2009 Year-in-Review
I meant to write and post this sooner...but I didn't, so there ya go.
2009 was quite a year for the Washingtonian Roberts’. First off, since this question comes up way too often, no, we do not have any kids yet nor any on the way as of now. However, we still have our other “kids,” our 2 wiener dogs, Annie and Maddie. They are doing well. We are still in our condo and it’s been close to 3 years. So far, the mortgage hasn’t killed us…yet!
Amy is nearing the completion of her academic journey. She is now in her FINAL (thank God!) semester in counseling master degree program. Graduation will be in June. She is already a registered counselor and has been working at her internship for several months now. Basically, she’s counseling for free, but she’s gaining valuable experience and skills that she we’ll eventually use more as her career takes off. Work wise, she left her job at the girls’ home. I’m not a huge fan of my wife getting injured at work and neither is she, so she just up and quit. But to make up for the loss of income, she decide to suck it up and go back to work she thought she was done with…serving. She applied to a couple places…and got offered at a job at each place, but there was one place that was home to her…Olive Garden! So, she’s back at the OG. They actually took her back with open arms. Not only that, she realizes that it’s way less stressful there. It was a good move and we know it’s just temporary till she’s done with school and able to pursue her career as a counselor.
I’ve stayed pretty busy this year. After only having just a single job in 2008, I had to get back on the multiple job horse this year. I work as a mail services clerk for the city of Kirkland. I’m now scheduled to work 7 days a week. One thing I’ve learned from working this schedule for the past several months is that not having a day off…sucks! Though I probably am a workaholic, but that’s not why I took on another job. Along with Amy’s graduation come new student loan payments, so this was a way to plan ahead and save up for this next stage in life, at least till Amy is able to get her career going.
Other than working, I managed to keep myself fairly occupied otherwise. I became a “Conservation Sensation” through our local utility company in an ad campaign featuring me in both TV commercials and print ads. I also competed to be the biggest “Endfluencer” in Seattle in a big radio contest for 107.7 “The End.” Though I didn’t win the grand prize, I did fairly respectable with a solid third place finish. I did win another contest through a Transformer fan site sponsored by Burger King which got some cool movie swag and some gift cards. Oh, and I ran a few 5K’s too.
A fun highlight for us was our in-laws visiting this summer. Well, they are my in-laws, but Amy’s parents. We did just about everything you could do in Western Washington. And I mean everything, from Mt. Rainier to the Quinault rain forests to the Space Needle. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary while out here and counted it as their honeymoon, since they didn’t have one when they were first married 3 decades ago.
We did have our low points too. In February, I got into a fender-bender and even worse, it was my fault. I’m plenty fine now, but my car is currently still missing its front bumper though, doh! Our laptop computer crashed in late summer. This was especially bad since it happened the same week Amy was about to start her fall semester. After an expensive “fix” at a computer place that we will NEVER go to again, we still have a dead computer. Also, Maddie, our older wiener dog, had to get some emergency dental work done. There were a few other setbacks here and there, but we managed most of them fairly well.
However, the worst news came near the end of the year. In December, Amy’s grandfather unfortunately passed away. Amy was able to make it back for the funeral and be there for her family. Though it was good for her family to have her there, this was a really tough loss on Amy.
2009 was an eventful year and overall, it was good. Despite finishing the year on some rough road, we are hopeful for 2010. A January trip home was much needed and we have much to look forward too. With my second job, we’ve been able to start to get ahead financially. Amy’s completion of grad school will be a big change and there are more changes on the horizon. I am anxious to see what the new year brings us
2009 was quite a year for the Washingtonian Roberts’. First off, since this question comes up way too often, no, we do not have any kids yet nor any on the way as of now. However, we still have our other “kids,” our 2 wiener dogs, Annie and Maddie. They are doing well. We are still in our condo and it’s been close to 3 years. So far, the mortgage hasn’t killed us…yet!
Amy is nearing the completion of her academic journey. She is now in her FINAL (thank God!) semester in counseling master degree program. Graduation will be in June. She is already a registered counselor and has been working at her internship for several months now. Basically, she’s counseling for free, but she’s gaining valuable experience and skills that she we’ll eventually use more as her career takes off. Work wise, she left her job at the girls’ home. I’m not a huge fan of my wife getting injured at work and neither is she, so she just up and quit. But to make up for the loss of income, she decide to suck it up and go back to work she thought she was done with…serving. She applied to a couple places…and got offered at a job at each place, but there was one place that was home to her…Olive Garden! So, she’s back at the OG. They actually took her back with open arms. Not only that, she realizes that it’s way less stressful there. It was a good move and we know it’s just temporary till she’s done with school and able to pursue her career as a counselor.
I’ve stayed pretty busy this year. After only having just a single job in 2008, I had to get back on the multiple job horse this year. I work as a mail services clerk for the city of Kirkland. I’m now scheduled to work 7 days a week. One thing I’ve learned from working this schedule for the past several months is that not having a day off…sucks! Though I probably am a workaholic, but that’s not why I took on another job. Along with Amy’s graduation come new student loan payments, so this was a way to plan ahead and save up for this next stage in life, at least till Amy is able to get her career going.
Other than working, I managed to keep myself fairly occupied otherwise. I became a “Conservation Sensation” through our local utility company in an ad campaign featuring me in both TV commercials and print ads. I also competed to be the biggest “Endfluencer” in Seattle in a big radio contest for 107.7 “The End.” Though I didn’t win the grand prize, I did fairly respectable with a solid third place finish. I did win another contest through a Transformer fan site sponsored by Burger King which got some cool movie swag and some gift cards. Oh, and I ran a few 5K’s too.
A fun highlight for us was our in-laws visiting this summer. Well, they are my in-laws, but Amy’s parents. We did just about everything you could do in Western Washington. And I mean everything, from Mt. Rainier to the Quinault rain forests to the Space Needle. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary while out here and counted it as their honeymoon, since they didn’t have one when they were first married 3 decades ago.
We did have our low points too. In February, I got into a fender-bender and even worse, it was my fault. I’m plenty fine now, but my car is currently still missing its front bumper though, doh! Our laptop computer crashed in late summer. This was especially bad since it happened the same week Amy was about to start her fall semester. After an expensive “fix” at a computer place that we will NEVER go to again, we still have a dead computer. Also, Maddie, our older wiener dog, had to get some emergency dental work done. There were a few other setbacks here and there, but we managed most of them fairly well.
However, the worst news came near the end of the year. In December, Amy’s grandfather unfortunately passed away. Amy was able to make it back for the funeral and be there for her family. Though it was good for her family to have her there, this was a really tough loss on Amy.
2009 was an eventful year and overall, it was good. Despite finishing the year on some rough road, we are hopeful for 2010. A January trip home was much needed and we have much to look forward too. With my second job, we’ve been able to start to get ahead financially. Amy’s completion of grad school will be a big change and there are more changes on the horizon. I am anxious to see what the new year brings us
