Where Does The Time Go?

So, I hope nobody tried the Jose Cuervo cookies. They weren't too good. Seriously though, once I shifted the lemons and strained my nuts I knew things couldn't be good.

I copied and pasted it for your amusement anyway, and I hope most of you know my sense of humor enough by now to not take certain things like that seriously.

If you don't, well then, what can I say? I hope you strained your nuts well?

So as 2008 comes to a close, it always seems we reflect back over the year on what was good and what wasn't all that good. I can't say that 2008 was all that bad, but I can't add in that it was flippin' fantastic either.

The one thing, and I mean the ONE thing, that made it uber fantastic was Ty coming home. I have since learned what military families go through during that inevitable adjustment period of learning to live together all over again, and I can say it's not fun. Not one bit. Kudos to military families that can stick it out. I'm thankful Ty isn't military because nine months of living that lifestyle was enough for me.

And yet I find myself sometimes threatening to send him back. *LOL* If only he could just turn to the left a little bit when he takes his clothes off at night and drop them into the hamper rather than letting them lay on the floor SIX INCHES from the basket.

I don't do well with that. I guess when you live with no one but yourself for nine months you begin to develop habits that only men can develop. Just like I went back to taking care of only four kids on my own, rather than five. There seems to be so much more responsibility with five kids than there are four. Or maybe it's because that fifth kid is actually a grown man. And yet I love him so.

I learned that holidays suck without your significant other, which is why the two of us stayed up all night long Christmas Eve with the anticipation of the kids getting up to open their presents on Christmas morning. He wasn't here to see it last year and couldn't wait until this Christmas. So we stayed up. All night. I'm not 18 anymore and I'm beginning to tell when I pull stupid stunts like that. But I can't blame myself for it, I did take my pills to sleep coupled with a glass of wine and was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Gotta love anxiety.

The year 2008 felt long to me and yet it seems like yesterday I was wishing Ty a Happy New Year over the phone halfway across the world. I learned what it felt like to be on the brink of insanity without him. I learned to cry with friends who had miscarriages and cry again when they found out they were pregnant again. I learned how exciting it was to send baby presents to someone I'd never met in real life, only online. I learned how good it felt to help some of those close friends in need when times got tough.

I learned that you can fight with family and be ever so pissed off at things they say and do and completely forgive them and just want life to go back to normal. I learned once again what it was like to cry for hurting family members and learn of them losing their jobs.

I learned what it felt like for my husband to lose his job, our only source of income, the week after we put an offer on the house of our dreams. The same offer we had to withdraw only days later because of it. But after that came renewed hope and a different path as we are now finding ourselves looking for a home in our hometown again. I learned that putting an offer on another house that took my breath away on New Year's Eve can either start my year out a great one or sustain my anguish for the next one we fall in love with. Only a short time will tell for that.

I learned how to handle writing for a website as a part-time job for a little extra cash can seem not so part-time after all with four kids interrupting my every thought. I learned that this whole work-at-home stuff is not it's all cracked up to be even though I love it still. I learned that my brain still works, and I can still communicate through writing for people I've never met that are willing to publish my articles online and pay me for them.

I learned that you can lose someone close to you through death and still go on, putting one foot in front of the other when that's all there's left to do. I learned that if I let it, the anger and frustration of that situation can overcome me and make me another person I don't want to be or I can deal with the hurt and mourn, no matter how long that takes, and start to accept it.

I learned that even when you can't seem to find a church and when you don't seem to be as faithful as you used to be, God still is. He's still ALWAYS right there no matter what, no matter how unworthy I am. I learned just how grateful I can be for that abundance of mercy and grace.

As this year closes and a new one starts, I hope and pray that each and every one of you have a new year full of prosperity and happiness. I pray you work at a job you love and appreciate, that you are able to keep your home and your kids are healthy. I pray that each one of you are an even bigger part of my life in 2009 than what you were in 2008.

May God pour out His blessing upon you this new year. :)