Reflections Continued

I haven't quite finished my list of resolutions for 2011. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of 2010. In the end, you may or may not understand why I'm happy to see the end of this year and the beginning of the next.

I don't want to sound ungrateful. I've received some wonderful blessings in the past 364 days. However, I went through my fair share of dark times and seemed to battle plenty of the "blues." Of course, it's a lot more fun to write mostly about the good stuff, but I'll sprinkle in a dose of the not-so-fun parts of the year.

January, of course, ushered in a new year and the promise of a fresh start. However, I didn't post my resolutions to Serendipity. I chose, instead, to keep them to myself. I don't think this was a good idea. I don't really remember what I had resolved to do or not to do. But, I suspect I wasn't overly successful.

Anyway, January brought our first experience with the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby. Wonder Child's car was shaped to look like a pencil (his idea). It wasn't the fastest on the track, but it wasn't the slowest either.

February was my first business trip of the year, a whirl-wind trip to Wheeling, W.V., to teach a session at "zoo school," a series of professional development opportunities for people who work at zoos and aquariums.

The drama of this trip was the wide-spread power outage at the lodge about 30 minutes after my arrival. Unable to procure dinner at the lodge's restaurant, I resorted to my travel snacks. Dinner that night was a cup of water, Pop-Tarts and a package of Reese's peanut butter cups.

March brought another trip east - this time to Virginia Beach for the mid-year meetings of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The host facilities were fantastic - the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center and the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. I highly recommend both if you're ever in the neighborhood.

The highlight of March came near the end of the month when we welcomed Amani into our home. I found this pretty little girl on Craig's List, and we adopted her from the family who adopted her from a shelter a month earlier. Unfortunately, they didn't anticipate her sending the wife's allergies into orbit. She's now about two years old, and we couldn't imagine our house without her.

Baseball games started in April for Wonder Child - Go SHARKS! We won the spring league, which resulted in the team being bumped up to a higher bracket and tougher teams for the rest of the summer. I still believe this was a mixed blessing for our boys because the make-up of the team shifted throughout the summer. They weren't the same team for the late-summer league that they were for the spring. But, oh well ...

April and May are extremely busy for me at work. These two months are our highest in attendance, and this year seemed no exception.

Wonder Child "bridged over" from Tiger Cubs to the Wolf rank on Mother's Day weekend. I'm so very proud of my little Cub Scout, and we are blessed with great families and a super leader in our den!

We finished up May with a trip to Dallas to see Aunt Margaret, my mother's older sister. Margaret has this amazing motherly presence, and Wonder Child has developed a very special relationship with her. I suggested the trip after failing to get a photograph of my son with my mother and Aunt Margaret during the fall of 2009 when Margaret was visiting. Silly, I know, to drive to Dallas mostly because you have an overwhelming need for one simple photo. But, for me, it's priceless. (But, in keeping with my personal policy of not posting WC's photo, I won't be sharing it.)

Oh, yeah, and there was that other little thing in May. I visited Dr. Shachar Tauber for LASIK laser vision correction. WOW! Talk about a new lease on life without glasses! It's amazing!

June didn't start off well. Early in the month, we had the first of several high-profile animal deaths at the zoo. As the public relations director, I had a variety of tasks - from helping document the situation with photographs for our internal purposes as well as letting the public know what happened. It was my summer intern's first on the job, too. Fortunately, she came back the next day (and has been indispensable to me ever since!). Needless to say, this was a file that was open for some time on my desk.

But, June wasn't all bad. Wonder Child and I headed to Scout Camp near Diamond, Mo., on Father's Day. And, yes, this "super mom" hauled her gear and pitched her tent with minimal help from the dads present. We had a blast, despite the unseasonably hot temperatures (heat indices of 105 are unusual in June, even in southwest Missouri). Knowing the weather forecast, I bought a battery-powered fan for the tent (similar to this). It might quite possibly be the best $20 I've ever spent.

And, since I had fully healed after LASIK and could go swimming at camp, for the first time in my life, I experienced seeing while I swam and played in the water for the first time in my LIFE! Thanks again, Dr. Tauber!

The last Saturday of June was Tour de Cure, the cycling event for the American Diabetes Association. My fundraising went very well this year. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I had a great team - we're the "Wild Things." I was disappointed, though, that I didn't finish the 64-mile ride. Yes, I probably bit off more than I could chew with that distance. But, there was a bad combination of extreme hills and heat/humidity that did me in. I "sagged in" after 27 miles.

Before this gets too long and drawn out, I'll pause for now and pick up the second half of the year tomorrow ...