Reflecting on 2009

Looking back I can’t believe that another year has passed. It does not seem like a full year has passed since we hosted the annual New Years Eve party at our house the first time. Likewise, I cannot believe all that has happened in the past year, or that it’s been a decade since I rang in the new millenium at Aron’s house with my best high school friends. Here’s a look back at my 2009:

* I learned how to quilt and fell in love with it. I took a class with Kim and Rita and while it was hard to give up a night every week to do it instead of plan lessons, I am so glad I did it. In the past year I completed 3 quilts: 1 for me, 1 for my sister and 1 to donate to Soldiers’ Angels for their holiday drive.
 

* Don and I spent a few days over my Spring Break back at the bed & breakfast where we were married. We were the only guests and did nothing but relax. Just before we left, Don was hired to work for the first phase of the Census. He verified addresses in our area for a few weeks. He also got involved with the volunteer fire department in our township and started training to join the force.

* I completed my first year as a teacher, and believe me, summer couldn’t have come fast enough by the end of the year! I loved my first year, but would never want to relive it. It was the most stressful, and hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Yet, most days, I couldn’t wait to go back. By the end of the year, I’d grown especially close to one of my co-workers and I count her among my very best friends now!

* We spent the summer working outside in the garden. We planted tons of tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos and green beans. We had so many tomatoes I was giving them away as fast as I could pull them off the bushes. We also learned how to can them, and made several batches of chopped tomatoes, salsa and even bruschetta. We also canned green beans, jalapenos, apple butter, and strawberry jam. A lot of them were used in homemade gift baskets for the holidays. In the process I learned a lot about gardening, including about quite possibly the ugliest worm on the face of the planet, tomato worms.

*  In May, a young, yellow lab was dropped off near our property. She was afraid of us at first, but after about a week of gaining her trust, I was able to catch her and we fell in love with her. They decided they wanted to keep her next door (which is good because she does not get along with our cat), and was named Lily after the spring since that’s when she showed up. In the last few months, she’s gone from being an outside dog to owning the house.

* A young girl was kidnapped and eventually discovered to be murdered in our town over the summer. As a firefighter, Don took me to join a search party in some heavily wooded areas. We discovered later that at the exact time we were out searching, police were on the other side of the county with her body. We suspected that they had found her while we were in the woods because they called us back really early, but we didn’t know for sure until much later. As of now, the murder still hasn’t been solved. It was really interesting to be a part of the search party, though.

* I saw Brad Paisley (for the 3rd time), Dave Matthews (for the 7th time), and the Kenny Chesney tour over the summer. Brad Paisley was awesome and it was so much fun going to a concert with Amy. DMB always rocks, even though the show wasn’t one of my favorites. I did get their new CD afterwards and love it. It was also cool to see Tim Reynolds on stage with the band again, too. As for Kenny Chesney, I suppose I enjoyed his performance, but I’m just not a big fan. I was happy to see Montgomery Gentry again, though. And though I’m still not a big fan, Sugarland was great live, too.

* Don and I went on vacation for a week with my family to the Leelenau Peninsula near Traverse City. It was awesome to see my family on an occasion other than Christmas and we had fun. My dad and I made the trek to Mackinac Island, and Don and I spent a lot of time reading. I was reminded of exactly how much I missed the Great Lakes while we lived in Denver.

* I made a couple of cool cakes and some awesome cookies over the past year. I bake a lot for my students (it’s amazing how easily high school students can be bribed to behave for a substitute with the promise of cookies or cupcakes!), but I did a cake for the grand opening of the new location of Permanent Images Tattoos, and cookies for Laura’s rehearsal dinner. I also made some cookie bouquets for Krista & Terrell’s anniversary and as a door prize for the Knights of Columbus trip to the Tigers game.
 

* In September, we started school again with 2 new teachers. I will totally admit that I wasn’t sure about either of them at first, but am happy that several months later, they have completed our group of non-tenured teachers, which we call “The Six-Pack.” I share a classroom with Ryan and can honestly say that I am so happy to have met him and have him working so closely with me in the expelled program. I think that our personalities match perfectly for working with those kids. We have what looks like a total love/hate relationship on the outside, but in actuality he is one of the best friends I’ve made in years.

* We attended several weddings this year, including that of my good friend from high school and her high school sweetheart. How awesome to be there, and see them get married after I attended senior prom with them. When I delivered Laura her cookies, we met at Cabelas and found that they were having a job fair so Don applied. He was hired a few weeks later as a seasonal worker, and just applied to a permanent job there.

* My aunt passed away this fall after a long time of poor health. She lived in Canada and I don’t have a passport, so I couldn’t go to the funeral. Otherwise, I was lucky enough to avoid losing other people I love this year.

* Don and I finally purchased the house we’ve been renting since we moved back to MI. How exciting! We’re finally homeowners! This officially completes “The New Plan,” which was set back in July of ’08 after I found out we were moving back to Michigan.

As always, I know there are lots of things I am forgetting, but that’s my year in a nutshell and it will be nice to look back someday and reread this and see 2009 for what it was!

Satisfied Customer

At an amazing Black Friday sale at Sears, we purchased a new washer and dryer set at almost half off. We used the rest of our wedding gift money on the purchase because the dryer at the house was ancient, and the front loading washers use 3/4 less water per load than the top loading, which we had. The catch was, we would have to wait until February for delivery because the sets hadn’t been made yet. We decided it wasn’t a big deal, because we didn’t NEED the set right away. We were told that once the set came in, we’d be contacted and we would set up delivery then.

February came and went, and no one at Sears had an idea when they would be coming in. By March, we were a little frustrated. Finally, in mid-March, we got the call- they were in! We went into the store to set up the delivery, and were told that they couldn’t just put a delivery into the system, it had to be part of a reciept for an item. We were basically told that there was nothing that they could do for us, despite the fact we followed the instructions given to us by the sales rep in November. We finally paid someone to bring them to our house, but had no way of getting them into the basement or getting the old pair up.

I finally decided to just call Sears. It didn’t seem to make sense that they couldn’t make up a delivery charge for us. The woman at the customer service line was very helpful, and eventually got us talking to the store manager and agreed to send us some gift cards to make up the money we paid someone to drive the set to our house.

We had to pay for the delivery team to come out, but they got them into the laundry room. And, as a nice surprise, we got the gift card in the mail AND a rebate check from our fridge (also purchased in November!) in the same day!

Happily Married

After planning a wedding- then moving and REPLANNING a wedding, we finally had everything come together and we got married last week. The weather was amazing and we were so glad to spend time with our friends and family. I would recommend the route we went to anyone. The bed and breakfast idea was the best thing ever! Not only did we have a great background for the wedding to take place, but our family and Denver friends were all in the same place. The morning after the wedding some of us went horseback riding on the beautiful trails.

I was such a laid-back bride. I woke up and showered before breakfast and had my hair done in minutes. I put on my makeup while Dana was getting her hair done. And, I was still wearing my pumpkin shirt pjs when guests started to show up. It was the most relaxed I’ve been in months considering the move and new job thing.

Let’s go Red Wings!

After watching what was probably the best and most heart-wrenching game in many years on Monday night, the Wings pulled out the victory tonight and won the Stanley Cup. YEA WINGS! It’s their 4th win in 11 years, which is pretty awesome!!

Freedom Rock

I decided to look up the artist of a rock mural from a forward I got online once. When I searched for Ray Sorensen, I found a website dedicated to his “Freedom Rock” as well as his site dedicated to his artwork. I’ve been sent the forward a couple of times, and every time it was the same pictures, including the following:

and

I found out that this isn’t the only mural painted on this rock in the middle of Iowa. He’s painted a new design on the rock every year since 1999. You can see the other murals at his website http://www.bubbazartwork.com/. The Freedom Rock is located just off I-80, west of Des Moines, IA. I hope to be able to stop by and see it someday.

Earned money, free money and more pills

I got a check today for some cookies I baked a few weeks ago and shipped to some friends for their daughters’ birthday at school. Just in time for the holidays and my trip home. 🙂 Also, imagine my surprise when I got a check for $20 from the city I live in! That’s right, because the city had more money than their projections, they gave it back to us. So, that’s just in time for Christmas, as well! And it was FREE. Sort of. I’m sure I’ve paid more money into the fund at some point.

And, more pills is right. I couldn’t sleep last night for my stuffy nose (I think I’m going to have to call the doctor and get the antibiotic after all), but found if I rotated the different kinds of sinus pills I had, then I felt a little better. However, I discovered today that I didn’t buy the exact kind that my doctor recommended. Did you know to get this kind of Sudafed you have to show your ID and sign for it???

I will start those tomorrow. Hopefully they are better than the others I have.

They released the “steroid use” list from MLB. Some names on there aren’t too surprising. I’m surprised how many names I don’t recognize though. Seems like if they were using steroids, they would have done better and I could know who they were. Oh well. I’m not exactly sure what releasing this list is going to do- are they planning to erase records or is this just to try and prevent future generations of baseball players from using the steroids?

We still have only used the furnace three times. That’s pretty good considering it’s December. Our 2 heaters from www.eheat.com have been pretty awesome. Even better since we got the broken one replaced and the window fixed. We sure noticed the difference when we didn’t have the heater in our bedroom and it was COLD at night!

Company Christmas Party

Tonight was our company’s Christmas party. We held it at a nice Italian place not far from our office. We had about 50-60 people show up, which is pretty good. We had a buffet of different pastas, salad, and great dessert. The catch was that we had a cash limit we had to reach- and once the speeches were made, 1/2 the guest list left and we weren’t even close. We still had almost $800 to spend. If we didn’t spend it, we were going to get charged it anyways, so the bosses had us start to order food to go. For example, here is a pic of my “doggie bag” pile”

That’s 2 whole cheesecakes (pumpkin and white chocolate), box of ravioli and garlic bread and a slice of white chocolate cheesecake. That doesn’t even include the food I ate! People were ordering whole pizzas and taking them home. Guess that’s our Christmas gift from the bosses, huh?

Here are a couple of other pics from the party:
 

Now it’s already 11 pm and I’m usually sleeping by about 10. My sinus infection is not pleasant tonight, either. I’m stuffed up beyond belief and am starting to think I’ll have to be calling the doc for that antibiotic as I haven’t improved much in the past two days.

Finally went to the doctor

I don’t go to the doctor often. Most times I go, I end up hearing “Well, there’s nothing we can do for you. Drink lots of fluids and get some rest.” I don’t have time to get rest. I have a stressful job to get back to.

However, I’ve been sick for almost three weeks, on and off. I finally decided it was time to go to the doctor since I’ve been paying for my insurance and haven’t used it yet. Also, I’ve never met the doctor I picked off the list when I signed up for my insurance. The good news is I already love my new doctor. She was so laid back and asked me lots of questions. For the first time in years, I really felt like she was in no rush to get to another patient, as is so often the case with doctors. Plus, like me, she seems to be more of a naturalist. She suggested that I try a handful of other things to help my sinuses before trying what she called a “very powerful dose of antibiotics that last for a full 14 days.” I’m good with that. Apparently the antibiotics would dry out my sinuses, which is part of the problem I’m currently having so it would defeat the purpose. However, she said that if my symptoms get worse, or even stay the same with no improvement, I can call her and she’ll perscribe the antibiotic. She also said if I have any questions ever, I can email her through the Kaiser website. Which I thought could be helpful in the future. Oh, and she gave me a doctor’s note to miss work tomorrow and even asked if I wanted one for Wednesday because she believes that time and rest are the best medicines for getting better. She said if I’m not better by Wednesday to call the office and she’ll fax a new letter to my work. 🙂

Our company Christmas party is on Wednesday night and I better feel better by then. I have spent the last few weeks helping to plan it, so there’s no way I’m missing it.

Welcome to my piece of the internet….

The weekend has been full of snow here. It started yesterday afternoon and didn’t stop until the middle of the night. One inch was in the forecast, I think it snowed at least 4 inches. And it has been COLD the last two days. At least today it was sunny out.

We FINALLY got some new windows in our apartment! It took almost a week of the window people “trying to get out to our apartment” to look at them, and then they sent someone out on a Saturday and he replaced the glass and some of the pieces in our bedroom window, and replaced the glass and added some insulation in the spare room. Hopefully we’ll actually be able to sleep at night without the plastic we have hanging up popping off. Seriously, that’s how drafty it was before. In addition to the heaters we got from eheat.com, we have only turned on the furnace twice this year! I can’t wait to see our energy/gas bill for the past month and compare it to a year ago.

Our Christmas plans are still up in the air. I know I am going to be in Michigan, but I’m still not sure how or when I’ll be there. Once we figure it out, I’ll be sure everyone knows. I’m almost done Christmas shopping- just a small handful of things to get, and I already know what to buy, I just have to find the time to actually do it.