On the morning of January 1, 2010, I spotted a spider on the ceiling in our living room. Spiders freak me out. Once I've spotted one, I have to keep my eye on it because I know it's sitting there just plotting a way to crawl onto me. Fun fact about me - I can describe every single time in my life that a spider got on me. (Don't talk about how we eat them in our sleep. La la la, I can't hear you!) I got out the vacuum cleaner and asked mrohkay to help me lift the vacuum up, so that I could suck up the spider through the too-short vacuum hose. Unfortunately neither of us noticed when mrohkay propped the vacuum against the top of the couch that it was ripping an enormous hole in the upholstery. We were pissed that our couch was destroyed, of course, but laughed it off. We needed a new one anyway. And then I joked to him, "I hope this isn't a bad omen for the upcoming year." Turns out, it was.
Six days later, my childhood best friend's mother, who was a close friend of the family, died unexpectedly. (Did you know, particularly in women, that jaw pain is a symptom of an impending heart attack? Pay attention and get it checked.)
A few weeks later, we finally got pregnant. And then we lost it. A few months later, we got pregnant a second time. And then we lost it. A few months after that, we got pregnant a third time. This time we got to see a heartbeat! And then we lost it. Oh yeah, and my younger sister got pregnant her first month of trying, right after my second miscarriage.
There were some bright spots this year, too. We went on a fantastic cruise to Guatemala and Belize. mrohkay got a promotion at work. I found this great group of people on twitter and blogs. We started the adoption process, which we're incredibly excited about. But mostly 2010 was a year of crying, and I am so ready for it to be over. I have high hopes for 2011, and I can promise you this: on January 1, we will not be using the vacuum!