2012: Year In A Nutshell (Part One)

It's that time of year again...to reflect back on all that we accomplished and experienced in 2012 and the stuff  I thought we would do and didn't...

(Oh...and check out 2011 here!)

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?


I raised an infant into a toddler. Definitely the highlight (and some of the lows) of the year. I also ran a half marathon. I definitely didn't go into the year thinking I would even consider running 13 miles, but I'm happy I did.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Resolutions aren't my thing...because I never keep them! Let's say my "goals" are to become more organized (this girl has a mess of a house!), run more and be the best mother, wife, friend and employee I can be.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Our friends, Justin & Crystal, gave birth to little Dax in August. And our besties Jeremy & Sirvan had Rocky in December...he is absolutely amazing and I can't wait for Cruz & Rock to be the best buds ever. I see a TON of family vacays in our future.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Knock on wood, but no. I continue to say that I am extremely fortunate in this department.

5. What countries did you visit?


None sadly. I'm definitely not making the most of my 40 Under 40 list where a ton of my wants include more travel. 

6. What dates from 2012 will be etched upon your memory, and why?

• January 10th - first day of day care/back to work
• March 2nd - initial bout with RSV - started the many rounds of illness 
• April 12th - little man got his helmet - it seemed like such a big deal at the time, but now just is a small blip in a year of amazing firsts for this guy.
• November 13th - Cruz's first birthday - celebrating his first year
• December 15th - Sandy Hook school shooting - this is the only post or mention I've made of this because I don't want to acknowledge this senseless, sick act of violence, but it has definitely had a major impact on me.

7. What was your biggest achievement of this year?

I'm proud of the fact that I was able to raise an amazing little boy while managing to be successful at my career and take on even more responsibility at work.

8. What's your biggest failure?
I always feel as though I fail at keeping in touch with people. Fortunately with most of my friends, they understand and have similar hectic lives, so when we do connect it's like we haven't been apart.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Thankfully, no illness on my part...little man owned that category. From an injury standpoint, I have to say the worst "injury" was the fact that I could barely walk after the half...and my calves ached for two weeks afterwards.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
We re-did the flooring in our house and it really made a ton of difference! I love the wide-plank wood floors and new, plush carpet - where we've spent a ton of time crawling around on with Cruz. (Thanks, daddy, for talking me out of wood floors throughout the whole house.)

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I have to say that the fact that our family and friends were so willing to help us out through this entire year with caring for Cruz when we had to work, travel, he was sick or so we could get a little time to ourselves. They were all so amazing, and helpful, and always willing to drop what they were doing for us. We couldn't be more fortunate.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Those behind the many gun-related massacres around the country this year.

13. Where did most of your money go?
Of course kiddos are expensive - the helmet, illnesses, day care and babysitters due to my wacko work schedule.

14. What song(s) will always remind you of 2011?
Anything country. I listened to a lot of country music...my favorite would have to be "Take A Back Road" by Rodney Atkins. It made me realize that I just need to slow down and enjoy the wonderful life I have.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you: 
a) Happier or Sadder? much happier
b) Thinner or Fatter? thinner, but at this time last year I was only two months post partum
c) Richer or Poorer? richer in the best senses of the word

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Travel - Nick and I had a great trip to New York (1st time together!), Vegas with the fam this summer, Houston to see Angie (little man's first trip!) and other work trips in between, but I wish we would've done a family vacation with just the three or us or a beach vacay with just Nick & I.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Worry. I always was worrying about not working enough/working too much. I worried about little man. All.The.Time. Was he developing fast enough? Did he have to spend too much time in day care? Why was he sick all the time? Was I the best mama I could be? Always worrying.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

We spent Christmas our usual way. Laurel with Nick's mom on Christmas Eve Eve. Emerson with my fam on Christmas Eve. Omaha with Nick's dad & Janice on Christmas. It was so much fun being with little man since he actually knew what was going on and could open presents!

19. Did you fall in love with 2012?
I fell in love with many things in 2012. I fell in love with watching Nick with Cruz...he is a great daddy and C adores him. I fell in love even more (if that's possible) with Cruz. I fell in and out of love many times with work. I fell in love with our family all over again for all of the support they gave us throughout the year. I fell in love with running, which helped keep me sane or at the very least gave me a chance to think about anything else but life when I needed it.

20. What was your favorite TV program?

Sons of Anarchy was a fave for the hubs and I to watch together, but I also watched Kardashian's (yep I'm a fan), Grey's Anatomy (I was late on the Grey's bandwagon and just started watching two years ago), Shark Tank (LOVE!), Live w/ Kelly & Michael, the Today Show...to name a few.

21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No time to hate.

22. What was the best book you read?


Book reading really faded after maternity leave was over, but I jumped on the Fifty Shades boat and loved every one of those books, like most women in the world.

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?


Hmm - this seems a bit too deep for the music I listen to...

24. What did you want and get?
I was nominated to be part of the VIP Council at work and was one of three chosen out of our 40+ properties.

25. What was your favorite film of 2012?

I really liked Argo...and for the life of me cannot think of any others. My movie watching days were limited. Oh...and I loved Chipwrecked - Cruz's first movie. We went on January 2nd and he was so good!

26. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 31 and in NYC with the hubs. We got Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, went to a Yankees game and then to dinner at Bull & Bear at the Waldorf.

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2012?
Cas and comfy. I was working toward getting my pre-baby body back and there was a lot of extra skin and poundage in new areas that I wasn't sure how to dress.

28. What kept you sane?


Running.

29. What political issue stirred you the most?
Ugh...the election. I have to tell you I was so over the election. I'm not the best political citizen anyway, but it bothered me at how ruthless these public leaders were and how much money was wasted on their message.

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
Work will always be there - slow down and make time for family. Cruz has grown so much this year and become such a different person and I cannot risk missing any of his major milestones. (You can see I had a battle with creating a good work/life balance, can't you?)

31. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.


"It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Come inside, it's fun inside
M I C K E Y M O U S E"

This song plays over and over in my head all day long oftentimes. This has been Cruz's favorite show all year and it's gotten us through many breathing treatments - his face lights up when he sees Mickey on TV. 

2012 was an amazing year...looking forward to an amazing 2013 and all it has in store!

2011: A Year In Pictures {Part Two}

Here are some of the highlights {in photos} of our year. Most were shared in my blog, though some occured prior to starting Yellow Mango, which is hard to believe because I feel like I've been sharing for much longer than 10 months. It's fun to look back at my life prior to becoming preggo and the months I spent carrying our little guy, but I wouldn't change where I am now for anything.

January - to celebrate our friend Jeremy's birthday, we tagged along with him and his wife, Sirvan, to Denver for a weekend getaway. We toured the Coors Brewery, drove up into the mountains, ate at John Elway's, shopped at Cherry Creek, had some drinks and enjoyed spending a fun weekend with such amazing friends.

Our group with Keno - our ride for the evening

Jeremy's birthday cotton candy at The Office

At the Coor's Brewery in Golden

A view from the Rockies

March - girls trip to Scottsdale with Aly and Patricia. We had a great time lounging by the pool, shopping and clubbing. We made our own fun this trip and I wouldn't take back the memories {after many bottles of champagne and limencello} that we took away from this trip for anything!

Champagne at the Phoenician

March 17th - Lady Gaga concert on St. Patty's Day with Tessa. One of the best performances ever - she put on an amazing concert and I got to spend some QT with one of my favorite mamas.

Qwest Center in Omaha for Gaga

March 20th - the day we found out that I was PREGGO!

April/May - I had to go to Atlantic City for a work meeting, so Mom and Jen arranged to meet me afterwards in NYC. It's one of my favorite cities in the world and I love our trips there. This was the first trip where we had no agenda and truly let ourselves wander around - we found designers markets, cute streets & shops, visited the Top of the Rock, walked the Brooklyn Bridge & promenade...you name it. The most amazing memory from this trip besides the time I got to spend with mom & sister...Osama Bin Laden was finally put to rest and what a party NYC threw while we were there. The next morning we visited Ground Zero and it was an awesome sight.

Tribeca Film Festival

Brooklyn Bridge {the 1st time I walked it even though I lived there for months}

Proud to be American - the day after Bin Laden's demise

The city harbor from Liberty Island

Top of the Rock view of the Empire State Building

May 20th-22nd - this was my 30th birthday weekend, starting with an great mini celebration at work with an awesome "high heel" cake...to a dinner with family & friends at Hiro & Nomad for cocktails afterwards and rounding it out with the Usher concert the following day. It was a whirlwind weekend, but I couldn't have "ushered" in a new decade any better!

A creation by our talented chefs at work

Hiro with two of my fav ladies

We are family

June 27th - our ultrasound appointment told us "It's A Boy!"

The BEST envelope I've ever opened

Our baby

July 4th Weekend - trip to Okoboji with the Crew. What a great weekend with some of my favorite people and family members. We rented a couple of suites and partied on the lake like rockstars. The only thing that would've helped make this trip more memorable would've been if I could indulge in cocktails with the rest of them...but being the sober one on this trip wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I remembered EVERYTHING!

'Boji shots



On the boat at Lake Okoboji

July 9th - spending time with an oldie best friend. Angie came up from Houston for a friend's wedding in Lincoln and she & I got to spend some time together reminiscing with friends and just enjoying each other's company. The one drawback {or better yet...memory!} we showed up wearing very similar royal blue, one-shoulder dresses....great minds really do think alike!

Ang, April & I at the Wilson Wedding

August 1st - we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary with a little getaway in Omaha. Nick & I checked into Hotel Deco downtown and then spent the day hanging out in the Old Market and Midtown Crossing. We had drinks at Zin Room, dinner at Cantina Laredo and then retreated back to our room to relax together. It was a perfect way to spend our 2nd year as a happily married couple.



Our suite at Hotel Deco


August 13th - Bush concert at Stir Cove....one of the best concerts we've ever been to and to top it off, Tessa & I attended the M&G and met one of my biggest crushes of all time - Gavin Rossdale.

What do you say to Gavin Rossdale?
Hmmm.."come here often?" seems like a good start

Nick & I at Bush

October 1st - surprise 30th {Nick} and 40th {Chris} birthday party at Stir. Tessa and I pulled off the surprise {well, somewhat because Chris' friend ruined his surprise}. The best parts of the night - the "true surprise" performance from Anna Roxia and the Roast of our guys. Nick's gift - an autographed Ryne Sandberg jersey personalized to Nick & Cruz. This was a night we will not soon forget.

Anna Roxia giving the "men of the night" a special dance

Hawkeye cake

Ryne Sandberg jersey...for Nick & Cruz

October - Nick & I had been talking about trading in my Mazda CX-7 for something better for our soon-to-be-expanding family. I showed him the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and had found one in Fremont, so we packed ourselves up and headed to buy my first "new" car (it only had 31 miles on it!). I absolutely love it and its perfect for the three of us.

October 8th - Nick's dad John was inducted into the Wayne State College Hall of Fame due to his spectacular record as the Head Coach for the baseball team. It was a special night where the family all got together to celebrate this special honor.

Nick & his {extremely} preggo wifey

The Manganaro-Gardner clan

October 9th - my sisters threw Cruz and I an amazing shower at our church social hall in Emerson. The highlight for me was the awesome spread of my favorite cravings - hostess cupcakes, lemon Nothing Bundt Cake, raisinettes and chocolate covered strawberries.  It was a great day hanging with our family & friends and celebrating little man's {soon-to-come} arrival.

October 23rd - my other family {SILs & MIL} got together to throw us a shower in Omaha and it was another hit - a great mix of family I haven't seen in a while and those that are near {and dear} to my heart.  Little Mango was extremely spoiled by those who already loved him to pieces.

The Hostesses w/ the Mostesses

Grandma's to be

November 4th - I had the opportunity to co-chair the Angels Among Us Fall Festivity event. There was a lot of work and time that went into putting this together and executing the event, but it went off without a hitch and we raised a significant amount of money to go towards helping our families. I'm very proud to be a part of this amazing organization.

Angels Among Us - Board of Directors

The Nichols Family - Jacob is a strong little boy fighting a form of
cancer that left him unable to walk or talk for a while. It was amazing watching him
walk up to the stage and thank everyone for attending the benefit!

November 11th - a very special birthday took place on 11/11/11 - Maya's 5th birthday. We celebrated with a doggy treat cake, her cute birthday hat and our family. As you can tell, she just loved her hat...

November 13th - Cruz's day of birth! There are so many emotions that revolve around this day. Nick & I were extremely blessed to give birth to a healthy 6lb 15oz baby boy. He is our life!

First family picture

Our Little Mango



Dressed in his first outfit - ready to head home

December 9th-11th - Cruz had his first major car ride to northeast Nebraskas for his cousin DeLaney's 1st birthday and Baptism.

The Bapteesed {Ashley & DeLaney} and their sponsors

Celebrating D's 1st birthday

December 23-25th - Christmas Tour 2011 - we hit Laurel, Emerson and Omaha to visit our family and celebrate Cruz's first Christmas.  It's always a whirlwind tour, but great fun nonetheless.

Tradition: family photo at the church

Christmas morning

Cruzer was 6 weeks old on Christmas Day

December 31st - we celebrated New Year's Eve - my first time not working in 7 years. We had a group dinner in the private dining room at Kona Grill and then moved onto Shevy's for Karaoke, the Running Man, beer pong and cocktails. It was a rough start to the new year for me the next morning!

The girls....

...and the men.

Looking back, 2011 was an amazing year and I was truly blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with family and friends and I have many memories that will stick with me for years to come. Bring on 2012!!

2011: Year In A Nutshell {Part One}

I borrowed this idea from a blogger friend of mine and thought it was a great way to sum up 2011. This year is definitely one I will never forget and it's fun to look back on everything that occurred - prior to pregnancy, once I was preggo and after Cruz joined our family. Enjoy!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?


Had a baby...its by far the most important thing I've ever done in my life!

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I'm terrible at keeping New Year's resolutions. I'm sure my resolutions last year were to eat better and exercise more...and to the contrary I was bigger than I've ever been in 2011 (however, that was attributed to growing a little bun in my oven, so I guess that's ok!)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Well, I did and others include my friend Heidi, Heather, and quite a few co-workers - it seemed that everyone in the marketing department was preggo this year {which made for some pretty fun convos at work}!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully, but too many little ones that we've met through Angels Among Us passed away this year, which breaks my heart.

5. What countries did you visit?


None - 2011 was a very slow travel year both for work and play. Nick & I have already been talking about getaways in 2012, so I can't wait to see where the new year takes us.

6. What dates from 2011 will be etched upon your memory, and why?

• March 20th - day we found out I was pregnant
• May 20th - my 30th birthday...oh my a new decade!
• June 27th - we're having a BOY! The day we found out the sex {Nick was SO excited}
• November 13th - the day Cruz came into our lives

7. What was your biggest achievement of this year?

Besides giving birth {which is by far #1} it would have to be getting promoted to Vice President of Marketing. I've worked really hard over the past {almost} 8 years and I'm excited for this new challenge. I oversee all of the marketing functions - VIP marketing, events/promotions, advertising, entertainment and public relations. Since this happened right before maternity leave, I had a lot of catching up to do while I was out and now that I'm getting back to work.

8. What's your biggest failure?
Hmmm...this is a tough one. I have to say that I wish I stayed in touch with friends better. It was a very busy year and that made it difficult, but I know I can do better. Fortunately, my friends are all amazing and when we finally do touch base, we take up right where we left off.\

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, except I had some terrible morning sickness and for the period of about three months puked up everything I ate.  Fortunately that didn't last for my entire pregnancy, but I can say I've puked in some of the most interesting places...after a while you really just don't care!

10. What was the best thing you bought?
A new car - in October we bought a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I've never had a brand new car and this one only had 31 miles on it so it was definitely new. I really love it.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
On a personal side, my husband's behavior has been celebrated. I am amazed at how wonderful he is with our son and how he has become a more fuller person since Cruz was born. My favorite thing is watching them interact with each other. Nick has become a truly amazing father and I'm very lucky to have him in my life.

Overall, I would say the soldiers fighting oversees and their families who patiently wait for them to come home.  The kids we work with at Angels Among Us - they are fighters and so inspiring!  People who are constantly doing things for others - as weird as it sounds, when I watch shows like "Extreme Makeover - Home Addition" and see people who are so obsessed with helping others that their lives are left on the back burner, it really makes me feel good and want to do more.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The behavior of the Penn State staff - mostly Sandusky, but also the others who helped cover up his actions. Bullying - there are so many cases of this and it breaks my heart. These cases need to be dealt with quickly and harshly.

13. Where did most of your money go?
New car, payed off some credit cards earlier in the year, nursery and all things baby. Unfortunately more of our money didn't go to travel, but I wish it had.

14. What song(s) will always remind you of 2011?

• Anything Kenny Chesney - and our crew hitting up his concerts. Especially "Somewhere With You" from his new CD. This year's concert was a week after I found out I was preggo, so it was fun and somewhat tough to hide the fact that I wasn't drinking from the group since we couldn't tell them anything yet.
• Hot Chelle Rae "Tonight" - reminds me of spending time with Tess & her kiddos while they belt it out
• Jason Aldean "Dirt Road Anthem" - our Okoboji trip theme song

15. Compared to this time last year, are you: 
a) Happier or Sadder? definitely happier
b) Thinner or Fatter? unfortunately fatter {though I'm working on it}
c) Richer or Poorer? happily richer

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Travel - Nick & I used to travel so much more than we did this year and I want to get back to where we left off. I'm especially excited to start including Cruz on some of our getaways and showing him the world...or at least in the near future, the U.S.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Worry - it's a crazy thing how growing another life makes you worry about every little thing possible. Unfortunately, it doesn't change once your babies enter the world.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

Our normal Christmas tour took place this year...on the 23rd we were in Laurel at Nick's mom's house, my parent's house in Emerson on the 24th and back in Omaha at Nick's dad's house on the 25th. This was a very special Christmas, though, being Cruz's first.

19. Did you fall in love with 2011?
Absolutely - I told myself I wasn't one of those women who just loved being pregnant (and early on I wasn't), but as the time went on I LOVED being pregnant. It's a truly amazing process what your body goes through and carrying a little life inside you. I loved the kicks and movement. It was an awesome experience.

20. What was your favorite TV program?

I can't limit it to just one! I love Sons of Anarchy {why did it take us so long to start watching this show?}, Modern Family, 90210 {yes, really}, HGTV {most programs}, Teen Mom & Jersey Shore {guilty pleasures}, Grey's Anatomy {got started on this one late, but love it}, Bachelor {ugh} and Keeping Up With the Kardashians (love them).  Can you tell I had no life during my preggo days?

21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Hate is a very strong word - but I truly dislike blatantly mean people. And I am so scared about Cruz encountering mean people as he gets older and I'm not sure how I will handle it.

22. What was the best book you read?


I {finally} read the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and it was amazing! Thank you, Tessa, for forcefully {with your words} pushing me to start and finish this book. I also finished the next two in this series....maternity leave was great in that it gave me time to read.

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?


I rediscovered Bush this year. I fell in love with Gavin Rossdale and his band back in high school and I rekindled our romance this summer when Bush came to the Stir Concert Cove at Harrah's. The best part - Tessa and I got to meet him...and he was ah-maz-ing.

24. What did you want and get?
Cruz!! We decided I would get off birth control in January, conceived in February and welcomed him in November.

25. What was your favorite film of 2011?

Bridesmaids...by far. I thought it was hilarious and I love that it was a chick flick but rivaled man comedies like Wedding Crashers, Hangover, etc. I'm still quoting this flick.

26. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 30 this year {sigh...} but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was preggo so there were no cocktails to close out my 20s, but it was still a great birthday and I was able to celebrate with my favorites.
27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?
Comfortable...being pregnant for most of the year required that I go for loose, flowy and cozy clothes.

28. What kept you sane?


My family and friends....always my sounding board. The best part is that each of them are great in different ways.

29. What political issue stirred you the most?
Politics...not my thing unfortunately.

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Don't try to rush life...enjoy every moment and soak it up...it goes by too quickly not to.

31. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.


Kenny Chesney - "The Woman With You" {makes me think about our fast paced life}

"Back then, you know, I had this plan.
Before all of this reality set in.
Here come life, boy, ready or not
Hey, I wanted it all and that's what I got.

Been jugglin', strugglin', closin' big deals
Dancin' backwards in high heels.
Just when it feels like I can't make it through
She says, "it sure is nice to just be the woman with you."