Wow - a quick but long recap of 2019

Well, since it's already May 2020, I suppose I should catch up on 2019! Rather than doing a bunch of individual posts, I'm going to do a quick (but long) recap of my year.

January 2019 - There was a lot of Alabama in my January. Brodie and I watched the National Championship football game against Clemson. Sadly, the Tide did not win, but we will still always yell Roll Tide! The Cambridge chairman of the board went to Jerusalem over Christmas break and visited the Alabama shop in Jerusalem (how crazy is that!), and he brought me a very sweet gift - a mug, magnet, and Alabama salad tongues. So cool! Even more Alabama - I spent about 5 hours one Saturday putting together the tiny lego Big Al that I got for Christmas. 

January is also my birthday month. Genny made me these adorable cupcakes with teeny white chocolate Brodies! Aren't they cute! Amie sent me a Hogwarts alumni t-shirt that happened to show up on the same day that some of my students were having a Harry Potter party at lunch, so I won cool points by showing up dressed for the event. KJ and Eli brought me flowers and a cute birthday card to school, and one of the parents at my school brought me a vintage children's book about a Westie named McDuff, so of course I had to read it to Brodie when I got home.

February 2019 - Genny and I like to do events together for our birthdays (and sometimes Christmas). When we found out Steven Curtis Chapman was going to be in concert in Arlington in early February, right between our birthdays, we knew we had to go. So we purchased tickets for each other and had a blast celebrating together. We were on the 6th row in a small, intimate venue, and the concert was so good. It was just SCC and his guitar (and he even played the piano on one or two songs). 

Most of the month was quite cold and rainy, which wasn't fun when I had to do afternoon carpool. Brr! But there were some nicer days as well, so I made sure to take advantage of them and take Brodie on some canal walks when we could.

March 2019 - Mom and Dad took Ben and me to Gatlinburg, TN for Spring Break this year. They've all been many times, but this was my first Gatlinburg experience. And it turned out to be our best family time together all year, so we were all really thankful to have this time. We stopped in Cherokee on the way there, and loved exploring the town and all the little shops. But it was the time out of town in the Smoky Mountains that we enjoyed best. We walked out to Cataract Files, hiked up to Laurel Falls, drove up to the top of the Smokies and the TN/NC state line, and relished being outside in nature. We also saw a couple of shows (what else do you do in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge?!), rode the mountain coaster at OberGatlinburg, and even saw a bear!

In March I also went to Tres Dias, a 3-day spiritual retreat designed to strengthen the faith and promote deeper and more active Christian service and leadership for believers. It was exhausting, refreshing, and life-altering. I heard God speaking to me in ways I haven't experienced in a long time, and I came home ready to get back into active church involvement, find a small group, and really start growing in my Christian walk. I had been stagnant for quite a while, but this weekend God woke me up.

In March, my coworker and I also took 3rd place in the Cambridge talent show for our rendition of the Loathing song from Wicked. You can see the video here. We had a lot of fun doing this!

At the end of March, I was thrilled to welcome Mr. & Mrs. Pikman to Cambridge for one final time to lead a Passover Seder for my students. They did their first one for us when their daughter Rose was a freshman, and this was her senior year so they were moving away from Dallas. I love the Passover Seder, how the elements foreshadow the Passion of Jesus Christ, and how it is a more tangible way to tell the story of the Hebrew people's escape from Egypt and our redemption from sin through Jesus's crucifixion. I think my students really enjoyed it too.

April 2019 - April was Easter time. Genny and I carried on our tradition of dyeing Easter eggs together. We always try new ideas, sometimes with better success than others. This year was not so successful. The tie-dyeing technique just didn't work for some reason (it worked well the last time!), and the brown eggs that were supposed to produce really vibrant colors ended up producing rather ugly colors. I ended up actually creating a BLACK egg, so I decided to make black and green olives, lol. Even my annual Alabama did not turn out a pretty crimson. After dyeing eggs, we went to the annual Good Friday service at the Clear Fork Ranch in Fort Worth. I spent Saturday being silly with Brodie and making oreo bonbons for the first time - they were so good! Then on Sunday I went to Wedgwood for Easter services and then to Genny's house for Easter lunch.

April brought other interesting events as well. We had a lot of severe weather, some of which had me piling all the pillows in my closet preparing for tornadoes - Brodie thought that was his new bed. My coworker Grace and I went to see HAMILTON at Fair Park! Oh my goodness - so so good! And my two favorite seniors, whom I happened to supervise for their Senior Tutorials, both made it to the Finals and presented their papers in front of the entire Cambridge community. They both did amazing, and Rose actually won. I was so proud of both of them!

May 2019 - May is always such a crazy month for me, with all the events and testing I have to organize. This May was no different, but it did bring me my first Mother's Day card. Genny found a really cute card for mommy from her BFF (Best Furry Friend), and it had a Westie on the front. It was perfect for me! In the middle of all the craziness, I also spent an evening with Alissa seeing Miss Saigon (my favorite musical!) at Fair Park. Of course, it was a joy to celebrate the graduation of the Cambridge Class of 2019 - fourteen very special graduates! And I continued my tradition of grading final exams by the pool. May concluded with a trip to Austin for one of my favorite Holmes girl's wedding! I can't believe Abigail is married (and now has almost been married for a full year). It was a beautiful ceremony, and I was blessed to be able to attend.

 

 

June 2019 - Since I was in Austin, less than an hour from some of my favorite people, I started June by visiting Kathrin, David, and the kiddos in Taylor and then going to visit Bonnie and David in College Station. Bonnie, Kathrin, and I took the kids to Blue Hole for a day of sunshine and swimming. We all had so much fun! I've never seen the kids be as adventurous as they were that day. Later in the month my cousin and her husband came to Dallas for a conference, so Melissa and I met up for a few hours of exploring the Arboretum and catching up on each other's lives. I also spent a lot of time at the pool in June - sometimes by myself, sometimes with Brodie at Genny's house.

One of the highlights of June was my best friend Stephanie's visit to Texas. We had a whirlwind road trip, exploring Dallas, the Stockyards in Fort Worth, San Antonio and the missions surrounding it, Austin, Waco, and even Grapevine. I also introduced her to the Texas institutions of Bucee's and Whataburger. We had so much fun together, catching up, being tourists, and just spending time together.

 

 

July 2019 - I ended June by driving to Georgia to visit my family. While the visit wasn't what we expected, because my brother ended up in the hospital halfway through my visit, we still managed to pack a good bit into the trip. We spent a lot of time relaxing in the pool (that's where we spent all day on the 4th of July), visited Fort Benning and found our house from when we lived there in the 80s, explored Georgia's "little grand canyon", and enjoyed time together. We also celebrated Dad's 65th birthday, and Dad and I did a segway tour of historic Atlanta - such a cool way to explore a city!

 

 

August 2019 - I tried to spend as much time with Brodie as possible in early August, because I knew the school year was starting back soon and we wouldn't have nearly as much time together then. We celebrated Brodie's 10th birthday on August 13. Alissa and I saw Fiddler on the Roof at Fair Park - such a great story! We had some excitement at my apartment complex when the dumpster caught on fire. And college football started back on August 31, so I was excited to yell Roll Tide!

September 2019 - September was mostly about school. There wasn't a whole lot of excitement. Rachel came to town for a conference so I took a couple of hours off one Friday to visit with her. Brodie was excited to see his Auntie Rachel too! Sept. 15 was the 20th anniversary of the Wedgwood shooting, so I rejoined the choir for one weekend of celebration and remembrance. I also got to participate in my first Tres Dias serenade and worked in the kitchen for my first Tres Dias weekend. Oh, and I watched Alabama football every chance I got.

October 2019 - This was a big month! It started out with me putting a contract on a house, and packing up my apartment to move. More on that later. I joined Ashley and her kiddos for a day at the Texas State Fair (our 3rd year as fair buddies). I love those kids!

 

On October 18, I closed on the house. My friend Shirley was my realtor, and I was very thankful for her help. October 19th was moving day! It was a beautiful warm day, and Midnight Movers came that morning and loaded up a truck with all my stuff - it was PACKED! Emily came over and helped me unpack during the day. I had the refrigerator delivered, the cable hooked up in time for the Alabama football game, and the security system installed, all on the same day that the movers moved me in! Whew, I'm tired thinking about it.

 

On October 20, life changed again in two ways. First, my brother had to go into the hospital again, and he didn't come home for good until the new year (he had a couple of brief trips home, but they always resulted in him having to go back). Secondly, that evening, an EF-3 tornado severely damaged the church my school was housed in, causing us to miss 9 days of school and move our entire school to another church. We didn't return to school until November 1. It was so sad to see Cambridge in such shambles, and the surrounding neighborhood was even more damaged than the church. Heartbreaking!

While school was out because of the tornado, we had the College Trip to Nashville and Alabama planned, and we went ahead with it. Of course my favorite part was being able to take the students on a tour of the Alabama campus one night. I loved being able to show them my favorite spots on campus, especially the football stadium. We also visited Vanderbilt, Belmont, Sewanee, Covenant, and Samford.

Belmont

Alabama

Covenant

Samford

Sewanee cross lookout

Sewanee

Vanderbilt

Finally, October ended with Halloween, of course. I joined up last minute with Genny's small group at Wedgwood, who were doing an Alice in Wonderland theme. I dressed up as the March Hare. It was so much fun!

November 2019 - There was still a lot to do at Cambridge in November after the tornado. The first week in November found the faculty up at the school packing up our offices/classrooms, rescuing precious items and everything needed to teach our classes for the remainder of the year. We then moved into the children's wing of Fellowship Church. While it was plenty awkward, with seniors sitting at pint-sized chairs and tables, and the faculty having to pack up our classrooms every Friday, we were super thankful that Fellowship was willing to welcome us with open arms. My classroom was the TreeTop, a large room with two giant trees in the middle of it and a stage decorated as a treehouse. It was quite different than our previous campus but really fun. 

In November I also got the opportunity to see Casting Crowns, Elevate Worship, and Hillsong in concert at the American Airlines Center. My friend Stacey invited me to join a group of her friends. We had so much fun, though I did regret it the next morning when I had to get up early for school. 

The month also brought more Alabama football on tv, although it also brought the end of our hopes for a National Championship when Tua went down with a serious hip injury against Mississippi State. Brodie continued to LOVE his backyard, even catching a rat (yuck!) at one point. 

I was so excited to get to decorate my new house for Christmas. As a matter of fact, since I moved in so late in October, I decided not to put out my normal decor and just decorated for Christmas as soon as possible. 

At the end of the month, I flew home to visit my family for Thanksgiving. Sadly, my brother was still in the hospital, so a lot of our time was spent going back and forth to visit him. We did manage to put up the Christmas tree and check out the plants and Christmas decor at Pike's Nursery, and Ben came home for Thanksgiving Day and the day before, but had to return Thanksgiving night after a setback. It was definitely not a very happy Thanksgiving, but I was thankful to be there with my family at such a difficult time. 

December 2019 - December is, of course, all about Christmas. I took a lot of pictures of Brodie, as always, because he's so cute in a Christmas setting. I also hosted my first party in my new house, with 11 senior girls and two faculty members joining me to decorate Christmas cookies in the 2nd annual senior girls Christmas gathering. 

In December, I also got to attend a bagpipe concert at First Baptist Euless with two Cambridge parents. We went to lunch beforehand and had a great time visiting together. I also went with Alissa to yet another show at Fair Park - this time we saw Dear Evan Hansen. It was really good, very creative with its staging and use of technology!

I drove back to Georgia to spend Christmas break with my family. Ben was still in the hospital and was there for my entire visit. It was a very sad Christmas. We barely did any celebrating, but spent a lot of time driving back and forth to Atlanta to visit Ben. It was very hard. We did manage to go to Christmas Eve service before going back to the hospital. Christmas Eve dinner was Waffle House - it was super crowded because it was just about the only restaurant open at that time. Mom and I did manage a little shopping time while I was in town, and I spent a good bit of time with Brodie and Harley (I didn't know at that time that Harley would die before I made it back to Georgia again). 

Dad and I spent one afternoon in Atlanta exploring the College Football Hall of Fame. We had a good time, though it wasn't nearly as interesting as I had thought it might be. We ate a late lunch at Johnny Rockets downtown, and then walked around Centennial Park before going to the hospital to visit Ben. 

New Year's Eve was much the same, back and forth to the hospital. We went home, put on our pajamas, and spent the evening playing marbles and waiting for the ball to drop. We toasted with sparkling grape juice, and prayed that 2020 would be much better than 2019 for our family. (And it did start out better, at least. Ben came home from the hospital for good in early January, and he's been stable since then. We're praying that he stays that way for the remainder of the year.)

Whew, that was a whirlwind trip down recent memory lane! I'm going to try not to allow a whole year to go by before blogging again. Anyway, good riddance to 2019! Even with some fun times and a major milestone, it was a hard year that none of us would like to repeat.