reflecting on 2009....

Quote: Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.     ~Oscar Wilde

2009 started with me trying to return back to my work after a good break with my family (Liz and Dennis) after deciding to take a job with a premier law school in the USA (Yale Law School)....anyway....some where along the way an awesome opportunity turned sour and my wife had to trudge through 8 months of trying to sell our home in Cache Valley until we finally had a family come and take our beloved couch along with the sell...

we then moved across the nation, this time not to the Ivy League but to Farmville VA to a university that believes it is the private school on the state schools bill in the commonwealth of Virginia...

Significant events....
A)
Dennis -- starts Pre-K in Virginia -- he loves it...we like it, he is amazing and awesome...he's growing...he's also learning that he might be able to exert and assert himself as a little person.  He's growing in his vocabulary, plays with imagination, and has a wonderful demeanor about himself.  Liz and I are rather blessed and indeed grateful for a great little soul to be in our charge until he grows to be able to choose for himself and the path he should take.
B)
Shane -- realized he's not an Ivy Leaguer...provided the #1 law school in the USA 5 minutes notice and walked away...started a new job after re-uniting with his wife and son, sold first house after less than 1.5 years of ownership losing all chances at 1st time home buyers incentives....learned how strong his wife is and is grateful to have made a great choice in life for being sealed and married to her in the DC temple... relearning that sometimes inspiration has nothing to do about immediate blessings to those seeking the blessings, rather those blessing are there for the others because we were humble enough to choose to allow our will to be bent to something greater than our own self-serving selfish human attributes....there are far too many humans in this world forgetting that humanity is much bigger than themselves and allowing hatred, malice, pride and greed the ability to persuade them to unkindly acts to others...
C)
Liz -- trudged through 8 months alone with Dennis...not b/c of troubles with her husband, but b/c we decided to follow inspiration.....another year down as vegetarian...she produced a great turkey, yet again for thanksgiving, was able to provide a fattening meal to the elders....has grown her food/chef abilities to even allow the most meathead typed people in the south accept her cooking style as great....continues to be a great mother...'not sweating the petty things and not petting the sweaty things....was able to part with Pippen (the Pug she loathed and then loved)....

This is like the Livingston year of 2009 in Cliff note's form second edition with redactions and edits removed....I think this year was one of growth, humility, bravery, courage, isolation, and others all wrapped into one giant and trial filled year.  In a sense I am glad we didn't just survive it, we took it by the horns, ran at it, attacked it, and got wounded along the way but we kept getting back up and going.  I see it like a mix of a Rocky movie and Gladiator mingled with Aragorn finding his way back to Helm's Deep....we've been rocked....we've been tried....we've been torn...we've been humiliated....and we keep getting back up...keep running upstream....keep expecting that we will be able to keep going and keep hoping that we don't get destroyed in the process...

Here's to an upcoming new year...i hope that those in political forums wake up tot he fact that the masses are not mindless rats subjecting themselves to their social experiments....I hope that those in higher education begin understanding that the old model founded by the ivory tower types is not as wonderful as they believe themselves to be (after being to the Ivy's and see how much alcohol is laden in those process I can understand the haze of inebriation may play a part in this stupor)...I hope that families turn inward more and treat each other the way they treat their friends in a manner that is healing to the most basic unit of society so that we may repair problems and discover blessings promised to family....I hope that Liz and I can understand the measure of our decisions, and discover the next leg of our journey to be successful as we try our best to better ourselves as individuals, as a married couple and as a family with Dennis and any other additions that may come in the future....Liz asked me today where I would like to be, and I don't have a solid response but I do know that the East Coast is not where my heart is....I already found my East Coast and that was her, that's all I need....I imagine I need to be near a mountain so that I may disappear in it's arms, crags, clefts and spines so that I may return to the 'old' way....if I had to choose...I think my response to Liz is in the Rockies....so if anyone wants to wish a little luck on us, or find a way for heaven to smile on us, think, pray and wish for us to return home so that we can get back to being happy and that we can find our place back in assisting others in extending themselves to helping others in this thing we call life...

Liz, Dennis and I live a great life, have great blessings, have strong testimonies and a great strong rooted belief in Jesus Christ, the Bible and the Book of Mormon (Another Testament of Jesus Christ).  An old friend was asking about how I could believe in such things, and well, it's so much more than a belief and who doesn't want to hear and know that there is a living prophet available to the world in our day like those of times past.  Some may try to discourage us or persuade us from our beliefs.  To those that do so, I pity them for missed opportunities and hope that they will come to realize it's better to waste that time on something else instead of trying to persuade me and my family otherwise....

I think I will probably try to take on some logical thinking and current event topics into the future....I am wanting to keep my thoughts spledidly bland with a hint of 'je ne sais quoi' as I continue to write.  I imagine some of my rants to be so incoherent that they may seem mindless....but sometimes the most eclectic thoughts often inspire great thinking later after the eclectic nostalgia has worn off and exposed the most brilliant thoughts below....i often wonder if the great social experiment called America will be exposed in the near future or if the depolarization of it's opposites to dead center will be perceived and accused as the greatest tragedy of humanity....maybe i will witness it in my lifetime, maybe I won't....until then, Liz Dennis and I will try to find happiness and do what we do best.... run at it headstrong even though we know it's not fair....because in the end we will be both stronger and more headstrong if we but endure and survive the mess we put ourselves through....

see ya later 2009...and don't come back....may your hindsight look better than the asses we have chosen as they plagiarize childish phrases in a subversive effort to debase this blessed land this into a melting pot of mediocre political correctness wanting bigots and warmongers b/c we can't actually embrace diversity through humanitarian eyes....

I hope I become a better doer this year...thanks to my great wife and best son in the whole wide world....
Cheers....

Auld lang syne!---

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
and surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i' the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie's a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne