Are you living your dream life? Is your life now what you thought it would be 30 years ago? I was thinking of this last night........ Lyle was at work and the house was VERY quiet.  I love how my life turned out (so far, got lots of time to go!) There are a few things that 30 years ago I thought would be, that  have  never happened. But for the most part, I have all that I thought was important then, and now. I am truly blessed!  I am curious what the rest of you think.........

Wow Jana... That is a loaded question.

Back in HS my dream was to get married, get a house and have children in that order of course. If anyone remembers, Dev Hansen prophesied in the "Wills and Prophesies" our senior year, that I would have a dozen children while I was training for the Olympics. Hmmm...well, she didn't get either one right.   But nice try Dev.   I had the child first, then the house and then, never getting married... I guess I'm still waiting.  Maybe someday I will be married. Barb Ocskai says, "Never say Never". I would have never dreamed that I would have been in Reno for 30 years nor have stayed at the same job for 23. 

To look back at the past 30 years I have no regrets. I love my life.   Would I do anything different...  who knows.  At the moment, I'm happy with what life gave me.

In H.S. I wanted to be a wife and a mom. It took a while longer than I planned, but pretty much it turned out the way I wanted. I have the perfect husband (for me), and the greatest kids (again, for me.)

I love the property we live on. It is peaceful, and beautiful, and exactly what we wanted... again a little later than we'd planned.

About the only thing I would change is the house. I never planned on living in a double-wide manufactured home, much less an incredibly small one. I have to say that it was a blessing at the time, and felt like the Taz Majal, because we'd been living in a 1976 32-foot 5th-Wheel for 22 months. But our house is really small for six people.

This is not at all what I dreamed for myself.  I was going to be either a nurse or a natural resources worker, like maybe a Forest Ranger in a remote area!  ha ha.

I became a paralegal after my first marriage fell apart and I was getting to support from my ex-husband. I had to get in a fast program where I felt that I could make some money for the family.  I had a problem with the biology class I was in, but had to have a surgery that quarter, and I was afraid to continue on the nursing track lest I fail and therefore fail my family.  The paralegal road was so easy for me.  Straight 4.0 all of the way.  During this time, I met a dear friend, Debbie Cochran, who has been my best buddy all of these years.  Her kids and mine are about the same age, but nothing alike, it just us talking and getting through the years.  Each others volunteer counsellors! Which I needed as I was a single parent for another nine years.  We are still best friends today!

I worked for a lovely lawyer my first year out, then got hired at the County Prosecutor here.  I was really in my element and did lots of extra project work and got wooed by the IT side.  That was a really great job for a while.  During this time I married Rich and his ex-wife died shortly after, so we had a household of grieving cranky pre-teens.  This was not an easy time, nor was it particularly happy.  The harder I worked a giving them love, the further they went away.  So, I finally backed off and things got better.

Then came Mr. Brendan to us!  He had some problems at birth and it was getting difficult for me and Rich to continue missing work for him and as he needed more programming I just felt that I really, really needed to be there for him.  So, I did that too!

Then, we thought that he might do better with communication if he had other kids to talk to, so we foster parented a bit, Then a bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more!  ha ha.  Soon I was in it up to my neck.  For a while I took extra newborns, a great way to scratch that baby urge!  But boy, I was tired. The experience was good, because when Lexie came around (born addicted to Meth) I was able to be there for her and trained enough to qualify!  I had her and my other 2 grandkids for 6 months. 

I have them again, as Steven, my son was readying to deploy to Iraq and as he no longer had a wife (see Lexie above) and I was the only one around to care for them.  They are fighting behind me in the same office chair.

No, not at all where I planned.  I doubt that I can go back into the IT field as I am older and my training was vendor specific with no degree.  I could be a paralegal again, but I am not so sure that I want to do that.  After all of this time, I think that I deserve to do what I want, but it has never worked out that way so I will trust in God to get me .... well.... somewhere!  So, I will see where the next 50 years take me!!