10 years, 10 pictures

Happy New Year! And welcome to the private side of the island. Thanks for joining us in our adventures in the next decade.

I hope you had a great new years! We celebrated by...what else? Going to bed. That's a celebration in and of itself these days. Colin celebrated by sleeping almost 12 hours straight. It was the first time he's done that. He went to bed a little before 7:30, woke up hungry at 3:00, and went back to sleep until 7:10. Awesomesauce. I could get used to this. What was different this time? No background noises in his room. I forgot to turn on his heartbeat noise and the iPod playing lullabies.

For funsies, I put together a trip down memory lane. The last 10 years shown in pictures. It was tricky, but here's the result.

We'll start off this look back with a picture from when I was 19 years old. I was a freshman in college. Here is my family as I defined it then. I was finding my place in the world of friends. I felt stuck between being loyal to high school friends and branching out to find new college friends.
When I was 2o, I was a sophomore in college. I definitely hit the sophomore slump. I wasn't interested in my generals classes, and my grades slipped a little. I made it through, though, and the next year I was interested in my classes again. Here are some of my college friends. We all lived on the same dorm floor. We are at one of our favorite eateries in Eau Claire, Acoustic Cafe. This place introduced me to drinking steamers.
21. That magical age. I had been long distance "dating" a loser I never saw and dumped him. I was so upset, but a few weeks after, I went camping and concert-watching at Country Fest with a group of friends, and we met a group of boys. The group (only half of which is shown here) included my husband who is wearing sunglasses and sitting to my right. He was shrouded in mystery, that boy. I was intrigued by his quietness. Good thing I dumped that loser. I looked him up on facebook, and I was not impressed.
When I was 22, I lived with 5 of the funnest girls EVAH in a house during our senior year. As you can see, we were a hoot to be around. By this time, I was comfortable with my friend niches--both the college one and the high school one. I was still dating Kevin, but long distance. We mostly saw each other on weekends, but things were good.
At 23, after 5 years plus 1 summer of school, I graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Elementary/Middle Level Education and moved to an apartment in small town Wisconsin to live with Kevin. I started subbing in various school districts and worked at the YMCA teaching sports, tumbling, and arts and crafts.When we were 24, we loved seeing each other every day of the week, and not just on the weekends like we were doing before. I was still subbing, working at the Y, and added preschool teacher to my box of hats. Then I landed a 10 week long-term sub job in first grade in the school district I currently work in. We got engaged in April.And then we got married. I was 25. Picture courtesy of the amazing Betsy Cole Photography. We also bought our house around the time we got married. I was still subbing. In the winter, I again long-term subbed in the same school district. This time in 2nd grade, and this time for an entire semester. I quit my job at the YMCA and started teaching piano lessons on the side. At age 26, shortly after getting married, we thought we'd try out parenthood on a non-human. Thus, the Rocket experiment. We think he's turned out pretty well. He's a good poochie pie. If Colin is anything like him, we'll be set.When we were 27, we splurged on a vacation to Jamaica. Read the recap here. We had an amazing time, and it was so great to be able to go on vacation one last time before starting a family. I was teaching 1st grade again, but only under a one-year contract.
When I was 28, I was teaching 4th grade and I was counting down the days until we could meet Colin. This picture is from my baby shower when I was 36 weeks pregnant, and features my closest friends.
And now, at 29 (technically I'm 28 in this picture, but it was taken just recently as you can see from the existence of a Christmas tree in the background) our little family is complete for now. It's amazing how one little life can change your own. All four of us struggle at times with lack of sleep and the resulting moodiness that comes from it, but we're here and we're family. We are so lucky to have each other.
And my extended family unit as I define it today.
The last 10 years have been a whirlwind. I wonder what the next 10 will hold. Colin will be in 4th grade. 4th grade! Oy.