Every year my husband writes a letter for our Christmas cards and I
design the cards. I absolutely love reading about our year from his
perspective. While I've edited this letter a bit, the bulk of the
letter is still intact. Enjoy our 2013 recap.
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**It was written in November 2013.
Hello Family & Friends!
It’s been another crazy year for us. I’m not sure where 2013 went, but in looking
back it seems to have flown by. Our
little family continues to be blessed with knowing all of you, our steady jobs,
good health, and quite a bit of fun.
Sarah has certainly had a busy year. She still works as a financial analyst for
the same coffee roasting company, and her job has grown in scope and
importance. Knowing how hard she works makes her list of extracurricular activities
even more impressive. She continues to
dance competitively, and won her division in both the spring and fall Arthur
Murray invitationals up in Washington DC.
I got to join her to watch one evening of the fall event, and boy is
that an intimidating environment. Hard
bodies, skimpy clothes, judges with piercing looks, constant changing and
dancing. I could never do it, but Sarah
thrives on it. She’s still dancing
between one and three nights a week and I join her once in a while. We’ve made great friends at the Arthur Murray
studio. Sarah’s big summer
accomplishment was training for and completing her first half marathon! She ran the Rock n’ Roll half in Virginia
Beach and survived mostly unscathed, with just some IT band pain that took a
few weeks to heal. Her friend from college came down and ran with her and they had a great time. Sarah’s also tutoring occasionally, and for
the last several weeks has spent one night a week working with a 9-year-old
girl and 13-year-old boy. She was
recommended for and recently accepted a job teaching the math portion of the
evening GMAT prep course at Old Dominion University, which will start in
February. On top of all this, in her
“spare” time, Sarah’s become a professional-quality photographer. She created
Turnaround Photography and is in
the process of gathering a client base and getting the word out. We just heard that she’ll be taking photos
for one of our favorite local bands! Most
evenings are spent editing photos with the puppy curled up on her lap.
My (husband -Ryan, author of this letter) year started with my back pain intensifying, and
once my MRI finally got in front of a neurosurgeon, they made the decision to
operate immediately. My bulging L5 disc
was “molesting” my S1 (sciatic nerve) according to the doc, and I had a micro
discectomy in early February. Recovering
from back surgery was no treat, and was probably hardest on Sarah because I was
pretty useless for a few weeks. Still, I
eventually recovered and thankfully have none of the sharp pain that I had
before. I still experience some general
lower back soreness, but that has subsided over the year with exercise and
stretching. I was back to golfing six
weeks after surgery and started working hard to get back to where I left
off. I had a very up and down tournament
season. On the good side I qualified for
the Virginia Tournament of Champions and won my club championship by a
landslide. I also had my best ever
“major” tournament finish, in the Virginia Public Links Championship at Golden
Horseshoe Club up in Williamsburg, where I qualified for match play and then
won all of my matches before losing 1-down on the 18th green in the
semifinal match. I sort of slumped after
that though, and finished middle of the pack in the Virginia Mid-Amateur and
missed the cut in the Middle Atlantic Amateur.
Still, it was a good year considering the surgery and trying to finish
school. On that note, I finished my MBA
from Penn State University in August – a culmination of two long years of
constant work. I spent a week up in
State College doing my final residency and capstone project and had a
blast. When I’m not golfing I enjoy
cooking, walking the puppy, and date nights with Sarah. I serve as the tournament director and
secretary of my golf club’s men’s association, so I’m constantly dealing with
issues that come up at the course.
Jared, or J-man as he is usually called, has
definitely exited boyhood and is firmly into the preteen years (he’ll be 12 in
March). He began the year as a 5th
grader and continued to do well, making honor roll every term, and “graduating”
from elementary school in June. He
played baseball this spring in the pony league and had a much better experience than last year. He’s now playing with 12-year-olds, some as
tall as me, so it was kind of funny watching little J-man run around with
them. He did well though, and started
most games at 2nd base. While
hitting didn’t go so well, we learned that the kid is an awesome bunter and
with his speed he found the base a good percentage of the time. The sad news with J-man is that we had to
give him up to his mother for the next school year, part of a pre-arranged
agreement we had, and he moved with her to Southeastern Iowa in late July. It’s been a strange transition, especially
when we’ve been used to having kids run through the house for two years. More alone time and more golf/dance time, but
I can tell you we prefer to have the kids and the mess. Sarah and I took a road trip out to visit him
in October (WAY cheaper than flying, and I have trucker blood after all), and put nearly
2,600 miles on a rental car in five days.
We got to play Jared’s golf course, explored Iowa City (home of the University
of Iowa), spent time at the Amana Colonies (a former religious colony turned
touristy area), and just enjoyed being together. He lives in a very small town, less than
2,000 people, and he can ride his bike through town safely to his joint middle/high
school. He’s enjoying the 6th
grade, and he’s doing better than we expected.
I can see that kind of rural life being good for him for a while. When he comes back depends on my
schedule and on when we start producing more mini-Nolan’s. The separation has been made easier by the wonders
of technology. We have nightly Skype
calls, and he can email and text now, so I’m far more comfortable than with
previous separations. Sometimes “Dad
eyes” or “Sarah eyes” go a long ways.
By far the most loved and most spoiled member of
the family is little Lira. Even though
she’s five years old she’s still “the puppy”, and if you haven’t met her, it’s
hard to describe her goofy personality.
I’ve had some spoiled dogs growing up but this little one takes the
cake. She shares our eggs in the morning,
peanut butter when I make my sandwich, and darn near eats at the table with
us. She likes to prowl the house at
night but usually scratches the side of the bed until I pick her up and put her
between us, usually around 4am. She
lives for her afternoon walks, sleeping in with Sarah on the weekends, and of
course food! We love that crazy puppy.
Next year will likely be one of major
transition. Most importantly new
mini-Nolan’s are on the horizon. None
baking in the oven yet, but we’re reviewing the recipe, if you will. Uncertainty
has pretty much become the norm for us, so we’re just trying to have fun in the
meantime. We have lots of plans for 2014
that we’ll try to squeeze in among the madness.
Those include a West
Coast trip for my annual golf tournament with dad, the family
reunion in Iowa, and several visits up to visit Sarah’s
family. As I write this, Sarah and I are four
days away from jumping on a plane to Dunn’s River, Jamaica near Montego
Bay. This is our first vacation alone
together since our honeymoon and we’re excited to soak up the sun and the
fruity drinks (and catch up on sleep).
We wish you and your families a safe and happy
holiday season. May 2014 be a great year
for you all.
