I said “this is my year” 366 days ago...it was not. I have no excuse for my lack of running other than a rollercoaster year of emotions. We bought a new house in July which accounts for my lack of summer running. September I decided to ramp up my running but then mom was in the hospital and passed away. My motivation diminished. So I’m saying it again...2021 is going to be my year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2020 was full of many highs and a few lows.
In early March (before the world changed), we travelled to
Lafayette, LA to run the Zydeco half marathon so we could cross off state #26.
It was a great race and their logo is an accordion so need I say more?
Starting on St. Patrick’s Day, we have both been working
from home. It has been an interesting experience. I like it for the most part
but I do miss interacting with my coworkers and Ginelli’s pizza. I’m not sure
Eric feels the same way. We are still working from home with no idea when
either of us will return to office. Honestly, I’m not complaining, this winter
commute is awesome; no three-hour snowy rides home.
April was very low key until I got a surprising call on Good
Friday…it was my sister, Nancy…she was moving to the Twin Cities in two weeks!
What?? She said she would never leave Texas! Eric and I spent the day apartment
hunting for her and got her a sweet place in Eagan.
Also in April, we replaced our living/dining room floors and
updated all our kitchen appliances. We also got some cross-train bikes for my
future ride on the Mickelson trail in South Dakota. We did a lot of biking riding.
May was much like April, we did a lot of biking. We took a
day off to go biking the Sakatah Trail in southern Minnesota when I got a
message that changed our lives. My neighbor (realtor) asked if we wanted to
sell our townhouse because there was a huge demand for our type of house. Eric
and I had never planned on staying in the townhouse for 16 years but because of
the housing crisis of 2009 we were stuck. We had thought about it but never
made a move. But with us working from home, this was the perfect time to
prepare to sell. We looked at several nice houses. When we got reject on my
favorite house (which was a Godsend after we found out about the 3-story condo
going up in the backyard), we almost settled on one that wasn’t perfect. Then
the 13th Ave house came on the market. At first, I said no but
agreed to look at it and fell in love. We put in an offer and it was accepted.
The next stress was putting our house on the market. My realtor said it would
be sold in 5 days, we were skeptical. But 3 days later we had several offers
and sold our house!
June was a waiting game. The owners of our new house were
buying new build and it wasn’t going to be ready until end of July so we had to
wait longer than usual. Eric’s brother, Adrian and the eldest two kids, Caio
and Anna, came up from Brazil. His timing was great because we needed his
helping fixing up things in the new house, painting the ugly colored walls and
replacing almost every light fixture. We also did some fun things with them
like kayaking/swimming for 4th of July.
The rest of July was the moving mayhem. The week before our
close, Danielle, Bradley, Blake, my Mom and Nancy came over to help move most
of our stuff to a storage unit. Because of a closing date issue, we were
homeless for a couple days. Unfortunately, my mom got sick and had to have
emergency surgery in Shakopee. She was in the hospital during the week of all
the closings. She was released from the hospital on the day we moved into our
new house. My brother, Mike and his family came up to bring mom a lift chair
for her recovery. This work out perfectly because with the help of Adrian and
Caio, they were able to get almost everything out the storage units into a
moving truck and Mike’s truck. They did great work.
We had a small gender reveal party at our house in August for Danielle. Danielle is due with #2 on December 28th. Could the baby boy be my birthday present?? 😊
In the beginning of September, we toured many Minnesota
State parks with Nancy and Danielle. It was a nice weekend to get out and hike.
The next weekend we drove out to Rapid City for a week.
Because we had to bring Adrian, Caio and Anna back, we rented a minivan. Good
thing we did because we were surprised that Eric’s sister, Tracie was visiting
at the same time. We did a lot of tourist activities together in the minivan.
It was fun!
On September 19th, Eric’s niece Abbie, married
Bryce. Eric was the officiant. It was nice to see so many family and
friends…social distancing of course! It
was a beautiful day.
We did one final trip with Adrian before he went back to
Brazil. We toured the Minnesota North Shore with Nancy and DJ. It was the end
of September and the fall colors were gorgeous!
Adrian went back to Brazil in early October. Regrettably, he
couldn’t fit everything in his luggage, including his two teenagers. They
exceed the baggage weight limit. Just kidding, Caio and Anna became our
teenagers. Thankfully our new house has enough bedrooms. We got a freak
snowstorm on October 20th which dumped 8” on us. The kids don’t
really remember snow, they were 6 and 4 when they left Minnesota for Brazil.
But we had a blast making snowmen and snow angels. Caio is working in the
Bakery at Hy-Vee which is only a few blocks away. Anna finished her first year at “Virtual”
Etec (her Brazilian high school). She will start at Shakopee High School in
February. Swirl is sort of adjusting to
the two new residents.
We also gained another niece, Gabbie, in June and finally a
great-niece on the Williams side with Vesper in October.
Mom came up for a follow up surgery in late October. The
surgery went well but she had several complications afterwards and sadly tested
positive with COVID-19 while in the hospital. It was a rough 3-week
rollercoaster and sadly in the end she was not able to pull through. She passed
away on the evening of November 21st. Her funeral was November 28th. It will be a tough holiday season without
mom, she really loved Christmas and snowmen.
It is not all sad though, we adopted Mom’s cat, Malcolm (aka
Melcome). It was a very lonely time for Malcolm while Mom was in the hospital.
We came down to Mom’s to pick him up the week before she passed. He has
adjusted well to his new environment. He is such a love bug and always wants
attention. He has given me a lot “hugs” and I’m so happy we could bring him
into our family. Because Swirl and Malcolm have been independent cats for so
many years, we haven’t introduced them yet. We are not sure if it would be
wise. Swirl doesn’t have front claws and Malcolm doesn’t have teeth so we are
not sure who would win. For now, Swirl is our upstairs cat and Malcolm is our
downstairs cat. We share our time and love with both of them equally.
2020 was a tough year. We started out with just the two of
us and Swirl in a small townhouse.
By years end, we acquired a new house, two teenagers and another cat.
Love,
Kim, Eric, Caio, Anna, Swirl & Malcolm
