A Personal Decade

It finally struck me this morning that a decade is passing today. Then it hit me, this has been quite a decade!

We added two daughters to our family, and our first daughter reached double digits

None of our children suck their thumbs/pacifiers or poop in their pants anymore, and usually they make it to the bathroom when they have to throw up

Leanne and I both made it into our thirties, me a lot earlier than her

Our family got two hamsters, three cats, one dog, two guinea pigs, three birds, and countless fish (one cat, one dog, one guinea pig, all the birds, and some fish are going to make it into the new decade, barring any tragedies today)

I got an M.A. (go Wheaton!) in American religious history that I am, er uh, sort of using in roundabout ways

We bought a house

We now own a minivan and it has "student of the month" stickers all over the back (if you would have told me that ten years ago...)

I personally went through five different cars (huh?!)

I started ChristianAudio and sold my stake in the company

Other entrepreneurial tries, most notably LetterPop, did not turn out as well as ChristianAudio (though I have high hopes for the guy who bought LetterPop)

I started a blog about an average guy named Dave

Then there has been the 100 Thing Challenge, which is doing quite well, with bright prospects into the New Year and beyond

I accomplished my goal of getting a book publishing deal, though I did not quite finish the manuscript, which will be one of the first accomplishments of the next decade :-)

I surfed for the first time

I'm not going to take the time to count how many vacations we went on, but suffice to say there were quite a few and most of them were fun

We started using Apple computers instead of PCs

Gmail

Facebook

We still don't have a TV

We planted a vegetable garden in our tiny backyard

The olive tree we planted seven years ago in our tiny backyard has grown too big

Leanne's mom gave my mom one of her kidneys

We have celebrated the New Year with the same group of friends every year, and that celebration, which started with eight adults and two children has grown to eight adults and fourteen children

No doubt I am missing something important. It has truly been an incredible decade around the world, and in our home. The future looks shaky around the world, but I cannot help feeling really positive about the prospects. I believe it's a great time to be proactive. There seems to be lots of opportunity. Go get it!

Comments

[Jesse]

That sounds like an absolutely incredible decade! I'm exceedingly jealous on a number of points...and reflecting on my own decade past now...nothing that monumental frankly, sigh...

Happy New Year to you and yours!

[guynameddave]

Thanks so much Jesse!

Oh, and I forgot about Harry Potter, who was a big part of our life over the last decade, book worms that we are.