Wow, Its 2011....

2010 flew by in the blink of an eye....a fabulous new relationship that is moving quickly ahead, a new house, a new car, challenges and changes at work, new opportunities in my profession, my sister graduating college, camping trips, a few weddings, family introductions, short getaways....sooo many things that made the year fly by....

2011 already looks to be much of the same. We have trips planned in May, June, July, August, September and October. We have family coming to stay in February (two groups of people!) Possibly Christmas in Phoenix this year. My sister's wedding is also this year, and I plan to also start school as well. We will be going to Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, California and sticking around Arizona.

We begin our training for our half marathon in May...we have training plan all put together already for the next 5 months and will be running in Northern Arizona in our first half marathon, then heading to the beaches to show off our skinny selves! We're also planning an overnight camping trip to the Grand Canyon, provided its stops getting flooded out this year!

After finishing my last book of 2010, I realized that my total pages read was WAY below what I had intended to read, and what I NORMALLY read. While I know I was distracted, and working on textbook reviews instead, I am at HALF what I usually read per year. This year, I found lots of books that just couldn't catch my attention, and so to the swap pile they went, and I moved on to the next one in the TBR pile. I still have 3 textbooks to review this coming year, and I'm sure more will make it my way. I did complete 3 of the 6 book challenges I attempted this year, Including the Back to School Challenge, the Women Writers of the 18th and 19th Century Challenge, and the Chunkster Challenge. I only completed 24 books, and attempted another 11. I read 27 new authors, and reread 5.

This year, I only plan on attempting 4 Challenges: the Wordsworth Classics Challenge, Page to Screen Challenge, International Challenge, and the Dewey Decimal Challenge. I am keeping it simple this year knowing we have lots of plans, and this year I am also going to be working on my Emergency and Critical Care specialty certification. This specialist certification is a HUGE deal, and will afford me a whole slew of opportunities including more article writing, textbook chapter authoring and lecturing. It also will open doors to more job opportunities and more pay (someday). this application process will take me all year.....bahhhh! So much more to read, write and study to even see if I will be ALLOWED to sit for the exam in 2012.

And now I look forward to 2011 in the hopes that it surpasses all previous odd numbered years. I am an even numbered girl, so it is with sadness that I say goodbye to 2010...one of the best years I have ever had. Here's to 2011!!