Highlights of the Past Year

Being an Aunt has been the highlight of this past year plus a side trip to New York.

Christmas of 2009 my older sister & husband announced the pregnancy of their second child. I spent the next nine months hatching a plan to visit the new born. Plans were made for 3 weeks travel to start mid September, not only to Texas but New York and later Kentucky. 


The New York leg of the trip was first. I was able to visit with my mom and step-dad who live in Upstate New York, which is absolutely beautiful. It was shocking how much I had defined the whole state by a teeny-tiny portion of it that i'd only seen portrayed in movies. The hills and greenery and natural beauty of the area was wonderful. We spent 2 afternoon in New York City, it was exactly how the hype makes it out to be - huge, loud, gorgeous, and unimaginable to say you've seen it all. For pictures of overwhere I go to go here: .

From NY I arrived in Texas and met up with my husband who had flown in to spend the next week visiting. We were able to visit the State Fair for the first time as a couple and blew him away with the size and the Flecher Cornydogs.

Of course the main point of this trip was to meet Sean, the new addition, an addorable little boy.


The additional good news we received was the announcement of my brother & his wife having their first child together {she has a daughter from a previous marriage}. We were all excited.

Year in Review

Happy New Year 2010!

Lets review what this year held for me.

January:
We flew home from time in Texas for Christmas & New Years. We received the best news that my older sister & her husband was expecting their second child in August. She told us over lunch & it was so fantastic to hear the news in person, to cry & then get to hug her in congratulations. For New Years we played games and it was one of the better time i've had at new years in a while.

Unfortunately, the trip ended rather stress-fully when my husband woke up with horrible abdominal pain in the early morning we were booked to fly home & we had to go to the ER. It did proved my uncle to be calm & heroic when i'm crying & stressed & needing a ride to the ER. God showed his blessing when the doctor successfully identified he had gallstones but no immediate surgery was necessary so we could fly home. We made  it to the airport at the normal time as if nothing had happened, except he was hopped up on pain killers, he did very little talking & thank goodness for curb side baggage check-in.

The rest of the month was M. on pain pills, doctor appointments, surgery & recovery. It was an odd way to start the year by being very still & watching loads of movies.

February - April:
The shortest month of the year arrived & with us both back to normal it felt like the year to begin. However, I don't remember what happened between February & April. April 27th I do clearly remember being laid off. I remember it being a complete shock.

May:
I got to sleep and read a lot! Which really, wasn't a bad thing, the recuperation was absolutely what was called for. A week after the lay off I went to the beach for my birthday weekend which was very nice also. The rest of the month i spent time figuring out a new routine with the most free time i'd had in a decade. I won't mention the job market as most of you probably understand how dismal that is.

June:
Went to The Summit of Awesome - all about craft & business. I fell in love with encoustic painting, the art of painting with beeswax. Another workshop confirmed for me that I do not want to go into hand felting, i'd like to keep my arm as long as possible. Two classes gave me good understanding of legal issues like what a LLC business is vs. a single proprietorship and what the difference is between trademark & copyright. There were inspirational independent business owners who spoke about their crafty business.  There was one fun craft gift exchange.

July:
I know i celebrated fourth of July in the movie theater again. The past three years my husband & I have gone to the movies to ignore the crowds to see the fireworks. Maybe this year we'll go back to fireworks. We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, again by going to the beach for the weekend.

August:
Baby Sean is born!!

September:
New York, Texas, Kentucky

October:
I don't know

November:
I don't know. Thanksgiving.

December:
Christmas - tree tradition. New Years game party.

General Goals for 2011:
- Go to seattle in the spring for a trip by train