After my Aunt Laura passed away from leukemia in 2006, my parents planted a Mountian Laurel tree in our back yard in honor of her. Each spring it blooms beautiful purple flowers.
My cousins came to visit us for Mother’s Day this year. My cousin Kelsey commented to Mom that the mountain laurel tree has gotten so tall!
Mom agreed and then said, “But it hasn’t bloomed this year.”
“Well, it is 2020,” Kelsey replied.
I think for so many of us, 2020 will be the year of canceled plans. The year of disappointment. The year of sorrow. And the year everything goes wrong.
At the beginning of this year I was so excited for the start of a new decade and the 20s no less! I looked forward to see what this century’s “roaring 20s” would be like.
I created my 2020 Instagram Highlight and put the confetti emoji after its name 🥳 ready to record the amazingness that would be 2020.
However, I didn’t expect this.
I don’t think anyone did.
I changed the emoji to the straight-faced emoji today. 😐 I thought for a second that this emoji was more fitting for the year.
But then I thought, “No. Good things, confetti-worthy things, HAVE happened this year! And I’m going to think of 20 of them!”
So I changed the emoji back and here I am, ready to think of my list.
1. Winterm
Each year the school I teach at offers a 6-day program called Winterm right after Christmas Break.
The high school students get to take two fun classes of their choice. Options range from dance classes and cooking classes to woodworking and forensics.
Each high school teacher has to teach at least one class. I taught a class about the Pixar Theory and it was so fun!!
2. Caleb and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary 😊
I seriously cannot believe that we have been dating longer than I was waiting on him to ask me out!
This year to celebrate we drove to Round Rock and ate at Kerby Lane (his first time) and then went to IKEA and walked around.
Might sound weird, but he and I love exploring IKEA together 😂
The first time we went there together was the day my college roommate got married. She got married in Austin and we’d pass the IKEA in Round Rock on our way back to town, so he suggested we stop by. I was thrilled because I had always wanted to explore there.
So we walked around IKEA, me in my bridesmaids dress and he was all dressed up too 😂
3. The Texas Rally for Life
I got to go to the Texas Rally for Life for the first time this year and it was AWESOME!!!
There were so many amazing speakers there and the overall experience was fabulous!
I 100% recommend you look to see if your state has a pro-life march of some sort. Then go. It’s amazing.
I wrote an entire post about this that you can read here.
4. IT SNOWED!!
Where I live it snows mayyyybe once a year. Usually once every other year. For a day. And then it melts by noon 😂
This year it snowed, and school was NOT canceled which was a bummer at first. This picture is how I was feeling that morning as I left my apartment for school. LOOK AT ALL THAT SNOW!! 😍
It ended up being lots of fun because I took my 1st and 2nd periods outside to play in the snow while it was still there. It was so fun seeing my Sophomores running around in the snow.
Some of them were wearing sandals because, you know, #ChacosAreLife… or something like that.
5. Dallas Trip
My current roommate is from the Dallas area and my college roommate and her husband currently live up there too. So, one weekend my roommate and I drove to Dallas, spent Friday night at her parents’ house, then rode the DART train to meet up with our friend, and then rode it back into downtown Dallas and explored the city.
We went to the art museum, ate at food trucks, and discovered that there are no public restrooms anywhere in downtown Dallas 😂
The next day, we went to church with our friend and her husband.
It was a wonderful weekend and I’m so grateful that we went as I don’t know when I’ll see that friend in Dallas again.
6. My brother was an MC for Cru Knights
Cru Knights is an annual event at my Alma-Mater. Basically, it’s a male pageant that makes fun of the more prestigious female pageant that takes place each fall.
My brother was an MC for this event. In Cru Knights, the MCs do improv with each contestant and their job is to make each guy look funny and to help them succeed at their one-minute improv skit.
My brother is hilarious and amazing at acting, so he did great :)
And it was Disney-themed this year, which was fabulous!
View this post on Instagram
7. Villainous
Oh. My. Goodness.
I bought this game back in February and it has quickly become my all-time favorite game. It’s the best Disney-themed game I have ever played. Hands Down.
(Disney Scene-It is a close second.)
Villainous works great for two players which is perfect because it’s usually just my roommate and I or Caleb and I who play. Sometimes the three of us have played and that’s fun. Villainous also works well for larger groups too!
Villainous made my top-ten 2 player board game list! Click the link for more 2 player board game suggestions :)
8. Survivor Winners at War
Survivor is my favorite TV show. You can watch past seasons on Amazon Prime now which is AWESOME so over the past year I’ve gone back and watched seasons that aired when I was too young to watch or rewatched my favorite seasons.
This current season is called “Winners at War” and they brought back 20 past winners to play Survivor again.
It’s basically the Quarter Quell of Survivor (but without the killing) and I LOVE it!
My whole immediate family watches it and so it’s fun discussing it with them when each episode airs.
9. Onward
Disney Pixar’s Onward was released this year! I’ve been looking forward to this movie pretty much ever since it was announced. Caleb and I got to see it before all the movie theaters shut down and I’m so grateful we did!
We watched it again on Disney+ with my family for my mom’s birthday.
It’s a really good movie and I recommend you watch it if you haven’t already.
10. Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day was so much fun this year!
If you know me at all, you know that Valentine’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays.
This year, I didn’t have school that day, so Caleb and I went to Austin Park and Pizza and did all of the things there. Bowling, putt-putt, mini-golf, go-karts, rock wall climbing… all the things. 😊
Then that evening my roommate and I watched The War Room which I LOVE. I hadn’t seen that movie in a while and I was glad to get to hang out with my roommate some on Valentine’s Day.
11. The memes this year have been great!
I love funny memes and so the ones that have been created about 2020 have made me smile. I’ve shared some of my favorites to my Instagram stories and have them saved in my COVID highlight if you’d like to see 😊
12. I started my essential oils business!
Yay!!
I’ve been wanting to build an essential oils business ever since I got my oils and I finally started this year! Yay!
I was also able to participate in a few business training Zoom calls with my upline at 12:30 on Mondays last month. If we had been in school, I wouldn’t have been able to learn from those amazing people!
13. My appreciation for my grandparents has grown.
Both of my dad’s parents passed away in 2019, so I only have two grandparents left. My family and I have driven out to their house a few times to have social-distant picnics with them because they have been lonely.
It was so hard not to go up to them and give them hugs!
I know that as soon as the Coronavirus fades, I definitely want to go over to their house and spend more time with them.
14. I have learned how to play croquet
My parents had a croquet set when I was very young, but it broke before I was able to actually learn how to play the game. (I might not have used the stick-things as pretend oars for an imaginary boat once or twice…)
When we had to start sheltering-in-place, my mom ordered a croquet set online. Since then we have had lots of backyard games.
I usually come in last or second-to-last, but it’s still a lot of fun!
15. I have learned how to teach online
A month into online teaching, I had an epiphany: I now know how to create videos of myself teaching with a Google Slides presentation! (Yay Zoom!)
If I someday have to take a week off of school to go on my honeymoon, I’ll be able to record videos of myself teaching beforehand and my classes will be able to keep learning even though I won’t be there! YAY!
(Not engaged yet, so I really don’t need to be thinking that far ahead… but again, it’s a nice thought 😂)
16. I started Pilates!
About a month ago, I discovered The Balanced Life on Instagram and decided at-home pilates were for me.
I love Robin (the instructor)’s positive attitude and encouragement in the videos.
I love that the videos range from 15-30 minutes.
And I love how there’s a calendar of workouts scheduled for you so you don’t have to decide what workout to do each day.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a full review of this program if you’d like to check it out. 😊
17. I went wedding dress shopping with my best friend!
This was wayyyy back on January 4th, so I almost forgot that it happened in 2020.
My best friend, her mom, one of her sisters and I went wedding dress shopping and we found her dress! Yay! It’s so gorgeous and she’s going to be a beautiful bride 😊
I don’t want to post a picture of her dress, but here’s one of us shopping!
18. I’ve been able to read soooo much on my Kindle
I am so grateful I bought my Kindle last July during Amazon Prime Day. I’ve been able to read so many new books during 2020 due to having a Kindle and using the Kindle Unlimited book borrowing program.
I wrote more about this in my post 10 Fun Things To Do When Stuck at Home (Other Than Watching TV).
19. I’ve been able to blog so much this year!
In January I set the goal of blogging at least once a month this year. Considering I wrote a grand total of 2 posts in October-December 2019, I thought this was going to be hard.
However, I guess I’ve been either more inspired this year or more determined to blog. Or maybe I’ve just been bored and decided it would be something fun to do 😂
Either way, I’m glad I’ve gotten back into blogging 😊
20. I’m documenting 2020 in a scrapbook!!
I haven’t created a scrapbook dedicated to a year ever before and I’m so excited!
I made Shutterfly albums for my high school & college scrapbooks. Last year I made a photo-a-day Chatbook.
This year is the year of the physical scrapbook.
So far I’m loving it!
There are way more pages for January and February than March, April, and May have gotten, but I’m still trying to document day to day life.
I suppose this blog post kind of functions as a scrapbook too 😊
So there are my 20 confetti-worthy moments of 2020.
I strongly encourage you to look for the confetti-worthy moments you’ve had so far this year. Make a list of 20 in your journal. And then comment one or two or all twenty of them below! 😊
Also, let’s be Instagram friends! You can find me @kara_beth17
Megan
Hey Kara! I love this idea! I’m definetly going to write up 20 moments in my journal too! The Pilates one made me laugh because I did the same thing! I used to do a little bit of it but over lockdown its now a pretty much daily habit😊👍 Thanks heaps for blogging it encourages me so much💕
Kara Beth Post author
Haha no way!? Pilates is the best! Funny that we did the same thing! 😅
And yay! I’m glad you’re going to write down your 20 confetti moments! 😊🎉