Happy New Year

I welcome 2010 – may it be a year that touches us all with positive energy, peace, happiness and prosperity.
2009 was a personally a year of heartache, but a year of good times and proud moments too.

January – I celebrated my 27th anniversary with Fidelity Investments.
I reconnected and got together with a high school friend I had not communicated with or seen in over 30 years.

February – I became a “reduction of workforce” and lost my job.
I had a weekend away in upstate PA with my “creative friends” girlfriends.
Started blogging

March – began my relentless and frustrating search for a new job.

April – Went to “Parents Weekend” at UMass to see my daughter.
Interviews at 3 different companies.
Had the opportunity to see my daughter row 3 times during the month.
Saw my daughter and UMass with the Atlantic 10 Championship!



Spent a weekend with 2 high school girlfriends I had not seen in more than 30 years in our old hometown.



May – My son graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati (and did it in 4 years)!
Saw my daughter row 2 more times.

June – One interview during the month.
Went to the beach in Delaware for our annual week at the end of the month, into the first of July.

July – One interview during the month.

August – my son moved back from Cincinnati (and home) to start an internship at Villanova University.
I had 4 interviews with one company during the month and did not get the job.
Interviews with 2 other companies.

September – My son moved out.
Annual weekend at the beach with my rug hooking friends.
Interviews at 4 companies, and my 1st and 2nd interviews at United States Liability Insurance Group.

October – 3rd and 4th interview, and a job offer at United States Liability Insurance Group!
Started my new job on October 19th
Went to Saratoga Springs, NY for the weekend.

November – Had the Friday after Thanksgiving off for the first time in my life.

December – participated in the House Studio art show.

This year the month of December seemed like a whirlwind. I can’t believe Christmas is over and the new year is upon us. 2009 was full of frustration and disappointments and laughs and love and happiness and accomplishments, and new friends.

Cheers my friends – thanks for sharing the year with me.

More......

Oh my gosh, they just keep coming. Today, another plate of cookies arrived. This batch is a little smaller than the last plate but boy are they good cookies! I'm beginning to feel like we have a sign on our house that says, please deliver your baked goods here!
I was chatting with Kathy at Four Dog Day and she said I might as well just go ahead and eat them all and be done with it! LOL! I like that suggestion!

If anyone has a way to exercise while blogging, a virtual blogercize, let me know....I'm going to need it.

More and More Goodies

Oh my gosh, the treats keep coming. We got yet another plate of cookies tonight. That's a couple of plates of cookies, a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, another cheesecake sampler, a Key Lime Pie, 2 loaves of Banana Bread, and that is all since Christmas Eve! I feel like I'm going to burst, not to mention my clothes! I don't feel bad that I did not even do any baking this year!

I am a very inactive person in general. I don't exercise except to walk, and I don't do that in the winter months. I need to stop eating all these treats now! Thank goodness at work I'm on the 3rd floor and I do take the stairs but doing the stairs twice a day isn't going to work miracles. LOL - anyone else out there having the same problem? Why do we do this to ourselves?

It sure is nice to be back visiting you all out in blog-land. I've missed you all.

Wonderful Holiday Swap

I participated in a great holiday swap thanks to Angela at Pickles on Pizza.
She had the great idea to suggest a swap and paired those of us who wanted to participate up randomly.
Today I received my package from Abby Bohn at The Handbag Girl. Abby has taken her love of purses and started a business of making lovely bags and clutches.
Look at the lovely package of goodies I received!

Not only did I get a tin full of chocolates (what could be better), and a sweet candle scented like sugar cookies baking in the oven, but the icing on the cake (or cookie) was the lovely clutch!

I love it, and the colors - like a fairy god mother, Abby knew my favorite colors - there is magic in the air!
Thank you Abby, and thank you Angela!

I wish you all magic and peace and happiness.

Sitting Pretty

I feel kind of like this little guy sitting with a grin! Things are winding down, things are falling into place and I'm sitting pretty, as the saying goes!

The last gift has been purchased - I need to wrap 2 more presents tonight, get a few last minute items at the grocery store tomorrow after work, and I'm done!
Tomorrow is the last day of work - we are closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - Wow, I've never had Christmas Eve off before. An extra bonus is we close at 1PM tomorrow and have a reception/party in our cafeteria with an auction - I can't wait to see what that's all about!

Winter Wonderland

Wow - First of all, I can't believe that the last time I blogged was Thanksgiving! I think my life is finally slowing down and will get back to a normal pace and I can have some time.

Secondly, I can't believe the beautiful snowfall we had yesterday. If you don't live on the east coast you may not know about the big storm that came through and dumped at least a foot of snow in most places on the east coast. When I went to bed last night the news said 17 inches in Philadelphia but it was still snowing - don't know what the actual count is but it's a lot of snow.
It looks so pretty!
This is our 2nd snow of the season too - very unusual. We got about 3 inches the first weekend of December, when I was participating in my weekend show, and now this big snow!
I drove up to Massachusetts Friday to get Katie and the traffic was so awful coming home we stopped at my sister's house in New York and spent the night. George called me early yesterday morning and told me I better get on the road cause we already had gotten a couple of inches of accumulation in PA. I'm glad we did leave early and made it home safely only driving through snow the last hour and a half of the ride.
I was supposed to work at the shop today - another reason I've had no time for anything because I've been working weekends at the shop in addition to my real job - however with all the snow the shop will be closed (and once Christmas is over I will stop working weekends).
It will be nice to be home today for a change and catch up. Like I said, I think things are finally beginning to wind down and life should get back to a normal pace.


Our beautiful holly tree. I love having the tree right in our yard at this time of year. We are able to cut fresh holly and bring it indoors for the holidays.




It will take me a while to catch up to all of you but I'm looking forward to it to read about what has been happening in your worlds. I've missed you all - you have all become such a wonderful part of my life and it really has been empty without you.