Happy New Year!

Is anyone else out there happy to start a new year? I think God for every year we have, but some just seem more challenging than others. I really feel excited and hopeful that things will take some good turns in our lives in 2010. (Is that "twenty-ten" or "two thousand and ten"?)

This will definitely be a year of changes in our family. My son will get out of prison in July of this year. He doesn't have a clue of what he has ahead of him, but I will be beyond thrilled to have him out of there. This will bring a change in our family dynamics that probably won't be smooth, but at least we will be together. We may have lost him over 3 years ago to the judicial system but we truly lost him over 5 years ago to drugs. He has a lot of catching up to do.

We should also have our family together in another state. We still have a family that wants our home as soon as they can get theirs sold. They keep coming by wanting to show it off to family. I'm glad they are so thrilled over it, but please just buy the house all ready. I may have to start charging them admission. What was funny (except not to Hub) was that I finally got him to repaint the dining room to a more neutral color. Turns out that the lady of this family loved the green. I really should not have told Hub. I'll never hear the end of it. We haven't shown the house much during the holidays and hope for that to now pick up. First one here with money gets it!

We have never had such a quiet New Year's Eve. Our son was unexpectedly invited over to a sleepover and our friends that we usually get together with had a change of plans. It was just Hub and I in front of the TV in sloppy clothes. We never even popped open the bubbly. We did however make an ice cream run about 11:00. It was a good evening.

Actually, Hub and I have been a little sad this weekend. He will leave on Sunday morning to move into a corporate apartment 6 hours away. He has been flying out on Monday or Tuesday and flying back on Friday for the past 6 months. The company is pressuring him to go ahead and relocate. Now we will probably just see him every 2-3 weeks. It will be different when we are paying for it. I don't think all of this has really hit our son. He's going to miss Daddy so badly....as will I. Hub is planning on taking our cat with him. Isn't that funny? He just wanted something to come home to. I suggested he take the two dogs, too, but he will still have to be gone some overnights so that wouldn't work. Was worth a try. It's hard to show a house when you work and have pets. Pray that this is all over soon!

Speaking of work, I have to go back on Monday. I have been so bad about staying up late and then sleeping late the next morning. Reality may be hard. I'm so glad now that I took down all the Christmas decorations at school before I left. On another note, we are getting a new principal as ours has taken on a new school. This will be interesting. A new principal should be in place by February.

Who knows if anyone still checks here, but if you do, I just want to say thanks for sharing your lives. I've enjoyed your humor, your wisdom, and the thoughts you share that are sometimes hard. You've made me think and also to realize that we are all in this together. We all have a story.

To you and the ones you love, I really big Happy New Year Y'all!!

Later.