2014 Year in Review

2014 was an interesting year for me.

I graduated college with my associate's degree in medical office administration in May. It took a while to find a job as a medical coder since most places don't want to train the newbies. I could have applied for a job in Tennessee, but that would have required us either moving, or me and the kids staying there for 6 months while I trained. With my mom going through her health problems, neither was an option for us. Thankfully, my friend hired me to work for her part-time. Part-time is perfect for me because I homeschool the kids and need the time with them. Once they both graduate from high school (which won't be long, actually), I can look for something more.

My in-laws moved away in January. I miss them, especially since they lived only 5 minutes away for 9 years, and then poof, they don't. However, I think it was a good decision for them.

My mom and brother moved in April. They moved into something smaller, but better suited for them, I think.

My mom had major surgery and recovery has gone well. Lymphoma can be mild or severe. In my mom's case, it had gotten to the point that it was severe. She had a splenectomy and she's doing so much better!

We got a new dog. This dog was a bribe. I'll admit it. The ferrets weren't getting the attention they deserved, and I was doing a lot of the upkeep on them. Plus they stunk badly. So, Boo was the holdout not wanting to give them up. We finally broke down and told her that we'd get a new puppy or kitten if she let me find them a new home. We contacted a local pet shop that have been known for re-homing small animals and they gladly agreed to help me. They found the ferrets a new home in just a couple of days and they say they'll get spoiled in their new home. I told the kids that there will be no more caged or tanked animals...ever. (I kinda wish we had gotten a kitten...puppies are so much work!)

We ended up going on two trips. We went to New York to visit family and had a wonderful time. It was a short trip over July 4th, but we'll plan a longer trip in the future. Then we went to Tennessee to visit friends and had a great time there. It was great to get away for a few days, but both times I was ready to be back home. Up until 2012, we never went anywhere! We went to Texas in 2002, and Myrtle Beach in 2004 or 2005. That was pretty much it. Then our friends, who were living in Chicago at the time, invited us to visit them. We had a wonderful time and realized that vacations are great and we need to do it more often. But I'm always ready to go home at the end of the trip.

That's the thing about me: I am a homebody. That's why I wanted to be a medical coder to begin with. I wanted a work-from-home job so that I could continue to homeschool my kids while bringing some extra money into our household. My kids are the most important thing to me, and their education goes along with that. Putting them back into the public school system scares me so much! So, I had to be able to work-from-home.

Bob and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this year. It's hard to believe it's been that long! We were both young when we got married, but we knew what we wanted and have never regretted that decision.

I moved my blog this year. I was at Wordpress, but at my two year mark, they suspended my account because I "violated the terms of service". They reopened it the next day, but I still don't trust them. If it hadn't happened to a friend of mine at her two year mark as well, I wouldn't be so leery. Due to some confusion during the move, my old blog is completely gone, so my followers have no way to find me. I had to find and put all of my pics back into my posts here on Blogger, and now I have to build my audience again. Maybe I need to host a contest...

Anyway, if you made it to this point and are still reading, thank you! If you aren't a follower yet, please do so! I blog about a lot of different topics. Sometimes they're my own ideas and sometimes they're someone else's and I test them out or tweak them for my own purposes. I post about crafts, homeschooling, food, household stuff, and other miscellaneous things. I also am involved in writing challenges and group projects as well. My goal for 2015 is to be involved in even more of them!