2008 in a blog

2008 was a great year for us!
In February Angela was granted her Wish. It started out with her Pre-wish party. What a day that was! A week later Angela and I had a mother-daughter spa day in preparation for our big trip! Before we knew it, the day had arrived for our big trip. This was probably the most amazing thing our family will ever experience, and we are eternally grateful to the Make A Wish foundation of MN for granting Angela's wish!

On the last day of our trip, Dean, who'd been a two-pack or more a day smoker, enjoyed his very last cigarette. I'm so proud of him. I know this is something he'd wanted to do for a very long time, but it's also a daunting task. He also had some major dental work coming up, and he'd been warned that due to his smoking he would have a lot of trouble healing. Well, here we are a year later, and he's still smoke free! He still has days when he'd really like to have a smoke, but he keeps on keeping on. Way to go Dean!

On March 12th I had a run-in with the ice, shattering my wrist and landing in the operating room to have an awful lot of titanium installed! On March 15th Dean turned 51. We had a family dinner out with is twin brother and other siblings. Unfortunately I was in a lot of pain from my accident just a couple days earlier and wasn't up to enjoying the party. Just one week later, while my fingers were still the size of bratwurst and I was still pretty high on pain drugs, Dean had is oral surgery. He came out of surgery pretty loopy, and making lots of comments to the cute young nurses. Good grief, I didn't realize I he was such a dirty old man! LOL Getting him to the car was pretty interesting since I only had the use of one arm, and not only was he off balance but he was halucinating. When we got him home he told Tyler and I all kinds of things. What an eye opener. LOL

April brought the beginning of the great sidecar customization. After purchasing the sidecar, I spent a year wondering if I should do this to my bike, and wondering if I would regret it. The results would far surpass my expectations!

In May Angela received her birthday present a couple weeks early. She got the bike of her dreams! We put a lot of miles on this thing over the summer! I also got to play with power tools in May, in preparation for a big family reunion at our house. Sadly, power tools are great entertainment for me. Also in May, Angela got to tell her birth story on stage! Yet another time for mother's tears.

In June Angela turned 12! (please read my blog post for that day, it was pretty funny!) And she got the coolest birthday present a kid could ask for! And even better, it made her the coolest kid in the whole 5th grade! We also had our annual family vacation up in Walker, MN. We've been doing this trip for 13 years, and sadly, this one was probably the last. Also in June, Angela graduated from elementary school, and was voted to perform at her school's talent show. Needless to say, mom cried a few tears that day!

June also brought one of my life goals, and epic journey with a group of women. The memories will be with me forever, and I have plans to take another trip with the same group in April '09.

In July Noah turned 21. OMG..I'm mom to a 21 year old! Ok, well he's not the first one, but still! This totally freaks me out. Sadly I'm short of Noah pictures! He's very camera shy and avoids the thing at all costs.

August brought a "vacation" for Dean and I. This was the most exhausting vacation I've ever been on! 2,000+ miles on a motorcycle in 5 days isn't exactly "relaxing"!

September would find Angela and I in New York to see her picture on the big screen in Times Square. Yep, more tears for mom!

October Angela was officially declared a swimmer. And she also got her very own bowling ball.

November pretty much disappeared before I ever knew it was here. I was in a play that was HUGE, with too many performances. LOL

On December 3rd Tyler turned 20 years old. Wow...20. For those who know his story you know just how amazing this is.

We hope that 2009 is as good to us as 2008 was. We have lots of new things coming up! I'm hoping to start back to school next fall to get my BS in Sonography. Dean and I have decided that when I'm done with school we'll consider moving "south". (we'll be looking at several different options over the next couple of years!) The deciding factor will be Angela's educational and funding needs. In the mean time, we'll just keep on keeping on!