Is it really already 2008? I can't believe that Christmas and New Years are already a memory. My Christmas cards are still sitting without the addresses and I never did get all of my decorations up...Now it's time to take them down.

We have kicked off 2008 in true Math family fashion:

The check engine light went on in Thomas' car...and the repair bill today? $600 We were bathing Aidan and Zoe and noticed that some of the tiles were lifting off of our bathtub...and surprise...after we got the kids out and dried we had a look...and the wood is rotten underneath.

The real kicker though...oh yah...you know that no year would be complete without this:



Oh Murphy...WHY must you love us so?

So...Thomas turned on the water in the sink in our laundry room....and then walked away to do something else. He forgot about the sink until Andrew yelled up the stairs "Hey, there's water dripping through the ceiling".



Need I say more? The one thing I'm most grateful for is that I was not home when it happened. I was in Wal-Mart. When I got to my car there were 11 messages on the machine from my frantic husband and children. "Help!" "Emergency". Hey, I really mean it when I say that I can't leave them alone.

The thing is...I just can't get myself upset about it. Yah, it sux about the floor...and the car..and the bathtub...and it is coming at a rather unfortunate financial cost to us because we can't file with our homeowners insurance, but...instead of feeling angry or freaking out I find myself glad that these are our problems. We are healthy, it is a beautiful winter, and our family life is pretty good right now. Thomas was a mess over the floors. He wanted me to join in and was almost deflated when I said "there are so many worse things that could happen".

We managed to let it go...despite the agony of 4 boxes of wood at $250 a piece plus labor....We simply let it go.

My uncle's astrocytoma just recurred. I have a good friend struggling each day right now with the after-effects of her son's treatment for a brain tumor...and the fear that she has that it will come back.

My wish for all of us here at the iMSN this year is that the biggest challenges that we face are rotting wood and buckled floors, and that we able to find beauty in each day despite residency, fellowship, or the stress of everyday life.

Happy New Year everyone![/quote]