What a Difference?

I read the phrase "What a difference a year makes" somewhere the other day. At the time I questioned "What is different in my life today from a year ago?". Not much, I thought. Same old challenges, same old weaknesses, same dirty house, same silly kids, same comfortable husband. However, as I've pondered on this for the past couple of days, I've come up with quite a few differences in my life from this week last year.

First to come to mind was location.

Last year during this week my Mom, sister and I drove to the Seattle, Washington area to visit my other sister and to have some "girl" time together. (Yes, I realize one of the people in this picture is not a girl, but we needed someone to be the tour guide). A year ago,I was definitely enjoying cooler temperatures, as well as some different family members.

Next, I thought about changes in my children's lives - which ultimately mean changes in mine.

My youngest son actually shared a lot more about his first week of school with me last year, via the phone, than I have been able to pull out of him this week. He is the king of one word answers,"Fine." "OK." "Uhh." "Sure." I pretty much think these all mean the same thing - leave me alone and stop asking dumb questions.

Another difference is that when I get to the school to pick him up he stands at the driver's door expecting me to move to the passenger seat so he can drive. That's a big change.

Everyone at school told this son that they knew what he did over the summer without even having to ask him.

HE GREW!

He is at least 2 or 3 inches taller than he was last year at this time and he has also gotten a little bigger around as well.

One last difference involving him that I came up with is the change in our morning routine. This child has never been a morning person. He enjoys sleeping in and isn't too excited about getting up in the morning. In the past I have told him when it was time to wake up and told him and told him and told him again, until he finally gets up. It has always been his strong belief that it was my job to get up half an hour early to wake him every 5 minutes, even though he had no intention of getting up the first time I called (or the second, or third, or fourth). By the time we finally got out the front door in the morning I was already having a bad day. We have tried lots of different things to change this routine. Alarm clocks, rewards, punishments, yelling, not yelling... but nothing has seemed to make a difference until now. This year I told him that his phone has an alarm and he is responsible to set it and get up when it goes off or he doesn't need to have a phone. 3 weeks into the marching band season and he has gotten himself up every day as soon as the phone goes off (except the day the phone was in my possession). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this change continues.

My youngest daughter has finished another year at Mesa Community College and has changed her major 2 or 3 more times.

She is no longer a teenager.

She has 2 new roommates and is living in a new home.

She is the parent of a puppy that was only a dream last year at this time.

She is falling out of love with her cute, little convertible that she was still falling in love with a year ago.

Her hair has probably been at least 10 different colors in the past year, but pretty much looks the same right now.

She has had 2 jobs and quit both of them. Now she is looking for a job and thinks that online college classes are the way to go.

This week last year the older son was preparing to start his job taking school photos for Lifetouch photography and spending all his free time trying to decide what kind of vehicle he was going to purchase to travel to and from his job every day.

This year he is working as an elementary school Instructional Assistant in a special ed classroom, a job he started in about March and continues to love, and spends all his free time trying to decide how he is going to pay the car payment, gas, and insurance on the 2007 F150 Ford truck that he has been the proud owner of for almost a year now.

He also spends a little of his free time thinking about a certain young lady that he had no idea even existed this time last year.

That brings us to the oldest daughter who has probably had the most changes in her life, since the first week in August last year, of any of us.

A year ago she was a single adult keeping her eyes open for a prospective husband with no real possibilities in sight. Today she has been married for four months and has eyes only for that one special guy that she plans on spending eternity with.

Last year she was living with her sister. This year she has a new sister (in-law) as well as 2 new brothers and another "mom and dad".

Last year she had just started her second year as a Kindergarten teacher at Fuller Elementary school and was feeling kind of like she knew what she was doing. This year she is putting the finishing touches on her Second Grade classroom at Salt River Elementary and wondering if she'll ever feel like she knows what she is doing again.

Some other differences I thought of were that we have more money in our bank account than we did last year. This is a good thing since just about everything I can think of costs more this year than it did in August 2007.

We have one less car, since our purple car gave up the ghost, but always seem to have more cars parked at our house.

I have a different calling in the church (along with an old one too ) and so does my hubby as well as all our children. Now I get to watch my son bless the sacrament instead of pass it every Sunday.

Last year I had never even heard of a blog, let alone written in one of my own.

My hair is grayer, my clothes are tighter, my blood work when I went to the doctor wasn't as good as it was last year. In 2007 I was walking 2 miles a day no matter how hot it was, this year even thinking about walking makes me too hot.

Lots and lots of changes. Some for the better,some for the worse, and some the jury is still out on.

I use to always think that my life would be one gradual uphill climb back to Heaven, but I have found that definitely isn't the case. My journey through life feels more like the roller coaster ride from you know where. One day I'm up, one day I'm down and I do often question if I am making any progress at all or if I'm just going around in a circle and will end up right back at the beginning of the ride this time next year.

I guess the question is

"What POSITIVE DIFFERENCES have I made in my life this year"?

Am I a better person today, August 7, 2008, than I was on August 7, 2007?

Have I learned something I needed to learn?

Done something I needed to do?

Made a difference somehow, somewhere in my world?

When I was sorting through some papers yesterday, getting ready for an Indian Parent Executive Meeting, I found proof positive that I at least accomplished that last one. Here it is!



Although I know that I am far from perfect and probably could have and should have made many more postive differences than I did this past year, I do believe that I have made some progress in my upward climb and can honestly say I am a better person this year than I was last year at this time.

Today I am thankful

that I got to stay home for part of the day and work on my own projects.
for lunch my daughter bought me at IHOP.
for a new day, every day, to make a difference.

Today my birthmonth present was Ice Cream. That's all I need to say.