2014 Retrospect

I try and do a retrospect of my year (at least via my blog) every year. Here is 2014. This was a rough year for me and for my family. We had a lot of things go wrong, dear family members passed away, relationships faltered and regained footing, accidents happened, illnesses... definitely not one of my better years. I am severely depending on 2015 to be better than this!

Past retrospects:
2013
2012
2011
2010

January

We spent our New Year's Eve in Morehead City at the Crystal Coast Countdown. New Year's Day was spent watching the Capital One Bowl.

I started working out again, this time weightlifting. Also didn't last.

Then we booked our AMAZING trip around the Mediterranean. I spent many later entries blogging about it afterwards, but the trip itself was in January. It was fantastic but...

The week we returned my beautiful Aunt Joan lost her battle with cancer. Our family was devastated.

 

February

I was still reeling from my Aunt's passing and as soon as I returned to North Carolina I started rehearsals for a show at the community theatre. I honestly didn't blog the entire month save for one give away. Probably the least amount of blogging I did since I began this thing five years ago.

 

March

I spent most of March blogging about our Trip from January.

Getting There and Pisa, Italy, Florence, Italy, Monaco, Toulon France, Barcelona, Spain, Valencia, Spain, Mallorca, Spain, At Sea and Tunisia, Africa, Palermo, Sicily Italy, Naples and Pompei Italy

I was cast in a production of A Doll's House that performed in March and April.

April

I blogged about acting and the show again.
I realized how badly I was slacking on my blog and talked about it. Plus I made Pisanki.
And I worked Easter Sunday. Which kind of stunk.

May

Ryan and I celebrated our Fourth Wedding Anniversary.
We had tickets to see Lady Antebellum in Raleigh, our first country concert!
I acknowledged how awesome all the mothers in my life are, especially my mom, for Mother's Day.
Ryan and I took a trip to Duplin Winery to celebrate our anniversary.
I attended the Paraprofessional Library Conference
And my BEST FRIEND in the whole world GOT MARRIED and I got to be a bridesmaid for the first time! Plus Ryan and I had a day to play in NYC and see a Broadway show together for the first time.

 

 

 

June

 

I blogged about being frustrated.

Then, a first for me, I angrily posted about a current event... I never do that!

Hurry up and wait strikes again. The Career Planner didn't submit my husband's SDA package (it sat on his desk for two weeks) so my husband had to come up with a Plan B.
 I had my first major sickness of the year and ended up in the ER... they thought I had meningitis but luckily that was not the case.
Plus we went fishing. And had lots of Stormy Weather days.
And Josh Groban answered me on Facebook, completing my life.


July

We had my sister in law Hannah here and spent the 4th of July with friends.
Ryan asked me out for a special Date Night.
I made some Observations stemming from my job.

August

 I mention my lack of blogging again, a theme for this year.
I was shattered when my childhood icon and favorite actor Robin Williams passed away.
I QUIT SMOKING. Finally.
Then Ryan and I got into a serious accident in our truck. We were lucky to walk away with cuts and bruises but our truck was totalled. We went to the ER to get checked out to be sure we were ok, my second trip this year.


September

I turned 27.
 Ryan and I had a "redo" of our Labor Day Weekend, what we would have done originally had the accident not happened. First he had a goodbye dinner with his shop since his SDA was finally approved and then we started our time together at Battleship North Carolina.
Then we did Hungry Town Bike Tours and Fort Macon.


October

I officially mention Ryan starting his SDA and we attend Oktoberfest.
 Then I got really sick. Sick enough I was out of work and rehearsals for about a week. ER trip number three as well as Urgent Care and my regular doctor.
The Dup turned 3!
I was in another show, Dracula, over Halloween weekend playing Lady Van Helsing.


November

The Marine Corps turns 239.
I finally got some answers as to why I was so sick. My gallbladder basically stopped working.
Ryan and I spent some much needed time together.
We attend the Birthday Ball for SOI in Wilmington.
I blog about being Thankful, regardless of the rough year.
We spend Thanksgiving in South Carolina with both of our families.




December

My childhood dog Dippy crossed the Rainbow Bridge at 13 and a half years old.
I shared our Christmas Decorations.
Ryan graduates SOI Instructor School.
My surgery gets scheduled for January 28th, 2015... adios gallbladder and nausea!
We spend a cozy Christmas at home together.
And for New Year's we plan on visiting my family in the mountains. I will probably blog about that in the New Year.

I hope you all had a fabulous 2014. Our was a little rough, one of our roughest, but there were still some great high points. I don't blog about everything, most of the good and bad made it here, but some things do not need to be shared with the internet. I know many bloggers braver than I who do share everything, but I am not able to do that. Know things are getting better and I am optimistic for the year ahead. I hope 2015 strengthens my relationships, my faith and gives us more ups than downs. I know Ryan's work schedule will be absolutely INSANE but I hope I use that time constructively too. I hope I am happy. I hope when I do my 2015 retrospective I make you all positively nauseous with how amazing the year is.

 

Happy New Year everyone. Once again, thanks for sticking with me through another year.

 

Europe - Palermo, Sicily

Day 11 - Palermo Sicily, Italy

 

It was a semi dreary day once we reached Palermo. It was neat being back on Italian soil again but for Sicily we didn't really have a game plan. We figured we'd just walk around and hope for the best. The main thing for us was just to eat more food if possible so we were ok with whatever else came our way! Our friends Kristii and Debbie joined us, we all met up for the buffet breakfast, before venturing off the ship.

 

We got off the boat and found a white train/bus thing that for a few Euros would drive you all around Palermo in about an hour. It seemed like a good idea to us, let's face it, we walked a lot at this point, so we forked over the cash and settled into the cab. Most of the places we saw were just pretty government buildings and, of course, the cathedral.

Catherdral in Palermo

In front of the cathedral

We only had about fifteen minutes before the bus/train thing left us so we walked around pretty quickly. Luckily this cathedral was free admission so we were able to see the inside too.

After leaving the cathedral we drove by a lot more things... like I said earlier Sicily didn't really have a lot that we were dying to see, but being on that tour gave us a really nice quick look at all of Palermo.

Antiques Market

Park

Gorgeous theatre

When we were reaching the end of the tour we saw a massive protest going on outside of one of the government buildings. Apparently people in Sicily really want to secede from Italy. They are not Italians, they are Sicilians. From what we heard people talking about later we think that is what this protest was about. It seemed mostly peaceful, just some shouting every now and then, but we made sure to steer clear of that side of town while we were there.

Once we passed the protest that was basically the end of our tour so we decided, naturally, to just walk around some more. And find food. We clearly have our priorities! We just stuck with the main street and wandered from there.

Off in the distance the view was gorgeous too

And who could forget Il Padrino? The Godfather was everywhere! I was tempted to buy a tshirt but I knew I'd never really wear it, so a picture of it would suffice.

Bread/Cookie Nativity

We did see "Luigi". Apparently Luigi is Palermo staple, we saw him on a few postcards and the like in a few shops as we walked around!

We passed this adorable cafe, to be honest I just wanted to eat there because of the Christmas lights, so we decided to stop for a quick bite.

I ended up ordering a Nutella Brioche (YUM) and an orange fanta (it just tastes better in Europe). Debbie got a rich, delicious hot chocolate and Ryan got rice balls (which were AMAZEBALLS... sorry). I cannot remember what Kristii got but we all enjoyed our food.

Then we wandered some more. I love the balconies of Europe. Honestly, going through my camera I cannot tell you how many pictures I have centered around balconies. It is as bad as the wedding dress stores.

Venetian Lion

Eventually we got hungry again and found a large restaurant thing close to the port. Everything looked delicious! I got a cannoli and Ryan had more gelato... then we realized the place had free wifi so we all parked and stayed for awhile! We eventually ordered some lasagna and I got to have my first Italian beer as I facetimed by best friend back in the states. No one in my family has an iPhone so they all got an email saying we were still alive along with some pictures.

Ryan shared some of his gelato with me... we purposely made a mess!

Yummy Italian beer

After hanging out at that restaurant we made our way back to the ship. I did buy myself a cannoli magnet on the way! It is proudly displayed on our fridge. Our cabin steward made us a penguin towel creature that night for when we got back and it was pretty adorable.

We went to the theatre that night to see the "Elements" show, which basically combined all the previous shows from the last few nights. The magician, the acrobats, the dancers... everyone. It was actually pretty fantastic. We then ended the night dancing in the Spinnaker lounge. It is amazing, even on vacation we become such creatures of habit!

Next stop - Naples and Pompeii Italy! Our last stop!




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