this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

When I was in college, many of my friends really didn't care for the month of October. There were no days off and mid-terms on top of it. But I love October - it's my birthday month after all! There seems to be a consensus that 2009 was a horrible year and many are happy for it to be in the past. While I recognize the fact that (financially especially) the year was not good to many people, 2009 will always be one of my favorites because it brought me this

My third son.

I began the year with high hopes. On paper it all looked so good finances-wise. But things happen, as they always do, and for us this was a year of spending money that we had been saving, rather than saving (mainly because of all the expenses surrounding our son's birth, which we had saved for in full by the end of 2008). It's amazing though, how one good thing can cancel out many not so good things. And for that reason, 2009 will not be the year that our health insurance went up again, or the year we spent more than we wanted to fixing the car, or the year we didn't get a raise, but rather the year my son was born.

Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to read what I have to say.