Significant Moments of 2009
Posted on January 31, 2010 by Ching under Life.
This is the obligatory end of year recap. I apologize for posting it so late in the month. Last year I posted it right away.
This year I was procrastinating because 2009 was very depressing. We lost a few family members and spent quite a bit last year. It was a sad, sad year.
Looking back though, I realize that there were a lot of positives as well like our trip to the Philippines and meeting new people. Here are some highlights:
- Found a new home for Molly. We love Molly so much that we could no longer bear to see her neglected. Now she lives with Tita Sol who gives her the attention and pampering that she deserves. It was a match made in heaven.
- Whole house re-pipe. We had to abandon our underground plumbing because of a leak. The plumping for the entire house was redone to the tune of $7500 approximately. Now everything is above ground so if something goes wrong it’s easier to find.
- We had to buy a new washer and dryer. The ones we had were the ones we had when we were living in the townhouse so they were quite old. They finally gave out and had to be replaced. We tried to put it off as long as we could by doing laundry at our parents’ and one of the local laundromats, but we finally caved and bought the replacements. We just got the inexpensive, old-fashioned kind with no bells and whistles though.
- I attended the Women’s Fair for the first time. I’d never been to one before. It was quite an experience.
- Quit being quitters. We canceled our gym membership in February but actually had to pay through June. We stopped going, though. About 30 pounds later, we re-started our gym membership again. This was around November. Brian and I finally got fed up and said enough is enough. We both needed to lose weight – desperately.
- Battle of the Bangers. This was one of the craziest events I’d ever witnessed at Highlands. We spent a lot of time at Highlands in 2009 – just about every Friday. They ran into some trouble with the Attorney General, though. The KANDU challenge was challenged. The restaurant closed later in the year.
- Brian made it to Germany and back in one piece. It was quite an emotional trip, though. Partly because it was the longest that we’d been apart since we’d gotten together, but also partly because Brian went through a lot of stuff. He wanted to come home the very next day. He toughed it out though and managed to make it through the two weeks without killing himself. He was definitely outside his comfort zone.
- My first flea market experience was quite interesting.
- Eagle Valley Raptor Center. I’d never been there before. What an amazing experience!
- I learned how to make some jewelry, and then decided to start a fashion jewelry store web site. It really didn’t do well. File this under yet another failed 2009 project.
- Attended my first photo walk. There were a lot of firsts in 2009. This is yet another. The photo walk along Delano was a lot of fun. I haven’t been able to attend another since, though.
- I experienced Wingnuts baseball. We went to a lot of baseball games last year.
- Got a laptop for myself finally. I was too cheap to buy one before but I finally gave in. I retired the Dell Mini and got an actual, honest-to-goodness laptop. Of course, Brian got himself a new laptop too.
- Star Trek movie marathon. Yes, Brian felt that I needed to watch them all. Most of them were pretty good actually. I’ve been assimilated. I’m officially a Trekker.
- I embraced my inner rock star at Kurt-a-palooza. Brian and I played Rock Band for the very first time and had a blast. We were completely hooked.
- Brian and I got to see Miss Saigon. I’d never seen it performed before and neither had Brian. I was familiar with the story, though. Jimbo did great.
- I made it through Leadership Westar. I’m now an LW alumnus, class of 2009. Go me!
- We met Jennifer and Armando for the first time. Our family just keeps on growing and we like it that way.
- Speaking of family… as our family grows, it also shrinks. We lost three in 2009. Mama Priscilla (dad’s mother) in March, followed by Papa Osing (dad’s father) in August, and then Auntie Neneng (dad’s sister) in December. My dad has had a rough year.
- I survived paintball and managed to take some decent pictures.
- We got to experience Zoobilee for the first time. Even though we were volunteers, we still had a good time.
- Brian’s first trip to the Philippines started out a lot like his Germany trip, with him wanting to come home after the very first day. He quickly adapted though and the rest of the trip went smoothly. We (mom, dad, Brian and I) got to visit Bohol, Cebu and Negros on this trip. We all had a wonderful time.
- Pacquiao squashes Cotto. Just had to squeeze this in here. This is definitely one of the highlights of 2009 for me. I hope I can write about how Pacquiao beats Mayweather in 2010.
- We introduced Dill to racquetball and never looked back. Now racquetball is an important part of our weekly workout routine.
- New Year’s Eve at Kansas City Power & Light. I wasn’t sure whether to tack this on here because it is a 2009 event or 2010 one, depending on how you look at it. We spent that evening with Jay, Becca and Mama Dill and had a blast.
- All of the eating out and pigging out caught up with me. I peaked at my heaviest at 143 lbs and weighed the heaviest I’d ever been. To think that I was barely 100 lbs when Brian and I first met. Brian and I had an epiphany and agreed that we both needed to do something. He wanted to be at 160 lbs and I wanted to be at 110 lbs, so we both needed to lose about 30 lbs. I needed to lose 3 lbs more than he did because he was actually at 190 at this time, but since I always win against Brian I figured that the 3-lb handicap won’t hurt me. We restarted our gym membership and “The Battle of the Brubakers” was born. (Landon was actually the one who came up with a name for our contest.) We restarted our gym membership in November but we didn’t want to officially start the contest until January so we did our first contest weigh-in on the last Saturday of the year, December 26. By then Brian and I had already lost some weight. I ended the year at 131 lbs, while Brian ended at 181.
I’m pretty sure I missed a whole bunch of stuff, but these are the things I could think of off the top of my head. And to think Brian thought not much happened last year. LOL.
Related Stories
Replies to "Significant Moments of 2009"
« I’m an Optimist « this post » The Battle of the Brubakers »
The Year that Was… 2010 : Life After Marriage on January 23, 2011
[…] by now as I’ve done it for the last couple of years. Gotta love traditions! Here’s the 2009 and 2008 highlights (in case you missed them) and our relationship timeline (if you need to get […]