Let's do this

After getting hit with sickness the last week of 2012 and the first week of 2013, I hope that means I won't be sick for the rest of the year!

2012 was a mixed bag of emotions.  It was another great year in Japan, working at a school that I love. I had some wonderful moments with friends and Takuya and I did a lot of singing and met some cool people in the process.  My sister visited us for two months!!  I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (twice!), and I feel like my Japanese is - ever so slowly - improving.  

Then in June, I found out my mom had stage 4 cancer.  That was a rough one, and it was hard being so far from home.  It was good to see her when I went back to the US in August, and although she was taking some pretty intense chemo therapy, I could tell she was in good hands with her wonderful doctors.  Then in December, my mother had a PET scan to see where the cancer still was and if the chemo was doing its job.  And the cancer is gone!!  As in, they can't find it anywhere on the PET scan. Of course, she'll have to continue to see doctors and take medication, but it won't be so intense.  I'm so thankful for this, and it truly was the best Christmas present for all of us.

I'm wanting to take that spirit of thankfulness with me into this new year.  I don't want to take anything for granted.  Yes, of course I wanna exercise more and be healthy (this year I am all about dental care, thank you Rachel!), but I think the graphic above explains my feelings perfectly.  I want more of the good stuff.  I'm tired of being so hard on myself, thinking about what could have been or what I should have done.

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.  Easier said than done, I'm sure, but dang it I'm gonna try!!!