2014: A Retrospective

2014. Oh, 2014.  You were so much better than 2013!  

Today is the first day of 2015, which is actually a really sad day because my mom left us to go back to the US this morning.  (It was really sad.  Like, I'm holding a baby and doing the thing where you start running next to the train as it pulls away to try and keep up with the person looking out the train window.  And everyone is crying...except for the baby who is miraculously asleep?)

But I think 2015 will be a really good year, even if it started off with a sad goodbye scene.

But we're not here to talk about 2015!  We're here to bid a fond farewell to 2014, one for the record
books, in my usual style...

January

I started my job in Copenhagen as a GIS Consultant for COWI/Maersk Oil.  It was really intimidating, but also really rewarding and helped me gain back some of my old self-confidence.  Plus, the lunch food!  And a Danish salary!  Woo!


February

Paul began his course for a Commercial Diving license which involved a lot of studying, a night where we had to measure every single random point-to-point body measurement for his dry suit (like, tip of large toe to ankle bone back to pinkie toe - that kind of thing), and some week-long diving trips.

One of which was during February and to the west coast of Denmark.


I just worked and commuted, but enjoyed it all thoroughly.

March

We had our 6th Engageversary and went to see the UNESCO rune stones in Jelling and to the coastal city of Aarhus on the Danish peninsula to get our annual beach walk.


Paul went on another week-long diving trip to Germany and the day after he got back, I sent him on a biking treasure hunt that ended up at the nicest restaurant in Odense where I told him I was (like, 89% sure that I was) pregnant.

April

Was a bit busy.  I spent the night in Copenhagen one weekend to go to the ballet with a new friend and went on a business trip to Aberdeen, Scotland for three days.   When I was home, I spent a lot of time organizing and arranging for all the travel details for my parents' and sister's upcoming Europe trip.  Seven countries in three weeks...that makes for a lot of ticket-buying and reservation-making. It also began to dawn on me that perhaps I wasn't going to be plagued by morning sickness (and it ended up being true!).

Paul finished his diving course at the end of the month with a big exam in Esbjerg.  (Also, he didn't want me to tell anyone, but I'm going to anyway.  He ended up getting the highest score anyone had ever gotten in the program's history.  So...if you ever have a question about how to calculate air tank pressure or whathaveyou, you know who to call.)

May

Was a great month!  We traversed Scotland for the first 13 days of the month, going from Edinburgh to the central highlands to Loch Lomond the west coast to the Inner Hebrides to Loch Ness and back around again.  My highlight was probably summitting The Storr on the Isle of Skye, just Paul and I alone in the mist with a herd of sheep.  Paul's highlight was...everything.

Paul also briefly traveled back to Rostock for a couple meetings and helped teach a field biology course off in the woods for a week.

At the end of May we traveled to the south of our island and had our first ultrasound appointment.  That was the first time everything began to feel really real.

AND I turned 30.

June

We were traveling with my family for pretty much the entire month and went on an epic and constantly on-the-go adventure around Odense/Aero/Copenhagen, Paris, Pisa/Florence, Rome/Vatican City, and the German/Austrian alps.

If you ever want to go stay for a bit near Garmisch, let me know and I can pass along the contact info for the all time coolest house you can rent right up against the Zugspitze.

June was also the month we first told anyone that I was pregnant - so pretty fun.

July

Mostly this was a lot of work make-up and recovering from our travels in May and June.  The summer in Denmark was unusually warm this year, so we didn't mind hanging around.

At the end of July we had our second, and presumably last, ultrasound and found out we were having en lille dreng (a little boy)!   We were really shocked, actually.  Guess that comes when both parents pretty much grew up with sisters.

August

At the beginning of the month, I planned a huge surprise for Paul.  I planned a long weekend trip to see some of the most beautiful fjords in Norway - places he'd always dreamed about seeing.  I did it because he'd mentioned a couple times how he probably wouldn't be able to go see them now that we were having a baby and so I was determined to get us up there pre-third trimester.    The moment of the surprising was awesome as was the weekend.

Otherwise we mostly worked and hung out at night together.  I continued to be pretty consistent about going to the pool to swim for an hour - something I was really bad at but sure enjoyed a lot.

September

On the first day of my third trimester, Paul and I did a 5K Color Run in celebration.

We also took a weekend trip with the University's International Club to the island of Bornholm, off Sweden.

I had my big glucose test to see if I had gestational diabetes (didn't.  hurrah.).

AND for our anniversary we took a week to travel around Andalucia, visiting the big sites (La Alhambra, La Mezquita, the hill towns, etc.) I've dreamed about seeing since I first learned about the Moors in my 9th grade Spanish class. 

October

At the first of the month, we attended our one-and-only birth preparation class (the English one was a one-time deal, only given twice a year) and I proceeded to pass out in the middle of the presentation and got wheel-chaired to the clinic for observation.  Embarrassing...but a good story!

I also was given a very lovely baby shower by some friends in the middle of the month.

And, since Paul and I couldn't really travel like we used to at this point, we made a pact to go out to a really nice dinner or activity every Friday night until the baby was born.  This was an excellent idea.

I started finishing up my work for COWI since my maternity leave started at the beginning of November.

November

We continued our Friday-night pact, visiting some very, very amazing restaurants (super expensive, no regrets) and one time going to the Odense symphony to watch Pirates of the Caribbean while they played and sung all the background music.  

Paul continued work, I began maternity leave and went to a GIS conference at the University of Copenhagen, and we celebrated a very nice Thanksgiving with friends and neighbors.

I spent a lot of time cooking food and freezing it.  Turns out my nesting instinct is all about hoarding lasagnas.

December

We welcomed our son, Hadrian, to the world.


My mother traveled all the way from the US to spend three weeks and Christmas helping us and loving him.

And last night we all stood at our window and watched the incredible fireworks that happen on a northern European New Year's Eve.  All together.  Three generations in Denmark.  It was a big way to end a big year.

***

Onward.

2013 /// 2012  /// 2011