New Years Eve Blog.... I learned ALOT in 2011

Its New Year’s Eve... It has been an eventful year that’s for sure. It has been jam packed with supreme ups and supreme downs. I have learned a lot this year.

I learned that every bump in the road is really a lesson wrapped in a way we can understand it. I truly believe that God will not put me in a situation I cannot handle... I just have to realize how to handle it. Every situation I have faced this year I have been able to look back and go… Ok I get it now... lol 

I have learned to appreciate all the blessings I am given no matter how big or how small. Sometimes you are given something that you don’t realize how it will impact your life. I think its important to pay attention to small things like hitting all green lights on a long morning drive. To that person who let you get on the highway instead of sitting there waiting for the traffic to die down. It may not seem like anything but it is important.

I have learned that procrastinating in relationships can cause major holes and you may fall in the whole before you realize it’s there.  I tend to have tunnel vision and I have worked on that a lot this year. I need to see the whole situation not just what I’m comfortable dealing with. 

I have learned the phrase “ask God to help you with something and he will give you opportunities to deal with it”…. I like most other people wish that I could say Dear God I need your help with ______ and I could just go to bed and it would be done. But it is better the way he does it, just slightly annoying at times. lol 

I learned that I SUPREMELY suck at taking care of myself. I have gotten sick more this year than I think I have in my life… And I jokingly say one of the reasons God put Clay in my life is to take care of me. God knows he does a better job than I do… 

I have learned that my expectations for my husband are sometimes extremely retarded. I have a truly amazing man in my life but he is not perfect and will not answer everything perfectly and do everything exactly as I wish…. Even though sometimes that’s exactly what I would have expected. lol 

I have learned how important my relationships outside my husband and kids are. Before this year I did not really go out of my way to see my friends.  And yet I would expect them to go out of their way. I have really worked on being the friend that I want my friends to have, while I have not perfected the art form. I have really tried to forge and renew the relationships I find important. 

I have learned that even thought I have changed A LOT in the last 4-6 years I still have a lot to keep working on. Clay and I always talk about “old Katie”...  And how amazingly different I am from then. I think most of the people who knew me then would agree that I am an almost totally different person. And the people who know me now would NEVER guess how I used to be. But I tend to stick to …… “but if you saw me so many years ago.” I still have things to work on. Growing up how I did causes a lot of problems with certain thing and with God’s help and my AWESOME support system, and my own stubbornness. There may be a continuous better Katie….

Christmas …… Christmas Presents……

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about hiding Christmas presents. And I started to laugh. I thought about how my parents hid our presents when we were little.

 I knew of their favorite hiding place…. My parents had a double sided close, a  his/hers kind of thing. Next to that was this really skinny “closet” more like a tall skinny storage room. Well that was one of their hiding places. After we figured this out we would wait for a day when my parents left one of my siblings in charge and we would go root around in there…. And see all the stuff….lol

I remember one year my mom had a friend hid it at his house. We couldn’t find anything anywhere.. Then at 2am on Christmas morning I happened to look out the window and saw my parents taking presents out of moms’ friend Dewey’s truck. I guess they figured since Dewey lived in Pacific we would never find em.lol

They also made use of aunts and uncles at some point.lol

When Joey was a baby it was easy I actually put some of his presents on a shelf in his room. He wasn’t old enough to go looking in his closet.lol And as he got older I made use of Rubbermaid containers.lol Now he wants video games and such so it is extremely easy to hide em.lol

My parents wrapped some present late Christmas Eve night. We always had to go to bed early so that “Santa” could come. Well that worked for the most part. I actually verified Santa didn’t exist because of this habit. And midnight mass. 

One year my parents had us go to midnight mass with family. (This was in the 80’s when midnight mass was actually held…… at MIDNIGHT.lol). When we got back we decided to sneak up the front walk. There window off the porch looks into the 2 front rooms of my parents house. SO my siblings and I sat there for a good 20 minutes watching them wrap things…. Then we sneaked back down to the sidewalk, slammed my parents’ car door and started down the walk again… This time more noisily. My mom answered the door, barred sight into the living room and gave us our marching orders.lol

The next morning we did our normal tradition. Our parents would have us line up on the stairs in order of age. Then we would be escorted into the living room to open presents. That year it was interesting to see what people got since most of us already knew what was wrapped.lol