2004 in Review

This post is inspired by one with an acre and I hope to do as good a job with my post as she did with hers.

2004 proved to be a good year for us in comparison to many, and for that I am very thankful! Overall DH has a job, and we have a good income which allows us to do things that we enjoy in addition to what we need to do. We are all healthy, happy and well fed! A couple of investments we made in 2003 finally started to payoff this year, and we now have some passive income! :yay

DD is doing well with the homeschooling, although I have to make some changes in my life to continue to homeschool in the future, this is part of my New Year's program (no resolutions here)! She loves her volleyball and Tae Kwon Do, now that we've finally found a school that we like!

DS has had a rough start in 2nd grade, and is bored to tears with school. Due to some changes that the school has made, we are seriously considering homeschooling him starting in January. His teacher is now out on maternity leave, and we were promised that his class would have the student teacher that trained in his classroom cover for his teacher while she had her babies. But they decided to split the classes and create a fourth 2nd grade class. They hired the student teacher to take the 4th class, and DS did not get moved into that classroom. His substitute will be another new teacher (she student taught last semester in a 3rd grade class) and although we've met her, and she seems nice and has great plans to teach, I still have my concerns. DS does not deal with change very well, and he wants to be homeschooled NOW. So he and I have spent a good portion of the break working together, and seeing how things would be a little. Changes they are a-comin'!

My stitching...I've completed 5 projects this year (plus an MBA). I should finish a 6th project today, as I have about 20 minutes left to complete another ornament. Then I'm going to attempt to finish Mini Mystery "E" before the new year appears late tomorrow night! Since it sounds like my New Year's Eve party os being cancelled, I'll probably stitch most of the evening! So there is still some hope! Next year's foreshadowing can be found here, and I'll get it posted here next year, and try to update quarterly, even if it is just a cut and paste of the original list with progess noted!

Friends have been made aplenty this year. Since getting involved with the big TWBB GTG in Vegas, I've grown close to several of the ladies involved in the original planning. Each one of these ladies is special to me for numerous reasons. One of them even lives relatively close to me, although we almost had to go to Vegas to actually meet! I'm hoping that 2005 brings a closer friendship between us that extends to our families as well. The next one is a prolific and sometimes controversial poster, who is really a lot of fun. Unfortunately we live too far apart to develop a close in person relationship, although our friendship has grown through e-mails and IMs since Vegas, and I hope to get our families together next year somehow! Last but certainly not least is the lady who called me her sanity during the GTG. We've also grown closer since the trip, and even had a wonderful 7 minute lunch and shop last week! All these people are special to me in their own way, and I look forward to many good times with them in the future!

In real life my friendships are about the same, although I have added some new people to the cast of characters and am in the process of renewing an old friendship that had drifted apart a little due to issues in both our lives. I also have a new SIL whom I hope to develop a friendship with as time permits. Of course her wedding was not a good time fr us to really get to know each other, and that's the only time I've actually met her. 2,000+ miles makes it difficult to GTG regularly, so we make do with other communication alternatives.

In other news DH is attempting to get a new business started and was looking for investors. We had some that were interested, but they seemd to vanish after the elections. I just found out we have some more that are interested, but we are currently having some technical issues with the final draft of the paperwork for them.

DH has also had an intersting year with cars. About a month ago he got rear-ended on the freeway in an accident that did almost no physical damage to the body of the car, but trashed his transfer case. We finally got the insurance company to purchase the part, since it was accident related and he's been in a renatl car or two almost all month. The first renatl car was a Sebring, which within 3 days of his picking it up had a flat tire. Then the radio randomly went out when he hit a bump! Finally it just wouldn't start one afternoon. We managed to get it started with him jiggling the electrical wires under teh hood while I turned the key. At that point, we took it back to the rental place and got a replacement. First they offered us an Impala, like I drove while I was in VA, but it had a flaky looking tire, so we ended up with a Ford F_150, and he's as happy as can be with it, and doesn't want the Jeep back. I don't blame him, but the Jeep has a major benefit going for it...its paid for! So I guess in the next year or so, I'm going to have a second car payment...again, since he really wants a pick-up truck now!

Overall its been a good year with some challenges, but we've survived and our marriage is stronger now than its been in awhile. I'm hoping this trend will continue through 2005 and beyond! I hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas and will have a great 2005!

Warped Logic

DD came to me this morning with a list of cities asking if I knew any BBer's who lived there. I stated that I knew of people who lived in the general vicinity of several of the cities on the list. Upon questioning her as to what she was up to, she explained to me that she wanted to give me a birthday present of a trip to one of these cities with her father (DH) and herself to see Hilary Duff!

Now, Hilary Duff is one of the less obnoxious pop singers these days, but trust me this is not a concert I would choose to attend if I could possibly avoid it! I told her that this was not a birthday present for me, but an excuse for her to go see this concert, and I did not appreciate my birthday being used in such a manner. However, she has continued to push the issue, thinking this is simply the greatest birthday present of all time! I'm trying to decide who I would truly like to see for my birthday now....maybe Jimmy Buffet!

Life Update...As Promised

Life has been extrememly hectic and busy with both kids starting Tae Kwon Do and Volleyball season winding down. I've been meaning to attempt to catch you all up on my life for awhile, but haven't had the chance to do it, so here goes.

I have been very busy wiht schlepping kids and an e-mail chat group I've gotten involved with. Yes I still keep secrets, and know more than I've ever known before, but I don't share with anyone but my husband! I've been stitching away on my bookmark from Vegas between ornaments from my ornament RR. I have about another week to work on the bookmark before the next ornament comes in, and I hope to get it finished during that time. However, I really only stitch at the kids classes, and rarely at home. Of course when I'm home, I try to work on one of my larger projects, so they get some attention too, but I've found the majority of the progress comes on my travel projects.

DH is still working at the same job and tomorrow night is the company Christmas party. We're going for a little while, but I don't think we're going to eat dinner there, as last years was gross. Also there are so many people in attendance that attempting to find someone you know is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The following Friday is his departmental party, to which "significant others" have been invited. I told my husband I was not invited since I'm NOT a significant other, I'm a SPOUSE. I know a minor semantic pickiness, but it is something I believe, and I let him know how I felt last night. I'll probably go anyway, simply because I want faces to put with the names I've been hearing for the past two years, but still I wanted my feelings on the word usage known!

DD and DS started Tae Kwon Do back at the first of October, and they just tested for their orange belts last weekend. THey both did very well, and are really enjoying the program. DD's class meets from 11-12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which allows for a nice break in the middle of her school day. It also encourages her to work hard in the mornings to get school done, so she has the afternoon to pursue other things she wants to do during the school day.

As I mentioned volleyball season has ended for the year. DD's team took the divisional championship title. However in the championships her team lost their second set, and were disqualified. We're still very proud of the girls and how well they did this year! She is now playing club volleyball with a new club that started up this year. The coaches from her regular season team put together a club team for the homeschooled kids, and DD is on it. She's really enjoying this, but it is a lot more work than the regular team. I think it will make her a better player come next year, and that is my long term goal, as long as she wants to play, I want to provide her with every opportunity she wants to pursue to improve.

DS is still enjoying Cub Scouts, and has earned his Bobcat badge. This means he is now working towards his Wolf badge! He should have this by the end of the school year. He's also doing well in school. As a matter of fact he's doing so well academically, that he os bored a good portion of the time in class. I'm looking into a charter school for him, until I'm ready for the responsibility of homeschooling him as well. Unfortunately, he's just not as busy with activities as DD is, so its harder to come up with interesting hi-lights of his life to share! LOL

I'm also thinking about attempting a little teaching next year for DD's co-op. I would be teaching a consumer math class for the high school students who are not planning on attending college. This class would be a lot of fun for me to teach, since it is primarily a business math type of class. It is probably about as close as I will get to teaching accounting in a co-op situation, unless I end up in a huge co-op where there would be enough kids interested in accounting to make it worth my time teaching it. I should have the text book sometime next week to take a look at and determine if this is something I could really handle. From looking at the web description, I believe it is, of course seeing the actual book will be a much better judging tool.

That's about all for now from Phoenix, where its been rather chilly, but is warming up a little! Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we face some major life-changing decisions over the next few weeks/months depending on how things go. I won't say more for right now, because we're not sure what's happening and I don't want to jinx anything. But if things work the way we want it will be a good thing!

e-mail Funny

Again long time no blog. I was chatting with a friend of mine tonight and we were talking about blogging for a few minutres, and I mentioned that I hadn't blogged in awhile, so it was one less blog for her to catch up with. Then I checked my e-mail and found the following! I got such a laugh out of it, I wanted to share it with you my patient and faithful readers. Hope you all enjoy it, and I'll try to get something about my boring life posted in the next few days! For now, here's the joke:

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so"profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via theInternet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoyingitas well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic(absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for thet emperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities: 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct... leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"