{2013... the year of BIG new things}

Thus far, 2012 hasn't disappointed...

It has been a big year for our family.

We started off the year like any other typical year. Cold winter, start of the spring semester, and then we got to March. In March is when our world decided to make a big change. We knew the change was coming and we were starting to get prepared for it, but I do not think any of us could prepare for all of it.

At the end of March, I became a 'single' parent for the next two months, with help from Jay only on the weekends, as he started a new job that kept him closer to his parent's house. Ayden and I slowly made our way through the next two months and did rather well for ourselves. The time did not go as slowly as I thought it might.

We started packing up our lives and finalizing things for our BIG move back across the state towards our family again. We moved. We started over. Ayden made it through second grade and left all of his friends back in Stevens Point. Jay really found his niche at his new job and I started my final year of graduate school at my externship.

And then the summer flew by.

I am now 1/3 of the way through my externship already.... ALREADY! Jay is continuing to love his job and Ayden is settling in nicely at his new school.

2012 is slowly going to come to a close for us in the next few months. I know that the time is going to fly by faster than I want it to and 2013 is going to hold lots of new stuff for us!

Here is just a glimpse of some of the things I am looking forward to (and potentially looking forward to) in 2013...

First on that list is... GRADUATION! Despite the fact that the last nine years have flown by faster than I could ever have imagined them to, I cannot wait to graduate. Getting my bachelor's degree was an accomplishment in itself; however, when I graduated with that, it did not seem like quite the accomplishment that I thought it would be as I knew that that following fall I would be starting over again at the bottom of the totem pole for graduate school. This time, graduation is going to be AMAZING! It means the start of life in a new world, the working world!

After graduation comes starting my first 'real' job. Hopefully that is soon after graduation. Oh, and before graduation (hopefully) is passing the licensing test! Ugh, not looking forward to that.

It means Ayden will be done with the third grade. Holy wowsers, THIRD grade! Um, I thought third grade was old, I'm peeing my pants thinking about having a fourth grader!

It also means my baby turning 9, me turning 27, and my honey turning 28.

And... it means GETTING MARRIED! MARRIED!

2013 hopefully means Jay continuing in his current job and being happy.

And, what I hope for most next year is being in my new job, Jay settled in his current job, and finally being financially stable enough out of school to start trying for another baby. Believe you me, if I have any say in this (and I know that it is all up to His plan for myself and Jay), but if I could pray and hope for anything, it would be that both Jay and I would have stable good jobs by our wedding date and be expecting a sibling for Ayden by June 2014! ASAP after that marriage license is signed! Folks, my uterus is aching! Haha!

You have NO idea how long we've been waiting to add to our family. NO idea! Okay, maybe you do. But it sucks, more than sucks, for me to watch my cousins and Jay's cousins to have three or four babies in the time that we've had Ayden. Stupid doctoral degree taking so damn long, lol! Why did I do this to myself, haha!

I cannot wait to announce it to our families that we are expecting and to see the joy on their faces instead of the hushed whispers and the sad looks of pity. Believe you me, we could not have had any more support from both of our families when Ayden was born when we were so young, but I cannot sit here and tell you that no one in any of the families had hushed talks about us behind our backs. I'm not naive to that, I know it happened. That aside, both Jay and I know that anyone in our families would have bent over backwards to help us had we really needed it, they still would.

It is unforunate that Jay and I are not the statistic, that more young pregnant teenagers do not end up like we did, both graduating from school and in successful careers and still together. We defied the odds and the typical path that was set before us. But I've always been pretty prone to doing that. Get in my way and I am just going to push you down as I get past you. I don't do road blocks (most of the time), I find a way that is possible.

So, 2012, you've been great and I'm sure will continue to be great these next three months, but 2013, I am MORE than ready for you. More ready than anyone knows!

2013... you've been a long time coming, lets hurry up and get here already! Pretty please

Thank you!

CIAO! LOVE ME!