We're alive. I swear.

Okay, i figured it was time to throw down an update. Better really, really, really late than never, right? Well, I'm not going to lie to you, we've had a pretty tough year. It's November now and we're starting to get back on our feet. If we were to sum up this year, it would be: sick and tired. Andy spent most of the year sick, and I spent most of it tired!

It all started back in February, when Andy got sick. (I'm not going to go into details... that's Andy's part of the whole thing. Myself... I'm sort of tired of telling the story. See? Sick, and tired. :) ) Anyway, something mysterious and dramatic got him sick and put him out of commission for a long time. Doctors had all sorts of theories that ranged from psychosomatic to just psychotic. Whatever it was, it had Andy upside down and me knackered. Because we just didn't know what was happening, I ended up quitting my job at the chiropractor to take care of him. It was a rather unfortunate coincidence that the gym I was massaging out of closed during the exact same week everything hit the ceiling. Rather a bummer. But we pressed on. We spent the Spring at various doctors trying to make heads or tails of it- literally, you can ask Andy about all his tests- and I was juggling (lots) of very loyal clients who followed me to my home and my insurance transcription job. Oh, and taking care of Andy. Again, I spare you the details, but let's just say, I was tired.

We even struck out on vacations this year. Andy was feeling so ill that we cancelled our Hawaii anniversary trip at the literal eleventh hour. Disappointing. And a series of minor and major disasters turned a fun road trip with my dad into me basically spending the summer in Indiana. Okay, not the whole summer. Just the month of July. Okay, not the whole month of July. Just the first thirty days of it. Oh, and the last five days of June. And to top it all off, Andy's trip home was a little bit busted (for me, anyway) by the fact that the dog got so sick I had to cancel appointments to take care of him and make sure he didn't destroy the house! (He came close...)

Now, aren't you having fun reading this cheery, happy blog? Well, I tell you all this (and trust me, there's more to tell- just ask Andy about Life cereal and you'll understand that you've gotten a mere cliff note of the year) so that you can fully appreciate this fact: BUT IT'S ALL OVER. Andy's not sick anymore, in fact, he's feeling better now than he has for a few years. I'm not so busy anymore, in fact, we're scaling back my massage business to make room for even more free time. We're not scrambling between 5 jobs and 20 extracurricular activities. Now we're gearing up for the holidays and fun visits from our families, we're helping to plant a new church in a neighboring town, we're enjoying evenings and weekends together, and we may even go back to Hawaii.

We can be so thankful that God got us through this really crazy, difficult year, and made us appreciate all that we now have- our faith, our health, our families, our friends, our fuzzbucket, and each other. This was probably a year that we will try to forget, but I know that we don't need to remember the nasty details to remember how grateful we were for all that God did for us and taught us going down this rocky road. It was tough, but God is so faithful. He is constant and neverending. It's possible that we needed a little bit of reminding of that. And our world with Him leading us looks so rosy right now, I just can't help but heave a sigh of gratitude. There is always a master plan, and it is always good!

And just so you have something cute to look at, here's the fuzzbucket himself.

He appears, as usual, unphased by his surroundings. Let's hear it for a dog's life!