The one where I update via lists, you try to figure out how I didn't drink myself to death but then say Awwwww at the happy ending

Five years ago today, I moved with The Boy and The Girl to another state to be with Thing. My Thing took us out to dinner last night to celebrate and commented how it doesn’t feel like it's been that long and I agree. So we took a few moments to look back and realized how far we’ve come. After our whirlwind romantic meeting and beginning, we went through a ‘rough patch’. At least that’s what we called it at the time. Looking back on it, we had an 18 month spell that was so stressful (some good, some bad) that, honestly, it’s a wonder that we all came out of it alive let alone to be has happy and at peace as we are today.

Some things I blogged about at the time and others occurred after I ended my blog. But, looking back, in an 18 month time period:

1. I found out I had skin cancer
2. I quit smoking
3. I moved with my kids to another state
4. I bought my first house
5. I found out my skin cancer was back
6. The Boy graduated from high school
7. The Girl had surgery
8. I got married
9. The Boy went through his own ‘rough patch’ and got his ass kicked out of the house.
10. I got laid off from the job I had for more than a decade.
11. The Boy, forgetting that he was no longer a minor, did something incredibly stupid, spent the night in jail and got charged as an adult.
12. Someone stole and used my credit card number.

To make things more interesting, those last three things happened all on the same day.

'Rough patch' my ass....

We, basically, have made over ourselves and our lives since then.  It was a slow process but entirely worth the wait and the work.  I may get into details in the future but suffice it to say, today:

1. My last 3 check-ups have been cancer free
2. I have celebrated the 5-year anniversary of not smoking
3. I've gone through 3 home remodeling projects plus another $5k or so in the yard and I absolutely love my house
4. I'm still married and still think my husband is the sexiest man alive
5. The Boy shares a house nearby with a room-mate, has a fulltime job and will graduate this time next year with a culinary degree
6. The Girl is still a gorgeous blonde and came home with straight A's last period.  She's discovered a talent for playing music and currently plays violin, recorder, guitar and piano.  She's trying to talk me into buying her a flute for Christmas.  She heads to Middle School in the Fall, which I can't think about without hyperventilating.
7. I started my own business which, while having a very slow start, has grown quite nicely over the last 3 years and is now self-supporting.  I've also been teaching the last couple semesters at the local community college, which I like WAY more than I thought I would.

I heard someone discuss a while back about making choices between what we want now versus what we want most.  If you ponder that for a while you realize:

1. that seems really simple
2. we can incorporate that in pretty much every single decision we make
3. that is really fucking hard to do

And you'd be right. What I want now is to drink a bottle of wine, have a cigarette and throw things at my neighbors.  What I want most is to be healthy and not be as big a jerk as my neighbors.  What I want now is to take the day off and enjoy the nice weather.  What I want most is to have a successful business and get paid so I'll sit here and do the invoicing instead.

After I'm done fucking around on my blog, that is. 
I said it was a slow process, didn't I?