2009: A Year in Review

Since I’ve been so “absent” from the blog lately, I decided to play a little catch up with a “Year in Review” from 2009. I hope this helps everyone catch up with us…..





January…


...started out with a visit from Deb and Bill. Bill came to help Steve work on our new deck and they got a really good start on it.









Also, Katie and Maddy were with us over the holidays while Bryan was deployed. For Katie’s Birthday, she, Maddy and I went to a really high-end mall in Charlotte to gawk at all the big name stores. We had a GREAT day and had a wonderful lunch at Cheesecake Factory. After that it was time for us to load up in Katie’s car and head back to Texas.



February…

...brought a visit from Jerry and Susan Ryan. They also came so Jerry could help Steve with the deck. Of course, Susan and I didn’t want to bother them, so we wound out heading out to the local fabric store and wiled away the day shopping for beautiful fabrics. By the end of the day, the deck was completed enough for us to share our first fire in the fire pit and toast the new construction!!


















March…


…brought the first snowfall of the new year in Lancaster. This "major snow storm" caused Kelly to cancel her Spring Break visit. That was sad :(. Not much else happened in the Shore household that month.











April…




…brought the official completion of the deck construction!! Steve has MUCH to be proud of. The deck turned out to be MAGNIFICENT!!!!





May…




…was a GREAT month, with a Mother’s Day visit to Texas. It wasn’t a very long visit, but I got my “Maddy Fix” for a couple of months, anyway. Steve and Bryan cooked a feast while we “ladies” were able to just enjoy each others’ company. It was a wonderful memory-making time for us. We also went to Tennessee to visit Chris and April and celebrate Chris's Birthday!!




June…
…found me making an epic trip to Helen, GA to visit Mom and Dad and the Aunts. They were in a chalet for the week and I decided it would be fun to “pop” over for a quick overnight. I found out that it wasn’t really a “pop” or “quick”, but I had a great time visiting Babyland General with them and then making my way back home.





July…

…brought lots of folks to our house to celebrate the 4th. Mom and Dad were joined by Mike,
Michelle, Hannah, Heather, Bill, Deb and Sydney.

We had a great bar-b-que, including s’mores on the deck and, of course, watching the Firecracker 400 on the big screen outside, and finishing up with a spectcular fireworks display by Steve and

our neighbors. It was such a GREAT weekend. I hope we can make this an annual event!!! July also brought our first endeavor into Geocaching. We’ve had lots of fun with this past time!!!


August…




…brought another fantastic visit from Katie, Bryan and Maddy. We did lots of sightseeing in Charlotte and visited the play area at the mall, as well as Discovery Place downtown. August also brought the rebirth of my beloved palm tree.

September…


…was the beginning of a very busy time for Steve and me. For our Anniversary we went to Banner Elk NC and enjoyed a beautiful day of geocaching.
Later in the month, we made our way to Pigeon Forge, TN for a weekend of celebration in honor of Chris and April’s 5th wedding anniversary. We had a ho-ho-hoedown of a weekend!!!





October…
…is when we finally got around to celebrating Mom’s 75th birthday. It was a wonderful weekend of food, family, friends and fellowship. We were lucky enough to have Katie and Maddy stay with for a few days again!!
















Also in October we went to Abilene to celebrate Maddy’s Baptism and First Birthday. It was a great celebration!!

















November…
…was, of course, Thanksgiving. We were fortunate enough to have Mom and Dad come for Thanksgiving Dinner, as well as Tom, Tonya, Jessa, Ben, Brenna, Sarah and Jason. It was a very quick weekend, but a really fun one. I was able to introduce Tom and his family to my passion of Geocaching and they are now fully involved. I love it!!!



December…
…contained an extremely hectic Holiday Season. First of all, for my birthday, Steve surprised me with a trip to Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore Estate. I’ve visited this phenomenal house one time before, but I really wanted to see it decorated for the Holidays. It certainly did not disappoint!!
Later that weekend we traveled to Atlanta for the Annual Towhey Christmas Extravaganza!!! We were able to meet Chris and April there and, as usual, a grand time was had by all…


























The following weekend we made our way back to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas with Steve’s family. Tom and Sharyn were in from Ireland and it’s the first time we’ve all been together for Christmas in many years.

Now that I’m through with my “Year in Review”, I realize it sounds an awful lot like a Christmas letter……That’s not what it’s meant to be, just a little something to get me back into blogging. I’m going to try to do a better job of blogging this year, as well as taking more pictures so I have something to spur me on. Of course, I don’t have Maddy around to give me inspiration, so you’ll just have to make do with pictures of my geocaching exploits!!!

Hope everyone has a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010….
Keep Bryan in your thoughts and prayers as he leaves again next month…….

Love to all!!