Welcome 2009
I was more than happy to say good bye to 2008. It was a year that had many ups and downs, but overall I remember it being a year of struggles. Not just for me, but for friends around me as well as society and this country. On a national level Americans came face to face with the thought that suddenly the daily Starbucks and $600 handbags just aren't as important as say putting food on the table and keeping a job. I know so may people that have been hit so hard by this economy. The part that sucks is it still isn't the rich that are suffering; it's still us little guys, living paycheck to paycheck, and quickly finding out that there is a good chance that next paycheck won't come. Chris is in sales, and the products he sells are very extracurricular. So when things get tight, nobody buys. So this last year has brought a lot of questions on if the job will still be there next month. We managed to make it through the year, we've set up a just in case fund and do the best we can to be as responsible as we can. This has been a major theme for us this year, especially the last half of it. But I have hope. Growing up we had our ups and downs, and I know that nationally this is definitely worse than it’s been in my lifetime; I know that at some point it has to get better, so all we have to do is hang on. We may lose stuff, but I'm not in this life for the stuff. I am extremely grateful that I have a job that is pretty much protected from the economy and very stable, and I am aware that we are so lucky to have at least one stable job between the two of us. That's way more than so many others.
In addition to the economy in 2008, we said god-bye to Roxy, quite possibly the greatest dog ever. I still miss her so much, and I know Chris misses her terribly. We brought Bart into our home, and he has brought a brand new dynamic to our family. He's half sweetheart and half furball of terror. I've watched the dynamics of friendships change a lot this year as people grow and their own lives change. I've learned that what really makes a friendship is the individuals desires to continue to find that friendship and keep it going through all the changes. Chris and I celebrated our first year of marriage. We had some hurdles to jump this last year, and I'm sure this next year will bring more, but we're still here and I believe stronger than we were when we started. I watched my brother go back to Iraq for a second time. I got to spend more time with family. I got a promotion at work that completely changed the career path that is available to me there and only feeds the fear that I may get stuck instead of being able to pursue the career I really want. For now I've come to peace with that. I'm not going anywhere until school is done, then I'll worry about my options then. School as been a mix of awesome and evil. Since I've been at Cal State I have learned so much, expanded my thinking and opened my world, but it has been so much work and so hard that at the end of each quarter I feel like some one has beaten me with a small stick from the inside out for 10 weeks.
The plans for 2009 are simple. I want to graduate. I am extremely nervous for these last 2 quarters of school. I will be spending more hours a week at school than I have been and working twice as hard. I just remember barely surviving last winter/spring quarters, the thought that these next two are going to be harder kinda freak me out. I know I just have to take it one day at a time, but I am already feeling overwhelmed, so I can't imagine how I'm going to feel when in a month or in 4 months when I'm buried in papers and crying. Which I can pretty much guarantee will happen.
I want to go on a real vacation. Chris and I went on one when we were first together which was just so much fun, since then money has kept us from doing much beyond a few small weekend trips. But next fall, to celebrate the fact that I will not be in school (YAY!!) I want to take a trip around the southwest, to Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyons. Chris has never been to any of those places and it's been far too long since I've been there, so I think it'll be perfect.
Those are the two things I really want to see happen this year, and if a year from now I can look back on these two experiences, I will be happy. Some other things that would be nice:
~ I would like to see if we can buy a house. This is of course dependant on how stable Chris's job is looking. I do love this house and it suits us now, but I am so ready to have my own home.
~ I'd like to expand our family. I haven't talked about having a baby a whole lot here, but if you know me much at all, you know I love children and can hardly wait to have a child of my own. But first getting through school is a priority and again the stability of Chris's job is important. It would be irresponsible to have a baby if Chris losing his job in imminent. Also without going into a ton of detail, it seems like my body is not going to cooperate with having a baby anytime soon, so there is a possibility that we will have to take some more extreme steps in order to have a baby. So where I'd like to say that the goal is to be knocked up sometime in 2009, it may not happen depending on quite a few factors, so this is still a wait and see item in life right now.