2009 Year in Review
This year I didn’t end up blogging as much due to being a teacher, planning our wedding and all of the craziness of transitioning from one place to another that happened over the summer. I don’t remember offhand as much as I would with my trusty planner here so I’ll do my best at recalling what happened over the past year 
One thing that happened almost every weekend of January through the first weekend of June was that either Tim or I made the 3 hour trek to the other’s place. It was a LOT of driving!
January – I rang in the New Year in Georgia (Columbus) with a whole slew of Tim’s family. I know it was tough staying up that long because earlier in the day was completely filled with doing tourist things in the area. We had a Mom Birthday Party up in the Twin Cities for both of our mom’s birthdays (that are in January) and everyone got along well and had a good time. I know we did some marriage prep stuff during this month and really started to work on some of the fine details for the wedding. I also got to watch the inauguration while I was at school and it was pretty sweet. Thankfully the musical part of the program also coincided with my music classes so that worked out really well too It was pretty powerful seeing my 6th graders in awe and one of them turning to me and saying “If Obama can be president than I can too!” He was one of the schools biggest “trouble makers” and it was soo cool seeing him be inspired by something.
February – Once February came I started to become busy with lots of school stuff. As soon as solo and ensemble was over it was time for the middle school musical that I helped out with. It was an interesting experience… On Valentine’s Day Tim’s jazz bands played a big band concert and it was a fun night filled with good music and swing dancing. The drama of who is moving where also started this month – by the end of it there wasn’t a clear answer (we had hoped there would be)
March – Hmmm this month was one of those nose to the grindstone months where there was a lot to be done with orchestra concerts and getting ready for the musical before spring break hit in April. Erica and I did a LOT of running around for costumes, props and who knows what else these two months (they kind of blurred together for some reason…) (still no answer to the job question)
April – Over Easter weekend (which was part of my spring break) I cashed in my frequent flier miles and Tim and I went to Winnipeg to visit good friends. Abby was able to make it up that weekend as well! I am very glad that we were able to go and play with some pretty cute kiddos and see other friends too The last weekend of April included the two performances of the middle school musical and thankfully that went really well. Everything came together at absolutely the last second (it was pretty scary) and thankfully it was a success!
May – On the 1st Tim ran his first marathon and he did really well! I am so glad that I was able to go and cheer him on. What else? Oh yeah – tension over job stuff got worse and worse. There weren’t a lot of options that were very feasible and we heard about certain jobs that we had applied for had pools of over 100 applicants for middle school positions (and they included people with masters and doctorates!!!) It was not looking good and I feel like that almost totally consumed my life during this month. We knew where we wanted to end up if we were where I lived but we weren’t sure if we ended up in Tim’s neck of the woods. Over Memorial Day weekend we looked at a few apartments there and fell in love with one (in case we moved there!) At the last second there was a chance (a small one) of a part time job in orchestra in Tim’s area and fingers were crossed that we would have a for sure plan by the end of the school year that was fast approaching.
June – Was off to a crazy start – on the 2nd (Tim’s b-day) I got a call offering the part time position, on the 3rd he signed a lease for our new place (the one we fell in love with). My school district still had another week after that. My last two weeks of school were crazy and were filled with moving preparations at school and home and hanging out with friends as much as possible on top of all of that. I was just so thankful to finally have an answer as to where we were going and what we would be doing in the fall after camp. It was a HUGE relief to know!!! Erin took me to the train after the last day of school ended so I could make it up to camp for weeks 2-4 and it was sooo good being back at camp
July – Tim and I had planned a party for the end of 4th week (before we took a two week break from camp) to have an IMC reception with cake and punch and everyone hang out. Our camp friends totally one-upped us by planning a HUGE surprise shower that left the two of us smiling for a very long time We felt very loved and appreciated (and still do). It really meant a lot to have our camp family celebrate with us During our two week break from IMC we attended a shower put on by Tim’s family, went to Katie and Peter’s wedding, I got my wisdom teeth taken out, picked up my wedding dress from being altered and got most of my stuff moved from my old place to our new apartment. We then headed back to IMC to finish out the summer with everyone and I learned that I am a horrible person to be around while on pain medicine 
It was not good to me I am glad that will never happen to me again (at least with wisdom teeth) I am thankful though that we were able to extend the dean campout to a weekend in Minneapolis with good friends – that was pretty sweet!
August – Oh my goodness August was a wee bit on the psycho side of things. I auditioned for the local community symphony here and ended up with viola section principal! I also headed up to Ely to hang out with my family for a few days, went to Jason and Kristy’s wedding, went back to my old place and finished moving everything out and cleaned it up really well, went to Mankato for a week or so to help with wedding things on that end, went to CF (where Tim and I now live) to start new teacher orientation the week leading up to our wedding, got married, started teacher work days, and headed to Door County for a mini weekend honeymoon getaway. Our wedding ended up being way more fun than it was stressful. I felt kind of nervous the day before – mostly because I hoped that everything would work out well in the end (not about the getting married part). The day of was wonderful and a lot of fun from the getting ready part to the ceremony to pictures and then the reception I don’t think I really felt stressed out at all the whole day. I married my best friend and it all was so natural and just felt like another step forward (that happened to be accompanied by a huge party that was a lot of fun)
September – School started! It was kind of rough for me at first – being a second year teacher and starting all over again in a new district and building with new students. By the end of September things started smoothing out and I started to find my place. I started filling my days with tutoring ninth graders and I love doing that. They have a neat program where they take freshman who need a little extra help in certain study halls and from there pull a few out for one on one work with tutors. I really enjoy it and it is really gratifying. My parents were able to come visit the weekend of Oktoberfest and see the first symphony concert – that was really nice having them here
October – Was a month of ups and downs. I traveled the state quite a bit for marching band competitions and that was a lot of fun. The students put on an amazing show and were really proud of it and took ownership of it. They had an amazing performance at state and a lot to be proud of for the season. My orchestra gave a lunch concert (a first for the school) and it was a success! State music convention was another highlight of October. I got to see my good friends from Sun Prairie (where I lived) and enjoyed the conference. Abby came to visit for a long weekend and that was flippin sweet!!! On the downer side of things – one of my good friends from college died in October just a few days shy of his 25th birthday. It was a very all of a sudden thing and I am thankful that I was able to make it down to the funeral. I haven’t had a lot of people close to me die yet (Rachel B is the only other one). I find myself really missing him at times. Rest in peace Zachary.
November – November really flew by – we spent Thanksgiving with my family and ended the weekend with Tim’s family. I feel like there was something else, but I can’t remember – it was kind of a blur.
December – Was crazy! Lots of Christmas concerts all over the place between school stuff and symphony but everything ended up well. Lots of good performances everywhere! We went back to Chicago for the Midwest Clinic again and stayed with Molly and Jason and it was really nice being able to hang out with good friends I won free tickets to the Chicago Symphony Christmas concert and it was amazing! We had our all school holiday concert where every band, choir and orchestra performs something for the whole school in the gym. The orchestra kicked butt We played a Trans-Siberian Orchestra piece with electric strings, guitars and drumset with all 100 of our orchestra students (the 9/10 and 11/12 orchestras combined) and it was awesome. We traveled to River Falls for a few days at Christmas, and spent almost a week in Mankato with my family just after Christmas. It was a very calm and relaxing break
This year has been kind of a roller coaster one at times, but it has been a good one overall. I am so thankful to spend every day with my best friend and I feel really blessed to have so many good friends, family and people in general in my life.
I hope that you have had a good year too
Peace,
Christine
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