The end of another year

So I haven't felt like blogging in awhile and I know why. It's because so much has changed yet again from our so called "plans". I should know better than to think that things will ever turn out the way that I might expect. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does kind of get on my nerves sometimes. One of my good friends always has a laugh at my expense for the zigzag course that Kirk and I are always on. No we're going this way....wait...no that way....hold on...no...I think we're supposed to go over here! That's how it feels sometimes. Does everyone go through their life decisions feeling this way or is it just us?

Anyhow, so we didn't end up buying the cool house across the street. The housing market crashed and the house that we are currently living in did not sell. Then the financial markets tanked and our business suffered some setbacks that made us rethink purchasing the house of our dreams. We deliberated and cried and tried to think of anyway possible that we could work out buying the new house, but in the end it really felt like the wrong thing to do. That was hard to reconcile because our hearts were set on it and everyone in town knew that we were lined up to buy the house. It felt like the worst day of our lives when we sat the builder down to tell him our bad news. He was very gracious and understanding about everything. We felt like the biggest jerks in history and had to wade through the shame in our little town where news spreads like wildfire. Thankfully most people seemed to understand our situation being that we were not the only ones who had suffered some financial losses. So we're just living in our little one bedroom one bath fixer upper waiting for a different housing situation to come to light that may suit our needs without breaking our piggy bank. It was the right thing to do to turn the new house down, but it was certainly painful. Our financial adviser keeps telling us the benefits of "delayed gratification". We have already had many lessons in delayed gratification and just thought that this time we wouldn't have to wait to get what we wanted. Well we were wrong and I'm okay with it because I'm familiar with this process. It will be worth it to wait. It always is.

Despite the disappointment about the new house we did have a great year overall. We have many blessings to be thankful for and I know in reality I have very little to complain about. We are currently enjoying a wonderful Christmas vacation in Las Vegas, New Mexico in a beautiful mountain setting with good friends. Who can ask for anything more than that!