Comfort, Relief, and Strange WoW References

I'm honestly in a pretty good spot right now, all things considered. Looking back at the rollercoaster that has been life, I see some pretty amazing moments where we ducked and dodged and somersaulted to avoid certain doom... and we weren't even wearing costumes.

I feel like Carrie and I just beat a really hard raid for the first time and can finally rest, recover, change some gear and have some fun just jumping off the bridge in Stormwind (that bit is for my World of Warcraft friends*).

For those of you who are having an "Okaaaay... huh?" moment, what I'm saying is we've been fighting. Not each other, but the world. Trying to balance all of our personal madness with work and the kiddos and bands and so on has been really hard. Carrie is... She is fantastic. She works so hard, and loves these kids so much.
And now she has a new career and an opportunity to apply the brakes.

She has been going non-stop without fail since Memorial Day last year, when she took the internship and maintained full-time status at Best Buy so we could keep our insurance. Despite an average of 60 hours a week or so for ten months, all while trying to graduate college, she has not lost her cool. She has not broken down. She has persevered for everyone.

That, folks, is a champion. And now she has her reward for all of this work, as she has been hired on full-time with TG Missouri in Perryville in the HR department, which is where she wanted to be.

No more late nights. No more Black Friday. OMG. I just now realized that.

And no more weekends. We can do family things. She can come on all of our Nature Center adventures. She can go fishing with us. We can go visit family. Birthday parties, holiday parties... THERE'S SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!!!

She is being compensated well at this new position. And we will continue to have benefits-- better and cheaper, I might add-- for doc's visits and such.

So, we beat the Lich King. And now we can focus on other things. Primary: fix our credit. Secondary: get to church regularly. Tertiary: everything else that makes up for lost time.

Yeah, we know there will be another raid someday. And when we're fighting those beasts, we'll look back and think of how easy all of this really was. But you know what? I'm damn proud of my wife and our little family, and I relish the challenges ahead.

After all, that's what makes life a game anyway.

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In other news... Mom is coming up on her last chemo treatment. She's doing so wonderfully; I really can't describe how... healthy she looks, all things considered. She's been so upbeat and motivated to beat this cancer garbage, and we're hopeful that very soon we'll have a big-ass party to celebrate the conquering heroine!

God is good, kids. 2012 was a painful year. A really, really painful year. But things have come so far in just this short first quarter... I'm telling you, faith is worth it. Pray earnestly; talk to God. You will not hear Him hovering over you with a booming James Earle Jones voice, but you will hear Him. I know I have friends, some very close to my heart, that don't believe in God. It's your choice to make, but when things are their darkest, His is an ear that will always listen, and the answers will come.

Here is a quote that a friend posted on facebook earlier tonight that I found absolutely true:

There's some truth for you, kids. I keep a circle of friends that covers the entire political and theological spectrum, and if everyone could read this and nod and understand, our entire system would be so much more intelligent.

Anyway, I'm babbling. Keep things in perspective, work hard, focus on your mission and pray. Go therefore and do the damn thing.

PLR
D




*for the record, I've been out of WoW for several months. Sorry, Blizzard. ;-)