Farewell 2011... Bring on 2012

Hey there,

So as 2011 is in its final hours, it is a good time to reflect on the year that has been and the hopes for the year to come. 2011 was not an overall great year for me. In fact it was comparable to the very awful year 2000 that I had in my final year of high school. However, I made it through and have very high hopes for the year to come.

In 2011, I experienced some of my greatest fears as a reality. In February, I interrupted a person attempting to break into my bedroom window. Such an experience really ruins that feeling of being safe in your own home so I have struggled with that at times since.

In March we celebrated the birth of my gorgeous neice Kaleaha. My sister's 7th child. Yikes!

In June, many of my co-workers move on to new jobs which was sad to see them go but exciting for them too. This was largely due to the unfortunate news that our centre was closing down and we were re-opening about half an hour further down the road. New, state of the art centre, but a massive drive each day to and from work compared to my current 10 minute drive. This came with a combined mix of good and bad. I got promoted to senior psychologist which was a great achievement being as young as I am, but the timing was horrible. I struggled with a horrendous workload for months to follow due to us being so short staffed and having difficulty recruiting due to the relocation of the centre next year. So my work stress was extreme and my hours were long. But I did lose a lot of weight... yes from stress.. but it meant being at a size I was happiest without trying ;)

In September, my worst fear at work came true with an incident I wished never to experience in my career. Unfortunately as a psychologist, there are not always happy endings with the individuals I work with so this was a very difficult period following an already stressful work phase. It came with subsequent self doubts. It did not take long to move forward from these doubts thankfully and remind myself that I am competent and skilled. Sometimes things happen no matter how much is in place to avoid them.

October was our first wedding anniversary which we celebrated with a weekend away in Brisbane.

Throughout a lot of November and December, Simon was away touring with his band so I had a lot of time alone. This itself was not as hard as I expected, however in late November I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat Felix at the age of 15. More than half my life with this beautiful girl but due to fluid on her lungs, I had to have her put to sleep. This was so much harder without Simon home.

Throughout the year there has been a mix of health issues and stressful situations surrounding those I love but thankfully most of these things seem to have improved for the better. However there has also been a mix of happy news with my scrapbooking, which has included having 4 scrapbook layouts accepted for potential publication in Scrapbooking Memories magazine. The first is due to be published in March 2012!

The week before Christmas came a happy experience. The adoption of our kitten, Dexter. He was my christmas present from Simon and has already brought much joy into our home. And Christmas with the whole family has been a wonderful experience also, with my brother and his family up from Melbourne. So the year will end on a high note at least.

So with that all said and done, I have some big goals and very high hopes for the year to come. We hope to receive the happy news that we are expecting our first child hopefully soon into the new year since this news did not come about  as yet. I also have the following goals:

- To get organised and declutter
- To focus on being healthy, fit, and baby ready
- To clear our outstanding debts
- To have at least one mini break overseas (just cannot help myself... the travel bug is bad)
- To keep trying new things and experimenting with my scrapbooking and craft

So farewell 2011... good ridence. Welcome 2012... I am already very fond of you as I can feel you are going to be a great year!

Holly xo

New Years Resolutions 2011

To be honest, I have never been particuarly committed to making resolutions, however this year might be a nice time to start. Without labelling them as resolutions, I have already decided on a couple of set goals.

The big focus is on paying off our debts. I am awesome at budgetting but the wedding put us back a bit (not to mention 2 overseas holidays last year), but we are on our way to getting our credit cards back to zero. And hopefully by our 1 year anniversary in October, we will be able to afford a nice little tropical holiday. Vanuatu maybe? Phuket? Either would be nice.

I am also committed to ensuring my veggies grow well and do not suffer the fate of previous attempts. Thankfully it hasn't stopped raining in the past 2 months in Queensland, Australia, so that's kind of easy.

I will also dedicate lots of time to finishing my scrap books from Europe (2008 & 2010), honeymoon (Fiji) and wedding. As well as exploring new and exciting forms of DIY.

Then of course, my plan to post at least once a week to this blog.