<p>I had a tie. Both spectacular hiking days. The first was a February winter hike and snow shoeing across a frozen lake on a perfect blue sky day. Exhilarating. </p>
<p>[Lonesome</a> Lake](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>The second was my most ambitious hike, to the summit of Mt. Eisenhower. Very satisfying from a physical standpoint and the scenery at the top was breathtaking:</p>
<p>It’s a tie for me. The first day of my new job in January and my son’s Boy Scout Eagle Board of Review day.</p>
<p>I have another one. This is sort of strange that it would be “happiest”, so maybe “important” is a better word. My daughter, an Episcopal priest, presided at my mother’s funeral/memorial service. She gave a beautiful Eulogy, and it just felt like everything had come full circle or something. It was almost surreal.</p>
<p>MOWC, maybe I should have asked for meaningful memories. Please accept my deepest sympathy on the loss of your mother.</p>
<p>ANd thank you, again, to everyone sharing. I am loving hearing what has been meaningful to you this year and I am overjoyed at how many wonderful things have happened to members of our community here.</p>
<p>The wedding of DS and DDIL.
I promised myself to have as much fun as I and my late husband would have had together.
I did!</p>
<p>H and I had a 25th anniversary trip to the Cayman Islands scheduled for June 2012. It was to be the first “real” trip for us in MANY, many years. He ended up suddenly, seriously ill; we had to cancel the trip, he underwent several serious surgeries and was not really himself until midway through 2013.</p>
<p>In November of 2013 we finally went on that long-awaited trip. THAT was awesome. :)</p>
<p>Yay JustaMom! How wonderful!!</p>
<p>The birth of our first grandchild and finding out number two is on its way. (Two different kids 
)</p>
<p>For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough for this yet, it really, really is the best part of life. Somehow even better than having the children ourselves. Not only do we get to experience the joy of grandchildren, but seeing our children become parents is a magnificent event. I still get emotional thinking about it. And they are SUCH wonderful parents.</p>
<p>I’m really looking forward to that experience but fear I need to wait another decade.</p>
<p>Yea, expecting it will be another decade for us as well, since neither kiddo has introduced us to anyone or mentioned any serious relationships or even much dating. It will happen when the time us right for them.</p>
<p>My husband’s military retirement pay kicking in when he turned 60. We had been struggling for so long - I was unemployed from July 2010 to January 2012 and the job I finally got paid $10,000 less then the one from which I’d been laid off. Now we’re caught up financially and can finally save some money.</p>
<p>Mine are probably older than yours. They are 30 and 28 and have been married 5 years and 2 years. I also have an older one, but he’s still single.</p>
<p>My daughter announced yesterday that she is planning to start a second master’s degree in the fall and not to even think about grandchildren for about 8 years.</p>
<p>Ours are 24 and 26. We figure they will continue proceeding at the pace right for them. </p>
<p>Feeling financially secure is wonderful, especially after stretching and scrimping for many years.</p>
<p>A bunch of happy memories: Kid#2’s college graduation, 9 & 11 yo finally learning to ride bikes. Random act of kindness: I was in a dollar store on Christmas Eve, and a kid ran by me saying, “Merry Christmas” and stuck what I thought was a homemade card in my hand. Then I realized it was child-decorated envelope, opened it, and found a one hundred dollar bill! (I actually thought it was fake at first, because it was one of the new bills that I’d never seen before). I passed it on to someone more deserving (lady who drives my college kid to church every Sunday). I was touched by this gesture, but was disappointed how negatively those (relatives I talked to on Christmas–parents, sibs) I told about this reacted–how I was undeserving, how I shouldn’t go around “looking homeless,” of course you’re not going to KEEP it for yourself, how sad the person who wanted to help someone needy would be to find out that their money was given to an upper-middle-class person, etc. Sort of took the joy out of it, and I decided not to tell anyone local about it. (Should’ve spent it all on beer and cigarettes ;))
Kid #3 got a 4.0 this semester in college–a first for our family. Kid #4 and his cousin (whom I coached) both made NMSF–in spite of record high cutoffs, with only 1 point between them to spare. They are both taking big automatic scholarships and they/parents are very happy. Visiting H’s hometown for the first time in 7 years.
Hearing that H’s brother/wife are expecting (he is 48, she 39–married one year/first marriage for both)</p>
<p>Atomism, how very rude of folks to criticize you. That was so thoughtful of the young person and especially nice of you to pay it forward! Happy 2014!</p>
<p>Congratulations, Ema!</p>
<p>Your last statement is lovely.</p>
<p>Mine are 23 & 31.
Youngest felt the need to mention several times over her break why she thought it was unconscionable to have children unless it was from contraceptive failure. ( for ZPG reasons)
So I don’t expect any grandkids in the near future, even though both have serious sig others.
Which actually is fine with me, even though I love mine dearly and wish I had more.</p>
<p>I think the happiest thing that happened was that we acquiesced to Ds hounding us to get a dog.
( it has been several years )
I thought we would get a smallish ( 30 lb) oldish (7-10yrs) terrier or something else fluffy.
We ended up with a young ( 1yr) and largish ( 55lbs) bundle of energy, but at least his fur is only about 1/2" long, so he doesn’t require much grooming.</p>
<p>
You never know. Mine said the same thing and then met, married and now are expecting a child WHILE pursuing his PhD.</p>
<p>Yes. You can dedicate yourself to studies and have a life at the same time.</p>
<p>We adopted a rescue puppy. :)</p>
<p>(To keep 11 year old senior dog company. What were we thinking??)</p>