It's the end of 2014 and time to reflect on the past year.
We legally added the final touch to our family as Baby was officially adopted and sealed.
We enjoyed the continued growth and health of our other three sons.
We enjoyed many sibling visits with Three's siblings.
We were able to see and visit with Baby's birth family twice this year.
We were able to enjoy two family reunions this year - one on Husband's side in Sedona and one on my side in the Midwest.
Three and I survived his first trimester of junior high. This was huge! Oh and he refuses to stop growing. So he is huge. He is now closing in on being taller than Husband.
Four was in GATE and loved the extra challenges, homework, and classwork to challenge his sharp little brain. He also got to dissect a lot of fun things in science class, which he loved.
Five remains a feisty and strong personality who spent time developing his artistic side. And he is a shrewd game player. He often acts like he is not really paying close attention. And then he nails you and wins.
We all survived the sale of husband's company which literally had him working 18 hours a day for months as he was the numbers guy on the deal.
And then we all survived my broken leg while he had a lot of travel near the end of the year for his new parent company. And we survived because we are surrounded by some of the very best, most loving people in the whole world.
Baby has learned how to say, "Uh-oh," scream Dad! at the top of his lungs, say Mom, over and over and over again without connecting that word to me, even though I say,"yes?" every single time, open the front door (yikes! We are now locking the top lock.), open the tops of water bottles, become a much pickier eater, throw heavy balls (and pumpkins) much higher and farther than any kid his size should be able to, learned how to move the stool around so he can get up higher and wreak havoc, turn water faucets on and off, climb up and down stairs, color with crayons or pens or markers on paper, walls, or bedding, wave bye-bye, and he is just getting the hang of learning to blow kisses. It's been quite a busy year for him.
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We lost many friends this year. Oh not to death. That might be forgivable. We lost so many of them to moving. We live in a place that is too expensive for most people to stay. Or they have to go on to post-post graduate school. Or they find great dream jobs elsewhere. Whatever. The goodbyes, of amazing friends, year after year, was especially hard this year. I have vowed to leave them all behind and see how they like it.
How is that vow going, you ask? Not well. We are still here and we are losing more friends starting in the new year. Blech. Maybe I should just stop being so darn charming and stop making new friends. Although...some of the new people moving into the area seem slightly interesting...and a few, very few, of our long term friends have no current plans to leave...
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This year I read 192 stories. It goes up every year since I started keeping track. Last year was 141. Crazy, right? But, while it seems like a huge increase, it is not quite as amazing as it looks because - thanks to kindle - I read a few more novellas this year than I normally do.
Still...192 stories is nothing to sneeze at. Nor is it an addiction by any means. I swear. But if I end up stranded on a deserted island, I will need my whole library to survive. But, it's not an addiction. At least, my friend, Amazon, doesn't think so. And I am sure that that is all that matters.
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The book I am most looking forward to reading in 2015 is the next book in the Michael Vey series. Oh yeah. The first four books in the series are that good.
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So we end the year a little older, a little wiser, one of us wearing glasses due to aging...
And this will be the last post on this blog.
I created it so that I could still post about my family and our adventures for friends and family - but not use their names so they weren't searchable by classmates. So they got numbered. But, I am tired of referring to them as numbers. They are people.
So we will begin the new year by posting on a new blog called The Four Princes. You can find it at thefourprinces.blogspot.com
The boys were allowed to pick a pseudonym by which they will be known on the new blog. Y'all will probably hate me for changing the blog address yet again, but I have a feeling I will be sticking with the new one for quite some time.
And yes, I realize how egotistical it is to refer to myself as a queen. But, before you judge you should know two things:
First, that the mother of princes is technically a queen. So there!
Second, Husband wanted to be known as Lord Business. Isn't this mashup slightly more easy to swallow?
You are welcome.
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Happy New Year!
