2007: Year in Review

An end to another year; they seem to pass more quickly as you grow older. 2007 was eventful, blessed, frustrating, sad, the whole gambit...

I shall bullet point for brevity purposes :-)

January
We ring in the new year with Justin and Liz!
We attend Jim and Sarah's BEAUTIFUL winter wedding. Cooper is adorable as always in his little mini tux :-)

February
Ice-storm of 2007 hits Bloomington and IU CANCELS classes?!?!
We become temporary football fans and cheer our Indiana Colts to Superbowl VICTORY!!!
Richie celebrates his 28th birthday with a BOATLOAD of sushi :-)

March
Chantel presents NIH award poster at American Auditory Society in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Brittany graciously visits us for spring break, what a treat! Chantel is SO excited to dote on her baby sister for a week :-)

April
Honestly, April was boring. I'm pretty sure we both spent the entire month working on class projects. Yep, boring.

May
Chantel relives her early 20's by celebrating with Shannon for her 21st birthday.
Chantel spends one more weekend with her AuD friends as she watches them graduate :-)
Richie attends CHI 2007 in Sano Jose, California.
We meet up with the Kowalski's at the Indy Zoo. Cooper's favorite animal by far is the big tortoise.
Richie attends Pervasive 2007 in Toronto; delivers an outstanding workshop on "Designing and Evaluating Ambient Information Systems".
Chantel spends a wonderful weekend with Carrie in South Bend; delighted to see her great grandfather's carvings at the Studabaker mansion.
We spend a fun weekend with the Hazlewoods, where we attend a minor league baseball game (The Marion Miners!) and Honey enjoys rolling in duck poo.
Our nephew, Gavin Nicholas French, arrives healthy and happy to a very excited mommy and daddy :-)

June
We celebrate 3 wonderful years of marriage at the restaurant where we were engaged, Tallent.
We are so blessed to have each other's love and support, and our anniversary night was the perfect celebration of just that.
Chantel turns 27, celebrates with a trip to the Bloomington Speedway for a night of "redneck fun" :-)Chantel and Shannon take a wonderful trip to Florida to meet our new nephew Gavin.

July
Realizing that Gracie's itching is likely due to a food allergy, we begin elimination diet number one: California Natural Lamb and Rice... quite a lot of improvement in itching, but her GI tract does not tolerate the richness of the food well...
We celebrate our country's birthday in style with a bbq on our fancy new grill... mmm... kebobs :-)
Little gray kitty adopts our porch as her home.Tomato harvest of 2007 begins... so many tomatoes...
We visit the Kowalski's for a weekend where Sarah's family takes us boating, Jim shows all of us up on the waterski's, and Cooper becomes a fish.

August
Richie visits Georgia Tech Living Lab; returns in awe.
Richie gets into accident with the Camry, 8 weeks of repairs later, we have a brand new door and side panel.
A new academic year begins at IU, only two more years to go!
Richie begins his qualification exams.

September
Chantel branches out into the athletic scene and takes tennis lessons with Jenya. We are now tennis pros ;-)
Weekly HBO night and Sunday dinners at Jenya's instated, Flight of the Conchords style. Seriously, if you still haven't caught this show and love awkward humor, rent it, you will not regret it.
Richie attends week-long conference in Brazil; sees many beautiful "moons". ;-)
Chantel takes qualification exams for the first time.
Richie advances into candidacy, he is now officially "ABD"!!!
Annual camping trip with friends in a Bloomington area state forest, pyromania ensues.
Lotus Fest 2007: for the first time in 10 years we attend Lotus Fest, an annual world music fest here in Bloomington. It was AMAZING.

October
Our dear friend, Chuck Stringer, passes away on October 11 at the age of 44. His humor and smile are sorely missed.
We take the win for "most creative" at the Mad Scientist Ball as the cast of "Pacman"
Gracie begins food number two: California Natural Herring and Sweet Potato. Two months of chronic diarrhea and stinky dog farts begin.

November
Chantel has the pleasure of meeting her new baby cousin Bella :-)
Thanksgiving at the Hazlewoods. Madeline and Thomas still love jumping on Uncle Richie.
Chantel finally passes her qualification exams, yay!!!

December
We celebrate Cooper's second birthday with him. Cooper blows his candles out at least 4 times :-) Grandpa and Elmo make friends...
We move for the 900th time since arriving in Bloomington: this time house-sitting for 7 months while my PhD mentor is on sabbatical in Australia... we heart living in a house.
Richie attends WisdomTools annual retreat in Chicago, raves about best sushi he's ever had.
Visit with Carrie and family in South Bend. This visit may forever be known as household project disaster of 2007 :-)
Gracie begins new food number 3 in hopes of alleviating her allergies. Honey gorges on potato and duck, she LOVES it.
Our first Christmas at home: Chantel plays hostess to two families for Christmas. Seriously no travel = best Christmas ever!
Happy New Years!!!! Chin Chin! :-)