Greeting the New Year; 2013

Me, random bear, and my mom, all enjoying the festivities

    A new year has dawned....and as always we have begun it by trashing our house with confetti. Even the bear joined in! However, unlike past years, our home was not filled with the joyful sound of young kids having confetti fights all over the house. The only young kid attending our annual New Years Celebration was my seven year old brother, Jesse, who had no choice in the matter. A couple old friends, who have been coming for years, managed to make it here and give us company. Their children being all grown up and on their own, they brought only themselves, along with delicious mint brownies (which was okay by me :) ). If no one came, we had the backup plan to play Settlers of Catan to call in the new year, which we had started while we waited to see if anyone would showed up. My family lives in a small county where almost everyone has no concept of time, in which case we never know at what time someone will arrive (if they decide to come at all). So, all we could do is wait and hope. And we were not disappointed. Once that couple arrived we set up the confetti on the balcony and got ready for the count down. My older brother, Caleb, along with Jesse and myself, commenced throwing confetti down our balcony onto our living room rug and having a mini confetti fight. When there are more kids participating in the fight it can get quite exciting at times. I have fond memories of the years past with many little kids and teenagers all coming over for the New Years.

    Unfortunately, the start of this year has not been entirely without defect. This past month was one of the hardest my family had to deal with. One thing after another kept piling up. To give some background info, my other older brother, Nathanael, tore a ligament in his right leg early last year, so he is still in the process of fully recovering from that injury. Now, to begin our litany of misfortunes, my grandmother, who is 94 years old and has been staying in our house off and on during the whole of last year, had another fall a few weeks ago. Nathanael was nearby at that time and, rather than notifying mom or dad, lifted her up and carried her to her bed despite the fact that his leg was still recovering from surgery. This naturally made my parents very upset. It wasn't until that night that they discovered that Grandma was experiencing extreme pain and wasn't able to move. Immediately, upon discovering how serious her condition was, they called an ambulance to transport Grandma to the emergency room. It was at that time, while everyone was waiting for the doctors to figure out what steps to take (and Grandma was not in as much agony), that Grandma informed mom about the most recent news. It was that same day that the horrific, devastating, and tragic murders happened in an Elementary school in Connecticut. Nothing can even compare to the pain those families are going through. We need to remember to keep them in our prayers and that God is in control. Directly after all of these events, my mother contracted the full-fledged flu, putting her out of commission for several days. This entire time I was not capable of offering any help, being in Blacksburg finishing my final exams. However, I had plenty of time to worry instead.
    Fast-forwarding to today, my Grandma left the hospital almost two weeks ago with a couple broken bones that need time to heal and is now residing in a very nice rehab center only five minutes from our house. Someone has gone there to visit her, comfort her, and remind her of our love pretty much every day. In fact, the nurses are probably well acquainted with her family by now. And as far as I know, Nathanael suffered no ill-effects from carrying Grandma after her fall, but I'm sure he wouldn't tell anyone even if he had. My mom has recovered from the flu, passing a bit of the virus to my dad before it completely vanished. Currently we all have fairly good health except for my Grandma, who suffers ailments mainly due to her age. Her mind is not effected in the least, and for that we thank God.  

    On a more pleasant note, I have gotten many new dresses for 2013! I am excited to show them off to all my wonderful friends who don't abandon me because I left Facebook! I don't get a chance to go shopping with my mother too often, so admittedly we splurged a bit. See how fortunate it was that the world did not end on Dec. 21st?
    On another amazing note, I figured out a way to lay out my final classes so I can graduate after this summer!!! Seriously, I am dead tired of school and ready to live my life......