'09 in Review

I thought I would go over the highlights of last year that have made it so great!

One of the biggest events of this year is that we bought our condo. We love being "home owners" with all it's ups and downs. I love decorating and keeping it up. We had some trouble for a while with almost all of our appliances, but they are resolved... for now!

Both of us have had some changes at work. In May I was transferred to the Orem office, to be closer to home, and most recently, my office has been bought by another mortgage company, which I now work for. My job has changed quite drastically and instead of trying to find things to do, I'm working like crazy and often work overtime, and I'm still not caught up. I really enjoy being busy and having more work so life is good. The big news for James as of recently is that his job responsibilities will change soon and his new title at work is "Accountant". He really couldn't escape his fate as a Hillstead! Ha ha! Although he went the Economics and Finance route in school, he still was hired as an Accountant. I'm very proud of him though and all the hard work he puts in and his eagerness to always learn more. James is preparing to take the GMAT soon so he can start applying for grad school!

James and I are both pretty busy in our new roles at church. We are both secretaries in our organizations. It's kept us busy for sure, but we enjoy it and the service we get to give.

This year we took a few trips. We went to St. George for Valentine's, and a few weeks later in March we took a trip to Vegas. In May we visited both of our brother's in the Washington DC area. We took a second trip to Las Vegas in the Fall to meet James' sister half way who lives in LA and spend time together.

James and I both ran two half marathons this summer. Previously we had only ran a 5k, but thought it would be fun to try a half marathon together (well, James runs faster than me, so he was not next to me, but we liked training together). James' best time was 1:50, and my best time was 2:30. If you haven't seen James lately, he looks great! I have a goal this year to run one in under 2 hours. Ah!

I have high hopes for this year and I'm sure it'll be a good one.

Happy New Year Everyone!