Last post of the decade

The first New Year's Eve I remember I was between 8 and 11. I'm not sure what year it was. What I remember is my exuberant friend, Mary Beth, coming over to spend the night. She said we should go outside on the back porch at midnight and shout HAP-PY NEW YEAR!!! to the neighborhood. Most of them were probably sleeping. But we shouted it. We shouted and laughed and giggled and shouted and then went back inside to enjoy the rest of our sleepover, whispering and giggling loudly until my mom probably made us sleep in separate rooms. It's been known to happen.

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A review of the past decade:

2000: I was 15 years old and had my first real boyfriend.

2001: Junior in high school. Thought I wanted to be in the military.

2002: Graduated high school, met my future husband, started college, dropped out of ROTC.

2003: Got engaged.

2004: Married Jordan.

2005: Amazing year of marriage, just hanging out, finishing college with no kids.

2006: Graduated with a BA in psych and got my first job.

2007: Suzi was born, and we bought our first house and first car.

2008: Dreamed of having another baby and quitting work.

2009: Did both of the above.

I learned a lot over this past decade, and most of it was learned outside the classroom. Jordan and I both learned a lot about money (how to not waste it, primarily). Our girls have taught us so much, too. There have been some heartaches (not listed) that we've learned from and it's helped me realize that usually a crappy situation is God shaping us into the most beautiful version of ourselves--the way we should be.

Goals for 2010:

1) Keep breastfeeding for the whole year and then some, as I said in my previous post.

2) Make more things out of clay.

3) Sell more of the things I make and/or figure out something good to do with them.

4) Pay off our van early. (We might not finish this off until 2011, but we'd like to make some major headway.)

Hopes and dreams for the coming decade:

1) Have more children.

2) Homeschool them.

3) Add on a garage and a couple of extra rooms to our house, or (maybe) move to a new one.

4) Grow more, learn more, and make more of a difference in the lives of others.

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Tonight I am having a slumber party with another exuberant little girl. We tried to put her to bed, but she cried and cried. She wanted Mama, she wanted Daddy, she had to pee, and when she'd tried every trick in the book plus some new ones she started over at the top of her list. Finally we agreed we'd bring her back downstairs so we could all welcome 2010 as a (happy) family. Hopefully she will be asleep by midnight. Right now she is holding onto the back of her daddy's shirttail as he tries to walk Ivey to sleep. Ivey's fat little hand is holding on to Jordan's necklace as if to dare him to try and put her down. I will probably nurse Ivey 10 or 11 more times tonight. Suzi will probably wake her up two or three more times talking too loud saying things like look Mama, a bagel! Look! Look! Look! LOOK! The Christmas tree is still up with the lights on, and our girls are up too. It's definitely not how I ever imagined spending New Year's Eve, especially not ten years ago. But it feels good.