So here we are in the second month of 2007 already, taking a look back at 2006. It seems like it went fast – real fast - but then a lot happened from our point of view, so let me highlight some of it for you.

Something I enjoyed a lot this year that actually started last year for me was getting involved in a Christmas production that our church does for the community each year. The director who was coordinating the dance scenes approached me one day and asked if I would be in the dance ensemble that was going to be part of several of the scenes. She said she had noticed how I “move a lot” during the praise songs (oops) and could tell I had had some training somewhere along the way. I told her I hadn’t done ensemble dancing in a long, long time. But she promised I would have an easy time of it. Long story short, I did it and it really was fun, satisfying, and worthwhile to be a part of something like that.

Then this year, dance was expanded quite a bit. Our dance coordinator teaches at a local studio and she brought in some of her students from there to strengthen the effort. They were mostly high school girls; and they were well trained, really good, and really enthusiastic. I learned a lot from watching them and getting to dance with them on a couple of things. And I also got to help choreograph the number that the youth group was singing and that was a lot of fun, too. These are high school students and several of those girls were very enthusiastic and had some good ideas for moves. The challenge for their leader and I was guiding them to keep it simple enough that the others could do it (and that the guys would do it). But it all went well and was a lot of fun (also a lot of work!).

So with all those rehearsals and performances of the Christmas program, then going to see Natalie Grant perform her Christmas concert, and going to see The Nativity Story movie, I couldn’t help but be way into the Christmas spirit this year.

Looking back to summer, that was a great time, too. It always is. We love summer. It’s such a wonderful time being outdoors and doing all of those kinds of things. It’s just so relaxing and fulfilling and renewing. We did a lot of camping at our campground again this summer. We started early and kept going for as long as the weather stayed warm enough. Most of the time we went by ourselves, but there were more times this year than last that we took guests with us. That’s so much fun. We took my best friend, Julie and her guy, Jeff with us several times. We had taken each of them individually with us before, but this was the first time we had taken them as a couple. We have so much fun with them anyway so when you combine that with taking them to a place that we all love so much, well, it doesn’t seem like it could get any better. Julie has pretty much gotten over her aversion to camping (meaning she doesn’t complain quite as much) and is pretty much willing to rough it with the rest of us (it’s really not that bad). And it’s cool that they’ve made friends with some of the same people we’ve known for awhile and that they fit right in – so much so that when we’re there without them, everyone always asks where they are and how they’re doing.

But I have to say that the greatest joy in taking a guest along this summer had to be when Brian’s sister, Beth came along for a weekend. It’s a long story as to how we got to this point with her and it’s a fun story how that weekend went. I hope to share all of that with you at length in the future when she is fully down with that idea. I think it will happen; I’m even hopeful that she’ll want to do some of the writing. We’ll see. But for now, suffice it to say there were moments of doubt, moments of courageousness, moments of new understanding, as well as some pure and simple enjoyment. I’m so glad she’s come to trust in this. It’s just one more sign of how close we’ve become. She’s out of school now and working in a near by town. We still see her pretty often even though she’s living a little farther away from us now. Things are going well for her and she’s happy. We’re glad she decided to stay in this area.

We made a few more new friends at the campground this summer as well as spent time enjoying our established friendships. There are a lot of great people who enjoy camping there. Sadly, that’s the only time we get to see most of them since we live so far from there. But, we do get to see our friends, Ann and Jim and their family fairly often. In fact, we even lucked out by being there at the campground on the one weekend that they were there this summer. That was fun. And we also were invited out to their place a few times this summer as well as to a few of the kids’ games and other events. They’re active kids.

The big, big news for us this year was that we found and bought a house of our own. We’re all moved in and have thoroughly made it into our home, but we started out having a hard time deciding to make this move. We couldn’t decide whether or not we ought to do this yet or whether we ought to just wait and save a little longer, but then there was a fire down the street from us in another duplex like we were in. We were living in a neighborhood that was pretty much all duplexes. Turns out it was caused by negligence on the part of the people in one side, but it displaced the families in both sides and there were injuries. That’s what kicked us into gear and made us decide to go ahead with it.

That was in May; our lease was up in August and we would need to give notice before that, so we had to work fast. We pre-qualified for a mortgage and started looking right away. We looked at a lot of places but things just weren’t happening for us. We began to think it wasn’t going to work out in time, but then we finally found what we needed – a solid house we liked in overall good condition in a good neighborhood as well as terms that fit our situation and timeframe. The seller was anxious to sell and wanted to close as soon as possible; and that worked out perfect for us, too. We were able to make it all fall into place just in time with several days to spare. And we used those extra days to do some cleaning, painting, re-carpeting and other things like that that were better done before moving in while the house was empty.

When moving day rolled around, we had a lot of good and generous help from friends and family. Julie and Jeff helped us (they actually helped us with packing ahead of time, too) and a number of our friends from church and elsewhere were all kind enough to lend us a big hand with moving. Brian’s parents came over to help, too. Not that we have a lot of stuff, but it sure goes fast when there are plenty of people working together. And it was good that there were – it was a very hot day. Brian and his dad tackled some repairs that weekend, too. We’ve got a lot to learn about home ownership.

I have to tell one funny thing that happened on moving day – a little joke that Julie pulled and wouldn’t you know, I fell right into it (doesn’t happen often, OK?). She had been making fun of me for packing everything in boxes and for having the boxes labeled with what was in them and where they should go at the new place. I was just trying to be organized, right? Well, she just thought that was just way too much and that I was being totally obsessive and over the top about labeling. Not so; I was just being practical so that everything would go smoothly.

So we had this one box of books and it was pretty good sized and very heavy. It took two guys to carry it. I probably should have used two smaller boxes. But anyway, somewhere along the way after it got carried out, she got hold of a marker, marked out my label, and wrote ‘S E X - M A N U A L S’ really big on the box so that it would be noticed by everybody. Later on when we were at the new place unloading and unpacking everything, I was off in another room working when the guys brought this box in. I heard everyone laughing, but I had no clue what was up. Then Julie yells, “Hey Sunny, where’s this one go?” Instead of going to see what was going on like I should have, I made the big mistake of just yelling back, “Well, what’s it say?” There was a pause and then Julie yells back, pretty much loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear, “SEX MANUALS!” Well, that was enough to crack everybody up. So I go in there and everybody’s laughing including Brian’s parents and I get all embarrassed even though I’m an adult and have been married nearly three years; then I get embarrassed about being embarrassed. You know how that goes. So anyway, that’s how she got me that day and as you can imagine, I’m still hearing about it (“so Sunny…read any good sex manuals lately?” she’ll ask in front of everyone and then she’ll tell the story on me). It never ends.

But at the end of the day, we were all moved in and it didn’t take us long to make that house into our home. We love it. We’re really liking having our own place. It feels stable and secure; more of a sense of being established and belonging. We like having our own yard; especially the fact that the back yard backs up to a green space with lots of trees. It’s very private on the deck and near the back of the house due to the trees, the topography and the landscaping. Further out in the yard, it’s in view of one of the neighboring houses, but nearer to the house and on the deck, no problem for going in and out as we are. And it’s especially nice not having to have that privacy fence closing in on us like we had at the old place. This is way more open; more natural; and lets us enjoy the outdoors so much more right there without having to go somewhere else.

Also, we’re in a nice neighborhood; lots of families. We’ve met most of our neighbors and everyone seems really nice. It all took a lot of planning and work, but it’s been worth it. And it’s really nice having more room when friends and family are over – whether it’s for the evening or for the weekend.

Speaking of friends, and this is something else that actually first happened last year and has continued on into this year, I ran into an old friend from way, way back before I started getting moved around so much. It was such a surprise. I was out with some of my co-workers for lunch one day and this girl suddenly stops as she’s walking by our table, looks at me and says my name (from before I was married) as a question. As soon as she said it, I recognized her, too. We hadn’t seen each other for like 11 or 12 years – it’s a wonder we recognized each other, but thanks to her, we’re now back in touch. We didn’t have much time to talk right then, but we exchanged phone numbers and then met a couple of weeks later for lunch and did a lot of catching up. We vowed not to lose touch with each other again and we get together every so often now for lunch. We also met up one evening for dinner with our husbands – she’s married, too – and we all four had a great time. We hope to do that again soon. She and I were really good friends back in those days; it’s nice to find someone from that time of my life again.

Let’s see – what else? Oh yeah, we continue hosting home study groups from our church. We hosted one in the fall in our new place – nice to have more room for that kind of thing now – and we’ve actually just started into another one. We’ve made a number of new friends this way. Another thing that’s been a lot of fun that we started doing occasionally was inviting a few people over and having a game night. I got this idea from someone on the message board who mentioned using this as way of getting to know people (Thanks, Straber!). We just play games like Taboo, Scattergories, UNO Attack, and others like that that will get four or more people involved in doing something together. It’s a lot of fun and it gets people interacting in fun and funny ways. It’s a great way for people who don’t know each other to get acquainted and it’s a good way for people who do know each other to just have fun and joke around in a comfortable relaxing light-hearted sort of way.

It was kind of hard getting this idea off the ground at first. I brought up the idea one night when Julie and Jeff were over. She thought it was dumb, but went along with it anyway “just to humor and placate me.” Of course, she was the one that ended up having the most fun. You can just imagine how creative she is – especially with the rules. She thinks that just because her dad is an attorney, that somehow makes her the most qualified to “render a proper interpretation on the rules and regulations of the game.” For us. I don’t think so! And we don’t let her get away with it. Lots of laughs.

At any rate, Brian and I are even more thoroughly convinced than ever that it’s important to get to know people as well as to let others get to know us. We know that in order to do that, we have to be open and available. That’s hard to do sometimes for any number of reasons, but we’re making it a priority. We also know that we need to build and maintain trust by being honest and loyal. And we know we need to make people around us feel welcome and comfortable so we try to always be hospitable and positive and encouraging. We’re always more than ready to do this with friends and family.

It was a good year. Hope it was for you, too, and that 2007 will bring joy and blessings to all.