2014, Year in Review

2014 was quite the eventful year, starting from the very beginning. At the beginning of January, Bobby and I set out on a crazy adventure to run the Dopey Challenge in WDW. For those who don’t know what it is, here is the short version: 5k Thursday, 10k Friday, half marathon Saturday, full marathon Sunday. For full versions, scroll down towards the bottom of my runDisney page for full recaps! I’ll spoil it for you…it was super tough, but we survived!

I even felt ok (well, crazy) enough to fly to California a couple days later and run the Tinkerbell 5k and half marathon.

The day after I got home from all of my travels, I (at the prompting of a friend), took a pregnancy test, thinking it was pretty impossible, and apparently I was very wrong, because I was definitely pregnant! Turns out I had run Dopey and Tinkerbell pregnant and didn’t know. Little baby had already run some runDisney races! I announced in March….

BUT, prior to that, I traveled back to Disney with my family to run the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge in WDW, plus the 5k (5k Friday, 10k Saturday, half marathon Sunday). Sadly, I didn’t really get to enjoy this trip because I was having some serious morning sickness and suffering from the worst exhaustion I have ever experienced that I can’t even put into words. I ran the 5k with Bobby and my parents, the 10k with my mom, and stuck out the half marathon all by myself, with a very very upset stomach. I tried to make the best of it because 1.) I knew I wouldn’t be doing any runDisney races for awhile (a year it turns out!) and this was the first time doing a runDisney race by myself.

After the secret was out, I was SO relieved, it was so hard to keep to ourselves!

In April Bobby and I ran the Crescent City Classic, a super fun 10k in New Orleans. Due to terrible round ligament pain, this would be my last race during my pregnancy.

In May, we had a gender reveal party, and found out baby M was a baby girl! It was a really fun celebration with lots of friends and family.

Bobby had sadly lost his job back in February (it’s terrifying to be pregnant and have this happen, trust me! So we took a HUGE leap of faith after many disappointing job interviews, and moved back up to where we used to live in Madison, Mississippi so we would hopefully have a better shot at Bobby finding a job since we were not locals. It was a HUGE blessing when we asked some friends if we could rent their weekend home while we waited for our home in Biloxi to sell (it had been on the market over two years) and while Bobby looked for a job. We ended up having a really relaxing and fun summer together on the lake. It was great to spend some quality time together before the baby arrived.

In June, we headed to Destin, Florida for an attorney’s yearly conference to be recertified to practice law/take some classes. My parents tagged along so I wouldn’t be alone while Bobby was in classes.

July was my birthday AND baby shower all in the same weekend. Jam packed fun, friends, and family.

Also in July (it was a jam packed month!) Bobby got a job, AND we sold our house, AND bought another house, all within the span of about a week. I was stressed to the max, but also so thankful our prayers were answered and things were moving in the right direction.

In August we moved into our new home and tried to get everything unpacked before baby arrived. Apparently I did too much, because we had a pre term labor scare and I was told to sslloowww down. We still managed to get most of the house unpacked before the end of September.

On September 24th, I was induced and we met our little baby girl, Emma Kate Montgomery at 4:22 in the afternoon, weighing 8 pounds 7 ounces.

Everything since then has kind of been a blur, HA! Lots of sleeping, rocking, bouncing, and feeding has taken up my time since then. At the end of October Emma turned one month old. How can a month go by so fast but yet SO SLOW at the same time?

November brought Thanksgiving, cooler weather, and a calmer baby.

December came quickly, and it was Christmas decorating, smiles from Emma Kate, and making Christmas plans.

We also said goodbye to my first baby girl Sassy this month. She had a happy 13 years, but I still miss her every day.

Looking back, I can’t believe all of those happened in the short span of a year. At the same time, Running Dopey back in January seems so long ago. We had some of the best times of our lives in 2014, but also some of the most difficult times. It’s fun to look back over a year, let out a huge deep breathe, and say “we made it, whew!” But…now we start all over again. It’s refreshing, but at the same time scary. I’m still working on how I want to “handle” 2015, so more on that after Christmas as I’m still trying to process 2014. I do have some big things I want to accomplish, and not that I have a child it does change the way I look at and approach the year.

Thank you for spending 2014 with me, one of my goals is to get back to blogging more times per week. I hope you take some time to reflect on 2014, the good and the bad. Looking at the not so fun things can be difficult, but if we use them as an opportunity for growth, then we can make those tough times worth something.

QOTD: What is your favorite thing you did in 2014?