Top 10 of 2011, #10-#6

2011 was a real year of transition for me in so many ways.  For me following up 2010 was difficult, as 2010 has gone down as the best year of my life, so far.  The key here is “so far” as I believe that if you are doing it right, life should get better and better.  That isn’t to say you won’t have setbacks, rather the setbacks will not be debilitating.  With the right attitude you will be able to build on them.  I certainly had my share of setbacks this past year, but I refused to do be identified with the setbacks.  Instead I think of setbacks as just setting the stage for the comebacks.  If you would like to read the highlights of the aforementioned 2010 it can be found here.  http://rickbeeman.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Jennifer gave me this idea about doing a top 10 list.  I think it’s a fabulous idea for a number of reasons.  First of all, it will be nice in a few years to look back and see what the actual highlights were.  I can go back and figure out what #1 and #2 were for say 1994 or 1998, but anything more than that is stretching it.  Keeping a list of positives is also good to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness. When things aren’t going our way, we simply look back to God’s blessings and it helps us refocus on the positives.  So let me count this down from 10 to 1 for Rick Beeman’s top 10 moments of 2011. 

#10, Tuesday night trivia.  I think this officially makes me a nerd, but I just love going to trivia.  It started at an Irish pub in Bahrain, and then transferred to an Irish Pub in Cary.  I think this gives me a tangible outlet for all the warehouse of useless information that is stored in my head.  I don’t drink, but I think the Hibernian has the best Cheeseburgers in Cary.  We win more often than we lose.  Its great fun on a Tuesday night.  This was Jennifer’s crew at first, but I took over for her once she had the baby.  Jennifer has come back once since them to introduce her old team to Sloan.  This is a picture from that.  The pub isn’t the best place for a baby unless you’re in Ireland, then I think it becomes a rite of passage. 

#9  Superbowl Party at Darren’s.  This had become a tradition for me.  My good pal Darren would throw a Superbowl Party in Bahrain for all the American expats.  We had a few other nationalities represented who mainly came to see what the big deal was all about.  Darren went all out for these parties that started around 2:00 am local time and didn’t finish up til 7:00 am or just in time for work.  I made it two of these Super Bowl Parties before I went to Dubai.  But since Dubai was only a 45 minute flight away, I made an excuse to make it back for the party.  It was a great time to see old and now lifelong friends again in Bahrain.  While I don’t miss living in Bahrain or the Middle East, I do greatly miss the people and the sense of purpose that I had while I was living there.  My sense of purpose is still here, it has just been modified somewhat.

#8 Selling a House.  Jennifer had put her house on the market in February or March thinking we were moving to Dubai…more on that below.  So at first she had it for sale by owner, then we found an agent.  There were a few people that came through to look at it, but not many.  More importantly we had zero offers.  This was quite discouraging as she was going through the latter parts of her pregnancy.  Then the day she before she was to be induced, we got the one and only offer for the house.  So here we are in the hospital room negotiating the final details of the price.  It was quite eventful and Im sure stressful, Jennifer is/was a real trooper. Which leads directly to #7

#7 Buying a House  Once we realized that we were most likely going to be selling, we had to find a place to live…quick. We had to be out of our old place in six weeks.  So here Jennifer is very pregnant with pre-eclampsia, and hours before she is to be admitted to the hospital for delivery, she is house hunting.  Again what a trooper.  She looked at 8 houses, I think but we couldn’t find the perfect house.  So the baby came (More on that later…spoiler alert…It’s #1) and the day after she was released from the hospital we are out looking for houses again.  Nothing seems to keep this girl down.  Fortunately we found an ideal house without too much more looking.  We were actually homeless in the literal sense for a couple of days between the closings.   This bigger house gives us more room for visitors and plenty of room for expansion in the children department.  It really is a lovely place and Jennifer and I feel very blessed to be in it.  Especially with the short time frame that we had to work with getting into it.  God had his hand in this entire process so that is why we weren’t stressed that much.  At least I wasn’t stressed, not so sure about Jennifer.  I found that stress and worry are amazingly counter-productive so I don’t get riled up by almost anything anymore.  Like the faithful readers of the blog will realize, I’ve been through the fire already, everything else seems like a cakewalk from here on out. 

OK…don’t want to reveal too much too soon, so #6-#1 will come next.  If you would like to leave your own highlights, they don’t have to number 10, I would be thrilled to read them.  Please leave them in the comments section.