WELCOME To Year 2014!

                                 The end of 2013 has come, just when I got used to the odd number. Thankfully, I'm pretty situated into using the 20 prefix. But that actually took the better part of the first decade before I stopped using the old number 19. I'm so situated, in fact, that a paper I'd dated and signed was returned to me for correction of the right century where my birth date was entered. So here we go into another year- but this one's a year I am definitely looking forward to! The ChiefHubby & I will celebrate our 30th Anniversary on July 14th...in 2014! Bahamas are waiting for us with a total of 10 booked to go....and we're planning all the stuff we did when we were younger; jetski, riding (horses...like, WHAT ELSE??), swimming, skiing, and coral-reefing. A new thing we haven't done is parasail. THAT oughtta be vewwwy interwesting, to be sure!
              But, it's not just the cruise I can look forward to...but rather the continuing JOURNEY of LIFE itself. After all the illness that struck at 39, I can finally say that I can not only handle what life hit me with, but also feel as if it BLESSED me in the long run afterward. I feel like I have more to look forward to than ever before. Not that I didn't, mind you. But when you get hit with one thing after another, sooner or later; you break. It's how you handle that breakdown, and WHO you ask to help you handle it. JESUS has been there every step of the way- even when I kicked, screamed, and protested....allllll the way. HE stayed near me and helped me keep seeing a little light whenever the tunnel seemed to get too dark for me to see the way. HE never let go of my hand, and HE even sent me a ton of WONDERFUL people for me to be humbly honored to call FAMILY. As this year moves on, like all of them, it will likely move on faster than I want it to. My goal will be to just make the most of each day- even if it seems nothing at all happened. Just being ALIVE is a GIFT. A precious gift that is not meant to be taken for granted. Let's be thankful for the little things, be generous with all the big things, and learn to let the unimportant things go where they belong: into the past.

                          HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
                       ~2014~

         Every year, our group of peeps - the bunch of Besties we do so many things with, share so much of our time with, and that we love so dearly that we are proud to call them FAMILY- gather together on New Year's Eve to ring in the new year, and take a group shot that is always the first photo of that year. So here it is: 2014.....