My year in review: 2013

Last year was quite the year for me, for the whole family really.  Here are some of the highlights.
*We met with geneticists' at Duke to learn more about Riley's RSS condition.  This was a wonderful day, as we found out that Riley has the most mild form of RSS and should not encounter any learning disabilities with it.
*Riley started walking!!  Then she began talking, and forming sentences.  Now she's a regular chatterbox.
*We joined a homeschool co-op.  Hannah and Riley love being a part of this and so do I.  It's a great support system and there's a wide range of homeschooling knowledge within the people there.
*I committed to my first marathon, to take place on April 13th in Raleigh, NC.
*I began the process to be a surrogate, only to find out days after speaking with my potential parents that I was pregnant.
*I graduated!!  A journey I started when we lived in Italy finally came to a close as I received my diploma in May.  As I walked off the stage, Hannah was right there clapping for me.
*David enrolled in school.  I didn't think I'd ever see this.  But he proved me wrong.
*David went from being a logistician to a technician.  This happened right at the 7 month mark for David.  We were, and continue to be, so proud of David.  This is the first time I've seen long term goals in David since he left the army.
*We found out my surprise pregnancy was a boy, making the difficult surprise a little easier to tolerate.
*I had the most unpleasant pregnancy.  It was just hard, unlike the girls'.  I had horrible nausea for almost 5 months.  I had contractions that brought me to a complete stop before 30 weeks.  Running became very difficult.  The pregnancy was just hard.  By 31 weeks, I found out he was already head down and that he was big.  His birth weight of 9 pounds and 6 ounces and 22 inches long proved that my 40 weeks of misery was completely justified and totally worth it!
*David and I participated in helping our church by being a part of a small start up team for a second location.  To be a part of something like this, something selfless and bigger than myself, is good.

As I type these things out, I say to myself "wow, a lot of stuff happened last year"!  And I'm probably forgetting some stuff.  I can't wait to see what 2014 brings for our family.  

New Years Eve

Josh and Leah decided to come in for New Years, and we also had Noelle and Jared over with Kadence.  It was a full house, with a lot of fun.  But I'm jumping ahead.  

The evening started late, since New Years Eve was on a Monday.  David and Noelle had to work, so they didn't get home until after 6 p.m.  And then the guys all wanted to go geocache.  They left a little after 8 I think, with a promise of being back before midnight.  

While they were gone, Noelle, Leah and I chatted over a bottle, ok maybe two, of wine. The guys got back, after having to give up on a cache so they could make it home in time to ring in the New Years.  

We had drinks, and played games.  We played Compatibility, and Loaded Questions.  

The pictures are blurry.  

We had so much fun, and laughed so much!  It was one of those nights where your abdomen hurts from laughing so much.  

Somewhere in their we also called my sister to FaceTime.  She was in the same condition as we all were.  Which made for some very interesting conversations.  

I don't remember who won the games.  I don't remember a lot of what was said but I remember the laughing.  

We somehow managed to stay awake until 5 am, which was quite the accomplishment for us all.  However, we weren't very productive on New Years Day.  

A New Year, A New Beginning

Bear with me folks, I’m testing something new out, something I hope will work better for my long term goal.  My long term goal being more blog traffic.  With this new blog, Cernock Says, I’ll be combing the two other blogs I had.  This means that some of you will find postings about stuff that may not interest you (sorry Grandpa Bob ; )) but I’ll till post all about the kiddo’s and our life.  I’m just throwing in my own little quirky things, like running, baking and other yummy tummy stuff.