Good riddance.<\/p>\n
It’s not that the year was all bad.\u00a0 Some of it was really very good.\u00a0 It’s just that the bad outweighed the good.\u00a0 Most of this was due to one very bad thing.<\/p>\n
Work<\/strong><\/span> And if that wasn’t enough – the economy tanked at the same time.\u00a0 The cause of the company’s failure wasn’t solely the economy, but it was a big part of it.\u00a0 Jobs just plain dried up from September through early December.\u00a0 There are signs that things are easing now.<\/p>\n If it weren’t for positive things and positive people in the rest of my life, I don’t know how I would have handled this.<\/p>\n Church<\/strong><\/span> The summer trip to the Montreat Youth Conference was one of the top 10 experiences of my life.\u00a0 I truly feel that God spoke to me that week in some fashion.\u00a0 I know that my faith deepened, and that the same happened to most if not all of the group from our church that went on the trip.\u00a0 I also feel that I grew outside of the religious aspects.\u00a0 (Of course, this high leaves me wondering where God is in my life now, when things are not so good.)\u00a0 The biggest thing that I learned this year – while I care a lot about our youth, they care about me too.<\/p>\n Putting together the Moderator Meet and Greet event in April was a lot of fun as well as being a lot of work.\u00a0 I met a lot of new and wonderful people.\u00a0 The event was well attended, and I hear that it helped commissioners make a decision at General Assembly.<\/p>\n Meeting in person and working online with other church leaders has been mostly positive.\u00a0 I’m amazed at how strong the online Presbyterian-and-beyond religious community is.\u00a0 I’ve felt support when I needed it and given and watched it flow the other way when others needed it.<\/p>\n Serving as a deacon has been rewarding.\u00a0 This is work that I know that I can do and do well, and that is relatively easy, and that aids the church.\u00a0 That’s sort of the point, isn’t it?\u00a0 I just have to be careful not to schedule myself too heavily (like the Sunday that I had coffee service AND served communion AND agreed to set up tables for a later event).<\/p>\n For female who are willing to have babies, hysterectomy or endometrial ablation cialis generic pills<\/a> can’t be accepted usually. Ginseng is in use for centuries and is one of his biggest fears and that can lead to a more dangerous form of emotional and mental depression. levitra discount<\/a> They offer Female cialis generico 5mg<\/a> sexual dysfunction treatment with the help of neurons when the man is sexually invigorated. There is nothing worse than being on a safer side you davidfraymusic.com<\/a> purchase cheap levitra should consult a doctor. <\/span>My committee studying hospitality, visitor and community issues for the church has nearly completed its work.\u00a0 We have identified 19 issues and more than 19 suggestions for how to change\/fix\/handle those issues.\u00a0 We present to the Session in February.\u00a0 The team has worked hard and learned a lot.<\/p>\n Serving as the new webmaster for the church’s website and weekly e-mailed newsletter has been a growth experience for me.\u00a0 It has forced me to learn new technical skills and also to generate a little content independently.<\/p>\n The bad: I am also continually dismayed by the negative tones in some conversations\/fights\/battle-royales in the church community over the hot button issues of today.\u00a0 Those of us within the church fight harder and with less love than we do with our colleagues in other denominations or religions, even though the points of disagreement are far smaller and unimportant.<\/p>\n Home<\/span><\/strong> The cats are still fine.\u00a0 They turn 13 tomorrow.\u00a0 Isaac is still suffering from a bit of arthritis in his hips, but the daily Cosequin is helping.\u00a0 Both of them still have a fair amount of kitten left and still go running around like crazy animals occasionally.\u00a0 Albert has had no recurrence of his kidney issues.<\/p>\n The house is fine.\u00a0 We have had to put off a bit of home repair work (mainly fixing the fireplace chimney that failed a while back) for economic reasons.\u00a0 Nothing important is wrong, and we continue to love living here.\u00a0 It’s a great neighborhood – not too noisy, not too quiet, and plenty of kids running around. I’m hoping that 2009 will be a combination of the continuance of good things, and an end to the bad things that are happening now.\u00a0 I see new hope in the elections of both our PC(USA) Moderator and the new President of the USA.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if that hope turns into a better reality for the country, church, and me.<\/p>\n Happy New Year!
\nThis was a particularly bad year.\u00a0 I’m not going to go into details, but you should assume that life at my former employer wasn’t particularly fun before August.\u00a0 In August, I was laid off from a job that I’d held for 13 1\/2 of the last 15 years.\u00a0 It only helps slightly that this employer ultimately filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November.<\/p>\n
\nThe good:
\nI LOVE<\/strong><\/em> my youth group.\u00a0 The young men and women that I work with more or less every week are all wonderful, and I learned a lot about myself, them, life and God over the last year.\u00a0 Sunday afternoon\/evening is the high point of my week.<\/p>\n
\nThe worst has to have been the controversy over my blog in March\/April\/May\/June of this year.\u00a0 I don’t know if people realize it, but the church was about 12 hours from losing me in April – the only things keeping me were the facts that Youth Sunday and the Moderator Meet and Greet were imminent responsibilities of mine.\u00a0 This event only took 2nd to the loss of my job in how poorly I felt while in the middle of it.<\/p>\n
\nHome life continues to be solid.\u00a0 Carolyn and I have ridden out the very rough patches of the 2nd half of the year with no negative effect on our relationship.\u00a0 Most of this is due to Carolyn’s very conservative nature when it comes to money, and the strong planning ability that both of us have.\u00a0 She continues to be supportive at a very difficult time in my life and it has brought us if anything closer together.<\/p>\n
\nMy car has had a rough year.\u00a0 I was rear-ended in July and minor damage was done to my rear bumper.\u00a0 It was fixed pretty quickly, but it took about 4-5 months before the insurance companies paid my deductible.\u00a0 Here’s a tip – no matter how late you are, don’t pass on the right on a one-lane on-ramp.
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\nHealth<\/span><\/strong>
\nNo major changes.\u00a0 On the Montreat trip I lost a number of pounds due to the stairmaster-like qualities of the village of Montreat (to get anywhere you have to walk down a big hill and up a big hill).\u00a0 The emotional strain of being out of work took off some more.\u00a0 I’ve managed to end the year a net 10 pounds down.\u00a0 Otherwise, my health remains the same.<\/p>\n