2017 Year in Review (including some things I haven't told you)

2017 Year in Review (including some things I haven’t told you)

2017 has been a weird one for me. And as my friends, I thought you might enjoy a recap of why. Here’s our 2017 Year in Review:

January
  • Family trip to Sacramento and San Francisco to visit Mr.T’s sister and her family and show the kids the Golden Gate bridge.
  • Tried to quit my job.
  • Birth father found me online (through a DNA test I took over 5 years ago solely to get medical data as I have very little).
February
  • Diagnosed with Super Colon
  • Biological father told 5 half siblings about my existence
March
  • Went to the ceremonial start of the Iditarod downtown
  • Met biological father and his wife
  • Family trip to Omaha and Dallas to visit my sister and Mr. T’s brother and their families and show kids… the Alamo?
  • Potty trained Lui.
  • My parents came to visit to see kids and go out to eat yummy food.
April
May
  • Bike to school day and Bike to work day.
  • School got out.
June
  • I took a summer blog break.
  • We dropped my kids off with my parents in Portland and flew to Utah for a work trip.
  • Met 5 biological half siblings.
  • Our Merch by Amazon account was approved.
  • Camped on an island with 15 teenage girls from Church. Saw whales.
  • My parents got a mission call to Leeds, England to leave in the fall.
  • My parents brought the kids back up to us.
  • Sold our first shirt on Amazon.
July
  • Dipnetting
  • Family trip to Portland to visit my family
August
  • Combined family trip from Portland to Disneyland with my parents, my sister and her family as a last hurrah before mom and dad leave the country.
  • Family trip to Seattle to visit Mr. T’s family.
  • School started on August 21st. We missed the eclipse. (Made plans to hit the 2024 eclipse as a family.)
  • I started a weight training class at the local university.
September
  • I started blogging again.
  • Other than the world flooding and burning, nothing significant happens.
October
  • Approved for Global Entry!
  • FinCon!
November
  • Work trip (alone) to Minneapolis.
  • Parents moved to England for 1.5 years.

December

  • So far, other than our happy schedules, nothing notable to report!
As you can see, it’s been a weird year for me. I started in January mapping out how the entire year was going to go: All the things I was going to accomplish, projects I was going to expand, etc. Then life hit. Luckily for me, the biological drama went as well as it could have. Everyone was very cordial and friendly, no one expected anything, and after I met them all in June, the drama died out quickly (I haven’t really connected with any of them since). The Supercolon diagnosis was helpful but has meant a year of figuring out what it means and how to manage it (or try).
I love planning a full year out, but I’m also proof that life often has other plans. Does that mean I’ve stopped planning a year ahead? Nope! I would not have predicted in December 2016 that this year my plans would involve slowing down Northern Expenditure a bit to ramp up our t-shirt business in 2018. But how exciting is that?!
I’ve learned this year that life is both weird and wonderful. 
Everything in 2017 has turned out well, but I certainly look forward to a much less eventful or dramatic 2018. May it be full of exciting projects and awesome travel for all of us!

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10 Comments

  1. I hear ya. You can only do so much planning! That would be quite intense that experience meeting your bio family. I remember watching a doc series on that on MTV once. It was really interesting. Hope you have a great 2018…whatever fun surprises (hopefully good) that it brings!

    • MaggieBanks

      Glad the whole thing wasn’t MTV dramatic. And glad the drama is behind me now. There was an awkward period between January-June where everyone sort of didn’t know what to do or how to handle my existence, but meeting everyone just made it all sort of go away, which is fabulous. But yes, strange year. 🙂

  2. Tawcan

    Wow that’s a lot of stuff that have happened for you in 2017. I’m trying to think what has happened to me in 2017 so far and it seems like a blur.

  3. Kim from Philadelphia

    Oh Maggie- WOW- what a year!
    So I’m thinking you didn’t nebtuin your anemia/ iron transfusions. Was that 2016? All running together now…
    Hoping that issue is going well.

  4. Kim from Philadelphia

    Typo- sorry- “you didn’t mention your..”

    • MaggieBanks

      Yup. Iron infusions were 2016. Ha ha ha ha. Aren’t health problems the best? The anemia may have been connected to the undiagnosed supercolon… they’re not sure. But luckily that part has been all sorted for awhile. 🙂

  5. I’m pulling together notes for my year end recap and I think I like your format much better than what I’ve been doing. It’s much more illuminating comparing the plan to the reality aka “WTF actually happened??”

    I’m so glad the bio family situation was cordial and ended up going smoothly. I prefer to live a life not Made for TV 😉 and it would be awfully nice to spend next year not having mystery illnesses to unravel, wouldn’t it?

    But your next year bodes to be exciting, so far, and I hope it’s all the good kind.

  6. Jacq

    What a year! I’m glad so many of your things went well!
    I had an unexpected year in yoga teaching. What was a 1x a month class in the spring, in the fall became a 1x a week class. I taught a 6 week series at another studio in the spring, and a workshop at my home studio in the fall. I taught my Monday night class every week, and subbed some Thursdays too. In November I ended up subbing for 3 different teachers. The 1x a week class is still happening, but we shall see for how long, and how long I can do Saturdays without feeling like I have no social life. It’s all so unpredictable, and yet, my 9-5 pays me enough money. It will be interesting to see where this year takes me.
    Wishing you a less complicated 2018!

    • MaggieBanks

      I’m really trying to get into yoga. Since I don’t have a lot of time on my own, I’ve been doing Cosmic Kids on YouTube with my kids. They do a really great job. Maybe I’ll advance to non-kid yoga at some point. 🙂

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