Farewell to 2011

As I look back over this year, I have to say it’s been great!!  However, it didn’t start out that way!  The New Year brought sickness to me and my family – a stomach bug that seemed to go on for weeks!  Then I pulled my back in February and couldn’t sleep in a bed for 5 months (although it seemed longer!)  All that aside…there’s a lot of good things that happened too!  In March, Lisa and I did the Daniel Fast for the WHOLE month!  If you’ve never done it, you should try it.  We managed to stick it out a whole month…wasn’t easy, but we prevailed.  April brought the threat of a Fed Gov’t shutdown (AGAIN) and NASA celebrated the 30^th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program.  In May, I got to see Space Shuttle, Atlantis, roll out to the launch pad for the last time.  It was also Lisa’s 50^th birthday, so we got to live it up in Hershey at the Chocolate Spa!  It was wonderful!! I was able to see Space Shuttle Endeavour land safely for the last time in June.  My good friend Shannon Dove and her family came home from Costa Rica on a medical furlough in July.  So glad she’s home now, but we’re still praying for answers and resolutions to Rick’s illness!  I also saw Atlantis take her last flight in July – very bittersweet and so ends the Shuttle Program!  My uncle passed away in July as well, so we made a quick trip to Alabama and enjoyed time with family amid the sad circumstances.  I experienced my first, and hopefully last, earthquake in August.  We also survived my birthday weekend amid the impact of Hurricane Irene!  I was able to visit the Glenn Research Center for the first time in September.  And then October brought one of the best vacations I’ve ever had thanks to God, Lisa, Melinda, and Sallie! J  Melinda came for a visit in November for Thanksgiving!  And here we are in December again…in spite of Lisa cracking her foot, we made it through all the extra rehearsals for the Christmas program at church! 

It truly has been a GREAT year and I’m very thankful for every part…not just the good parts, but the hard parts too.  The tough parts keep us depending on God and just when I need Him, He is near!  Can’t wait to see what next year has in store!! 

Blessings,

Dawn

Christmas Time's A-Comin'!!

Christmas is my favorite time of year!!  I love all the lights and decorations – they just make me smile!!

When we were growing up, we went to a fairly small church.  We always had a Christmas play and Lisa and I always got the most lines.  I wonder why?  At any rate, it was the same routine every Saturday up until the play…we would go to the church for practice with curlers in our hair (so our hair would look good for church the next day) and go over all the songs, poems, and lines of the play.  Then, the night of the performance came…yikes!  I remember it very vividly – I was in the 7^th grade and had been playing the clarinet for over a year.  I was asked to play Silent Night for the program.  Everything was going well, until I got to the part “all is calm; all is bright” and then I squeaked!  I just wanted to die right here on the platform!!  I tried to recover and stop, but the more I tried, the worse it got!  Someone behind the scenes asked Lisa, “Why is she making that noise?”  Well, it wasn’t a noise I WANTED to make – believe me!!  I can’t remember if I played another verse or not, but that song seemed to last an eternity!! I finished the song and was so very thankful it was over!  To this day, Silent Night is NOT on my list of favorite Christmas carols!  LOL