Yearly Recap: 2015.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Time to recap!

2010 // 2011 // 2012 // 2013 // 2014

January:

We rang in the new year with family as per usual. We found out in early January that I was pregnant! I made some goals for the year (and month) that I totally didn't follow through with. We celebrated my dad's birthday and Sean's younger brother's birthday, too.

February:

We started telling close family members we were expecting a baby. It was so exciting! The weather wasn't very nice to us in MA so with all the snow I stayed indoors a lot. Sean spent most the month cleaning snow out of our driveway.

March:

In the beginning of the month, we lost my grandmother and I delivered her eulogy at her funeral. We revealed my pregnancy on social media and I had some time off from work. Following with tradition, I spent a weekend in the White Mountains scrapbooking. Sean spent his birthday in Florida with his brothers and dad.

April:

We celebrated Easter, had so many doctor appointments, the weather started turning around and we spent a little more time outside! I started really "showing" and bought maternity clothes. We also painted our living room and "finished" decorating it.

May:

We had a yard sale and I told myself REALLY... NEVER AGAIN. We celebrated mother's day, Sean's mom graduating college, Memorial day, Sean's brother visiting and so many other fun things! We went to town hall meetings but were banished off to the side because we forgot to register to vote in our town! AH! I started an instagram account for our cats.

June:

I finished my sixth year of teaching. We took a day trip to Newport, Rhode Island and also spent nearly a week in Maine on a "babymoon". I enjoyed the beginning of my summer off and spent a lot of time in the AC. Javi's nursery was finished and things started to feel "ready". 

July:

I started my summer teaching job, and quickly realized it was too much. I was put on bed rest toward the end of the month. We celebrated the 4th, revealed Javi's name on social media, celebrated my mom's birthday, and my mom and aunt threw me an amazing baby shower! We also celebrated 4 years of marriage.

August:

We lost my aunt in August. My family visited from California and I remained on bed rest but tried to go into work toward the end of the month. I spent most of my time on the couch laying down.. I just remember really wanting Javi to arrive!

September:

I turned 29! I stopped working and officially started my maternity leave. We spent a lot of time at the doctors and the hospital and finally Javi arrived on Sept. 20! We tried to figure out how to be parents.

October:

We got into somewhat of a groove in this parenting venture. We took a trip to Maine, walked a 5K, took Javi to the zoo and celebrated Halloween. Javi was a ninja turtle!

November:

I continued maternity leave, Javi turned 2 months old and we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. We started to go out a little bit and I left Javi for the first time. My mom, aunt and I continued our tradition of shopping on black friday and we decorated for Christmas.

December:

We started the month off by traveling to Puerto Rico. Javi turned 3 months old, we had a blast at Christmastime and we will ring in 2016 the same way we did for 2015 -- with family. 

Happy 2016!

Yearly Recap: 2014

2010 // 2011 // 2012 // 2013

Yearly recaps are what blogging is all about, don't you think? The posts are always one of my favorites to write because they are a great way to reflect on the year that's about to end and to write a little bit about it... all in one place as a way to look back and see what happened this year. I didn't blog as much so most of this is going to be from memory and not directly from previous blog posts. Here goes: 2014.

January:

We celebrated NYE at my parent's house before going home, probably before 9PM to lay on the couch and watch the ball drop. It was truly crazy. This is the month Artemis had to go to the ER and that wasn't the best. We celebrated being in our house for one month and managed to paint the kitchen. All in all, we tried to stay in the house and out of the cold.

February:

February brought a lot more snow and I gave the "okay" to buy an expensive snow blower. Artemis got her surgery done and recovered quickly. We celebrated Valentine's Day at the Outback (I'm pretty sure that was my doing because Sean really can't stand the Outback). I was also positive we were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. My 101 in 1001 list ended and I made a new one.

March:

March brought us some time to make some improvements in the house since I had some time off from work. The bathroom on the first floor got some updating, and the living room walls got painted. Sean shaved off his beard, we finally saw the sun for the first time in many months and I did a lot of scrapbooking. We celebrated Sean's birthday doing brewery tours with friends.

April:

Sean started growing hops and I tried my hand at a vegetable garden. One morning we evacuated our house because we thought we had a gas leak (they fixed it in no time). We celebrated Artemis' one year adoption anniversary, Easter (we hosted!) and did a lot of hanging out with friends.

May:

We celebrated Apollo's adoption anniversary in May. We cut down a bunch of trees in our yard that were deemed "dangerous". I helped throw a bridal shower for one of my friends. I forced Sean to come with me to our first, ever, annual town meeting (he may tell you that was the last time he'd ever go to one, too). We went to a Redsox game with my parents and tried to start burning all the tree stumps and branches we had cut down. We walked the town's parade route for Memorial Day and I primed the front hallway (sidenote, it's 7 months later and the walls are still only primed).

June:

I blogged about a trip to Newport, RI. We went to our first, ever, wedding in a cemetery and I used Rent the Runway for the first time in June. I helped throw a party at my work. We worked in the yard a lot and I started training for Mudderella. We finally installed the bathroom sink after 6 months. My fifth year of teaching ended and I started a summer nannying job. 

July: 

Sean started a new job in July. I fell down the stairs for the 3rd time so Sean took up the carpet. We finally got around to hanging up the gallery wall in the living room. The squirrels ate all the vegetable seeds and sprouts that I started in April. Hurricane Arthur rained out our 4th of July but we still managed to go to the drive-in. We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Sean's brother visited from Seattle and stayed at our house. I hosted a bachelorette party at my house. I spent a day in Boston and was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding. Also, Atlas joined our family.

August:

August was the month of weekend trips: Baltimore twice, NYC and DC were all on the agenda. I hiked a mountain for the first time without Sean. We went to New Jersey for the Eminem and Rihanna concert. I started my 6th year of teaching.

September:

In September, I completed the Mudderella and turned 28. We traveled to North Carolina to celebrate my cousin's wedding. We painted the music/office space. I was sick for a lot of the month.

October:

I spent my first nights alone when Sean traveled to Seattle to make wine with his brother in October. We spent a weekend in Maine. I was totally obsessed with Taylor Swift's new CD and I became an ambassador for Barefoot Books. We bought an 11-foot dining room table which led us to swap spaces with the living room (it's still in the works). Sean started his own blog.

November:

I finally updated to the iPhone 6 from the iPhone 4. I did my first vendor event with Barefoot Books this month and stayed busy with events through December. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the second time but for the first time in our house. I went shopping on Black Friday and didn't find any deals or steals. 

December:

We decorated for Christmas and even hung lights on the outside of the house. We got our Christmas tree and listened to Christmas music and loved every moment of being in the Christmas spirit. We were never able to put ornaments on the tree because of Atlas. Sean's dad moved to Florida and gave us a lot of furniture. We took a photo shoot with the 3 cats and Sean and his friends made beer using rocks. We sent out Christmas cards. We went to Fatima shrine, a neighbor's holiday party and celebrated Christmas day with each other and family. We spent the last two weeks having a staycation and binging on Netflix (switching off between Criminal Minds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). We celebrated one year of home owning.

Overall, the year was good to us. But we're ready to welcome 2015. 

My husband's a blogger.

I've been blogging for 5 years now, off and on, clearly as seen from the entries during the last couple of weeks. It's a hobby of mine -- much like scrapbooking or DVR. And for 5 years, Sean has been by my side while I blog. Imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when out of the blue he proclaimed "I started a blog"!

To say that blogging IS your hobby (like I do) is a bit different than blogging ABOUT your hobby (which is what Sean is doing). The title of his blog pretty much explains it all: his is a blog about brewing beer and cooking food. If you want to learn about brewing beer, see a bunch of pictures of different kinds of beer, look at photos of our creepy (to me, he thinks it's cool) basement and see recipes of all the food he prepares for me -- check it out! I just love it and it's totally worth the read!

Yearly Recap: 2013

2010  //  2011  //  2012

2013 was really good to us. It was a long year and one that definitely felt like 365 days. But it was successful and fun and full of changes. Here's a look back on the last twelve months.  

January:

I vowed not to be so afraid of food in 2013 (and ended up trying shrimp for the first time in August… success!). I had a run-in with Mother Nature and almost crashed my car and told myself that getting an SUV was a must. Sean sent me flowers at work just because. I totally fell on the ice and had to crawl around a parking lot at 6AM in the dark. Sean started a new band with his friends. We went to a release party for our friend's clothing line and had professional pictures taken.

February:

We had a huge snowstorm and everyone was talking about Nemo. I recapped our love story around Valentine's day. Every single Sunday I dragged Sean to time-share talks because I was positive we were big winners of trips they had promised over numerous phone calls. I started watching The Brady Bunch every day and slept a lot.

March:

Apollo turned one. Breaking Dawn, part II came out on DVD and I became obsessed all over again. I went to a punk concert and thought I may be too old for that sort of thing. I bought my first car, ever. I started following blogs via bloglovin' and posted my first vlog. I chopped all my hair off. Sean turned 27 and I wrapped his presents like brown paper packages. We celebrated Easter with family.

April:

Sean chose our date night movie and I realized I can no longer watch horror movies. My heart grew and I was obsessed with getting a new kitten. Blogging became really hard. I had really hard conversations with children about the Boston marathon bombing. I organized and attended our annual Scrapbook Weekend. We brought our new kitten home and named her Artie. Our washing machine flooded our entire apartment, twice. We finally explored the area we lived and went for walks around the reservoir and around the town square. 

May: 

Sean quit smoking (yay!). We pledged to buy, shop and eat locally. I blogged every single day. I went to the doctors and they found something alarming. My mom introduced me to Candy Crush. We hosted a Mother's Day brunch and finally used our wedding china. We went to the drive-in. We attended a wedding. I got sun poisoning and we spent Memorial Day with family. 

June:

I made a lot of summer plans and goals. I finished my 4th year of teaching. I talked about successful ways to bring a second cat into your home. We lived 30 days without accessories. I went to a bridal shower and a bachelorette party and realized how strange it is to go out without Sean. We attended a wedding. We participated in our town's yard sale. I got my very first excise tax bill and it threw me over the edge.

July:

We went camping over the 4th with our friends. I realized I wasn't all that good at keeping up with social media. We went to Puerto Rico and visited with my great grandmother. I totally failed at being in the ocean while Sean tried paddle boarding. I added "flying" onto the list of things I no longer enjoyed. I was floored by the verdict of the Trayvon Martin case. We celebrated two years of marriage and tried to take a family shot. We went for rides on Sean's motorcycle. I dragged Sean to the Taylor Swift concert at Gillette and it poured. I got to see Lilyana and Easton.  

August:

We flew to Seattle and spent time with family. I finally got to go to Forks, Washington. We drove down the Oregon Coast and then stayed in San Francisco for two nights. We stopped in the Redwood forest. We ended our west coast trip in Southern California. I drove a Camaro for the first time. Sean's band released their first album. I bought a new blog domain that I still haven't talked about. We went on a Boston Harbor cruise and I got another sunburn. I realized Apollo was depressed and we invested in Feliway (a life-saver, by the way!). I started my 5th year of teaching (first year as a Head Teacher) and I talked about why I love Montessori.

September:

Artie turned one. I got a MacBook Pro. I fell off the blogging train and didn't really jump back on the rest of the year. We spent time with friends in Providence. I made some fall goals (most of which I achieved).  We attended a wedding. I turned 27 and got a polaroid camera. We spent a weekend camping in the same cabin as the 4th of July. We spent time in Vermont and went apple picking. Sean sold his motorcycle and traded in that hobby for brewing beer. I joined a book club and signed up for Zumba classes.

October:

I spent a weekend in the Cape for Girls Weekend. Sean started his first batch of beer. We found "our house" online. We spent a weekend in Maine and watched the sunrise at the lighthouse where we got engaged. We accepted the counter offer for our house. Sean left his band and decided he wanted to focus his time and energy into other things.

November:

We dealt with a lot of bank paperwork and shed some tears here and there. We also had our house inspection where we found out that it's old. We saw Macklemore in concert. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family and cooked a turkey. I barely blogged.

December:

Sean made homemade donuts that were delicious but he got seriously burned in the process. We packed up our apartment any chance we could. We paid the penalties of breaking our apartment lease. We closed on our house. We sent out our annual Christmas cards. We settled in and decorated for Christmas (tree, lights and all). We made way too many trips to Lowes and Benjamin Moore became my BFF. 

I'm not totally sure what 2014 will bring but I'm excited to find out. :)

A blogging name change.

It seems crazy that I started blogging almost four years ago. What started as a tool to help organize wedding planning became a huge part of my life immediately after the wedding. Sure, there were times that I'd stop writing for a while and then slowly pick it up again -- but for the better part of four years now, my thoughts are recorded within this blog: Jasmine and Sean. To me, the name made sense when I started blogging. The blog's sole purpose was to keep a running log of designs and wants for our wedding. The fact that the blog's name would be our two names was never a question. People would ask "how's wedding planning?" and I'd say "great, we have a blog... Jasmine and Sean" blah blah blah. It was probably sickening. 

Back then, the blog was mostly random tidbits here and there; pictures from online, or taken in stores, a few DIY projects. But for the most part, I never strayed off topic from wedding planning. It was, after all, a wedding blog. After the wedding, I recapped it (kind of) but to be honest, after a twenty month engagement I was a little wedding-ed out. I still wanted to write, though. So I recapped the honeymoon. And after that, I still wanted to write and it made sense to write about our living situation, and from there I wrote about our daily to-dos, and our trips together, and every once in a while I'd write about current events or my work or what I wanted for my birthday. But there's always been something in the back of my mind before I hit post on each entry. I'm no longer writing about something that is an equally shared event like our wedding. I shouldn't keep writing posts as if Sean were sitting next to me helping me type. I'm writing about our lives and we have similar goals, moments of celebration and sorrow, and spend every day together. But we're also individuals. This blog is mine; I write about my day, compose my thoughts, reveal my opinions, share my likes and dislikes and hobbies. And so far, I've been bringing Sean's name along for the ride -- even on things he would never talk about it or really even think about.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post. I looked at Sean the other night and said "I think I'm going to change my blog name". He looked back at me and jokingly said "what? I'm getting bumped?" -- he was a little sad, but I think he understood. Of course, a blog name that uses your own name, or your spouses name, is meaningful; I want a blog name that's meaningful without directly using either a name but will still be inclusive all of the things that I already blog about... and will give me the freedom to blog about all those other things that I've previously thought "well, that's doesn't really fit with Jasmine and Sean". 

I'm not asking for suggestions. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't hard to think of a name that would be everything I was going for. I'm just here to let you know -- that the blog name Jasmine and Sean (and the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram + Pinterest acounts) will soon change. Stay tuned, okay?

A blogging award.

I'm excited because Jasmine and Sean was nominated for a blogging award by Amanda from Happily Ever After; the Liebster Award. Thanks so much!

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. It helps gain exposure, connect with the community -- and the actual word Liebster is a German word meaning sweetest. Cute, right?

There are some rules for accepting this award:

- Answer the questions the nominator sets for you, then make-up 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.

- Choose up to 11 people to tag, who have less than 200 followers (I looked at Bloglovin' numbers), and link them to your post.

- Be sure to tell them you've nominated them.

Here are my answers to the questions I was given:

1. What was the first blog you ever read?

A Charmed Wife. She no longer blogs -- at least not under that blog name. I loved everything about that blog and it was my first introduction to the world of blogging. It's also the first time I realized you could write about yourself -- on the internet, and it didn't have to be with LiveJournal.

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I'm not actually sure. I think I need to travel more to discover more places. Of the places I've visited, Puerto Rico is high on my list of places to eventually live.

3. Favorite book?

It's sort of a tie. Some books I read because I had to (but ended up enjoying them) and some I just read because I wanted to. For personal reading pleasure -- I love The perks of being a wallflower. For a book I had to read but loved regardless -- The Great Gatsby. And for a book I loved when I was younger so it's now my favorite to read to the children in my classroom -- The Giving Tree

4. If you could meet one famous person, who would it be?

I'm on a Taylor Swift kick since her concert last weekend -- so right now I'd say her. But the adult part of me would choose someone more like Barack Obama.

5. What is your favorite holiday?

Sean and I were just talking about how excited we are for Christmas. It's not receiving gifts that's so great. I just thoroughly enjoy the whole month of December -- the entire build up of the holiday; from getting the tree, decorating it, drinking hot chocolate, watching movies, looking at holiday lights, spending time with family, etc. It's so great.

6. What is your favorite quote?

via.

7. Where did you grow up?

I've lived in various cities and towns in Massachusetts most of my life; all being about 40 minutes outside of Boston. I lived in Southern California for a brief time during high school.

8. What is the last movie you watched?

We don't have a TV in our bedroom, so every night we watch movies on our tablet until we fall asleep. The last movie I saw was Superbad, it's sort of a regular pick around here. The last movie I saw in the theater though was The Heat.

9. What is your favorite pastime?

I love thinking back to the beginning of my relationship with Sean

10. Do you set new years resolutions?

Sometimes I do; sometimes I don't. This year I don't think I did and if I did I haven't been achieving them.

11. What is your favorite childhood memory?

I have a lot of memories of being little -- Sunday mornings waiting for Dunkin Donuts from my dad, weekday nights going to the mall with my mom, summer vacations in the Cape with family -- I don't think I can choose a favorite. They were all pretty great. 

Nominate up to 11 bloggers:

Laura, Little Moments, Big Moments; Chelsey, Things to be Stroud of; Brett, Handpicked Notions; Courtney, Courtney Em; Sarah, Sweet Happenings; Elizabeth, Undeniably, Me; Eliz, Tiny bits of Nonsense; Rachel, Well Worn Soles.

My questions for these bloggers:

1. First blog you ever read?
2. Favorite TV show and why?
3. Morning person or night owl?
4. Favorite place to travel?
5. Dog person or cat person or no pets, thanks?
6. DIYer or buy it ready to go?
7. Favorite restaurant?
8. Favorite childhood memory?
9. Dream job?
10. Your go-to clothing store?
11. Blog crush?

Thanks again Amanda from Happily Ever After!

5 on Friday.

I'm participating in the 5 on Friday link-up. That's what happens when writer's block gets the best of me.

One: Sean and I leave for our west coast road trip in less than a week. I am so excited. We're flying to Seattle, Washington and spending 3 nights there, then 1 in Coos Bay, Oregon, 2 in San Francisco, California, and 4 nights in Southern California. We'll be seeing family & friends, the sights & hopefully taking tons of pictures along the way.

Two: Tonight is the Taylor Swift concert -- that I've been waiting for and for which I've had tickets since November. It's an outdoor concert and unfortunately it's raining. Not just a light drizzle, either. It's down pouring with no end in sight. Really, Summer? Really?

via.

Three: I've been trying to get ready for the school year and just got my class list (!). It's very exciting to look at names and try to imagine what the child is like. I've been making some classroom materials like this color matching work that I first saw on Pinterest.

Four: I've been an iPhone owner for 5 years now but I'm debating changing sides. I went to the Apple store over the weekend to ask them about my power button (which is stuck down). They were no help, in fact, they were rude and never made eye contact with me or looked up from the iPads they were using for whatever reason. She actually responded to me by saying, "ooooh, ya that happens. We don't fix it though". What kind of customer service is that Apple? So, I'm currently shopping around.

Five: I'm planning out some scheduled posts for when we're away since I'm not taking a computer with me. As of next Thursday, it may be quieter around these parts, but I'll try to have some quality posts lined up regardless.

Link-up here!

I suck at social media, how do you do it?

Is it me... or does every blogger seem to have a really easy/open relationship with social media networks? How can this be? I'm not a busy person. I spend most of my days (at least lately) at home, within 2 feet of either my computer or iPhone and I still can't get the hang of this. And replying emails? I'm horrible at it. Don't get me wrong -- I have links to all my accounts (email included) on my right sidebar. But if you actually click them, I rarely update/post/tweet anything other than my latest blog post or an occasional pin and apparently you're not supposed to do that! Oops.

Here are some of my issues:


Facebook - I read an article that said if you don't have Facebook it's a "red flag" and you're considered suspicious. Really? The only reason I have a personal Facebook account is so I can have a Facebook page for my blog. But ever since I've had it all I do is link my blog posts to my Facebook page. I thought it would be a good idea, but instead it's turned into one more thing I can't get a handle on. It's boring to me, and it's mine -- it must be horrible to follow it. It's also a pain --I'll get a notification that someone commented on my link, or they liked my page but when I click it I can't find the comment, or the person's name who just liked the page. How am I supposed to interact with people when Facebook makes it so difficult?


Twitter - Twitter's nice because people only have 140 characters to get their point across -- it's quick, but now I see links for "extended tweets" -- what the heck are those? I don't understand Twitter. Are you talking to me? Am I talking to you? How do you retweet? Why do you retweet? I love reading celebrity twitter accounts; especially Amanda Bynes. But I don't feel that me sitting on my couch and watching Gilmore Girls is necessarily tweet worthy. How do you decide what to share? My tweets would actually be the same every day -- since I follow the same routine every day. That is just asking to end up on Dateline.


Pinterest - I was under the impression that Pinterest was just to bookmark things for yourself? Why do you have followers for such a thing? Are we not just pinning other people's ideas? No? I have no idea. I tried to make my "own" boards, as in pin pictures of my house, and I'm thinking who am I kidding? I'm no interior designer. Why not just pin straight from the source? Also, how do people pin so often? I forget about Pinterest for weeks at a time, and then I'll go on a pinning-spree. I still only have about 400 pins. Most people have thousands. How? I'd like to know these tricks. And yes, I have the "pin this" Google Chrome extension. It doesn't help me.


Instagram - I love me some instagram. But how does everyone know what hashtags to use? Are you making them up just like I am? No? Is there a list somewhere? And how do people have such amazing things to post pictures of? If you look at my instagram account, there will be 10 pictures straight of my cats. Boring. Also, I've had the account for over 2 years. I have less than 500 pictures. Sean has had his account for half that amount of time and has double the amount of pictures as me. I mean... I have an iPhone -- why can't I get my act together and snap a pic?

Those are just four sites that I try to use. I feel like I can't even add Vine, or Keek, or Google+, or anything else to the mix. I can't get down the four basics -- ones that aren't even new in any shape or form.

So I'm wondering (any feedback on this would be appreciated!)... does monitoring your social media sites come easily to you? Do you enjoy them? Do they feel like a chore? How do you decide what to post AND where -- or do you just post everything everywhere? Does it annoy you to see someone's instagram picture also posted on their blog and then again on Twitter? If someone follows you on something, do you immediately follow them back? I'm curious, interested and baffled all at once.

I'm all ears...