2008 In Review

I found this on another Blog and thought it would be a fun way to wrap up the year...

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

• Spent 5 weeks living in another country
• Got pregnant
• Helped my husband build a patio
• Planted trees

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

• I don't do resolutions, I do goals. See post from last week on how I did...

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

• No

4. Did anyone close to you die?

• Yes, Suzi Granger

5. What countries did you visit?

• Mexico

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

• Flowers in my back yard
• Color in my home

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

• August 6th - Erik & I both quit our jobs
• July 7th - date of my last cycle (hey, when your pregnant you get asked this one a lot!)
• November 4th - day the US elected the first African American President

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

• Crossing one of life's big to-do's off of my list - live in another country and immerse myself in their culture.

9. What was your biggest failure?

• I should not have pushed Erik to quit his job at Dalbey

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

• No

11. What was the best thing you bought?

• Home pregnancy test

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

• Barack Obama

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

• FWI

14. Where did most of your money go?

• To pay bills during 3 months of unemployment

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

• News that there is a baby on the way!!
• Election results
• Spending 5 weeks in Mexico

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

• Viva la Vida by Coldplay

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• a) happier or sadder? Happier
• b) thinner or fatter? Fatter
• c) richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

• Exercise

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

• Pulling weeds

20. How did you spend Christmas?

• With the Kubecs

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

• Yes, with Speck

22. What was your favorite TV program?

• Dexter

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

• No

24. What was the best book you read?

• Twilight series

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

• Arctic Monkeys

26. What did you want and get?

• To learn Spanish

27. What did you want and not get?

• A maid

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

• Atonement

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

• 30th Birthday - watched a presidential debate followed by a spa day

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

• Not having the stress of unemployment

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

• Preggo

32. What kept you sane?

• Knowing that everything happens for a reason

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

• Barack Obama

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

• Health care, and the fact that pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition!!
  

35. Who did you miss?

• All of our friends who we hardly see since we moved

36. Who was the best new person you met?

• Dana - my baby mentor!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

• Follow your dreams, even when it seems like the crazy choice

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

• Sorry, this is way too hard to do.

30 Things in 30 Years

Being the end of the year, I've been thinking a lot about my 2009 goals--which I am still working on. I've seen several of my blog friends recently posting long term lists and thought it might be fun to do one myself. Since I turned 30 this year, I'm going to make a list of 30 things to do in the next 30 years (in no particular order).

1. Have 2 kids
   
2. Take my children on a Disney vacation
3. Finish my basement
4. Learn to decorate my house
5. Go to at least one World Cup
6. Travel to Europe
7. Travel to South America
8. Learn Spanish
9. Go on a Wisdom Course Year End Cruise
10. Compete in a Ballroom Dance competition
    
11. Get braces
12. New tattoos to represent my husband & family
13. Organize a family vacation with baby, aunts & uncles, and all grandparents
14. Learn to sew
15. Own some Alpacas
16. Start my own business
17. Read Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter books to my kids
18. Reduce my Natural Gas use
19. Travel to Asia
20. Learn to like vegetables
21. Be a good wife & mother
22. Retire by age 60
23. Always put money aside for the future
24. Be mortgage & debt free
25. Have at least one source of passive income
26. Be the boss
27. Breed kittens
28. Support my husband and children in having a life they love
29. See my kids graduate from college
30. Get a graduate degree
    

Solar Panels

I had fun the other night reading through blog posts over the past year. While it was NOT on my goal list to decide on a solar solution, it is one of the accomplishments this year that I'm very proud of. We recently made our second installment payment for the system, which covers the cost of materials. Our installation date has been bumped out till March now, but here is a mock photo of how they will look on our house.

Goals - A Recap

I'm surprised to see that Winter is here already, and think that it is close enough to the end of the year to revisit my goals for 2008 and see how we did.

2008 Goals

Career

* Support E in finding a job he loves where we can spend more time together during the week (he should be working at new job by December 31, 2008)
Well, Erik is now on job #3 for the year, and back where he was at at this time last year. We definitly spent a lot of week day time together, between 6 months of working at the same office and 3 months of unemployment!

* Reach or exceed all of my sales goals at FWI
I was on target to meet this goal when I quit FWI in August, so I'm going to say that I didn't fail OR succeed at this goal.

* Mentor a new salesperson who will love working at FWI and have that person be in outside sales by year end
DONE! Good job Leanna.

Finances


* Combined household income of $200K or more
No.

* Add at least $30K to Savings/Investments
Close, but then we went and took a bunch of money OUT of savings so this is also a no.

* Pay down student loans at a rate of $1000/month
No. Was doing good at this goal till the job changes.

* Pay additional $500/month toward mortgage
Yes! Despite 3 months of unemployment.

Household

* Spend at least 15 minutes 5 days per week on housework
Ha ha ha ha ha.... I guess if I count cleaning clutter off of the countertops, that I probably met this goal. But I don't think that is exactly what I had in mind...

* Paint all living areas of the house to fit my dream house
Not yet :(

* Complete phase 1 of landscaping for under $5,000 (lawn, patio, some trees & shrubs)
Done.


Social

* Host 3 parties at our house
(1) - Housewarming
(2) - Jami's bridal shower
(3) - My birthday
Done.

* Engage with at least 2 recreational activities where we can make new friends as a couple
(1) - Guadalajara
(2) - nope, there is no #2

* Add at least 3 new friends to my social network
(1) - Dana
(2) - David
(3) - Dan
(4) - Heather
Done!

Recreation & Travel

* Travel to see our families in California, Washington, and Maryland
California - yes, once in January on business and then again next week
Washington - yes, in July
Maryland - yes, but just Gwen on business

* 1 Vacation to someplace with a beach
Yes! Several days in Puerto Vallarta while in Mexico plus time spent at Ron & Michael's in July.

* Try at least 3 new activities
(1) - Speaking Spanish 24/7 for 4 weeks
(2) - Being pregnant
(3) - Job hunting! Ha ha ha.

* Go on at least 2 backpacking trips
No, but we did have one day in Guadalajara where we walked all the way home from el centro, which took about 6 hours, so I am going to count that as 1 urban backpacking trip.