Live, Love, and Laugh!: Jan 6, 2012

Well, I must say I have badly neglected this blog. Between family (kids), housework, full time college, and life in general, it kinda took a place on the back burner. I resolve for that to change. So to start, I will write about some good things from this past year, and some bad.

First I want to post about what wonderful friends I have. I have made so many changes in the past year and made a new friend at the end of 2010. I adore my BFF Tracy, and through her I was privileged to meet Brad and Mindy. Mindy and I hit it off right away. What connected us I believe, was our love of reading. At least at first. I love these ladies, they are such a blessing to me.

Good and bad has happened this past year. My friendships of course are the good and the bad being the cancer that Brad was diagnosed with in July. We all love Brad and are praying, and God is listening. Some good news recently were that the tumors were shrinking! God is awesome.

On the topic of friendships, this year I did some house cleaning in regards to who I hang around. I had a toxic relationship and they finally forced my hand to remove them from my life. I have learned to love and respect myself enough not to deal with gossip and backbiting. And I am so much happier for it! No looking back, it was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

This year has been a blur in some ways. I am just glad I have had my husband, who is my rock and my soft place to fall. I could not have made it through this past year without my dear husband. I haven't shared this except with a select few, but earlier last year things were getting tense in our house with my father. We were all butting heads way too often, and to be honest he was growing out of the small space he had in his room. With that and more that I won't write about, we sat down with him and told him how we felt and that he should find another place to say. It was time, mom passed 6 years ago and I felt that him staying with us was making him miserable and us as well.

That being said, it didn't go the way we had planned and it turned into an ugly fight. We are now estranged from my father and I fear that things won't get better. There is too much blame and threats being made. I fear that my dad has burned the bridge back to us. At least in my husband's eyes, and I can understand completely. With all that happened, I went through a mourning period, I felt like I lost my only surviving parent...and I guess I did, but it is not what I wanted.

On the home front, things are great. We have made our house our 'home' and it feels so peaceful. I actually want to stay living here now. I had previously not been able to stand it here. I think it was just the circumstances. We have put up new pictures and made our back patio a relaxing retreat. My dear husband bought me a hot tub and I am so enjoying it. We plan on doing some painting in our new workout/scrapbook room and touch up painting around the house. Hopefully, if God is willing we will sometime this year be able to fix the flooring in kitchen and fix our master bathroom as well.

December 2 I was in a car accident. I was rear ended by another Toyota Corolla. I thank God it was not an SUV or bigger vehicle. I went to ER because my head hurt really bad right away, I assume from whipping forward and then back to hit the seat really hard. They sent me home with Ibuprofen and said I had whiplash. Well, a whole month has passed and the pain is getting worse. So, now I am on stronger meds and start Physical Therapy next week. Oh, I will be contacting a lawyer as well. I was hoping that I would recover without all of this pain and inconvenience of doctors, lawyers and junk. I will update in the upcoming weeks on how I am progressing.

We ended out 2011 great. For Christmas this year we decided that since the kids pretty much have everything they could ask for we wouldn't do presents this year. Not in the traditional Christmas style. For Christmas, we instead took the kids to Orlando. We left for Orlando the Friday before Christmas, checked into and nice 4.5 star hotel and then went to the Medieval Times Dinner and Show. It was great, we actually were seated in the section of the Knight that won!

The next day, which was Christmas eve, we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure. Of course we had never been before, so the first section of the park we visited was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was the best day ever. I actually went inside the Three Broomsticks and ordered a butter beer in a cute souvenir cup. The kids loved it too. Islands of Adventure, even without the Harry Potter section was way better than I thought it would be. I don't know why we hadn't gone sooner.

The following day we went to Universal Studios. Because of our fast passes we got through the whole park before it closed and headed back over to Islands of Adventure for a last butter beer. We had so much fun. Huck even bought me all of Dumbledore's Army's wands, a small Hedwig in a cage, and Hermione's time turner. I have the best husband ever!

We ate dinner at Universal's Citywalk and got back to the hotel after 1am. We were all so exhausted, but it was worth it. I must say it was probably one of the best Christmases we have ever had. The kids loved it, and so did I!

We came home and got to rest for a couple of days before we had a New Years Eve Party. We had a total of 9 adults at the party and I believe 9 kids (2 teens). I opened it up to all my friends, but only the few faithful best buds came. They were who mattered! They amaze me and I love them. (I do understand some friends had to work) We drank, we danced and we played Charades. Some even sat outside by our fire pit. It was a great night...and the last guests didn't leave til around 3:30am! Thank you to all my friends, and it was so great to have Christian's girlfriend's parents over as well. They are great and fun people.