the way Anna sees it

I'm usually not very "deep" in my postings, but a challenge on a scrapbooking forum that I visit was to journal about this year in review. So I thought I'd share it:

This year was consumed by our temporary move to San Diego, Ca. The beginning part of the year was spent getting ready for the move. In April, we dedicated Abby at our church and there was a going-away party. Then it was time for the big drive. The kids did not cry, except for the last 10 minutes (of course). We had car troubles, but in San Francisco, Chad fixed it well enough to get us to San Diego. The next six months consisted of trips to the beach, pool, park, zoo, and many other fun outings. I went home with the kids in June for 2 weeks to visit family and attend our annual family reunion camping trip. I enjoyed seeing my family, but did not enjoy having to stay with my parents, as we had a house-sitter in our home. I gladly returned to San Diego and my husband at the end of the two weeks. Much of our friends and family came to visit and stay with us during the summer. Between July and August we had 5 different sets of visitors. This was fun but sometimes exhausting. In September, I was ready to go home but still had 2 months left. Our house was now vacant but we learned that it had been broken-into. Thankfully, most of our stuff was with us in California. I turned 30 with hardly a bang. Chad's parents babysat while we stayed in the city, hoping to go out on the town, but Chad came down with a cold and we ended up staying in. The next day, it rained for the first time since the day we arrived in San Diego. I made plans to come home in the middle of October and my mom flew in to help me with the kids on the plane. I came home to whole lot of cleaning and organizing. I was home without Chad for 3 weeks, which was so hard. I can't even imagine being a military wife. The car broke down on Chad's drive home, which delayed his arrival by another 2 days, and has cost us so far $3700 to fix. Now that we are all settled into our house again, it is as if San Diego never happened. I remember that day we said good-bye to everyone and headed south and it is so weird to think that it is now over. I am so glad to have my house back and to be close to my family once again, yet sometimes I am saddened that we cannot just drive to the warm, sunny beach within 10 minutes, or head out to the park, because there, everyday was a nice day. It is December now and I'm having fun doing some Christmas baking, because last year I didn't do much with a 1 month old baby. I look forward to 2008 with both joy and dread, as I know my sister is planning on moving very far away.