As we enter the final day of 2009, I am going to share my year in review.  It’s been a mixed year and a reflective one at that.  Before I move into my year in review, I want to note that this is my 500th blog post! That’s a lot of posts when I look at it.  Thank you if you’ve been reading for a while!  It keeps me motivated to keep going.  OK, here goes with the 09 personal year in review….

• I celebrating my 34th birthday late so it was the first memorable event of ’09 because I made my family do Haiku’s.  Morgan went for an impromptu one and it still is a highlight of the year. It could still get my teary.  Then Morgan requested we do the same thing for her birthday a couple months later.
• I went to Philly for an Epic student conference and spent a couple days in the city with my dad seeing things like the Independence Hall again and the Liberty Bell.
• I walked O’Hare airport with Ozzie Guillen during the Super Bowl.  Who schedules a flight across country in the middle of maybe the best superbowl ever?  That’s right.  Me.
• I had the worst dentist appointment ever.  Haven’t been back since.
• I took both of my girls out on separate Valentine dates.  Morgan made a special request that I wear a tie.
• I visited Austin, TX for the first time.  Hung with some great people and ate some really good food.
• I got mooned by a homeless woman.  I don’t know if she was homeless or not, but I do know that Colin and I got mooned.  I’ve seen her cruising the roads in her motorized wheel chair a couple times since.  She’s added an American flag to it which is awesome.
• I participated in the second annual ccc ministry blogference.
• I was able to go to my first Laker playoff game on their road to the Championship courtesy of my friend Mike.
• I took Morgan to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop for her first non cartoon movie.  She laughed really hard.  A short parallel is that last week we took her to Alvin and Chipmunks which was also Colin’s first movie ever.  Pretty amazing for a 25 month year old kid to sit still for 2 hours straight.  Very fun listening to them giggle and laugh.  That movie was pretty dang cute.
• I “square danced” at my daughters end of the year pre-school party.
• I greatly enjoyed Christine doing a brief speaking spot at an Epic meeting in Colorado.
• I moved in August from my old blogspot home to my new home here at http://brianvirtue.org and redesigned the blog courtesy of WordPress and Thesis.
• Took my first trip to Seaworld in over 20 years with Christine’s family.
• I narrowed the gap towards graduation to where I now I only have 4 classes left.  I survived a couple rough preaching classes and finished my year long Greek series.  I’ve hit a wall, but hope to grind it out to graduate this summer with the MDiv.
• I survived a few stretches of watching my kids solo without the matriarch…held my own I think
• I read all the Harry Potter books from Sept – Nov and really liked them.
• I had a great time going out to Denver for Cross 09 and doing some new training that it was good to do a trial run on.
• I had a great time blogging.
• I turned 35.
• I got a promotion which I’m hoping is temporary   But it’s been a big taste of more exec level leadership and I’ve learned a lot.  I’m wiped out because of it, but it’s been worth it.  I just wish I had less of other things so I had more margin to work with.
• I visited Tampa, FLA for the first time for a work conference.  Nice city, but I’ll take SoCal anyday.
• I watched my sports teams pretty much suck (apart from Lakers).  Bears, Cubs, UCLA football all were a severe disappointment.
• I watched my 2 kids develop a fun relationship with one another.  Morgan’s unbelievably great with Colin and Colin adores his sister.  It’s very fun to watch them together.
• I found out I’m going to be an uncle of twins (again).  I hope that’s public by now or else I’m going to be in trouble.

I really loved 2008, but 2009 was a different journey for me and 2010 no doubt will be totally different altogether.  I’m looking forward to seeing what is in store.

I hope it’s a good one for you as well so let me wish you a Happy New Year!

Any thoughts on 2009 before we turn the page?

Tagged as: Blogging