Highs and Lows of 2013

Even though I said I wouldn't be updating this blog unless I had something drastic to report, it's been my custom to include somewhat of a year end review. This one will be fairly brief, but I am looking to make 2014 an exceptional year. As indicated in my last post, major changes do need to happen with me physically and spiritually, and I am determined (with God's help) to make those happen. 2013 got off to a rocky start with the sudden and very unexpected passing of my all-time favorite guinea pig, Connor, the previous Dec. 30, and the year never quite got back on track.

Several weeks after we lost Connor, I was surprised and delighted when my best friend from 7th-8th grade friended me on Facebook in Feb., and we proceeded to share many fun memories over the next several months. I thought we would be back in touch to stay. But she was dissatisfied with my foggy recollection of many of those memories (most of which were 40+ years in the past) and the amount of time I was able to spend in touch with her, largely due to my job. So it did turn out to be what is referred to as a "toxic relationship". Though I am glad to know she (like me) is still married to the same man, involved (like me) in the Lutheran church, and a yarn crafter (like me, except her craft is knitting) and I will always wish her well, I sadly realized that in this case, it appears that the past needs to remain in the past.

The high points of the year were the milestone 12th birthday of our dog Archie on Dec. 11th (our first dog to reach that age), my 3-day trip to Portland, my acquisition of a lovely silver 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser ("Cassie"), getting into "The Pioneer Woman" (Ree Drummond) just a couple of weeks ago and looking forward to enjoying more of her new-to-me TV shows and books, and - after still more church hopping - again landing back at the small Lutheran church I keep coming back to, hopefully this time to stay. The other low points (other than again losing my friend from the past) were the passing of another sweet guinea pig, Patches, on Christmas Eve (so now we only have one left, "Pudding") and "achieving" a new all-time high weight, albeit by only about 2 lbs. Despite my almost overwhelming desire to travel (having had to postpone my Alaskan cruise last Sept.), I feel I again need to postpone that for another year (except for local trips in Washington and maybe Oregon) to work on getting in shape physically, developing a closer relationship with God and my church, and paying down some of my debt. Then hopefully at this time next year, I can revisit my dreams of seeing a Nascar race or even certain cities in Europe.

I'll continue to update my crochet blog at teri360.blogspot.com (overdue but will shoot for this weekend) and will report back here with any updates later in 2014. Here's hoping all who read this have the best year yet.