Happy New Year!

It is always pretty neat when New Year’s rolls around. It gives us time to reflect on what has happened over the past year and make goals for what we want to achieve over the next year. Laura and I spend a little time on New Year’s Day sitting in bed and talking about what all has happened over the past year…and what excitement lies ahead. Espeically this year as we know life will absolutely change for us in just a few short days- 65 or less to be exact.

Our major trips were to London, Austin, and San Antonio. We also
did Nashville and the regulars like St. Louis, Starkville, Tupelo and Jackson, MS. This year we were able to watch the Bulldogs lose game after game in football. This year we each got one year older. I did my first (and probably only) half ironman. Laura taught her first Women’s Bible Study. I got involved with the Men’s group and church and for the first time started going to Men’s Fraternity on Tuesday mornings and Bibles and Biscuits on Friday mornings. We started a new small group. We made a couple of new friends (Jimmy and Shep to name two). Our prayers were definately answered- we’ve been praying to be surrounded by a group of young Christians to support us and love us and share our lives with us…we are thankful for all that have brought those things to our lives.

I shot two deer with one bullet. We paid 12 house notes. We went to Sardis lake for the first time. We went to Memphis in May again. Stephen Agostinelli got married. Laura and Jason Holmes had a baby girl. Matt Sumrall made it back from Iraq. Boston Legal got moved to Tuesday nights. Desparate Housewives got way too ‘out there’ and lost two of it’s viewers. I built a mantle, some clocks, many pens, a bowl, some canlesticks, a crib, a nightstand, a humidor and a bookshelf. I got a table and fence for my bandsaw. I got a nasty cut from my bandsaw- which sent us to the ER. I stayed at the hospital from 10 p.m. until 5:30 a.m., it’s nothing like the TV show, Laura says. My friend Miguel was the doctor that sewed me up.

Laura was let down that she didn’t get a position she really wanted. Laura was excited because she realized the reason that God didn’t put her at the position she wanted. I spent many months in Conway, Arkansas. Laura spent many nights home alone. I started a new job. I now spend all nights at home.

We put up Valentines, Halloween and Christmas decorations. We eventually took them down as well. I got a new computer. Laura got a new camera. Laura picked up sewing. I am picking photography back up. We lost my grandfather to cancer. We lost Mayme Imbraguglio. We lost Steve Farmer’s Father. We got pregnant…the highlight of our year.

Now, I’ve run through probably 30% of what has happened over the past year. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’d be willing to be that if most people stepped back every once in a while and took an inventory of their lives, they’d see they do a lot as well. One thing that I’ve learned is that life is one of the most rugged and fragile things all at the same time. It could disappear at any time. No one is guaranteed even that next breath. Don’t waste it. Run with it, get it dirty, clean it up, make it help others, let it be a little selfish, let it be alone sometimes to recharge, push it…to the limits. Engage it with other lives, work it hard, let it rest, wake it up. Don’t let it hold a grudge, forgive. Smell the roses or coffee or brownies or sawdust or baby powder or engine grease or fish guts or whatever it is that makes you forget everthing else. Just don’t waste it. You know, there’s nothing better than burying someone and being able to say, “You know, that guy lived life to it’s fullest.” I hope to live 2007 just that way.