2012 Reflection

It's been a hell of a year for me. I've been on an emotional roller coaster since the beginning of 2012. It started with the stress of me choosing to accept a contract job that ends on Nov 14, 2013. With that came the financial stress of trying to get everything payed off by that time. Who knew if I would be able to find a job by the end of the contract. I have to admit it was completely unrealistic of me to think I could get everything paid off in two years. Then there was stress I put on myself to make more friends, again. And the stress of trying to make everyone and their mother happy. Oh and lets not forget about all those things I wanted to do to improve myself. Plus I tacked on the stress of trying to start an MBA program. By the time October hit I was nothing but a big ball of stress.

Things started to slowly fall apart mentally for me and by the time Christmas got here I was over everything. I did not even enjoy the Christmas holiday like I wanted to. I WAS OVER IT!!!!

Then the best thing happened to me....stillness. Christmas ended, people left, my car broke and the blizzard hit which forced me to stay inside and be still. At the time it drove me crazy because I was getting cabin fever and wanted to get out of the house. All my plans were shot to hell and there I was stuck in my house with nothing to do.

But then I got creative. I got my camera out and took pictures of my dogs...I found a little joy in that. Then I started to clean out some closets in my house which gave me time to reflect on some things.

The friend thing....first, I have friends and they are good friends. As crazy and silly and weird and unconventional they all may be they are still my friends. As far as making more friends, someone told me once just do what you enjoy and friends will come. Which of course made me start thinking about what I enjoy to do in life.

I love photography....at least I love wedding photography and wildlife/pet photograph. I'm good at it and I get some type of joy and pleasure from creating these great shots.

I want to help people....I realized I enjoyed helping people when I started to ask my neighbors if they wanted help shoveling their driveway. Of course I was turned down and I think it was because I was walking up to men and most men feel weird accepting help from a women. I get it but when I finally stepped in and helped someone it felt really good. So now the question is where can I volunteer.

I enjoy being active but I need to remember I need some down time to. I created my yearly photo book and realized I did a hell of a lot of stuff this year and don't think i could have squeezed one more thing in. Which was great but I never had a chance to have some down time. I need to start planning down time. Time where I have no agenda or commitments.Time where I can just think about stuff. This may help me calm down  a little bit and reduce my stress or as Mitch says to me ALL the time....stop stressing, things will be OK.

So in 2013 my focus ( I refuse to call it a new year resolution because resolutions seem to fade after Jan) is:
1) to get active in a photography. There is this meet up group out there that I'm signed up for, I just need to participate. This way I can continue to meet people and learn more about photography.
2) try again to find a volunteer program that interests me. I think I found one, it's call Girls, inc and it's a program where it helps school aged girls with confidence and accepting themselves. I'm already looking into it.
3)reduce my stress by creating down time and breath.Everything will be OK and even if it's not it at that moment it will eventually be OK.

It feels good to figure things:)

Happy New Year!!!!

Blizzard....Really!!!

So what do you do when there is a blizzard going on and everything is closed? Well you rent movies from Amazon until your mind is numb and then you go out side in the snowy windy mix and play with your dogs.

That is exactly what I did until I got the hair brained idea to grab my camera and get some shots of my dogs.  I think I spend over an hour out there with them taking up to 400 some pictures.

Here are some of my favorite shots!

I love this picture of Jack and Ladybug. I can just hear it....Jack"come on play with me", Ladybug" Hell No, Mom get me out of here!" 

Dog in motion stays in motion:)

 Whatcha doing?

 

Jack about ran me over in this picture. I'm sitting on the ground at his level and he decides to try to tackle me. Almost lost my camera but it was a good shot!

 Here Jack is rolling his ball around so it can get all snowing before running around with it.

 Here's the end result!

Jack is so Handsome!!!

 

Yep, that whole thing took out several hours but it was fun:) By the way, I do love the snow...couldn't ask for a better Christmas gift!!!

Ski Crazy

We just got back from Breckenridge CO. We were there since Saturday and just arrived home tonight. Crazy weather here in Indy! 40 mile an hour winds with a mix of snow. Colorado was crazy too. One day the weather dropped below zero and of course we were out in it shopping at all the local shops.

This we our first time in Breckenridge and it because of the weather in Dec not all the slopes were open. But the good news was all the slopes I like were open...well at least most of the them:)

It was so good to get my ski legs back. Although I realized it is much different skiing in Colorado vs Michigan. The biggest difference is the length of the slopes and the snow. The slopes in Michigan are very very short and the slopes in Colorado are very very long.

Normally I would go to Michigan and slowly work my leg muscle but in Colorado it was all or nothing and by the first day my legs were killing me! Normally a few Advil would take care of the pain but this time I pushed it and I was so so sore.

But I kept going! I didn't wimp out...at least not totally.

But that is a story for another day. And with that, I'm going to order some pizza and start my laundry and plan to write more later on.

Just know I had a great time!

Life is weird

I've finally decided life is down right weird.

I've heard in the past that you should do one thing at work that gets you noticed.(in a positive way!) and at the same time you should find things that you enjoy and it will all fall in place. Well, I'm a believer.

So in October, or maybe September, I volunteered for the departments end of the year event. I only volunteered because I LOVE planning things like this. Then all of a sudden things started to fall into place.

It started when the co-lead dropped out and asked me to pick it up. At first I fought it because of the time commitment but then everyone started to look at me for direction. So I fell into the role...and YES, it was more work than I signed up for.

Then, the lead asked for a volunteer to present at an upper management meeting. Of course I couldn't pass this up so I jumped on it. I'm a natural....LOL. Actually I did a good job presenting.

For the event, we needed someone to MC the Trivia game and noone wanted to do it. So myself and another project manager decided we would split the time on the mic. I had the best time standing on stage, I worked the audience and they had the great time!

People are still walking up to me and telling me they had a good time and that I did a great job MCing. You know when people are still talking about it two days after the event you did a great job.

I have people I don't know walking up to me and talking to me. I guess getting up on stage makes people more comfortable to approach you.

Is this going to sky rocket me to VP....I don't think so:).....but I can tell you it makes me feel good and it strengthened my confidence to speak in front of people. I'm telling you, it really was weird, I didn't get nervous. I was actually excited to get up in front of and audience and have fun.

Life is weird!

Where's my Christmas Spirit?

I've lost my Christmas Spirit this year. I had it for a moment when I put up my Christmas tree but then slowly my spirit dwindled and is now gone.

Last night Mitch and I drove around the neighborhood and looked at all the pretty lights on the houses. I love driving around and looking as all the different decoration and lights. But still no Christmas spark.

Maybe its the weather. Lately it's been raining and over cast and just down right crappy. If I could wish for anything it would be for it to snow on Christmas day, better yet, for it to snow a few days before Christmas so that we have a white Christmas.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!