OK, the title is a bit foreboding. "What happened in 2009 stays in 2009" I have to say that 2009 ROCKED! When I look back at my old blogpost that reflects on 2008 I realize quickly that it keeps getting better and better. We end the year with TYLER at age 13, Chloe at 11, Avery at 10, and Alexa at 9!
Family
Mrs. Vann [aka Michelle] continues to homeschool our 4 children. We all crackup everytime she has to explain that she "doesn't work" yet we all know that raising the 4 Vann kids is more than a full time job. Oh yah... She takes pretty good care of Mr. Vann as well. THAT's her 2nd fulltime job! She totally supports my travels and shares in my excitement over the fact that I have a career that is in high-demand AND that I actually love! What a blessing she is!
Tyler as a teenager is SO different from the preteen guy we used to know. With God's blessings it will only get better though. :-) He played Mr. Salt in the Belfrey JR Production of "Willy Wonka." He wore a suit WAY too big for him and acted snobby and rich. IT WAS A RIOT!
Chloe continues to excel in the Indianapolis Children's Choir. This year she sang in the Choir that backed up the Butler University orchestra for the Butler Ballet production of Nutcracker.
Avery got brace$ and i$ being a very good boy about the frequent vi$it$ and tightening of the expander. The deci$ion for brace$ wa$ made becau$e he didn't have enough room for the adult teeth coming in.
Alexa continues to grow and grow. She continues to enjoy dance lessons and is considering joining the Indianapolis Children's Choir next year. Her youthful zeal keeps the whole house young! Her love for animals has her wanting to be a vet.
The whole family has been pretty healthy this year. We had a few casts on wrists/hands. Tyler got a multi-tool for Christmas and within 30hours had 5 stitches in one finger. :-) He's fine though now.
For Christmas we all went to Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati OH. We absolutely wore ourselves out on the many water slides and pools. Mom and dad REALLY enjoyed the hot-tub!
When the snow comes to stay, we look VERY forward to using our PARK-PASS to visit Ft. Ben Park. They have a lovely sledding hill that can handle a lot of traffic.
Church
We continue to fellowship at Horizon Christian Fellowship North. With all my travels I haven't been involved in any of the ministries. I haven't played electric guitar in a worship band in over 3 years. It's been about 2 years since I ran a sound board. I pray that 2010 sees me more involved even though it will likely be in new ways.
Work
What can I say? besides.... DRUPAL DRUPAL DRUPAL DRUPAL DRUPAL!!!
Employment:
I started the year off at SlingShotSEO. We learned a great deal from each other for 5 months.
Then I returned to independent work and completed a large project with www.BrazenCareerist.com
After that I accepted a full time position with Duo Consulting inc. In Chicago. I work remotely from home and I travel to Chicago about every other week for a few days. We just launched a giant site for a 4 office law firm. It was my 1st project with DUO and the client is very pleased. I also do a lot of training at Duo; both for internal and for the community. My position is equal parts development and marketing/biz-dev. 2010 will be a blast with DUO!
Training:
This year I delivered Drupal presentations all over the country:
DrupalCamps::: in Madison WI, LosAngeles CA, Atlanta GA, Chicago IL.
The CMS Expo::: in Evanston IL
The Ohio Linux Fest::: in Columbus OH.
Do It With Drupal::: in New Orleans
This year I also delivered 6 online training sessions to recipients including University IT staff, private individuals, corporate IT staff.
For next year I'm expecting to revisit the events of 2009 AND add the SouthEast LinuxFest and DrupalCamps in Orlando FL and Nashville TN, and DrupalCon in San Francisco CA.
New Year's Prayer
Lord, I am SO thankful for 2009 being so good to my whole family. I could never count all the blessings of career, family, friends, health etc. I pray for the continued health of my family and for the success of my employer, and safety in my travels. Amen.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!