2009 - That's a Wrap!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . "

2009 will go down in history as a terrible year economically, but I'm going to be positive and list all the things that were great about 2009 for our family.

Everyone has a job (and a bed)! Dale is a supervisor at Express Scripts - this is him as a "Rock Star" performer at work.

Ryan works settling refugees with International Rescue Committee (www.theirc.org). Corey works IT at Grand Canyon University. Mark still has the same job at Verizon Wireless. Scott still works part-time at SitesUSA and goes to school at MCC. Brent lived with us most of the year, but he now has a job back in Utah and is living with his family again. We're happy for them, but we miss having him around here - especially his cooking (really, he is a good cook)!

Shelly doesn't work (ha, ha) - but I am a switchboard operator at the temple every other Tuesday, and every Thursday I volunteer at Crockett Elementary reading with 6 second graders and working in the library the rest of the day. Our stake has adopted a Phoenix inner-city school for service. About 60% of the students are hispanic and the rest are African refugees. The other day we were reading about chores. Abdullahi didn't know what chores were. "It's jobs that you do at home. Like, do you have to make your bed?" I asked. He looked up at me with his big black eyes, "I don't have a bed." "Where do you sleep?" "On the floor; but I think I'll get a bed soon." I hope he does.

Everyone is healthy! Both Dale's cancers were completely removed and the chest x-rays and other test turned out negative. And he got the side benefit of having "plastic surgery" on his cheek and a "face lift" (right on the top of his head).

He looks better than ever to me - he's so handsome! We're so grateful that he also survived a head-on collision right before Thanksgiving. He was the passenger with a co-worker and she turned left in front of another car. A split second later and Dale would have been T-boned. He did have chest and shoulder pain from the seat belt and airbag, but was sure thankful for them! He's also thankful that he wasn't driving his Corvette, because both cars in the accident were totaled! As for me, I feel great after losing 30 pounds with Weight Watchers - and I still love my walk! I'll be interested to see in a couple months if I was able to lower my cholesterol below 200. Scott stays in shape with Rugby. He was player of the game last week!

We love our family and fun times together! An Easter reunion with the Heward family, the Beach reunion with the Nichols family, a Caribbean Cruise, an Alaska Cruise, our kids and grandkids.

Everyone loves Christmas and Pizza! It was another outstanding year for Christmas Pizzas! Dale wasn't up to moving boxes and as much decorating because of his car accident, and I was busy with the ward Christmas party (as usual), so there were some things I just crossed off the list this year. And it felt good to be a little less busy and just focus on celebrating the wondrous gift of the Christ child, and spending time with loved ones. Less IS better! I'm looking forward to more of the same - or less - next year.

I'm post dating this post so it counts for 2009 – after all, it's all about 2009!