WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008...A STORY TOLD IN PHOTOS

Jan. 2008 - We started off 2008 with two very little puppies. They were just getting used to Chicago winters and our apartment in the city. 

February 2008 - We entertained a lot in our apartment in Chicago. Above is our first family photo. We celebrated my 30th birthday and the girls finally started to go to the bathroom in their litter box.

March 2008 - Many of my friends started the year pregnant. I even attended a baby shower for Nita and Matt.

April 2008 - We had an amazing time in Jamaica celebrating John's 40th birthday! It was a week in paradise with our amazing friends and family. 

April 2008 - We went to Arizona to see three Chicago Cubs spring training games. John and I found out there really isn't much to do in Arizona besides watch the Cubs play baseball and work on your tan, which was right up our alley!  

May 2008 - I quit my job at the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau after working there for almost seven years. It felt great and the day after I left, at a press conference my friend hired me to work, I met up with Mayor Daley and got my picture taken with him.


  
June 2008 - We moved! We had a great going away party in the party room at our old building in Chicago.  We left in late June to start a new chapter in our lives, living in  everyones favorite city, San Francisco. 

July 2008 - We attended the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, took pictures of Mayor Gavin Newsom and his pretty wife.  We also went to Palm Springs for a get-away trip with the pups, the whole family had a great time. 

August 2008 - I went back to Chicago several times in August and September to see some Cubs games. I also took many beautiful photos of the city for a Chicago photo book I am still in the process of making.  While in town my whole family was able to meet up for my dad's birthday and we took a nice family portrait in my parents backyard.


September 2008 - Ryan came to San Francisco to visit us. We showed him the best parts of the city - after all, the first guest receives VIP treatment! We went to a party in wine country, did some wine tasting, saw the major attractions and sights, good times were had by all! 

September 2008 - We went to the "I'm So Berkley" Parade. The photo above is from my favorite float, a bus with a guy playing President Bush flicking off the camera and John McCain mounting a missile. They ended the parade with "art cars" where people decorated their car in different themes. Lets just say there are  a lot of creative minds floating around Berkley California!  

September 2008 - I attended my first ever Folsom Street Fair. It was an eye opening experience to say the least! I have never seen so much public nudity and gratuitous sexual acts going on in the middle of a public street...Only in San Francisco would this be allowed! 

October 2008 - We went to Atlanta to attend a commitment ceremony for Michael and David, it was so nicely done! We actually attended three gay civil unions/weddings this summer and fall. I am still upset about Proposition 8 being approved in November - gay marriage rights in California were taken away. 



October 2008 - There will be weddings in 2009 due to a few engagements in 2008, including Katie Harris, Gabby Amato, Ryan Deist...and I am thinking there will be one more, but I don't want to jinx it!



November 2008 - My prayers were answered this past November when Obama won. Thank the Lord for Obama...I have so much hope for our country in 2009!

November 2008 - John and I (and our friend Andy) went to Hawaii to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. It was truly paradise, a trip we will always remember! I have to say that everyone we met was so genuinely nice and was in a pleasant mood, I really dig the "island mentality." 

December 2008 - We took a short trip to Los Angles in the beginning of the month. We ate so well, shopped till we dropped, enjoyed a taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and I shook Wolfgang Puck's hand at our dinner at Spago - John said I was like a little school girl - I was just excited to meet the man whose picture has been on my soup cans all these years.  


December 2008 - I celebrated Christmas with my family back in both Chicago and Roselle, Illinois. I made a photo book with pictures of everyone in my immediate family. I think it went over pretty well - my niece gets a kick out of seeing her picture in a real book. 

December 2008 - While I was home for the holiday, I was able to see some of the new baby boys that arrived in 2008. Pictured, Logan Hill, Connor Crowley and Evan Holm. (not pictured - Nate Bartel) 


January 2009 - Big news, our family is moving to Philadelphia! John accepted a great job out there and I will be applying for graduate school. From the west coast to the east coast we will go in 2009! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!