New Year, New Start

Happy New Year everyone!! We hope you all had a fun and safe New Year's Eve!

We went to Josh and Anna's house (Bobby's best friend and his wife). We've been going over there the last 4 years, since they've had their townhouse. The usual suspects were there, and we had lots of good food and drinks to ring in the new year! We had a great time!

Now that it's the new year.... we're starting some new challenges. Bobby starts back to school tomorrow. He will be going to St. Mary's University in Minneapolis for his Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. He's taking 2 classes this semester, while still working full time at South Metro Human Services. We don't know how it's going to go with school and work, so he's starting small with just 2 classes. If it goes well, he'll probably keep doing 2 classes each semester and just take an extra year to finish the program. OR he always has the option to take summer classes. He will go straight through until April 16, the day before his big 25th birthday! No spring break, just class all the way until April.

I have taken on some new responsibilities at Sorenson as well. I was welcomed on board to the mentoring team. That basically means that when new interpreters start at VRS and they're in the 2 month training program, I mentor them. I give them support while they learn the ropes and eventually take calls on their own. There's a team of about 15 of us so it'll be a fun new experience for me at work. I also interpreted the Christmas Eve service at my church, and have been thinking about proposing that I be a regular fixture in that position. My parents have been struggling a bit with their church and don't know that they'll have a place to worship every single week. It's just a thought I've been having. I haven't actually said anyting to the church about it. But when I was doing confirmation there and my parents would come to worship once in a while, and while I was involved in high school ministry, they had an interpreter there. Over time, there were no more Deaf congregation members, so they let the interpreter go. I do enjoy religious interpreting and wouldn't mind doing it again at my own church on an occasional basis. I also LOVE singing in the choir, so it would be hard NOT to do that every Sunday. Again, just something I've been thinking about, who knows if I'll act on it. And I'm still teaching confirmation to 6th grade girls. They get more and more fun every week and it's something I really do enjoy doing.

As far as the two of us.... we just finally bought a new mattress!! We've been using Bobby's old full-sized mattress and now we have a queen! YAY!! This year we will be taking a trip with Pat and Kara to the East Coast to visit family in May. Then this summer we hope to get up to my family's cabin a lot more than before. We usually just go on July 4th weekend, but hopefully we'll get up there once or twice more this year. I also am hoping to see my college roommates someway, somehow this year. We had originally planned a trip to Vegas for this spring, but since Bobby doesn't get a spring break, we're not sure about that. I've been wanting to get back out to Washington, so we'll see about that!

Here's wishing you all a fantastic 2009!!