The Ups and Downs of 2008

2008 has been a quite a year for the cast of The Jason Show. As a recap of this year's events, The Jason Show brings you.....
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On the Upside, On the Downside

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On the upside, Amelia went to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress regarding the horrific things that are still happening to the Invisible Children of Uganda.
On the downside, it may take an act of Congress to clean up Amelia's closet!

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On the upside, our sweet baby Elijah was born and changed our lives forever.
On the downside, severe child abuse struck our family and put us through the hardest thing that our family has ever had to face.
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On the upside, The California Supreme Court gave us the right to marry. So we got married!
On the downside, California voters took that right away by a narrow margin. But we stayed married anyway!

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On the upside, I was certified as a trainer this year in a program of highly effective teaching strategies called GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design). This means more money, a wider variety of work responsibilities, and teaching adults.
On the downside, this puts me out of my classroom over 40 days this year.

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On the upside, Claire and Dennis reconciled and remarried.
On the downside, Hilary is going through a divorce.
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On the upside, all of our kids are doing well, overall.
On the downside, life is tricky, this year has been hard, and those teenage years can be grueling, for teens and parents alike.

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On the upside, I've been blessed with a new niece, Gianna, and a new nephew, Henry.
On the downside, Henry lives very far away and I'm not sure when I'll get to see him.
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On the upside, my Dad and his wife, Vonna, are in good physical health living on their little farm in Idaho.
On the downside, Vonna's Alzheimer's is getting progressively worse, and it is a full time job for my dad to take care of her.
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On the upside, I've only gotten a few more gray hairs.
On the downside, I've also gotten a few more gray nose hairs.
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On the upside, we've lived together with my in-laws without wringing anybody's neck.
On the downside, living with my in-laws sometimes has turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought.
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On the upside, living with my in-laws has provided some interesting blog material!
On the downside, there is so much more that I am not writing about because I must censor myself in order to maintain the peace.
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On the upside, we are healthy and we have a roof over our heads and food on the table.
On the downside, the roof over our heads is also our table.
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On the upside, I've met, in real life and virtually, many incredible people through blogging, and you have become an important part of my life.
On the downside, there isn't enough time in my day to carefully read every single one of your posts!
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On the upside, I've been having an affair.
On the downside, I've been having an affair.

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