What a Year!

2010 has been quite a year for us. When I think about the year I only seem to focus on the trials of the last couple months, but this year was tough right from the get-go. I spent the first couple months of this year wondering if I would still have a job at the end of the school year. While I was thankful to find out I would have a job, I was sad and mad to find out that I would be taking an almost 10% pay cut. I spend countless hours at work and do so much more than so many of the teachers I work with, but unfortunately in education you do not get paid by merit only by years. Then the end of the summer and fall hit and I dealt with the devastating blow of thinking I was going to lose my mom. At 26 I like to think of myself as a grown up, and I got to deal with all the grown up parts of this situation, but I still need my mom and it was so hard to imagine a life without her.

While this year has had it's blows and I have shed too many tears to count, it has also had it's oh so wonderful and miraculous moments. My amazing little man turned one. I never knew why the relationship between my mom and my brother was so different until now. I love my girl more than anything in the world, but I love my boy in such a different way. It must be similar to how a daddy loves a daughter. I'm so thankful to have these two little loves in my life and they amaze me everyday!

We started taking family vacations this year which turned out to be a blast. In April we went to Massanutten and then in July we went to Vermont to visit Noah's family. In August Noah and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a weekend at the beach. Then my first love started preschool! I can't believe how big she seems and how little she seems at the same time. She's doing great and even though she has more than her share of timeouts, she is everyone's friend and she is learning new things everyday! In October she turned 3. She comes up with the funniest things to say now and she is constantly making me stop what I am doing because I am laughing so hard.

During two of the hardest months of my life we took the kids trick-or-treating for the first time and celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with another family vacation. By Thanksgiving we had the wonderful news that my mom was going to be ok and I've never celebrated a Thanksgiving with more to be thankful for than this year. God truly does listen to our prayers!

We just finished celebrating a wonderful holiday all together with more snow than most of us have ever seen. It was so nice to have my whole family here and to have mom (although tired) back to normal. She'll be here in a couple hours to watch the kids for the weekend and she'll be back keeping them full time on Monday!

Thank you to all of our friends and family and even those that I barely know for all of the kind thoughts, prayers and comments this year. You'll never know how you touched me and my family with a simple message or card and I can never say thank you enough because words don't do my feelings justice. I know that I am truly blessed and I am looking forward to 2011 because I know that I can handle whatever life throws at me and I have true friends who will always be there to help me!

Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2011 brings you everything you dream of!