2008 in Review

I sat today reflecting on the year past. A whole lot has happened to the both of us this year...

January: January began with me starting a new job at Digi Key here in Thief River Falls. I trained for this new job the whole month and all of Feb. It was bitterly cold in Minnesota and we spent lots of time going to hockey games and watching movies. We thoroughly enjoyed living in our townhouse and being only a few miles away from my mom and dad.

February: February was a whole lot of the same as January. Nothing too exciting.

March: This was the craziest month of the year. Early in March, Abhay flew to Indiana for a job interview. We figured it would take weeks to hear back, but within one day he was offered his job at Emcon. We thought long and hard about, put a pen to paper, and consulted our parents. After much debate, he accepted the job, gave notice at his job at Arctic Cat, and I gave notice at my job at Digi Key. Movers came at the end of the month and packed up our townhouse. We said goodbye to our family and friends and we off to a new life in Indiana, a place I had never visited or seen.

April: We settled into a 6 month leased 2 bedroom apartment. I started my job as an infant teacher at CCDC and Abhay started his new job. We did lots of exploring around Columbus and Indianapolis. I met lots of Abhay's friends from Michigan Tech that live in Columbus and we began to from/rekindle friendships with them. We made a trip to Chicago at the end of the month.

May: May brought lots more of exploring around our area. We really started to like Indiana. Abhay's mom and dad flew in from India on the 28th and spent the rest of the summer with us, which was a treat. We found the closest IKEA in Ohio!!! We started getting used to Starbucks coffee--much to our dismay there are no Caribou Coffees close to us.

June: The beginning of June brought heavy flooding to Columbus. I was off of work for almost 3 weeks due to the flooding and continued to work part-time at CCDC all summer--when it was supposed to be a full time job. Happiness for us came in the form of a Greencard for Abhay. What a intense ordeal...but makes life a whole lot easier for us.We enjoyed time with each other, Abhay's parents, and our friend in Columbus.

July: July 4th brought Gunjan, Abhay's sister our way. She was in the US all summer for work and she was able to come and visit us for the long holiday weekend. We all had such a great time. We did lots of traveling in July--all over Ohio and back to Chicago. July 7th brought Abhay and I's first wedding anniversary. We also began our house hunt.

August: Our highlight in August was the chance for our parents to meet!! My parents flew out to Indiana before Abhay's parents left. It was so nice for them to be able to meet. We all had a great time together traveling around Indianapolis and down to Kentucky. Before everyone left, they were all able to see the house that we had put a bid on and were hoping to purchase (which we did).

September: September brought the happy and stressful time of purchasing our first home!!!

October: Our whole October was preoccupied with packing and settling into our first home. We could have never done it without the help of our friends. In October, I received my temporary Indiana teaching license and was finally able to quit my job at CCDC and start subbing in the elementary schools in Columbus. We had so much fun handing out candy to trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood

November: November we were both busy with work. We enjoyed a 3 day trip to Minnesota for Thanksgiving. We had a blast decorating our house for Christmas at the end of the month.

December: Of course, our highlight of December was spending two weeks in Minnesota with my family. It was so nice to be able to relax and spend time with people we love. We loved the milder weather of Indiana in December but were then shocked to the core when we arrived in Minnesota.

Abhay and I are looking forward to what 2009 brings us. 2008 was a great year for us personally, and job wise. We hope to travel more--we'll be heading to India sometime and we also hope to make a trip to NYC, DC, and where ever Gunjan comes in the US. We have lots of plans for re landscaping our whole outside when spring comes and lots more projects for our house. And as always, we hope to spend lots of quality time with each other, our friends, and family. After all, those people are what life is about.

We wish you all, and your families, a wonderful 2009. We wish you joy, health, and prosperity in the new year!

--Mandy