This has been quite an amazing year. There have been some not-so-pleasant moments, but overall, I can’t complain about 2011. There’s been a lot more good than bad, and I’m grateful for that.

I spent the first part of the year enjoying snow days and planning my wedding. In February, on Valentine’s Day, Jimmy sent me a dozen red roses to work. It was the first time anybody had sent me a dozen roses, and I cried. In March, Cody earned his third trip to state Governor’s Cup competition in Language Arts. And on April 2, I married my best friend. I would’ve been content with a trip to Tennessee, but my kids insisted they wanted a wedding, so we did a small wedding here. My beautiful daughter was my maid-of-honor, while my handsome sons, wearing the pink ties they hated, sat on the front row with Theresa, Ashley, and Tiffany. Neither Jimmy nor I expected a huge turnout for the wedding, but the little church was almost full for the very short ceremony. It was overwhelming to know we had that many friends and family who showed up for our special day. Once again, to everybody who worked to make our wedding special, thank you.

Good things just kept coming our way. In April, we found out Cody had been selected as a 2011 Governor’s Scholar, and, in May, we found out he had been assigned to Murray State University, a nice, long seven hours from home. I thought the five weeks were long when Byron was at Bellarmine in 2005 and when Travis was at Centre in 2009, but they were both less than three hours from home, and now my baby was going to be twice as far away. I quickly realized that in the amount of time it would take us to drive to Murray, had we traveled north rather than west, we could have been to my brother’s house in Michigan, or if we had traveled south, we could have been to my uncle’s house in South Carolina. Nevertheless, though, in June we made our first trip to western Kentucky. We made another trip in July for family day, and finally the five weeks had passed and we brought my baby home.  It was a long, difficult five weeks, but it was worth it since it earned Cody a Presidential Scholarship to UK for next fall.

On a sadder note, my great-grandmother passed away in late May, at the age of 101. Everyone was sad to see her go, but it was hard to be upset about it. She maintained her cognitive abilities right up until she died. She had maintained her independence until she was 98 or 99, when she gave up housekeeping and stayed with her children. She only spent the last six months or so of her life in the nursing home. She was a truly blessed lady, but we were more blessed because she was our grandmother.

In June, we took a family vacation to Florida, but it was bittersweet. It was the first family vacation that did not include all the kids. Byron had gotten a job in February, and while he might have been able to get off work to go with us, we hated for him to ask since he’d just been working for three months. The rest of us, though, loaded up into a rental van and after a pit stop in South Carolina to visit Uncle Jay and Aunt Avis, we headed to Ormond Beach, Florida. After a few relaxing days on the beach, we went to Orlando to Universal Studios. Only Nicole and I had ever been there, and when we were there the Harry Potter area wasn’t open, so the kids were really excited about that part. A few days later, we loaded back up, made another pit stop in South Carolina, then came home to get Cody ready for GSP. With obligations the previous two summers, this had been our first family vacation since 2008, so we were really glad to get away.

In July, I started this blog. I set a goal to write every day, and I’ve been able to follow through with that. I’ve also managed to get a post up every day. This may not seem like such a big deal, but I was really worried about how well I’d be able to maintain that goal after school started. I would be teaching a couple new classes, which would mean more prep work than usual, and I just wasn’t sure how that would work with my writing plans. So far, it’s worked well. I’ve spent nearly six full months writing something every day, and after years of an on-again, off-again writing style, I’m very proud of myself.

School started August 1. Cody got home from GSP on July 29, and he had to start straight back in to school, so for him, he didn’t feel like he had much of a break. We’ve been busy, and by the time Christmas break rolled around, we had 97 days of school in. The school year didn’t interfere with my writing every day, but between the school year and the writing every day, my reading was interfered with, and I have fallen quite short of my initial reading goal for 2011. However, I did manage to reach my pathetic, revised goal. For next year, I’ll have to attempt to balance everything a bit better so I can do what needs to be done for school and write every day and reach my reading goal.

As the year winds down, I’ve had lots of good news. First, right before Thanksgiving, I found out I will be a grandmother in July. The due date is my birthday, which would be fantastic. Second, Byron and Theresa got engaged. Third, Cody and Tiffany got engaged. With a baby coming in 2012, Nicole’s college and Cody’s high school graduations coming in 2012, and weddings in 2012 and/or 2013, we have lots of exciting things to look forward to. I love to plan and organize, so all of this means a lot of fun.

All in all, I’d have to declare 2011 a very exciting and successful year. With all the fun and exciting things we have to look forward to in 2012, there’s no need to be depressed about another year coming to an end. Sometimes bad things do happen and you have to make the best of it, but other times things happen that aren’t really so bad, and you can decide how to approach it. I suggest always looking for the positive side of the situation.

As your year winds down, take a few minutes to reflect over the year you’ve had. Try to find at least one or more positive things that happened each month. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ve forgotten about the year, until you force yourself to remember. Use those positive moments to build your 2012.