Dickens of a year

As I sat in church (testimony meeting) hearing people comment on the New Year, I started to reflect on my own 2008.

Dickens really had it right...it was the best and worst of times. I had been out of work for 6 months in 2006, and still haven't recovered, and with my wife in school, it was a hard year financially. We had car troubles that only added to our money problems, not to mention the crashing economy. My wife and I both had health problems this year that slowed us down, when we had a 2 year old who needed more energy from us, not less.

On the other hand, we had a lot of good things, too.

I survived layoffs at work, my son is working to make some very positive changes in his life, and I am making progress on debts, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel (next couple of months will be hard, but more bearable knowing that it's going to get better afterward). I posted a lot of my postives in a previous post:

I also know that I have many blessings to be grateful for: I have a good family, I
have an affordable place to live, I have a good job (and survived the recent
layoffs), I have a great ward at church with a fantastic bishop, I am
reconnecting with many old friends and acquaintances on facebook, etc, etc. In
spite of the things that could be improved in my life, I have a good life.

While I feel mixed about the good and bad this past year, I am pretty satisfied with where my life is at this point, and where I can see it going.