2015- The year in review

Another year bites the dust! It's crazy to me how time goes by in the blink of an eye. Does it feel like that for anyone else!?!

This year flew by but my favorite thing to do at the start of a New Year is to reflect on the incredible things the Lord has blessed me with in the year passed. So here it goes..

2015 started with a big announcement that we would be moving to Korea, so January was my last month to work. It was hard to leave so many people that I loved working with but it gave me the opportunity to take a break, step back, and figure out what I could do with my spare time. At the time we thought we would be moving in February so we had a month full of visits from a few of our favorites.

Zoo fun with our favorites

It's totally normal for a group of adults to play twister on a Saturday night. 

February followed with more "goodbye" weekend get-togethers and visits from family and friends. Turned out--By mid month we got word that the move to Korea would be postponed anywhere from May to September. This only meant more time for additional send off visits :) It also meant I had plenty of time on my hands which meant I needed a serious hobby.

 March was a BIG month for us. It started out by our agreeing to be COR Leaders for our Sunday school class. This was something we had prayed about but didn't think we would have the opportunity to do because of the move. It's funny how God changes plans for you and how they turn out. We were so blessed to have been given the chance to serve Him and are so grateful for the relationships that He provided us with this group of couples.

 In March I also decided to open an ETSY shop to keep me busy and by the end of the month it was becoming a full time hobby.  Little did I know at the time it would become something much more for me.

 This was also the month that Garrett turned the big 3-0! I try to out due myself every year for his birthday so this year was going to be no exception.  I planned a surprise party in Houston with all of our friends that was a HUGE success- but of course that couldn't be it.

Garrett mentioned wanting to take a trip to New York for his birthday to see his best friend but when the Korea stuff came up we didn't want to set anything in stone just in case we had to move last minute (the life of the oil field can happen that way). When our plans to move got postponed until the summer I figured there was no reason why we couldn't take the trip, but this time I got to plan it and not tell Garrett until the day before we left. I made him take off work for  his birthday but made him think we were going to spend the weekend in Houston enjoying our favorite local activities to soak in before we moved- it was a good cover story and it worked!

I had never been to New York so I was just as excited as he was and it was seriously an amazing trip, and an awesome way to celebrate my sweet hubs. There was so much to see and so much to do and with the best tour guide in the city we didn't miss a beat.

April brought another 3-0th birthday to celebrate our BFF Jenna. We also got the chance to spend the weekend with our Sunday school class for a retreat. God did amazing things over the weekend and we are so grateful we were still in town and able to go.

We slowed down a bit with traveling for a few weeks but life didn't slow down with us. The DoodleBug Shoppe got busier with each month and by the end of May my orders had quadrupled and I spent more and more time working on it. Since our Korea move date still wasn't set in place I decided to get a booth for the Peach Festival in Ruston,LA for the end of June- which meant I had a lot of work to do!

And what could be better than to end the month of May with a trip to Shreveport to see the one and only Taylor Swift with my favorite teenager!

June was another busy month for us. We got the final confirmation that we would indeed be moving in July so this meant we had one month to figure out all of the details. It was also the month that we celebrated one year of marriage, AND my 30th birthday. Garrett has an advantage when it comes to birthdays because his falls first so he gets to see what I do for him, then try to out do me- which he usually succeeds.

His first plan was a surprise party that not only included my parents that were visiting, but ALSO my best friend Liz that traveled from Louisiana!

He didn't stop there. He also planned a trip to Nashville not only to go to the CMA Country Music Fest but to visit my friend Caty, her husband, and sweet baby boy- who I was going to get to meet for the first time. This of course came as a huge surprise that he kept secret until the day before we left- and of course my dramatic reaction was documented via video, and FaceTime. The last time I saw Caty was a year earlier and she was still pregnant so the thought of finally getting to meet her baby Sutton was super special. The trip of course was amazing and the perfect way to join the 30 club.

We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary when we got back to town. I could write a book expressing what an awesome year of marriage it has been but I'll just share a picture to remember our special day :)

The month ended with a week long visit from my sweet friend Sadie who helped me prepare for Peach Festival. There is no way I'll ever be able to repay her for all of the work she helped with. Peach Festival was fun, and quite the learning experience. Overall it was a great weekend for us to spend hanging out with our friends the week before we moved.

July brought on another big celebration. We were able to surprise my dad for his 6oth birthday a few days before we left and then we were off!

THE BIG MOVE WAS HAPPENING!  Even though we had been planning the move for months it felt like it snuck up on us. 

We spent the next two months learning the ropes and getting adjusted in our new home away from home.

August & September brought on more celebratory events. Since we had to head back to the states to watch Garrett's brother say I do, we planned to come early enough for me to dash off to Louisiana and surprise my best friend for her 30th birthday (Definitely a popular year to join the 30 club!).

When you're only home for 2 weeks you make the most of it and do everything you can right!?

Labor Day weekend we welcomed two new members to the Speed family. We are so excited to have a new sister and nephew and were so happy to be a part of their most special day.

 

Back to Korea we went and boy did we have a surprise ahead of us. Little did we know there was one more family member waiting to be added to our crew. We got the best news we could have ever asked for- WE ARE EXPECTING! Baby Speed will be here in May and we could not be more excited to grow our little family.

In October we decided to start our travel around Asia and what better place to start than Thailand. And of course we used the opportunity to come up with a unique way to announce our big news.

November and December flew by without any complaints- especially since we made the decision not to go home for the holidays. We spent Christmas in Hong Kong and rang in the New Year with great friends on a ski trip.

Looking back it blows me away to think about what all happened in a year. I say this every year but it's crazy how time goes so fast and how much happens in just a years time. We continue to be blessed day in and day out and are beyond thrilled for what 2016 has in store for us. Next year is going to be quite different but we are ready for all of the greatness around the corner!

There is so much to come for us in the upcoming year and we can't wait to share with you. As always thanks for letting us share with you :)

-The Speeds

Christmas in Hong Kong

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone and we are already in to a brand new year. It's a bit late but better late than never to share how we spent our holidays. As you can imagine, Christmas was a little different for us this year. We made the decision a few months ago to not go home for the holidays and take advantage of our time in Asia to explore the surrounding countries before we head back to the state in a few months.

We decided for Christmas that we wanted to wake up somewhere different and exciting to take our minds off of being away from our families. There were so many different places on our wish list but we narrowed it down to the quickest, and easiest for a short 4 day trip, so off to Hong Kong we went.

Since I did the planning for our trip to Thailand I let Garrett handle the planning for this trip. He knew it was a big deal for me to be away from home for Christmas so he had a few surprises up his sleeve. We both agreed that we didn't want to do too much so that we would still be able to enjoy some of our normal Christmas traditions- watching Christmas movies on Christmas Eve, FaceTime with our families, and streaming a Christmas sermon from church. We wanted to explore but also have time to relax and enjoy having some time away together.

To start- our hotel was AMAZING. We had a beautiful view of the entire skyline of Kowloon. The skies were a bit foggy most of the days we were there but the temperature was pretty great. The first full day was Christmas Eve. We saw the sun break through the clouds so we decided to take the tram up to the tallest peak of the island and overlook the entire city. Such a cool skyline on both sides of the bay.

That afternoon we took the subway to the other side of the bay to go up to the top of Sky 100. Sky 100 is the tallest building in the city, ranked #5 tallest in the world. The 100th floor has a 360 degree view of the city. As you can see there is a lot of smog in the air so we were lucky to have gotten such clear views.

As I mentioned earlier I knew there would be some hidden surprises from Garrett in the things we had planned. Surprise #1 - An etched wine bottle to document our Christmas in China. We aren't big on souvenirs but this was one that suited us well.

While enjoying the view from the top of the city, Garrett decided to give me Surprise #2 - tickets to Disney Land Hong Kong! I had been begging for us to go but Garrett told me there was no point since I couldn't ride any of the rides (#pregnancyprobs). I guess my kid-hearted, Disney lovin' self convinced him so he planned for us to go anyway... of course I wanted to go right then but we saved it for our last day.

That night we joined thousands of others along the bay to view the city lights. Every night at 8pm both sides of the island put on a light show synced with music. Several of the buildings were fully decorated with Christmas themed lights. Hong Kong has one of the coolest skylines and it was really neat to see all of the lights sync up.

Dogs are members of the family too so you should never leave them out of a prime photo op! 

Christmas Day we decided to take a bit of a break to rest our feet from the 14 miles we walked the day before. We spent most of the morning on FaceTime wishing all of our families a Merry Christmas. God bless technology!

When your wife wants a picture of Santa you pose for her so she doesn't look like a crazy person :) In case you can't see him, he's in the left hand corner.

For lunch we ventured out to find the #1 "to do" on our list- Tim Ho Wan. We were told it would be hard to find and that there would definitely be a wait. It was pretty easy to find but the wait was no joke. We spotted the crowd around it from 10 stores away. The overall experience was pretty unique. They give you an order card and a number- which is basically your number in line. While you wait you fill out the card marking the items you want. When they get close to your number they take your order and when a table is ready you sit and your food is right out. When we got there they were only on number 198, and as you can see we were 268. An hour and 10 minutes later and we sat among a crowd of people to enjoy the BEST dim sum we have had. Before we went we read some trip advisor reviews and ordered based off of the most popular items reviewed- we were not disappointed at all.

Everything we ordered was DELICIOUS!

We made it an easy day and headed back to the hotel for some traditional Christmas movies and a romantic candlelit dinner enjoyed with a side of Christmas jazz tunes. And no better way to end the night than enjoying the beautiful view from our Bayfront view room. It might have just been Garrett and I but he makes my heart full enough for a room of a 100 people. Next year's Christmas will be quite different with a house full of people, and a little Speed to take care of so it was nice to enjoy the time just the two of us- even if I did have a few meltdowns and brat moments :)

On our last day it was FINALLY time to be kids again and go to Disney Land!!!!

Obviously it was much smaller than what you might be used to at Disney World in Orlando but it was equally as magical. And the best part was- no wait times! We were able to get all of the big rides done before lunch and enjoy all of the shows the second half of the day once it started getting crowded. It was awesome. Of course I couldn't ride everything with Garrett but he had a blast and I was able to get some good action shots of him enjoying himself. It was so much fun! 

Pregnancy Approved Roller Coaster = Boring 

When you're a solo rider you get to skip the line

All in all we had a great trip and think the amount of time we were there was pretty perfect for what all we wanted to do. There wasn't anything we did that I wouldn't recommend.

Stay tuned for a wrap of the incredible year we've had, polished off with one last trip to ring in the New Year.