December 30th, 2012
My dearest brother,
Happy New Year! Can you believe it is almost 2013? It has
seemed to me that 2012 was an extremely long year full of many good things but
also some bad things as well. I saw this
end of year reflection and wanted to think about my year in review.
12 Highlights:
January: Jake successfully finished
Fall 2012 semester. Mom and I did some fun craft projects together since we had
both just gotten into Pinterest and Alyssa agreed to watch the kids for me
while I went to Mutual and Jake went to school.
February: I did a “10 days of Valentine’s
Day” for Jake by giving him one gift a day. Jake got me two dozen gorgeous long
stem roses. We got a very nice tax return back and I was able to get my
Blendtec Blender and Jake got his big screen TV. I was also able to get a lot
of new clothes since my old clothes weren’t fitting anymore. Abrielle turned
three years old and we went to Chinese Gourmet with the family and Kayden and
Zac almost threw up after eating octopus. We finished Jake’s application to the
University of Utah.
March: We brought Persia into our home
and enjoyed a few days with her bright spirit in the house. Abrielle was able
to (mostly) overcome her fear of dogs and had a blast bossing Persia around.
Even though we weren’t able to keep her we found her a wonderful and loving
home where she is so much happier. I truly feel like we were instruments in the
Lord’s hands to lead Persia to this wonderful place. Nathan learned how to
crawl and Abrielle started at Mrs. Donna’s Preschool. Jake reached his 27th
birthday and we had a great time celebrating him getting old. J
April: I was able to start running as
my asthma started to become more receptive to the idea of exercising. We got to
participate with the Bakker family in the Walk for Multiple Sclerosis.
May: Jake and I decided to participate in
the Walk for Cystic Fibrosis in support of some good friends from our previous
ward in Sandy whose little girl was born with CF. I decided that I was tired of being a brunette and wanted
something different so I dyed my hair red. J
Jake and I really got into biking and got a bike trailer for the kids to ride
in. We spent many afternoons riding around as a family including going to the
Jordan River Parkway and feeding the ducks with the kids. We took Abrielle to
the doctor to talk about the possibility of her being Autistic. He was very
excellent in the way he talked to us and helped us to understand all of the
reasons that she is not Autistic. He believes that she has some OCD tendencies
and gave us some tools to help her improve her behavior. I decided to go back
to school and applied, registered and got all ready to go.
June: Two of Jake’s sisters (Marie and
Beth) got married in the temple. We were able to have his older brother and his
family stay with us during the weddings and we had a wonderful (although crazy)
weekend with the two weddings and the double reception. I celebrated my 24th
birthday.
July: We participated in the 5k Mud Run
with Matt and Alyssa and a couple of close friends and had a blast. We got to go on a wonderful vacation with
the family to St. George and watch the Olympics, go hiking and have an overall
blast. Nathan turned ONE and we got to celebrate his great milestone with
Banana Pudding Cake.
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August: I hit my one year mark when I
decided to take control of my life and really start exercising and eating
right. My friend Amy and I decided to register for the Racing with Passion 5k,
Operation61 10k and the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I started fall semester
2012 and Jake finished his Associates Degree in Business at SLCC. We decided
that he would take the fall semester off to recouperate.
September: I ran in the Racing with
Passion 5k and finished with a time of 26:12.8. That time was good enough for
me to place 1st in my age division and 10th overall for
women. Jake and I also ran in the American Heart Association 5k and I finished
that one in 24:59.11 (11th overall for women and 42nd for
men and women). Although I am grateful for the lessons that I learned while I
was in the YW presidency in our ward, I have to count it as a highlight that I
was released and called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher. YW was extremely
draining on me and I am learning so much in Gospel Doctrine. I chopped off
Abrielle’s hair to a cute short cut.
October: I ran in the Operation61 10k
in the rolling hills of Herriman. It was an extremely challenging race and I
was still able to finish in 53:37.6 which put me 4th overall and 2nd
in my age division. Jake and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary with
the most amazing staycation that we had so much fun on. I got a membership at
Gold’s gym and started attending the 5:30 am classes there. Jake got out of the
awful Payments/Charges department and LDS Family services and got a new job
with the Distribution services. He is so much happier there. We got new CPUs
for our laptops that make them run much better.
November: Because Jake got booted out
of the system at the University of Utah we have had a chance to reevaluate the
decision to go there. He is thinking a lot about what he REALLY wants to do and
how to make that a reality. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got a lot of
amazing deals on Black Friday.
December: We had a wonderful Christmas
and were showered with generosity from our loved ones. I was able to get
started on Singulair and went off of gluten and my health problems have cleared
up. I should be able to get back to running soon. I finished my first semester
back to school with GREAT success – pulling off a 4.0 through a ton of hard
work and the sheer goodness of the Lord. Jake was able to hit his goal of
getting below 200 pounds by Christmas and he is looking better and better! We
had a wonderful Christmas season and did a lot of wonderful things including attending the wedding of our friends, Amy and Justin.
12 Disappointments:
January: I got really sick and ended up
in the Emergency room because of severe headache that they were worried was a stroke.
I spent several weeks sick in bed and only got back to church at the tail-end
of January.
February: I lost Nathan’s Social
Security card and had to spend the time and effort to get a new one.
March: We weren’t able to keep Persia
because my allergies ended up being so bad that I couldn’t breathe with her in
the house and after just one week we had to sell her to a new owner.
April: One of my friends from high
school, Celeste Poll, died from lymphoma cancer. She was only 22 years old and
had so much vibrance and happiness about her. Her death affected me greatly and
I was glad to be able to attend her funeral with another dear friend, JoHanna
Muhlestein.
May: The time leading up to Abrielle’s
appointment about the possibility of her being Autistic was very emotionally
draining for me. It is hard to put into words, especially from a mother’s
perspective, but I am grateful that the “end” of this disappointment turned out
to be a highlight of the year.
June – August: I honestly can’t think
of anything. We had a great summer!
September: Matt and Alyssa weren’t able
to run the Color Run 5k with us so we had to pull out because we didn’t have
enough members for our team. After the American Heart association 5k there was
NO water! EEK! And Nathan got 6 teeth at the same time and was pretty miserable.
October: Jake ran into some conflicts
with his supervisor at work and we were afraid he would lose his job. Luckily,
this one also turned into a highlight! I injured my heel during the 10k race
and had to stop running for a while while it healed. Nathan got 10 teeth and
got impetigo from all of the runny noses. He was pretty miserable for a while
there!
November: I spent the month very very
sick. It was a very difficult month for me physically and emotionally. School
also got really busy as we neared finals and I felt pretty swamped most of the
time. We found out that we should have reapplied to the University of Utah if
Jake wanted to attend classes this spring. Because he didn’t he got booted out
of the system.
December: My appointment with Dr. Boud
went horribly. I was really upset and frustrated about it; however, because of
that I was able to take charge and find my own answers and I feel confident
that I was blessed to know what to do.
3 Game Changers:
1.
Deciding to go back to school. This was a huge
decision that I contemplated for over six months. It has required many
sacrifices on my part as well as many family members and will continue to be.
However, it was probably the pivotal game changer for me. It was my way of
truly telling myself that this is what I love and this is what I want to do and
pursuing that dream.
2.
Injuring my heel during the 10k. I had to stop
running because of my injury and it gave me an opportunity to change my focus.
I decided at that point to join the gym and have really been discovering what
kind of fitness person I truly am and what I really love. (PS… running on the
treadmill is NOT one of them!)
3.
Getting so sick in November. I don’t care what
the doctor says – going off of the Dulera inhaler triggered SOMETHING in my
body. I don’t know if my reaction to gluten was just being suppressed because
of the Dulera or what happened but November was miserable for me and it was NOT
because I was depressed. Can you tell I feel passionately about this? Lol. But
because of that I am now off of gluten, I had to delay getting back to running
longer and things are just very different for me all around.
3 Things I focused on:
1.
For the first part of the year I really focused
on losing weight and getting in shape. I am still working on becoming more and
more fit and in shape but my focus has changed throughout the course of the
year. It is about building muscle now. J
2.
Jake and I really focused on school this year –
starting school for me, finishing for him, what to do about school for him,
where we want to be and go and everything.
3.
I tried really hard to focus on my relationship
with Abrielle this year. Things have been difficult with her and dealing with
her OCD. We have had to go through many trials and errors, and many many many
heartaches. There was a point during the year that I just didn’t know what to
do and how to make things better. But, luckily, the Lord came through once
again and has shown me the way. We have many new tools that we use to help
Abrielle and I feel like I am getting better about it every day. I still have
so much further to go but I am making progress.
3 Things I Forgot:
1.
I really don’t know that I could come up with
three things that I forgot this year. I got to all of things that I was
intending to and so many others that I wasn’t planning on.
Reflection:
I
am really glad that I took the time to review this year. Because of recent
events in November I have been reflecting a lot of my disappointments for the
year and not nearly enough on all of the highlights. I am amazed as I look back
at how many wonderful things happened to us this year that I just haven’t been
thinking about. Although 2012 brought about many challenges and some pretty big
game changers I am so grateful for the things that I have learned and the
person that I have been able to become. I am extremely grateful for my loving
family – especially for my dear husband.
Jeremy, if I don’t ever give you another bit of advice in your entire life then you need to know the most important thing: Marry the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Nothing else will set you up for more happiness in this life. Jake is the best thing that has ever happened to me and not a day goes by that I don’t thank my Father in Heaven for the gift that my husband is to me. I hope that one day you will be able to say the same thing about your spouse. I know that she must be someone extra special in order to spend eternity with an amazing man like you.
Jeremy, if I don’t ever give you another bit of advice in your entire life then you need to know the most important thing: Marry the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Nothing else will set you up for more happiness in this life. Jake is the best thing that has ever happened to me and not a day goes by that I don’t thank my Father in Heaven for the gift that my husband is to me. I hope that one day you will be able to say the same thing about your spouse. I know that she must be someone extra special in order to spend eternity with an amazing man like you.
I love you so much, my dear
brother. I hope that as you look back at 2012 that you can see the hand of the
Lord guiding your life and the blessings that you have received. Let’s make
2013 the best year yet!
All my love forever and always,
Shayla
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