The Year 2009...

Now that the new year has begun, let’s look back on the last one…
2009 went by in an absolute blur…but it was honestly the best year of my life.

‘08 ended shockingly with the news that my dad had cancer.
Radiation began in January and my 20th birthday passed without much exciting happening.

February brought biopsies to the lung to find out the exact cancer type, but to no avail. We did not receive answers until March.

March also brought snow to our lovely state of South Carolina, and I had a blast outside taking pictures in it.

April was fairly uneventful apart from dad’s continuing treatments and me hitting my one year mark at my job. I also got employee of the month for April.

May brought the first of many vacations for me. Disney World and Daytona Beach with Cara and Bobbie was just what I needed to kick off my summer.

June ended amazingly with my trip to visit Ashley in Dallas. That was my first time flying by myself and I really loved getting to spend time with her and Leah.

July marked Gayle’s wedding, I was the maid of honor, along with our family trip to Hilton Head. The wedding was beautiful but I was glad when it was over since everything leading up to it had been crazy. Family vacation was tons of fun with 10 of us in two condos for a week in the absolutely beatiful HHI. The month ended with a free We The Kings concert in Easley in the middle of a baseball field where we got rained on the entire time, but it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to.

August was probably the best month of the entire year….
It kicked off with Kelly and I going to see Demi Lovato at the Bilo Center downtown. That concert was phenomenal.
My amazing gorgeous nephew, Austin David, was born on the 8th.
Ashley flew into town a few days before the HS concert in Charlotte on the 21st. ‘Charlanta,’ as we dubbed it, was my favorite memory as far as concerts went this year. Charlotte on the 21st, back to Greenville for like 3 hours of sleep, then drove to Atlanta on the 22nd, then back to Greenville on the 23rd. Ashley flew home a couple days later so it was back to Atlanta to drop her at the airport and pick up stuff for my brother.
My mom, middle brother, and I left on the 27th for the 12 hour drive to Buffalo and then the next day the five of my family and my uncle left for the 9 hour drive into Canada. Our week at Island 10 on Lady Evelyn Lake in Ontario was amazing. Beautiful surroundings, a peaceful week without connection of any kind, and spending time bonding with my family over a fishing trip. <3

September was brought in in Canada, and I think we could have stayed until October and I wouldn’t have cared… Nothing much eventful happened in September, or if it did I can’t remember it.

October was interesting to say the least. Towards the end of the month the 7 of us in my family along with 6 of our family friends went to watch the Buffalo Bills play the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. It was a great day of spending time with my family and watching our favorite team win!! Halloween was spent at home with my parents for probably the last year ever.

November was fantastic. The 10th of the month marked my 3rd Honor Society concert, 2nd time in Charlotte. Our region was getting leftovers from a tropical storm that day and Cara and I still managed to look gorgeous.
Our new puppy Zorro arrived to us the week before Thanksgiving and he has been terrorizing us ever since. My brother Matt also adopted his puppy Duncan on the same day that Zorro was flown to Greenville.
Grandma came for a visit that week as well. The weekend of mom’s birthday was spent in Atlanta at my brother’s for most of my family…
I drove to Cara’s on the 21st, the 22nd was spent in Atlanta out in the rain and through insanity at The Loft to go see Honor Society for the 4th time this year.
And let’s not forget that show number 5 in Birmingham was the very next day. That was a road trip I won’t soon be forgetting. I made so many new friends from so many places and we all got to come back together for the new year. Birmingham also happened to be Andrew’s 30th birthday so it was definitely a party.
Thanksgiving was perfect. The 7 of us adults and the baby spent a quiet day at the house and enjoyed each other’s company.

December was the usual insanity with trying to prep everything for Christmas but also trying to deal with dad’s treatment options and the fact that we’re running out of them. The good thing about this month though was that he was off of Chemo for Christmas.
My brother and sister in law arrived Christmas Eve with my nephew and “niece” (dog) in tow to the house and took over my room until Sunday. Dinner that night was quiet with only 6 of us and the two dogs. After dinner we went to church and then had a lazy night watching A Christmas Story like always.
Christmas morning was boring considering my other brother and his girlfriend weren’t coming over till the afternoon. 7 adults, 1 baby, 3 dogs, a lot of yelling and miscommunication later… dinner was on the table around 3:30 and we all had a nice time catching up while eating. We finally opened stockings and then presents before Rachael had to leave for her job as a 3rd shift nurse at a nearby hospital. Cindy left not too long after since she had to work the next day, leaving Brian and the baby here in Greenville with us.
The day after Christmas I woke up at 3:30 in the morning feeling like I was gonna be sick, and an hour later I was. I spent the next two days in bed and in the bathroom thanks to a wonderful stomach virus.
I went back to work on the 28th for a few hours and then left early to come back home and sleep some more… The 29th was my first and only full day of work that week seeing as I was leaving the 30th for New Years in Hershey with Cara, Courtney, and Emily.
12 hours of driving, the longest drive ever in Virginia, a night of stalking other hotels and almost no sleep, a day of craziness with the Texas girls and Amanda and Co, a meet in greet at some random theatre, and let’s not forget drinking since 11am…. we got to see Honor Society perform for Hershey’s New Years celebration. It was everything I could have hoped for and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to end the best year of my life.

I hope all of you had fantastic 2009’s, and I hope you have an even better 2010.
Thank you to all of you who made this year what it was. I loved meeting everyone that I did. And thank you to Honor Society for helping me through one of the hardest years of my life and also allowing me to make amazing new friends.
2009, I will never forget you. <3