Julie's Top 10 Memories from 2008

Here is my top ten list of memories, good and bad, from 2008.

10.) The Blizzard. It came on Cassidy's second birthday forcing us to reschedule her birthday party. We let her open a few presents that day anyway since it was her birthday and got her some cupcakes.

09.) My mom moved to Lancaster. It has been nice to have her close by to see the kids more often, to have dinner weekly with us, and to watch the kids for date night!

08.) Richard was "downsized" from MacTools. We were very fortunate to have a nice severence package though. He essentially had a teachers summer since he didn't fiind another job until mid August.

07.) Family vacation at OBX. We always enjoy our vacation in the OuterBanks and this year my dad joined us for a few days. it was nice to have my dad join us. I hadn't been on a vacation with my dad since junior high school. The kids enjoyed hunting for crabs with papaw.

06.) The fence painting. Man that took forever. We painted, and by we I mean Richard, the fence white this summer and it looks great but took 2-3 weeks to get done with the heat. The kids and I did help with the inside of the fence.

05.) Put a hold on selling the house. Pretty much everyone knew we were looking to move to South Carolina or North Carolina. We love the beach so much and wanted to be within a few hours drive to the coast. Losing the job pretty much halted that! So then we decided to stick around here and the market goes down the crapper! We will wait it out and try again in 12-18 months, sooner hopefully, depending on the economy. I really, really, really am ready to move.

04.) Spencer started Kindergarten. And it was all day kindergarten at that. I didn't know how I'd make it through all day without my Spencer home with me. The first week was stange and sad. But I'm cool now. And Spencer loves school and has a best friend named Zack.

03.) My mommy and me days. I had a fun time with Cassidy at the Wiggles concert, Spencer at Chuck E Cheese and Brenden at the Jonas Brothers concert. It is nice to have a day alone with each kid separately.

02.) Cassidy is potty trained. Enough said.

01.) The Blackout of 2008. Who can forget that one. We had hurricane force winds that left lots of my neighbors with missing siding, shingles, limbs from trees and entire trees and of course without power for days and some even weeks. We were lucky and only lost power for about 6 hours and had no damage to our house or property. My mom lost her power for 3 days and other parts of Lancaster lived 1 or 2 weeks without power. Schools were closed for 3 days using calamity days that I hope they don't need this winter.

So there you have it. I hope you all have a happy New Year and achieve everything you want to achieve in the new year. I wish you all good health, prosperity and love!