2013 will forever be THE YEAR WE WILL NEVER FORGET

  First off. I hope everyone had a great and magical Christmas and a safe New Year's Eve. Our little family had a pretty easy going holidays. I was an emotional mess for some of it but that is to be expected.
With that being said now I will wish a Happy New Year's day and here is to a great new year for us all!!

          The year 2013 has brought on a lot of things for us as a family.
We have realized how close we really are and how we a strong, no matter what obstacles we come across.  We have experienced a lot of downs and a few fantastic ups in 2013.
 

        Zooey was our first true test of our faith and strength. I will never know what life will be like not having that constant nagging feeling of losing a child.  My life changed, something that many people will always have a problem understanding. Some would say that if I didn't go through the whole pregnancy then I wouldn't have had to go through all that pain, or question, "This isn't going to change you, is it?" Those people are no longer in my life. But with the bad there is good too. I made a lot of wonderful new friends. People who have a strong belief of faith and have special caring for others, and hopefully I can learn from that and continue growing myself. Zooey's life brought a lot of changes to us but I think they were great changes. Andy and I are stronger than ever and the girls feel that. Zooey was meant to be our little guardian angel and she was also meant to be the seal on our family cohesion. She lives in us. I am planning her birthday party and will need her strength to get me through it all. I would love for a lot of people to be there to help us celebrate her first birthday.

  

This year, 2014, I will do better with my friendships. I will find time to spend with some of the girl friends I still have. Friendships do change, it is a part of life, I am coming to realize this truth. It has been hard but I am learning not to take it too personally. I will always have friends to surround myself with, I just need to take advantage of that. Spending time to listen to them as they have listened to me and to make new memories to laugh at.       

 Andy and I aged to 40 this year, we look at it as a good/bad event. I was given a surprise birthday party by my sister in law, that made my day really special. Andy doesn't like surprises and doesn't really thing that a birthday warrants a party, ( he feels about the same for any holiday too lol ) so, his mom made him a birthday dinner and we celebrated with family. 

After it was said and done for both of us, I started to worry about our future.  We got married in December, something that was along time coming, so he is stuck with me. I just want to make sure we have many more years to be stuck together :)

 For 2014, I have decided that we have to really start taking better care of ourselves. This doesn't mean I am making a resolution to lose weight but to change our lifestyle. I do need to lose weight, but I know that if I focus more on the stuff we put in our bodies and the amount of time we spend on our butts, this will become just one of the payoffs. These few turn a rounds will also help us in our everyday attitude toward work and will keep us from being stressed out. We always have goals at work that we work to accomplish and if we start to feel better physically than I know the mentally will follow.

I am also going to work toward some new goals as far as work is concerned.  Work is always a challenge that I think many people forget to improve on. It's work, no one wants to have to do it but we should be grateful that we have our jobs. We should also make it a challenge to "like" what we do. Remember, others have to work with you so why not make it better for everyone by trying to better yourself. I just know I will be praying for this particular part of my life.
 I will also be asking for prayers to get us in a home this year. It is hard to get financed for a home and I think this year it will get even harder. If we can get in a home than I know I will feel like anything else I set for myself will be possible.

My last goal for myself is to find more time to listen to my girls. I know that I do a decent job but I know that it will get harder the older they get, why not get a head start. Victoria has dealt with a lot of changes this year such as bullying, losing a sister, girls acting older than they are, her first crush on a guy, getting into the gifted program, and becoming a little woman. She still has so many more things to look forward to this year and I know it will be a hard one. She is a tough little chick and I know if I am there for her she will make it. I think more families should do this for their children, they are the future and we hold the key to making it a better world.

 
So, here we are. The start of a new year, or a blank page if you look at it like I do.

What am I going to do to fill those pages? 2013 held so much for us that I could write a book about it, 2014 has a lot to live up to.

1. Better physical lifestyle
2. To better my work place
3. Listen to my children more
4. Enjoy my friends company more often
5. TO MOVE INTO A HOME
6. Find more time for life in general :)

 Good luck to you all with your blank pages............