Kickass 2012 or did 2012 kick my ass?

Here we sit on the eve of 2013...was it really an entire year ago that we were planning our #kickass2012?  Where did the time go?

If I could go back on my Twitter timeline far enough I would find a tweet about what was going to make 2012 so freaking awesome.  Three wonderful things...

• a "new" job (well, my contract being renewed or being hired on permanently)
• a new house
• a new baby

...and two out of three ain't so shabby!

In late summer we moved into our "forever home" -  the house that we will live in until at least 2028.  It is just steps from the school where our kids will spend 10 years each, down the road from some great parks and a lake they can swim in, a massive yard that will be the undertaking of #summer2013, surrounded by great neighbours and friends!
In early fall our family grew by one wonderful little boy.  After a traumatic birth with Bear in 2008 we weren't sure that another baby was in our family plans.  But Mini-D's birth was a completely different experience, and as I said to my OB: "if an accident happened and I had to do it all over again, I could definitely handle it".  Not that we are planning anything.  

So no, my "new" job didn't pan out.  Looking back, it was for the best - I couldn't see it at the time, but it wasn't a healthy workspace for many of the employees and I was actually blessed to have a contract that ran out and didn't get renewed.  There are other employees who have contacted me since my last day in March saying they wish they had had the opportunity to get out that I did.  So I'm still counting that as #kickass2012 - getting out before I got in over my head!

There were definitely other highlights and lowlights of 2012.  2012 was not the year of my highest highs (but in the top 3!) or my lowest lows (2010 still takes the cake on that one) but it was a year of peaks and valleys.  To add to my list of wonderful things that happened:

• watching my best and longest time friend marry the man of her dreams.  And having my daughter (her namesake) be a part of her special day as a flowergirl;
• Mini-D joining the family;
• Bear starting the same dance program that I did as a child, with the same instructor I had, even dancing some of the same dances I danced;
• Bear starting preschool and loving it (I was a preschool drop-out, making my parents proud);
• Bear being in unparented gymnastics classes and her first summer daycamp;
• Handydan starting his own company;
• meeting and making lots of new friends, mostly thanks to Twitter;
• continuing to work a new and dynamic "job";
• visiting old friends, GOOD friends in Victoria, Squamish and Vancouver.  So. Much. Love.

And the lowlights.  With all the good, there came some rotten.  Looking back, the good FAR outweighed the bad.  For that I am thankful.  Here are the contenders for worst of 2012:

• not having my contract renewed.  Sometimes I take this personally and sometimes it still hurts;
• an incident at the cabin this summer that is not yet resolved.  Maybe it started before the cabin, I am still unsure of the details.  Something I would like to get to the bottom of, for family's sake, but not sure that I am the one who needs to initiate it;
• a good friend losing her father suddenly.  This is a reminder to me that life is fragile and needs to be handled carefully, with love.

And with that, I hear the stirrings of Mini-D.  I need to go to him and love him as only a mother can.  But I will be back tomorrow with plans for a #fantastic2013!  Stay tuned...I`ll catch you in 2013!