Goodbye 2007: Reflective thoughts

This was a great and busy year for us.

Individually, I saw each of my children take giant steps towards their own growth and maturity. Trevor began his first year of middle school and James began his first year of preschool. These events, in themselves, were huge. Trevor is on his way to his teenage years and it scares me to death. James, on the other hand, is so reluctant to change. He has never stayed with anyone, so getting him to attend preschool was a major undertaking. He has finally adjusted and is doing terrific! Lilly is, well...let's just say, "Lilly!" She is such a joy. She is always happy (except when she and James have an incident), so sweet and loving, and just a pleasure to be with all of the time. She makes me smile with the sound of her sweet little voice and the look in her pretty, brown eyes.

We did a lot of traveling in 2007. We started the year by going to Vail, Colorado for a snowboarding vacation. We went to the beach several times and visited Oak Island, North Carolina and Hilton Head, South Carolina. Todd and I took Trevor out west and visited Yellowstone, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming during the summer. After we returned home from that trip, my Grandma and I visited Niagara Falls and Toronto in Canada. Todd had endless business trips this year, but his highlight trip was to Sweden. We made countless trips to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and Georgia in between. Lastly, we finished out the year with our trip to Colorado and the cities of Telluride and Durango.

My biggest and proudest moment of the year was in July. Todd and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! It was wonderful feeling to celebrate that accomplishment. We gifted each other new rings. The one that he gave me has a diamond solitaire in the middle and 10 small diamonds around the band (to symbolize our 10 years). His is, let's just say, not so fancy. My ring is beautiful and a gift that I will treasure forever, like our love.

I am looking forward to 2008 and all that it will bring. I am looking forward to the new opportunities that will be presented to us, the challenges that we will meet, the new places we will travel, and spending time with my family.