"Time is marked and measured in different ways." - Claire from Outlander (Season 5, Episode 9)
No truer words. This year - oh boy, this year - has been 5 minutes and 5 years all at once. My word for this year was "Perseverance" and I actually needed it. Not as much as one would think, considering the way 2020 went. I sat down a month ago to start this entry.
January - February
Trip to Dallas for Emma's birthday. A couple of work trips for call center audits. My vendor, Asurion came to Denver for our yearly strategy meetings...work hard, play hard! Began "Marvel Movie Marathon" with Shealy's. We are watching them in story order. SOO good. Got through 15/22 movies in 4 days! My work best friend, Adam, no longer works with me. After 5 years, this was a HUGE adjustment. I may or may not have cried, but I persevered. Thanking God that he's a friend for life!
March - May
COVID-19 pandemic to include lock downs across the world. And by lockdown, I mean NOTHING was open. My favorite work trip (repeat of an audit in call center in Canada, stop over in DC for Live Wire concert, and time with Adam and boys) was cancelled. And, we spent that entire three months in Idaho helping mom and dad after mom had abdominal surgery (read: 5 surgeries). Thanking God for AT&T and my leadership to allow me to work from anywhere. Travis stayed at his parents' house (darned cat allergy), I stayed at mine (and thoroughly enjoyed cat loves for days!). Our one "date" was to get fuel in one of the vehicles, taking the back roads so it would last longer. Like in high school. HAHA Kristie & Emrie's trip to visit us in Denver for her 16th birthday was cancelled. Last time I volunteered in prison was March 10. I miss it a great deal, but I’m persevering.
June - August
Spent amazing time at home, things back to "normal". Work from home, grocery delivery, time with friends, church, favorite restaurants, trip to Dallas for Evan and Travis's birthday. But, I changed jobs. Moved to the mobility side of our team - 100% device protection for phones, specifically ProTech Operations. It's been my dream job for a while. Makes Adam's departure sting a little less - as I wouldn't be working with him on a daily basis anymore anyway. Road trip with Travis to Montana: brief stop in Idaho, then a great evening with Guy and Lacey Flynn. Then a flight home leaving him there for three months. Travel does make persevering a lot easier!
September - December
It is an election year. Lord, have mercy. I have never received more spam calls, texts, emails, snail mail EVER! <insert winner here [as of 12/31/20, I'm not even sure our current buffoon of a president has accepted the loss, I think next month Joe Biden will take office.]>
It makes me think of how I learned history. From books. I know that the books could have false information - they are only as good as the author's resources from the past and the original memories of man. But they were pretty solid. They had a curriculum committee that reviewed/approved. My mom was on one for those committees for the state of Idaho for a math curriculum once. I can't help but think about how kids will learn history in the future (reason #75,211 that I'm grateful I don't have kids - can't even imagine it right now). Most likely they will learn from the internet. From sources that aren't validated... not factual. I don't know even what is true today, and I'm living it!! What will they learn about this time (especially THIS year) 20/30/40 years from now? And how will we know that what they are learning is true? And what algorithm will be in place at that time? UGH.
Emrie and Kristie got to come for their visit in October - FINALLY! Here is a video showing our fun: https://youtu.be/gV1dsQGVFjc. Crazy how these stupid masks will be in our digital memories forever. GRRR.
Trip to Grand Junction to meet Kelly, Scott's wife. I couldn’t have asked for a better wife for him. I told her that she’s my dream come true - since I’ve been dreaming of his wife much longer than he has! I knew he would be married and this was the best “I told you so” I’ve ever had! This year marks our 20 year anniversary as friends. Through it all, Scott is the greatest of friends.
I spent Thanksgiving in Dallas. Travis went to Burley and did a late hunt with the guys. Since he was hunting I went to Dallas (or he went hunting since I was going to Dallas, depending on who you talked to. LOL) Trip was extended a week as Travis got COVID-19 on his way home from Montana. Thanking God his only symptoms were loss of smell and taste for a few days. Persevering was SUPER easy that week, even though extending my already 3 months away from Travis was NOT easy. Lots of fun with Emma & Evan, and good, quality time with Matt & Maria.
More Marvel Movie Marathon. We have one left that we're watching this weekend. My favorites are still the Ant-Man ones, though Iron Man is my favorite character.
We were able to do our 6th annual Christmas tradition. We spent the day at church on Christmas Eve - such a special day to be a part of. Then we had Christmas Day dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I wasn't sure this was going to happen since indoor dining is shut down here. I always get reservations early - I call in October usually for Christmas Day. Hey! It's popular! Then when the restaurants had to close again (except for take out or delivery) I found out they were doing outdoor patio dining...with heaters, if needed. I told Travis that I was in, as long as it wasn't snowing or windy. It was 65 deg and the most sunny day of all! I didn't even wear a coat. It was GLORIOUS! And I had the best date ever.
And now for my ubiquitous lists:
Per usual, it's what I loved in 2020...may not have been released/published this year. And they are not in any specific order, except my favorite is listed first.
Best Songs:
- Own This Town by Joey McIntire
- Amadeo by Ryan Stevenson *these first two tie for most listened to. Listed my first true love first.
- House Party by NKOTB
- The Blessing by Kari Jobe
- Thunder by Kidz Bop (tribute to the kiddos - they LOVE my Kidz Bop playlist in their honor)
- Feel Like I Do by Vin Diesel
- Thank You Lord by Chris Tomlin, et.al.
- Where Our Dreams Begin by Esabalu
- Who Am I by Needtobreathe
- Jerusalema by Master KG (this was a viral dance video song)
- Better Life by Keith Urban
- Amazing Grace by Pentatonix
Best Books:
This was a fabulous book reading year. I couldn't get to the next book fast enough. I read 30 this year...which was my goal. Though, I thought it would be mostly from TUMI books, and I read very little while in Idaho helping mom and dad. It was hard to pick my top 10.
- Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe The World by William H. McRaven [This book helps me explain (and understand for myself) why I am a bed maker!]
- Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer (still my #1 favorite author)
- Hidden In Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas
- A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux (Carie Shealy's all time fave)
- The Memory Of Us by Camille Di Maio
- The Return by Nicholas Sparks
- What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
- Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Best Movies:
- Tenet*
- Broken Hearts Gallery*
- Holidate
- The Lost Husband
- Kissing Booth 2
- Enola Holmes
- The One and Only Ivan
- Godmothered
- The Half Of It
- The Prom
- The Knight Before Christmas and 100 other Hallmark Holiday movies. [LOVE them, and love even more that the greatest husband on the planet loves them, too!]
- Hamilton (does this count as a movie? I saw it on Disney+)
- Mulan [Last minute addition. Saw this at Matt & Maria’s over Thanksgiving. Nic & Ben got it for $2....on a Blu-Ray DVD from Redbox... that skipped. LOL I watched it again when I got home and it was free on Disney+. Much better the 2nd time - when I didn't have a 7 year old on my lap asking all the questions. HAHA]
Best TV Shows:
- Dash & Lily (Netflix)
- Last Dance [a documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1993 Chicago Bulls team - ironically, I journaled about this as it was happening!] (Netflix)
- See (Apple TV+)
- The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
- Never Have I Ever (Netflix)
- I finally joined the "Stranger Things" bandwagon. SO good. (Netflix)
- Sweet Magnolias (Netflix)
- The Good Doctor (Hulu)
- Down to Earth with Zach Efron [Oof. All the feels (and thoughts!)] (Netflix)
- Veronica Mars (Hulu)
- Younger (Hulu)
- Normal People (Hulu)
- The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)
- Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (Hulu)
- Emily in Paris (Netflix)
- Discovery of Witches [This was a last minute addition. I've wanted to watch this for 2 years. It releases in England before America. I've tried to get it on my multiple viewing options. And it finally happened! Very much lived up to my super high expectations. I LOVED the books and it just brought them to life! And now I begin my two year wait for season two that comes out next month.] (DIRECTV)
- Bridgerton [Also, a last minute addition - since it just became available on Christmas Day. I am obsessed with all things royal family. I want to meet the QUEEN SO BAD. But I'll just have to settle for this (and OF COURSE her orchestra is playing on HORSES) and shows about her ancestors...I also binge watched the White Queen, White Princess, and Spanish Princess on Starz this fall. All are delicious!)]
Best Memories:
This was HARD. To narrow it down to a short, significant list. I have such a blessed life. I feel like the highs were REALLY high and the lows were lower. I'll leave the lows out. My reason for journaling is to remember. I would like to forget them!
To note, this list implies my favorites otherwise mentioned.
- Sage Creations with Michelle Singleton... the greatest lavender experience of my life
- Matt & Carie's surprise birthday parties
- Rud & Juliana Yearick wedding - at least the year started out great!
- Playing Uno with Emma and Evan
- Journaling with Kristie and Emrie
- Double dates with Singletons
- Diamond art project with Mom. I mean - just look at this! Emma calls them "wishing flowers".
- Online pinochle!!!!! Being apart for the holidays is tough - my parents have cancelled their trips to Dallas four times. It's really smart, but sad. At Thanksgiving, Ben found an app where you can play with your friends (and not just the computer). We had Dad on speaker phone and the rest of us were at Matt's playing on our respective devices. Emma sat with me and wrote down the order of cards and played my hand for me, and starting learning the language. I teased that we would find out if Dad could really play - it was suspect with all of his cheating. We laughed and laughed. Made the holidays a little better!
- Organization parties with Carie Shealy. SOOOOO fun. I'm such a geek: my idea of fun is organizing and cleaning. We've lived here for 5 years and still had boxes we hadn't unpacked (to be fair, we didn't plan to stay in this house this long). I think we got rid of over 50 boxes of stuff while Travis was in Montana. We also worked on her craft room. My idea of a great Friday night!
- Small Group and the Inductive Bible Study method of Proverbs.
Signs of the Times:
- Gallon of Gas: on 11/24/20, I paid $1.71/gallon. WHAT!?!?!
- Specialty Coffee Drink: ~$5.50 for a large. To note: Dutch Brothers is here! One by church (and work, though I haven't been to the office all year) and one by the house! WHOO HOO!
- iPhone 12 with 5G
- Online Pinochle. LOL
- Protests and Riots: this year had so much turmoil. The pandemic, the election, BLM (Black Lives Matter, not Bureau of Land Management, giggling). People just lost their ever-lovin’ minds! I live in a big city, but in October when things seemed to be settling down, I went with Lacey Flynn to the Denver Art Museum. In every major city, I go to the art museums. I’ve been to all of them in Manhattan. I’ve lived in Denver for 5 years and had yet to go. So, we went on a bright, sunny afternoon. I knew not to go downtown in the evenings...but afternoon seemed safe. And it was for us. And the museum is just wonderful! But 6 days later, on a Saturday at 3pm, there was a shooting at the very spot we were standing outside the museum. UGH. I will definitely go back. Just not anytime soon.
- Average price of a vehicle in America, according to Kelley Blue Book is $37,851.
- The medium home price in America is $320,000.
- That's all I can think of since I'm not on social media and rarely check out the news.
Guilty Pleasures (sorry, not sorry!):
- Echo Dot
- Housekeeper (Christine Rodgers comes every 4-6 weeks)
- Mont Blanc Pens (I got my newest one - bright yellow - this year)
- Candles (latest obsession - really sets an atmosphere while working from home) and this.
- The aforementioned Dutch Bros!
- Podcasts (favorite is Armchair Expert and Office Ladies and I can't wait for Harry & Meghan's!!)
- Tea!! I was inspired by the tea production (and I mean PRODUCTION) that my dear friend, Michelle, had during our "She Speaks" conference (online, we watched together at the church office). And the tea parties I attended (twice at the Miramont Castle and a Tea & Chocolate class with Michelle). But, I have copied Michelle's ingredients, supplies and process and am ready for tea...anytime!
- Travel. I still logged 6 flights this year. Even when I got the looks and judgment. No fear, people! And on our road trip to Montana in August, we saw our best man and maid of honor! I'm SO grateful those gems are still in our lives.
- Dave Chappelle - his comedy is GENIUS
Looking Forward To:
- Dallas for Emma's birthday in January
- Vegas for Drew's 21st bday in March
- Emrie coming for a week to look at colleges in March
- Trip to Israel (Lord willing!) in May & June
- Dallas for Travis and Evan's bday in August
- Disney Cruise (Lord willing!) with M&M&e&e in September
- Stamped cross stitch long distance with Mom (Lord HELP US!)
- Debt free! Should have last bill - the car - paid off!
- The next movie marathon with Shealy's - Star Wars maybe?
- The books to be read: President Obama's new book, The Midnight Library, Colin Jost's book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue...and those are just from my memory.
- Going back to prison
It's crazy - 2020 will go down in history as one of the worst years. I sometimes feel guilty for saying this, but mine was pretty great. My job is considered "essential" and I love working from home. Travis's jobs are the original social distancing and he was as busy as ever. Church is wide open - hallelujah! I know of some that lost jobs, deemed "non-essential". Some got sick from COVID and other things. Some lost loved ones. But, at this moment, everyone in my family and all of my friends are healthy and doing well. And for that, I am grateful. What more can a gal ask for? Well, other than black-eyed pea cheesy dip tomorrow? Some superstitions (eating black-eyed peas brings good luck for the year) are hard to break!
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