1 week left.....

I'm not sure I really remember life before I had to spend every other week in jail. It's been 4 months since I have had my seven days off of work to actually be at home with the people I love the most. I'm not sure I remember what that feels like. I can't wait to have that again. Hopefully it will be a familiar feeling instead of feeling entirely foreign to me. All I can say is that I have come so far since the beginning of all this and I am not looking back. I have learned so much about myself, my abilities, my skills, and more importantly, I have figured out what kind of person I want to be. I'm working everyday on remembering what I've learned and applying it to my life. I've mentioned it before but I feel it warrants mentioning again that I have become really close with a few of the girls I met throughout this experience. I talk to Liz and Brookie everyday. I love those two so much. They are astoundingly brave and beautiful people and I am privileged to have met them at all. The other person I feel I should mention is Whitney. She's truly a one of a kind individual. I've never met anyone else like her and while I was in jail with her she taught me a lot. I'm not sure she even realized she was doing it. That's the beauty of these people I have met. They are all so unique and they all have stories that I never thought could happen to "real" people. I'm grateful everyday for these girls.

I have been wound so tight the past few months that I think I may become numb...to most things. With the end of this nightmare just around the corner, Brandon and I finally have a place of our own, I'm going to get back to school (I have felt like a total waste without it) and I am feeling better all the time about myself and my situation. I'm realized that I have a great Mom. She's wonderful and she has been so immensely supportive of me throughout this whole ordeal. She could see me drifting further and further away from her, from Brandon, from it all, and she reeled me back in and said "Kristin! Wake up!", and I did.

My son is growing everyday into such an interesting, smart, and funny person. Watching him change and grow has been a huge honor...I don't know what I did to deserve such a perfect little boy but whatever it was, I'm glad I did it. The past couple of months have been so hard. I've been stressed in ways I never knew I could be and to a degree I didn't know was achievable and I have been under so much pressuer that sometimes I felt I might collapse underneath the weight of it all. I can feel the weight slowly lifting, the stress is starting to wash away little by little. I have a great life. I have people that love me more than anything and that I love the same way. I'm proud of myself for coming so far. I can't wait for 2009 to start. I can't wait to see what it brings my way. I have a feeling that this is going to be a year to be reckoned with.