Everything's Great in 2008!

*WARNING! This baby's a long one. Make sure you are comfy and warm before diving in!

I'm not really one to make New Year's resolutions. I'm not all that great at meeting New Year's goals and I remind myself daily of the two or three character flaws that I have ... just kidding, I readily admit I have a million. New Year's doesn't work for me .... but Thanksgiving usually does! Around my birthday I am usually blessed with these crazy epiphanies that remind me of the direction my life needs to go in order to be the person I want to be. Maybe it's the realization of me getting older or maybe it's the mass quantity of pumpkin pie I consume over that time frame, but I have had some fabulous experiences over the last couple of years. However, my ever-loving, dream-making protector that blesses me with my partial insanity has failed me. November 22nd has come and gone and still I am clueless as to what is ahead of me for my 29th year. Shoot! I hate it when I'm clueless!

So, since November pretty much sucked for me this year, I am going to have to rely on New Year's to give me a little boost and motivate me to do SOMETHING with myself in 2008. Here are a few hopes and dreams, resolutions, objectives, goals, whatever!, for myself ... and for my family .....

1. Get my Christmas themed blog packed away for the season and come up with something fun, cute and sassy! The thought of actually doing this makes me want to return to my thumb-sucking ball, but I am always jealous when I view people's cute blogging sites. Anyone who has any sort of idea on the whole blog template thing, fill me in!

2. Get myself more organized. This is a goal I set for myself every week, and every week I realize I'm full of crap. However, it is still on the list because I know that someday I will figure something out.

3. Find a great Brain Exercise book. I have noticed that with each child I have become dumber and dumber. Long gone are the days of intelligent conversation and efficient multi-tasking. To think that I might continue to deteriorate from the ridiculous point that I'm at now is absolutely terrifying!

4. Eat more healthy.

5. That Jack will learn how to take naps and sleep through the night.

6. That I will continue to come up with good bribes to keep Ella in her room until 7:00 am since she didn't learn to sleep through the night.

7. I will no longer cuss on my blog. Just on my blog ... I need to keep my goals attainable. Although to be fair to myself, I am not that big of a swearerer (look back to #3 to understand my use of swearerer). I usually only drop naughty words when I'm really mad or if I think it will be funny.

8. Be a better mom. I learned a long time ago not to pray for patience. Instead of a lovely blessing of patience being lightly dropped on my head I ended up with more tantrums and more swear words coming to my mind. This time, I'm flying solo.

9. I am determined to run a triathlon this year ... although the amputation of my right foot might cause a kink in the plan. Something is terribly wrong with my foot. I go to the doctor tomorrow. We'll see what brilliant plan he comes up with.

10. Attend church more regularly. Once again, to be fair to myself, I do have kids (one in particular) that seem to be sick every darn (see?!) week and a husband that has an every-Sunday calling. So, when it's possible, I will be making a greater effort to be there. Except for Sunday school ... that's another year's resolution ....

11. To find a fabulously easy part-time job. One where I can work from home, is extremely flexible and pays a ridiculous amount of money. That way, I can paint my walls, hang some pictures, and get a new kitchen table and chairs that are not held together with duct tape.

12. To be nicer to Gator and hope that he will continue to love me while I sort out the craziness of my life.

13. To keep my kids healthy. I already wash my kids hands with kerosene, wash their mouths nightly with lye and refuse them any sort of social contact. There's got to be something else I'm missing! I will be relying on divine intervention with this one!

14. To get a decent nights sleep. Although this does rely a lot on goal #5 & #6 ...

15. Pray for my yearly epiphany to come ... QUICKLY! Oh, divine dream-maker ... I forgive you for neglecting me. I forgive you for denying me feelings of comfort and strength. I understand your hesitancy to penetrate my already burned-out brain with thoughts of wisdom. I realize you're probably really busy, and maybe a bit behind schedule, but my heart and mind are open and I am waiting .... still. Oh, please hurry! This list of 14 can't be what my life is about!

Happy New Year everybody! I wish you all the best ... this is a lucky year, I know it!