Done with 2015!

2015 has been hard.  Some great things happened, but there was a lot of hard stuff, too.

We found out SS was cutting, which is probably the hardest thing I've ever gone through as a parent. I think we have this resolved, and SS seems to be in a much better place now.

We had my mother's last illness and death, which affected me more than I anticipated. Between MIL and my mother, who both seemed to try to set record hospice stays,  I've slept more at hospice than most people who die there.  No one should be as well acquainted with hospice as we are.  And then there were family dynamics that made the whole situation just so much harder than it should have been.

Oh, and then the rosary for my mother, where the priest was late and when he did show up, he just sat in the back and did nothing and I was left to run my mother's rosary and I'm not even Catholic.

And the twins got lice in the middle of the whole mother dying thing, leaving me picking through their hair in hotel rooms.

My remaining grandparents are declining rapidly.  These grandparents were always my rock.  I didn't have the best parents, but my grandparents were always there for me, always engaged in my life and my kids' lives, always made sure we had everything we needed.  They were the ones I called if I was ever in trouble. They were the ones I called with good news.

Now they both have Alzheimers.  My grandfather developed it first, but my grandmother has declined  much faster. Every time I call or visit I end up just want to cry.  It's like they're already gone.  My grandmother doesn't remember anybody any more.  She's like a child. My grandfather remembers us, but we have the same conversation over and over.  He swears no one ever comes to visit, when I know that's not true.  He's angry and argumentative, and just not the Popa I grew up with.

And PS was deciding on and applying to colleges.  The pressure on her was enormous and started affecting her health.  And we spent most of our fall taking road trips every weekend to visit schools.

And then PS totaled her car while she was driving her sisters to school, which is the scariest phone call I've ever received. TT ended up with a concussion, but she seems fine now.  We had the fun of dealing with insurance and buying her a second car this year (car shopping is pretty close to the top of my list of least favorite things.)

And then PS passed out at school. We determined it was low blood sugar, because she never eats.  So it is a constant battle to get her to eat.  I don't think she has an eating disorder--at least not a typical eating disorder.  She's thin, but  not eating disorder thin. She's just extremely picky and can't/won't eat in the mornings.

And then I got butt shingles with a little strep on top.  Enough said.

And DH's workplace is being rather assholey.  DH worked his ass off for a good part of the year to help pull off a massive product launch.  Which apparently went so well, that the company is now looking at selling.  So they won't commit to any bonuses or salary increases until at least March (if they don't sell before then).

I know DH will be fine.  He's built a good network associated with the platform he uses.  He's been asked to speak a few times and his website has been featured a big conferences a couple of times.  But he's frustrated at putting in so much effort and then getting the shaft from his employer. And this change is particularly concerning since I am now technically self-employed and we are looking at all the financial uncertainty with PS going to college next year. I'm not sure we have the stomachs for us both to be self-employed.

But the year did end up ok.

TT is doing so much better.

PS got into all the colleges she applied to, got the scholarships she needed to make them doable, and seems to have made a decision. She has been so happy lately, now that all the pressure is off.  She can pretty much just phone it in for the rest of the year, and enjoy her senior year now.

And my partnership.  I needed this professional step.  Plus having an associate to hand stuff off to has been huge. Work has been going really well and has been the least stressful part of my year.

Next year will be a year of professional changes for both of us.

We'll see PS graduate from high school and go on to college.

We'll get more time to focus on the twins, which I have really been looking forward to. 

We have no other big plans.  No major resolutions.  Just hoping that it is an easier year than the last and that all of our transitions go well.