What A Year!

What a year this has been!!

January
Nicole starts taking cake decorating classes
The Pickle Family blog is introduced to the world (yeah, I know. Monumental, right??)
Phil spends a week in Virginia trying for a job at a small boat unit
February
We take orders to an HSV ship and are certain that's where we'll be heading in June
Josh turns 4 and starts writing letters all on his own
March
Nicole’s Mom and Dad visit. Phil has to get stitches from slicing open his hand
New drywall on the basement ceiling, new kitchen faucet, rip out carpet in living room
April
Josh starts soccer for the first time
We pay to have the hardwood refinished downstairs
We buy the supplies to start the siding on the garage
Phil breaks his foot playing basketball (the same day as we were doing the one above)
Nicole completes all 4 Wilton decorating classes
Find out our orders to the ship have been canceled and we’re back to square 1
Josh starts reading (before he's even 4 1/2)
May
Accept orders to Riverine Squadron 1... With much fear and trepidation!
Siding project officially starts
Jeremiah says his first word: cake! (yeah, that's my fault)
June
Phil gets his cast off- finally!
Dryer breaks and has to be replaced
Josh’s first soccer season wraps up
We finally get around to replacing the refrigerator that has leaked now for 2 years
July
Phil’s Aunt Verna comes for a visit
Nicole teaches her first Wilton course
August
Phil starts two college classes
We finally list the house for sale
Nicole makes her first wedding cake
September
Jeremiah's big birthday party
Trip to California complete with a few days in Disneyland (where Jeremiah turns 2)
Get news of an offer on the house while we’re in the park and eventually accept
Have friends come spend days helping put up the siding and remove an old oil tank
Close on selling the house on the 30th
October
Phil leaves just a couple days into this month for school in Mississippi
Halfway through the month the movers come and pack up everything over 4 days
Nicole’s mom flies out and we make a week-long road trip from Chicago to Virginia Beach
Nicole and the boys stay with friends Jim and Cheryl
A whirlwind of house hunting for Nicole and the boys
Phil graduates from his first school
Spend Halloween trick-or-treating with friends
November
Phil arrives in Virginia Beach
Spend this month between a couple of friends’ houses
Close on the house on the 21st
Move in and celebrate Thanksgiving in our new home
December
Set up the new house
Gratefully celebrate the holidays together

Overall, we have so much be to grateful for this year! Circumstances beyond our control changed so many times it was hard to know what to do, but fortunately Someone else was looking out for us, and everything worked out better then we could have ever planned for!
When Phil tried out for that small boats job in January, he was so disappointed when he didn't get it. Now looking back, he's so glad he didn't! He would not have even known about this job with the Riverines he had.
We weren't going to accept the offer on the house at first, assuming Phil would be in schools for months so we wouldn't be able to be together anyway. Long after we closed on the house, we found out there would be a large gap between his schools, so we'd be able to spend the holidays together since the boys and I were already in Virginia Beach (which wouldn't have been possible if we were still waiting for the house to close).
So with all that said, Happy New Year this year! May God be as present in your life this year as He was in ours in 2008.