By Lindsay Bell-Wheeler
It’s New Year’s Eve at Spin Sucks!!
Ok, I know, it’s New Year’s Eve everywhere, but I wanted to get that keyword in there.
Whether you’re heading out to a huge sparkly party tonight, or settling in for a quiet night with loved ones, ringing in a brand new year is exciting.
People are reflecting on the year that’s just passed, and pondering what lies ahead.
Like most of us, I’m sure there have been a few bumps in the road these past few months.
Some of you have had medical scares.
Some have been in accidents.
Some have changed jobs, or struggled through less than stellar months from a business perspective.
But we don’t want to focus on anything negative today.
So, the team here at Spin Sucks decided to regale you with some of the amazing-ness that happened this year, to each of us.
Let’s begin!
The Spin Sucks Team and the Best Year Ever!
What a roller coaster of a year 2014 has been. After putting some deep thought into the year, there have been some great things that have happened to me. I got a big promotion, which means I ams lowly working my way to one day bossing my bosses. I am sure they are on board!
I also became newly single. I now get to spend my time enjoying life, spending quality time with friends, and taking my children (my two Boston terriers) on walks.
So if you are ever free for a nice glass of wine let me know as I turn this blog into my personal dating website. Gini Dietrich will pass along your information to me. Thanks Gini!
I hope you all have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday!
This was a very eventful year for the Hackman family. We sold our house, moved to a new community, and took a roughly month long RV trip around the Southwest USA.
It’s hard to say what the absolute highlight of the year was. Perhaps some of the worst news that ended well would be the most worth sharing. You see when we went to store our RV at the end of our adventure we discovered a water leak.
As luck would have it, it was a bad leak from the shower that resulted in water damage and mold. I felt the RV was essentially ruined so I pleaded my case to the Newmar Corporation and they agreed they should buy it back from us.
This not only made me very happy it also gave me great confidence that there are businesses out there that really do the right thing.
It’s been a tough year. 2014 has tried my willpower in a lot of ways, and I’ve learned a lot about limits and how far I can push them. After developing sciatica in the first half of the year and then shingles in September, my body has found some very interesting ways of telling me what I can and cannot do!
As a result, I’ve re-prioritized things and put personal wellness at the top of the list.
Gini has been a huge inspiration for me as I’ve seen how much she protects her workout schedule. Not only is it a time for her to tone that hot bod, but it also gives her the much-needed brain break where she can be alone with her thoughts.
I can only imagine how many brilliant ideas have come from her bike rides! For me, it has meant finding new things that I actually like to do. Things that both make me sweat and shift my focus away from work-work-work all the time.
Those of us who do live to work can relate—especially those of us that work in service-based businesses. The reality is that we are our business. And if we aren’t our best, then we can’t provide great work for our clients.
I’m proud that I’ve been able to make personal wellness a priority and found some awesomely fun ways to get more sleep and move more without sacrificing work time.
Plus—not surprisingly, I suppose—the stronger I get, the more productive I am with my time. So, even though I’ve had to find the time to devote to sleeping more and working out more, it’s meant fewer physical work hours. Imagine that?
It seems like most people I know are ready to say goodbye to 2014. I certainly am. In a don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out kind of way.
This year, I’ve had my struggles. But more than that, it’s been a year full of promise. I mean, I got hired to work for Arment Dietrich this year. Talk about promising!
There’s also been the literal kind of promises: My partner and I promised to hang out together until one of us dies! I now have much fancier jewelry.
And, of course, many of you also know 2014 also brought me one life-altering, holy-cow-here-we-go, miracle-of-life promise: Our first baby’s a-coming! News like that can make all matter of inconvenience, struggle, and stress seem like small potatoes. Or at the very least, make the struggles seem like a part of the cycle.
So, while I hunker down and do my best to prepare for a promising 2015, I wish all of you that same kind of life-affirming perspective. Maybe your perspective won’t come in a diaper, and hopefully it won’t be accompanied by quite as much sleeplessness.
2014 was no doubt fueled with endless Petro-Powered adventures, including a journey to explore the great Northeast {Note from Lindsay: Canada SOUTH!!} and shower the people of Maine with my presence (YAY people of Maine…go you!).
Upon moving to Maine I became an expert iPhone photographer and started taking pictures of, well, everything. I learned this whole photography thing isn’t that hard when you live in a place that looks like a fairy tale painting.
I’ve explored my new, beautiful state by land and sea–built fairy houses, climbed trees, played in the snow, hiked my way up a few mini-mountains (like this one and this one), posed in front of a lot of beautiful scenes, posed some more, really…ok, 2014 was mostly me posing.
We’re simple folk. I know, that sounds like something right out of The Grapes of Wrath, but it’s true. My best things from 2014 are pretty basic. I managed to stay employed, at the best job ever. Somehow, even though Gini fires me practically every day, she ends up hiring me right back again (what’s up with that?). Silly Gini.
My husband and I managed a seven day getaway to Mexico in April—our first trip in seven years. It was heavenly, and sorely needed after the insanity of last winter and the whole Polar Votex thing.
And, this sounds weird, but we revamped our trailer trash/mud pit/large dog destroyed tiny back yard, installing tiered decking over the entire thing. I love being outside on my back deck—and now I can practically LIVE outside, for three seasons at least, weather permitting. It’s truly made me deliriously happy. See above regarding simple folk.
Otherwise, we’ve all stayed relatively healthy, and no one died. All in all, a banner year! So, from my family to yours, stay safe tonight, and have a happy and prosperous new year.
What a crazy year this has been! I’d be lying if I didn’t say I cannot wait for it to end. In fact, this last month has been a literal countdown to tomorrow.
A year ago, I found a lump in my breast and was rushed in for a biopsy. On my mom’s birthday (January 14), I learned it was benign (talk about going on a severe adrenaline rush), but that I had to begin my annual mammograms. Yippee!
That very same day, Mr. D and I had a pretty big personal change, which I cannot wait to share with you sometime this year (fingers crossed).
For the first time ever, I did not crash my bicycle once. I didn’t even get pulled over for speeding on it (maybe I’m slowing down…or just better at not getting caught).
We got new plumbing at home, which now allows us the ability to take a shower, run the dishwasher, and have a load of laundry going all at once! But it also killed my grass when a three-day project took four months. For four months, there was a large pile of dirt on our front lawn that made Lindsay’s trailer trash/mud pit backyard look like the Four Seasons.
During that time, I also got new appliances and a new Wolf range, which I have been coveting for a good 15 years (it takes a long time to save for something like that!). With the Wolf came a new freezer, which Jack Bauer has figured out how to open.
And so, every time we leave the house, we have to padlock the freezer closed (which, by-the-way, he has eaten through twice) and pile all of the dining room chairs and kitchen stools in front of so he cannot get into it.
It took us several times of his eating everything in the freezer to figure this out.
And Santa got me confused with someone else. Instead of bringing me the snow I asked for, he brought me bronchitis turned pneumonia (guess I needed the break from work).
It’s been a definite year of ups and downs, which means 2015 can only get better.
Happy, happy new year to every single one of you!