Don't we all wish for the next year to be better than the last? I know I always do...and I make goals, both business and personal, to help keep me on track to having a better year. I think the real estate market will do better than last, though it will still be "sluggish" compared to years past. But keep your chins up...unless we strive to make our lives better, they never will be.

I look at my kids and wonder how they are going to change, how much they are going to learn and grow in 2009. Call me silly, but I find the unknown exciting. If I knew exactly what was going to happen to the real estate market in the next year or two, the challenge of furthering my experience would cease to exist and I would grow bored. Some things turn out the way we hope, and many others don't. But we pick ourselves up, keep living and learning.

And of course you still need the humor and fun that goes along with life. I guess that is why, even though I like the unknown, I will still keep my magic 8-Ball around for those emergency, want-to-know, future questions.

Happy New Year!