Life is always full of changes. At Christmas Holly and Rick announced that he has been accepted to Doctor of Osteopath school in Tennessee and that they will be moving sometime the end of June/first of July. I'm really excited for them and know that this is what they are supposed to do at this time of their lives. I'm just really going to miss having them close.

Well, it is a new year and that also brings changes. I started back on my HCG diet on the 5th of January. It has been a tough go this time, but I'm down one pant size and 7.5 pounds. I'm planning on trying the "Flat Belly Diet" until I can do another session of HCG (two months from Jan 31st).

I have kept really busy the last couple of months. We had family pictures taken in December and will have some more taken in June when the weather is warm. Melissa took the pictures and they turned out really well. Then, I sewed 9 bags for an Eagle project (LDS Humanitarian Center school kits) and new curtains for my kitchen and dining areas. The curtains have turned out very nice. I insulated them and they really help with keep the cold out. I had 8 women at my home two weeks ago to make "Buddy Burners" and "Alcohol Burners" for their emergency preparedness supplies. It was a good night. I was asked to come up with a list of items for 72-hour kits next and start having a monthly emergency preparedness class. I bought a bunch of books at Christmas time about emergency preparedness topics and now I will be able to use them to teach the classes. I'm learning probably more than I'm teaching. I'm also getting my storage items together. My goal for this year is to get paper products in storage. I'm currently working on toilet paper. I will need at least 36 packages - 1 package per month per bathroom. I've got a long way to go.

We have a new President and I'm not sure how the Nation will change this year, but it will be interesting to see what will happen. All the bailouts and economic stimulus packages are just putting us further in debt and I don't see that changing for at least another year. There are going to budget cuts every where and many businesses are closing due to the economy. I worry about my position, but we are being told that we should be okay as we are more federally funded than state funded. The economy is being compared to the period before the depression. I have a feeling that we are headed for an economy that will be even worse than during the depression. I sure hope I'm wrong!