Happy New Year!

This year has been a very very full year. A lot of traumatic events took place. Here is the year in review for the Kelly's: 2010.

January: We moved out of the mother-in-law unit we lived in with the Evil Landlord, and into our wonderful, tiny, state-of-the-art apartment in downtown Seattle. It has been so wonderful living here. We love being right in the middle of the city, and being able to walk to the waterfront, Pike Place Market, Westlake Center, the Space Needle, and lower Queen Anne. We are smack in the middle of "happy hour land" and have taken advantage of that as much as we could, which hasn't been as much as we've wanted due to our low budget. But overall, living downtown has been nothing but a really fun, really great experience for us.

February: Nothing really special to report here. It was cold, and I worked a lot. Oh, but I was enrolled in college for the first time ever, which was super fun. I love being in school. I never thought I was college material, because I always thought I was actually kind of dumb and wouldn't be able to catch up. Turns out I'm smarter than I thought I was, and school just sort of comes naturally and easily to me. John also enrolled in some post-BA classes last winter, and he also did great in his classes. But as I'm just getting started with school and he's been in it pretty much his whole life, I think he's not as excited about it as I am.

March: I don't remember much of March, except that we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown, which was fun, because it was only a few blocks away. It's a really fun parade, and pretty similar to the Day After Thanksgiving Day parade, only way less crowded.

April: In April we went to Las Vegas! It was a blast. I got to meet some of John's relatives that I hadn't met before. John's dad tried to teach me how to play Black Jack, and I promptly succeeded in losing about $250 of his own money in the span of about 3 minutes. I was appalled and ashamed and when I told him "I'm so sorry-that's more money than I make in a whole week of work!" he just scoffed at me like it's no big deal. John had a great time in Vegas, too. We met up with several of our friends who live there, ate a ton of food (also I was very proud of myself for not even gaining a pound the whole time-I think it was from all the walking we did), saw a magic show, and of course we watched the fountains at Bellagio a LOT. We are both very, very glad that we made sure to spend extra time with John's dad. At the time, we didn't know that he would be passing away very soon after this, and looking back, we are so glad that we had that time with him.

May: Ah, May. This was a horrible month. There was a bit of an episode with my sister Bonnie, and we kept her at our house for a few days because she was feeling depressed and suicidal. We were about to take her to the hospital on a Wednesday, so that they could evaluate her and figure out what should be done. We were literally on our way out the door, when John got a phone call from his sister, saying that their dad had died. This was probably one of the worst days of my life that I can remember. Anyway, it was amazing how the family just banded together in the midst of such a horrible blow. I am amazed at how the 5 of them (John is the youngest of 5 kids) really didn't grow up together, but they are still such a tight-knit family. They all take care of each other, and their mom, and truly love one another, despite being so hither and thither when they were growing up. Or maybe because of it.

June: In June we had the memorial services for John's dad, and the whole family came out. I think all the aunts and uncles but one were able to make it out here. June was difficult for us, for a few reasons. Losing his father was a very, very difficult thing for John. Also, at the same time as all of this was happening, my eyes decided to get waaaayyy worse. Most of you know I have a very rare condition in my eyes, which causes me to have blind spots. If I don't get treatment for it when I have a flare up, I could lose my vision completely. Well, in the middle of all of the grief for John's dad, I got a flare up. I didn't want to stress John out even more, so I didn't say anything for a few weeks. But then it got so bad that it was nearly taking over my focal point. Up until this month, my left eye was still spot free. Now all of the sudden, I'm not able to drive or anything. Since June I've had 6 or 7 injections in my left eye, and a laser treatment. I have a very difficult time reading, and I can't see well at all in dim light, and I can't drive at night. This has also been a hindrance for us because we were planning on starting to try to get pregnant last summer. However, because of the nature of the treatments I have to get, doctors strongly suggest making sure your eyes are stable for at least 6 months before you try to conceive. This was devastating to me, because I really really want a baby. Now we have to wait for a really long time, because my eyes haven't been consistently stable for quite some time, and there is a possibility that they wont be, which means there is a possibility that we wont be able to have kids at all.

July: We celebrated two years of being blissfully married in July. :D We stayed overnight at a hotel in north Seattle. Basically, we woke up in our apartment in the morning, packed a quick bag, checked into the hotel, and went back to bed. We were super excited about the TV in the room, and watched cartoons. Yeah, we're dorks.

August: John and I both have birthdays in August. He turned 29 on the 9th, and we had some family over. But this year was my 30th. I so much dreaded turning 30. I really wish John could have gone before me. We spent the day at Wild Waves. It was awesome! Then the following weekend, John invited a bunch of people over and made lovely fancy fondue, and we went bowling. It was great. But I still hate the fact that I'm 30. Also this month, my good friend's mother lost her battle with cancer. It was horribly sad, and I think about her almost every day. But the same friend had a baby shortly after, which was very happy.

September: We went to a cabin on Hood Canal for a weekend in September. It belongs to the foster parents that John lived with for a substantial amount of his childhood. It was wonderful to get away. We took the ferry, which was really fun. Also in September, my boss suddenly quit. It's been weird at work since then, because everyone's schedules are weird. This really nice lady who is the head of the board is taking over the director role until we find a new director, and she's doing a great job, but it will be nice when we get someone steady in there.

October: Not much happened in October. Halloween, I guess. I'm kind of drawing a blank.

November: We had a great snowstorm just before Thanksgiving. Also, Bonnie moved in with us. We're helping her get her life together, and she's doing great. I think she just needed the resources, motivation and support. The apartment is a bit crowded, and I know she's getting tired of not having personal space. Which I totally understand, because I had to live on Dad and Heidi's couch for a while when I was not much older than her. But hopefully she will be getting her own place here soon. It's actually kind of nice having her live with us, because she keeps the place clean. Between John's ADD and my work/school schedule, plus our just general laziness, it's nice to have "Cinder-Bonnie" around the house. :D No but really, she is doing fantastic, and she's finally learning how to cope with difficult things. Sometimes she wants to revert to her old ways of doing things, but we just don't let her. Then she calms down, and realizes what the right thing to do is. She is growing up, and she's got a good head on her shoulders. She just needed a bit of the right kind of support.

December: Well, I got super duper sick for like a week and a half before Christmas, and I thought I was going to die. Fortunately it was just a really bad cold, and I didn't have to miss Christmas. Although I did miss the baking with Grandma, the Christmas caroling, the shopping, and general Christmas merriment, because I was busy being sick and feverish with the worst sore throat ever. However, I managed to do some shopping on Christmas Eve morning, and Christmas Eve with my family was really really nice. It was a lot mellower than usual. I'm not sure what was different, but I liked it a lot. Christmas Day morning at my mom's house was a bit strange because Mom and Bonnie still aren't talking. But we managed to get through it. We had dinner with the Kelly side that night, which was nice as usual, but still kind of sad because it was the first Christmas without their dad. BUT two days after Christmas, my little nephew was born, and that was a joyful occasion. Also, John started Graduate School this month, in his psychology program. He's doing great so far.


All in all, there were great things that happened this year (sooo many babies. Way more babies than I wrote about. I think I only mentioned 2 of them, but there were more babies born this year to several of my friends). There were also some really devastating things this year. It has been a very eventful year.

I hope that 2011 is a year of joy, peace, and love, because we really need some more of that in our lives. I also hope for those things for all of my friends and loved ones. Here's to a great new year for us all!