Goodbye 2012

  How crazy is it to think that 2012 is just about over !(or already so in some parts of the world!)  Where on Earth has the year gone!  2012 has been a year of changes for us some good, some not so much. While we've lived in NY for all of 2012, we moved up here so late in Dec 2011 that most of our adjustment period was in 2012.  While we loved GA immensely and miss out friends and family there VERY much, we have found this part of NY to be gorgeous and honestly if the property taxes weren't so darned high we could see ourselves living here permanently.  But that is really neither here nor there.
   As to the changes, some have been blogged about and some not.  My wonderful Mother-in-law passed away in the late Spring.  I was blessed to have known her for 13 years and not only that but I LOVED her like she was my own Mom! I know many women who don't get along with their MIL's but mine was AWESOME and she will be greatly missed.  Within a few months of her passing, we discovered that our beloved dog Zues, whom we'd had for 13 years had advanced cancer, and we made the agonizing decision to let him go...gosh just typing this makes me tear up.  Zeus was an amazing dog and his passing hit us all very hard.  Those 2 things were definitely the lowest points of our year, but with both of them we know that Mom and Zeus are both in a better place, both pain free and happy and watching out for us!
    Now on to the happier changes! Our oldest son graduated High School in June and in October made the final decision that he wanted to join the Army like his dad!  That in itself was a bit of an interesting change as we found out during his enlistment process that he has a slight heart murmur.  It was a long month of doctors visits and simply time, while we waited to find out the severity of said murmur and how it would affect his chances to enlist.  Thankfully his murmur is very slight and will not affect him at all.  I am now not only a proud Army WIFE, but a proud Army MOM too!  He will head to Basic Training in February of 2013!
   In July we came to the conclusion that our house just didn't feel right without a dog in it. A friend of mine suggested checking Craiglist when I was ready and just for the heck of it, I looked at the listings in our area after hanging up with her.  And you can imagine my surprise when I opened an ad for a 6yr old Golden Retriever that I swear was looking out from the picture with the same look Zeus always wore...that intelligent, soulful gaze.  He just grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go.  I looked at several other dogs but kept coming back to him.  I waited until Donnie got home before saying anything, but Donnie saw the same thing I did and suggested we send an email to his owners.  Needless to say the final decision to adopt Scruffy, was fraught with a bit of heartache as his owner wasn't entirely certain she was truly ready to give him up. (her husband had recently developed an allergy AND they were preparing to move cross country)  But in the end after talking via phone and email and meeting with her, she decided that we were the perfect family to give Scruffy all the love and attention she knew she couldn't.  He has been a bright spot in our year and does a wonderful job at filling the hole in our hearts!  And oh, is he ever a Daddy's boy!  He just adores my husband and prefers his company whenever possible!
   As far as my shop goes, I again struggled to truly make it a profitable endeavor, but had several sales and made several wonderful friends through it.  Once again this year my goal is to focus on my shop, and I think this time I have some very good ideas and plans for actually achieving that!

  My goals for 2013 sound rather repetitive, but heck who knows maybe this year is the year I'll actually follow through with them!

• work out at least 30 minutes every day
• stay OFF Facebook after 10am
• use my day to actually WORK: sewing and sculpting daily
• LIST the finished items in my shop...it's difficult to sell items if they aren't listed!
• design more custom Monster High pieces that are character driven and hopefully more appealing to MH fans
• spend some time sewing for Barbie and female action figure bodies as well
• set up a couple of doll dioramas to be left permanently up to allow for for photo taking

• take more photographs of my dolls NOT shop related

 So while none of these aren't too difficult, I truly can hope to actually follow through with then this year! 

May you all have a fun and safe New Years Eve, and may 2013 bring you all you could ask for!