2023 Year in Review
Well, well, well. Wasn't 2023 just the craziest year ever? Let's review:
In January, I reconnected with my sister, Val, after a year of no-contact following some drama in early 2022. In February, we prepared for the impending birth of our daughter by purchasing a new, larger vehicle. Then in March, we welcomed our daughter, Scarlett, into the world. It was a natural, spontaneous birth and she weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces.
April was about learning to be new parents by taking shifts with Nicole and watching over Scarlett. In May, I completed a huge home improvement project which saw a new concrete paver pathway in our side yard. In June, Nicole's best friend, Abby, visited us with her young daughters from Montana. It was their first chance to see Scarlett and was also Scarlett's first real visitors!
July was rough as I had to set some difficult boundaries with my mother which has led us to be no-contact since. In August, Scarlett took her first road trip to the Oregon Coast for a vacation with Nicole's immediate family. In September, I transitioned to a new role at my job.
In October, we took a trip to Montana which was Scarlett's first two-day road trip. Then in November, things at my workplace with my new job role began to disappoint me and the stress over wishing to return to my old role began. Finally in December, I used up a chunk of my paternity leave to enjoy a nearly six week extended leave to enjoy the holidays in California with Nicole's family.
2023 was obviously a huge year for us. The main event was the birth of our beautiful daughter and from that moment on, we had a lot of folks visiting and trips out and about. Nicole's parents were with us almost every month and we saw them more in 2023 than any other year since I've known them. We took a bunch of trips, too, which was only possible thanks to my paternity leave which I'm allowed to use in spaced-out chunks rather than one big block of time. It's been wonderful. Outside of my difficult situation with my job, 2023 was a wonderful year.
Looking ahead to 2024:
So here's to 2024! May it not suck!
In January, I reconnected with my sister, Val, after a year of no-contact following some drama in early 2022. In February, we prepared for the impending birth of our daughter by purchasing a new, larger vehicle. Then in March, we welcomed our daughter, Scarlett, into the world. It was a natural, spontaneous birth and she weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces.
April was about learning to be new parents by taking shifts with Nicole and watching over Scarlett. In May, I completed a huge home improvement project which saw a new concrete paver pathway in our side yard. In June, Nicole's best friend, Abby, visited us with her young daughters from Montana. It was their first chance to see Scarlett and was also Scarlett's first real visitors!
July was rough as I had to set some difficult boundaries with my mother which has led us to be no-contact since. In August, Scarlett took her first road trip to the Oregon Coast for a vacation with Nicole's immediate family. In September, I transitioned to a new role at my job.
In October, we took a trip to Montana which was Scarlett's first two-day road trip. Then in November, things at my workplace with my new job role began to disappoint me and the stress over wishing to return to my old role began. Finally in December, I used up a chunk of my paternity leave to enjoy a nearly six week extended leave to enjoy the holidays in California with Nicole's family.
2023 was obviously a huge year for us. The main event was the birth of our beautiful daughter and from that moment on, we had a lot of folks visiting and trips out and about. Nicole's parents were with us almost every month and we saw them more in 2023 than any other year since I've known them. We took a bunch of trips, too, which was only possible thanks to my paternity leave which I'm allowed to use in spaced-out chunks rather than one big block of time. It's been wonderful. Outside of my difficult situation with my job, 2023 was a wonderful year.
Looking ahead to 2024:
- This was something from last year, but I'm bringing it forward: Hopefully the sale of the family land in North Dakota finally comes to a close and the whole family can put the ugliness and drama surrounding it behind us.
- I'm not comfortable with the management-esque job role I have at my workplace. 2024 will be the year I straighten that out and hopefully it'll happen sooner rather than later. In 2023, I lost even more of my coworkers to mismanagement so I wonder if I'm next...
- After patching things up with my sister, I wonder if 2024 will finally be the year I patch things up with my mother. The focus is entirely on Scarlett, so I'm not sure.
- Scarlett celebrates her first birthday in March which will see us hosting a party here in Oregon, drawing people from all over. It's gonna be wild.
- Nicole and I will continue to wind down our eBay store as it becomes less and less of a focus in our lives.
- There's gonna be a presidential election late this year here in the USA and I loathe politics. More specifically, I loathe the period of time before the election where people won't shut up about who they've already decided to vote for. There's gonna be yard signs, bumper stickers, and a constant barrage of advertising and it'll all probably start up right about now. I'm really not looking forward to it.
So here's to 2024! May it not suck!