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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Top 10 from 2008 and our --LATE-- end of year newsletter

For the past five years, we have sent out an end of year newsletter to update our family and friends about our previous year. This year we have decided to just post it on Facebook because we have been too busy to create a tangible letter to send out. For those of you who have read our letters in the past, we always include a Top 10 list of some sort - don't worry, we have included one for this year as well.

Dear Family and Friends,
You may have noticed that our Christmas newsletter is late this year. I suppose it is more of an end of year, 2008 wrap-up or something of that nature. I even considered skipping on writing this newsletter since so many of our loved ones are on Facebook and I write regularly about our day-to-day life experiences. However my desire to continue a five-year tradition overcame the notion of skipping the letter altogether...

For Daniel and I, this has been a relatively good year. Even in the midst of the current economic recession we have been tremendously blessed. At the beginning of 2008 I started two new jobs: one teaching design classes at a community college in Rock Hill, SC and the other working in the creative department of a product development company here in Charlotte. Both jobs allowed me to expand my capabilities and discover a new love for design.

Daniel has also been blessed at his work. Unfortunately his company has gone through three rounds of layoffs since August, but God has been gracious to us in allowing Daniel to make it through all of these cuts. We continue to pray that the economy will make a turn for the better and that there will be no more cuts.

As many of you know we have been renovating our home for some time now. I would love to say that all of our projects have been completed. In reality we will probably never be completely finished; there will always be little things we think of to change. We are getting closer to the completion of the major projects, namely our master bathroom renovation, but it may be some time before we are truly finished. In the meantime, we are learning to be content with what progress we have made.

We were hoping to make it through a year without any trips to the ER. We were actually doing fairly well in this category: no major sicknesses, no run-ins with saws of any kind. Then in October I experienced a blood clot in my leg that landed me in the hospital for five days. I am very fortunate that I was able to listen to family and friends and recognize that there was something wrong with me. By the time we made it to the ER, I had actually had some small pieces of the clot break off and make it into my lungs. Fortunately symptoms of the lung clot never manifested and I am making a full recovery. I am on coumadin until April with regular monitoring from my doctor.

On a sad note, Daniel’s Grandma passed away the week after Thanksgiving. We are saddened by this loss but know that she has gone on to a better place.

On a happy note, Daniel and I will become an aunt and uncle in June – my sister and brother-in-law are expecting their first child and we are very excited about this new addition to our family.

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas and that you rang in the New Year in whatever way you chose - whether with family or friends. We spent our New Year’s trying to get our master bathroom finished… We hope that your 2009 is a blessed year.

Top 10 Reasons To Finish Our Home Renovation
10. We need more than one working toilet – it never fails that both Daniel and I need to go to the bathroom at the same time… not to mention when we have company.
 

9. Our life group is ready for us to do our share and host.
 

8. We can’t get a dog until we finish.
 

7. We need to time to focus on outside projects: new deck, new landscaping…
 

6. We can buy more furniture.
 

5. We will have time and money to travel.
 

4. We want to refinance and take advantage of the current super low mortgage interest rates. We can’t refinance the house without getting an appraisal. We can’t get an appraisal in the current state the house is in…
 

3. We won’t have to choose between working on projects or doing things we love (and then feeling guilty when we choose the things we love).
 

2. Family can come stay with us for the holidays for a change.
 

1. We can finally relax and enjoy our home to the fullest.
If you are interested, here are our Top 10 List from Years Past 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | We skipped 2007 

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