2009 in review!

2009 has been a great year for us and I can only hope the momentum keeps going right on in to 2010. Since I am here all alone in NYE, my lovely husband is still in KC and I had to come back to Dallas earlier in the week to go back to work. Oh the joys of him being laid off :) I guess I'll hit it with up a recap of this past year. It has flown by!!!

January-I celebrated my 30th birthday with a group of friends down here in Dallas. We went out to eat at Fireside Pies to enjoy one of my fave food groups, pizza. Then Ryan and I headed over to Shreveport for a little get away and some gambling.



February-Ryan and I celebrated Valentine's Day by fulfilling one of Ryan's lifelong dreams of going to Medieval Times. Down, down, down, red knight going down-anyone?
Then I headed to KC at the end of the month for a wonderful bridal shower my MOH, Brooke hosted for me. She picked a china theme, to go with my china registry items and planned a great luncheon at Bo Ling's in KC.



March-We celebrated St. Patrick's Day (I have to honor my distant Irish heritage) and I also headed to KC at the end of the month to attend my good friend Sarah's bridal shower.



April-You might start seeing a theme here with all the wedding activities. The first part of April, my now MIL and SIL hosted a kitchen theme bridal shower for me in KC and then at the end of the month my lovely bridesmaids all came down to Dallas for a bachelorette party girls weekend!



May-Ryan and I headed up to KC to be in JP and Sarah's wedding. It was such a gorgeous day for a gorgeous couple and I'm so glad we could be a part of their day. Later in the month our friends down in Dallas hosted a couples shower for Ryan and I.



June-The highlight of the year, I married my wonderful husband. We had an awesome wedding day shared with friends and family and I still can't believe the day has come and gone, it was fantastic!






July-We started off the month with a visit from our good friend Melik for the Fourth of July, then mid month we headed off to tropical Ocho Rios, Jamaica for our honeymoon!








August-Was a month to rest after all the wedding activities. The highlights include enjoying Dallas restaurant week at the famous Del Frisco's steakhouse and seeing Dennis Miller perform live.

September-We celebrated Ryan's 30th birthday in KC with a camping trip at Smithville Lake. A few weeks later I ran my longest race at the time, the Tour des Fleurs 20k.



October-Ryan continued his quest for his new job and flew to Orlando to interview, man were we stressed out!! I hurt my foot while running and started nursing it during the month. We celebrated Halloween at home so Ryan could enjoy scaring kids on the front porch!




November-We found out Ryan landed his new job and went out to eat to celebrate! I prepared a traditional Thanksgiving meal for Ryan and I here in Dallas.



December-I participated in my first half marathon, still nursing my foot so it was a jog/walk version, but I finished!!! Ryan officially got laid off (good thing he already had the new job lined up) and we travelled to KC for Christmas! I'll have to add some Christmas pics later since Ryan still has the camera in KC as we speak.

I never thought I would be saying this BUT.....

We are so happy that Ryan got laid off on Friday!!!! These last few months have been a complete whirlwind of emotions. We knew with Ryan's current job that he would be laid off in the near future=stress #1. He started casually looking for jobs and was able to get a lead on a great opportunity. After months of phone interviews, travelling interviews, assessment tests, etc he GOT a new job=excitement #1. We were elated and felt extremely blessed, especially considering the economy we are in. But now came another kink, when to start the new job=stress #2. He was hearing rumors that another round of layoffs was coming at his current job and he decided to stick it out. Now I knew that the worst case scenario would be that he had the new job which was pretty.darn.great anyway. But if he could wait and get the timing right to get laid off at his current job and then start the new job well that would be pretty.darn.awesome. Well, he timed it right-I should have never doubted him=excitement #2. So he got laid off on Friday, will get a decent severance and then be on the books at his new job Dec 28th=excitement #3.

I know in these hard times it is such a roller coaster for a lot of people. We were so, so, so fortunate that Ryan was able to make all the pieces work and I feel so lucky and proud of him!!!!

Movie review

Last weekend Ryan and I went to see the movie Invictus-remember we're still on our hunt to make sure we see all the Oscar nominated films. Even though the real nominees won't be announced until Feb its still nice to go see some buzz worthy ones now. The movie is directed by Clint Eastwood which gets a lot of press in itself but top actors Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon don't hurt either. I am on the fence with Clint Eastwood as a director, I loved Million Dollar Baby but didn't buy into the hype of Gran Torino. This movie is about Nelson Mandela's first term of Presidency over South Africa and how he plans to bring the country and races together through Rugby. The problem is the country's team is laughable and not even in the World Cup running. But he implores the help of the team captain (played by Damon) to rally the team in playing for a higher cause.

My grade: B
Even though it is based on a true story, I didn't get the emotional or inspiring feeling from the actors. I felt the movie was predictable and too long. If it does get the Oscar nomination I wouldn't bet on it winning.

(Non)Running Update

I am officially off of "running" rest. So what better way to celebrate than doing a half marathon, right?!?!?!?!?!? Two weeks ago my podiatrist put me on running hiatus, I was allowed to workout on the elliptical machine, the bike, or walk. So I got on the treadmill and walked and walked and walked. I walked for hours, up to 8 and 10 miles of walking which is 2.5 hours on a treadmill for me, so completely boring. But while I was complaining about all that walking, one of my co-workers mentioned I could walk the Dallas White Rock half marathon. I thought about it for a little bit, I was a little unsure on whether I wanted to be that type of participant. Nothing against walkers but I like runs to be for.....well, runners. But since I already paid $75 to register for this race I decided I wanted to get my money's worth. So here goes, tomorrow I will be up at 5am on my way to WALK a half marathon.

Signs of Christmas!

It's hard for me to believe how fast this year has flown by! This year has been such a fun, exciting, and rewarding year. December is always a magical time of year and this week hasn't started off any different. Ryan got all the Christmas stuff out of the attic and I put it all up (well he put up the outside lights) this weekend. I added some red accents to the tree this year and thought it really made a difference!



Also, to really kick off that Christmas feeling it SNOWED here today! Since I moved here 3 1/2 years ago it has snowed maybe a handful of times and never this early so it was exciting when we woke up to this:



Of course it didn't stick and turned to rain a few hours later but it was still fun while it lasted!

So, the next thing you know I'll have to start writing out my Christmas cards or something.....yeah, I better get started on that!