2011 Year-In-Review: Part 1

I wrapped up my 2010 year-in-review with this very truthful comment: I feel like a lot of 2010 was spent running in place.

Praise God, that is not the case for 2011. While 2010 was the breaking of old ground - and it took an entire year - I feel like 2011 was the year that things were finally able to grow again in that soil.

This was a great year for me.  At the end of 2011, I feel healthy & strong (which, as I half-joked to my aunt the other day, probably means I have cancer) and I'm just left a little taken aback by the focus and (mostly) normalcy that occurred this year. I know it's a total blessing.

But its the end of the year! And that means.... lists! (Ooo, I love end of the year lists!)

We're breaking this down into two segments since I want to get some sleep tonight. 

12) Work: Weddings, Weddings, Weddings
Seriously, wedding work completely exploded at work this year. We even had three awesome large ones that were just beautiful, gave us lots of great pictures and gave me a couple opportunities to go onsite and help set up. In terms of design, I really solidified a lot of the basic technique (I hope), feel confident on casket pieces and am finding myself wanting to stretch my design skills this upcoming year in sympathy work and strengthen my weaker points (mrr, corsages....). I guess you could say that should be your goal every year, but I feel more focused on not only what particular areas of design I want to grow and develop, but also how.

11) Weather to the Extreme
This was an insane year for weather. And indeed, that goes for all around the world, but what a crazy year for the Midwest! I mean, we started out with a historic blizzard, our state saw a 100 degree temperature difference in one day in February, then we had a huge tornado outbreak in May, and then a complete drought and heatwave through the entire summer. Now, for the moment at least, we appear to be in a mild winter. It'll be 70 tomorrow. If its too windy to rake leaves, I am seriously considering going to the Zoo. In December.

10) Secret Church
In October of this year, my church hosted a simulcast of Secret Church: Family, Marriage, Sex & The Gospel. (Though the session covered practically every form of relationships.) The session was seven hours long, but honestly, a lot of what I had been looking for. I've been wanting an in-depth study, but not necessarily a six or nine week course. Just a lot of time spent in the Word. If you're interested, all their videos are at the link above, broken up into (about) two hour segments. The only other one I've started was Who is God? in which the segments I watched went over the names of God. The next simulcast will be Easter weekend over the Cross & Suffering.

9) The Return of the Elephants!
SO HAPPY.
Not only did this even herald the return of the Zoo's fantastic elephants, but this time they also brought back a baby, Malee, and a beautiful new exhibit. Seriously, I can't rave over the new elephant habitat enough - its large enough to house several elephants, has already been the reason for their newest bull elephant Rex (from Canada!), has a breeding center and auditorium. The Zoo is also starting work on their new Asia exhibit which will also feature a breeding center for red pandas. I'm so impressed with the steps the Zoo has been taking to improve and grow and I absolutely cannot wait for 2019 when they break ground on a new Aquaticus. In the meantime, they've released their Master Plan so we can keep up with their latest ventures. (New Giraffe Habitat! Since they're in the oldest part of the Zoo, I'm excited they're on the list.)

8) Sudan Becomes a New Country
"South Sudan took a seat at the world's table early Saturday as citizens of the new country took to the streets to celebrate."
That sentence still blows my mind as much now as it did then. The fact that South Sudan was allowed to even vote on a potential separation, much less for it to actually be honored, is just never something I thought I would see. Sudan has managed since then to stay out of the news for the most part - or at least I haven't caught anything - so I definitely need to go back and do some follow up research to see how things have continued to go.

7) The Movie List
Favorite Movie: Hmm.... probably Thor, although Muppets & First Class are close behind it.

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows: Part 1
True Grit
Unstoppable
Tangled
Suckerpunch
Thor
X-Men: First Class
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Larry Crowne
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Captain America: First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Muppets
Arthur Christmas
Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

Whew! Six more to go!