What a Difference a Year Makes!!!

This morning, which happens to be Christmas Eve, I'm sitting on my couch under a warm cozy blanket sipping my tea and watching Zoey sleep beside me. As I wait for my husband to get home from his 1/2 day of work I got to thinking about how much has happened and how my life has changed in the past year. Last year at Christmas, if you can recall from the blog I wrote, I was very depressed. I had to work all through Christmas so did not get a holiday at all. I was able to see my family the week before, but it just wasn't the same. Steve was a sweetheart and came into work with me to keep me company, and Sue was a wonderful friend inviting us to Christmas dinner, but all the same it didn't feel like Christmas to me. I won't recap everything because you can go back and read it, but what I really want to focus on is everything God has blessed me with in the past year.

This Christmas paints a very different picture than last year. Steve and I are living in Texas, where I don't think either of us ever expected to live if you would have asked us a few years ago, but we absolutely love it here! It is weird not having snow but our "winter" here is like fall is up North which is our favorite season, so we are loving the weather! The people are super nice here too. Steve is doing a phenomenal job balancing both work and school (and excelling at both!) and still finding time to hang out with me and play his beloved video games :) I just finished my first semester as a clinical pathology resident and I can't even put into words how much I love my job - I actually sort of miss it now that I am on break for Christmas! I don't think I have ever worked for such wonderful and compassionate people, and Karen, Mark and Mary are such incredible clinical pathologists too! They are not just my bosses but are quickly becoming my friends. One of them (Mark) even plays World of Warcraft with Steve and I, which is loads of fun :) They are happy with my progress thus far which is so great, and I am gaining confidence so quickly with reading cytology - I have never been so sure in my life that I am definitely in the right profession! :) I enjoy teaching the vet students too - I even gave a lecture to the second year vet class (about 120 students)! I was really nervous at first but once I started lecturing I was totally comfortable. I hope my enthusiasm rubs off on some of them and maybe sparks an interest in clinical pathology, like Dr. Jenny Thomas at MSU did for me. My resident-mates are awesome too, they are so nice and were so helpful to me this past semester! I hope to be as wonderful to the new resident coming next year (Congrats again Jessica! :) ) as they have been to me. Thank you Gwen and Kathrin! I also am fortunate to be able to work with the anatomic pathology residents pretty regularly, and all of them are great people and super helpful to us clin path folk ;)

Another difference between last year and this one is Steve and I are off until January 5th which gives us time to visit both my family and his for the holidays! Classes don't start up again until mid-January, so I really have time to thoroughly enjoy the holiday and not worry about studying. I miss my family a lot and it is nice to be in an environment where I am able to travel and see them more often. I also can't wait to see Steve's family and hopefully Sue to when we are in Michigan :)

As you all know, Steve and I have also become homeowners this year. It is even better than we ever expected, we love our house as do the pets! In the process of buying things for our house, we discovered RockBand. For those of you who don't play it, it is a video game similar to Guitar Hero, and you can play guitar, bass, drums, or sing. I caught onto the drums super fast since I have played a set before, and Steve the guitar. This game is such a blast and is an awesome game to play on study breaks. We have even formed a few "bands" that go on tour - one is just Steve and I ("The Texas Transplants"), a second is with my sister-in-law Andrea ("Coke Zero"), and we have a third band with our friends Bud and Cat ("Sparty On"). It's one of those games you can play for hours on end and it never gets old. I always wanted to play the drums and now I can lol :)

Last but definitely not least, I feel much healthier than I did last year! I am almost 50 pounds lighter than one year ago and have completely changed my eating habits, thanks to Weight Watchers. I never realized until I started WW last March that so many things that I thought were "healthy" actually weren't! I have learned how to make good choices and love experimenting with recipes to make very tasty but low point dishes :) I actually tried on a dress I wore to a winter formal in high school last weekend and it actually fit for the first time since 11th grade lol. That made my weekend :) Steve has been successful with the program too, and for the most part we have been doing it together as a team. It feels great to be healthy, and if I can do it anyone can lol :)

Since this blog is getting really long, I'll wrap things up. At this time last year, I never thought I could feel this happy and fulfilled in life only a year later. So to God, my husband, family and friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything - I don't know what I would do without you :) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!