Musings on 2008

On December 31, it's time to close the book on the past year and welcome the possibilities of a New Year. All in all, 2008 was a good year. However, it was not without sadness as we lost both my Aunt Carol and my friend Debbie to cancer. 2009 will continue to see a fight against that horrible disease and I will do the Walk for the Cure and support Elaine and my other friends in their walks, runs and fundraisers for a cure. 2008 also experienced great joy via the kids as we watched Ben and Alex grow and progress in their learning and success in school and other activities. Ben tried several sports including basketball, soccer and swimming, however, he found he niche in scouting as he and Bill entered the world of boy scouts, starting with Wolfs. And little Alex continues to astound us with his progress despite his diagnosis. To us he's a regular 4-year old who brings us regular doses of both joy and bewilderment! Alex continues his therapies, daycare and pre-school into the new year as we continue the evaluation for kindergarten placement next year. We enjoyed our involvement with the Down Syndrome Network and getting to know the other families and services that are available to Alex. The only traveling we did was to Yuma, Sedona and of course I went to St. Louis for PartyLite Conference and to Vegas with my mom and the girls, but we hope to change that in '09 with hopefully a family trip to Disney and maybe snowskiing for Bill and Ben. There were so many other highs and lows with 2008, but we're all still here, we're all still healthy, Bill still has a job and as my favorite saying goes, "It's ALL Good!" May the Good Lord Bless us and Bless YOU in 2009!