May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.

~Joey Adams

Well, it has been quite a year. It’s hard to believe a little over a year ago I was just starting at the office I currently work in. Sometimes it seems like it was five minutes ago and at other times it feels like it has been five years.

January
Went up to Lutsen for the annual ski/drinking trip with the college friends. My brother-in-law was officially deployed to Iraq. My mom had surgery to find out what the spot on her lung was which led to the great tuberculosis scare of 2008. I also got to see Avenue Q at the State Theater. Other than that, I was living in St. Paul with Dawn (which seems like eons ago).

February
Again, not a lot happened. I moved to Eden Prairie to help my sister while Mike was gone and to be a little closer to work…that and our lease in St. Paul ended. I had to go back into the blog archives to see what else happened in February. The answer…not much but I did discover this video:


March
I spent half of the month serving jury duty. It was a great couple of weeks. :nerd: My brother was also in town for about a week. We caught the Twins season opener together.

April
All I can remember from April was that Dawn and Nick got married. The wedding was a good time. I met Carly for the first time which rocked. I also hated life the day after the wedding. All things considered, a great time was had by all J

May
I moved…again. This time into my own little apartment to the land of a giant lake. During said move, there was an unfortunate incident with my old TV leading to the purchase of my new TV. It’s still shiny.

June
Had a small grill out in the backyard. That’s about it.

July
July was an insane month. My mom had a double lung transplant. All I remember is lots of time spent in the hospital and the car.

August
More running to and from the Roch. Went golfing for the first time in a couple of years. Remembered how much I love golfing.

September
I got to go to a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in St. Paul. It was, in a word, awesome. I got serious about studying for the Series 7 exam. Mom was given the green light to go home.

October
I studied. A lot. In fact, that’s about all I did. On the plus side, I passed the Series 7.

November
I studied for, took and passed the Series 66. I decided no more tests until 2009. Mid November we welcomed Mike home from Iraq. I joined the quarter century club on Thanksgiving.

December
I didn’t do a whole lot of anything all month. I helped my sister throw a surprise welcome home/40th birthday party for my brother-in-law. I also survived a round of layoffs at the office. Although way too short due to work restraints, Christmas was good.

I‘m looking forward to 2009. I’m convinced that it will be less hectic than this year has been. I have no specific resolutions but as always, the goal is to make progress…professionally, financially, emotionally and much more. A great big thanks to those of you who have stuck by me through the many ups and downs of this year.

A happy and prosperous 2009 to you all!

christmas time is heeeere!

If you're lucky enough to work with me, you'll get some of these tasty treats tomorrow:

They're mini cheesecakes. I sure hope they don't taste like crap! :)

behind

I'm becoming increasingly bad at updating this. One of the women in my department went out on maternity leave November 7th and work has been nuts ever since. That means I pretty much just want to come home at night and do nothing.

Last weekend we had a surprise welcome home/40th birthday party for my brother in law. It was great. He was totally surprised and a great time was had by all.

The next day, Claussen, Ace and I went "sightseeing" around the cities. Unfortunately it was super cold and we didn't get a chance to go too many places. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our adventures:

This week is much more boring. I spent last night I spent at home doing nothing. This morning I got my hair cut and highlighted. Tonight I'm going to a friend's house to watch movies. Tomorrow I'm getting ready to spend the week at my sister's house. They are going to Jamaica on vacation so I'm going to puppysit.

question of the day

Is it tacky to go to the office holiday party one week after someone from that office got laid off?

"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."

~Mark Twain

It's that time of year where we all go around the table and tell everyone what we're thankful for. It's been hectic and stressful but all things considered, I've had a pretty good year. Here are some of the many things I'm thankful for:

My Mom
As you all know, my mom had a double lung transplant in July. She is at home and doing as well as she can be. I'm very thankful to have at least a decade more Thanksgivings to spend with her.

My brother-in-law Mike
Mike was deployed to Iraq about a year ago. On November 10th, he returned home. When you hear about all of the bombings and other horror stories, I'm so thankful that he is home and safe again.

My family
We've had a trying year. We're all still speaking and are closer for sticking this year's events out together. And for the first time in several years, we haven't attended a family funeral. I'm very thankful for that.

My job
Not only do I have a job, but I had the opportunity to get a couple of licenses to further my career. It took a lot of time and energy to pass the Series 7 & 66 but I got it done. Now I just have to figure out what to do now that I have it behind me. I'm thankful that I have choices.

My friends
With the year I've had, my friends have kept me going. I know I've been a terrible friend. I haven't been good about staying in contact with people, returning calls or stopping by as often as I should. I'm thankful that so many people have stuck by my side.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

important investment information

I received this email today and it made me smile. Happy Monday everyone!

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today but, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you will have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401- Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. Which means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American!

november is coffee month

Recently, I've been obsessed with coffee. More specifically, good coffee.

I strongly dislike the coffee at my office so I went on a caffiene hiatus. Poor decision. Only thing that happened is that I was tired and crabby...not a good thing since a woman in my department is out on maternity leave.

To solve the bad coffee at work problem, I decided on this:

Now I get delicious coffee whenever the heck I want it! It makes the work week go by a just little smoother.

Then my sister had to go out and get herself one of these:

If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's shiny things. Not to mention this makes a stellar cup of joe. Our good friends over at Linens N Things decided to go out of business, so they're having sales on everything. One of those beautiful machines now lives in my kitchen. I spent WAY too much money on it (even with the 20% off) but so far I love, love, love it.