2007 Top 10 List

As my first foray into the blogging community, I thought I'd bring you up to speed on the last 10 months of my life. Here's what I've been doing this year:

JANUARY
Well, 2007 started on a sad note. My grandma (Mom's mom) passed away on January 12th. She's been sick for a while, but this particular incident was very sudden and unexpected. Luckily, she went quickly and without a lot of pain. Here's the obituary for Margaret E. Johnson.

FEBRUARY
Joel and I visited Savannah, Georgia - just an hour away. Turns out it's a great little town with tons of history, interesting architecture, a great design school, and shopping!



MARCH
I was in my first car accident in Georgia. I was in the middle of an intersection, and a girl whizzed into me - totally didn't see the red light. Luckily, I'm fine, and got a new bumper out of the deal. Thank you, insurance.

APRIL
My brother, Adam returned home from his mission in April. He served for 2 years in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida mission Creole-speaking. It was a long two years away from him, and a great reunion. I was able to go home in May to visit and hear his homecoming report and talk in church. And meet Karen, who will become my sister-in-law in January. This stone gathers no moss!




















MAY
I moved up the corporate ladder in May and accepted a promotion to Human Resources at Sea Island. Instead of the Spa Coordinator Department Trainer, I am now the Training, Development & Quality Specialist for the whole company. I facilitate a 2-day orientation for new employees, track the entire company's training processes and documentation, and help conduct leadership and other company-wide training. I love my job as it requires regular presentation, creativity in class development and activities, and the OCD side of my brain gets a regular workout with all the tracking and databases I have to keep straight. Plus, I love my coworkers. I really feel like I have the perfect job! I don't have any pictures yet, but here are some of the Spa, so you can get an idea of Sea Island in general. If you're still interested, check out the link on the sidebar - Sea Island is something that has to be seen to be believed.














JUNE
June brought more sad news, although not entirely unexpected. My grandfather (dad's Dad) passed away at the young age of 87 years old. He had lung cancer that began to spread very aggressively the last couple weeks of May. Miraculously, he said he experienced very little pain, and felt blessed to have seen all his children (5) within the last week of his life, and all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren (24) in his last month of life. He and my grandmother lived around the corner from my parent's house in Kansas, so I felt his death much more poignantly than any other so far. He will be missed until I see him again. Everett E. Buhler was a great man. This is my last photo of him. He's with my grandmother holding Jace, my 6 month-old nephew.











JULY
Joel and I purchased our own spot of the world this month. We bought a house! The thing I had most been looking forward to was painting the walls colors of my own choosing. However, when Granddad passed, the funeral was scheduled for exactly 24 hours after our closing. The schedule had been tight to begin with, but with the trip home, painting was out of the question - or so I thought. When we got home, I opened the door of the house for the first time, and my colors were on the wall! Our Elder's Quorum had decided to help us out and put the first coats on all the walls. We just had to do the detail work and the hard-to-reach places. It was a wonderful miracle I'll remember the rest of my life! (We'll post more pictures of our house shortly - we're still settling in.)














AUGUST
The American Dream is complete! We adopted a dog from the Humane Society - a terrier mix we named Finn. He may easily be the most spoiled creature on the block. But we love him. I will try not to post too many pictures of him. But it will take incredible self control.



















SEPTEMBER
I want to be like Kristen when I grow up. My little sister (mother of 2, and homemaker extraordinaire) ran a marathon on September 15 in Logan, Utah. I was so proud of her - her target time was to finish in 5:20, but she booked it and finished in 4:37! She said it was the hardest thing she's ever done, way harder than having a baby, and she's glad she never has to do it again. I think it's like childbirth - once she forgets how much it hurt, she'll be back in the saddle again. I wouldn't put an IronMan past her. Here's my sister of steel:



OCTOBER
Just when I thought things would settle down ... they didn't. I was in another car accident just a couple weeks ago that I was lucky to walk away from. Driving down to Jacksonville, a driver on my right merged into my lane right where I was driving. I swerved so he wouldn't hit me, skidded into the median, caught my tire in a rut and rolled 1 1/2 times. I landed upside down, and crawled out. The driver didn't stop, but several other people did. My car is totaled, but I managed to walk away with a couple scrapes, bruises, and fire ant bites. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, the rescue workers said I would not have survived. So, after only 1 year, and only 14,000 miles, the Aveo enters early retirement, and we are back in the market for a second car. The poll above asks your opinion on how we should spend the insurance money. Again - what would we do without insurance??