2008 In Review

Well the health review of 2008 was such a monster I wanted to do my personal one separately. I think I have decided to use this blog as my health/personal stuff and use our family blog for mostly family related items.


This year time was a bit sparse on personal hobbies, accomplishments etc as with feeling run down I was just focusing on what was important: my health and my family and trying to do a good job at work.


I continued to work out though the second half of the year I started to do less intensive and less frequent though I still maintained the habit and I am very thankful for that. Beginning of the year I had planned to loose 10 pounds, instead I find myself closing the year 10 pounds heavier. This is ahuge disapointment to me. I was doing really well and had lost 9 of the pounds when my health started really giving me problems and I just really let everything go so to speak, gained back what I had lost very quickly and then proceeded ot gain 10 more. For many CF'ers this owuld be a good thing but I would really rather get back down to a manageable, easy to maintain 140 which still leaves me with a 5 pound buffer of 'fluff' that could easily be lost without impacting my health if I were to fall ill.

I picked up a new hobby of couponing this year. I really enjoy it, I have met some new friends from doing it and I save alot of money.

We changed our life completely by becoming 'Dave Ramsey'ers'. We have established an emergency fund, paid off our doctor bills, credit cards, first of two student loans and a decent chunk on our house for re-financing purposes. Our new, more frugal lifestyle has gotten us on the same page with a common goal and it has put meaning back in to some of the simplest things. Going out to dinner or the movies is no longer taken for granted, somehow it makes everything special again. We have set our eyes on the prizer of being debt free.

Perhaps most enjoyable has been watching our family bond develop. We both love being parents and Lillian has developed so much over the past year. The 2-3 range was always my favorite before I became a parent but I figured with the whole 'terrible two' talk it might not be my favorite as a parent but so far it is.

Work has developed well for me this year. I have assumed greater responsibilities at my job and am enjoying my role. My greater administrative responsibilities have prevented me from doing some portions of my old job that I love and wanted to get better at but for now I am riding out the opportunity I have been given as I think that is best. There will be time next year to get back to developing methods and such.

One of my goals for 2009 is to track things throughout the year a bit better. It seems you get to the end of the year and its hard to remember everything that happened. One tradition I will start is a year end letter that we will place in abox and then as the year goes we will save tidbits and memory makers from the year in that box and we can review them at the end of the year.