December 23, 2007 by veronica.

We hope this letter finds you doing well and enjoying the holidays.

We are preparing to start 2008 in no way connected to where we were a year ago.

Chris spent most of the year working as a contractor at IBM. He had been handling repairs and upgrades of servers and systems for their Websphere group. He had friends who worked in his area and enjoyed his coworkers. However, in November he accepted a position with US Bank in Minneapolis, and started there at the beginning of December. He is not enjoying the commute, but we hope to be able to move up soon and cut down his drive time. Fortunately, he really likes his job and the team he is now with.

I made many job changes this year. I just found out that a long year of studying and working had paid off, and I am now a Lamaze-certified childbirth instructor. In August, I found out I passed certification to become a certified doula, and way back in April I studied my little tail off and passed the Series 7 exam with flying colors. I think I am done studying for at least a few more months and may hold off on adding more letters after my name for at least awhile. I had been working as an assistant to a team of financial associates with Thrivent, but I felt so pulled by the doula and educator business, I decided to leave investments and pursue starting my own business and teaching my own classes. I worked full time at the day care I worked at back when Chris and I got married until October. However, plans always change, and I started teaching classes at Olmsted Medical Center in September. I am officially .2, but it’s a very flexible job with great coworkers. I just finished teaching my first childbirth series on my own, and I am looking to teaching and being a doula for many years to come!

We did have some setbacks this year, though. In August, our basement flooded (along with a good chunk of houses in SE MN), and we had to gut the entire thing. We came home late one night to water coming in under the oh-so-ugly paneling. Chris and I pulled carpet until 2:30 am, which helped, but there was still a lot to clean up once the rain stopped. We have been doing work on it every free moment we’ve got, and it will be so much better. Too bad we have to leave! We are hoping to finish it up before Mid-January so we can sell the house and get moving.

Lily has had a fantastic year! She has really blossomed into a very fun, intelligent kid. She loves drawing and coloring, and likes to play with all of her dolls and pretend to cook for us. We were able to take her to Disney World in November; she dragged 6 adults around the parks in her endless pursuit of Cinderella. Even when she came down with the croup, she was only sidelined for a day or so. We are already looking forward to planning our next vacation with her!

We have been blessed this year, and it is exciting to think what the new job changes will bring and where we will be living this time next year. Have a wonderful Christmas, and a happy New Year.

Love,
Chris, Veronica, and Lily Jacobsen

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December 15, 2007 by veronica.

My sister Anna is so cool. She will be spending Christmas in Colorado, but to make up for mot seeing us, she sent me a set of doctored pictures that she took from various places. I guess the inspiration is a website called icanhascheezburger.com. So I’ll just put her renditions up. Enjoy!

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December 14, 2007 by veronica.

Tonight, I cried because the sink was full of dishes, and the dishwasher was full of dishes, and I had just washed dishes once already today.

As is my usual refrain, life has been pretty stressful. Yes, I know I was on vacation, and we had a lovely time. Yes, We had Thanksgiving the week after we got back. And yes, I should not theoretically be working as much as I used to (although that’s not true).

BUT….
Chris got a new job. In Minneapolis. So he’s commuting and he’s gone for a very long time each day and I’ve been teaching a lot and working 13 hour days and we had this (albeit very beautiful) wedding to go to and drive 2 cars and I had to take Lily up to the Cities myself and find this hotel….And there’s all this snow and it wouldn’t stop and I kept having to drive in the stuff…

Very Stressful.

We’ll be moving, just as soon as we can reconstruct our once-completely destroyed basement and make it beautiful. Until then, there’s so much schedule- juggling and it’s completely insane and I’m going insane from the stress. To make matters worse, Chris doesn’t have too much time for Christmas preparations so I’m doing it and, in general, I don’t really like Christmas all that much.

I know, poor me (sarcastic!), but OH MY GOD I had to get it off my chest. And yes I know I’ve been a really REALLY crappy friend and sister and whatnot, but at least I’ve been a decent mother…so there.

OK, I feel better.

Oh, and I passed the Lamaze exam. I’m an LCCE. Can you imagine how I would have felt if I failed? =)

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