In Review: 2009| Jamie has been in 6 foreign countries. |
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| In Review: 2009 |
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12/31/2009
2009 flew by! I think it may have taken the record for being the "fastest" year of my life. Here are some highlights of 2009. January - January was a crazy month as Jamie and I took a vacation to Seattle, Vancouver and Whistler. In Seattle, we got to hang out with multiple friends that we had in the area. The weather was damp and wet the whole time we were there. But that didn't stop us from wandering around Seattle. Our trip to Vancouver was mainly me interacting with the US Consulate to get my visa. Afterwards, we enjoyed wandering around the city, Stanley Park, and Granville Island. Jamie and I spent a couple of days in Whistler hitting the slopes. I took snowboarding lessons and got to the point where I was really close to linking my turns. Unfortunately, my asthma kept getting in the way and I ended up having to get a toboggan ride down the mountain.  Biking around Stanley Park in the cold  On top of Whistler mountain February - February was a busy month with Jamie's birthday, Valentine’s Day and the arrival of Mama Saldanha(aka Amelia.) Our activities in February were rather low-key, with a small dinner party for Jamie at the Copa Room, and Valentine’s Day date night at the KC Roller Derby. March - - March was full of basketball games at Tower Tavern with the Marquette Alumni Club. My mom went to a couple of games but it turns out basketball was not for her. Jamie and I enjoyed an exciting game of Marquette vs. Missouri basketball in the Big Dance. Lucky for him, Missouri continued on. For St. Patrick's Day, a group of us went down to the Brookside Parade to watch the festivities.  St. Patrick's Day parade in Brookside  me and Elizabeth April - In April, Mom and I went to Austin. I was there for my friend Tsveta's bachelorette party and my mom went to visit some of her old friends from Saudi. The nice weather was a good break from the Midwest and it was a great weekend. Upon our return to Kansas City, my mom also went to her first baseball game. While the game was not really exciting, we did have a great time walking Kaufmann Stadium. For Easter, my mom cooked up a feast for all of our friends that were not going home. Shortly after Easter, Arthur came to visit for a week. In April, Titan also tore his ACL (yes, dogs have them too) while running at the dog park. This was the start of some expensive vet bills, along with a long recovery for Titan.  Royals baseball game  Hanging out at the Woodyard May - May was the busiest month for both my mom and me. My mom went to Houston for a week to spend time with her old coworkers as well as with my aunt and uncle. While my mom was in Houston, I spent a weekend in San Antonio for my friend Sergio's wedding. Since I was in the Texas area, I flew to Houston to spend Mother's Day with my mom. We flew back together from Houston and I unpacked and repacked for another wedding the following weekend at Lake of the Ozarks. While I was out travelling, Jamie was studying for his second-year finals. While Jamie and I were enjoying ourselves at the wedding, Titan was spending quality time at the vet getting tested for complications with his incision after surgery. Turns out, Titan had gotten MRSA, and it was not allowing his incision to heal. After a couple of days with the vet, Titan's incision had healed but now had a seroma. More trips to the vet were to follow - but now Titan was on the road to recovery. As the long weekend rolled around, Jamie turned into a cleaning freak! Turns out, he had big plans for Memorial Day weekend as that was the weekend he proposed! Not only did he do an amazing job with the proposal, he had planned a party at my house for when we returned! I was supposed to ride (a bicycle) 20 miles the next day for Cycling for Change, but it turns out after so much partying I could only do 5 miles.  Sergio and Leslie's wedding  Julia and me at Matt and Tsveta's wedding  Jamie and Bryan hanging out  Titan post-surgery  Jamie proposing at Liberty Memorial June - In June, Jamie headed for his two-month clinical in Chicago. While there he got to hang out with brother, sister-in-law, and nephew Patrick (who lovingly refers to him as Uncle Mae-Mae.) Here in Kansas City, I got to enjoy my friend Patty’s wedding at St. Francis Xavierand Boulevard Brewery. Mid-month, Caitlin and her family invited us to St. Louis for a weekend, which we packed with wedding dress shopping and wineries. At the end of the month, Arthur came to visit and say good-bye to my mom (whose four-month stay had come to an end.)  Getting ready "college" style  Wine Tasting July - After a month of Jamie being in Chicago, I finally got to visit over Independence Weekend. That weekend also happened to be Matt Watson's wedding and a mini college reunion for my friends. The weekend was great and I was sad to have to go back to Kansas City without Jamie. However, when I got home, I was excited to see my friend, Adrielle, who visits/stays with me every July. Adrielle and I worked at the same camp (Juliette Low Camp) about ten years ago. A couple of years ago, she and our friend, Jessica, visited and shortly thereafter I became their "host mom". While my house was full of people, it was lacking one dog. Jamie had left Diesel in Richland over Memorial Day and I missed him. So, I drove down and spent a weekend in Richland with Jamie's parents and brought Diesel back to the house to hang out with Titan.  The "gang" at Watson's wedding  Uncle Mae-Mae and Patrick August - August 1st was the Centennial Celebration for St. Francis. Bethany and I had a great time at the party and it was definitely a night to remember. Jamie came back in town at the beginning of August and we went into wedding planning mode. We found our photographer, venue, and finished our Pre Caana classes---all in the two months he was home. Also, we took on a massive front-yard rehab project which we completed in three weekends. I have always disliked the railroad ties I had in my front yard but never felt the need to do anything about them. Jamie had some ideas on improvement. And on the hottest day in August, we went to work removing the railroad ties. We also removed the "jungle-like" bushes that were in front of the house. While we were at it, we tilled the front yard to create a better slope, killed all the grass, planted new grass seed, and planted new bushes. Jamie made multiple trips to Home Depot for various items ranging from sledgehammers to a chainsaw.  Fr. Matt, Bethany and me at the Centennial event  Jamie and I goofing off at First Fridays  Jamie working the front yard September - Over Labor Day weekend, Jamie and I jumped in the car for a road trip to Cincinnati, OH. It had been a couple months since I had seen my cousin, Colin, and his family. AND my cousin from India, Marissa (who lives in Connecticut) was visiting with her family. Jamie and I stopped in St. Louis for a night to hang out with Caitlin and Matt. Then we raced to the Woodford Reserve distillery in Versailles, KY. Turns out that while we made good time getting there we had forgotten about the time zone change and missed the last tour. Feeling sad for us, the tour guides let us have some tastes and showed us the "history" movie. When we got to Cincinnati, we hung out with the family, saw some of the local hotspots and ate delicious home-made Indian food. On Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Cincinnati has an amazing fireworks display downtown. Jamie and I drove downtown to check out the show and then spent two hours in traffic before making it back out of the city. On our way back to KC, Jamie and I tried to stop by Maker's Mark but got lost. Instead, we went to the Jim Beam tour, which was not really a tour but a house with a movie. The rest of September was busy and fun, filled with more wedding planning and parties. While going out dress shopping with Julia and Tsveta at David's Bridal, I ended up finding my wedding dress...for $130! Slowly but surely, more wedding pieces started falling into place.  Down at the River Walk  My ridculously cute and amazing cousin Shania  Celebrating our friends wedding anniversary October - Jamie left in October for his clinical in Phoenix. It was a bummer to see him go because it was going to be over a month before we saw each other again in LA for my birthday. While he was in Phoenix, life in Kansas City was pretty busy with work picking up. I got to attend another wedding in Kansas City for our friend, Erica. Right around the middle of the month, I got a call from Jamie, who had a surprise. (After getting engaged, what other surprises could there be?) Turns out he got a ticket to meet me in Chicago over Halloween weekend for our friends, Eric and Elizabeth's wedding! For the rest of the week, anytime I thought of it I would get so excited I'd hit the person closest to me and jump around a lot. Our weekend in Chicago was great as we were surrounded by our friends and family. (Note: This was the seventh and last wedding of the year.)  Jamie and Tigger (aka Patrick)  Dominos (total cost= $5)  Julia and I carving pumpkins November - - November flew by for me as I was travelling to Baltimore every week for work. Thankfully, my friend Becca stayed at my house and watched the dogs while I was out and about. In early November, my friend Stacey came to visit me. We spent the weekend getting facials, going to the Boulevard Brewery, visiting the WWI museum and discussing different floral ideas for the wedding. I took my birthday week off and headed to L.A. to hang out with Arthur and enjoy some sunshine. While there, I braved the roads for the first time (EVER) and drove to see my friend, Bridget, and her family in Irvine, CA. It was wonderful to spend the day with her and her family. But the trip felt super short since I had to drive back to L.A. early enough to beat the traffic. Jamie met me out for my birthday and the weekend was full of fun times and lots of cake. After returning from a week off, I enjoyed another short week of work with the Thanksgiving holiday. I was invited over to my neighbor’s house, and spent a delightful afternoon with friends. The week after Thanksgiving turned out to be a short week as well since Jamie and I started our "Great Adventure" the first week of December.  Stacey's visit to KC  Bridget, Kate, Luke and me hanging out in Irvine  Jamie and me on our hike December - December started our Great Adventure from San Diego to Cabo to the Grand Canyon to Taos to Kansas City. It was a fun trip full of books on CD, random conversations, lots of fact-checking with Google and planning by the seat of our pants. While our vacation was great, it was also good to come back home and decompress before I had to head back to work. Diesel was SUPER happy to see Jamie and not willing to share Jamie with Titan. Over Christmas, Jamie and I headed to Richland to spend time with his family. Kansas City got hit with the worst blizzard of the season, and Jamie and I got out of town just before the weather got ugly. After a relaxing and very filling holiday in Richland, I came home to dig out a foot of snow from my driveway.  Hanging out in Cabo  The cold but beautiful Grand Canyon  Titan sporting his new collar (from the Boulevard) 2009 was a fun filled year and 2010 is only going to get better:) Have a happy and safe New Year! - Sabrina and Jamie
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