Happy New Year All.
We had a whirlwind holiday starting with Kelsey arriving home from college and settling in for a few weeks home. We had many celebrations with Christmas Eve with her boyfriends family, Christmas morning opening presents and Christmas night with my sister in laws family.
Then it was off to Chicago for the weekend, a normally three hour drive took us 5 and half to finally arrive with my brother just a few minutes ahead of us. We never really did figure out what the issue was, but dang, it was a long drive. Both of us made the decision to head downtown instead of going around the city and that didn't even help. But we made it and began the celebrations with everyone in attendance. Over the weekend we enjoyed being a family with the welcome addition this year of my grandmother who if you didn't catch we moved to Chicago from Kansas City a year ago. She is adjusting, her apartment is finally clearing out a little as she goes through all the stuff she moved and takes the time to decide what she truly would like to keep and what can go. I always enjoy spending time with her because she always makes me laugh with her funny statements, like in response to her stuff.
"I like junk, it just kinda sticks to me" I can relate some days when I myself go into the garage and see all my junk.
And then there is the profoundly insightful statement of '
With thickening, there always comes a thinning' which she said is what her father always said. I have found in the weeks past, this is so true in so many realms. She related this us in the context of a couple of the neighborhood ladies who had become tight and now were fighting, just like high school right gram? ;)
On Sunday, after making my kids suffer through a couple of hours of me catching up with my best friend from high school, we traveled home , my day of birth, yes my present, I got to drive home from Chicago. Alex quickly made plans to go out with a friend upon our arrival home so Kelsey and I went out to one of our favorite places for dinner, it was a quiet birthday and quite frankly I was alright with that.
Back to work a couple of days, yeah like a lot of work was getting done, mostly monitoring with a lot of the people in the office out. We all celebrated the new years with our respective friends, I attend this bash at a country club that was absolutely packed so tight, probably won't do that one again but had fun with my friends and that is always good.
Now looking into the New Year and my resolutions, yeah I made a few...to break of course. I resolve to continue to work on quitting smoking, slid backwards a bit but still way down from what I was a month ago. To go along with that I am resolving to have some kind of abs this year, at least some definition right, the butt is holding up well but the belly has slacked off these past couple of years so we need to whip it back into shape. With a training center just downstairs from my office and Zoomba (dance/excercise) offered in the office and done right on the other side of my cube I really have NO excuse, but I am sure if I work really hard I can find one!
I want to wish everyone a prosperous new year and hope it is wonderful for you all.
If you haven't had the opportunity, jump over to the link that says 'Sam and Jillian'. Ms. Jillian just completed a sled dog race and I personally am in awe of her resolve. You see, she did this in -30 below, with winds that would take your hide off...truly in awe.
Believe, Imagine, Dream
It's been a month of changes and acceptance that things do change. Kelsey and Devon have separated, it was tough on all of us. Yes, all of us....while Kelsey was away at college, Dev came by every week to play Halo with Alex or just hang out, he was a part of our family and we lost a member. 
