Saturday, December 27, 2014

Obligatory "2014 - The Year In Review" Blog..

Why is it obligatory? Well, because there is less than a week left of 2014, and everyone else is doing it. That's why. So anyway, here are some highlights from the year, both good and bad, in roughly chronological order...

January 18, 2014 - Moved into a house (not an apartment) for the first time in several years. Gotta love that.

January 2014 - Unexpectedly lost my dear friend Nancy. They just don't make human beings like that anymore, and probably a few of you who read this will know exactly what I'm talking about.

March 22, 2014 - The day I married my best friend. I suppose I'll always remember 2014 for that. I even still like him 9 months later... lol

April 2014 - Started April in French Polynesia on the island of Bora Bora. This is where we went for our honeymoon. Not a bad way to start a month.

May-ish? 2014 - Got promoted into my first full-time "supervisory" role since being a shift leader at Jack in the Box when I was 18. I say "full-time", because while I was working at Head Start I was the boss if my head teacher was out sick. Now I've got people and things I'm supposed to oversee whether or not anyone is out sick. I'm also apparently supposed to still oversee them while I'm doing someone else's job in addition to my own. Yay.

June 2014 - Road trip to Yellowstone. Also notable for the car accident we got into when we were less than 2 hours from home. Car was deemed repairable and we got it back in early July.

August 2014 - Trips to Gold Beach on two consecutive weekends. Basically I did a lot of driving this summer. Also on the first trip we went to Gold Beach by way of Bend, Crater Lake, and the California Redwoods. The second trip I went down there with my mom because my grandma was having surgery, so that was slightly less fun but still totally worth the drive.

September 2014 - My "baby" started 7th grade. I also managed to turn 32. Still not sure how either of those things happened. Also we got gym memberships toward the end of September. This will be important later on, I'm sure.

October 31, 2014 - Was tapped once again as the parent cool enough to chaperone my son and his friends on the trick-or-treat walk through Milwaukie. Made a ridiculously glittery skirt for the occasion and wore a tiara. Still have glitter in my car and on my boots. It may not come off ever.

November 2014 - Started doing Couch-to-5K workouts. Became a runner, if only in my head. Before the end of November, managed to run a full 3 minutes without stopping. I would have previously thought this impossible (and if you looked at me, you'd think it impossible as well).

December 2014 - My "baby" turned 13. Still not sure how this happened. To celebrate, took him and his girlfriend (!?) to mini-golf and frozen yogurt. (Actually, she's been his "girlfriend" for almost 2 years. And I say "girlfriend" because they don't do anything even remotely couple-ish. The Chamaco told me they held hands once and it was weird and they mutually agreed to never do it again. To which I say GOOD, because you're my "baby" and you're still only 13.)

Also December 2014 - Increased my longest continuous run time to 5 minutes. It sucks and I hate it still (that gets easier, right?), but I can do it. And I keep doing it 3 times a week. So I guess there's something to it.


Happy End of 2014, everyone! Wishing you all the best in 2015!


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Changes SIX Years Can Bring....

So, every year since 2009, I've been doing this blog-thing at about this time of year where I compare the year I am just finishing to the years previous. I've come a long way since 2008, and this just kind of throws all that into sharp relief anymore. My only problem is that I'm gonna run out of colors soon...


2008: We lived in a falling-apart house with no heat.
2009: We live in a pretty nice apartment with gas heat.
2010: We live in the same apartment as last year. Have somehow managed to keep paying the rent. Praise God!
2011: We still live in the same apartment. I have an eye toward moving before the end of the year, though, because I'm close to being able to afford to at this rate.
2012: We have moved twice in 2012. The first time was to Gresham (in April) for a new job, the second time was to Milwaukie (in October) for the same company.
2013: Still living in the same apartment in Milwaukie, and sort of enjoying the stability. Have an eye toward moving to a house sometime in the next year or two, but there's no rush.
2014: Moved in January to a house (rented)! Yeah, I know I said there was no rush, but we found one accidentally at a price we could afford. Very much loving not having neighbors above and below.

2008: I was unemployed. All year.
2009: I sometimes wish I worked less, but I am blessed to have a job surrounded by good, godly people who are passionate about what they do and make working with them so much fun.
2010: Same job situation except it has dawned on me that I really don't like teaching. Okay, so I knew that all along, but now I'm really starting to get the urge to move along... still like the people I work with, though!
2011: I now work FULL TIME for the first time since 2001. I adore the people I work with, but I like teaching less and less. Looking to move on (and when I do that apartment change thing will probably shortly follow).
2012: I am now a full time, salaried property manager. Which sort of explains how I have moved twice this year, no? And look up there and see how psychic I was in 2011! I knew something was coming, just didn't know what... lol. Anyway, not only do I get free rent on a 1,200 square foot apartment, but also I am salaried for more money than I've ever made before in my life. I've had years where my total yearly income was barely $8,000. This is not one of those years.
2013: Still with the same property management company, but in a different capacity. I've moved up!
2014: Um... yes. To all the 2013 above. Same company, and I've moved up yet again, technically.

2008: I did nearly all my Christmas shopping at the Dollar Tree, because it was what I could afford.
2009: I did most of my Christmas shopping at Wal-Mart... moving on up!
2010: Primarily Wal-Mart again. No huge change in this department.
2011: Again, no change! What can I say? I like Wal-Mart.
2012: Haven't done any shopping yet. Could I shop somewhere else? Yes, probably. Will I shop somewhere else? Eh... maybe. But it's hard to beat Wal-Mart!
2013: Well, I did some of my Christmas shopping in Hawaii this year, but still a lot of it at Wal-Mart.
2014: Wal-Mart! Wal-Mart! And some online ordering... I really need to get moving on that or I'm going to be giving people pieces of paper showing what I ordered for them that hasn't arrived yet....


2008: We got food boxes from a couple of different local organizations.
2009: An organization called to offer us a food box and I told them they could probably find someone who needed it worse than we do. After I hung up I realized what I'd just been able to say and I almost cried.
2010: Nobody even offered us a food box this year.
2011: I don't even get food stamps anymore. (Well, $16 a month, but that hardly counts, now does it?)
2012: Virtually no change from 2011 here. I do technically still qualify for the minimum amount of food stamps, but I often forget to use them. The only reason I'm still signed up is because I do it at the same time as the Chamaco's medical insurance (which I'm keeping, since I don't have health insurance myself to add him to). 
2013: Actually no change since 2012 here, except that I'll be getting insurance myself come January 1st.
2014: This year, for the first time, I felt stable enough to pull a couple of tags off of the Adopt-A-Family board at church and buy a couple of extra gifts for someone that otherwise might not have gotten any. That was kinda cool for me.

2008: I carried my son upstairs to his bed when he fell asleep on the couch.
2009: I can barely pick up my son, much less carry him upstairs. This only happened in the last month or two. I realized today that soon I won't be able to pick him up at all... my baby is gone. I almost cried.
2010: I can still pick up my nine-year-old boy for brief periods of time
2011: My kid turned 10 this year. I can still pick him up, but I can't carry him much of anywhere. I realize that the only reason I can pick him up is because I routinely lift up to sixty pounds of child at work. He clocks in at about 74, last I knew.
2012: The boy will be 11 next week. And I can still pick him up, but only barely.
2013: He's 12. He's in middle school. Still trying to get my head around that. Sometimes he jumps on me and hangs, and I can stay upright but I'm not going much of anywhere.
2014: He turned 13 yesterday... Not a whole lot taller than last year, but I'm still trying to get my head around this whole teenager thing.

2008: My son was the sort of co-dependent that being the only child of a single mom will get you.
2009: I have an increasingly independent eight-year-old who more and more often wants to do things by himself. I told him that I was going to get Nancy's recipe for play-doh because the stuff we make at work is better than the store-bought stuff. I said this because I thought it would be something fun we could do together. He asked if he could do it by himself.
2010: My son cooked dinner a few weeks ago. I supervised him, but the only thing I actually did for him was turn the knobs on the stove, because he can't reach them yet. He's older but still short... lol.
2011: My kid can stay home by himself for increasingly long periods of time (I haven't yet pushed it past an hour and a half). He has a cell phone. As long as there is a microwave and a stocked freezer, he can feed himself indefinitely. This works out well for me going to Zumba classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
2012: All this moving and new job stuff has created the necessity for the Chamaco to stay home alone for up to eight hours a day if he's not in school. Somehow, against all odds, I have raised the sort of responsible, independent kid that can handle this just fine so long as he has a microwave and internet access.
2013: Same sort of situation here, except he can reach the stove knobs now. I'm still not letting him stove-cook without supervision, but I sense it's on the horizon.
2014: We're working on the whole "remembering to turn in homework" thing, but other than that he's pretty independent. I wake him up in the morning and then I leave for work. Somehow, miraculously, he gets to school and back home before I come home from work.

2008: I had a couple of friends, but mostly felt very lonely and isolated.
2009: I have some very good friends, some less-close-but-still-good friends, some casual acquaintances that  always make me smile (hello CTG!), a pretty full social calendar, and sometimes wish desperately to just be home by myself for a few hours.
2010: All of the above, plus a couple of new friends... :-)
2011: Loads of new people in my life this year. Some of them are even male... lol.
2012: With the new job comes a new social circle. I must say I like working with a mixed group of men and women again... lol. The estrogen levels in my life were approaching critical.
2013: A few of my "new" coworkers (here at this job where I've been for a year and a half) have wormed their way into that circle I would call "friends". For my own sanity, I have taken to keeping Saturday for myself and having that be a day where I can just stay home if that's what I want to do, because it often is. I'm kinda busy these days.
2014: Well, my best friend lives with me now. I still have my friend/coworker circle, and church friends. I did lose a very dear friend in late January of this year... still miss you, Nancy.

2008: I was single.
2009: Still single... no change there. : )
2010: Despite some rumors you may have heard, still single. But I guess there were at least rumors this year. Maybe next year there will be something to them! ;-)
2011: Still single! But I did actually go on ONE date in 2011. Which is one more than in the previous eight years combined, so I guess that's progress... ha ha ha!
2012: I am... not single. Haven't been since September-ish. (Don't ask me exactly when, because I don't know!) Here's the funny part: Internally, I have always said two things... that I wanted to date someone I didn't date in high school (because all previous boyfriends and my ex-husband I dated in high school), and that I wanted to date someone who was my best friend (obviously, this required finding a male best friend). To which, I presume, God said, "Okay then... how about your best friend from elementary school? That's not high school!" You will never convince me that God doesn't have a sense of humor (as well as a keen sense of irony), but I am still very grateful to have Andrew back in my life after 19 years of absence.
2013: Okay, here's the big one! Andrew and I became officially engaged on December 17th, 2013, and we're planning to get married on March 22, 2014! I am thisclose to having a "squee" moment, and if you know me, you know I do not squee easily. See the previous post for how it all went down if you're curious, but know this - somehow I went from 10 years of impoverished single-mommyhood to being the sort of person who gets flown to Hawaii and proposed to on a beach. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone!
2014: Yes, my best friend lives with me because I married him earlier this year. Actually, considering we got married in March, we're getting pretty close to the one-year mark. Anniversary/spring break trip is already planned... we're going to Arizona. Grand Canyon, Sedona, all that. We're already well on our way to being old married people.