2009 Year in Review

jersey shore, august

I'm skipping ahead a little by starting with this picture, but I decided I had to start here because when I came to the pictures of our annual long weekend at the Jersey Shore I thought, dear readers, you might enjoy seeing a young man of Italian descent at the Shore who is neither 'roided up nor overly hair-gelled. However, please note that we go to Spring Lake--NOT Seaside Heights, so maybe that has something to do with it! BAH!

Anyhoo...back to chronological order...

hallway redo, january

We started 2009 off by painting and wallpapering our hallway, something I had wanted to do since we moved in five years ago. I was totally thrilled with how the grass cloth accent wall turned out...it looked just like I imagined. Don't you love when that happens?

chili champ, january

Also in January we held our first annual Chili Cookoff with some friends, and I was totally shocked when my vegetarian chili won! It even beat out a Texas-style chili made by a real Texan!!!

brahler brew, february

In other culinary endeavors, Seth brewed his own beer for the first time--a bock that turned out sooooo deliciously!

mom and i make a jordan sandwich with a side of joe mac, march

In March I got to see my true loves, NKOTB, twice--the second time taking my sweet, beautiful mom to meet them for her 60th birthday. (I'm not embarrassed to say that after they reunited in 2008, I saw them seven times and met them four times. It was so, so fun to feel 13 again.)

front row at nkotb concert in syracuse, march

This night in particular was probably one of the best nights of my life--hands down--because...well...let's just say Joe McIntyre and I did a little bit of flirting! If the 31-year-old me could have gone back and told the 13-year-old me that that night was going to happen, she never would have believed it! I still can't and I lived it! (Okay...now you all know what a huge dork I am!)

veggie dogs at dogtown, march

We discovered Dogtown...the best hot dogs outside of New Jersey--and they serve veggie dogs, so I can indulge, too!!!

tailgating at the spectrum, april

We got to see Bruce (and tailgate) three times...

...and at the Philly show he did a cover of London Calling. E Street Band + The Clash = mind-blowing (to say the least).

garden expansion, may

Seth more-than-doubled the size of our garden and put up this lovely fence to keep out the deer, bunnies, turkeys, etc., etc., who share our backyard.

guest room redo, may/june

In May/June we had more fun with wallpaper, spending a couple of weeks taking down the paper in our guest room and completely redecorating it before my bff from college came to visit. The room is really lovely now (probably my favorite room in the house) and gave us a place to display all the vintage Bermuda stuff we'd been collecting since our honeymoon...

floating on the bay in bermuda, june

...as well as the new things we purchased on our vacation there in June to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary.

me and my bff at her baby shower, june

Also in June I threw a baby shower for my bff, who was expecting her first. Isn't she soooo lovely and isn't her backyard amazing? But let me share a little baby shower fashion tip: If you're not pregnant, don't wear a maxi dress. Everyone thought I was pregnant, too! Whoops!

watkins glen, september 2009

Well, that's it for the review. I had a hard time coming up with highlights from the second half of '09 because 1. that's when I started blogging so you guys pretty much know anything exciting that's happened since then and 2. around that time our year got kind of craptastic.

As I went through these pictures, though, it was nice to be reminded that we had a lot of good times in 2009 to balance out the hard times and challenges. I'm looking forward to 2010 with excitement and promise--promise of much growth and fulfillment. Can't wait to share it all with you! xo