Girl Named Optimistic

Well, it's the first day of 2012! 2011 was a pretty good year overall, but not my best. Didn't get the promotion at work and things have been rough since. 2012 is already promising to be better, I can't announce anything until Tuesday, but new opportunities have been presented and I'm very excited!

Pete passed the first two parts of his CPA exam in 2011, and will pass the rest in 2012! This will allow him to really grow Priority Tax Solutions in the coming years. I'm so proud of him for all the hard work he's put into his business and getting his CPA.  


I started running in 2011, completed 4 5K's and lost 20 pounds. I can't wait to see what PR's 2012 will bring me, and what fun races and fitness levels I will reach - hopefully more weight loss!

Our basement is SO close to being finished, after 2.5 years of hard work and a lot of money. It will be so exciting to have double the space to use as living space - another bathroom, two more bedrooms, an office, a storage area, a bar, a living room... I just can't imagine! 

Now that we are finished having kids, we can really enjoy Kylie and Claire and take them to do fun things, and watch them grow up. I can't believe that Kylie will be starting school in a year and a half! We are planning on putting her in preschool a couple days a week next fall to get her ready, although she's already breezing through her Kindergarten workbooks!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my week off from work (technically 10 days) and enjoyed spending time with friends and family. One more day left until back to work! I am just so optimistic about 2012, we called 2011 "The year of the Edwards" and we're calling 2012 "The year of the positive changes" and I know it will live up to it's name. 

I have learned so much this year  - humility, patience, grace under fire, class, compassion, sympathy, how to handle stress, multi-tasking, and a lot of new emotions!  I've learned who my true friends are, and who I can count on to be there and who doesn't care about me as much as I thought, and to be honest, I was surprised by a lot of people! I've also learned that a lot of people who I thought were acquaintances turned out to care for me a lot and think very highly of me, and have really come through for me when I needed them. I've learned a lot about myself and how I handle situations I'm presented with, and I can say I'm proud of how I've conducted myself, and I don't regret anything. I have learned that you are ultimately only responsible for yourself and how you treat people, and you can't be in charge of how others treat you, only how you react to how they treat you. Most of all I've grown closer to God this year, and I hope to continue that relationship in 2012. I appreciate 2011 teaching me these lessons that I can take with me into the next years and grow in my personal life, professional life, and social life. I can't wait to see what 2012 is going to teach me, I know it won't all be good, but it will all be something I can learn from and I never want to stop learning. Bring it on 2012!