The Decade in Review (2000-2009)

Looking back over the last decade, I do believe it was the one of biggest change in my life. There were so many big life-changing events that took place, I am guessing there will never be another decade like it (for me anyway).

I broke in Y-2-K helping chaperon a youth lock-in on my college campus. I was the tender age of 21 at the start of the last decade.


The first major event for the decade took place just a few months after that lock-in. My best friend from high school, Emily, came out to my college in MO for a short visit. She was driving back to Chicago on my birthday, but didn't make it more than an hour on her way before a car accident took her life. My comfort was in knowing that Emily knew Jesus as her Savior and went home to be with Him, but even so, the world stopped turning for a little while that year.

(Emily and me at our h.s. graduation)

The year did eventually improve, as later that summer I graduated from college and Dakota proposed to me in October. I stayed on at the university as a grad assistant in the math department and began work on my master's degree that fall.

The next year (2001) Dakota graduated in May, and we were married in July. He got his first real job after college, working for the Clarinda Company.


After I finished my master's degree the following spring (2002), we packed up our things and moved from Missouri to Iowa. Dakota had landed a new job with Principal, and I was hired as the high school math teacher at Iowa Christian Academy.

April of 2003, took us to Boston so Dakota could fulfill a long-standing goal: to run the Boston marathon. Then a month and a half later, we purchased and moved into our first house. We ambitiously set out to make it our own, painting the whole exterior of the house, which was a big project. But what else was I going to do, having the whole summer off? At the end of the year, tragedy struck, as my grandma (my dad's mom) passed away just 3 days before we were all planning to get together to celebrate Christmas with her. We still got together, but it was a season of mixed emotions.

During the summer of the next year (2004), I became pregnant for the first time. And I was thankful to be able to cut back to teaching part-time in the fall. Later that year, my dad and his wife, Lisa, moved to TX. It was a big change, as he had spent all his life in IL, and we wouldn't be able to see him every time we went back home for a visit.

On March 2nd 2005, a few days past her due date, Emma Raelyn made her entrance into the world. We were parents! And despite reading all the parenting books we could get our hands on, we had no idea what we were in for! After maternity leave, I went back to finish out the last month of school, and then became a full-time stay-at-home mom. (Something I swore I would never do! But I can't imagine doing anything else now.) The rest of that year was mostly a blur, probably due to lack of sleep and sanity. But I do remember that my sister, Erin, and Dakota's brother, Sonny, got married that year--but not to each other. That would be weird.
Also my grandpa (my mom's dad) passed away unexpectedly, shortly after we returned from Sonny and Tara's wedding.


Lest you think that each year of our past decade was so eventful and exciting, let me just say I can't really think of anything noteworthy that took place in 2006 or 2007.

Early in 2008 we took our first official family vacation to San Antonio, TX, complete with a personal tour of the Alamo--that's where my dad works. Then in the April, our family grew again. I became an aunt for the first time, when Noah was born to Sonny and Tara. And barely two weeks later, our Ashlyn was born. Emma made a great big sister (still does), and I found the transition to two to be a little easier than the transition from no kids to one. Later that fall, Emma began preschool, I started this blog, and Dakota's sister, Lacy, got married.


That brings us to the final year in the decade--2009. It was a mixed year for many, but mostly uneventful for us. However, one highlight worth mentioning was gaining a second nephew--Nathan was born to my sister, Erin, on the day after Thanksgiving. What a great reason to give thanks!


After I thought about the past decade, I started to think about the next one. When the start of the next decade rolls around, I'll be in my 40's (gasp!). We'll have one teenage daughter and another on her way. It doesn't seem possible! But then 10 years ago I would have said the same about where I'm at today.