This has been one crazy-insane year. It seems like we have gone non-stop. We had my decision to become an advocate, then the decision to write full time, the remodel, my quest for Giant Squid at Squidoo, the move, Brooke coming home, more moving, Brooke leaving again, my quest for Giant 100, and now my surgery.

It feels like this family has run a marathon, I'm almost exhausted just thinking about all of it again.

Yes, it was a stressful year, but it was a different kind of stress than the past few years have been for us. What year did we lose everything? 2007? 2006? I can't remember anymore, I try not to.

There are so many people right now losing their jobs, their homes, their lives it seems. Well, we already did... we went through the nightmare long before it began to spread across the nation. Yes, it was frightening, it was scary as hell. To go from $50 an hour to nothing, that's it, zero income - overnight. I mean it happened in a heartbeat.

Just like that we lost everything. Life as we knew it ended, and we had to rebuild everything from scratch.

You know what? It turned out okay, better than okay.

Everything we lost has been replaced again and then some. The marriage that was rocky (at best) has found a new solid ground in friendship and respect. The house we lost has been replaced, this home is paid off! The truck we lost has been replaced as well.

It seemed like we had hit the end of the world two years ago, and as it turned out we were given a better world than either of us could have imagined.

All of the things we lost were just things, we got to keep what was important... friends, family, pets. In a way losing so much just freed us to see what was really important.

I don't know if I would have been ready to hear that while we were going through it, and if you are facing tough times right now I'm sure you aren't ready to hear it either. Things get bad sometimes, and now and then it does feel as if the world is coming to an end.

In a way it is, but only THAT world is ending, and each ending really is a new beginning. No matter how hard things may seem, a new beginning is always on the horizon.

Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control, we lose jobs, we have to say goodbye to people we love, we have to let go of things we don't want to lose. We all hit hard times from time to time, but the difference between those who merely survive and those who thrive is smaller than you think...

Those who thrive make a decision to thrive, and no matter what comes they refuse to let anything get in between them and who they really are. A happy person is not happy because of their circumstance, they are happy because they choose happiness despite their circumstances.

So don't wait to be happy, choose happiness today!