I have created multiple blogs in my lifetime. As a journalism major, and a lifelong journaler, writing has always been my go-to way of expressing myself. Words have always been my thing. Each blog has been a creative outlet, a way to stay connected to family and friends far away, and a tool to document our life.
I thought it would be fun for this new year to re-publish old blog posts from these multiple other blogs I’ve created through the years, and have them consolidated in one place. I plan to post a weekly “Memory Lane Moment”, chronologically pulling photos and content from past blogs, to hopefully create somewhat of a seamless story of my life as a wife and mom. Any earlier than that, and I’ll have to search through handwritten journals! So expect 52 throwback posts in 2025.
Welcome to week one of Memory Lane Moment!
My first dabble in the blog world started in 2006, so that’s where I’ll start. This will be fun to see where this takes us! Instead of copying and pasting old blog posts, I’ll simply rewrite the gist of the story, provide backstory context, and sprinkle in all of the pictures I have. Enjoy!
By the summer of 2007, Ryan and I had been married for three years. He had just transitioned from an engineering job to a financial advisor. While I was working an admin job in Baltimore, moving military household goods.
Summers were my busy season, since most military families moved when school was out, requiring me to work 60+ hours a week from May to September. And any days off were highly frowned upon. Needless to say, while I loved where I worked (because of the people), it often felt like I was married to my job instead of my new husband.
Leading up to that summer, Ryan and I had begun discussing the idea of starting a family. With that in mind, we both knew that me quitting my job was on the horizon. So we made the decision to give my boss almost a year in advance notice, so I could properly train my replacement before the busy summer season hit. It was the hardest, best choice we made for that season of life.
They threw me a goodbye party and wished me well on my next journey. These people were MY PEOPLE in that season of life. They saw the ins and outs of my life, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Leaving my workplace was a sad yet exciting transition. It felt surreal to leave friends and mentors that were a major part of my life for five years (it was my first and only job upon moving here to Maryland after college in 2001). It is always a little sad knowing a chapter in your life is coming to an end, even if something exciting awaits you at the other end.
So by May of 2007, I officially quit my job and Ryan and I entered our first summer in the history of our dating/married life where we would enjoy traveling and doing “summery” things and just being out in the sun (instead of me being cooped up in an office all summer long). We would often joke that I had officially entered my early retirement, ha!
Upon quitting my job, I expected to make a smooth transition into motherhood. What we would go through instead, was an immediate pregnancy (I found out at 5 weeks), but I would then miscarry one week later. It was so unexpected, I had not had many conversations with other moms at that point about miscarriages. While we only had one week to process and start dreaming of having our first baby, I took an entire day to be holed up in our bedroom to grieve (mostly) the shattered dream of being pregnant. I know each mom experiences this loss differently, but my heart went on relatively quickly to hope for another pregnancy.
I think we both thought I would magically conceive the next month. It would take another full year to get pregnant, but we were able to enjoy the freedom I had as a new stay-at-home-wife. We took advantage of that season to travel a ton. As stated earlier, I had been unable to take a day off from May to September, for five years straight, so this was a glorious way to spend our first summer “off”.
I picked up a couple side jobs while we “waited”, I babysat two days a week for Ryan’s parents’ neighbor and also helped a friend with her online stationary business. It was such a unique season of life where we were both in charge of our new work schedules, and in turn were able to optimize our play schedules.
On top of our new work routine, Ryan and I created an (almost) daily morning routine that consisted of waking up and going to the gym together, grabbing coffee and eating breakfast together, and then going our separate ways for what we had scheduled that day. And if you know me, I am hands down a morning person, so I can’t explain how much I enjoyed this amazing start to each day! There were mornings where we would be eating breakfast together and the sun was shining into our sun room and I would turn to Ryan and say, “Who does this? It’s like we’re retired!”
First on the travel docket was to visit my grandparents (dad’s parents) in Palm Desert, California.
In August we would fly with some of our closest friends to Sydney, Australia.
We spent time in Manley Beach…
…did some sightseeing…
…and then what we really all went there for, was to attend the wedding of Ryan’s high school friend. The groom is Scottish and the bride an Aussie. All five guys in this photo went to high school together in Manila, Philippines, as missionary kids. These friends are still some of our closest friends to this day, and we have taken many trips together throughout the years.
Looking back, that summer was such a blessing and I remember being truly humbled by that peaceful season of our marriage. As hard as it was to be patient with God’s timing of starting a family, we were also keenly aware that it could possibly be our last summer just the two of us. What was in store for us that coming fall? We did not know, but we relished our newfound freedom that summer of 2007.
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