Happy New Year!

Who is excited to start a New Year?  

I AM! 

2012 has seemed like a long, bumpy road to me and while I think the beginning of 2013 will be the same, at least I can see the end in sight! 

Things I have learned this year, some lessons are new and some are just more of some old ones.

• Stop trying to please people.  Either people will like you or they won't.  If they don't, it's okay.  
• Real friends are not that easy to come by the older you get.  Treat the friendships you have with love & quick forgiveness. 
• Having a child who learns differently than the pack of sheep at school is a blessing, it has taught me patience and admiration for brilliance of doing things outside the box.
• Never turn down the invitation to snuggle with your son.   
• Make overs done by a 4 year old will turn out better than the time you wore full make up with blue eyeshadow at girls camp .
• Losing weight is fun.  Hard, but fun.
• Noticing your neck is aging is not fun.
• Getting the giggles when you're supposed to be quiet never gets old.
• I need to keep my mouth shut and listen more than I talk.
• Feeling closer to God happens more outside of church than in it.  Enjoy those moments no matter where & when they happen. 
• Be grateful every day for the amazing and handsome man I married.   
• Be grateful every day for the family and life we have made together.  Glamorous or not, it's ours.  
• Stop wasting time. Wasting time doing things I don't like to do.  Spend time doing things that I want or are good for my marriage, my family.  In my head I am still 20, but the reality is, I need to do things now before the opportunity passes by and I'm too old and it's too late.  I have never once regretted kissing a stranger on top of the Eiffel Tower. Would I do that now?  Of course not, but I am so glad I did when I COULD!  

I wish you the happiest of New Years!  We are celebrating by finally having our Christmas dinner with my dad now home from the hospital, the kids are busy baking the New Year a cake and we might get crazy and play a new board game Santa brought us.  Perfect night to me! 

What are your New Years plans?  What have you learned this year?

 

What's Going on...

Life has felt like it's taken me on a roller coaster ride this month and I've found myself on the verge of tears and often.  Some from stress, some from frustration and some from sheer exhaustion.  

My mom said my cure would be to have life just stop for a good 2-3 weeks to get things "back together" and I agree with her wholeheartedly.  However, we all know that will never happen!

I feel like I am becoming more and more pessimistic and negative the older I get.  Both very ugly traits to have.  So I am thinking tonight of many things I am grateful for or that make my heart happy.

 I'll give you a few today but I am going to post one a day until my birthday.

Then I will just post pictures of cake. 

But to start....

 This sassy lady is my Aunt Jean.  She used to live by us but now lives back east and is ill.  She's been in the hospital since before Christmas and things aren't looking so great.  

I'm grateful that my dad is able to go and see his sister and spend some time with her.  

I am grateful for my friends.  

The ones who drop by bread just because they thought I needed a pick me up, the ones who host fun and silly tv finale parties, the ones who you can make fun of their toes freezing off in 50 degree weather, the ones who go look at houses with you on a moments notice (what kids?!) the ones who will pass things over their fence to you, for finding new friends who have the same interests as you do and pass the "I'll let you go along with me" test (that's you Em) and keeping old friends who laugh with you at pictures of crushes found on FB (Kj & Dani, a JANITOR!!  Really!?) 

Sometimes I feel very lonely, that I have a lot of acquaintances and not many friends.  And then God has those beautiful women bless me so immensely that I feel ashamed of myself for even thinking that way at all.

I'm grateful that the 7" I just cut off my hair will grow back. I already miss it.

 I'm grateful for my parents and brother.  I love that I live so close to my mom and dad, and I love the 3:00 p.m. phone calls I get from Mike. 

 I'm grateful I grew up in California, smelling the salt air and where the morning fog rolled in from the ocean.  I will always be a California girl, no matter how long I have been gone. 

More tomorrow....wanting to get back in the blogging swing and work on being more positive.  I know that I have been blessed in so many ways...now I just need to acknowledge the good more than the bad.