31 December 2010

Ending 2010

2010 has been an incredible year - full of changes and surprises. But for fun, here's a recap from the year:

January - MS and I went to Hawaii for a work trip for me and a vacation for MS. It was my first time there, but MS had been stationed there when he was in the Navy, so he became my tour guide. Once I got over my workaholic-ness, I was able to relax and enjoy the area. My favorite was Bellows Beach. LOVED that place and really want to go back.

February - MS and I started P90X to try to lose the weight after Hawaii. For 4 weeks we were very dedicated. It was great!

March - I ran the Irishman again and then did a speed drive two and half hours away to receive an award for work. I literally walked in 3 minutes before the banquet began. Pretty fun.

April - OOB came home to visit which was great. MS and I hosted our first Easter dinner for OOB, and the mom's. It all turned out well, I think. MS and I celebrated our 1st anniversary and I was back running on a regular basis.

May - This was a full month! KC and I hosted our first soon-to-be-annual spring party at work and it turned out great. MS and I took our last trip to Sconnie to see Nika before they moved. I picked up a cold or something that MS had picked up right before we had gone to Sconnie which made for a rough Half Marathon a week later. I was sick for two more weeks which was awful. MS and I took in the free fishing weekend and went to a couple different places. We also started our garden, a massive undertaking, but with what we hoped would be fruitful rewards.

June and July are kind of a blur...not a lot happened...just a lot of work and stuff. OH wait...HHS was in June which is why I was going slowly insane the months leading up to it. July was recovery month.

August - This was a good month. I was selected to go to a training for work, which was great. MS reminded me several times how wonderful he is and how lucky I am to have him in my life.

September - This was canning month. We had a bunch of stuff from the garden just sitting around so we met up with MS's aunt and uncle and had a day of canning salsa. We also made two apple pies using my crust recipe from memory. They turned out really well. This was also my last month before TCM. I ran the SF Half, which was rough, but I made it.

October - TCM number 4. Thank God for MS. He biked along side me the last 20 miles. Yes, I said 20 miles. He was so wonderful. He kept me moving. He supported me every step. So much love!

November - I moved in with MS! This was good on so many levels. We're moving forward in our relationship, I get to spend all my extra time with him, and I'm living in ONE place! Sanity is mine! :) We've had some growing pains, but it's been great. He had to work on Thanksgiving Day so we celebrated with my fam the next day at YOB's.

December - Christmas month! B-day month for MS! I also had an impromptu trip to Mississippi for a week. MS's mom had a mini stroke so he spent that week in the hospital with her helping her do her physical therapy and get better. MS spoiled me at Christmas again. And now it's New Years Eve and MS is working so I'm cleaning the house.

It's been a full year and I'm really looking forward to 2011. It'll be great!

26 December 2010

Christmas!

I don't have many pictures, and some are on MS's camera so I'll have to post those later. Christmas yesterday was nice, though confusing at times. Long story on that.

MS and I had a great Christmas together. We took turns opening gifts, had some pizza and curled up on the couch, falling asleep for a mini nap. Then we went over to his mom's so she could open her gift and hung out with her while her live-in boyfriend went to his family's house. Then back home for more pizza (we're cleaning out our freezer) and then sleep. Low-key but fun day.

MS got me some awesome gifts: A Boyd's Bears "Sweetie Pie" figurine, a jewelry box with my name engraved, necklace, earrings, pajama pants, stuff for my car, a 4-cup liquid measuring cup, dry measuring cups and utensils, a food processor, and a Kettleball set.

I got MS the Clint Eastwood 35 films in 35 years set, two other DVDs with Clint westerns from other production companies, 100ft measuring tape, a bunch of tool stuff he picked out, Cool Feet for his computer, winning lottery tickets (I hope they're winning ones), and some Home Depot gift cards. And then I got us both a gardening chair and tool bag to use next summer. He's spoiled. ;) But he spoils me, so it's a fair trade.

Nika got us a beautiful picture frame for her adorable photos, with her named engraved on it. I swapped out her photos from my old frame to the one she sent last night. I love it! Thanks, Nika! :)

Life is good. As my niece Ava kept reminding us today, "Christmas is about giving!" And it is. I had fun giving what I did to MS. And I think he had fun giving me what he did. I'm a very lucky girl to have him in my life.

22 December 2010

Jesus is coming!

And to be the sick individual I am I'm going to add, so to speak, just to be me.

But Jesus is coming and I'm very excited for that. It's MS and my first Christmas living together. It's been a challenge to buy and wrap gifts without each other knowing...well, especially for me since he has more time off during December than I do.

His mom is home now. She went home tonight which is good. It's amazing how much better she has gotten in just the last week with therapy every day throughout the day. I hope she continues to do it at home. She's opting not to have a nurse come in each day, mostly because of cost, but also saying she has a bike and stuff she can do at home. I'm praying she does it, because the stronger she gets and the more she continues her therapy the longer she can stay at home, which is where she wants to be.

Work has been annoying the last couple days, with me coming home and letting go of some steam to MS. He's had a rough few days with his Mom's stuff and her live-in S.O. Last night we had his friends over for dinner and to fix his computer. We ended up playing a board game, "You Might Be a Redneck if..." (Yes, we play these games in this state.) I had to laugh as I won the game and I'm probably the least Redneck of the 4 of us. :) Oh well.

It was funny, though. MS and I had been chatting on the phone while driving home (separate cars, but arriving at almost the same time) and at one point, mid-vent, he started laughing and said, "We're having a drink when we get home tonight." I laughed and said, "Oh yes, we are!" But then when Alison and Mike came over, they only wanted Diet Mt Dew, but I said, "Do I still get my drink?" MS said, Hell yeah, and so probably the first time ever, MS and I were drinking while Mike & Alison weren't. :)

Today was our work Christmas party. We've been having a cribbage tournament the last couple of weeks. I've become a legend by holding up the game for a week since I was gone last week. And then Monday, the guy I was supposed to play had to go home to take care of his kid. So yesterday I played 3 games in 2 hours and won 2, lost 1. Now I'm in the loser's bracket but it's double elimination. The second guy I beat, I actually Skunked. I heard from a few people that he was walking around with his head held in shame. One person told me, "I didn't know she knew how to play! I thought it was going to be an easy win!" Ha Ha! But then today I had to play the first guy I had beat, and I beat him again, almost Skunking him, but I let him get one more point to save face. But the tournament continues...the next guy I have to play had left for the day so it'll have to be next week. Should be fun.

And now, I'm sitting trying to regroup, but ready for bed. MS is working but tomorrow we're going to spend all day together, running last minute errands and just taking some time for us. Most of life has been swamped with work and his Mom, as of late, so having a day just to ourselves will be nice.

And Jesus is coming soon, and there's nothing more I'm thankful for. God bless you all. :)

18 December 2010

Wow!

I can't believe it's already December 18. The month has flown by and I have no idea where it went.

The month started out great with a "Leadership Challenge Course". It was great. We had completed a series of personal assessments (like Myers Briggs, etc.) prior to the course so we received a bunch of results back. They were extremely interesting. I learned a lot about myself; I only wish we could have had my bosses take them too, so I could understand them better.

Then it was our work weekend and KC and I put together a Christmas Party for our sections. It turned out to be a good time, though I was exhausted afterword. We also had a Kids' Christmas party. KC had created this theme too...Christmas Around the World. We had tables with different countries represented where the kids and parents could go around and learn about their customs. We also had Santa show up and had our pictures taken. Mine and MS's didn't turn out all that great, or I'd post it here. Well, I might post it later. We'll see how the month goes. :)

The next week was a blur...lots of work and trying to get things ready for me being gone this week. MS had his birthday too, but sadly I ended up working more that day than I wanted. So his birthday ended up pretty quiet. I had already got him his gift back at the end of September - he wanted a scope for his rifle. So he got that for b-day and Xmas, which is fine since this month has been crazy, though some of the fun was gone for his day.

Last Saturday we had snow...and wind...and a mini-blizzard, so we were pretty much trapped at home. This was okay by me. I got to finally finish my project while MS worked on some of his own projects. I was so very thankful to have it finished. What a pain. I will NOT be doing that again next year.

Sunday was a little scary. MS's Mom had a mini stroke so we spent the day at the hospital with her. She's actually still there because she was really weak so she's been going through physical therapy to get stronger. Hopefully she'll be going home before Christmas. MS has been spending his afternoons with her helping her with her PT. Luckily, he's had extra time off this week.

But then I had to pack and get ready for my trip. I went to Mississippi for a training for work this week. It was good, though it was more of a training-the-trainer course so I can train the people I work with on what I learned.

And now I'm home. KC and I made peanut brittle and some more vanilla today. We're too efficient though. It took a lot less time than we thought and we couldn't figure out a good third project so she went back home. So I'm just waiting for MS to come home from the hospital while I watch Psych from this week.

Life is good, you know? I'm pretty blessed.

01 December 2010

Learning to be a leader

My bosses signed me up for a Leadership Challenge Program that's in town this week. It's a 2 1/2 day seminar and it started at noon today. It's already amazing! I've learned a few things, or maybe was reminded of things, today in the first 4 hours. It's great.

Of course, it also makes me wonder if I am cut out to be a leader. I've had people telling me I need to put in for a big promotion that would put me in the higher roles at work. I'm hesitant for a lot of reasons...but that's immaterial right now.

See, Psych is on so I can't focus. :) I'll write more tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the seminar, too.