Every one else seems to have a year in review so I thought, why not, I had a year too. Unfortunately I don’t remember much from the beginning of the year so I’ve had to do some research. I’ve been quite thorough… looked through the check book register, old emails, calendar dates, and even sifted through the receipt package we keep in the cupboard to verify dates and events. Frankly, most of the research has involved yelling down the hall to Jan for event verification since I’ve been wrong on every date so far. So here are some of the more interesting highlights to 2008:
January
Apparently I didn’t have any money because I don’t show I wrote out many checks in January except to a plumber for clearing our main sewer line. I must have flushed all the bills. I knew January was a bad month.
January 27th was an exciting day. That was the day that the valley had a severe snow storm while Jan and the Stake Relief Society were visiting in Etna and the Stake Presidency was in Yreka. Coming home was not a treat. Heather remembers this day because her car has been missing a hub cap ever since.
It is also the day that President Hinckley passed away.
February
Purchased four boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I often wished that the Boy Scouts would do something similar. The Boy Scouts just ask me for money, I get no cookies.
Jan and I visited Dad. He had just had open heart surgery compounded by intestinal surgery. He was still on pain relief medication and hallucinated quite a bit. He had a woman who he identified as an aunt Betsy who had a plate of cookies for him. He held his hand out to take the cookies, then looked at me and said, “I hallucinate sometimes. I don’t even have an aunt Betsy.”
Dad’s much better now. I don’t think aunt Betsy’s been visiting, either. I wonder if those were Girl Scout cookies?
March
According to my historical research March was the month that I discovered the ease of using my debit card in place of writing checks or constantly pulling out cash to cover purchases. It is also the month where the notation NSF is written in tiny letters in the check register. Looks like I got too happy with the debit card.
March was the beginning of some big changes in the Smith family. Heather had decided to make the move to
April
It took Jan and I 31 years to get there but we finally celebrated our anniversary one weekend on the coast. It was great. Jan says the highlights of the weekend were the drive over, the phone call from Brittany telling us that she was expecting, the hotel room right on the beach, and the fudge at the little shop across the street. The highlight for me was being able to spend a weekend with my gorgeous wife who I absolutely adore. Take that, Jan!
May
This was the month that I realized the Mail Tribune was in trouble. Not just the Mail Tribune but newspapers and media generally. Nearly 5% of our full time staff were laid off due to budget cuts. We often think man made institutions such as businesses and governments will be around forever. They won’t.
June
The previous year a wind storm had knocked over our gate and fence. Fearing that large animals and criminals were invading our backyard at night Jan encouraged me to put the fence back up. Actually, she gave me two choices. After deliberating, I choose to work on the fence. However, I enjoyed the openness the lack of the fence gave, a spacious entryway into the back yard, no propping open the gate as I wheeled out garbage or having the gate smack my back side as I pushed the lawnmower through.
The fence is back up, sturdy as a crippled man’s right leg that has no bones, and the gate is back to protecting the yard from the insane animals that prowl the neighborhood.
July
Highlight was going back to
August
Kevin, Nicole and Noah moved officially to
So, we went back to
We met Jason, took in a BYU football game and otherwise had a great time.
August is also pear picking time at the church’s welfare farm. We managed to pluck a few of those, too, during the month.
September
Wedding plans, baby plans, MRI’s all filled the month. Jan operated a great taxi service driving me around.
October
More doctor visits and renewed my driver’s license. The form I filled out asked if there was anything health wise that would prevent me from driving. I answered no even though I couldn’t drive at the time. The way I reasoned was that it was a doctor that told me I couldn’t drive, not the DMV.
Had another birthday.
November
Busy month. Heather and Jason got all sealed up. With all the kids, but Brittany and Clay, it was amazing. I don’t mean that it was amazing because Britt and Clay were not there. That’s not my thought at all. Great Thanksgiving.
The Friday evening before the wedding I rushed home from decorating to be here when Megan and her friend drove in. I remembered I needed to pick up my suit at the dry cleaners. Got in the Sable and the battery was dead. Walked quickly to the dry cleaners, picked up a couple of Subway sandwiches, got back home just in time to see Megan wandering the neighborhood looking for our home. I’m sure our gate kept her out of our back yard, though.
December
Many people felt sorry for Jan and I when we told them none of our kids would be home for Christmas. Those were only the people who had kids coming in for the holidays. After Christmas many worn out dads were envious of our quiet, low key Christmas morning. I reminded them to enjoy the noise and holiday tumult while they had it.
Looking back 2008 had some very low moments but also some great memories. I hope 2009 evens out for each of us.
3 comments:
Good read. Brings back some good memories... but it also makes me sad that we're not in Medford now :(
My favorite was when you visited grandpa in February. I laughed out loud (but was trying not to so it came out kind of creepy sounding, which is too bad because Clay is sleeping and I think it scared him). But on the bright side, at least grandpa KNEW he was hallucinating! I think 2009 will be just as good, if not better! You'll have a new grandkid within the next two weeks. That's a good way to start off the new year, just ask Hayley.
I should've told Amy about the backyard secret passage. Then we could've played "how fast will Amy's lips turn blue from cold weather, to a Californian?"
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