Ooops...

Wow... so much for keeping up with this blog! I think it's set to private right now so no one can even see it. 2010 has been a little bit of a struggle. Mostly financial stress, some personal struggles that Brian and I have had to deal with, but thankfully nothing quite so major as last year. We are still hoping for the best. We have some money in savings that we are planning on using for a cruise vacation around Christmas. We still need to plan and book it but I'm very excited about it. It will be really nice to have some time off together in a warm and relaxing climate. Brian has the week between Christmas and New Years off work anyway so we thought, why not?? We can celebrate our Christmas with family either before or after our trip. :)

One thing that has been going quite well this year is the dojo. There are currently 23 active students, I believe, which is great! The goal for the end of this year was to be at 20, so we are ahead of the game. We are having our first Open House in a little over a week and I'm hoping it will be a success. We are doing demonstrations, having food and raffles and a kick a thon! Fun stuff.

We also signed up to learn MJ's Thriller Dance! It's a free class and we will get to dress up like zombies and perform in the Portsmouth Halloween Parade! I'm so excited! It's not an easy dance to learn but we are doing pretty well so far.

We took a trip to NY in July which was fun. I got to meet Brian's grandfather and watch the fireworks on the 4th at the Syracuse Fairgrounds. We visited the old Eibert farm which sadly burned down in May, but took lots of cool pictures and met with the woman who lives there and she told us some cool stories about the place. Brian got to do some more ancestry research too.

Hmm... what else? Oh yeah! Dan and Steve got married in August! It was so great to have them here for a visit. We miss them so much! We got to spend a lot of time together and their wedding was so fun. They had an Alice in Wonderland theme. I loved it. I was very sad when they left to go back home to FL...

Melissa and Matt also got married this year in July. Mary was here for a visit and to be in the wedding. Melissa, Mary and I had a girls night sleepover the night before the wedding. Gee... remember being a little kid and having sleepovers with your friends all the time? Ahh... life was carefree then... I miss that.

Ok, I think that's enough for today. I have to get ready to head to work for the afternoon, followed by dojo time. Ta Ta for now...

Impromptu outing

Brian and I decided yesterday to book a night at a B&B up the street from our house, The Silver Fountain Inn. I am sitting here right now in a comfy robe on a king size canopy bed feeling very satisfied that we decided to splurge and do this. It was actually an excellent deal because we saved 20% for the New Year and were upgraded for free to the biggest room. We got here at 3, got the free upgrade and were cozied up on the couch in the lobby playing Cribbage on a really cool giant board by the fireplace, drinking freshly brewed loose leaf tea and eating homemade ginger cookies while it snowed outside by 4:00. Then we ordered some takeout sushi and had it delivered, drank a bottle of wine that we brought from home and came back to the room. I took a nice bubble bath and we've been relaxing. Brian is reading and I'm on my laptop. It's lovely. The hostess is very nice. They have a community fridge with sodas and water free for the taking. The rooms have tv's with dvd players. They have movies and music in the bookshelves in the lobby. Next we will snuggle up and watch a movie and pop some of the popcorn they have in the dining area. I might have another cup of yummy tea too. It's so nice to have a relaxing night doing whatever we want. And we are only about a 10 minute walk from home! LOL. I've taken a bunch of pictures. Maybe I will upload some of them once I get home tomorrow afternoon. I'm glad we are starting off the new year with this. 2009 was pretty crappy, at least the last 2/3rds of it. With everything that has gone on with Jon, and losing Christopher, me being basically jobless, Brian's work cutting back hours, and our financial struggles... well, it was a pretty tough year, to say the least. But I am so grateful that we have each other, and our cute little house, and our health, I try to stay positive. Christmas was kinda hard this year. Everyone is far away. It was hard to get into the spirit. We didn't have the money to be able to get gifts for everyone like we usually like to do. And most of our family were too far away to spend the holidays with them. I'm used to having so many places to go and people to visit that we get overwhelmed and exhausted. It was pretty much the opposite this year. We went to my dad's on Christmas Eve, which was great. Had a nice dinner and spent time with them. Then Brian's parents came over our house on Christmas day for lunch and we went to the movies. But that was it. No siblings to visit... My mom is far away, his Dad is far away... *sigh*

Anyway, we've been looking forward to a new year and a new start for quite some time. So it's great to start off 2010 with this nice little one night get away. I hope this is the beginning to a much better year for us. Happy 2010, everyone!