The End...Again

Well once again we face the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Like everyone else, there have been highs and lows in my 2006. I thought it might to be fun to list a few of them.

The Low Lights



6) After getting there for the first time in 14 years, the Oakland A's get swept in the playoff's by the Detroit Tigers.


5) Going to Magic Mountain for the first time in at least 10 years and seeing that it has become such a dump! The employees don't give a poop, the place is dirty, and there just seems to be a depressing feeling around the park. A far cry from it's heyday's of the 80's!


4) May 06. Just didn't feel good and waited for a week before giving in and going to the doctor just to find out that I had double pneumonia.


3) Fast forward a month. Starting vomiting and ended up in the hospital (for the first time ever) and having the doc say "something on the blood test is high, we need to do more tests." Don't worry boys and girls, everything was ok!


2) Working so hard to make it work, only to be told "we are closing the Fresno center". BAM your unemployed!


1) The biggest low light came early in the year. After a year and a half battle,
I lost my sister, Suzie, to brain cancer on Jan 28th. She was such a big part of the person I am. I miss her every day.




Top highlights:




8) My second grader making the principal's merit list at school.

7) My son Archie, standing on a corner selling "Kids Day" newspapers to benefit Valley Children's Hospital. Oh, did I mention that it was 40 degrees and pouring rain?

6) Getting to play "cowboy" for three weekends with Archie at Cobb Ranch.


5) My son Tyler, sticking it out on his school baseball team, even after the players and coach had given up on the season...after only four games! This is by far, the biggest group of spoiled, what's in it for me, kids I had ever seen!

4) My daughter Cheyanne, making the softball team, sticking with it, and by the end, becoming one of the best players on the team!


3) Having time off from work to have bonding time with my son Clayton. Every morning after taking kids to school, we would go home and have eggies and then take a bath!! Quality time with my youngest.




2) Yvette and I had two encounters with very large ships. First on our anniversary in Oct, we visited the Queen Mary.
We were both really surprised at how much we enjoyed the ship. Then in Dec, I took her to San Francisco for the Titanic exhibition. A very moving exhibition! It really makes the whole thing real. We also went to Midieval Times in Oct after putting it off for a few years. It was great! I wish we had gone years ago!!
BLACK AND WHITE! BLACK AND WHITE!



1) The NUMBER ONE highlight of my year was my birthday present! My wonderful wife was able to get just about all of "the old gang" from my childhood together again for the weekend. People I haven't seen in up to 20 years were there! Dale had so much fun he split his pants, but that's another story!

So there we are. Valleys and peaks. I don't know what 2007 will bring, but some of the things I'm looking forward to,

Yvette will be doing the Three Day walk for breast cancer this year in San Diego. http://www.the3day.org/sandiego07/yvettesmith

Tyler and Cheyanne both want to play ball again this year.

Tyler and Joshua will be graduating, Tyler into high school and Josh into middle school.

Clayton will start pre school.

I will (hopefully) be starting a new job.

Well, that's all for now. Once again, thanks for stopping in!

Happy New Year to you!

Slone