I've been resisting doing this post. Really I have. With how poorly the world is doing (Economic Crisis 2009!) and all the sad sob stories I'm reading everyday, I really didn't want to be adding to the "woe is me!" noise out there already. But yeah, this has been a pretty crappy year so far. And honestly, I haven't had worse. All is not lost however, so just so it's not *ALL* bad, I will say, it's really not as bad as it could be either. (I at least still have some perspective!).
I mean really, overall I'm doing pretty well. I'm happy and life is treating me pretty good, I'm not really a complainer (ok, maybe I am...), but yeah, lol, this has been one doozy of a year so far. I don't even know where to begin.
We started this year off with getting a nasty round of the norovirus. I personally lost about 6 pounds from wrestling with that hell I wouldn't wish upon anyone. And you truly haven't experienced misery until you have five other family members all puking up stomach acids around you. It was a truly horrible experience. I want to share the details just so I'm not trapped alone with them in my mind...but I won't. I'll be nice to you this time. But oh my gosh the smell.
So yeah, that was the start of the year. It just kept going from there.
This year we've been dealing with depression. It's gotten really bad for wifey again. I feel like I could write a book titled "Married to Depression". There's been just so much I've learned about depression over the years and how to deal with it when you're not the one who actually suffers from it. We're taking all the right steps though and we've been through this before so we're hoping to see the light soon on this one. Unfortunately she's got other stuff going on. Cysts, a dead tooth and wisdom teeth that aren't going to come in. Going to be a lot of dental work this year and in my opinion she already has a great smile! And she has even more going on (poor little Wifey!)
Currently we have a little scare going on. You see while I was up partying it up at the MVP summit she came down with strep throat. The strep wasn't so scary, nothing some antibiotics couldn't handle. However when she went in to get the subscription the doctor noticed she had an enlarged thyroid. A little blood work and an ultrasound later and we're now dealing with concern over a mass in her thyroid. Still waiting for a trip to a specialist to know just how serious that's going to be. Yeah, our minds are on that first thought you all had as well. We'll just have to wait and see though.
On a less serious note, this has been the year for little car fixes. The van needed new brakes and tires so that was a nice little chunk of change. And I've been driving with a broken windshield, a car that overheats anytime I'm stuck in traffic (I carry water in the trunk) and a headlight I have to wiggle before I leave anywhere or I won't have two. Not super serious things, but man all that car stuff has sucked this year. Especially because those things all hit the pocket book. And well, we know the big scary economy deal is going on. Some we'll pay for and some I'll just have to put up with for a while longer.
Work has been pretty rough this year as well. The economy is obviously impacting everyone's place of business (even Microsoft had some layoffs) and mine has had it's up and downs as a result of changes in the economic climate. We've had a lot of changes that have nothing to do with the economy as well. Some of those have required adjustments on my part and almost all have been affecting my stress level. It definitely hasn't been the most relaxing year at work. I'm hopeful though because I think we're turning a corner so I'm still excited about the rest of this year.
Let's see, what else has happened this year...oh, here's a fun one! So we started noticing our windows in our house were fogging up. It felt like there was really moist air being blown out all of our heater vents. Calling in some heater guys we got the fun news. The heater is out. And not only that it was a really weird heater. It was water based...odd right? Basically it was hooked up to a hot water heater and the heater unit itself worked as a heat exchanged to blow hot air through the house. *AND* that was installed in our ceiling. Yep, a water based heater in the ceiling above our bedroom and not only was it out, but it had been leaking. Leaking for a long time. Replaced the heater (another LARGE chunk of change) and that's when the real fun began. That's when we got to call the home owner's insurance because when the heater guys replaced the heater they noticed we had mold throughout our attic as a result of the leaking. Yep, mold. MOLD. Run for the hills. A homeowners worst nightmare.
So we've had guys in hazmat suits wondering in and out of our house trying to clean up the mold damage (luckily we don't have to pay for that, homeowners insurance will cover that part). Nothing like talking to a guy in a hazmat suit and thinking to yourself, why am *I* living here? Where's my suit? So when my kids start growing extra toes eyes or developing really lame super powers, we'll know it's because I didn't buy them little hazmat suits for their birthdays to protect them from the mold.
We've had various other little house issues along with the heater and mold. The toilet is flooding constantly (and always running), the outside faucet isn't working (did the heater guys break something?), the fence is falling down...the list goes on. Sigh. Quite a bit of work and it all happened this year.
Then yesterday we had one of the most exciting moments of the year. I've been expecting this one since I am the father of four boys, but I was still taken by surprise. Yesterday Owen (my 5 year old) broke his arm. Not a good break either, they're talking like he's probably going to need surgery. Yikes! Wifey wrote all about it here. Definitely a pretty stressful time and I was really impressed with how Wifey handled it all. She's such a great mommy! We're hopeful everything heals ok and no permanent damage was done but we'll just have to see.
So yeah, all in all hasn't been that great of a year. I'm still smiling. I know things really could be worse and there's lots and lots of people worse off than me and I really feel for them. I'm sure things are going to be turning a corner though and there's lots of other things I haven't mentioned in this post that are going great and amazingly well. It's definitely not all bad and I've got a lot going for me.
Either way I just really needed to get that all out.
Wait a minute! What was that I just saw walk across the kitchen counter? An ant? Yep, there's another one. Definitely an ant. Great we have ants. LOL, what a year so far! I'm sure it's just going to get better from here. Hopefully everyone else's years aren't looking like mine. It'd be nice to hear some good stories out there to balance out all these sad ones.
Anyway, that's all I had for now. I'm sure I'll have some more positive posts coming about games, tutorials and fun stuff. Here's hoping your year is a good one! Now where did I put those ant bait traps....