A New Year Again

I'm sitting here at work and thinking about a lot of things - mainly what this new year will bring. It's another year without my Mom and Dad (I miss you both so much). I feel that it is finally time to go through their papers and stuff that I got after you both passed away and decide what I really need to hold onto. Some of the stuff are snippets of your life and other things (like your address book) remind me of your abundance of friends. The important thing to keep is your memory alive in your grandchildren. They need to hear stories of my childhood and your childhoods in Steubenville, OH and Rumford, ME. Yesterday a mine collapsed in West Virginia and the first thing that came to mind was the stories told to me by my Mom about her father's working in the mines. It was and probably still is a very hard life. So in 2006, I will purge some of the things I have been holding onto and work hard to get the family stories written down and always keep those strong family memories alive.

In 2006, Casey will be going away to college. While it will be very hard to have her away, I envy the experiences she will have as she moves on to this next phase of her life. I hope the college she ends up at is one where she will have the opportunity to grow and experience life. In 2006, Greg will finish middle school and move on to high school. Where did the time go? My little boy is becoming a man and one that I am so proud of. Each day is a gift and I am making sure that I welcome each day and all the happiness and challenges it brings.

As for me, my creative juices where flowing yesterday as I started the D. Downey online class and completed the redecoration of my planner. I am pretty happy with it and will post it to the class site. I also did a page for the DW 2006 challenge that I really liked. I will have to add that here as well as posting at 2Peas. It felt good to sit down and just create. I hope to try new things out in 2006 and submit more often in the hope of someday getting a page published.

Finally, I intend to be in the everyday moment of life and enjoy it. Life is too short to waste on insignificant things.