Reflecting

With the craziness of work and life in general, I am behind in a lot of things - my blog being one of them. Pictures coming soon, I promise!!!

I know I am weeks behind on the topic of this post since tomorrow is FEBRUARY, but I have been thinking a lot about 2010. It seems like every year I say to Stephen, "I really hope this year is less crazy than last year."

And I don't mean just business...it seems no matter how hard I try to simplify, our American culture keeps shoving a frantic pace down our throats. I am talking about major life changes...and it seems like every year since we have been married we have had major life changes. Every year.

January of 2010 marked me ending my job at IWU, a job that I loved and poured myself into for almost 7 years. It also marked the start of a new job - staying at home. I kicked and fussed and cried - but grew...and at the end I struggled with whether or not I should take the full time job that was offered to me.

In January I was also diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism). Which explained a lot of symptoms that I didn't even realize I had. This was scary for me, and in the summer I began seeing a specialist. She wanted to do surgery, I wanted to try natural health. I recently had more lab work done, and found out that my one count is NORMAL but my other one (which is actually the more important of the two) is staying very low and needs to come up pretty significantly. I feel a LOT better so it is hard to believe this number isn't moving at all.

April 2010 we bought a new car and sold our van. This has been an UNREAL hassle and headache...and although I love the car and the 40 mpg it gets, I never should have bought it for several reasons. Mainly now because the dealer was dishonest and is refusing to fix a part that on paper he agreed to take care of. We are still deciding what we should do. Dave Ramsey would call this my "stupid tax." Randy Carlson would call this my "tuition for life." Either way, live and learn, right???

Also in April, I started a new, full time job in Mt Pleasant. This was a huge transition, mostly because of the time I am away from home plus the distance of the drive. I still long to be home, although it is a lot better now that Frontier bought out Verizon (and hey, they brought me high speed internet!). I still would prefer something more challenging, but I really like my boss and (almost) everyone I work with.

April and May was spent house hunting. We were down to the last day to get the tax credit for buying a home, and there was a lot of drama including having to switch lenders in the middle of it, but we bought a house that we really liked and hope to have long term.

In August we moved into the house, and two weeks later accidentally flooded it. We are still working on getting it fixed. We are mostly settled, but still have a lot that needs to be done.

In September Titus started his first year of school. It has been rough, but overall it is going good. This has been a big transition for Damaris as well. She frequently says how much she misses Titus when he has school.

September also brought my very first overseas trip when I went to see my sister in Cambodia. I really enjoyed my time there.

In October I made the decision to start my home based business. This is going well, and my goal is in three years to be completely working at home, but it is sometimes a lot on top of everything else. but I love the company and I love working for them. If you want to buy safer products wholesale, let me know!

In November I turned the big 3-0. I consider this a big event for 2010 because my age is now in a new decade. I am definitely fine with being 30...not that I have a choice ;) It is just weird at times.

And that was our year in a nutshell...some good, some bad, but overall an awful lot for one year. I mean, that is a lot of major life events. But God is good, and I can see how He was with us every step of the way. Guiding us, challenging us, and growing us.

2011 here we come...just hopefully with less drama ;)