2008 in Review

2008 brought many weddings, babies and changes in our lives. Here's our year in review:

January - Nothing really exciting happened in January.

February - I had my one year anniversary with the Alton Police Department!!! I am still loving it today.

March - Steve had a scare when I totalled my squad car in a traffic crash while on duty. There were no visible injuries other than a burn on my chin from the deployment of the airbags, but I had a pretty bad concussion and no short term memory for close to two weeks. Steve's patience was definitely tested.

April - Some of our good friends, Sara & Scott, delivered their first child, Adam. He's super cute and all boy. Steve celebrated a promotion with Liberty Bank and was transferred to the Belthalto branch.

May - Steve found himself another year older and now sharing his birthday with his cousin Ashley's new daughter, Lucy. She too is super cute.

June - We celebrated our one year anniversary! Sometimes it's hard to believe we made it this far, other days it seems like we just met. Steve's sister Kacy also married her beau, Kyle. It was a beautiful wedding and we loved being able to participate. Thanks for including us!

July - Our friend James celebrated the birth of his son, Schafer. Congrats James! Steve bought a scooter to save money while gas prices were through the roof. He was so cute tooling all around town.

August - We got a hot tub!!!! Steve's cousin Johnny and his wife, Mary, were SUPER generous and gave us their old hot tub. Steve solicited our friends from STL to move the tub from The Lair's back yard onto the trailer and then I solicited a bunch of guys from work to move the tub from the trailer to the pad built by Steve and my dad. I was expecting this grandious effort complete with grunting and sweat pouring, but I was SORELY disappointed. They made it look absolutely effortless.

September - Steve and our friend, Amy, threw a surprise party for my birthday at the house. It was a luau theme and a ton of fun. I didn't even have to cook anything! It was great to have all the family and friends together (even though I felt a little under the weather)

October - The first found us on an airplane en route to Phoenix, Arizona. We went to Arizona so Steve could be the best man in his best friend Brandon's wedding. Mary was a beautiful bride and we even managed to fit in a trip to the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous. On the 3rd our niece, Eva Grace Riney, was born to Sam and Kate. Patrick makes a great big brother and Sam and Kate are handling two children smashingly. In the middle of the week I worked on my first CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) class in an instructor role. It's awesome that I am actually using my Communications degree while working in this field!

November - I had to work on Thanksgiving Day, so Steve spent the day with his families and I stopped at my parents' house in between calls. The day after Thanksgiving we all traveled to Chicago to celebrate Christmas with the Hatfields and PawPaw's 80th Birthday. It was lovely having everyone together in one place. That virtually never happens.

December - On the 2nd Steve's cousin Jeremy was blessed with a baby girl, Kiera Vivenne Bright. She is absolutely beautiful and doing wonderfully. She's now off the respirator and gaining weight and strength. On the 8th Steve started a new job with Regions Bank. He misses the people at Liberty, but is very optimistic about the growth potential. Some of the Alpha Phi girls got together for an annual ornament exchange and it was great to spend time with everyone and their families. If only we lived closer so we could get together more often. On the 17th Sam turned 30! Kate and I arranged for his best friend, Shawn, to fly into town and surprise him. It was great. The family all went to eat at Bella Milano and then us young folk went to Dave & Buster's to play. I had to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we have been hitting all the families since.

The whole year has really been a whirlwind, but we have been able to reflect on how blessed we are and thank our friends and family for everything.

Steve Leaves Liberty

Monday Steve started a new job. He has left Liberty is now at Regions Bank in Granite City. So far, he loves it! It's a little better pay and a LOT more growth opportunity. We are very optomistic about the change.

YAY Family!!!

Thanksgiving was great. I worked Thanksgiving Day, but Steve hit both of his families and my dad's family was in town from Chicago and Milwaukee, so it was great to catch up. My nephew, Patrick, and my cousin Sarah's daughter, Casey, were too cute. Patrick was absolutely enthralled by another kid being around so they could play. We did our Christmas exchange that Wednesday and then lunch on Thanksgiving Day. Since my parents live in the city, it was nice to be able to stop in for a plate of goodness. Thanks!

Friday morning, Mom, Sam, Kate, Patrick, Eva and I drove up to Chicago to meet up with my mom's family for a lovely Christmas gathering and to celebrate my PawPaw's 80th birthday. My dad and Steve then rode the last train out of Alton up and met us there.

It was great getting to be around the whole family. That never happens! Megan and Jaime's kids are growing like weeds and all the kids played together so very well. I have pictures from the gatherings, but I will have to add those later as I have apparently not yet loaded them on this computer.

I hope this note finds everyone well and in good spirits for the next holiday. Love you all!