Year in Review / 2014

Happy new year to you!

As I've heard others say, the days go by slowly but the years go by oh-so quickly. I think I'd mostly agree with that statement. 2014 seemed to go by swiftly. Overall, work, freelance projects and photo shoots kept me busy. Ryan kept busy with work and projects around the house. Here's a little play-by-play of our year. Most of these events are featured in posts on the blog so feel free to click on the links for the extended versions.

January

The biggest news of January was that my sister Jessica got a job at Veridian as the in-house collections legal counsel. She wasn't necessarily looking for a job at the time, but because I was an insider and knew the organization, the manager, the pay and the benefits (all of which are appealing), I knew I had to pass it along. One interview and the job was hers! I even got a bonus $150 for referring her! Mom and Dad helped her move on from Knoxville to Waterloo to begin the new journey. It has been wonderful having my sister here in the area. The impromptu dinners, shopping trips and carpooling to visit family or friends have been great.

February

As winter months tend to be, ours were pretty low-key. And to be honest, it is kind of a nice break from the busyness of spring, summer and fall. We did get to go to an Iowa State basketball game with Pioneer customer Brett and his wife Lisa. The tickets were from Pioneer and were fabulous ... we were about four rows back from the team bench. It was pretty awesome and brought back memories for Ryan and I of when we both sat in the student section and cheered on our Cyclones during college. Other than that, Ryan went back to Remsen for the annual butchering at Krier's.

March

March this year was a cold and snowy one. We took advantage of this and went skiing with our friends Brett and Susan. First time for me! We also had our annual holiday party with Ryan's sales reps. It was a pretty quiet month that included watching our Cyclones during March Madness.

April 

To start April off, we celebrated my birthday with a trip to the Mall of America. A week or so later we celebrated the birth of our newest nephew, Jack. Another exciting occurrence was that Paige got a job and moved to Davenport. We were glad to see her start her career at Town News. Speaking of jobs, in April our office moved from Waterloo to Cedar Falls. This was great news for me. Our building is 1.8 miles from our house. This means I can go home for lunch ... YAY! I get to prep for supper, fold laundry and unload the dishwasher all in an hour's time. I even rode my bike to work! Ryan celebrated his birthday back in Remsen helping my dad plant. I missed him over the weekend but was excited to surprise him with a few gifts and carrot cake, his favorite!

May 

The highlight of May for me was visiting bestie Amber in Muscatine. Bill and her have since moved to Okoboji. We hope to visit and enjoy the lake life sometime in 2015. Otherwise, the rest of the month was spent in Cedar Falls laying low.

June

In June, we visited Kansas City. We took in a Joe Nichols concert with our friends Brett and Susan at the Butler County Fair. We also had Jack's baptism in Bondurant. I had extra PTO to use before my work anniversary, allowing me to have every Friday off from the start of June until the middle of August. AWESOME is the only word to describe this.

July

July was a fun month. We celebrated Remsen's quasquicentennial over the Fourth of July holiday. For the special event, Ryan had grown a beard that he had started in February. Boy, was I happy to see that thing go! My class also met up for an informal 10-year reunion. Yes, 10 years. Holy cow. Even though I know a lot has changed, it still feels like not much has changed at the same time. I was blessed with a great group of classmates. Later in the month, we took a mini-vacation to the Black Hills with Mom and Dad. What a beautiful place western South Dakota is! We saw Ryan's girl crush, Sara Evans, at the Bremer County Fair. Kara, Cam and Taylor, came up to visit and we braved the humidity to play some mini-golf and ride go-carts. It was a really fun night with good friends.

August

My August was mainly occupied with logging lots and lots of miles. I carved out 4+ hours on either Saturdays or Sundays for my long runs. Had to put the work in to get the reward! We got to spend the weekend back home with Feeck, Melissa and David and Rachel at Creekfest in Cherokee. The main act was Florida Georgie Line. Ryan and I aren't huge fans of theirs, but they put on a good show. We do really dig that song, Dirt, though. Later in the month, we ventured up to Lake City, Minnesota with Jillian and Wes. It was a fun weekend filled with food, beer, boating and conversation. We don't get to spend a lot of time with just Jill and Wes so it was great relaxing with them for an entire weekend. Before turning the calendar, we got the good news that Kara and Cam got engaged. They will be getting married next October. Kara asked me to be one of her maid of honors (along with her sister), and Cam asked Ryan to be a groomsman. We're excited for the big day!

September

September will always begin with our anniversary. We spent Labor Day in Ames at the Iowa State football game with our friends Matt and Lindsay. It was nice spending time with them and their little ones. As an anniversary gift to each other, Ryan and I went to The Eagles concert the following weekend. It was a mellow yet entertaining night. I've always liked The Eagles so I'm glad we can say we've seen them live now. Even if it costs us an arm and leg! :) Our friend Luke came to visit and we went to our neighbors, Ron and Jen's, UNI tailgate. We also got to watch Iowa State beat Iowa (Not much to brag about, though, since we only got one win after this). We visited Stephanie and Kyle late in the month. This was the first time we saw them since they returned to Iowa from Durham. I felt instant joy seeing their smiling faces when they opened the door to greet us. Kyle looked great and seemed just like the Kyle we've always known. It was inspiring to see him strong, healthy and happy. He has come so far! We not only got to see them, we got to see their new home in Blue Grass. As always, Steph brought her design eye to the home, making some beautiful updates ... wood floors, bright paint colors and a rejuvenated fireplace. Speaking of homes, Jill and Wes moved into their newly-built home around the same time. We got a tour weeks later. It is truly stunning. Just like something you'd see in a magazine or Pinterest. Jill should be proud of the design decisions she made. She is quite talented when it comes to those things!

October

October kicked off in a big way with my marathon in Milwaukee. This will go down as one of the top accomplishments of my life. It is hard to explain the feelings that come with meeting a goal like this. We spent a weekend in Bondurant with the Schnoes family; I spent a day in the Amana Colonies with my mom and sisters, and we both went back to Remsen for harvest. Fall is a wonderful time of year for family time!

November

In early November, we had a lot to celebrate. Ryan took another job and was promoted within Pioneer. Ryan transitioned from Account Manager, managing eight sales agencies, to Sales Effectiveness Manager, where he will be interacting, training and sales planning with the 180+ agencies in all of northern Iowa. Because of the territory he will be covering, we did not need to move from Cedar Falls. I am so proud of Ryan for this accomplishment. He is always striving for more, learning from others around him and, most of all, passionate about what he does. He deserves this promotion, and I'm excited to see where it will lead him. Mom and Dad also reached the milestone of 30 years of marriage. We celebrated by spending Thanksgiving in the beautiful country of the Dominican Republic. We may never take a trip like this again, so I'm so glad we did. When we returned, we received the big news that Jill and Wes got engaged. We are so very happy for them and can't wait to officially welcome Wes to the family.

December

December brought holiday parties, including one with our neighbors and one with Langfritz Seed (Brett and Susan) in Galena. We had a blast at both. One of the more exciting things to happen was Eric graduating from the University of Iowa with a business degree in Finance. We are very proud of him! Eric has faced more adversity than most his age and he has taken it all in stride. We are excited to see what the future has in store for him.

As another year goes by, I like to reflect and think about all these events and blessings. Sometimes the day-to-day grind can wear you down. But I always try to remember what is important and it is people like you. Thanks for reading!