Reflecting on 2009

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I had the best of intentions to blog more during winter break...I know, I know, isn't the road to hell paved with those too? I'll explain in a bit why my winter break went not as I had envisioned.

From a growth point of view, 2009 was a good year for me. I have learned so much in school, and completed my first internship by training three awesome clients during fall quarter. For the first time ever, I had that realization, "Yeah! This is what I want to do with my life!" While I am extremely thankful and blessed to have the jobs I've had, and enjoy all the people I have gotten to know along the way, I knew that those weren't going to be careers for me. The fitness field is definitely going to be a career, and to have that reinforced last quarter was an incredible feeling. Projected completion of school is June of this year if all goes as planned! I'll keep you posted how it goes :). I'll eventually be creating a separate blog for fitness-related topics too.

That being said, I am still working at my local hospital's ER in admitting, and plan to be for the near future. In this economy, and especially when you are supporting a family, it always pays to have something steady coming in. VMC has been very good to me, I love the people I work with, and I have to admit I am looking forward to moving into our new digs in the new hospital tower next month.

2009 had its ups and downs otherwise, like anyone else's year I'm sure, it had its share of personal and financial hiccups along the way. In the end though, I still have the same roof over my head when I started the year, we're all in good health, hubby and I still have our jobs, and we really do have a lot of blessings to count.

Of course, the year brought fun stuff, like a whirlwind summer family vacation tour of central Oregon and northern California, a Brad Paisley concert, my 40th birthday, doing a "Twilight weekend" visit to Forks and LaPush, three Rick Springfield concerts, and one half-marathon in Seattle, convincing my brother to run his first half with me. Time spent with family and friends is THE BEST and I can't wait to do more of that this year.

Unfortunately, 2009 saved the biggest blow for the end of the year. On December 19th, my grandma passed away. I believe I blogged about her earlier this year. She was a great woman and I will miss her so much.

The day before Grandma passed, I called my mom just to talk Christmas-y stuff, and could tell by her voice that something was up. Grandma wasn't doing well, and Mom was headed to the assisted living facility that Grandma and Grandpa reside at. I immediately went down there too. I took one look at Grandma and I just knew this was "it". Earlier in the year, Grandma had been put on hospice care because there was nothing more that could be done for her. The leukemia had just taken its toll. So this time, there were no hospital visits involved, simply comfort care in her room. I spent a couple of hours with Grandma, hoping she could hear me, because she could not respond. The sound of my voice made her turn a head a little, so I think she knew. I spent time just holding Grandpa's hand too. He has short-term memory loss, what I'm guessing is a stage of Alzheimer's, but he knows who everybody is...it's just that when I leave the room and come back, it's like I'm visiting all over again :). With that memory loss, it was frustrating for Grandpa to deal with what was happening with Grandma, as you might imagine. But he hung in there and continues to.

The better part of my winter break was spent helping to plan Grandma's memorial service. Since my mom is an only child, to take some of the burden off of her, my brother, dad and I did what we could to help out. It was lovely service, held on the 29th. I thought I had already prepared myself for her eventual loss, but the finality of it all hit me harder than I thought it would. But we are all doing OK.

SO, bring on a new decade and new adventures. I am so ready! Wishing you all a Happy New Year!