Dream: I was living with a hearing impaired man. I didn’t know sign language but it seemed like we communicated just fine. One night we were laying in bed watching TV when a Tempur-Pedic commercial and he was sold. He said he wanted to order one. I said I would rather go vacation in Cypress. He won and ordered the mattress.
So we get the bed set up and he of course sets up a wine glass on the bed and tests it out. Then we make the bed and go to sleep. That night someone breaks in the house and attacks me while we are sleeping. It was horrible because I’m flailing and screaming and my partner is sound asleep because he can’t hear me screaming or feel me flailing because the bed is so masterfully made.

What in the world does this mean?

This is my journey, and it is exciting, but I must remember to enjoy the wind in my hair, and the beauty of the world around me or else this journey will be a lonely one.

So much has happened since I last posted. I woke up the morning of my birthday and posted my 2010 blog, the last in the series… This is a quote from the post that morning.

“I can tell you that this year will be a year to remember. I have a feeling that 2010 will bring great things for my life. I have a lot of exciting projects ahead of me. In my mind I thought of 30 as this golden age that would confirm my adulthood. So now, I guess it’s time to make those grown up decisions. This is my life, this is my time. I am excited about the future. I’m excited about 2010.”

Little did I know that change was closer than I had anticipated. That day something happened that really got me thinking about my future, more so than I had been thinking about. I started thinking about the “future” as the “now” and quite honestly it really started to freak me out. After a few weeks of trying to decide which path I wanted to take the light clicked on. I was sitting at my desk in my office working on something when I overheard a conversation take place. It was about following dreams, and how these wonderful women were finally going to follow their dreams. I sat there for a while just thinking that my time is now… It’s time to follow my dreams. Little did I know that the wheels were already in motion for me to do just that. So after time and contemplation with my family I decided that now is the time. I am not married, I have no children and I have nothing to lose. So I put in my two weeks at work. I had a great several years there, but I was not being fulfilled, I was not being inspired. And even though it was one of the scariest decisions in my life I knew it was right because I felt such a peace about it all.

As for the details of these said dreams, it’s not time yet to let the proverbial cat out of the bag. The details are still gestating and already things have evolved so much in the last month I honestly have no idea how will all look in the end. But I promise you all will be the first to now.

In the meantime I’m having a blast creating! It’s been such a joy sitting at my sewing machine making fun little things. I’m planning on getting enough made to set up an esty.com shop soon, so be on the look out.

I will make sure I keep this more up to date as I go along, I just needed a break after “30 Years in 30 Days.”

I don’t have a lot to report on so far in 2010… It’s only about 6 weeks in. Other than getting a love letter from a maximum security prisoner in Florida, not much has happened. But I can tell you that this year will be a year to remember. I have a feeling that 2010 will bring great things for my life. I have a lot of exciting projects ahead of me. In my mind I thought of 30 as this golden age that would confirm my adulthood. So now, I guess it’s time to make those grown up decisions. This is my life, this is my time. I am excited about the future. I’m excited about 2010. I’m excited to see what the next 30 years will bring. I’ll make a commitment to blog about the next 30 years in “30 Years in 30 Days: Vol. 2″ when I turn 60. So be ready!

Thank you all for taking this journey with me. It has been a lot of fun to remember all the things that have happened in my life to make me who I am today. Happy Birthday to me!

Tonight I will be celebrating with my wonderful family. We are having a delicious gumbo dinner that I cannot wait to eat. A few days ago Evie called me and told me Sam had a question… He asked if we could have my birthday party be a costume party. He loved dressing up in his super hero or pirate costumes, so I of course said yes. So tonight I will celebrate with my family in a pirate’s outfit. I can’t wait! I’ll be sure to post some pictures later on.

Thank you again for tagging along on this journey!

I had decided in order to save money I would to the demo myself and then have someone come in and lay the new wood flooring down. Well I go and rent a tile hammer and told the nice fellow that I will have it back tomorrow. I thought it would be a one night event. Boy was I wrong! After one night I had one quadrant of my breakfast room done… This was going to take forever! My boyfriend was flying in from Houston in two days for a visit, so I had to get it done in time. I didn’t want him to have to worry about helping. Well I get the house cleared… He flies in for the weekend. I acted like a child and I ended the relationship, Monday came around and the floors were being laid. I gave a lady at my vet’s office my Labradoodle Layla… She was the driving factor of removing the carpets. She didn’t like to go to the bathroom outside when she could go in the house. And I asked Micah to find a new home. I was CLEANING HOUSE! I can say that all but one of those decisions was a wise decision. Regardless, I had a light load. A house with new floors… new carpets… a new bedroom suit… A dog that loved me and loved to go to the bathroom outside… And best of all my house, ALL to myself!

So the fundraiser came and went without issue… Now I finally got to enjoy my new clean life. It was charming.

This summer I got to really enjoy myself in Alaska with my family. It was a wonderful week that brought such peace and much needed serenity. I think I read about 5 different books, I hung out on the balcony most of the time, watching the gorgeous scenery go by as I read fabulous books. It was wonderful, it might have been the most I’ve ever enjoyed Alaska. Great time!

So 2009 was an eventful year. At least I had an eventful 2 weeks of the year.

Busting up Tile

After realizing this wasn't a "quick" job!

New Floors!

Living Room!

Mi Familia

But most importantly our family “officially” grew on 06-07-08. Jeffery Paul Hutsell married Beverly Amelia Houston… My sweet baby sister became a wife! It was probably one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to. It helped me out too… My mom and Amelia got to plan this massive event so I was off the hook… My mom got her fill on a big wedding, so I can now have my teeny tiny wedding without a fuss. We had family and friends come in from all over to celebrate this beautiful day. There might have been a tiny bit of drama before the ceremony… Millie and I were late with getting our hair done so we had to rush to get dressed. Everyone else was at the church and already ready, so they were all helping Millie get in to her absolutely stunning wedding gown and I went to get in my bridesmaid dress. The big problem happened with my zipper. It got stuck and wouldn’t go over this satin sashing… I felt bad because I’m pretty sure I might have said a few expletives inside a church, but finally after a ton of struggle my Aunt Elaine got the kink worked out… Phew. Seriously we were down to the wire. And so we walked in to the church and as I walking up the steps to my spot as the maid of honor, I tripped on my dress and fell up the stairs. I got my balance and then stepped on my dress AGAIN! and tripped up the next step. I still am telling myself that no one saw because they had all turned back around to watch for Amelia… So she walked in and all embarrassment faded, she was stunning and Jeff was smitten. All went well… I loved that day.

I also met the handsome Turk in 2008… But we all know how that ended, so I’ll not write much more about that. But I’ll leave a picture for old time sake.

the big day

The Bridesmaids

The first night we met.

So this year I got to experience an awesome trip. A friend of the family through my parent’s church was taking a trip to Nicaragua to set up medical tents in a small village to work for a week. I had the wonderful opportunity to join Dr. Anderson and his wonderful wife Linda on this trip. We had doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists all going. Linda and I set up the kids tents and worked with kids that week. It was so wonderful! I slept in a tent out in this soccer field and every night after being exhausted from the kids, the heat and dehydration I would curl up in my sleeping bag and read for about an hour and fall asleep to wake up with this pig snorting loudly trying to get in to my space. Luckily he didn’t make it, however some other creature did make his way in to my tent and me. A few days after returning home I became so sick and I went to the urgent care clinic where they sent me directly to the ER. It was my first and hopefully last time in an ambulance. That was a bit dramatic but the doctor said they’ll process me much faster if I go that way. So after they admitted me and did tests we found out I brought home a nice little parasite for a souviener. Oh joy. So I stayed a few nights in there until it had passed. The pain was awful and I found out the first night I had a morphine allergy. My blood pressure dropped so low because of it. At least they found that out when I was being monitored. Anyhow, it was another battle scar I could add to the collection. And no matter the pain and inconvienence I would have done it all over again to have that awesome week with the anderson’s in Nicaragua.

April 9th this year someone so special was born. Sweet Lily Grace graced us with her presence at 8:01pm. She entered this would without the drama that Sam entered it, thank goodness. She was 6lbs 11oz. and 19in long. I’ll be honest with you I didn’t think I would be able to love another kid as much as I loved Sam, but the minute I held that little girl I was proved wrong. I immediately loved her with all my heart! She is so precious. And let me tell you this girl has more personality in her little pinky that most kids have all together. I love this girl!

We took a family vacation that summer to San Diego. It was such a special trip because it had been planned around an event we will all remember. Jeff had worked out the details and we all had to work with him to help him surprise Amelia, who is impossible to surprise, with an amazingly romantic proposal. She was surprised! The hotel had set up a wonderful dinner on a private patio and he asked and she said yes and we all celebrated! It was a wondeful evening!

That fall my parents were in New York on business and I was on the phone with my dad and he was telling me about their meeting they were leaving for that day in Calgary. As always I expressed my wishes to be with him on one of his fun trips and he said, “Let me call you right back.” Well about 15 minutes later he and my mom call back and say be at the airport at 3pm, we just emailed your itinerary. I was shocked because I’m pretty sure as soon as I could say it I was asking my dad if I could go with him on trips, so probably 25 years of asking finally paid off. I left tulsa and met my parents on out connecting flights and we were in Canada. My dad had meeting all the next day so my mom and spent the day shopping and next day we drove to Edmonton and did some more shopping while my dad was in meetings. Then once he was done meeting we headed off to Banff National Park. Oh my… I was in heaven. This was God’s country. Seriously I’ve never seen anything so spectacular. (I know I’ve said this before…) We stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise and Fairmont in Banff… It’s like they built these castles in the middle of Canada. The hotels themselves were stunning and history of them was equally as interesting because of the Canadian railroad connection. It was truly a week to remember. When you are not an only child times like these are so special… Maybe that’s because I have middle child syndrome, but I’d bet Bevan and Amelia would say the same thing.

2007 was a fun year of three wonderful trips a new house and best of all a brand new niece!

Sweet Maria and me in Nicaragua

With my parents in Banff

Sweet Lily

President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 300 million

Federal spending: $14,074 billion
Federal debt: $9,229 billion
Unemployment: 4.6%

No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2007: Irreplaceable by Beyonce

Nobel Prize for Literature: Doris Lessing (U.K.)

Random Facts:

• Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, experiences its first snowfall in 89 years.
• Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union, bringing the number of member nations to 27.
• Jerry Falwell dies. (I didn’t know this until right now.)

Miranda and I decided this to give internet dating a try. This was round 1, round 2 came this year. You can reference some old blog posts of mine to hear how the second round worked out for me. The first round wasn’t very successful either. One date in particular a guy drove up from Norman. He brought his friend with him and I brought Miranda. Miranda and I met them at a sushi restaurant I’m pretty sure even before the food got there both guys were drunk! The guy there for me was gawking at Miranda the whole time. We decided we go to the Elm Street Pub after dinner. And things got much worse. These fellows became so obnoxious that people kept looking at our table… Now, I’m not one that gets obnoxious in public, I don’t like loud people so being at a table with the loud people was horrible… We ended up dropping them off at their hotel and then they got really offended that we didn’t want to hang out longer. Ugh. So, the next day I get a call from this guy when I am getting ready for work asking for me to come pick them up and drop them off at their car. So I did, I mean, what would Jesus do, right? Neither guy said one word from the hotel to the car except for, “Wow, you go to church? I’m so sorry.” I dropped them off and never answered an email or phone call from him again.

That summer my parents took the entire family on another Alaskan cruise. This was Sam’s first cruise! My mom’s two sisters and their husbands and her brother and his wife and my cousin and Bevan, Evie & Sam and Millie & Jeff. It was such a great trip. This was my first trip to Taku Glacier Lodge. I cannot explain how much I love this place. As soon as I stepped on the plane in Juneau and flew over the Juneau Ice Fields I knew I was in love. Then when we landed on a lake in front of a gorgeous glacier and stepped off on towards this charming lodge, I knew that one this would be the place where I would get married. It hasn’t lost its charm either… This summer I went back and I am still as in love with now as I was when I first saw it. Please go and have a fabulous salmon bake there if you are in Juneau. You won’t regret it.

The Crew leaving Seattle

Sam in Alaska... I LOVE this picture!

Miranda, Michelle & me at Miranda's new house

President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 300 million

No Economic Info

No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2006: Check On It by Beyonce featuring Slim Thug

Nobel Prize for Literature: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) (One of my favorite authors)

Random Facts:

• New Horizons spacecraft is launched. It will travel three billion miles over nine years to study Pluto’s atmosphere and surface.
• The International Astronomical Union votes to redefine the solar system, and Pluto loses its status as a planet. It is reclassified as a dwarf planet. (This broke my heart…)
• Saddam Hussein dies.

But most importantly this year the love of my life was born. Sweet Samuel Douglas Houston made a surprise appearance August 10th. He and Evie gave us quite a scare though. I’ll never forget that phone call the morning Evie went in to the hospital. We were all excited because this was the first grandbaby… my first time to be an aunt. We were all so thrilled. Evie had HELLPS Syndrome and her blood pressure was through the roof. HELLPS is a combination of three things, blood pressure, kidneys and liver problems. There are risks of seizure and stroke and kidney and liver failure. So they did an emergency C-section 6 weeks before her due date. After Sam was born Evie’s health started improving and thankfully she had no lasting problems from it like many can have. Now since Sam was born so early he didn’t have time to finish developing his lungs. He was in the NICU because of his lung problems and low birth weight of 3lbs 7oz and he was 16in long. After a week in the NICU they discovered he had a valve in his heart that never closed. So at one week old he had his sweet little heart operated on. But praise the Lord he everything worked out great. He was in the NICU for 5 weeks and then they were finally able to bring him home. He had more prescriptions and monitors than I could imagine, but he was a healthy baby!  Poor Evie though became a recluse because he couldn’t go in public for 8 months until RSV season was over. I think she probably hugely relieved when April came around and she could rejoin the land of the living. 2005 was a hallmark year, Sam Houston was born and he quite possibly might be the coolest kid in the entire world.

I moved back to Tulsa late that fall. Decided to move on from OKC and work towards something new.

Matt & I in Santa Fe for a friends wedding

The first time to meet my LOVE Sam!!

Mommy & Daddy with Sam 20 days old.

President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 296 million

No Economic Information

No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2005: Let Me Love You by Mario

Nobel Prize for Literature: Harold Pinter (United Kingdom)

Random Facts:

• Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. Americans are shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all levels of government are in its aftermath.
• The Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of an emotionally charged battle in Congress.
• Millions of Iraqi voters ratify a new constitution.

It wasn’t too long after living there that I met Michelle & Julie. They were our neighbors and still today Michelle is one of my best friends. I’ve been so lucky to find such amazing friends in my life. Michelle is a special gal and from day 1 I knew we’d be friends forever. Now I get to see her in the role of a wife and a mommy, which is completely different than the Michelle I met. We spent our time stalking boys, drinking wine, and playing with the dog beasts that live with her. One time we devised the most brilliant plan in order to meet this boy who was a graduate student in Ecology in one of my classes at OU… It was fabulous and I am not going to go in to details because 2004 was a really busy year! But I will commit to devoting an entire blog post to the boy from Brazil!

So through working at Journey I had the opportunity to go on two fabulous trips that year. I spent a week in Cancun, Mexico… But not the Cancun of girls gone wild, the actual city. I worked at a mission there that supplied help to the community. It was an amazing trip, the kids were wonderful and the folks that I went with were great too. I couldn’t imagine a better trip, that was until I went to Mozambique that summer. That trip to Mozambique was absolutely amazing. I stayed onsite at an orphanage the time we were there, except for a few nights that we spent in tents in the bush. The children at the orphanage were unlike any children I’d been around before. They had seen and been affected by things that no child should ever experience but they had so much joy. I assure you that a day has not gone by since my time in Africa when I haven’t thought about those kids. It was a fabulous summer. I went with a small group of people and our lives will always be tied together because of that trip. I still love to keep in contact and hear how they are all doing today. A special friendship formed from that trip with my friend Abbie. And I have a feeling that one day we might go back there together. (What do you think Abbie? Or should I ask Colin?) On our way to the bush my group was taken off a bus and thrown in jail… It might be one of the more exciting stories I have. It was horribly scary but they let us go in the end. So all was good, and I came home with a fabulous story from it!

I ended the year with a trip to Austria to go and visit Kelly. I met them the day after Christmas at a ski lodge that her boyfriend’s family had rented for the past 30 years. It was amazing, except for the fact that I got the flu and I can’t ski. Little kids were flying past Kelly and me and laughing at us. I fell more than I stood up and finally we called it quits. That when I found out we were supposed to sled home. Now being from Texas and Oklahoma sledding to me was something you did on a hill. I had no idea that you can control a sled and have it lead you somewhere. But we did, we also sled down a huge hill that had a fence at the bottom of it and had no other way out but to climb back up the hill which was really steep and covered in at least 2 feet of snow. It took what seemed like hours, the sun was going down and I was pretty sure we were going to die, but we made it. We rang in the new year German style, lots of singing, lots of toasting and for me, lots of Kleenex.

2004 was a fabulous year that just might be one of my favorites of this decade.

With the kiddos in Mexico

The girls at the orphanage braided my hair. This is me with baby Sam.

I love this picture so much. This was the night after we were arrested and had made it to the bush. These ladies were amazing!

Super cold in Austria.

President: George Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 294 million

No budget information for this year… Sorry

No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2004: The Way You Move by OutKast

Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)

Random Facts:

• Scientists created two new chemical elements, named Ununtrium (Element 113) and Ununpentium (Element 115)
• Cosmologist Stephen Hawking reverses himself on his Black Hole theory and concludes that information can in fact be retrieved from black holes. DUH!
• Martha Stewart, diva of domesticity, was sentenced to five months in prison in July after being found guilty on four counts of obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators.
• Janet Jacksons nipple was revealed to all during the Super Bowl.