2024 Reflection

2024 has been interesting and not what I would have predicted. 

In January, I chose our Articles Club topic and had everyone choose a Word of the Year. I ended up missing the January club night due to sickness (and sadly missed several months of Articles Club this year), but the word I had selected for 2024 was "fun." 

Well, I wouldn't exactly describe this year as fun. 

I spent a lot of the year caring for a sick baby or being sick myself due to day care. It hasn't been much fun and its taken its toll on me, yet I am still incredibly grateful that these have been minor illnesses. Bad colds and stomach bugs...constantly! I know Brooke is building her immune system and I know many people deal with much worse than these minor ailments, so no complaining from me. Its just made it hard to describe this year as "fun."

2024

Let's get into it....

The first week of January started out with a high (floor seats to a Duke game!) and a low (Covid diagnosis after said Duke game). I went back to work at the end of this month and my parents kept Brooke for a week. 

In February, Brooke started day care at The Learning Experience, which was a quick last-minute pivot from the day care that I originally had planned. It's been a huge blessing and she is absolutely adored by all the staff there! 

In March, my new boss was hired after a year of not having a CFO. I volunteered on Cam's school field trip to the Museum of Life & Science. My mom retired after 40 years at Duke and we had a wonderful night celebrating her retirement at the Washington Duke. I spent a weekend at Lake Gaston for our annual Articles Club girls weekend, which was so much fun!

In April, we celebrated Otis's 12th birthday (!!!) and Brian's birthday, too. 

In May, I traded in my old Honda Accord for a new Toyota Tacoma. We are absolutely loving it and it has proven to be great vehicle decision for our family with bikes, scooters and strollers to take everywhere. For Mother's Day, I went to dinner and a Nate Bargatze stand-up show in Greensboro with my family. We had a great time! We celebrated my birthday and Pippa's 10th birthday with a trip to get ice cream one evening. I got a stand-up paddle board as a gift to myself. I took Sasha out on Falls Lake with my mom, and later took it out again with Cam. 

June was filled with lots of trips to the pool. My mom, Cam and I went to see The Lion King at DPAC. Cam had his last day of 2nd grade! I volunteered at VBS, which is always such a sweet time with kids at church but makes for a busy week. We ended the month with a trip to the NC mountains for me, Brian and Cam. We went white-water rafting, gem mining, did the alpine coaster, and went on several long hikes. We stayed in a cute bungalow with amazing views! We went to the movies, shopped in downtown Boone, and had several fantastic meals. A very fun weekend trip!

In July, Cam went to a week of day camp at Strouds Creek Farm in Hillsborough, which was his favorite of all the camps he has ever done. He had a TERRIBLE poison ivy outbreak after one of our  weekend hikes in the mountains, but he made the best of it and still claimed this was his best camp of the summer. We also had a great week in the Outer Banks! We stayed in a house in Duck and spent a lot of time at the beach and pool. We did the horse tour in Corolla, flew a kite at Jockey's Ridge, and spent lots of nights down on the beach hunting for ghost crabs (a highlight for Cam!). 

In August, we had a fun day on Lake James and spent the weekend with Brian's family. I was sick and felt feverish all weekend, but even so, I will always cherish lake time. Cam did his first overnight camp for a week - Camp New Life. I started teaching kindergarten and first grade Sunday School at church. Cam started 3rd grade, and I think this is turning out to be his best school year yet! 

September was characterized by more sickness. I had no voice for two weeks. I went to Myrtle Beach for my annual trip with the Murrays, which is always one of my favorite weekends of the year. Sasha turned 5 years old! We got a new front door! I quit my job after 13 years with Duke Finance. That job - and deciding to leave it -  are two of the best decisions I have ever made. 

October was a busy month! I started my new role at Duke on the physician contracting team on October 1st. I mostly work from home and its been a much-needed change of pace. We went to the State Fair, Cam started ice skating lessons again, and we had a great Halloween. Sadly, Otis died on the 19th, and we miss him dearly.

November - my favorite month of the year! Brooke turned ONE at midnight on the first! We celebrated her first year, which has been so wonderful! She is the greatest joy and best addition to our family. Brian and I celebrated our 12th anniversary with a nice dinner at Sullivan's steakhouse. Cam had his 9th birthday party with friends at our house and The Snake Experience! We had family over for Thanksgiving dinner. 

In December, we kicked off the month with frigid walks to school. Cam and I volunteered at Celebration of Lights at church, specifically the archery game. Cam has so much fun helping each year. I went to the Christmas dinner with my previous work family at the Angus Barn which was lovely. I spent time with friends at the Historic Oakwood Candlelight Tour. We did a quick trip to Morganton to visit Brian's dad. And finally, after another round of sickness, we made it to Christmas with everyone feeling healthy but recovering from a long week of a stomach virus. 

Looking back, it's really been a good year despite some twists and turns I wasn't expecting. 

I like to think about my favorite day of the year, and I was able to easily pick one for this year - July 22, 2024.  We were at the Outer Banks, which was overall a great week. Cam, Brian and I went to Jockey's Ridge to fly a kite. It was raining during our 45 minute drive down to Nags Head so I was thinking the outing had been a bad call, but then the sun came out as soon as we got there. Not many people were on the dunes and we had so much luck flying the kite! I guess we can thank Brian for the kite luck - I'm not sure we would have got it in the air without him. But it seemed like that kite would fly forever and never come down. After an hour or so of flying the kite, we handed it off to another family that was arriving. I hope they made some good memories, too.