You know you're having a good time when you're too busy to update your blog...

I just looked at the date of my last blog entry and realized it was over a week ago...I thought I posted that on Monday LOL. Time does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it? The last few weeks have been a flurry of extra days off, shopping, visiting friends, Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas presents...

I've been trying to organize my thoughts about The Year That Was 2008. A lot happened. Some things we wanted to happen, didn't. But all things considered, with people losing their homes and jobs by the dozens and war and famine and economic crises...we did alright. More than alright, actually -- we were very blessed this year in many ways. We made it through an entire year without major illness. Some of you know that our little family has been dealing with a chronic, supposedly debilitating disease for a couple of years now, but you wouldn't know it by looking at 2008. No "episodes." No "relapses." No major progression of symptoms. Praise God.

Unfortunately for many families 2008 was the year of foreclosures, especially in our neck of the woods. But we were blessed in that arena, too. We bought our first house this year -- a foreclosure, of course, was there anything else available? The process was less than ideal (for me it was about as pleasant as a root canal), but now that the dust has settled we have a nice little house with a cute little yard in a decent little neighborhood. Adjusting to the mortgage payment was, well, an adjustment, but so far we've managed to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table at the same time -- isn't that the American Dream, really?

2008 was also my big Oprah-esque lifestyle change, which of course is still a work in progress. I haven't updated about Weight Watchers in awhile but it's still going fairly well. So far I'm down about 16 pounds since starting 14 weeks ago. More importantly, though, I've developed a new way of looking at food and how I eat. I don't know why, but for some reason it's much easier for me to grasp that something is "8 points" as opposed to "500 calories." So for me, Weight Watchers works, although I don't know if it's for everybody (I've gotta admit keeping track of points gets old after awhile.) More than the weight loss, I'm proud of the other changes I've made in my lifestyle. I've always been in okay shape, but I've never incorportated exercise into my life the way I have over the last 4 months. I get up at 5am at least 3 days a week to exercise, usually running. Let me repeat that: I get up -- on purpose -- at 5am, while it's still dark, while J and TH are sleeping, before I've had coffee and RUN. Like those other people, you know, runners. And I really like it. Weird.

What else, what else....oh yes, let's not forget J. What a difference a year makes, indeed. Is this what happens -- one day you're washing bottles and rocking them to sleep in the rocking chair and giving them baths in the sink, and the next day they're jumping and counting to 50 and putting DVD's in the DVD player by themselves and sleeping in a twin-size bed and telling you knock-knock jokes? Because it sure seems like that's what happened. I was looking at Christmas pictures from last year, and I don't recognize that little guy anymore. When were his legs that short? His cheeks that round? His steps so unsteady? Those days are long gone. What I have now is a full-fledged toddler, only half a year away from being a preschooler. We have conversations. He can (sort of) tell me the plots of movies and books. He can remember the vacation we went on 2 months ago and the names of an impressive number of the ever-present Hot Wheels cars (he knows the coupe, the Hummer, the Beetle, the Porsche, the Audi, the convertible, the tow-truck, the frontloader, the Mustang, the Jeep, the F-150...it really is impressive). He draws and paints and rolls out play-doh by himself, and turns on the keyboard and plays what almost (almost) sounds like "Chopsticks." He pulls out bowls and utensils and tells me he's "cooking something" (play kitchen for 3rd birthday, anyone?). He can put his pants on and at least do the head part of his shirts. He can recognize all the numbers, letters, and colors, and can read some words. If I say one curse word in a twenty-minute phone conversation he can pick out that word and repeat it perfectly. I'm loving almost every minute of it, frantically trying to capture everything with incessant picture-taking and blogging, but it's still going by at the speed of light.

So that was 2008 in a nutshell. There were other things that happened, much of which I shared on the blog, and some things I'll keep to myself. As 2009 starts, I'm really hopeful about the future (Obama! I didn't even get started on that LOL), and thankful that I've been blessed to see my family grow for another year. I don't have any real resolutions, but I know I'm definitely going to keep blogging, and running, and drinking coffee, and start crafting or decorating projects that I don't finish, and checking Facebook while I'm at work:) I figure everything else will play out the way it's supposed to, it always does. Happy New Year!!