The blog of a decade

Every New Year's eve, I sit down and write a blog about the last year of life. My favorite of those blogs is titled "Annus Horribillis" written in 2006 after the worst year of the decade. I still think that is my best writing on this blog. I will link to it in the title so you can go back and read it.Ten years have passed since Y2K, so much has changed in ten years. So much that I don't even know how much has changed. I will attempt to remember each year in some detail and look back from whence I came. I love to look back on the markers and stones in my life to remember how far I have come.


2000- NYE's I was pregnant with Elizabeth, but also mourning our baby that was supposed to be born that night. In April our daughter was born and brought such happiness to us. We were living in a small apt. not far from where we live now. We were struggling to keep afloat on minimum wage jobs. I worked at a dept. store and Marty worked security. Conner was two and quite the handful, this was the year of the famous "I saw Jesus in the light socket" incident.


2001- In January, the same day we rented a cute duplex with a yard, my beloved Aunt Pat died. I will never forget January 5th, 2001 because of that. She was our matriarch here in Visalia and our big reason for moving here. Elizabeth was one and Conner was three. A week before Elizabeth's birthday we adopted our dog Max. The jury is still out on whether that was a good idea or not. I still worked at the dept. store and Marty worked some odd job or two.


2002- Marty got a job working for Frito-Lay and I was able to stay home. We bought our van and finally had a good car. My sister Carrie got married in the spring and we traveled to Brea for her wedding. That year saw us to financial freedom as we elimnated all of our past debt. Elizabeth was two and Conner was turned four. That fall saw the start of our homeschooling and our joining Parkside Chapel. It is also the year Conner started AWANA. Marty lost his job with Frito Lay and decided to go back to school.


2003- That was the year my Gramie died, she was my mom's mom and we were very close with her. It was a very sad time for me personally. She was more like a mom to me than a Grandma. Conner experienced grief for the first time. We still lived in the little brown duplex and life was moving along. Marty joined the Police Academy in February and spent the next 6 months struggling to make our lives change. He finally graduated after breaking his foot in three places during the final physical fitness test. He applied for his current job and we started looking for agencies all over California. I started working at the hospital in January and became a doula/labor coach. I truly loved my job for the first time and found a life long passion. Elizabeth was three and Conner was five. This was also the year that I started my online ministry.

2004- Marty and I celebrated 10 years of dating. We missed our ten year high school reunion because we went to Hawaii instead. My Dad was living on the Big Island and we went to see him. It was truly the best week of our lives and a trip we will never forget. Marty was working for Comcast and I was working three jobs at the hospital by now. We moved briefly into a little townhome on the other side of town. We were miserable there.I stopped communicating with my sister Kim, one of the best decisions I have ever made. Conner was 6 and Elizabeth was four. This is the year that I discovered blog reading!

2005- Was the best year of our life together. One day while schooling, a knock came at the door. It was a police sgt. from the place Marty had applied. He wanted to know why Marty hadn't sent in his background and was he still interested in the job. Whoa, hello God knocking on the door, who does that. Only God! We had missed the deadline for the background and thought it was too late. The next day I drove it out there and in April he was hired. Our life changed drastically, No more struggling, no more scraping. We moved into a very nice townhome, a real home in a nice neighborhood(or so we thought). Marty started his career and loved it. Conner was seven and Elizabeth turned five and started schooling with us. Our life was good this year! I started a blog in November on Myspace. Christmas day was the saddest day, my Grandma was clinging to life by the end. I took the picture on the top of this blog December 27, wondering where life was going.

2006- I rung in the New Year with my Dad and Grandpa in Whittier. Grandma was clinging to life and it was all about family. She died later that month and Grandpa followed eight weeks to the day later. The family home was sold later in the year. My mom had major surgery with a cancer scare. Our van broke down, completely unsalvagable. The only good part of 2006 was celebrating our tenth anniversary in March. Also Marty and I turned 30, I was happy about that and he wasn't. Conner and Elizabeth really grew up this year and started making so much progress in school.We did go to Big Sur and enjoyed a lovely family vacation. She was six and he was eight. I have many fond memories of this year but mostly look back on it as a bad year.

2007- looked great, life was getting back on track and we were moving forward. Until May, the doctor appointment that shattered our world. Marty was diagnosed with End Stage Renal disease and the wind was knocked from our sails. We did have a friend come visit from Ohio and had a lovely family vacation together that summer. I don't remember much except lots of doctors visits and picking up the pieces. November Marty was accepted as a transplant canidate at Stanford. Elizabeth was seven and Conner turned 10, double digits.2008- By now, we had accepted the diagnosis and were moving on. Every month wondering if Marty would end up on dialysis. My favorite part of this year was going to Southern California to see my family, friend Melissa and meeting Andrea and Di for the first time. The kids started bowling and we joined a bowling league also. Elizabeth turned eight and Conner turned 11, inching his way to teenager. Marty ended up starting dialysis that summer and it was a struggle.

2009- We finally found our pace, things were humming along for most of the year. Just always waiting for "the call" that never came. The governor's decision to cut employee's pay, affected us greatly. It has been hard to see my sick husband work for less than he is owed. Marty did not feel well most of this year. The kids have grown up so much, they are no longer babies and quite independent. It has been a very lonely year, no traveling, no seeing family. We did move into a lovely home in September, not a forever home but better than our old house. We discovered black mold that was making Marty ill, on top of bad neighbors. So we made a rather quick decision to move. It was a good decision and we are very happy here. In the last two days, our world has come apart once again with a doctor making a bad scene. We are waiting on change that seems like it will never come. The best part of this year was the kids and their busy lives. Also two old friends came to visit and brightened things up a bit. Conner is now 12 and so grown up, my little chubby cheeked guy is still there. Elizabeth is 9, getting ready to go double digits. She is fun, likes to cook and looks so different.

What will the next ten years bring, I am not sure that I would want to know. I am hoping for a better ten years, maybe peace and happiness, illness and death free. More traveling, visiting friends and a full life. In ten years, Conner will be 22 years old and Elizabeth will be twenty I wonder who they will be and what they will be doing. I will be..........43 and Marty will almost be 44. We will have been married 24 years by then. Thinking about that makes me panic a bit. I hope you join us in the next ten years, I wonder what blogging will be like then? It didn't even exsist at the beginning of this decade. If there is still blogging, I will still be blogging.