Done

Humor me for a moment while I contemplate over the last few years.  6 years ago Jon returned home from his mission to the Dominican Republic.  5ish years ago he re-started school back at BYUI and soon after that, he married me.  Over those last 5 years of school, we have acquired 2 dogs, worked 1, 2 and 3 jobs at a time while going to school full time, bought our first car, moved into the first place we could call ours, had 2 adorable little boys, neglected friendships, built relationships, painfully watched my father battle cancer and cried more times than we can count because of the challenging journey we're on called life.  We're tired.  More like, exhausted.  But we're done...for now.
I am so grateful that we can say goodbye to the chapter we call, "the college years."  How nice it will be to not say the words, "do you have a lot of homework and work tonight?  I guess I'll see you around bedtime, then."
To be honest, there were a lot of times we wondered if it was worth it.  For some, college life is great but for others it's a challenge.  I enjoyed college but I was single.  Supporting a family and going to school is soo much harder and even though we wanted to quit, I am so glad Jon didn't.  He knew getting a degree would be good for our family.  Education is important and we want our children to know that we think it is important.  All of those years of sleepless nights and all of those hours of studying set Jon up to do jobs that he loves.  I'm so grateful for that.
I'm grateful that I was able to see our little family get stronger, despite the challenges around us.  I'm grateful that I could fall deeper in love with my husband as I saw him struggle under all of the pressures he was under and rise to the occasion.  I love knowing that no matter how busy he gets, family is still the most important thing to him, by far, without question.  There were many nights he had an overwhelming homework/work load to do and he'd push it aside to listen to me cry...and then he'd stay awake till all hours of the night finishing what he needed to.  I'm pretty happy I get to be his partner in life.
Challenging times have a way of showing us just how strong and capable we are and I hope that's the lesson we learned over these last few years.  We're stronger than we thought we were.

2013 wasn't perfect but we were blessed.  It brought Aiden to us which was definitely a highlight of the year.  It also brought a new job, my first triathlon, races, camping, a 2nd birthday for Patrick, graduation and lots of other experiences that I am grateful for.  I feel like 2014 is going to be a good year for us.  I hope it will be.  I've come to learn that you can't rely on anything happening how you plan it, but we do have a long bucket list of things we want to accomplish.  Either way, I'm happy to have loved ones by me, including these cute boys.

Happy New Year.  Here's to hoping 2014 is a good year for everyone. :)