what a year

Now that everything is somewhat back to "normal", I've had time to reflect on this past year's events. I've realized a couple of things.

1. I haven't even had time to think until now!
2. Life has a lot of joy, challenges, and pain
3. We can do hard things

Here's a sample of some of the tougher things we've faced since HF joined the academy, and held a full time job among other responsibilities.

• Pervert next door neighbor asked me if I wanted to have an affair. He never saw HF and thought he was deployed in Iraq. Yeah, crazy! I'll have to tell this story in its entirety some time. Although traumatizing and creepy at the time, it's quite hilarious now. He wouldn't let up for a few days. He would wait for me when I would pull up in our car with the kids and everything. He doused on his cologne and would ask to come in to our apt so he could take a picture of me, or ask me to come into his apt so he could take a picture of me. He had a lot of interesting things to say. He's married with kids and everything. I told him not to talk to me and was tough and would say, "NO!", but he didn't leave me alone until HF confronted him. Jerk.
  
• 15 year old in the neighborhood with a lengthy criminal history broke into several homes with a weapon with the intent to harm and molest the young children living there. Another big long story. One morning we woke up and our living room window was open and the blinds had been pushed all the way to one side. Big hand print on the window and muddy footprints under the window. As far as we know, no one came in. . . (yeah, we live in the ghetto- graffiti, gangs, sex offenders, you name it)
• Daisy broke her femur.
• HF turned 30.
• We found out we were pregnant with baby #3, a boy, born on Halloween
• The day Daisy got her cast off, I broke my ankle. I was 6 months pregnant.
• I went to stay with my parents in Oregon for 2 months.
  
• HF's brother got married in Kentucky. I had to miss it.
• I got clipped at full speed by this guy while pushing the kids in a stroller. This was a couple days before I broke my ankle. I told HF about this guy and how after he rammed into me he said, "Oops. Well, you were walking too slow". I was pushing the kids down a handicap ramp in a double stroller. Pulling on it to keep it from flying down the steep ramp. He came flying down the ramp and just full on rammed into me. Turns out this guy was in the news a few weeks later because he was suing a store for not allowing him to ride his rollerblades in their store while he pushed his wheelchair with his cat in it. Turns out he has a history of suing stores for this and he also has a history of ramming people on accident. He's crazy. He has an injury from being hit by a bus 10 years ago, but for some reason riding roller blades instead of sitting in his wheelchair is easier for him. It's just my luck that this happened to me. Seriously, I've got Murphy's Law baaaad. Fortunately, I laugh about it. Gives me good stories to tell at parties.
  
• HF joined a search and rescue team.
  
• My brother got married in CA days before our baby was born. I couldn't go for obvious reasons.
  
• Daisy started Kindergarten. I am that mom that stands outside anxiously after she's already made it to her classroom.
• My grandma died in a car accident
• HF's great aunt died
• HF's aunt had a stroke
• HF's mom tried to commit suicide
• on the same exact day of the attempted suicide in a different state, HF's dad had a heart attack. (they are divorced)
• HF's younger sister was admitted to a hospital for heart problems (all of this death related stuff in HF's family was in the same week!)
• HF flew back east to deal with the family drama. He moved the mom's loser boyfriend out of her house, began all the legal paperwork to keep this guy away, he was a total con artist wanting all her money. Everyone knew it except for her. Classic. HF gathered all of the family and organized a babysitting system, got her enrolled in AA, basically helped her begin a new life and only had 3 days to do it and had to fly back home and that night go to the academy. I'm still waiting for him to have some kind of emotional reaction to all this. It might be after FTO. He's a strong guy though. This is the lifetime television for women story I mentioned a while back. It's got it all. It's a good story.
• general poverty. I say this more as a joke. We have everything we need and feel very blessed, but there's been some major sacrifices. We did become completely debt free this year, but a million dollars would be nice to buy a house and get HF all the police gear he wants, and a much needed tropical vacation would be nice. . .