Hello and Update

Hello Family.
This is MiLinda touching base with everyone. Since I haven't spoken to or seen many of you in quite a few years I thought I'd start with a basic post to fill everyone in on my life. I'll just hit the main stuff and start after leaving home in Ohio for the real world.
After graduating from Ball State University in 2000 I moved up to NW Indiana and took a job with the Social Security Administration in downtown Chicago as a Claims Authorizer. I was married to Eric Morgan in 2001 and we are still married and enjoying life together. In 2004, we started our own business. Eric was working as a manager at a hobby store at the time and we decided to buy them out. So now we are the proud owners, operators, managers, clerks, janitors, etc. of Critical Effect Games in Hobart IN. Owning your own business is a tremendous amount of work and definitely has its ups and downs but after 4 years under our control things seem to be doing well.
The last couple months have seen many changes in our home and professional lives. We started a huge renovation on our house in June (new roof, windows, siding, doors, porch). We're doing all the work ourselves so needless to say 2 months later and we're still not done. But I love where it's going and look forward to the finished product. For me, work has thrown me some major changes and opportunities. In July I started a 4 month reassignment as a Management Analyst to our Financial Management department. This is great because I love handling budgets and money and reports. It has been a real learning experience. At the end of July I received an award from our Regional Commissioner (kind of like the president for our region of the country). This will look really good to help me get a promotion. And most recently I was selected for the CUB program at work. This is a 1 year developmental program that gives me a temporary promotion and allows me to try assignments at the management level to get some experience and training for the next stage in my career. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity (literally) and I'm really excited. I start my first assignment in November as an Operations Supervisor in an office to be determined but closer to home (my current commute is 4 hrs/day so anything closer is good).
I think that just about brings us up to speed. Anything else? We have no kids yet but we do have a dog (Moose) and cat (Isis). I think that's it. It's great to touch base with everyone.