HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here we are practically in a new year. Time to reflect on the past year and project our hopes into the next. Time to tell out loud what we are grateful for in our past year and what we are hoping to change in the new year.
I do not ever have New Year's resolutions. Why? Too many to name? Too many that I know I won't be able to keep? Not much that needs changing? (Joke) For whatever reason, I have never been one to make up lists of what I would like to change or work on in the coming new year.
What am I grateful for? That list is long and constantly changing and updating like a computer.
I am so grateful that I know our Lord and can call on him at any time of the day or night when I just need to talk. I am so very grateful that I have a wonderful husband that wants my happiness more than his own. I am so grateful that even though he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and is currently having treatment we have hopes of a complete recovery. We went to every kind of Dr. and clinical trial there is currently out there before deciding on a new kind of radiation treatments. We met so many kind and caring medical professionals in our quest. We made many friends of them. We feel we were led to this treatment and hitched our wagon to it.
I am grateful for friends, some good and some not so good. For whichever intention behind their friendship I am still grateful for them and their entry into my life. I like them whether or not they are in this for the long term, or are just a fleeting breath of friendship. That is not for us to predetermine, but to enjoy them while they are in our lives.
I am grateful for family. I have two grown sons with children of their own. I have raised 3 of the 5 grandchildren and they are nearing adulthood too. For that I am eternally grateful!!!!!!! This second crop almost did me in!!! I have three sisters with almost no contact with two of them since our mother died. I pray for them daily even though we are no longer close. But for that one who is still close I am most grateful for her and her love and friendship. Their absence makes her the more precious.
For a lovely home I am grateful. For a business that I love and worked 30 years to "afford", I am grateful. It is so different to work for your own self.
After 30 years of a good job and now a retirement check monthly I am also grateful.
So what else could I wish for? Continuation of all of the above. That is my greatest wish, for continuation.
For a good President to be elected when we go to the polls in 2008. For a new attitude between the two political parties in Wash. That list can go on and on.
I wish for health insurance for all who do not have any at this time in our country. So many who have cancer like my husband are without and cannot have the good care that he is having. What do you do when you have a family member whom you love greatly that has cancer and has no health insurance to be able to have treatment and you have to watch that person die needlessly? That would be so hard.
These are the real tests for our country and elected officials. That is on my list for things I would like to see happen this year.
So on and on I could go. But I won't. Thanks for the opportunity to state my position.
The store is changing somewhat this year. I have a new dealer and I won't announce her name yet but will let her do so in her own blog. I am glad to have her and am excited about working together here. There will be pictures forthcoming I am sure.
I also have taken a picture of the garden room here at the store that will help us get through the winter and dream of the springtime.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.
Lois