Final post of the year...

About 12 hours left and it's the start of a new year and a new beginning for this girl. 2006 has been a great launching ground for me and I'm ready to do even more in 07. Now if I can only remember to write 07 on my checks now! :)

I went through many of my old posts the last few days trying to get an idea of how I wanted to put together this post and really there is so much to say about the past year. But, I'm not going to bore everyone with the details; however, I've made a lot of mental notes to myself on what I think I could do better and improve on and what has helped make me somewhat successful so far. Probably the biggest thing for me this past year is opening up and growing up and speaking my mind not just allowing the world around me to pass me up so with that said that is my main focus for 07 -- along with being a little nicer. Sometimes I think this outspokenness (if that is even a real word) gets the best of me and because I think everything is about attitude, I'm going to try to improve mine. I can be outspoken, but I'm going to try to be a little more happy-go-lucky as well. We'll see how this plays out....

As for the rest of 2006, well, Christmas was a lot of fun. I spent Christmas Eve with my dad and bro and my aunt, uncle and Grandma and then spent most of Christmas Day with my mom, step-dad and my mom's side of the family. I ended up getting a lot of neat stuff and I think the presents I gave were a hit as well. This year was less about household items I needed and more about fun stuff.

Tuesday I had to go back to work and start preparing for year end. In fact, that was what I did most of the week. M and I entered payables for what seems like an eternity and I made cash projections into early 2007 and tried to get my reports together for the new year as well. Wednesday was more of the same and we went out to happy hour after work at Casa. It's always nice to finish off your day with chips and salsa and a margarita...especially when the week seems to just pass you by. After work Thursday I went to the Styx concert at the Pageant with my bro, his girlfriend and his best friend and it was amazing. The ticket was a Christmas present from my bro and it was an awesome one at that. We were down in the pit and about 10 feet away from the stage....doesn't get much better than that! I don't know what my brother can do to top this year, but I'm giving him about 360 days to figure it out!! :)
Friday was year end close at work. We cut checks pretty much the entire day and I helped out as needed so that I could get the reports done for the year at a decent hour. It didn't take too long this time and I was out of there before 6, which shocked me because I had been preparing for much worse. Hopefully I followed through and took care of everything because my mind was surely not at work on Friday. In any case, I got the preliminary work done so that we can start financials in the next couple of days.
Yesterday was a nice break. I didn't have much to take care of in the morning so I just stayed home and then went to my mom's in the afternoon and I took her and my step-dad out to dinner for their anniversary. And this morning I was up at 4 to get them to the airport. Lucky them...they are on their way to Hawaii to work on the house...while I'm stuck here!

Tonight a few of us from work are going out to an early dinner for New Years Eve. Nothing like last year...but it will be fine. It's probably best that I keep myself out of trouble anyway! It will be nice to go out with everyone though and get the scoop.

I hope 2007 brings health and happiness to everyone! Here is to another great year!!!

One year ago....

One year ago today...M and I were in C-town after a crazy miscommunication when our billing department decided to fail to show up to work. We were going to C-town then we weren't then we go into our office and at 10 am the President of the company decides that we can't go 2 days without billing any revenue and our services were needed in the office down south. So we get down to C-town around 1:30 and work until 7 with our boss, trying to get some sort of billing out for the day. Not knowing that $65,000 was not a good amount to bill for the day and that half of our invoices were wrong...M and I were so proud of our work. In fact, after a quiet dinner with our boss we dropped him off at our hotel and then went and hit the town for a bit. Nevermind that we couldn't find any liquor at the truck stops and we had to call J who was on his way to Arkansas for Christmas and have him figure out our location in a town that was about 4 hours away from where he was at or the fact that Josh called me 5 times frustrated while trying to figure out what I wanted for Christmas while out shopping and I couldn't give him any kind of answer besides that he should drive 40 minutes to C-town and party with us in our hotel rooms once we found the drive-thru liquor store. It was fun times and as I think back now I wonder if I will ever have a memory from this year that sticks with me as much as this has. Last December was a month filled with many memorable moments....I hope as I finish out the next few weeks of 2006 there are more great times to come, however it will be hard to top the drive-thru liquor store in a place like C-town!

Another exciting update...

It's been so long since I've posted...sorry about that. Work and my life just seem to be so busy that by the time I make it home at night I can't even sit down here to get another entry out, but alas here I am. Let's see...since the last post -- the wedding was freakin awesome! I had so much fun with my co-workers and she was such a beautiful bride. I hope if I ever get married I look that good. At the reception we had a great time talking with everyone and dancing the night away. I danced with C most of the night which was pretty cool since he and I haven't danced together for quite some time. I dared M to get the President of the company out on the dance floor and told her I would give her $100 if he danced with all of us (thinking he wouldn't because one of the guys that I work with is his best friend and he said he wouldn't get out there and shake his stuff) and I lost that bet! Of course, M told the President that she had a bet going with me and he told her that he would get out there and dance if she gave him half.

I guess the next big event was Thanksgiving. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I went to my dad's and he cooked this year. All of my cousins came over along with my aunt and uncle and my brother was there. It was so fun to get to spend the day with my bro. He and I have completely opposite schedules right now so I hardly get to see him or talk to him for any length of time. He got me hooked to the PS2 game Guitar Hero 2 while I was there. Let me tell you, I felt like a Guitar Hero playing that game. Pretty much you just stand there with a fake guitar and try to play the guitar notes to a rock song. I was absolutely horrible in the beginning but then he and I played the two player version and we sounded pretty good. Freebird was my best performance and I was rockin' out and showboating during that song. My dad took a few pictures of us while we were playing this game and I'm still working on getting them up on my Photobucket. They probably will be up after I take Christmas pictures since it is easier for me to upload a bunch of them at once rather than just 1 or 2.

The next big event was the ice storm about a week and a half ago. It took me two hours to get home from work on the 30th and I live 7 miles away from the office. It didn't help that it was month-end and I had to stay until everyone else had their work finished. I got out of the office about an hour early but still didn't get home until 6 and I was a nervous wreck driving the entire time. M called me numerous times while I was driving and I didn't hear my phone but she was freaking out because she hadn't heard from me and I was supposed to call her when I made it home. She had been home for an hour and a half when I finally got around to returning her many calls. My power was out from that Thursday night until Monday morning and it was freezing in my apartment so I stayed with my cousin Mary on Friday night and then at my parents house on Saturday and Sunday. I don't know how others in northern cities and states can deal with this cold weather all of the time! I need to be where it is warm!

This past Wednesday was a nice treat! I met Josh in Festus for dinner after he got off of work. We went to Ruby Tuesday's again and had a great time talking and just spending a few hours together. Our waitress probably thought we were crazy though because any time she came over to check on us we were talking about work or history related things. I guess they don't get a whole lot of twenty-somethings talking about what they've watch on the History Channel! :)
After dinner we warmed up our cars and we sat together in my car for a bit talking about the next few weeks and everything that is going on. About 11:30 we left and I had to make my 45 minute drive back home. I was fine until I made it to Arnold and then I was exhausted....it made for quite a trip home, but I'm still so glad that we got to meet and spend some time together.

Yesterday I went to the movies and dinner with my parents. We went to see Deja Vu. That was a crazy movie....I was confused the whole time, but I would still recommend seeing it. Today I get to go out Christmas shopping. I have a list of what I would like to get for everyone and I started shopping online a few weeks ago so I'm hoping I can just go out and get what I need to in order to finish up. It's hard to believe that Christmas is 15 days away! Where has the past year gone? Last year, I was planning the "Good Luck in Laredo" happy hour and having fun going out with the crew every night before J left St. Louis. Ahh...the memories.

Well that's it for now. I'm sure there will be another exciting update in the next week or so. My company Christmas party is coming up in a week and a half and then Christmas will be here and I'm sure I'll have something to write about!