Happy Holidays, Here's How 2023 Went!

Please read this first!

This year was incredibly busy for the both of us. Leigh has finished the first semester of a new degree program and Michelle graduated with a Master's in Mulitculutural Litreature and Language in July. Michelle also went through another surgery in September, not huge but yet another busy part of the schedule. We are both still at our respective jobs at the hospital and university. It seems like just 5 minutes ago we were telling you all about getting married but, despite everything, a year has passed. And since we can never have a dull moment around here, we've got another announcement this year.

Pet Report

Nova and Luna have had a fairly quiet year without much to speak of. They are both getting older but you would never know it from looking at them. Luna turned 7 in the beginning of the year and immediately forgot her age, throwing her back out a few times throughout the year. Nova turned 9 in the Summer and is running circles around all of us, literally. Even the vet doubts both of their ages, we would too if Michelle hadn't had them since they were puppies. Luna discovered a love of snow this year and has been enthusiatic every time a flake hits the ground much like Leigh. Michelle and Nova would prefer to stay indoors.

What We've Been Up To

To keep us sane between the work and school we've both been elbow deep in craft projects for most of the year. Crochet, embroidery, household crafts, digital art, and more have all consumed a lot of our free time. We've also kept at expanding out experiments in cooking including dabbling in marshmallows, weirder macarons, bagels, and more! We've also been attending lots of plays whenever we can and even designed a table and chair set to be Bettlejuice themed. Our house looks like a Joann Fabric's blew up but it's been fun to try so many things.

Life in Massachusetts

There hasn't been a lot of time to do much around here. We've explored museums and been hanging around the bookstores while also exploring the area. However, hanging out here doesn't come cheap nor is it easy to get around in a lot of these towns. The Northeast is not for everyone. That's something we heard a lot when we told folks we were moving here. But you'll never know what's best for you until you try so we did. And now, we're done. 2023 was our last full year in New England and this time next year we will be somewhere else, hopefully a more permanent somwehere else. We know as well as anyone that we have moved a lot in the last few years, more than either of us wanted to. However, we both needed to explore new places to live and see what other parts of the country are like to move to. We tried it, we had fun (kind of), and we know fairly well what we want now.

Heading West

So the big question is, where are we going? Considering we're on one of the Eastern-most states in the country, we kind of have to head West no matter what. We aren't ready to tell anyone which town we'll be living in yet, especially considering we won't know until we get an apartment. We'll provide a new address for everyone once we have it, which probably won't be until the late Summer of 2024. We will be on the West Coast and plan to be there for the forseeable future. In a perfect world we won't have anymore of these wildly dramatic moves. It's an area at least one of us is familiar with, extensively, and somewhere we feel prepared to live for now. We'll share more information once we can! Until next year, let's hope we don't catch dysentery.