2008 in Review. Bring on 2009!

So, this has been a crappy year. To recap:

January--I think this was the only month that didn't contain some sort of disaster. We were in Vegas at the beginning of the month. I think that's the perfect time to go to Vegas. There's no snow in Vegas. And I finally found a McDonalds with a playland across from the Galleria Mall, so there's somewhere for H and I to go on Fridays after we've checked out of our hotel.

February-This was when the crap began to hit the fan--we just didn't know how much crap was coming our way! My mom had her mini stroke--I had to meet my parents at the ER--my mom never recovered. I had the crappiest birthday since the time I was six and had the chicken pox and my birthday party got canceled. I asked for a birthday do-over, but because of my mom's health that never happened. On the plus side, Dad brought me a Hello Kitty birthday balloon because my mom was worried about my birthday. It's nice to know Dad thinks I'm 3.

March-Worst month ever! My mom spent a week in the hospital, part of it in the ICU, and the day after she came home she died. We were supposed to go on vacation, and instead I buried my mother. I feel so old. As my dad put it, now I'm half of an orphan. I aged at least 10 years that month. No gray hairs yet, but I think the bags under my eyes are here to stay. I had one of life's defining moments when I spoke at my mother's funeral. Guess I'm an adult now.

April-In April we went to a cabin in Midway with my dad for Spring Break. He was still devastated by the loss of my mom. Apparently April is a little early for cabining--yeah, I know that's not a word. Don't start. We had to hike in with our stuff because the road to the cabin was still covered in snow. The pipes froze. H got sick. The DVD player didn't work--well, until Brent got there and worked his technological magic. Anything that could have gone wrong did. A trip to remember.

May-I opted out of Mother's Day this year. Skipped church, took flowers to my moms grave. The headstone was in--we got a bench. I think it looks great, and I'm so glad I didn't let them use Arial font on the stone. Arial sucks. Went to Bear Lake with Brent, H and Dad. That was fun.

June-My mother's birthday was in June--took flowers to her grave. Pretty much it. The home alarm went off by accident, cops showed up.

July-Mike got married! High point of the year! We had a lovely garden wedding, H was the cutest flower girl ever, and my heart stopped when she wandered off during the reception. I'm excellent in a crisis, but this time I froze. Brent found her around the block in someone's garage. Good thing my dad lives in a great neighborhood. Sent her home with the in-laws--why my mother-in-law brought her to our house, I don't know, but she set off our home alarm and the cops showed up, and hauled the neighbors dog to the pound and gave them a fine. Ah, memories.

August-Brent's family reunion. Don't travel with family. Just don't. H turned 3 and started preschool.

September-Can you believe we've been married 14 years? Seriously, 14 years. I know, it's crazy. Went to Park City, stayed at the Summit Watch Marriott, and found a little piece of heaven. H got hooked on crafts because everday we did crafts as part of the MAZE program.

October-Halloween! A respite from crap! I went as Princess Leia, Brent was Indiana Jones and H alternated between a princess and last year's poodle costume. Brent and H went a little crazy decorating the yard. I started a low sugar, low fat kick to lose weight. I don't want to be a diabetic like my dad. Plus, my pants don't fit.

November-Got a speeding ticket on the way home from planning commission meeting--there went the time I was saving. H barfed on me when we got home. H barfed on me when we were boarding the plane the next day. H barfed on me at the rental agency, at the wedding rehearsal for Brent's brothers wedding, and at the restaurant during the rehearsal dinner. Oh, and at the hotel the next day--day of the wedding. Day after the wedding we got in a car accident. Got home, the kitchen faucet was acting up, smoke alarms needed to be changed--that's a coming home from a trip tradition. Then, to cap the whole crap month off, my desktop computer conked out. Bit the big one. Post toasty. I get relagated to my laptop. And I can't access most of my photos--some are still on the E drive because the auto backup wasn't getting done. At least the drive hasn't crashed.

December-The month is young, but I've seen the x-rays from the accident--H was out 1/2", she's back in and should recover beautifully. Me--well, when the chiropractor says "you look like hell" and says "that's not normal" after reviewing your x-ray, well, you can tell I'm in for a long ride. High point of the month--H is excited for Christmas. Low point--H cried the other night because it was her Uncle Mike at the door and not Santa. Oh, and Nate's wife is in the hospital having her gallbladder out as I type this. What a year. To quote Bart Simpson "It's craptacular."

Cold November Rain

So, I'm back from Chicago. Cold, cold, dreary, bitter weather out there. The second half of the trip was great. No catastrophes--Nauvoo is not nearly as cold as Chicago. The only downside was everything in Nauvoo closes at 5:00, except the town bar, which closes at 8:00. Oh well, seeing Church History locations was great.

But the first half of the trip--oh my. First, the night before the trip I got a speeding ticket on the way home from the Planning Commission Meeting. Lucky for me, the nice officer cut the ticket down from 25 over (apparently Arrowhead is only 40 mph not 50) to 9 over, which was nice. When I got home, H barfed on me. Yes, my darling 3 year old daughter came down with a 24 hour flu bug the night before we flew out. So the next day she barfed when we were boarding, she barfed at the rental car counter, she barfed at the wedding rehearsal dinner, she barfed at the restaurant after the rehearsal, and she barfed the day of the wedding. Need I mention that she pushed away everything I tried to get her to barf into, so we went through all of our packed clothes in 3 days? Meaning, that just a few short days into the trip we had to do laundry.

So, we load up the mini-van (we had 6 people in our group), and we head to my newly married brother-in-laws house to do laundry. We get rear-ended on the way over by a Ford F250, driven by a young driver who was going too fast on a wet, rainy day. The back window of the minivan shatters. It's a very cold day. And I happened to be taking a swig of Diet Dr. Pepper right when the truck slams into us, so I, and the front of the minivan, get drenched in soda. I end up wearing my BILs Navy sweats the rest of the day, making me look like everyone else in the area. So we blow all of Saturday waiting for a replacement minivan and going to the ER, because everyone is sore and Brent's 90 year old grandmother was one of the people in the van.

And did I mention that the accident happened the day before Brent's birthday? And I forgot about his birthday because I was so sore? What a trip. If I didn't have a speeding ticket to go take care of tomorrow, I'd be super glad to be home.