2012: Year in Review

We started off the year on a high note, Scotty made partner at his law firm and we'd just found out on Christmas Day, a week before, that we were expecting a sweet baby.  But our excitement was short-lived as I ended up having a miscarriage on January 3rd. We were sad, of course, but I know they are very common with many friends and family having gone through similar situations. And after having gone through it with Rachel almost exactly a year before and then watching her with Anders about 10 months later, I knew we'd be fine.

January is always a tough month for Scotty at work.  And at the end of the month, we went ahead and put our house back on the market thinking it would take a while to sell and knowing that we would eventually need the extra space, hoping it would be sooner rather than later. About 6 weeks later, we had an offer. Yay! It was around this same time that Scotty started having some health issues.

Ongoing headaches, anxiety, sleeplessness, and eventually, tingling extremities were his symptoms. At first we thought it was just the stress of how crazy our first two months of the year had been (I didn't even mention the shut-out LSU rec'd by 'Bama in the Nat'l Championship...it took a while for the sting of that loss to go away...he still doesn't like to talk about it). Throughout the ordeal, Scotty saw an internist, optometrist, ENT, ER doctor, and neurologist. The eventual diagnosis was high blood pressure (which at least one of the docs commented on initially). However, we found out also that he had some nerve damage from overdoing it at the gym as a result of trying to de-stress AND he had undiagnosed carpal tunnel in his wrists which was also exacerbated by certain exercises. So medication, wrist supports, and a change-up of gym routines seemed to help.  Thankfully, as we'd like to keep him around for a while.

In mid-April, we sold our house in Gonzales and moved into a cozy apartment in BR. We were undecided whether or not we wanted to build a house or buy something move-in ready. About a month later, we found out I was pregnant, and the decision to buy a house was made.  In hindsight, after now going through a renovation, I don't know that I'd ever want to build a house given all the decisions you have to make about everything, constant phone calls, running over to the house, etc. -- granted, Scotty took the brunt of the phone calls and impromptu trips to the house to meet with whomever needed to be met with.

Our summer was spent looking at houses, swimming in the pool at the apartment, looking at more houses, and coming to the realization that the 4 BR/3 BA newer house with a decent-sized yard in a good neighborhood was not available in our budget. So we expanded our horizons and found a house about 25-years old that desperately needed updating but had an awesome backyard, was in a great location, and had the 4 bedrooms we needed. You know what they say -- location, location, location!  The sellers finally accepted our 3rd offer.  Talk about frustrating; although our realtor was great and we got to become really good friends with her. We later found out why it took so long for the sellers to accept our offer...it's because there were 6 sellers -- 3 direct heirs and 3 descendants of the 4th heir. Eek. After we closed on the house (mid-September), we quickly got started with pulling down wallpaper, pulling up the carpet (white with stains, navy, and green-- gag), and finalizing our updates with the contractor. And although it took several weeks longer than we were told it would, they finally finished, and we are so happy with the results. We updated everything except the kitchen, which we anticipate taking place in a year or so.  Living through the final phase of renovations...yay...looking forward to that.

Throughout the year, we celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, had health scares with other family members, get togethers with friends and family, and went on a couple of trips to the beach. We worked hard so we could play hard. And we loved watching David Scott play hard and grow, turning from a toddler into a little boy. In the summertime, we concentrated on potty-training and after a few weeks, it was done -- really less than that as I'd kept him in pull-ups at night for a while just being cautious (and not wanting to change the sheets in the middle of the night).  He's learned so much over the course of this last year (colors, numbers, ABCs, words, songs, talking in complete sentences, and greatly improved on his swimming skills which turned out to be very helpful when he fell in the pool a few weeks ago).  He is even getting ready to be moved up to the pre-school class next week. Our sweet boy is also looking forward to meeting his little brother in the next week or so as are we.

2012 was an overall good year, but I am ready for what the New Year will bring. I know 2013 will be an adjustment for our family. But hopefully we won't have any medical mysteries or apartment life to contend with. And life with two little boys can begin...