2018 wrap up.

01/08/2019

The blog may have taken a backseat this year (and in 2017), but we’ve been busy living and loving life. And that hasn’t involved staring at my laptop after staring at a screen for eight hours at work! That said, though, I do want to write and share more so starting with this post – a wrap-up for 2018 highlights – here we go.

We worked on our house a lot

We bought our house in summer 2017 (when it looked like this) and since then, we’ve worked on it more or less continuously. We hired a contractor for the big work – the kitchen and bathroom remodel – but the rest has been all us. We’ve spent countless hours removing wallpaper (two layers in every single room), painting (and repainting – sorry, Nick!), scheming future reno plans (like adding a master bath) and cleaning up the neglected yard (landscaping to come in 2019). Our latest projects: repainting the office, hallway and bathroom and completely redoing the guest room. Up next: laundry room and repainting the living and dining rooms and kitchen. Follow our progress on instagram at @1925Standishbunglow.

We traveled to some pretty neat places

This year included exploring new places. The highlights: skiing in Jackson Hole; Nordic skiing in Hayward, Wisconsin; running around Madeline Island, Wisconsin; Mont-Tremblant and Montreal, Quebec; Crested Butte, Colorado; and mountain biking and trail running in Missoula, Montana. And seeing this list reminds me that maybe I should finish writing about Madeline Island and Quebec… watch for those eventually.

I celebrated(?) my 20-year class reunion

I’m not quite sure I wanna label this as celebrating because I clearly remember when my parents had their 20-year class reunions – it makes me feel old! But at the same time, I am gonna proudly celebrate it because there’s been a lot of happy life crammed into those 20 years. Anyway, it was a great weekend catching up with friends, some of whom I haven’t seen since graduation. My class was tiny – 39 people!

I focused on my training and racing

This made all the difference between 2017 and 2018. Training and racing were fun again, rather than something I dreaded. I switched up my long ride routes to keep it interesting, even leaving from our house in the city for one (that rarely happens because riding in traffic can be such a cluster, but it turned out to one of my favorite rides of the year). My long runs resumed on river road, my happiest place to run. As for swimming – as much as I love masters, it was too stressful to drive 30 minutes one-way to get there three days a week so I instead logged long sets in my favorite pool: St. Kate’s. And finally: I more or less stopped scrolling through Strava (as well as twitter and facebook) looking at everyone else’s training. It was so refreshing.

I learned that you can do everything, just not at the same time

Most days I have to pinch myself that at the end of 2019, I turn FORTY. I know that it’s the new 30, but it still seems old and like there’s not enough time to do everything I wanna do. Like go back to school for a career change, have kids, continue training and racing at a high level, house projects, spending as much time with family and friends. All of that said, I know that those things all can’t happen at the same time. And I’m too type A to do any of them half-assed, which means that trying to do them all at the same time would end with me stressed and overwhelmed and then likely to retreat to the sofa to scroll through instagram for hours.

So at this point, there are a few things simmering on the backburner that when the time’s right, I’ll pursue them. But right now, I’m choosing to pursue a few other things instead – and am planning to put my all into them and do them really well. Watch out, 2019.

We hosted friendsgiving

We haven’t really hosted friends since moving into our house last year (aside from an informal housewarming party) so when our friend group was planning friendsgiving, we jumped at the chance to have everyone over. As with hosting anything, it lit a fire to finish a bunch of projects – like repainting our office and hallway, and finally getting around to painting all the trim and doors (what a difference fresh white paint made!). Anyway, the night was a blast. Highlights: Nick spatchcocked a turkey (so good!), we played Cards Against Humanity and laughed until we cried, had great conversation, and Luma thought the night was all about her.

Luma learned how to skijor

Luma’s found her sport! Nick took her out skijoring a bunch, and she loved it. Must be the fact that she can run at her pace – 4:30 per mile! – rather than ours 🙂 She even did her first race: the Chuck & Don’s Skijoring Loppet. And if we’d ever get any snow she’d be ready to go this winter, too.