January 2012: January 3, 2012 will forever be etched in my mind. The day began with a start from the shocking phone call that my dad who was 59 had died after a head on collision in a snow storm and suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital afterwards caused by high blood pressure due to the accident. He was buried in a beautiful cemetery in Rittman, OH called the National Cemetery it was created for Military Veterans. Dad was an Airforce vetran. They said in the summer the place was gorgeous and so carefully manicured. (I wasn't able to make it up there to see it.)
This was Dad's casket draped with the flag that was presented to my mom at the funeral and again at the cemetery where we had a brief service. I think those days were the hardest I've ever been through!
Here are some pics of my family taken at the dinner after Dad's funeral service.
Alicia, Mom, Abby (Middle row) Ava, Grandma Ritchey(Front)
Back to Front Left to Right: Bud, Kevin, Ron (Dad's brother) Keith, Abby, Mom holding Paislee, Donna (Ron's wife) holding Ava, and Alicia.
February 2012: This month would've marked Dad's 60th Birthday but he got to spend it in Heaven. This marked 4 years since Bud and I were engaged. I honestly don't remember a whole lot about this month everything was still somewhat of a blur and just putting one foot in front of the other.
March 2012: This month Bud turned 29 so this year is the big 30 and I'm hoping to have a big party for him! And spring started happening which was great!
April 2012: I started into my last quarter at Hocking College, Bud still had one more to go. And we also helped Bud's Aunt Sharon celebrate her wedding this month. We welcomed into the family Mike. It was lots of fun! Also in April we started filling in at a church just outside Amesville, OH since they were without a pastor.
May 2012: We celebrated Abby's 27th Birthday. And we began preparations for our graduation from Hocking College. Also my brother announced he would be getting married in July so I would add my 4th sister-in-law! :) We also joined Phi-Theta Kappa in May (it's a national Honor society). Below are some photos from that. Also we got our first peek at our new home!! :)
June 2012: WE GRADUATED!!! With Honors! Below is a pic of our family minus the cat! LOL :)
August 2012: Was pretty uneventful so not much to report there.
September 2012: We helped different ones celebrate birthdays such as Mamaw's 75th birthday and Jenny's 30th Birthday. And we became Bobcats as we started our journey at Ohio University in Lancaster Ohio. We also became the full time pastor at Lathrop Mission Church in Amesville, OH on September 2, 2012. This is new for us as we've never served in a full time pastorate position before just youth pastor and assistant pastor, but God is leading and directing us and we hope this year we'll get the chance to broaden the ministry and get out in the community and invite people to church!
October 2012: We were priveleged to attend a Romney/Ryan Ralley in Lancaster, OH and even got to shake hands but didn't get pics with them.
(This was Romney and Ryan coming on stage!)
November 2012: We celebrated Thanksgiving with Bud's family here in Logan, OH.
December 2012: We completed our first semester at Ohio University and we got to go to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas with both of my brothers and their families! It was so much fun! We got to go to some of my old haunts from my time living there like Fort Macon and the New River Pottery and the Mall and even down town New Bern!
Now it's on to 2013 and the adventures that await us there. (I was trying to post this on New Year's Eve and my internet went down so here it is finally, I'll apologize now the amount of blogs that will be posted in the next couple days as it is my plan to keep up with my blogging better in 2013.)
