Year In Review 2007 PART TWO

July

July was pretty big. I returned to Blogger after a month-long sabbatical. We had a garage sale (that did not do nearly as well as we had hoped). I sold my old bike and some books. Mostly I baked under a harsh July sun while reading Steven Erikson and R. Scott Bakker. We also took our first ever family-trip-style vacation. We took Mary-Jane's Buick over the mountains to visit Kim's brother Trevor. Fortunately, this trip extended into August because I'm having a hard time remembering anything from August as well.

August

We took the trip down to Vancouver and something that I did not mention in our initial report of the trip was that the whole group of us (Trevor, Mina, Trina, Kim, Lily, Nick and I) went for a walk in Golden Ears Park. There's an amazing waterfall there. This in and of itself probably does not deserve mention in a capping of the year, but Nick took a ten-foot tumble off of the path, scraping, bruising and doing everything but breaking bones. Talk about scary - it was time to leave. The rest of the trip was nicer than that, visits with family I haven't seen in far too long (since the Wedding, I suppose) and the drive home was a little frustrating but doable. After that, we found out that we were excused from the money Howard and Mary Jane had lent us for the house. Not an inconsiderable sum. My jaw hit the floor at that.

September

We finally made good on our decision to homeschool Nicholas. I have to admit, I was relieved. Nervous? Sure. Worried about his best interests? Of course. But it only takes walking back in my mind to March of 2007, screaming at Nick over the course of four hours, trying to get him to draw a circle. Yeah, this is the right decision. I thought so in September, and I still think so in January. Yeah, there are things that he'll miss out on but I think the bad things he'll miss out on outweigh the good things he'll m is out on and he'll get more good than bad homeschooling. I don’t agree with all of my wife's stances on homeschooling or the establishment of formal school but we agree that this is in Nicholas's best interests. Also, Robert Jordan died. He fought against Amyloidosis with everything he had but unfortunately, as with so many people, the disease doesn't care how much you give. It keeps taking. I was shocked when I learned he was dead even though I knew that death would come to him too soon.

October

I deem October 2007 to be mad rush month. What I remember of non-work time in October is filled with typing out the first part of my story. I wanted to get it finished in time for November when I would write part 2. I fell a little short in October but I included the end of part 1 into part 2 for National Novel Writing Month. (More on that later) There was a lot of time spent in front of the tablet, in the basement, while my wife scrapbooked. I spent a lot of October driving Howard's van. That was fantastic. I would definitely do it again if asked.

November

I don't remember a whole ton of November. There are a couple of things, though. NaNoWriMo. That's the main one. Kim, Lily and I went to Calgary for a LLL conference. Pedro, the faithful Tablet curled up its toes and refused to start up again. I don't know, really, what to do with his remnants. I want to put it back together but I find the prospect daunting.

December

I should be able to remember the contents of December. It just happened. I spent a lot of the time stressing about Christmas, avoiding doing anything too stressful and I read a lot. I finished, I think, five books through December. That's 2007 in a nutshell.