Saturday January 17, 2009

I had meant to do this two weeks ago, but time has escaped me. I thought about blowing it off but decided that it would be a good review of my year.

In a previous blog entry I wrote about my goals and accomplishments in 2008, this will be a simple calendar review of my activities. I’m going back through my 2008 calendar and am amazed sometimes at the schedule that I try to keep!

So let’s see….

In January, I was tutoring a lot. I had a total of five hours a week, I believe. I was also just, well, busy. I don’t have one week on my calendar that wasn’t a jumble of appointments, meetings and other things I had to do. Of course at this time (somewhat unbeknownst to me) John and I were coming closer to the end of a major relationship stage — dating. And that leads me to the next month!

In February, the most obvious major event was getting engaged to John on the 15th, which is “our” Valentine’s Day. I continued tutoring and doing lots of stuff for work. This is also about the time it looks like that my GBS surgeon started his Joplin support group meeting.

In March, I really ramped up the efforts to seek a teaching job. I did resumes, letters, everything. I continued to be really busy with tutoring and work. John and I took our first “real” road trip together when we went to Louisiana to see friends.

In April, I was in full-on teaching job search mode and was feeling desperate. I was so busy trying to plan the wedding and looking for a teaching job plus deal with health issues that I took time off from my freelance work.

In May, we FINALLY got our engagement photos taken! We wanted to wait until it was nice out so we could do them outside and not be surrounded by barren trees. It looks like this month was filled with more work, health-related issues pertaining to my digestive system, and planning for my upcoming surgery. I also had a garage sale at the end of the month…it was not very successful.

In June, I don’t have much on my calendar but a lot sure happened. At the beginning of the month, I had what I believe is my 17th surgery. I had bilateral mammoplasty, which is a big ol’ fancy way of saying I got my boobs made smaller. I’ve always big a “big” girl compared to other people my age but when I put on the weight it really made things explode. The problem was that certain things didn’t get smaller when I lost the weight! I still had a lot of tissue and it was causing constant –literally constant–pain. I’m now much happier and feel tons better. The other major event in June was moving to my new apartment, which is where John would eventually join me when we got married.

In July, I managed to keep busy at work, which is shocking considering I cover education. I was still half-heartedly looking for a teaching job but not really. I had decided at this point in my heart of hearts at least, to move on. Work sent me to Little Rock during this month, actually twice. That was an adventure but I actually enjoyed it. I also participated in a conference at the church John and I started attending that was about being a “Significant Woman” of God. I was also getting back into the tutoring thing, after taking June off for my surgery. I had two or three students throughout the entire summer.

In August, I was still trying to figure out some of my digestive issues to no avail. But that didn’t stop me from having LOTS of fun! We had three wedding showers, all co-ed. We felt so blessed that people cared to hold these for us and to attend! One shower was here in Bentonville with work and other local friends. The other two were in Wichita, one was with my family and was at my aunt and uncle’s house and the other was more like an open house reception at my home church. It was put on by some dear friends of the family. During this month I had yet another unsuccessful garage sale! I was also of course crazy busy planning the wedding.

In September, well, the biggie is that I got married! But that wasn’t until the end of the month so the rest of it I was trying to balance work, wedding planning, doctors appointments and just life …. all without losing my mind LOL! I also had my 3-year anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery but with all the wedding excitement that kinda just passed without much notice.

In October John, Missy and I were busy adjusting to life as a family, which actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I think I always heard the advice of “it’s such a big change, it’s an adjustment, it’s hard work” and assumed it would be like tough, or heartbreaking some how. Like there would be this big moment of “holy crap what did I do?” Well, that still hasn’t happened! Both John and I knew what we were getting into when we got married and we agree that while there has been ADJUSTING, it’s not been a bad thing. At the very end of the month, Halloween in fact, we got another addition to our family. That’s when Colby Jack came into our lives. At the time, he was a scrawny, flea-bitten kitten that liked to cuddle. Now he’s a growing kitty who is healthy … and still likes to cuddle!

In November, it looks like life was pretty well, normal. John and I weren’t able to go anywhere for Thanksgiving so we celebrated together by getting a Cracker Barrel take home dinner. It was good, but I got sick because of something that was in it. There was also a lot of tough times in November, including rough times with one friend, another friend committing suicide and yet another friend finding out she had major, possibly life threatening health problems. All three of those things happened in one week no less!

In December, we once again spent the holidays just us and the cats but we also volunteered for a charity on Christmas, which was a nice change. I also had a birthday, which is always a special day! I’d say December was busy, but it also seemed to be our quietest month. I guess that’s the best way for December to be!