I can't believe it's been almost a year since I last posted a new journal. I can tell you, it's been a hard one.

First of all, I have now been unemployed for a year now. I had been working at one of the many area Wal-Marts and got fired for "excessive absences" when I had been injured on the job and on light duty. They fired me the day I was released by THEIR dr to return to my regular duties. Nice of them, huh?

I started attending Celebrate Recovery at my church with my husband a year ago either next month or the month after. That has been a wonderful experience. Celebrate Recovery is a Christ centered recovery program. Sort of like AA, but with Jesus Christ as your "higher power" and for more than just substance abuse. My husband attends for anger and I go for codependency. My husband actually just got his 9 month chip a few weeks ago, and I can see a huge difference in him! It's totally amazing.

My husband got a nice little settlement for his motorcycle accident he was in a few years ago. He set aside a little of that money and we visited my grandmother for New Year! That was the first time in about four or five years that I had seen her and longer than that for the rest of the family up there. My husband also found an awesome tablet on [link] for about $50! I've been practicing getting the hang of using it this past week or so.

The end of April, my husband, son, and I were in a car accident and totaled the car. We were a little shaken up and had a few bruises, but otherwise we're all fine. Fortunately, the accident wasn't our fault and the other lady's insurance payed for everything. They gave us fair market value for the car, payed all our hospital bills, payed for the RENTAL we had for two weeks while we waited to find out what was going to happen, AND payed restitution to each of us. Even my six year old! I took my portion of the money and bought a cheap little laptop, so I can now be online when I can get up to the library. I'm still working on getting everything loaded on it that I want, but I'll have a screenshot of my desktop up before long.

My dad's computer, the one I had been using before, finally bit the dust a few months ago, and took all of my old work with it, so I'm having to start over from scratch. If you know of some really awesome brushes for the Gimp, I'd appreciate the heads up.

My son was sick with strep two weeks ago and I spent a week camped on the foot of his bed 'cause he needed his mommy. Unfortunately, as soon as he got better, I got sick! I just got over some bug of my own, though I still have a persistent cough.

I hope everyone else has been having at least as good a year as I have.

God bless all my friends and watchers.

Marlyn