I think it goes without saying that 2013 will not go down in the books as "the best year of our lives". It's most definitely been the hardest year of our lives with such a tremendous loss. While in the beginning I wanted to be hopeful that the spot the dermatologist found on Big Frank's shoulder was not cancer doctors confirmed our worst fears, that it was stage 4, non curable, melanoma. I still remember when we got the news and how awful that moment was and how difficult countless other moments were this past year. For 9 months Big Frank fought the cancer, but it was just too aggressive. We spent many weekends in Austin visiting and being together with Frank's family, but it is never enough. While we had so many happy things happen in 2013, the dark cloud of this loss and the battle will always be the thing we most associate with this past year. But, to be fair, it was not all bad. We celebrated many special moments, most notable are Cam's Baptism, his FIRST birthday!!!, Emerson's 3rd birthday, and we bought a new house! Those are all wonderful and special memories and moments. We also had four friends who all had their second baby this year (Ashley, Kellie, Barbara and Laura) and our friend Lindsey got married. This past year may be tainted in many ways, but our memories of those events mentioned are joyous. A lot happens in a year and the time has passes so quickly. We had goals last year and did well with some and not so well with others. Cam and Emerson both achieved their goals... they get an A+, but Frank and I did not quite get to everything. We did lose weight, which was a big one and Frank spent more time with the kids at the golf course when able. But I didn't cook more really... or do the family history project. :( I just did not have a good time to focus on that, but I do really want to do it, especially now. Recently a new app, Flipagram, has been so popular and enables you to quickly create a slideshow of images to music and share. So I created one of images from 2013 that are meaningful to me and capture many of the moments we shared. The song I used is "What If" by Five for Fighting. It is a wonderful song and I find the lyrics to be very meaningful. You should check them out
here if you would like to...
This is the video link... I can't add it easily here:
http://flipagram.com/f/ZbGBen3yy8
For 2014 we of course have goals... I wouldn't be me otherwise. :) In general, here are my goals:
- Live in the moment- try to just enjoy things... worry less... try not to think all the time! (this is a REAL challenge!!)
- Family History book... I mean it.
- Get back on track with my diet
- Make even more wonderful memories
- Read more books!
- Make more time to do crafts/creative stuff I enjoy
Frank's goals:
- Do better with his diet
- Try to spend even more quality time with our kids
- Stress less.
The kids are going to learn to share more (this is NOT optional) and they will listen better! And Cam will stop being cranky pants when we go out to eat so we can all four sit at the table the entire meal. :)
