2022 Recap...

2022 has been quite a year.  I think I can safely say this is one of the most emotionally roller coasters of a year I've ever had in my damn life.  It was a year of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  It's been nuts to say the least.  

Our world is still in a very weird place.  COVID is still here, but it's being fought now a lot better.  Pretty much every one of us has had it at this point.  Ourselves included - Happy Thanksgiving to us - Pat & I got COVID.  So that was def NOT fun. But my mom did drop off a care package from dinner on our doorstep so we did at least get to eat Thanksgiving food.  There's a zillion other bugs going around and a lot of people are getting sick because we're not holed up anymore and everyone is out and about.  But - guess it's getting our immune systems back up and running.  But it's been a rough go for a lot of people for sure.

Russian invaded the Ukraine so that's been an absolutely awful war we've been watching all year.  Crypto crashed, which made Pat not a happy camper - but he's smart and got out in time.  The whole Roe vs Wade mess.  Queen Elizabeth passed away.  Trump seems less in the news as before, but Elon Musk seems to have replaced him.  Blergh.  So no - not a great year news wise.

In our own lives it's been like I said - a roller coaster.  I'm of course not going to go into all the awful details of what we've been going through but let's just say all year, we've been dealing with a very difficult, very painful, very depressing situation and it's still going.  Please send us good vibes and good juju that we can get through this and those can get the help they need.  On the other end of things though - we got married, we bought a home, I got a promotion at work, we got a pup.  So yeah - been crazy.  I'm really glad I have a good therapist!  

2023 I'm truly hoping will bring some much needed peace to our home and to our country.  I am truly grateful for my partner in life, for my family, for my friends, for our fur babies, for my job, for our home.  I look forward to working on myself more this year and continue to find the joy.

So here we go - 2022 - a recap...

January brought me a beautiful new baby - Luna.  Seriously this sweet baby girl has brought me so much joy and love and has been the very best!  We got her from a Foster gal who rescued her and her mom & siblings.  About 8months when we brought her home.  She's just purrrrrrr-fect!

Luna

Of course we started of the year geocaching

Geocaching with Seymore

 February sadly took our sweet old man Seymore.  Pat gave him such a wonderful full life.  The little man was 16 and brought us all so much joy.  I'm hoping he's playing with all of our lost fur babies across rainbow bridge.

Feb also brought our last "Date" Anniversary.  We went out to a lovely steak dinner at Ruth's Cris Restaurant  Yummy!

Did some Valentine's Day cooking.

Sweet lil cookies

 Had a yummy sushi dinner for my birthday.

Tried a new place in Yorba Linda!

March brought one of my favorite adventure group outings - The Pirate Tower!  Been wanting to check that out for a long time.  Here's the link to all the photos!

Lots of geocaching of course - one of my faves was with these girls

Converting new cachers

April gave us mom's wonderful 70th Tea Party.  It was such a beautiful celebration for a beautiful lady!  

Happy Birthday Mama!

Anytime I get down to San Clemente is a highlight.

So pretty and relaxing always!

Pat & I took a sushi making class!  So fun!

We did good!

Mom always throws the best Easter parties and it was so nice to be back to it this year!

The Easter Crew

Went and saw a killer Banksy exhibit for Pat's b-day.

D threw me the cutest Bridal Brunch!

Now May is probably the biggest coolest thing that happened all year - We got married!!!!  You can see the blog post about it here.  It was truly a lovely perfect day!

I love you Patrick Avery

Later that month had a wonderful trip to the Lavender Festival.  Something else I've always wanted to check out!  You can see all the pics here.

 June brought our "Mini-Moon".  Too much going on to really get away for too long, so we headed up to one of our favorite spots in Paso Robles and had a wonderful few days away.  You can read the deets here.

We married!

 June, July and August was filled with enjoying our pool while we had it, many fun adventures out with friends, the OC Fair, Dead & Company, and just trying to enjoy the summer.  But what we did ended up getting and what ended up taking ALOT of our time - was this guy

Lil Poe

Who now looks like this:

6 month old Poe still getting bigger every day

And is still growing.  Needless to say - rescuing a puppy was like having an infant. So he was basically most of our summer.  LOL

August did get me back on stage for a staged play reading that was really great.  Felt so awesome to be up onstage again and brought to life some wonderful pieces!

It was an honor working with these ladies!

September and October turned into move time - because the other big news of the year is we bought a condo!

Homeowners!

 

Honestly from getting Poe in July through November was a damn whirlwind.  It's been a long time since I've had that much going on.  Moving/buying a home, dealing with a puppy, having a hysteroscopy (that wasn't fun), dealing with the ongoing drama I mentioned earlier, my promotion - which kicked in basically in August and with it came ALOT of work and stress and hiring a person - so yeah - literally a whirlwind.  We finally were able to come up for air a bit in Nov - but then got hit with COVID and took a few weeks to recover from that.  But the holidays arrived and we finally were able to actually breathe a bit - and even decorated!  Oh and another thing that showed up in Nov - was our precious little Grand Nephew Omari!!

Can you even?!?!?

The holidays were wonderful. I really felt like we got to enjoy them this year for the 1st time in a few years!

Mom and I at Knotts Merry Farm!

New Years Pat & I spent a quiet night in - but not without a little excitement.  We decided it would be fun to have lobster.  Pat has made it before and was excited to try to make it again.  The place he goes to usually steams them for you.  But this year it was too busy so Pat had to do it himself.  Now...we thought the lobster were dead.  They were supposed to be.  I was already a bit freaked out by the whole process because as much of a foodie as I am, I don't like to see the creature I'm going to eat in it's full form.  Well...Pat turns to me at one point with a strange look on his face and says "Um...one is still kind of alive"  Oh my dear god.  Out of the house into the rain I ran until it was safe to come back.  I'll never forget this New Years Eve!

He was so proud!

Damn delicious!

We made it to the East Coast New Year!

New Years Eve Day and New Years Day I got some geocaching in too!  I've always wanted to get both the souvenirs you can get but have only been able to get one of the two in prior years.  Well I got them both this year!  (The NYE one was a wet one..)

I also read somewhere that if you make a ring shaped cake for New Year's it brings you good luck!  I even put the coin in there!  My very 1st bunt cake turned out so good!!!

Dropping in the lucky coin

Lemon Glazed Bunt

So here we are - 2023 has begun and we begun it on a very good note!  Let's hope it continues that way!  The start of a New Year is always a great time to look ahead and jump into the new year with fresh hopes and dreams!  Wishing you all only the best in the upcoming 2023!  Love to you all!