Delirity

I set some goals for 2009, knowing full well that 2009 was going to be a very challenging year. Funny, since I had no idea how hard 2009 was actually going to be.

We moved Jesse from Portland to San Diego (end of April) to Bellingham (end of May). Since then we’ve lived 6 hours apart and I travel to see him every other weekend (and then play catchup on the other weekends). It’s very hard living away from your spouse. And it takes up more time than when you live together. And it’s stressful. I spent a good chunk of 2009 really stressed out. And I have a new 15 pounds to show for it (yea, not exactly what I was hoping for). Add to that the mass exodus of the majority of our Portland friends over the past year and a half. Ugh. All I know is that is has been hard. Really hard. But we’ve survived, are stronger for it, and 2010 is going to be better.

How I actually did on my 2009 goals:

1. Recommit to Flylady – I have a hard time figuring out how to work her crazy email schedules into my life. But, my roomba vacuums half the apartment twice a week and I try to get my dishes off the counter (or at least out of the sink) every night. Given how odd my schedule has been, I think I’ve done a fair job.

2. Continual Reassessment of Finances – This is one place I really rocked my goals. We paid cash for all the random moving Jesse around and his first 2 months living in Bellingham (til he had all the essentials and was actually getting paid). In August I got really serious about our finances (I’m a pretty serious Dave Ramsey fan) which were awkward since we separated them out by household. But, since September, I’ve been able to save $5000 from my paychecks and we almost have a fully funded emergency fund (that’ll be done by the end of January!). And… despite  having to start paying on his student loans, Jesse has been able to manage all his expenses in Bellingham on his income!

3. Run 250 miles – This goal turned into the biggest joke – my Nike Plus tells me I ran a grand total of 72 miles (most of which occurred before May). I continued to have trouble with shin splints throughout the year. I was frustrated. I was busy traveling up and down the coast. Toward the end of the year, I started going to the gym again (because really, when you’re so busy and stressed that you gain 15 pounds in a few months, you have to do something!) and was really loving kickboxing until the shin splints returned. But I was smart and decided I wanted to be that person that does whatever they can while they recuperate… so I’ve been treating the shin splints with massage/chiropractic/acupuncture and hanging out with the elliptical machine, stair master, spin class and weights.

4. Watch AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies Top 10 - Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Casablanca, Raging Bull, Singin’ in the Rain, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, Vertigo, The Wizard of Oz. Done! That was fun

5. Find 5 Ways that I Want to Give Every Year – I’m not at a point where there are 5 ways I want to give. I continue to give blood on a regular basis. I continue to donate items to Goodwill. That’s all I can manage at the moment. Once we’re in a place we’re going to settle though, watch out!

Overall, I think I did a pretty good job with the year. Despite the difficulties and frustration it was good… I’m just glad it’s almost over!

I had to open one of my gifts from Jesse early since he was getting his mom the same thing and didn’t want her opening her gift to spoil my surprise. That guy is smart… he found us heated foot rests for under our computer desks. My feet don’t get too cold at work (since I actually wear shoes there), but when I get home I tend to wander around in socks. On days I work from home and wind up in front of my computer all day, my feet tend to get fairly chilly… but no more! Very very wonderful Christmas present.

Since our family is geographically and time challenged this year, we moved Christmas to December 20th in Victoria, BC. We even had a little Christmas tree, courtesy of the Dollar Store!

It was a bit of a whirlwind adventure, but we sure did have fun! Friday night my mom flew in to Portland. Saturday morning, we drove up to Bellingham to pick up Jesse and headed up to the Tswassen ferry terminal outside Vancouver, BC. We were running a little late and missed our 1pm ferry by about a minute… but fortunately there was a nice waiting area that kept us busy until it was time to board the 3pm ferry over to Victoria.

An hour and a half later, we arrived at the Schwartz bay terminal where Jesse’s parents came to pick us up. After dropping off our luggage, we walked into downtown Victoria for dinner at The Sticky Wicket – our first of several Irish pubs. On our way back to the timeshare, we stopped into The Empress Hotel to check out the Victoria Festival of Trees. This year there were about 75 Christmas trees decorated by local companies – it was amazing to see the variety and creativity of some of them!

Sunday morning we had our Christmas and then headed into Victoria to do a little browsing. We made sure to stop in at Murchie’s Teas for Donna (which was fun – though I definitely didn’t need to purchase any more tea!) and the Out of Ireland store that always has some neat woolen items. We stopped for lunch at The Irish Times Pub where we had some great food and even got to watch the first half of the Chargers game. Then we headed to our main event – The Butchart Gardens! It was fun wandering through the gardens at dark, trying to remember the 12 Days of Christmas so that we’d know what we were looking for next in the decorations around the grounds. The lights were fun and we even got to hear some carolers and a brass quartet playing Christmas music before we left!

We left Victoria on the 7am ferry back to Tswassen… which worked out remarkably well since it meant getting home to Bellingham quite early so we could show my mom around the city.

My mom is now back on her way home to San Diego so she’ll be with my grandpa for Christmas and Jesse’s parents are back to Camas to spend Christmas with Jesse’s brother… that means that for the 2nd year in a row, it’s just Jesse and I for Christmas!