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So I asked for suggestions on what I could write about, and I got a couple of great ideas. Lucky says that I should write about my childhood, but I don’t have interesting stories like getting run over by a taxi while laying in the middle of the road on a speed bump like she does. Really you should ask her about it sometime.

Compulsive writer suggested that I write a year in review, and since it is New Years Eve I thought that wasn’t a bad idea. The problem with that idea is that we had a really REALLY horrible year that I have so generously spared you the details of.

I think a year in review is the perfect way to say goodbye to a horrible year. If you choose to click away now I would totally understand. If your still with me here we go.

January started out as a total whirlwind. January is our busy season (we do wedding trade shows) and we worked even more than usual. My hubby travels about half the month, but this year he was gone the whole month except for a few days when he was home in passing. So I spent the month playing single mother, while putting out fires at work. Ash spent the month in airports, and hotels.

January spilled into February, and although life was suppose to slow down we found ourselves working 7 days a week through all of February. Ash was asked to speak at conferences so he ended up out of town about half of February.

March came, and we were ready for life to get back to normal for a while, but it didn’t happen. While going to the doctor for a physical so she could put in her mission papers, my mother in law found out she had breast cancer. When they went in to do the surgery they found that it had spread through her lymph nodes and was worse than they thought.

By April we decided that we were in desperate need of a family vacation. There was a huge divide between us and the kids because we had been in survival mode for so long. We set off for southern California to hang out in the sun, swim in the pool, and be with Ash’s mom while she recovered from surgery and began chemotherapy. The day after we got there I received a phone call that my dad had passed away.

My dad left before I was 2 years old, and only made brief appearances in my life for the next 18 years (that is probably a post for another day). I never realized how much pain and grief I could feel for the loss of a man a barely new. I grieve the loss of opportunity to spend what little time I had with him. I find myself angry at those who kept my dad from being part of my life (his second wife). I once read another bloggers post about her dad, and she said she felt like she had “a dad shaped hole in her heart”, and that’s how I felt.

The next few months are a blur, as I put my head down and avoided life. I trudged through every day until the dark skies finally parted.

In June Ash got me a new puppy, that I love.

In July my mother and father-in-law moved to Utah, and I threw myself into taking care of her to distract myself from my own pain and problems. I cooked, cleaned, and ran errands for her while taking her to many appointments for her cancer treatment. We also had 3 teenage nephews come and stay with us. Two of them came for 10 days and the third stayed for 6 more weeks until mid August. We had a great time, and it was a wonderful distraction, but was also very tiring.

August was spent entertaining the nephews, and showing them all over Utah. I went to Cub Scout day camp with my Wolf den. During lunch I got a phone call that my mother-in-law had a seizure and was on her way to the hospital by ambulance. She ended up ok she had a few stitches and a huge black eye but over all she was fine. They did take her license away for six month so we started having to drive her everywhere.

At the end of August we decided to try another family vacation since our last attempt was a total disaster so we left for Hawaii. Ash and I have promised the kids a trip to Hawaii for years (Ash is from Hawaii). We can’t mange a family vacation without a major disaster, and this one was no different. We had a earthquake, and a hurricane during our trip.

Is anyone still with me?

Well next comes September, and September is our second really busy season so Ash was gone the whole month, and half of October to. By September I realize that we need to make some major changes and I started doing some serious soul searching.

October brought still more craziness, but attending the temple while Ash was out of town, and a lot of scripture reading brought a little peace to my life.

I got a phone call in mid October from Ash’s brother in Iraq asking me if I knew what had happened to his friend Ben. I will spare you the details, because I wrote about it here and here, but after a little detective work I found out that Ben had been in an accident, and was now a quadriplegic, and I spent the next few weeks at the ICU helping out as much as I could.

November was spent at the hospital doing what I could.

Mid November the bishop called me in to let me know that he was going to release me from my calling because he thought I needed a break.

In December family relationships came to a full boil (because of the family business) and we decided that it is time to leave the family business and do something else. I know this is the right thing to do, but it makes our future a little unsure. I have faith that the Lord will take care of us, but I don’t know what the next few months will hold for us.

If this whole post isn’t pathetic enough I’m spending New Years Eve taking care of my hubby, who is horribly sick.

I’m sure by now I have lost you all with my whining, but on the off chance that anyone is still reading this I need to throw in a few good things that happened this year.

1. Sadie went to the temple to do baptisms for the first time.
2. I discovered weight watchers, and have lost 22lbs
3. Ash met one of his idols Seth Godin (who shaved his head)
4. We went to Hawaii
5. My mother in-law finished chemo and radiation and appears to be doing well
6. My mother and father in-law got a mission call to London and will be leaving in February.
7. My children are healthy
8. We had a very generous friend donate a $200 gift certificate for Christmas to Ben and his family.
9. We raised about $2,000 at a benefit dinner for Ben.

Here is hoping for a better new year.

Happy New Year everyone!

Blogging is such a funny thing. I’ve been blogging for work for about 2 years now. I sometimes struggle with writing this blog because I’m so used to blogging for my job, and there is just something you can’t say when working. It’s strange to me that I can write about whatever I’m thinking, and total strangers could be reading it. (I convince myself that they are not, it makes me feel better;0)

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I flip flop between not wanting to share stuff for fear of being embarrassed, to saying everything that pops in to my head (and probably offending someone).

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I’ve been reading others blogs for a few years now, and it seems like I know more about these people, and their lives than I do about very good friends. I read about their children, families, hobbies, and experience. I listen and grieve with them through hard times and get excited for them in good times. Many of these people I will never meet, and probably don’t even know I’m following along. Which brings me to another point; I love seeing so many people comment on others blogs, but I worry about intruding if I do. I know its not intruding if they put it out there for the world to see, but still it feels like voyeurism at its best.

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Lately a few of the blogs that I have read on a regular basis have been shut off, and I feel like I’ve lost a friend, how weird is that. When people go a long time without posting I feel some kind of with drawl. (I know sounds obsessive) It’s just like missing a friend.

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I know that some of the Utah bloggers get together from time to time, maybe I just need to get up enough courage to introduce myself and make some more friends online. The few times I have met people from online it has been great (not scary at all). When I got brave enough to post a comment on Isabel’s blog she realized that her and I had a connection from Seattle that we hadn’t know before. Like she said “we are practically related.”

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Those who know me will be surprised at how shy I really am (I can be quit a loud mouth in person). Blogging is great, I might be an addict, but I don’t watch to much TVÂ so everyone has to have one obsession. This just happens to be mine. Thanks to all the great witty bloggers out their that make the Internet a fun place to hang out.

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My assignment for the week: introduce myself to 2 new bloggers, and leave comments on their blog. (I’m starting small)

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What are your goals for the week?

I have total writers block right now. It’s not for a lack of stuff to talk about, it’s a total lack of what to say about it. I’ve got lists of stuff I could tell you all, like my kids first day back at school, my husband traveling for work again and won’t be back for yet another week, my parents plan to move out of “T-town” and into the country of Idaho, the stuff going on in Iraq with my brother in law, taking care of my mother in law while she is now doing radiation and her hubby is out of town to. I just can’t seem to get the motivation to write any of it. (plus I have a new camera, and the photos are stuck on it until the technical one in the family gets home).

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I can usually write some crappy article for work that will do, but this time I can’t even do that. I’m just staring at the cursor willing it to write itself. All of this is leading me to eat ridiculous amounts of candy that won’t look good on Friday when I go to weigh in for Weight Watchers.

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I guess I do have something to write after all, to bad its all whining.

Yeah it’s here! The new BridesClub was launched last night after weeks of blood sweat and tears. Check it out and tell us what you thing.

Last night Ash and I were hanging out watching a movie, and we got to talking about our family vacation that is coming up. He was telling me how excited he is that it’s almost here (only about 4 1/2 weeks to go). I can’t believe it’s that soon, I’ve been so busy for so long I can’t think that far ahead. To me it isn’t real yet because life won’t slow down long enough to think about it. This is a sign that I need a vacation in a BAD way. The problem is that the weeks leading up to said vacation don’t look any better as far as time, and it will be upon us before I have time to pack or get ready or anything.

We are leaving the second week of August and driving to Seattle (our travel agent found us flights from Seattle that saved us about $300 per person, plus my mom is dying to see the kids), then flying from Seattle to Honolulu for 8 days. We had planned on going in July, for the Hawaii Bridal Expo but decided not to spend our precious vacation time working, so we are going in August instead.

Wow, yesterday was a big day! I think I’m still trying to process it all. My husband was true to his word, and is now bald. He said it was the highlight of his life having Seth shave his head. I told him he needs to get out more. All kidding aside, I haven’t seen him this excited and happy in a long time it really was a great day.

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The company Head Blade has already contacted him and asked if he would like free products, and if he would link his You Tube video to them. Wow the word travels fast!

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After a month and a half planning I can’t believe it is really over. Seth was great, it was everything we expected. I’ve seen a lot of his video’s but nothing beats meeting him in person. Now I just have to figure out who to give 9 copies of his book to ;0)

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I’ll admit it, I have spring fever, I can’t wait for warmer weather, and spring flowers. So when I saw this wedding favor I totally fell in love with it. It is a darling berry basket. I have to say that berries are my favorite food, and they are so springy. It’s a great idea to get away from the traditional candy that everyone else has at there wedding, and do something unique. I can see how keeping the strawberries fresh could be problematic, but it looks oh so easy to assemble for a great DIY project. (Basket idea and photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com)

Thanks to the great gals at WeddingBee.com I found out that the price of postage for wedding invitations has dropped from $0.63 to $0.58! Now I understand that this isn’t a huge drop, and by itself won’t totally save your wedding budget, but how often do you hear about the USPS dropping prices. You can find out more about it here.

Tags: Wedding Invitations, USPS, Postage