Thursday, January 5, 2012

Personal Top 10


Personal Top 10
2011 has finally made its exit. Every December and January there are all manner of top 10 lists abound in the media. There are the top 10 movies, the top 10 celebrities, the top 10 political stories, the top 10 songs, top 10 albums, there might even be a top ten of top 10 lists.  Rather than espouse my opinion on any of these subjects I simply offer up my own personal top moments of 2011. So without further delay here are my top 10 of 2011.
10) Just barely making the list at number 10 is Getting on Social Media. I had resisted Facebook for the last few years. I will admit I was tempted to jump on a few times but always felt I had better things to do with my time. This past November however I was left with little choice when we decided to open a FB page for the shop, to be an admin on this page required me to also get on the bandwagon. I dont regret it. Communicating with old friends is both interesting and fun. Its also very cool to see the pictures posted by various members of my family; some of those things may not have been easily shared or would have been easily forgotten.
I also got on twitter and began blogging. Both are interesting. Twitter as a friend said is like a big party line, the more people you follow or follow you, the bigger the party, so Im on there if you care to follow me @DonaldCreasonJr. Ive found my favorite two things on twitter are; one how rapid I can now get news both local and national very quickly; and two doing a live tweet of a movie. A live tweet is where several friends plan to watch the same movie at the exact same time. We then tweet our thoughts, comments, or adlib dialog to one another. This is a fantastic and fun way of having a movie night with your friends when you cant all get together.
Blogging has given me a fantastic outlet for my thoughts. Things I may not have written down otherwise.  I am finding that this weekly or twice weekly outlet is both sharpening my writing skills (which have been used very little lately) and has provided the platform for me to lay out both opinions and personal experiences. As my old friend Rhonda says in her blog, Blogging is cheaper than therapy and I find on some days that is definitely true even if the entry never gets posted.
9) Taking a college class occupies spot number nine on my list. This past spring I decided to see if I could hack it if I went back to school. Having never completed a degree I was also kicking around the idea of should I get one and if so, what should that be and what would I do with it.
 I signed up online and took principles of psychology class via KCTCS. I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the class though not always the time it required for me to maintain a high grade. I dont know if I will choose to continue taking classes or not. In large part this is due to the time demands and I also do not know what I would get a degree in or do with it. My job satisfaction and security are the highest theyve been in recent years, I make a decent paycheck; I have some stability and seniority since I have been in my position for so long. Im not sure Id want to give any of that up, not that Id have to with a degree, but to have a degree for the sake of having one also doesnt make a lot of sense to me.
Family Vacation at Siesta Key, Florida, July, 2011
8) Coming in at number eight is Family Vacation with the in laws, for the first time. We took a family vacation this year with my in laws. This included Sydneys parents, her sister and brother in law and their four children. I was resistant to this idea at first, I get but two weeks of total vacation time each year, and I only get what I call the major holidays off. So my r&r time is very precious to me. That being said we were able to set some sensible ground rules for the week and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I would do it again under the right circumstances and I have never seen my mother and father in law so happy.
7) Dan and Sherry moving back home to Kentucky is sitting proudly at number 7 this year. In 2003 my brother Dan and his family moved to Springfield, MO. This was both a happy and sad occasion for me. I was happy for them and the opportunity that this move represented. However I was very sad, Dan and I had always been exceptionally close, Sherry had been around since I was nine years old and both their daughters were the closest of any niece or nephew that I had at the time. They moved back to Kentucky a few years later but still lived an hour and half away in Cynthiana. This spring they were presented with an opportunity to move back to our area. They say this is the last move period, and I believe them. Im happy to have my brothers family less than two miles from my house. I look forward to all the fun times and new memories to come.
6) Number six, though it could be higher on the list is the birth of baby Micah. My baby sister and her husbands second child Micah was born just before Christmas this year. If he is anything like his older brother he will be a delight to be around. There is no better Christmas gift than a new little one in the family and I am exceedingly thankful that Micah arrived safely and is in perfect health.
5) Overall Fitness gets us halfway through the list. I talked a lot about this in a previous blog so I will simply say this. I can run 10 miles; I have competed in multiple 5k and one 10k races. I am training for the mini marathon. I can swim 2 miles, I workout 5-7 days a week. I feel great; my resting heart rate is 48 beats per minute. My blood pressure and cholesterol are the lowest theyve been in years. I am not going back to being unhealthy, ever.
4) Competing comes in at number 4. I competed in and continue to compete in races. I love to compete in a friendly environment; it gets me out of my shell, away from my comfort zone and lets me see how I stack up against others win nothing more than bragging rights or a trophy is up for grabs.  I have won my age group a couple times in some races, which is good but I plan to be better.
Competing gives me goals to set for the next race especially when I dont even place in my age group. Competing humbles me as I hear results of those who completed a race five, six, or even nine minutes ahead of me. Competing is good and I look forward to more of it next year. My first competition of the year is coming up this Saturday at Cherokee Park, the Frostbite 5k, wish me luck, or better yet come out and run or walk the course yourself!
3) Taking third is joining Southeast Christian Church. My wife had been a member and I a regular attendee when we met, we had drifted to a couple of different churches but had never settled at any one.  The drifting was a result of Sydneys family moving to a church closer to her sisters home near Bardstown. We had no family to attend church with and we werent planning to drive over an hour each week to Bardstown to do so.
We came back to Southeast along with Sydneys family last winter and joined shortly after the first of the year. It really does feel like home when we attend each week.
2) Deciding to be a parent. I covered this extensively in another blog. It comes down to this, we are trying to become parents. Even if for some reason we do not have a child biologically of our own we will eventually become parents by choice through adoption (we may eventually choose to adopt as well). Im happy with either method though obviously having one on our own might be a little more fun in the getting started phase.
1) Making the top of the list is an important one to me, getting baptized. I finally got dunked. I had been a believer for most of my life. When I was in my late teens or early 20s I had even made a commitment as an adult to follow Christ, for some reason I had just never finished things up formally and been baptized. Not being baptized is kind of like shaking hands but not putting your signature on the contract in some ways. So with my brother in law Terry doing the honors I was baptized with my niece Delaney at the end of January. This will always be one of the most memorable evenings of my life and something Delaney, Terry and I can share together forever.
2011 was an eventful year for us. I could write out more things and make this list even longer but I see no reason to do so. I hope that each of you reading this gets what you want and deserve out of the New Year as I hope I too can meet all my personal goals. Remember to enjoy life to the fullest, pursue your dreams and seek Gods wisdom in your decisions He will always guide your heart in the right direction. 
Happy New Year.

1 comment:

  1. Even though we moved 3 hours away, I am still a member at SECC. I miss that church so much! Blogging is seriously cheaper than therapy even if you don't post them. I have written some that I save as private.

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