It's a New Year and a New Day!

2016

It's here finally, not that I was rushing it, I wasn't, 

but it seemed like I was waiting for it from the start of 2015.

Time has flown by for me since I've been back in California.

That can be good, and that can be bad, but truly I think it is what we make of it,

only time will tell what is to come.

I'm trying harder to be a more "positive" person, 

I've been a half glass empty kind of girl for a very long time.

Patrick and I closed out 2015 by attending a New Years Eve dinner at Malarkey's.

While waiting for our dinners to be served,

Patrick expressed his love for me and asked me if I would marry him.

I of course said "Yes".

We'd been talking about marriage for awhile now and had planned on tying the knot

in December, but things kept getting in our way,

first it was the clean out of Pat's moms house as we were under time constraints

due to the sale of the house.

Then when we thought we were all set to just get married, no fuss, no frills,

just us and our kids, another set back with the guy who was going to marry us.

Things happen you know, so here we are with a marriage license

that must be used within 90 days or we start at the beginning again.

We think we'll do it soon, we hope to anyway.

So keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll decide on a day

and everyone who wants to be there will find a way to work it in to their schedule.

Marriage, we've waited a long time for this, technically since we were little kids.

Yup, we've known each other since we met at church in 1970.

I had a crush on him from that day forward, Patrick was in fact my first date.

I moved to Connecticut within months of our date and we both led our own lives

for the next 33 years.

Time and circumstances brought us back together

and here we are ready to start where we left off.

Patrick has been working a lot lately, for that we are grateful.

Morgan is teaching in an after school program that she very much enjoys.

She has her own classroom and her own class of kids,

she's hoping to get back to school for her masters eventually,

until then she will be studying to take her CSET tests so that she can apply to be a full time teacher.

She is also substitute teaching and hopes to get more of that in before summer.

Me on the other hand, well I have not yet found work.

It's so hard when you have been out of the work world for 15 almost 16 years.

I never really realized that by staying home with my daughter and just being a mom

was actually handicapping me for the future.  

It seems I no longer have the skills that used to be so helpful and handy for the type of work I desired.

I don't know what I'll end up doing,

but do something I must.

Once again … wish me luck.

So many things to come, hopefully new adventures,

new friends, new travels and new experiences to write about.

Chances are there will be losses,

there will be surprises,

there will be disappointments,

and there will be many reasons to smile and laugh.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year,

may it bring you all your hearts desires.