“All the world is birthday cake...” George Harrison

Thank you, everyone, for the amazing outpour of love and support with regard to last month’s blog post! Your emails, cards, and phone calls were and are very much appreciated. Thank you!

I am doing really, really well and, to be completely honest, I have never felt more alive! I do, of course, miss my friends at the firm, but I very much like being back in school and, like I’ve said before, I’ve really been enjoying this time to myself.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been keeping myself rather busy and taking pleasure in doing some of the things I’ve always wanted to do but never made time for because of my 110% dedication to the job and those who employed me. That said, I signed up for my very first cake decorating class in November and plan to take sewing classes in February! Whoo-hoo! You can see a photo of one of my cakes in the upper right hand corner of this post. I’m also registered for another semester at the community college (a mixture of medical and just-for-fun classes) and Dan is (cross your fingers and toes!) considering taking an evening dance class with me! Darby and I also continue to run the agility obstacle courses at his school once a week and I’ve also been busy re-arranging and updating some of the house décor, including furniture, fixtures, and GASP! Paint! Yeppers! In the not so distant future, Erin is actually going to put color on her walls! Look out!

Another thing that I was able to fully enjoy this year were the holidays. You see, I’ve never been able to take leave from work for the holidays and this year, for the first time in 25 years, I went back home to Minnesota to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and, for the first time in 16 years, I was able to completely relax and enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year’s, which was absolutely wonderful!

This past week, Dan and I were also able to watch my 2-year old niece, Myah, for 3 days while my sister and brother-in-law took a quick little road trip to the Grand Canyon (something I would never have been able to do if I were working)! Here are a few photos from our adventures with Myah. Special Note: Thank you, Myah, for being such a good kid for us while you were here and for playing so well with your four-legged cousins. We miss you!

In closing, let me just say that this is truly the happiest I’ve been in a long time and, although I’m no longer bringing in the big bucks (ha, ha), I know I’m rich in both life and love and, for that, I am very grateful!

Happy New Year!