The last day of the year. Wow, it has come and gone so fast. Is that what getting older does to a person? Makes the years fly by? I guess so. It's strange to think that every minuet we all age a bit more. Sometimes I feel as if I was 17 just moments ago, and other times it feels lifetimes ago.
2009 was a year of good and bad. Fun and not so fun. Great at times and stressful at other times. But what more could I ask for? Life is always going to be stressful at times. I pray that life will also be fun and good at times too.
I try to be a realist. Not overly pessimistic, not eagerly optimistic. I used to think myself an optimist. A person who can see the good in all. But realistically, I'm not no matter how bad I'd like to be. Realism is not always fun, but on the flip side, not always bad either. So, in order to sum up my 2009 year...I will try to be real. Bad stuff, good stuff...it all happened. I'm not complaining either way. :)
To be honest, it's hard sometimes to remember the really great things that happened when you try to think back over a year. Good things usually come in little packages, bad things come in those huge boxes. But when you get one of those little packages, I try to cherish it. One of those came as a few words spoken by a doctor this past year. Dr. Peterson, a Mayo clinic pediatric neurologist called Wyatt a "miracle boy". I don't think he meant it in any GRAND capacity, but it was grand to me. Wyatt hasnt had any reflexes in his legs or feet since he was three years old, and this year out of the blue, they appeared. Once the doctor found a reflex in Wyatt's leg he fluffed our then 7 year old boy's head and said in his Aulstrailian accent, "Well, your just a little miracle boy, eh Wyatt?" We walked out of that office with smiles on all of our faces. Future Wyatt has a long road ahead of him, we are looking into surgery....not an uncommon thing for a kid with Wyatt's disease to have. It would possibly eliminate the need for his leg braces for maybe 5 years. Paul and I have yet to decide if the end is worth the means. (is that how that saying goes?) Anyway, our boy would love to be more active and having the surgery would ensure his ability to do things he is interested in doing, but the surgery itself is very major with a long healing process and it isn't a long lasting thing. AS he grows, his need for another surgery would also be necessary. So as you can imagine, prayer and much thought goes into all of it.
On the flip side of life, the negative if you will. My Dad was in a horrible car accident this year and only survived by the grace of God. Literal. Life is not easy for my parents, and has proved to be especially hard on my Dad. You see he has been married to a bi-polar schizophrenic for over 40 years and in my opinion, that can wear a guy out. Sometimes we make bad choices. All of us do it. But Dad's choice led to a night in the ICU at the University of Iowa hospital and also gave him the title of being the only person ever to be discharged from that hospital directly from the ICU unit. They scanned him over and over, and only found superficial injuries. He doesn't always recognize it, but I know without a doubt that God isn't finished with him yet. He was spared for a reason, and I thank God that he did spare him.
My mom is now living in a facility that keeps her safe and ensures she stays on her medications. It's hard having her there, I don't see her or talk to her as often as we would both like, but it is good for her to be in an environment where she can totally be herself and not have to hide her delusions and abnormal thinking.
Lets see, what else this year? Oh, one of my favorite things this year was seeing my niece, Megan, get married to a wonderful man. Even more exciting for me what that out of all the wonderful people in her life, she choose me to be her Matron of honor. It was a title that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Megan has always been more of a little sister to me than a niece and we have a bond that I thank God for. It was a beautiful wedding and my entire family came together for that one day. It was nice.
We took a little journey down to Tennessee this year as well. That was fun. Paul's sister lives in a town just south of Nashville and we had a great time with her and her family as well as Paul's parents. We got to visit the Opryland Hotel, the Nashville Zoo, and to be honest, my favorite thing....the pool in their housing development. ha ha! Beautiful hot sun and a salt water pool and I was in my own little version of Heaven.
Paul had an interesting year at work. The "layoff" of a co-worker made it busier and a little more stressful for Paul at work, and put him on call every other week. Thankfully the position has been filled now and we look forward to him going back to the "every third week" on call schedule in the new year.
The kids all went back to public school this year. We decided to send them to a school outside of our district which has proven to be a great decision. (I love it when we make those...since they so rarely happen! lol) Alli is loving the new friends she has made and is very involved and excited to be in "Twirlettes" which is a baton twirling class. She will have a big recital in May of this coming year. She is our little social butterfly and has a unique style about her that I love. She doesn't need to fit into a "mold" that other's try to fit into and I couldn't ask for anything better!
Wyatt is a thriving 2nd grader and has had an amazing teacher this year. He likes school and works hard at it. He is a self proclaimed "gamer nerd" and is playing some sort of video game at every chance he gets. He discover red a love of football this year and even likes to watch old Chiefs games that his Dad had recorded on VHS about 15 years ago. His brother and sister get a little bit tired of his passion for the ol pigskin, but he doesn't let it get to him.
Eli. Oh Eli. Eli started kindergarten in '09 and has surprised us all with his ability to be a good boy at school. Ha Ha! He is our wild man at home even getting the title of the first one of our children to break a bone...which he successfully did this year. He broke his wrist while playing at a playground and wore a beautiful cast for almost 6 weeks. (Actually he got two different casts one blue, the second one green). Eli is so very interested in skateboarding and looks up to a boy who lives up the street who can do multiple tricks on his skateboard. He has made lots of friends in school and actually enjoys going!
Me? Well, Im good. I plan on loosing some more weight in the coming year. Lets hope I dont go back on that plan. Im finding I like myself more than I ever have. Things I have always felt kinda silly about liking in the past, I have now embraced. I love guitar hero and playing the drums on band hero as well. I also love dogs and would collect as many of them as my husband allows. As it is, we only have two. :) I really strive to just be the person that God wants me to be and I pray that He shows me daily who that woman is. Some day's I give in to my own depression and feel horrible by the day's end, but Im learning that the more I give in to that depression, the less I am relying on God. So...I am trying to look to him to keep me out of that depression funk. I love facebook, and I have been so thrilled to catch up with old friends who have meant so much to me in the past. Im loving getting to "see" them almost daily via facebook. I also got a part time position with a non profit company. I supervise visitations between children and their non custodial parents. Most cases have been court ordered and most involve some sort of abuse. I enjoy getting to work with the kids and the job can sometimes be heartbreaking, its also very rewarding.
Paul and I have been married 10 1/2 years now. It's gone by so fast. Im very blessed to have a man who loves me and works hard for me and our children the way he does. He's an amazing Dad and enjoys the times when he gets to be at home with us.
So I guess that sums up our year. I have no idea what the future holds for all of us...but I trust God that no matter what happens, He will see us through.
So that only leaves one last thing to say...."See ya in 2010!" :)
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