HAPPY 2010!

I remember being 10 years old and thinking the 80s were really going to be something! I was right! PacMan, TI computers, Walkman, MTV and cordless phones are all 80s "inventions". Now, here it is 2010, and I am, again, certain this decade will be SOMETHING!

As I reflect on the the first decade of the 21st century, I remember very happy times!! I was the mom of a precocious 3 year old boy, who would be a big brother at the end of 2000. Our family of three lived in a 1700 sq. ft. house in Lewisvile, Texas, the first brand new ANYTHING my husband and I ever bought together! It was in a cul-de-sac with plenty of room in the back yard for a growing boy and his favorite dog!

We moved in 2001, after Chloe was born, exactly one month before 9/11. Our new house was twice as big as our old one, and was in a great neighborhood in rapidly growing Frisco, Texas. We found a great church, had a great group of friends, and a wonderful school family. In 2005, we welcomed Emmy to our family. What a sweet blessing she was (and IS!!).

We moved again in 2006 to a house closer to our school. We added a pool to the back yard and made many memories with family and friends at that house. We painted one bedroom hot pink, one lime green, and one gunmetal blue. We had friends over for dinner, Bible studies, Sunday School parties, birthday parties, block parties, and family in town. Ross played soccer, baseball, and basketball, and even gave tennis and swimming a try! Chloe was a one-sport girl: gymnastics would become her passion, and our family spent many weekends watching her compete and improve.

We vacationed with my family to Florida, Colorado, and New York. Our little nuclear family visited the Bahamas, Disneyworld, Captiva Island, and the Caymans during that decade. Emmy began school and dance. She took swimming lessons and tried gymnastics. She learned to write her name, count to 50, spell every color you can imagine, and sing the words to pretty much any song you can name. It was a decade of wonderful memories that we shared with the most important people in our lives.

I will be 40 in 2010. At the end of this decade, I will turn 50. My children will be 23, 19, and 15. My middle daughter will have completed her first semester of college, and my youngest, her first semester of high school. Ross, I predict, will be in graduate school. My husband and I will celebrate our 26th year of marriage, and, Lord willing, we WILL be living in Texas. My parents will be 73 and 74! My sister and her husband will celebrate 22 years of marriage in 2020, and their children will be 19, 17, and 15. All the while, it is my prayer that we live life together, vacation together, keep the people who are most important at the top of the priority list, and have a blast doing it all!!!

I look forward to the adventures that await during this new decade. So much can happen in ten years!