This, that, and life's joys: Happy New Year!!

Hmmm. I was trying to figure out how to do a year in review. I guess the best way is month by month. January had the earthquake in Haiti. We eventually found out J's birthmom was ok. It happened about the same time as JT's graduation from basic/AIT so we were in KY. JT's graduation was really emotional for some reason. My mom went with us and at one point we both had tears in our eyes and we looked around and discovered that several people did. T's parents, brother and nephew were in Cap Haitian, Haiti during the quake as well as my dad, brother and nephew. Dad was on the road and the roads are so bad that he didn't even know anything had happened. My brother and nephew felt the tremors as well as T's parents, brother and nephew. Several kids from J's O (about 60?) came home on humanitarian parole that month. We also had a lot of snow days in Jan. The kids only went to school 10-11 days.

In Feb. R packed up and moved to CO in a snowstorm. She took Sanomae (calico cat that they no longer have) and my dad rode/drove with her and flew back. A turned 17 in Feb. J had his first time with non-family babysitters (other than after school) and loved them. Thanks C and S!

In March the four of us flew out to CO to see R. JT had already deployed to Afghanistan at that point. We had a great week with her and took the Cog Railway up to Pike's Peak (only 6 of the 9 miles because of the snow) and it was so pretty. We also hiked around Garden of the Gods, went to the zoo and Focus on the Family and went sledding.

In April we celebrated 23 years of marriage. Zoiks!

In May my nephew got married. We had a great time with family who came in and R made it back too. J got an art award, math award and most improved award at school. After the wedding R, A and A's friend E all drove JT's car back to CO and stayed for a week. They had a great time. I also started playing and singing on the praise team at church again.

In June I got bronchitis. Yuck. J went to a day camp for a week and loved it. He also started wetting the bed less and lying more. Does there always have to be a trade off? JT came home from Afghanistan.

In July we headed up to WI and got to spend time with family and friends. We got to meet Sarah and kids from http://www.5frozenchamorros.blogspot.com/ . We had a great time at a family reunion on my mom's side with 93 people in attendance. We also went up to Door county and especially liked picking cherries and the Door County Fish Boil.

August held the transmission going out in Big Momma, J throwing a fit at the dentist and they wouldn't even work on him, and A started her senior year of high school. Wow! J had his first gotcha day.

September and October were relatively uneventful. J had his 13th birthday. A made her first batch of candles and sold them. We spent a lot of time at the lake, A played soccer and J played fall ball. He also got baptized. October was when we had the squirrel in the sink drain.

In November JT fell on the cactus and gave us something to laugh about. What a great story. A got mono. We had a nice Thanksgiving together. And we bought the van. Sometimes I call it Bonquiqui (it has 17inch chrome rims) and sometimes Vanna Blue but mostly just the van.

December was a whirlwind. We had a the fridge issues, mammogram issues (it's a cyst thankfully) car issues, Christmas, R and JT coming in, their party, etc. The fridge story is a crazy one, but oh, what a story. Still need to fix/sell the jeep.

Yesterday morning started off rough with J telling another lie. But it went uphill from there and he and I managed to have a nice day together. My parents came over last night and we played a card game called baseball. J won. A was at her boyfriend's house and is now housesitting for some friends. I'm considering going to CO this spring and that set J off. I've not left him overnite since he's been home so we think it's time. Abandonment issues reared their ugly heads but we are working through it.

Ok. Now for some pix. Here are my "grand critters" crated up for the ride home. Poor babies. They left Wed. afternoon and didn't get home until late Thursday. They couldn't even get up the hill to their apartment. Someone with chains on their tires pulled them up.