My reflection of 2009

As 2009 comes to an end i cant help but think about all of the wonderful and crazy things that happened in 2009. The year started out with a bang when Brandon proposed to me down on one knee in front of most of my family at my aunt Cheryl's house. It was almost one year ago on January 1st, 2009. Its hard to believe less than a year later we were married! The following day was my 34th birthday and again Brandon surprised me. This time with a fabulous dinner at Wildfire.
In the middle of January Brandon and i went to Puerto Rico on vacation and we actually watched, while history was made, Obama's inauguration from a restaurant in Old San Juan. Our trip to Puerto Rico was amazing as we were able to experience El Yunque (the rain forest) and Flamenco Beach on the island of Culebra. I'm beginning to think we took our honeymoon before we got married since we have not been able to find the time to take one since we got married.
As the year progressed so many things came about. There were several wedding expos attended. The resigning of one of my staff members which led to the hiring of another, Carlos (a great choice by the way). My sister Katey found out that her and her husband are expecting their first child (a boy) this coming February.
Brandon and i attended an SIU reunion in the summer which reunited us with many friends we had not seen in years. I had 2 great bridal showers attended by family and friends and a fabulous Bachelorette party...which had to be the most non traditional bachelorette party ever..seeing as i invited all my male friends and my fiance as well!
All of that led up to our spectacular wedding day! I am the first one to admit that i hated the entire planning process, but there were some pretty wonderful things about it too! My dress was custom made by our friend Meekis and it was gorgeous! Brandon looked stunning in his custom made suit as well! When it was all said and done, i was married to my best friend and the man of my dreams...and it only took us 19 yrs to get there! It was a day that we were able to celebrate with our family and friends and that was what was most important to us.
We have great kids too! Devan is consistently getting all A's in school and is now driving on his driving permit. The girls are both doing well in school to!
Two weeks after the wedding i quit smoking and have now been smoke free for just under 4 months! Yeah for me! Shortly after that, my fantastic staff and i managed to exceed our insitutional goal by 8% for the fall start. This was the first time this had ever happened in the graduate school. I am so fortunate to have such exceptional people working for me. We are a great team and together accomplish the unthinkable!
This year was not all happy though, it brought 2 goodbye parties as well. Shortly after the fall start, we wished Libby well as she ventured into her new life in Puerto Rico. Only a few months later we found out that Marilu had been accepted to a PsyD program in California and will be leaving January 2nd! Our group of the Fab 5 (me, Jen, Libby, Claudia and Marilu) has now dwindled down to 3! Who would have ever thought i would be the first of the 5 of us to get married?!! Jen, Claudia and I will be the only ones left here in the windy city. I honestly really never expected at this point in my life to be saying "until we meet again" to so many dear friends, but this past year has shown me my expectations don't always turn into reality! We are happy for both of them and their new adventures, but they will be missed by those of us left here....but we will meet again!
In October i presented at the IACRAO conference and was elected as the President Elect for IACRAO. I will be in charge of planning next years conference...oh joy!
My mom had a milestone birthday in October also as she turned 60 yrs young. She remains such an inspiration to everyone she knows with her warm spirit and selfless ways! My mom and Devan are currently on a cruise in the Caribbean and then will be spending a week or so in Florida.
So as the year comes to a close so many things have changed. This year will end very different for me than past years. This will be the first Christmas that:
I will spend without Devan :(
I will spend as Brandon's wife :)
I will not be with kids all Christmas Day (the girls are spending Christmas eve with us then going to their moms Christmas morning) :I

My biggest lesson learned this year was stated earlier, i learned that my expectations don't always turn into reality. So as i reflect on the many lessons learned this year, the many blessings given this year, and the many adventures taken this year, i cant help but feel warm inside and anticipate what 2010 has in store for all of us! For those of you reading this blog, i wish you Happy Holidays for 2009! I hope the kindness you've give to others returns many times to you. May hope, love, peace, joy and warmth be in your heart's possessing and may the New Year
bring you and yours many blessings. Bring on 2010!

My Paradox of Tranquility

The title....where did it come from? Dictionary.com's definition of Paradox is: contradiction, puzzle, problem, illusion, misconception. Dictionary.com's definition of Tranquility is peace, quite, calmness, harmony. However opposite these two words are, they actually fit together for me to describe my thoughts and feelings. I am often experiencing some type of storm, but im always striving for calm. As crazy as it sounds, sometimes i think i need contradiction in order to experience harmony. I have blogged before on other sites, but never actually created a blog that people could follow. I love to write, but always seem to find excuses not to. So my New Years Resolution for 2010 will be to commit to writing more often. I have so many thoughts that come into my head that sometimes i cant even make sense of them. So I'm planning for this will be my whiteboard for an unsolvable math problem that i call LIFE. When i think about it, my life experiences are exactly like a difficult math problem...a puzzle.....a paradox. The problem comes up and i try over and over again to solve it. Writing it out and working through it...only to find that i got to the wrong place or ended up going no where and now have to erase what i had done and start over. Failing repeatedly and beginning again....until by chance it gets figured out. Then for the moment i am at peace....feeling tranquil. I hope that you will join me in the journey....read my blogs and comment as you see fit. Cardinal Newman once said "Growth is the only evidence of life". I certainly expect to grow through this process. Another favorite quote of mine by someone anonymous is "Life is a handful of short stories, pretending to be a novel". Bring it on 2010. And so begins my novel.