2014 Year in Review

I’ve been writing my Year in Review since 2005. You can read past year’s reviews here.

2014 in a nutshell: We got married. Or we moved.

2014 saw some of the biggest changes we’ve experienced in life. Josh and I got married. A couple months later we moved out of the house the kids and I had lived in since 2001. Moving was (hopefully) one of the last big consequences of the divorce. I stopped running the free clinic for the church due to budget cutbacks and our community really changed. 2014 felt like for everything I gained, I lost something equally as valuable.

I’m going into the new year living life a little slower than I have for the past several years. I’m shifting my extra time towards Tangle and really focusing on taking care of myself and my new little family. I’m finding myself more content with what I have, learning to sit with loneliness and not run from all of the feelings that come and then go. I spent some time in therapy this year, working through all the “leftovers” that have come up now that I’m safe enough to deal with them. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I do the best when I let my heart be broken for the world around me and focus on all the good I have. Thankfulness and hope are the “drugs” that get me through. I’ve also learned that the value other people communicate to me does not have to speak louder than the value I find in myself. It’s been a season of boundaries and pendulum swings that are settling me right in the middle of where I need to be. I’m learning to trust myself when all I’ve ever been told is that I can’t and shouldn’t. It’s been work, but it’s been worth it. It’ll keep being worth it.

Travel
•Josh traveled quite a bit for work doing tech support for some new technology (iBeacons) he implemented for one of his conference apps.
•We took a few trips to Denver to soak up the city and shop for wedding clothes.
•We honeymooned in Denver, San Fransisco and San Diego. It was relaxing and perfect.
•We got to hang out on the Green River for the 2nd annual Riverpalooza.
•Had our second annual family reunion at my grandma’s place in Wyoming.
•Went up to the mountains to celebrate my cousin’s wedding just a few weeks after ours.
•I rafted/camped with all the boys over Labor Day Weekend.

Eden
•Lost both of her pet rats to sickness. They’re buried in the backyard of our old house next to her pet snake, Lightning.
Wrote a beautiful and heartbreaking poem about her family.
•Turned 12. We celebrated with a plethora of giggly girls (not) sleeping in the living room.
Grew taller than Carrie.
•Was awarded the Directors Award for all of 6th grade choir.
•Graduated 6th grade and started 7th.
•Dyed her hair hot pink.
•Sang her first solo.
•Learned how to play the guitar.
•Dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween.

Honor
•Graduated 4th grade and started 5th.
•Had a seriously hard time with moving out of the only house he’s ever known.
•Turned 11 and celebrated with his buddies in our new family room.
•Became a pescatarian.
•Dressed up as a ninja for Halloween.
•Competed in his first Lego League competition.

Me
•Through my new little company, Kindred Creative, I got to design the menus, including a custom font, for my favorite restaurant, Bin 707. I also got to design several wedding invites/suites, logos, postcards and other business marketing materials. So much fun.
•Got to tell my redemption story at church with this video.
•Started working on my personal manifesto.
•Spent most of the year sick with sinus infections. I think my body was finally done with the extreme stress and fast pace I was living at.
•Talked about vulnerability on Carrie’s podcast, Honestly, Dear Listener.
•Started running Downtown Coffee for the church after we got back from our honeymoon. We’re open just on Sunday mornings. It’s so fun being a barista.
•Spent some time with Elliott when his mama was super sick with her second pregnancy. Got him to say my name.
•Turned 33.
•Dressed up as a vampire for Halloween.
•Had fun with the girls at the 2nd Flower Potluck.

Josh
•Developed some really cool apps. One for Oprah, one that tracks the People in Space and one that allows you to email reminders to yourself to name a few.
•Spoke at The West Leadership Conference.
•Designed and developed the new website for Downtown Grand Junction. It was a fun collaboration with me because I’m on the marketing committee for Downtown GJ.
•Became a parent to two kids in one fell swoop.
•Turned 33.
Shaved his beard for his Halloween costume. It took me two weeks to recognize him.
•Built a heated dog house for the dog and cat to share.

We
•Got engaged.
•Established a family tradition: Sunday Morning Breakfast
•Also established “family dinner” with Seth and Carrie on Thursday nights.
•Designed some killer invites for our wedding.
•Got married on a perfect June day with all of the people we love surrounding us. There was great food and drinks and candles and balloons and twinkle lights and flowers in my hair.
•Packed up our little, yellow house and moved a mile away to my favorite Main Street. Now we live on the same street as Tangle, just 10 blocks away.
•Celebrated our Pumpkin Carving Party –  abbreviated this year with just a few friendies.
•Hosted THE Christmas Party, giving Amy a break. Our new house was perfect for celebrating.
•Celebrated real hard when our terrible neighbors moved out. They were the only downfall to our new house.

Tangle
•Got some cute, new shirts. (designed by me!)
•Took out our first loan and expanded our fabric.
•Got a new sign.
•Hosted our first pop-up shop with 3 Leaf Floral.
•Installed our temporary knitted art installation, Knit on the Corner. Then had it all destroyed by a “prominent” member of our community. Really.
•Turned 8.
•Got an Instagram.
•Started advertising on bus benches.

wedding
wedding

Our Year in Instagram:

Some of my favorite tweets from 2014:
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Category: year in review One comment »

One Response to “2014 Year in Review”

  1. Debbie Hudnall

    I invested the past couple of hours to reading about everything, going down every trail, listening to every video, and recording, looking at pictures, reading comments, intagramns, texts, well just everything I could find. I smiled, cried, teared up, had hope, had gratitude, loved, felt anger and frustration at people’s heart aches. I felt sad because I am not seeing all of this life -in person. I am missing my son, and wanting to know all of you so much better. This page is so well put together and is completely easy to navagate with just a touch onto any subject, I don’t know how you guys got anything else done. I love this “redemption story” because you see, it goes two ways. My son, and he is a wonderful son, needed a “redemption story” too. He had experienced Several huge losses as well. His parents divorced, huge! He divorced! I often wonder if any of us *will ever know* the depths and degrees of betrayal and hurt he experienced. He kept it inside. Then the loss of both of his grandparents that just knew “he had hung the moon”, and their deaths were shortly after I had just moved over a thousand miles away. One week after I left for Texas, my mother died suddenly. Within a matter of weeks everything was so different. Now most of his family was gone and and he was pretty much alone through it all.
    Had I known he was divorcing and what was giung on, I may not have moved out of CS, and most certainly *not at that time*. It seems that rather than affect my decisions, he didnt tell me until we were in Amarillo, Tx….which was about half way there. I had two cars that i was taking with me to Texas, so I was driving in one, and he was in the other one, unbeknownst to me, he was *just* divorced, and no doubt, was hurting and broken hearted.
    Had I known though and ANY part had lined up differently, Josh may have never gone to Grand Junction, so second guessing on my part is just that..guessing ;)
    I had NO idea that Josh was an introvert! It has came out in a few discussions this year and now it makes better sense WHY he didn’t say a word! He was always so present in every event, that it never dawned on me he was an introvert. Parents are always learning if they are honest. I AM grateful for the beautiful new beginning and blessed redemption for him as well! Eden and Honor are awesome kids, and he sure does enjoy them very much! I always knew he would be a great dad.
    Allison, you are a precious gem, and I am so happy that you are my Josh’s other half! I,like his grandparents, know that He hung the moon. Each one of you have hung the moon in your own special way, and the four of you shinning together -is a Beautiful thing.
    Blessings from your Mother in Love :)

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