I am usually a really positive person, but 2013 has "bit the big one". I also don't feel like sugar-coating the shitty-ness of my year with counter- positive comments, but I am sure I wont be able to help but sprinkle a few of those in anyways.
It all started out in January, where one morning my kids and I found our sweet dog of 12 years, frozen stiff, sleeping forever in our living room. For the rest of the month, my daughter really felt the need to tell every friend and stranger that her dog "died" - just simple, clear, and to the point. One week later, my best friend's dog had to be put to sleep from a brain tumor, and that dog was her lifeline and she was going through a divorce at that moment.
Towards the end of January, I found out that my aunt was not in good health, and that she was living in a house of trash (that used to be our Grandma's house too) for years and years and in a serious state of depression. We helped by cleaning out the whole house and throwing almost everything away. It upset me tremendously.
Then, I decide to work too hard tackling my house, trying to make it spotless for a birthday party, and I wind up wearing myself out and feeling exhausted. This led me to get a virus that made my lymph nodes pulsate, my neck hurt constantly, and led me to have to sleep a lot, even though as a mom and wife, that is nearly impossible. This sickness lasts for 6 months and the support I had was not enough. I should have spoke stronger about MY needs - and I learned the hard way that being silent isn't the easiest way to make everyone happy. In fact - I am learning that taking on all the family responsibilities all by myself has led me to be very miserable. It really comes down to it being my fault for not speaking up for myself.
It also was a year of sickness and deaths. Three of my friends all had a sick parent with cancer and all three parents passed away in late spring/early summer. Cancer SUCKS. In June, my parent's neighbors' die of gas asphyxiation and were found naked in their shower. It was raw and awful.
My father-in-law was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and so needed to have a stem cell transplant. He goes to another state to get the treatment. (Fortunately, he is going well and travelled back home in October).
By mid-summer I am a nervous wreck about my life. I start to read more Guideposts and subscribe to Miraculous Ways. It seemed to help spiritually, but I was so anxious from being sick, working on my school stuff, and taking on all this stress of worry and just every day life added to it, that my body's muscles are constantly shaking and I finally go to the doctor and get on Prozac. Praise God for Prozac! My brain stops the hamster-wheeling of worry more and more, and by August, I feel like myself again.
In late August, my Aunt gets sick and passes out in the car on the way back from my great Aunt's funeral. They take her to the hospital and find a tumor in her lung. She decides to undergo a partial lung-removal instead of chemotherapy. I bring her flowers on Sunday, kiss and hug her before I leave, and the doctors release her the next day at noon. As they are signing the check out papers, she passes out and never wakes up again and dies at midnight that night. My dad was so positive that she would wake up, but that didnt happen. Another "Raw" moment.
In September, my friend's mom passes away from a brain tumor. The funeral was intense but I am glad we went. I always go to every funeral - I was just raised that way.
No matter how intense and awful my personal life can and has become recently, I know I can always count on my girlfriend(s). I would NOT have survived this year with out them. My best girlfriends have always been my one constant in my life and there are so many times that I don't want to believe or hear what they have to say. However, they usually always end up correct in what they are telling me. I learn and grow with their help and I love them for that.
The best parts of my year was that I got to see my best friend, who lives far away, three different times. I went to a family wedding with her in March, a hot air balloon festival in October, and I got to help her move into her new single place in December.
Thanksgiving is next week....and I am just really thankful I survived this year and my close loved ones are still alive so far.
Well.... most of them.
I'd like this cursed year to end as soon as possible. 
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