Happy Roo Year

I couldn't wait for 2009 to be over.

It was a pretty rough year, and I'd pretty much made up my mind that, bad as 2008 was, 2009 was worse and I'd be happy to see the end of it. Every time I thought to myself that things couldn't get any worse, they did just that. While there were more individual things that sucked in 2008, 2009 was tougher all around.

I've changed my mind. Which isn't to say that 2009 wasn't rough, or that parts of it didn't suck like a Hoover testing facility. But 2009 is the year that Roo was born. Should anything else that happened really matter in the long run? As far as I'm concerned, 2009 was a great year because the world became a better place with the addition of one amazingly perfect little girl. I don't like to think of a world without Roo. What a horrible place that would be!

This was Roo's first New Year's. And while I'm sure she celebrated by sleeping soundly, arms up by her head like a little cactus, when the clock turned from 11:59 to 12:00, I thought of that sweet little girl, and wished myself a Happy Roo Year.

I am looking forward to this year. Not because it means the end of last year, but because I have decided it is going to be my best year yet. I've got some great things to look forward to. I'm getting ready to go to the temple soon, I've got a good job lined up, I'm going to Ireland in the summer and ASU in the fall (I hope), Roo will turn 1 (a real happy Roo year!), and I will, I've decided, be obnoxiously happy.

Which isn't to say that I think everything's going to go swimmingly and I'm never going to have any problems ever again. That's just stupid. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, something's always going to come up that's going to test your faith. God doesn't reward obedience with a perfect life. But I know for sure, and from experience, that I'd rather have a hard life and be obedient than have an easy life and mess things up.

Here's to an awesome 2010. It's going to be great because I'm going to make it great.