The lighter side of life – staying in touch with friends and family by celebrating the ordinary.
Christmas Letter
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I recently got a fortune cookie insert that reads, “You will make many changes before settling down happily.” Which is eerily accurate regarding the past couple of years, but hopefully not regarding the upcoming year! Surely we’re about done with the major changes for awhile. Right?
A lot has happened since this time last year! At this time last year, I wasn’t working except for a few coaching clients, and Darren was briefly between jobs and staying with us. It was an idyllic, relaxing time (except for the job hunting aspect – that is always stressful!) I thoroughly enjoyed having Darren visiting – we took long walks with the dogs, and cooked some great meals, and enjoyed hanging out together.
Then immediately after the holidays, Darren got a job as a water resource engineer with the State of Idaho Environmental Quality Department, and moved to Boise. His job is going very well, and he’s very happy to be in Idaho. Congrats Darren!
That was when I first started seriously thinking about going back to my own environmental career. Meanwhile, I was getting bogged down with the remodel of our house in Placitas. We also bought 3 rental properties this summer, which definitely gave me plenty to do, but I came to realize that I missed my environmental career.
So in September I started a new job with the Air Quality Bureau with the State of New Mexico Environmental Department. I started as a senior staff member, but within a month my new boss quit to take another job, so they have temporarily promoted me into her position, as acting manager. The permanent management position will advertise in January, and I have a good chance of getting it.
I like this job a lot better than the job I had at Sandia. The morale is great, I’ve been given a lot of responsibility, and I feel very appreciated by my management. I am also still coaching clients in the evenings, which is keeping me very busy.
John is continuing to work for the California branch of Sandia, but his office is in Albuquerque. At first he had to fly to California a lot, but he hasn’t had to as much recently. He’s doing really well at work. They just gave him a huge end-of-year bonus as well as a “spot award”, and he’s up for promotion, because he’s doing great work.
Laura continues to do very well – she’s excelling at school and impressing everyone at work. Problem is, her company might be going under. So in addition to full-time work AND graduate school, she is now also job hunting. So we wish her all the best with that. She’s got a lot to offer some lucky company. They just need to realize it!
That’s the summary – you can flip back through my blog posts and get all the crazy details. If you’re confused about all the houses, that is explained here. It’s been a full year!
Have a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!
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