New Year's Eve

was one hell of a year, from start to finish.  It started with the near death of my mother, saw the birth of two grandbabies, the purchase of a new home, the arrival of a new son (and business partner) to the Ridge and the departure of another back to Georgia.  We have been through so many ups and downs this year....had a few scares along the way, and a lot of joy.  No matter how you sum it up, this year has been eventful. 

But now it's time for it to go.  It's time to do a new thing, to ring in a new year full of new events, new blessings, new adventures.  This is the year we will get the shop completed, the year we'll cut a new driveway up to our dream home, the year we start remodeling.  If luck is on our side, it may even be the year we finally get to move out of our tiny camper and into roomier digs, even if they are under construction. 

It will be the year I finally get healthy....and stay that way.  I really want to get back to running in a big way this year, and to start competing in some local races before the year is out.  To meet...and conquer...my nemesis, the Eastman Road Race would truly make my year complete.

Although our plans for spending this week with our oldest grandsons fell through, we are looking forward to spending a great deal more time with them this year, and hopefully with some of the others, as well.  It may see the return of our youngest daughter to the Ridge, and with her, will come our other two grandsons, the youngest whom we haven't yet met. I already miss my precious youngest granddaughter, Dawn, who has moved back south with her mom and dad, and am really hoping to spend some time with her big sister, Harmony this summer, if we can work it out.  And their middle sister, Rose, I haven't had a chance to spend much time with at all...yet.  All in good time, I suppose.

I still have my fingers crossed that our eldest daughter will relocate this way, too....but she's in school now, full time, and still helping my mom a lot, so that may not happen any time soon.

And although I am still blessedly employed making money that is unheard of in this area, it is a tenuous employment, at best, contingent on continued funding.  When the funding dries up, so does my job...which means I'm still looking hard for a job I can be happy in, closer to home, for the long run....or at least, until the business gets established enough that I need to make IT my full-time job.  As much as I'd love to see that happen in the next 12 months, I think it's more likely that we won't see that until the year after.

Will I be able to keep up my blogging this year, as I have in years past? I sure do hope so....it's a very therapeutic outlet for me, and one I enjoy immensely. Somehow, in the past year or so, I've slipped out of the habit, and I really hope to work on that in the new year.

There's a change in the air...I feel it, I see it, I can taste it.  I know it's coming...and I can't wait to see what this new year has in store for us.  So it is with great relish that I say goodbye to this year, with thanks for all the lessons I've learned....good and bad....along with all the blessings we've received, and say hello, and welcome to

Playing Catch-Up, Part Deux

ounding out the rest of 2012 should catch me up again...for how long, I cannot say.  Despite my best efforts, I cannot seem to get back in the habit of blogging regularly, even though I enjoy it as much as I do.  So....one of my resolutions for the coming year is not to create unrealistic expectations on myself that do nothing but put undue stress on me....counter-productive, to say the least.  Instead, I will just try to be more mindful of my blogging, going forward, and we'll see what the future holds.

Back in June, when I last posted, we were still actively working on the actual purchase of the property next door, but at the time of the writing, hadn't actually closed on it.  In July, we finally did just that, closing on the 11th, the same day that we headed to Grandfather Mountain, NC for the annual Highland Games.  This year, we not only attended all four days, but we camped out, too...and brought a good chunk of the family along for good measure.  Although it rained the entire time, we had a blast, and decided to expand our time next year to camp for the entire week, whether anyone else joins us or not.  We have no doubt that the camper will be jam-packed with Clan.

Along with Keith's parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and wife, and sister-in-law's mother, Jessica joined us, a family friend of ours, and Jessica's aunt and cousin also came up for the day, and we had a mini-reunion, which was awesome, as we haven't seen each other for years.  We had several OG'ers come to celebrate, as well.  Irene and her friend, Lisa came from Canada and Michigan, Shelley from Maryland, Joelle from Wilmington, NC, and Anita from Sophia, NC.  Only Joelle was an old-timer; all the rest were first-time visitors.  We're hoping for more repeats next year, and would love to see some of our friends from previous years return as well.  We also had a wonderful meet-up with the Ladies of Lallybroch, a sister group of Outlander fans, and some old friendships were renewed and new ones formed.  It was great to see our friends Julie from Kingsport and Angie from Georgia here again.

In October, we were blessed with another adopted child, in the form of Jessica's best friend (and our oldest Grandson Gabe's biological father), Rick (a/k/a Irb...short for Ice Road Biker).  Irb decided to join us on the Ridge, and he and Keith formed a joint partnership in Keith's business, Phoenix Restorations & Recreations. Having Irb join us was one of the best things that happened all year; he's been such a help for me as well as Keith, and our plans took a major leap forward toward our goals being accomplished at his arrival.

Also in October, our second-oldest grandson went into double-digits, joining his brother, who had reached that milestone in July.  Their birthday request, since they hadn't been able to join us for Grandfather, had been to go to the Stone Mountain Highland Games with us.  So Poppy and I took them to Atlanta for the day to spend the day with Jessica, Katrina, and Irb.  An added blessing was that we were also able to take our granddaughter, Harmony with us. It was truly wonderful to be able to spend the day with three of our angels at once.

In November, we found out that our son, Ian and his family had decided to return to the Atlanta area, so we gained a son, and lost a son, all within a month.  We will miss them terribly, but we know that they...as all our children have...must follow their own path.

So far, December has seen a lot of working, on the part of all three of us.  Our neighbor, Jeri, who we bought our new home from this year, will be completely moved by the end of the month, paving our way to begin our renovations.  We plan on having a quiet Christmas at home this year, with none of the kids (save Irb) joining us.  After Christmas, Keith and I will go down to NC to pick up our two oldest grandsons, who will spend New Year's weekend with us.  It will be very nice to be able to bring in the new year with them.  We don't get to see them nearly enough...a condition we hope will change drastically in 2013.

Once thing is for certain;  January will bring massive changes to the Ridge, some of them long-awaited, indeed...and we are very excited to see them arrive.