Don't you just LOVE New Years?

I love New Years. It's just a nice time to kind of look back at the previous year and think about the one ahead. This time around that's a pretty happy thing. 2006 was a pretty good year. For the sake of reflection...here are my thoughts on 2006. Looking back now, I think my main priority for the year was to find a balance in my life. The first half of the year was a little rough. I wasn't happy at work, Mark and I were still adjusting to married life together and I was still trying to come to grips with NEVER leaving Martin. I'm not entirely sure how I got from there to here, but I did. Martin has really grown on me. I've found some really good friends. I think I found my niche, so staying in Martin doesn't sound like a bad thing to me anymore. I've always like our farm, it's hard not to really. It's just so peaceful and pretty. The house took some getting used to. Primarily the lack of central heat and air. That made for a REALLY cold start to 2006! I think it bothered me when I moved in that there was nothing of me in this house. Everything is old and everything belonged to Mark's family. The house needed work inside & out. We started the year by putting up new drapes in the living room (courtesy of Laura's excellent sewing skills), replacing the roof, then we redid the porch (sunroom) and the guest room. Soon after that we had central heat & air installed (woohoo!!), then just a couple months ago we redid the library, and just a couple days ago we hung new drapes (again...Laura) in the dining room. Working on this house myself changed everything for me. I picked the colors and hung the pictures on the walls (MY pictures mixed in with Mark's). So now there is something of me here and even more than that, these are things that Mark and I did together. So it's really ours. I love that. Several people mentioned last night how nice the house looks since we got married, and that was really great to hear. If you know me, you know that those rooms really have my stamp on them and that makes me immensely happy. I'm so proud of all the work that we've done.
Ok...enough house talk, on to work. At the beginning of the year I really hated my job. I'm pretty sure everyone knew it too. I've since told Nan this. I won't say that the job I had (kind of a receptionist, administrative thing) didn't require a brain, because it did. There was a ton of stuff to keep track of. It just wasn't really my cup of tea. I wanted to do something that required me to be more creative and use the different parts of my brain all together. I don't think I had ever before really thought of myself as a creative person, but I'm pretty comfortable now in saying that I am. Not in the artsy sort of way really, but creative nonetheless. I didn't realize how much I needed to be able to use that. I had never really been recognized for my creativity, but lately I have been and it's nice. Anyway...back to the reflection. I had been promoted in late 2005 to my current position, but it was kind of a part time thing. I was a receptionist unless they needed me to do software training or something. In the summer, we had some...hmm...personnel changes and suddenly my responsibilities grew. I had to be responsible for the network and the computers at the office, the website and any network and software training for customers. My workload quadrupled. In August, they hired my replacement for the front desk and I've been Software Solutions Specialist fulltime since. I love it. I love the freedom I have to leave the office to see customers. I love the time it gives me in the car, alone. I love that it was my suggestion to replace me at the front desk and I was listened to and trusted. Most of all I love that I'm making it work. I've always got things to do if I want things to do. I finally feel like I'm actually contributing. Not to say my old job was not a contribution, but I feel like I'm part of something now. What I do brings money in for the company and has helped it to grow. My opinion counts for something. I'm trusted to be knowledgeable and, as crazy as it seems to me (for whatever reason), I am. I would never have said this is my dream job. It's not my dream job, but I finally enjoy what I do.
So that, in a nutshell, was 2006. I have a good feeling about 2007. I'm sure there will be bad with the good, but I'm just in a different place in my life now. I know I can handle it, whatever it is. Oh my God, I think I'm a grownup. LOL

OK...the party. The turnout was not as good as we thought it would be, but we had a fabulous time. There were probably 10 of us in all. I made sangria (alot of it) and guacamole. Mark made cheese dip, deviled eggs (hey, when you raise chickens, you've got to get rid of those suckers somehow!) and a cheese plate. I made a 6 hour long playlist on Itunes which turned out to be alot of fun for everybody. We pretty much hung out in the library all night, which is crazy since we never used to use this room AT ALL! Tracy read tarot cards for us (that was quite interesting and surprisingly accurate) and we just all sat around and talked and had good time...until about 5am. Let me just say, I'm getting WAY too old for this! Quite frankly, I wasn't sure I'd make it until midnight, much less 5am! I was having a great time though. I'm quite worn out today, but it was worth it. It was a great way to end a pretty good year and to start a new one.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years and I hope you all have a happy, healthy 2007!