My 32nd Year in Review

Well, tomorrow I will turn 33 year old. I thought I would take a moment to recap the things that have happened this year. Initially, I couldn't think of much, but then I remembered we took a few trips this year that were great.

The first trip was to New York and Boston. It was an amazing adventure for Jerry and me. We got to see so many cool things. I also got to ride on a train, which I had never done before.
The next trip we took was to Missouri. Even though we do that every year, this year was we took Naz and Tekaija with and took a side trip to Kansas City. We went to a Cardinals game and a Royals game as well as visited the KC Zoo. It was a really great time.
The last trip we took was up to my dad's in Duluth. We stayed the weekend and went fishing and spent time with my brothers, which I don't get to do a lot.

Some other things that have happened this year are the addition of two family members. Little Brice was born a few weeks ago, and little Isryl will be coming any day now.

Some things that haven't changed are the fact that we don't have children yet and we still live in the same house which won't change until I have a job again.

Searching for a Job

The 10 days since I was laid off from work have been quite busy. I usually spend most of the morning on the internet applying for jobs or creating a network on www.linkedin.com. It's amazing the people that are on there from my past jobs. It's a great way to reconnect and network to find jobs.
Jerry suggested it, and I am glad that I joined. There's people from all over the country. Even my penpal Niren joined and he lives in India.

I have also been doing a lot of knitting. I made myself a wool vest and a teddy bear for our new nephew that's due to be born anytime now.

She lifts me up

My little Tullah Bea has such a way of making me feel so much better. All she has to do is look at me with her sweet brown puppy doggie eyes and all the crappy stuff just disappears. It doesn't matter if she just ate one of my shoes, or knocked a full glass of juice off the coffee table with her tail; she can look at me with her sweet apologizing eyes. Why is that? Thank goodness for the unconditional love of dogs.

Layoffs?

Today was an aweful day. First, I wake up at 1:51am with a terrible headache. Then, I feel crappy enough that I stay home from work. I am dozing on the couch when the Director of my department at work calls with an HR lady to tell me that I have been laid-off. Great, there was no warning at all that they would be doing layoffs. I only get 2 weeks of severance and all the vacation I haven't yet taken. It's a bunch of crap. It's all because of the economy, they said. I am going to wallow for a day, then it's on to working on finding a new gig.

Horrible Day

Today has been a horrid day so far. All my muscles are tied in knots, I feel sleepy, and I slept very poorly last night so I am exhausted. I wish we still had a membership to lifetime fitness, because I would be there sitting in the hot tub. My second wish would be to have a message therapist at my beckon call.

Enough complaining...I am very proud of myself because last night I walked uphill on my treadmill for 32 minutes. I worked up a good sweat. It felt good to do something physical other then cleaning my house. It's been so cold that doing excercise outside is out of the question these days. Anyway, the plan is to try and do it again tonight. I might help my muscle knots relax a bit.

I am also excited for dinner tonight because I made my crock pot beef and beans. It's really yummy. It will last us tonight and tomorrow. Then on Friday, I get to plan another whole week of dinners. I actually like it because the sky is the limit, I can choose to have whatever I feel like having. Obviously, I will try to make it healthy.

Laundry, Still not done

Lisbon Laundry, originally uploaded by Pandorea.

I didn't get to far on my laundry mission from last night. Tonight, I am really going to do it, instead of make brownies and watch Girls Just Wanna Have fun on cable. I couldn't help it. I haven't seen that movie in so long. When it was finally over, I had forgotten about my laundry and was ready for bed. Today, there will be no distractions, I hope.
I don't mind doing laundry, I just hate putting it away. My husband isn't any better at it then me. Most times there are two laundry baskets full in our closet. One has clean folded clothes that we dig through, and the other has dirty clothes that need to be washed. By the time there's enough dirty clothes in that basket, all the clean stuff needs to be rewashed too, because it's all unfolded and wrinkled from being scavenged for clean undies which are enevidably on the botton of the basket. You would think I would learn...

My little sister Kirstie is getting so grownup. She turned 17 on Friday, and I remember the day that she was born. I was at school, and when I got home there was noone home and I had forgotten my key. I went to my friend Courtney's and called my grandma and she told me that Kirstin had been born. I was sixteen. Even though we are so far apart in age she's so much fun to hang out with. It's nice that we really never had that awkward sister stuff were we hated eachother like Melanie and I did. It's amazing to me that she has known Jerry her whole life. Since she's been alive he's always been around. I even have pictures of him holding her when she was a baby. I think that's really cool. They are as much siblings as she and I are, and you can tell because they tease eachother relentlessly.