This is it, folks.  My last post for 2013 (most likely, given my track record).  I've been trying to decide how I feel about this.  So much has changed for me that I'm really off of my game, like I'm not even in the same league anymore.  It's all gone strangely too fast and weirdly too slow at the same time.  It's being in a tornado with a strange calm and then another blast hits you again.  Always some vortex in which we measure what our lives have brought to the world.  As always, I have no really big insight.

We built a house this year.  It's amazing and we love it.  It has crayon and marker prints on the wall already, but it adds character.  We were planning on painting it anyway so technically it isn't a problem.  As soon as I can figure out my phone, I'll show it to you in the different stages of production.  Actually, I'll try it now. 

 

 

 

 

Just kidding.

That really isn't our house. This is the house I talked about, the empty shell where the poor retired couple lost all of their retirement money.  It's obviously beautiful, but most definitely incomplete.

 

This is my house:

 

 

 

Here's the master suite:

 

Kitchen which is obviously not finished. We had to wait for the countertop. 

 

 

 

 

Finished!!!

 

Second floor laundry room.  That rocks.  I hated going up and downstairs all of the time.

 

 

Part of the stairs:

 

A close up of the railings.  I hated them at first, but now I love them.

 

 

 

I won't bore you with pictures of the kids rooms but they're cute.  Emmett's nursery is done in monkey themes and the older boys are done in The Cat in the Hat.  There is also a loft that separates the main suite from the kids room which is great for a toy room/exercise room.  There is a formal front room and an office, which I claimed immediately.  My scrapbooking stuff needed a home.

 

I'm another year older and hopefully I'm getting wiser. I don't know. 

 

This year has been a year of extremes.  It has been both very, very bad and very, very good.  All of the uncertainties that I will face in the next year are before me so I go into the holiday season with a little trepidation and a lot of anxiety. 

 

It's late.  Generally I have my most profound thoughts when it's late and I'm up working on my blog but tonight I have nothing to say except that I wish that I could invent a time machine.  I would go back to the me of three months ago and tell myself to wake up in so many ways. This year is over but who knows what the next year will bring?  I'm scared to think about it, truly scared.  My kids grow older and I'm starting to see a little more of their personalities.  Emmett, for example, is a daddy's boy.  I never thought that would happen.

 

I started writing a book like someone suggested but things became so chaotic in my life that I've been completely unfocused and unable to put into words what I feel in my heart.  All I can say is that my life is measured by small bits of time that I hold onto as closely as I can.  Those moments are my lifesavers, keeping me afloat when everything else seems to not make sense.  Those moments are what will make 2013 the most memorable.