tonight, hubby left for the bridge run and returned home twenty minutes later. she died. it was all he could do to get her back home from the 1/4 mile she had made it. he was distraught and i tried to comfort him. i asked if it’s possible that it’s just something minor but he said i wasn’t there to hear her death rattle and he doesn’t think so. crap. i never thought she’s actually die on us. i just didn’t think it was possible. rust until all that was left was a chassis? sure. but die? never. guess who’s going car shopping this weekend? which, of course, means we have to rent a car to get to the dealerships. happy new year!
i was so busy focusing on last year’s recap yesterday that i didn’t bother to talk about NYE. we rang in the new year quietly with our friends, trainwreck and chef. we joined them for a fancy schmancy dinner and then went back to their house for pajamas and games. we were all in bed just after 2013 came to our time zone. new year’s morning started with the boys going for a run while us chicks did a walk and then, after breakfast, chef and i went to see the new les mis movie, which was a phenomenal screen adaptation by the way. hubby and i finally made it back home in the late afternoon and did some straightening up around here. it wasn’t the wild and crazy party that we have sometimes had but i enjoyed the subdued celebration. and now, i get to start hounding hubby in earnest. he is officially in training for his first (and last) ironman. this means that i have to be a patient and understanding wife while my husband leaves me alone most of the year and i have to be supportive and prod him to do so. it will all be worthwhile when i’m the proud wife cheering on my husband while he undertakes this monumental challenge.
i was in a pretty dark place when i disappeared from here back in 2011. i won’t dwell on that. a brand new, sparkly year has come around and it is going to be a great one! afterall, it’s ’13… my lucky number! 2012 ended up being a pretty good year in its own right.
- after spending the month of december 2011 and january 2012 in the hospitals with hubby’s mom (stroke) and my dad (broken hip), everyone was healthy and happy for the holidays this year. MIL is still working hard on her road to recovery and dad has a new health concern that has left him doing monthly treatments all year but they are still in our lives and they are back to enjoying their own lives (dad is especially enjoying his retirement that he finally earned in 2012!).
- i signed up for my 3rd half marathon and sold my registration after a month of training. i wasn’t feeling it and i have no regrets about it. it was a great decision.
- i dropped 40 pounds in seven months by making healthy choices. i exercised more regularly (aquajogging rawks!), watched my portions better, and became more conscientious of where my calories were coming from (no, i do not need that giant glass of milk every night with dinner, no matter how much i love it!). i now fit into clothes i haven’t been able to wear in about eight years. sadly, i had just given away the majority of my skinny clothes a couple months before i started this life change so it was a heavy shopping year.
- i gained back five of those pounds over vacation and the holidays but i’m so not worried about that.
- vacation was epic! it’ll take me forever to get the travel log finished since there are over 3k photos for me to sort through and narrow down but it was a month of living history. hubby and i both hit our #1 bucket list destinations (israel and egypt, respectively) and so much more. i still can’t believe we saw all that we saw.
- my brudder gave me a new niece and she is perfection.
- we moved into a new home, which is almost the same as our previous home except that we no longer have noise above us. the moving stress was nearly too much for me but we are doing all the upgrades we always wanted to do and it is turning into a gorgeous, if slightly smaller, home.
the most important thing about 2012 is that we got back to focusing on fun and happiness and i quit letting so much gloom in. the fact that everyone keeps complementing me on my svelteness has also helped my self-esteem.
