Wow! 2010 was one BIG exhausting year!

2010 has come and gone, but what a revolutionary year it was! Holly and I experiences the biggest expansion either of us have every experienced as a couple or even as individuals. It was EXHAUSTING; and I mean that literally. Numerous times in 2010 Holly and I both reached a point of physical collapse due to being so tired. Holly worked 70 hours a week every week, while I kept Ivy each night AND tried to run our at-home business. I can’t tell you how many nights I stayed up ALL NIGHT working on my business. But finally as 2010 came to a close, we both looked back and began to count our blessing. We both are amazed at all the volume of turmoil and blessings. Wow, what a revolutionary year!

In just one year, the business I started in January of 2010 took off like a rocket and netted over $250,000!
After about 3 months I began to lose track of the money because it was coming and going so fast. But fortunately I know an accountant and she was finally able to get the books cleaned up and summarized on December 31st. We were both blown away when we realized over a quarter of a million dollars has passed through this little home office! I am very proud of Holly for ‘bringing the accountant home’ as I’ve requested on more than one occassion. She works with big numbers and millions of dollars each day on her job, but didn’t always bring that same confidence and capability home and apply it to our home business or personal income. That all changes in 2010, and now she is budgeting and directing our money like a pro. I even hear her making noises about investing and trading stocks. Go Holly! Make us rich!

We went from renters to home owners! We were happy renting, but one day our Landlady made the idiotic mistake of offending us with threats and demands to sign another 1 year lease. That’s a stupid thing to do to excellent renters who take good care of your property and pay the rent on time! In ONE DAY we went from not even thinking of buying a home to super-charged motivated Home Buyers on the hunt!! It didn’t take very long either to find what we both liked. In fact, the whole process went amazingly smooth. On July 4th weekend we moved in! Plus, we’re already seeing property values skyrocketing around us and anticipate our house and lot will at least double in value over the next 5 to 10 years. Great location. Excellent school within walking distance. Very close to several parks. This was just a great find.

A Giant Step in the Right Direction for Holly!
Holly took a new job! She made the leap from public accounting to private, and along with it came a much better work environment and better pay! The new job is with a new company that is growing fast and managed very well. She is much happier and little more wealthy now. This was definitely a fantastic move in the right direction!

More good stuff…
Ivy is doing better at learning Spanish than we ever expected. We are VERY fortunate to have found a Spanish-speaking lady who simply adores Ivy and does a fantastic job of taking care of her. She does not speak English, but she does have children of her own who are bilingual, so Ivy is naturally learning to be bilingual just the same. Already, Ivy’s vocabulary is about 50/50 between English and Spanish, and she seems to be able to switch languages according to whoever she is talking to. Amazing! All this is only 2 1/2!

Even more good stuff!
Painted the mural on the wall. – started off just as a simple idea and just basic characters on the wall, but it turned out to look like this!

Moving and Groovin’…
Holly’s Fitness – Both Ivy and myself finally pestered Holly enough that she finally got up and started moving more. A good old fashion diet and exercise combo has liberated Holly of about 100 pounds! She’s now doing things she never thought she could ever do including riding a bike 20 miles! Holly is now confident she can lose it all… and plans to do exactly that.

Holly Turns Green
Gardening – Holly also went from having almost no interest in plants, to growing more plants than I could count. She’s on her way to becoming a master gardener!

Holy cow, the Blessings Just Keeps Coming!
I was able to take Ivy to Arkansas twice, both times paid for by my former employer in Arkansas. I also ended up scoring enough FF Miles for 1 free roundtrip ticket on Southwest Airlines, PLUS gave up my seat during one trip and was rewarded with a $500 voucher! Now just to figure out where to take a vacation…

As if I Didn’t Have Enough to do already…
This spring and summer I played through a season of Softball with Bering Methodist Church. This was an unexpected blessing because for some reason I missed the whole learn-to-play-baseball thing when I was a kid. So when the guys from the Church asked if I wanted to play I said, “Well, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ll give it a shot!” It turns out I can play softball fairly well. I never struck out the entire season and managed to get on base every time I went to bat. I had no problem catching fly balls either. I still think baseball has way too many rules, though. 😉
Also, thoughout the year, we made time to attend a couple of Astros games and one Futbol game.

And then there is this:
Built this Shed – Didn’t know what we were doing, but in the blistering heat of summer a friend and I built this shed. It was a bit of an adventure and torture all mixed together, but we got it done! Okay, I know that isn’t really a WOW factor, but I’m proud of this little accomplishment. 🙂

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Not everything we experienced this year was good. There was plenty of Bad Stuff also. This was especially the year of nasty people and situations:

• 70 hour work weeks – Ugh! For at least 4 months, Holly was working late almost every night of the week. Sometimes she would not get home until 10 pm or so. I was taking care of ivy by myself and running a business. We both were reached the point of exhaustion more than once during those months.
• Battle with a Nephew – My nephew is in his late 20’s now and on a career path in politics. Like everyone in politics, he has an opinion and is delighted to share it. But he can be a bit condescending and verbally abusive at times. I began telling him on Facebook to watch his mouth and get more control over his communication skills. He became very angry and unfriended me (censored) and proceeded to snub me at every turn. Later, though, at our Christmas gathering we met face to face again and spoke and had a nice conversation. I learned he is having problems with anxiety/depression and explained that was the reason for some of his manic behavior. He is now taking medication and was much more calm and self-controlled at our Christmas party.
• Moving in the heat of summer – 95 degrees each day and lots of stuff to move. Plus, the air conditioner broke at the new house and was out of commission for 5 days. Ugh!! If that wasn’t enough, someone broke into the old house and stole some of the last few items (weedeater and lawnmower)! It was rough, but with the help of some good friends i managed to get EVERYTHING moved in 1 week – PLUS – thoroughly cleaned up the old house despite the nasty attitude of the landlady! Got it done!!
• Nasty landlady – Despite the fact we took excellent care of her property and paid the rent on time for more than a year, she was constantly speaking to us with a snide, insinsinuating manner and trying to blame us for every little repair. The final straw? Threatening (yes, threatening) that we immediately sign ANOTHER year lease or she would evict us immediately (Gawd! Talk about bully behavior!). Basically, we said We’ll save you the trouble of an eviction, sweetheart! We’re outta here! Thanks for the motivation to find a new house and a mortgage that costs LESS than we paid for your rent. Your loss!
  

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Wow, that’s a lot to deal with in just one year!

Okay, 2011, we’re ready… bring it on