Farewell, 2015

Not one to make resolutions, a year ago, I stated that my only goal for the upcoming twelve months was simply to survive.  I had been fighting off one illness after another at the end of the year and that, coupled with typical work/life balance was creating an emotional and sometimes physical battle within me.  I remember one morning feeling so tired and ill that I was sobbing as I readied for work.  Rich told me that I should just stay home.  But I couldn't.  My remaining days off had all been scheduled.  A lot of that survival revolved around my work situation.  Three above me, including my boss, had left my employer the year before and while that greatly reduced my stress (because there was some serious crazy going on), I knew that it was only a matter of time before a new boss would be ushered in and who knew what that would bring.

The first half of the year seemed to stretch forever and ever.  I knew I needed to make it to 12/31/2015 for vesting reasons and Rich and I also had some financial goals for the year that we were working on.  After this summer, the year just flew by.  We've met our goals and all is good.

So let's look back on the year.

In January, we had some snow.



And then there was a blizzard.



And then it never stopped snowing.







My commuting situation became a nightmare as the trains and subways shut down many, many times.  The train that I usually take in the morning was canceled until further notice which meant that hundreds of commuters had to cram onto other trains.  This lasted for months and created huge headaches along with extending my normal commute time of an over an hour each way.

We said goodbye to many baby teeth.









A few months ago, Allie, who had to have a front baby tooth extracted, had her first orthodontist visit.  It turns out, as suspected, she has basic crowding.  In other words, her mouth is too small for all of her teeth.  Also, as the adult teeth are coming in, the roots of the baby teeth aren't dissolving as necessary to fall out.  She needs to have baby teeth pulled to make room for adult teeth and eventually will have braces to straighten out her teeth.

The girls received their first holy communion in May.



Then wrapped up another year of gymnastics.



Danced through another recital.





And became third graders.





In July, we headed up to North Conway, NH for what has been an annual vacation for us.







The next month, we drove out to Michigan to visit family.



On the way home, we spent a night at Niagara Falls, which was a first for the girls.



This summer, we took advantage of the short drive to the Cape with many beach visits.









This was our first full summer with a pool.  Allie and Emily developed into stronger swimmers, able to dive for pool toys.  Anna finally stretched beyond her comfort zone with some unassisted doggy-paddling.  She'll get there when she's ready.



When I look back or think forward, what's most important falls into perspective.  We're all here and we're all healthy.  While at first glance I may say that 2015 was an okay year, it was actually a good year.