Saturday, January 2, 2010

2009 to 2010

Happy New Year from Long Beach, CA!

A quick recap of our holidays: spent Christmas hanging out with the family in Plano, TX, where Santa definitely loaded us up. We had a great time hanging out, playing Wii, eating wonderful food, and watching the dogs play (what do you get when you mix a 1 yr old bull dog and a 6 yr old mutt of about the same size? - endless hours of entertainment).  Here's a picture of our tree - we ran out of room and started hanging gift bags on the tree...

Believe it or not, we even had a white Christmas in TX!
 
Then we headed off to Long Beach, CA, where we rung in the New Year (well actually I was so lame I slept through it...)  We've been hanging out on my father-in-law's boat in the Long Beach marina. We were right in the mix of things as some daredevil set a new world record for longest rally car jump by jumping it across the harbor and onto a barge here in Long Beach at the stroke of midnight EST (which was really 9 pm here). Here are a few pics of the view on this side of the country...

Our home on the water - the Ka Nalu.  With 5 people living on the boat, there are no secrets....

View of the marina:

Beautiful CA:

Thought I'd take this reflective moment and write a non-sewing entry.  After all, I am on vacation.

2009 has definitely been an interesting year for me.  It started off really well with a new job and a dream trip to Paris and Barcelona.  Unfortunately soon after, my lupus decided to rear its ugly head again and make life challenging.  It was tough this time as I was forced to make some life changing decisions and quit my part- time job just to focus on my health.  With a chronic illness, I suppose jslik designs was born out of my need to have a flexible work environment and desire to do something I enjoy (not that I didn't enjoy helping the community while working at the United Way).  I know that God has really blessed me in that my husband has a stable and good job, allowing me to have the option to do whatever I want.  2.5 years ago, while we were deciding whether to move to Houston or San Francisco, I really think that God's guidance led us to Houston where the cost of living is lower and life is slower-paced.   I would have never anticipated all the health obstacles I have faced since then and I know that if we had moved to San Francisco, things would have been tighter.  Sometimes it can be tough to have to deal with chronic issues at such a young age, but I do see alot of good that has come from it.  My relationship with my husband and family has strengthened through the trials and I've learned (or am in the process of learning) to let go of things that are not as important as I thought.  On top of all that, I've now got my own little business, which I am fiercely proud of.

So, although I may have hit a few low points during this past year, I'm definitely ending it on a good note and am looking forward to the next year.  Who knows what will happen?  I know one thing for sure, I'm going to learn how to drive stick - I've been married almost 4 years and can only drive 1 of the 2 cars we own...(I'm ashamed to admit).  I've done many practice runs on side streets, but the one time I took it out on the "highway", I traumatized myself (and subsequently my husband through my reaction) by downshifting from 5th into 2nd at 50 mph....oops.   I guess you could call it a New Years resolution, but once you label it that, I'm likely to fail as I do at most my "resolutions".  Anyway, this next year, I'm gonna work on being healthier, eating well, exercising, and growing jslik designs.


Happy New Year from jslik designs! (pictured L-R, CFO and CEO)

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