This was a good and bad year - the same can probably be said of most years.
We said good-bye to our sweet Clyde-dog on October 8, which was by far the worst part of the year. He was almost 14 years old and he was so very loved. He still is. I feel some peace knowing he and Cus are together, waiting for us in Heaven.
We also had some great experiences in 2018. We adopted Jim, our Great Dane mix puppy, on July 7 from {San Antonio Great Dane Rescue}. He is timid and and shy, but filled with love and excitement for life. He was 80 lbs when we adopted him - he's probably close to 100 now, but I don't think he'll grow much more, though he is still quite slim.
We were able to adopt a giant dog because we bought a house! We closed on our home on April 23. It's in San Antonio and we love it. The neighborhood is friendly and walkable. The house is small (for Texas - it's actually over 1700 sq ft) and secure and has everything we wanted. We just spent our first holiday season here and it was warm and lovely.
Our house is on the newer side, so there's not much that has to be done to it. We would like to finish painting all the rooms (everything was stark white when we moved in), and spruce up the kitchen to be a little more our taste, but we can take our time and do it when we feel like it. I love that.
We were able to sell our camper really easily and painlessly (we are so grateful for this) because our decision to sell it overlapped perfectly with a friend needing to buy a temporary home. It was a perfect win-win for all of us, and he's been in it for about 6 months now. He'll be back in his house soon, but he plans to keep it for camping trips with his kids.
We had a family wedding in June. My oldest niece, Danielle, married her sweet fiance-now-husband in a beautiful ceremony up in New England. It was so hot for that part of the country, but the heat couldn't keep us from having so. much. fun.
I got an amazing double dose of family this summer when my youngest niece, Hannah, came to visit us for a week. We had the best time and it was so hard to let her go home.
I'm looking forward to 2019 for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is that I'm going to be a great-aunt! My niece Renee and her husband are expecting their first baby in the spring and I am so so so excited. I already love going home to visit my family and our new addition will make it even more exciting.
Wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year's Even celebration, and a wonderful 2019!
