Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! It is hard to believe Christmas is almost here, especially since I think this is one of the first times ever for us that there has never been any snow on the ground yet by this time of year. A brown Christmas in Minnesota – we’ll take it! Especially since 2011 greeted us with a raging blizzard. Still, 2011 was a great and busy year for us!

January brought a big change to our home as I officially started the nursing program at MState. It is an intensive, two year program, which by the end, I’ll hopefully be able to take the boards and become licensed as an RN. As of December 14, I am considering myself half a nurse as I am now through half of the program. This next semester is the most challenging, filled with lots of clinical rotations on top of regular classes, but I am really looking forward to it and know I finally figured out “what I want to be when I grow up!”

In addition to going to school full time, I work full time at Swanson Health Products under the Peelu division. The company sent me to Las Vegas in June for a trade show. I think Jason was a bit concerned with me in Vegas by myself for five days, but in the end, he was able to join me for the trip, so it was a bit of a vacation too!

Jason continues to work at The Forum as a web developer and has moved on to making apps for smartphones and iPads. His first app featured offers around our area and was released around Thanksgiving. He is happy that it has been downloaded over 1700 times already. He is currently working on a newspaper app for the iPad.

In July we made our annual trip to Chicago with Jason’s family to take in a Chicago Cubs game. Jason and I opted for rooftop seats across the street from Wrigley Field, and while it was well over 100 degrees that day, on the roof we had the benefit of a slight breeze. Unfortunately, the Cubs lost, but we had a wonderful time with Jason’s family.

Jason continues on his feat in seeing every major league ball park, though he hit a slight hitch in it this year. He and his brother happened to pick the same week to visit the East coast as Hurricane Irene. They were able to take in a game at Nationals Park in Washington DC and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia but missed a doubleheader in Baltimore. They made up for it by flying back to Minneapolis to take in a Twins game.

Our summer was rounded out by several camping trips. We are on a mission to visit and camp at every state park in Minnesota. We stayed at Maplewood, Lake Carlos and Buffalo River this summer. We had also hoped to cross Sibley off our list as well, but the state of Minnesota had different plans as it shut down for several weeks starting in July, which included the state parks.

With me in school, Jason finds various ways to keep busy. He decided to come out of retirement and played softball again this summer, and his team won the league championship. This fall Jason joined the Heather and Thistle Pipes and Drums band as a drummer. He’s participated in one performance thus far, in full Scottish garb. The band is off now until St. Patrick’s Day, though they practice every Tuesday night.

Socks and Peeps still run the household. They’ve claimed multiple quarters to take cat naps. When they aren’t sleeping, they are busy causing mischief. Peeps loves chasing his red laser light and going o-u-t. He also has an addiction to watching TV. Socks prefers the quiet life; however, she too enjoys spending time outside. She also loves to cuddle, which is a big change for her. Mellowing with age I guess!

We hope 2011 was as good to you all as it was to us. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012!

Comments

No comments have been posted.