2009 - your year in review

For me, this has been a pretty lousy year. On the bad side: My brother-in-law died in February from cancer, my sister had a ruptured brain aneursym in late August, but has fully recovered. My company imposed a 5% pay cut in September, so money's been tight!

On the plus side, I ended my 20 year relationship with my BF about which I am very happy. I won't go into the details, but was way past time we went our separate ways.

I'm looking forward to a much better 2010 for all of us at TCS!

How was YOUR year?

Cathy

2009 sucked. I am "cautiously optimistic" about 2010.

I had another fantastic year for 2009. I expect to have a wonderful 2010 as well

My first Grandchild was born in 2009....can't get much better than that! His first Christmas is going to be awesome!!!

Sucked............................

2009 was filled with many different emotions. For the most part, it was NOT a good year... but as with all things, we can surely find some good.

The bad:

- this year started with my health issues becoming horribly debillitating (which lead to being pulled out of retraining in Nov. 2008) Days and even weeks of high pain days, leaving me angry and depressed.
- had surgery in April..... results were good, but not what I expected.
- been out of school/retraining all year due to my disabilities and awaiting surgeries
- I was unable to breed my snakes this year, lost quite a few of them due to a blown breaker in my snake room early winter. I did not notice it in time as I had been down (physically down) for 2wks....by then most of my younger snakes, a couple of my breeders and about $1500 worth of food was lost
- my family moved out of province and I have noone left around here. Christmas will be hard.
- DH and I have had more fights this year, than in the 13yrs we've known each other.
- I've had to go through medication withdrawal several times this year (once due to my doctor, others due to my tolerance of the meds building up too fast)
- I've come to realise that the surgeries on my hands only help some of the daily pain, and that I will be living with these problems for the rest of my life, and it sucks. (I was under the impression that the surgeries would "fix me".... too hopeful....)
- I've been sick a lot for the end of the year.
- having issues dealing with my chronic depression.
- had to euthanise 2 of my pets, Pax and Brandy.
- my children were scared badly this summer (thankfully only a few days of fear and talks before they weren't affected negatively anymore)
- lost most of my local friends due to my health issues...... when they call and I can't go out due to my health problems, having a bad pain day, etc. noone who hasn't dealt with a debillitating chronic illness knows....and in turn they quit calling after a while.
- have gained weight
- spent most of the year with my husband gone M-F

The Good stuff:

- I added 2 kitties to my family
- I added several wonderful friends who have supported me through everything, kicked my butt when needed, and loved me when needed.
- My hubby is back to being home, rather than staying away M-F
- Finally succeeded in pushing my doc to switch my meds as I had a tolerance to the one I was on, and it was not helping. (this was the good and bad) I am on one that actually helps sometimes.
- I was able to go on a trip alone to one of my friends, in which I conquered a lot of personal fears/challenges.
- My children are healthy for the most part, and are doing amazing in school.
- I quit smoking
- I am not in as "negative" of a place emotionally right now
- I made it through the year

My hopes for 2010:

- have my right hand surgery
- have my elbows taken care of by my surgeon, as much as we can.
- re-enter retraining in a different field, one that I might actually be able to complete.
- keep bettering myself emotionally
- work on weightloss
- celebrate 1yr of being smokefree in June

I am as someone else already put it, cautiously optimistic about 2010.

My year on the most part has sucked

In April i fell down the stairs causing whiplash to my back and shoulders and causing me to be off work until September so money got seriously tight and we then couldnt afford the flat so have had to move back into our parents, Blaine had to take the cats to his mams so i dont get to see them to often at the moment, my mam hates the fact that im living in the same house as her and im pretty much doing everything in the house

on the plus side me and blaine still have each other although living apart, we have started to make progress with paying bills off

i dunno if im looking forward to 2010 yet

Originally Posted by clpeters23

my sister had a ruptured brain aneursym in late August, but has fully recovered.

Click to expand...

Wow, I've never heard of someone recovering from that. Good for her. I worked with a man (he was young too, maybe early-mid 30s) who died of an aneurysm in his sleep. It was a big shock to everyone. He did seem stressed out sometimes IMO.

Originally Posted by clpeters23

I'm looking forward to a much better 2010 for all of us at TCS!

Click to expand...

Thank you. Same to you. I flat out need a superb 2010 to make up for 2009.

2009 had it's ups and downs, mostly downs, though. I had to bear witness to my friends and family go through some horrible things (marrital issues, illness, ect) and I hope that 2010 is a MUCH better year.

2009 was pretty good for me. I got married, moved out of my in laws house (where we lived for almost 4 years), got promoted to assistant manager of the store I work in and got a puppy.

The only bad thing was that my grandpa died on Valentines Day.

I guess I'd describe 2009 as even, it had it's share of ups and down, but they evened each other out, maybe with the good taking the lead

Bad
My work has been laying people off left and right and I got moved way down the seniority list recently. Basically the morale in the office is in the basement and I sometimes really dread coming to work. One of my closest friends transferred to another office and I miss her

Money situation has fluctuated due to car repairs and house repairs and the bills I wanted to pay off are not paid off Next year!

I lost Po and Oedi

My Grandma passed way

I just found out my baby puppy (ok, he's not a baby or a puppy at 14.5 years old, but he'll alway be my little boy ) has renal failure

Good
I'm doing well in school, even though, to be honest, I'm applying minimal effort

I was able to take a school leave from my part-time job

The vast majority of my kitties are healthy, and even tho I lost 2 this year, the other 12ish I have all had for at least a year, many of them more and Pandy & Medusa celebrated 3 years with me!! Hades, Nem, Circe, Deedle, Elle, Persy and Apollo have all been with me for over 2

I paid off my car last week

My Mom has been healthy after her illness at the end of 2008

I have made some new friends

OMG this year began so long ago I don't even remember...

I just know it's been a mixed year - so better than last year.

Gary is doing worse.
But we got our research and consulting work back on track.

Things are slow right now.... but we have a good pipeline.

My hope is that in early 2010 we close a number of the deals in our pipe.

...and of course I hope we and the team of doctors find a way to help Gary.

Well, a pretty crap year, my nana was in hospital last christmas, she is very ill and has just come home after another stint in hospital, she is in heart failure and I know obviously she will not get better. My husband messed around with chat sites on the net and nearly destroyed our marriage, I have been depressed and suffer from panic attacks and hubbys nana died on 2nd december, we are going to see her tomorrow at the funeral parlour and the funeral is on thursday................but on the plus side, I am looking forward to christmas and have got my human and furbabies some wonderful christmas pressies and I am looking forward to spending time with my family. Lets hope 2010 is a better year. xx

We had a hard year. It all started when the battery went dead in the corvette and we bought a new one. We bought it at a shop in town and guess what? The battery polarity was reversed and it burnt up everything electrical in the car. This has cost us over 3,000 in repair bills. The battery company had the battery tested and it did come up reversed but they don't take the blame for it, they blamed the next person down the line and so on. The car has barely been out of the shop(after almost a year back and forth to the shop) and now the heater core has a leak. The car is going to have to sit because it has driven us into a big black minus. I want to get rid of that car so bad. It has been a headache for years.

My husbands job cut their pay and is shutting down for 10 days at christmas time. My job is not doing real well right now and it's supposed to be the busy time of the year for us.

The cats are doing great and we have good health so that makes up for the negatives.

Like many, 2009 sucked for us but since life finally seems to be getting back on track I will also go with cautiously optimistic

A year of change and growth.

My sister was filing for disability. I was supporting us both after she could no longer work. The stress came to a head and we parted ways in January(she lives with my other sister and her family while waiting for her verdict-she got her disability approved in Nov. ).

I was alone for the first time in my life. It was an adjustment and brought to light some things that I am glad are now known about myself. I don't mind seeing where there is room for improvement.

Being taken to small claims court is a little stinky but other than that no real catastrophes.

I am very optomistic about 2010. Paying down debt, taking a cruise vacation, having my best friend move back closer to me , possibilities are open and potential for some great things!

It has been a year of ups and downs for us:

Good Things......

We both still have our jobs and our house. And those are good things indeed.

Our health is good. Despite a heart attack scare (due to a bone-enhancing drug) back in the early summer, I'm doing well. And so is my husband. Our little grandchildren are doing so well and are the loves of our lives.

My father has finally come home, after almost six months in a nursing home.

Recently, an old friend and I have gotten back in touch, after several years apart. I missed her dreadfully; we have a lot in common with our graphics work that we did together (oh, those 3-hour phone calls while working on a graphic!) and we used to hang out together from time to time. I would travel to visit with her on weekends and we always had such a good time. We parted ways and are now back in touch. I considered her my closest friend and I love her dearly. I missed her so much and am so happy to be back in touch.

Due to some issues where I work, we lost some of our employees. They were replaced by people who are not only co-workers, but have become good friends. They are truly among the coolest, most wonderful people one could wish for. One of the women and I have become very good friends....she's a sweetheart.

Last but not least, my sister and I, who really haven't spoken to each other in about 14 years, have gotten back together and we're becoming very close again. Our Thanksgiving dinner was at my house with my sister and her family, my brother and his family, and my family. These are things that most people may take for granted, but I was thankful.

I am surrounded by people who love me and who care for me. And really, what's more important than that?

Bad Things..........

I lost Banshee, the feline love of my life. I came home from work one day in August and found her on the kitchen floor. She had had asthma and thyroid problems and, although we tried as hard as we could to get her meds to work, she died from a heart attack. I think I was almost crazy with grief and so was my husband. Although we have five other cats and they are all sweethearts, they just can't fill that hole in our hearts. We may have 100 cats during our lives, but there will only ever be one Queen B.

So......

My heart goes out to all of you who have loved and lost somebody precious to you, whether that somebody is a cherished pet or a cherished human. And my wish for everybody is to have a healthy and very happy 2010!

The good for me:

I passed the second year of my degree course with an A pass
I got accepted into the third year of my degree course starting March 2010
I sat and passed my exams to become a Longhair judge with the NZCF
I am now a Longhair judge on the Entire cat panel
I travelled a lot of the country this year with judging (judged at 8 shows)
I had some moderate success at cat shows this year

The bad (but not terrible and I'm not complaining):

Money issues due to all the fun stuff above
Car bills and vet bills!

2009 has sucked for us mostly.
Here are the bad things.
The last few months have been very sad.
Ty was pts Nov 20th.
My sisters bf's father and grandma died 2 weeks apart.
Our Stepmom died on Halloween.
My dads cat went missing and hs never been found.
Some of our friends have cancer and other medical problems.
Steve my husbands friend died a few weeks ago.
I can not find a job.
Coco got very sick and I thought she would die for sure.
She was given 5 months to live last Jan.
A few friends died in March and another friend died in June.
I had surgery last June and got very sick in August.
Cleo started acted bad at shows.
Here are the good things.
My Wrinkles was born June 30th and I got her in Sept.
I started showing Cleo and Wrinkles.
Cleo has done better then expected and is a 1 show TICA Champion and needs 25 points to Grandin CFA.
If I find another sphynx before the end of the year it would be great.

2009 seems to have gone by kind of quickly for me despite it being a hard year.

We're struggling more than ever financially.
My best friend was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I didn't want to believe it but she stayed the night a bit ago and she really is very, very sick.
My mom has fibromyalgia, lupus, bone degeneration, ruptured disks in her spine and is struggling with after effects of chemo and radiation from when she had cancer. She also broke her leg a couple months ago. It's really hard to watch her struggle in pain.
A close family friend was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), which is always terminal. Right now she is in the hospital on oxygen and a feeding tube. She is no longer able to swallow and is paralyzed.
I'm struggling with my own mental health and I happen to have an extremely severe psychological disorder which leaves me unable to live a "normal" life (though most people couldn't tell just by talking to me on an average day).

I could go on and on.
Cautiously optimistic for 2010 here, too, though my lovely family friend will most likely pass next year.