Thank You, 2010

For you readers that have been around for a while, (and I thank you!) you’ll know I do one of these every year. I wasn’t going to do one this year, but not because I was worried about it, or because the year was hard, but because it has been so amazing that I almost don’t want to let it go! These last fews years I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been, and each year just seems to be getting better. But if that’s the case, then what does that say about next year for me? I have really high hopes for the coming year, the growth it will bring me, the memories, and the moments with my husband, family and friends.

January

   
I celebrate my birthday with a wonderful celebration. My sister drives up from Michigan bringing the two cats, our friends Bronwyn & Brendan visit, and Jess (Tom’s sister) and her husband Ed are there. It is a fantastic little gathering together with pie, video games, and card games. My sister stays for two weeks! By the end of January I was well into the hardest part of my 365 project titled Goodbye Miss, Hello Mrs. My hair is it’s natural color for the first time in years and has been since the previous October.

February

   
I spend an exorbitant amount of time playing Mass Effect 2, which may or may not be one of my favorite RPGs of all time. (As a Final Fantasy buff, I think that’s saying a lot.) Tom and I celebrate Valentine’s Day, Morn goes on a diet, and Tom and I start to re-focus on our Japanese study. I start drinking red tea and dye my hair back to red!

March

   
My visa arrives in the mail and two days later we drive to Niagara Falls so I can re-cross the border and officially become a permanent resident, aka, a landed Canadian Immigrant. Tom and I begin a new tradition of collecting unique refrigerator magnets for each new place we visit together.

April

   
After watching a video about the effects of dairy on the body, I began to research the diet in relation to human health. I get sucked into the joy of The Sims, Tom and I visit our favorite waterfall parks, and I begin to paint (watercolor) again. Tom finishes his first novel and we begin to send it out to publishers and agents.

May

   
My is home to my dear friend Bronwyn’s birthday, and we decide to celebrate by having cake, dinner, and a joint upgrade party. (She upgrades to the Nikon D90 and I upgrade to the Canon 7D!!) Tom and I join the local community center and begin swimming. We also pick out Tom’s wedding band.

June

   
We begin June by helping Tom’s mom host a garage sale and end up finding some fantastic things for ourselves, too. My sister visits again, bringing with her our good friend Will, and they stay for four days! We play D&D, enjoy good food, and of course there’s always video games. Getty Images contacts me about a few pictures they want to buy, and we mail out our wedding invitations.

July

   
I am running at least a mile a day now, and we have a fantastic vegetarian BBQ at Tom’s mom’s house. We visit Bronwyn and stay the night at her farm and once again there is good food, video games, and lots of photographs.

August

   
Tom’s birthday is on August 1st! We are invited over to his mum’s for dinner and pie and gladly accept. We pick out our first set of real china. With the support of Tom, I finally get brave and order my first batch of business cards and officially launch my store. I sell a large batch of prints on my first day! Morn finishes his diet.

September

   
I try a dairy and animal protein free diet for the month of September, we go to the annual Vegetarian Food Fair, and cook a dinner to bring to Tom’s mum’s house for a birthday dinner. We spend most of September making last minute preparations for the wedding ceremony in October.

October

   
Our wedding is fantastic. Tom’s family falls in love with Traverse City, everyone has a great time, and I’ve since received so many compliments about both the city and the wedding itself. We visit Ireland for two and a half weeks as our honeymoon and it is a dream come true. I see Yann Tiersen in concert, a real Irish castle, and wild sheep and horses. We arrive back in Canada to see my sister (who has been house sitting for us) and spend a few days with her before she heads back to Michigan. We carve pumpkins and do a last minute dress up for Halloween.

November

   
I am photo-ed out for November. I get sick the moment we get back and barely move for the rest of the month I am so tuckered out. Tom and I celebrate the American Thanksgiving making our own vegan meals and create a few new pumpkin themed recipes from scratch. We also replace our old bedding (that we bought together in 2008) with a beautiful red bedding set we love. I reach my goal of running 2 miles in 15 minutes.

December

   
Concluding our research on health and diet, Tom and I decide to remove dairy, animal protein, and processed sugar permanently from our diets. We buy our very first Christmas decorations, put up our first tree, and visit my family in Frankenmuth for a little Christmas celebration. Christmas morning is spent just the two of us, spoiling each other and our cats, and then we have breakfast with Tom’s mom and husband (she made us dairy-free waffles) and then dinner at Tom’s dad’s while bringing a delicious and savory homemade dish that Tom’s mom made for us. Also, sometime in the year I’ve fallen in love with tea. I have a cup or three a day.

Goals for 2011

Make at least one new healthy recipe once a week.
Take at least one photo a day.
Read 52 books by the end of the year.
Prepare to run a marathon.
Write a book.
Take a vacation to somewhere new.
Learn 2000 kanji in my Japanese study.
Stay joyously happy, grateful for every moment, and unabashedly in love.

I wish you all a year full of joy, love, kindness, good food, cats, and PHOTOGRAPHY!

Happy New Year!

Both January photos and second July photo by Bronwyn.
First October photo by Dani.