A Decade in Review

I am "blog-napping" this idea from Tarah's blog. I must be getting old, because it is becoming more and more difficult to remember what happened in which year, but I wanted to do this because the last decade has been a busy one for us - starting college, finishing college, marriage, a new house, a baby - I wanted to record it for posterity. So I apologize that it is long, but it's more for my own sake than anything.

2000
·I was a senior in high school, and very involved in drama, band, and chorale.
·My mom, little brother, and I were living with my grandparents since my grandpa had a stroke the year before and my grandma had to quit work to take care of him.
·My beloved Aunt Marty ended her very painful battle with breast cancer a few months before I graduated high school. I wore her dress from the 70’s when I walked across the stage barefoot to accept my diploma in May 2000.
·I was granted a full-ride scholarship to Rockford College and began the honors program in Anthropology in August 2000.
·I was in a relationship with a man 4 years my senior, but the relationship was going sour – he lost his license for a DUI, couldn’t hold down a job even at a store in the mall, stood me up for my senior prom, and was ALWAYS late for everything. I broke up with him on Christmas Eve 2000.
·On December 12, 2000, I re-met up with a high school acquaintance that I hadn’t seen since we graduated 6 months earlier. He turned out to be my future husband, but I never would have expected it since we never really got along in high school.

2001
·I started off by ringing in the New Year with my new boyfriend, Greg.
·I began spring semester at Rockford College, but I didn’t like it. It was too much like high school, not college. I began applying to other colleges for transfer.
·Greg was accepted to Vermilion Community College in Ely, Minnesota.
·I decided to attend The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and Greg and I would only be 2 hours apart.
·My grandfather died in August, 2001.
·We moved to Minnesota later that month, and took our first trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that Labor Day weekend.

2002
·At the end of my first year “away” at college, I joined the staff of the college newspaper, The Cable. I also got a job working at the College’s library.
·Almost every weekend, Greg or I would make the drive back and forth to visit each other.
·At the beginning of my Junior year at college, I became Assistant Editor of the student newspaper and I also joined a clarinet quartet.

2003
·By the beginning of my senior year at college, I had become Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper. I worked 25-30 hours a week at the newspaper, had an 18-credit-hour schedule, and worked 10 hours a week at the library, but I still managed to artfully arrange my busy college schedule so that I had a three or sometimes four day weekends every weekend. I made the 2-hour drive to Ely, MN to stay with Greg.
·We spent a lot of time canoeing, fishing, hiking, and camping, and of course, doing homework and writing papers.
·Greg applied and was accepted to the University of Idaho and I was considering applying to graduate school at Washington State University.
·During the summer of 2003, I stayed in Duluth to do research with The McNair Scholars Program, while Greg went home to Illinois to work construction and work on the farm.
·In August, I went home to visit him, and he proposed on a sunset tractor ride around his grandma’s farm.
·A week later, we drove out West for the first time to visit Washington State University for my graduate school interview.
·I was accepted to graduate school in the fall and got a teaching assistantship, and we spent our senior year of college spending time with friends and preparing for a move out West.

2004
·I graduated from The College of St. Scholastica with a B.A. in Communications and English, and Greg graduated from Vermilion Community College with an A.S. in Wilderness Management and a Backcountry Guide Certification in May 2004.
·I spent an awful summer working for MCI as a telemarketer, since it was difficult to find a job when I knew I would be leaving in 2 ½ months.
·We moved to Colfax, Washington in August 2004 to start our lives out West. We got our first apartment together – our TV was on Rubbermaid bins and our furniture was cheap plastic deck furniture.
·I taught Media Writing to 40 college sophomores and juniors each semester, and started graduate classes.

2005
·Greg and I made the tough decision to be apart for another summer. He went home to Illinois to make money working construction, and I stayed to do summer school in Washington so I could finish grad school in 1 ½ years and be done with school at the same time as Greg. I was lonely, so I “adopted” Battle Cat from a friend who couldn’t keep him anymore.
·After spending all winter working/fighting with my thesis committee, I graduated with an M.A. in Communications in December 2005.
·Greg graduated with a B.S. in Natural Resources Ecology-Conservation Biology from the University of Idaho, also that December.
·Before we graduated, however, I learned I had been offered a job as a grant writer for my alma mater, St. Scholastica, back in Duluth.

2006
·We spent Christmas 2005/New Years 2006 staying in Greg’s parents’ basement with our cat because I didn’t start my job at the college until mid-January.
·We found an apartment in Duluth quickly and got settled before I started work.
·Greg had a difficult time finding work in Duluth and spent months searching for a job.
·I spent much of early 2006 wedding planning – Greg and I were married on Grandma Mitchell’s farm on September 30, 2006.
·We went on a honeymoon to the Bighorn Mountains following our wedding; it was a turning point for us and we realized we needed to leave Duluth so Greg could find work in his field.

2007
·At the end of January 2007, Greg left me in Duluth, MN while he moved back home to IL to work construction while he looked for another job.
·Greg was hired as a Habitat Specialist for Pheasants Forever in February 2007, and I began looking for work in IL.
·In April, I left my job at the College and came to Rockford, IL to work for the United Way. I hated leaving my job, but I wanted to be with my husband; when we moved into our rental house in April, it was great to be reunited after 3 months of separation.
·In May, we adopted our treeing walker coonhound, Heifer, from a local animal shelter.
·We decided to start a tradition of going on a trip over our anniversary in September; we went back to Minnesota and visited Ely and the Boundary Waters.
·In November, a little black barn cat showed up on our farm. She quickly transitioned into our house cat, Mousers.

2008
·2008 started out with a bang – Greg got a new job in February at the Natural Land Institute; it was a much better fit with his future career goals as a Restoration Ecologist.
·I also got a huge bonus at work that allowed us to begin looking to buy a house. Later in February, we purchased our first home.
·My mom and I took a very memorable trip to San Diego.
·I ran my first (and only to date) half marathon! According to her, it inspired my mom to start exercising and get healthy - to date she is almost half of what she used to be. Go Mom!
·During the summer, we started building the deck on our house. That’s what Greg and his dad were doing that June when I told Greg that I was pregnant!
·Then 2008 took a turn for the worse – in July, Greg’s Uncle Mike and 20-year-old cousin Kyle died in a tragic farm accident. Neither of us really remember much more about 2008.
·When I was 5 months pregnant, we took our 2nd anniversary trip to Ely, MN, and decided our baby boy would carry the name of our favorite town.

2009
·2009 was definitely the most difficult, and at the same time, most joyous, year of the past decade.
·On February 4, I lost my job due to the recession and the fact that I was 9 months pregnant.
·On February 5, I went into labor, and delivered our beautiful son, Ely, early the next morning on February 6.
·I spent 4 months unemployed and desperately searching for work, and trying to learn how to be a mom.
·In May, my "little" brother moved to Georgia. I miss him terribly.
·I got a job in June 2009, but the drastic increase in hours and decrease in pay put undue stress on our family.
·Greg and I have struggled in our relationship – less finances, a new baby, a new job, and months of unemployment will do that to a couple.
·Ely is the joy of my life, and the last year with him has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.

2010
·I’ve told Greg that 2010 is “our” decade. It’s already starting out better than the last 18 months – I have a new job that is extremely promising, starting in February.
·Greg is on the verge of starting his own log furniture business.
·We plan to make headway on our own business – owning a guest lodge our West – by making home improvements to up the value of our home, making investments, and beginning some entrepreneurial ventures.