End Of Year Wrap Up

Long time no blog! I've been kinda busy lately so don't hate. It's so hard to believe today is the last day of 2011! It has been a pretty exciting year! We welcomed a new family member, our dog Tucker (who will be a year on the 5th of January), the Babcock family welcomed 3 new babies giving us a grand total of 15 nieces and nephews! I gained a new God daughter when my friend of 23 years gave birth to her beautiful baby girl Isabella! A lot of new additions! At the beginning of the year I had a pretty rough start, dealing with too many new stresses and emotions. I found myself in a dark place and really learned a lot about myself.

I got the privillage of going on a couple of vacations, with and without my husband (which he hated me for). Of course I travel around North America for work so that was normal. I got to go to Mexico with a couple of my teammates from last season and that was incredible! I got to travel to Myrtle Beach for a weeklong get away with my husband, his parents, my parents & siblings, my aunt and uncle & their kids and Ryan's brother and his wife. Carpooling down with Tommy and Kelsey was a life lesson, don't let the men drive! I also got to travel out to Calgary for 3 days when we placed 3rd! I also got to go shopping in Beverly Hills! Well, window shopping that is. Never in my life have I felt that poor! And Vegas for the athletes banquet weekend? I'm not gonna lie, I forget about most of the weekend!

Work brought several new changes for me. I started out the year playing for one team and am ending on a new team. I have made so many new friends this year and am finding this season much enjoyable! I've gone on so many roadies with the ladies on both teams and 2011 was the year for new experiences! In January our bus broke down on the way back home from Montreal and we stayed in the biggest dump I had ever seen! We had stayed at new hotels, went to new bars (the gay bar was the most fun I had in a while!), partied it up in New Orleans during Marti Gras again (I think I wanna go down yearly!), and let's be real, when we actually got free time in LA who didn't enjoy themselves!? I can only look forward to the rest of the season with my new team and build on what we have done!

So 2011 there was a lot of excitement! Chloe ran away from home but returned after giving me a heart attack for days! And a ton of other stuff. Mainly, a dream came true.... NKOTBSB BABY! My childhood loves, New Kids on the Block and my teenage loves Backstreet Boys came together and made the aPOPalypse! I know if your not a fan you don't get it, 'what's so special', but when your that little girl who was convinced you were gonna marry Donnie Wahlberg at age 3, and you were the one who would try and stalk Nick Carter around your city everytime he was in town, you'd get it. Both bands played a huge role in my childhood. I listened to their tapes and CD's everyday, their faces and hot bodies were plastered all over my walls, I knew every lyric to every song, I knew what their favourite colours were or what their ideal date was (I spent so much money on magazines!), and for me to see Donnie and Nick on stage together goofing off, was the best thing ever! This is my weird analogy on NKOTBSB... it's like losing your virginity. You find out their doing a tour together and you freak out! It's like getting your first crush on a guy, your so excited and can hardly wait until anything happens! Then you see them perfoming on TV, and it's like seeing them but knowing it's only a glimpse into the future. Then you wait to get your ticket (those were some painful months I had to wait!) and it's like waiting to hear the words from your crushes mouth, "I like you too." Then you finally get the ticket and the chior is singing in the background! It's like you scored the date! Then your seeing them more and more, just like your crush. Next thing you know it's the night before the concert and you can't sleep, your just so excited, just like the night you know your gonna lose it with him. You get there, your looking all nice, your so excited you go to the bathroom like 6 times to ensure you won't miss anything and BAM! They all come on stage (*tee hee*) and BAM it feels like your having sex for those 3 AMAZING hours! And then once it's over your like, "That was freaking awesome!" I know it sounds cheesy, but let's be real, when you think about it it's true! But the best part is that it was 9 guys (10 if you were at the LA show) and it was the time of your life staring at that penisstage waiting to see what they'll do next! There was singing, dancing, humping, sweating, fooling around, serenading, jealousy (if you were watching your fave bsb member serenading some other chick who scores a closer seat then you), happiness, a little tears, goosebumps, stripping, wet bodies (Fenway people!) and over all non stop excitement!!! It was my highlight of the year!

Another highlight of the year was meeting so many new friends on Twitter! After I got a follow (after how many freaking years of waiting!) from Donnie, I made so many new fellow Donnie girls! When I decided on making a pic for NKOTBSB, I made over 200 new followers and so many new friends with similar interests but yet so distant away. That's part of why I love Twitter. You make so many new friends from around the world and you slowly discover how many new people there are who are just like you! It was incredible meeting all of my tweetpeeps on Twitter! I love you all and you helped me get through a lot, so thank you!

Like I mentioned earlier, 2011 was a rough start for me and I learned a lot about myself. It's true, and I owe it all to my husband for getting me through the year. We celebrated our one year anniversary, which was a huge step in our marriage. I personally feel that the first year is so important in a marriage and we had a blessed one! Ryan is my best friend and my lover all in one. He is my rock. I trust him with everything and I know we will always be there for each other. We both had our quirks this year, as we do with anything, but we were able to not go a day without speaking towards one another. Let me tell ya, when we first got married I was not the cook, and I still sort of am not, but now I am so much better in the kitchen! Now I can fix something up and surprise him with dinner or experiment with new dishes and he can give me feedback or even help me out with everything. It's fun now that we can live off of other foods and not just pasta! And now that I'm home more I've become quite the housewife! I cook, clean way more, redecorated rooms in our house, take care of our dogs, do his laundry (before it was fend for yourself, now we don't even care) and overall I'm home more and can actually spend time with him. I love falling asleep and knowing I don't have to wake up at 3 in the morning and fly out somewhere, which I still do just not everyday. I also love welcoming home from work everyday with a meal on the table and arms open for a bear hug. (I know, it's corny).

2011 has also been a rough ending for me and my family. We just received news that my grandfather has been diagnose with three different types of cancer and he is having an extremely difficult battle with it. Knowing we don't have much time with him kills me, he's my grandfather and I'm so close with him. It pains me to see him go through this because he is such an amazing man, and I could only wish to spend more time with him. Hopefully 2012 will bring good news and an easier battle.

At the same time that has been going on Ryan and I found out WE'RE PREGNANT! Finally we are expecting a baby, and are due June 17th 2012, so mark it down people! We are thrilled to be having a baby. Both of us have wanted a baby so badly and we are blessed and humbled to finally be pregnant! We don't know what we're having and we plan to keep it that way, but we are both sort of hoping for a boy. Names? We can't decide and we have time to discuss it. So we are very blessed, humbled, thrilled, nervous, excited and hopefully ready to be parents!

2011 has been quite the year and I hope 2012 brings even more happiness and joy. May you all have a great new year filled with lots of love, happiness and laughter. Please be responsible tonight, don't drink and drive! And I'll get back to ya in the new year!
Happy New Year everyone,
Brittany xoxo