Reflecting on the Past Year~ Happy 2nd Blogoversery

Can you believe Rachael Turns Pages is two? I have been blogging for two full years. I can hardly believe it. This year I hosted my first month long event. A Month of Rapunzel occurred in March. The 2nd Annual Library books Read-A-Thon took place in June. Overall I had a lot of fun being part of the community this year. 

My cousin Dylan turns two today. He has such a great personality and looks just like his dad. Everything is broken and needs batteries. Next Christmas he needs to bring his hammer. Dylan became a big brother this year to twins Sydney and Cameron that were born on June 27th, 2014. 

My cousin just announced that she is pregnant with her third child so we will welcome another family member in April. Emma is 2 and 1/2 and her little sister Alliana is 1. It has been fun to watch our extended family grow and expand over the past 2 years. I look forward to the day when I will start my own family, but for now I'm having a fun time holding and spoiling my cousin's children. 

I wanted to share pictures I haven't shared on the blog this year. Since I only post pictures
of myself it mostly ended up being my running/fangirl life. I participated in the Avera 5K in May and
one through my university in October. Running is an active part of my life and something I'm extremely
proud of. I usually run around 3 days a week in the spring. I usually drop off to 2 times during the summer
and stay down to twice a week during the fall.

I finished my Freshman Year of college in May. What a wild ride. College has changed life so much for me. It has taught me how to grow up and take on more responsibility. It also gives me the ability to have fun with my friends and work towards finding my future career as an elementary education or special education teacher. 

I accepted my first job in June of 2014 at a daycare center near my home. I enjoyed my job this summer and it is fun to return over Christmas vacation. I also volunteered for my third year at Kindercamp in June. 

This is the Color Vibe 5K I took part in June. I did like this
5K although it wasn't as competitive as the ones I usually do.
I still do prefer timed 5K over this one, but my siblings and I
had a lot of fun. 

We went to California in August and spend many days a Disneyland. It was a fun vacation and time spent with my family. Then it was back to college. This semester has been hard. My science course Earth Science and Biology were both very hard and draining. I did end up passing both of them. The rest of my classes were boring. I also volunteered at a daycare this semester for 20 hours as part of my paraprofessional experience. I would have loved to do this experience a different semester when I could spend more than an hour at the daycare at a time. It all worked out and I got a positive recommendation for internship. 

Now I'm moving on to a new semester which I'm hoping brings more enjoyable classes. Although I'm finishing up my final English credit which I know I will complain about the whole way through. 

Although I love to focus on the positives of the year. 2014 brought a number of sad moments for my community. My mom lost her job at the end of August. She ended up starting a new job in November, but it wasn't an easy time for my family. 

My community suffered the loss of an 8th grade in October of this year. She was ran over by a car because she messing around with the driver of the car. This was a devesating loss when there was so much more life she had left to live. 

My high school guidance counselor passed away on December 27th, 2014 due to a heart attack related to complications from Influenza A. He was only 40 years old and way too young to pass away. He left behind his wife and three young children so I ask for prayers for his family. 

It is approach the three year anniversary of my friend's mom's death. She was only 38 years old when she died. She would have been 42 this April. After Christmas passes I go into a really hard time because so many people died around this time of the year. My guidance counselor is just another to add to the list of people who were taken from this earth way too soon with so much life left to live. 

I'm hoping for a peaceful year for my community in 2015. We have gone through a lot over the past 3 to 4 years losing so many community members way too soon. 

I look forward to another great year of blogging. My followers make this journey worth it. Thank you for every comment and every positive thought you guys have left me. I will see you all in 2015.