2008 (to-date) in Review

Since I have not gotten around to blogging (at all!) this year (I cannot believe it – where has the time gone!!), I figured I’d try to do a summary of 2008 to-date, attempting to be as succinct as possible (we all know my tendency to ramble once I get on a roll!).

We ended 2007 with a memorable annual Boxing Day Family Holiday Party in Ottawa. This has been a tradition on my Dad’s side of the family for many years now and every year’s celebration is a special day where everyone travels from various parts of the world back to Tante Marlene & Uncle Arthur’s home in Ottawa for a day of festive food, drink & revelry. The menu always consists of a few bottles of quality white wine with just the right amount of oakiness, freshly shucked oysters, pickled herring, Polish vodka and a delicious, satisfying meal (5-star restaurant quality, prepped in advance so our hostess can spend time with her guests) on a beautifully decked out table. Oh – and boule de neige for dessert! We all participate in a gift exchange that usually sparks a small amount of controversy most years (which always ends with all being forgiven!) and lots of laughs. We all take turns providing some form of entertainment & this year Rich & Cyn performed their rendition of a popular song, and we all sang carols & songs with the little ones too. We look forward to ending off our year with this day and Shawny warmed my heart last year my telling me that it is his favourite holiday, and day, of the year.

The beginning of 2008 brought me my long time wish come true – a bigger house. We were not finding what we were looking for on the MLS listings, so we drove around the neighbourhood one winter day and quickly found a 2-bedroom cottage (1995) the exact same walking distance from the commuter train as our other house (we postponed our wish of moving closer to the city and will fulfill it next house!). Other than having the owner do a few repairs (replace plumbing with up-to-code materials, fix foundation cracks/leaks), the purchase went very smoothly. We had intended to keep our other house and rent it out, but it turned out to not even be an option for us, as since I had already withdrawn from my RRSPs to buy my first house, Shawn was not allowed to do the same (despite the fact that we were not even together when I bought my house!). We put our house up for sale & it luckily sold in a month to the first person to make an offer. It was surprisingly more difficult than I had expected to say goodbye to my first little house that I bought all by myself at 30 years old on a secretary’s salary, but it gave me a good feeling to sell it to a young 27-year old girl just starting out on her own like I had 6 years prior. The move was very draining, things had to happen relatively fast as we only had less than 2 months to pack up and get ready to go, including donating and getting rid of almost all of my old furniture. We ended up not moving enough with the moving truck as we had figured we could move a lot of the small stuff ourselves over the 2 wks we had to move in, but this resulted in many, many car loads every night. We cleaned the old house top to bottom so we could hand it over sparkling – I never cleaned so much in my life!

We moved in in May, and settled in pretty quickly. We had landscaping done in the front of our house in August, and we’ve had our shed taken down (we got sold a moldy rotted caban!) and it will be replaced shortly. We are planning to have our basement finished and if all goes well we should have a brand new home theatre and office/guest room downstairs by the end of 2008 (prayers & fingers crossed!). We purchased new furniture and most of it is arrived only mid-September (gotta love Leon’s, who has every part of your bedroom or dining set shipped in from a different part of the country!) . Some pieces arrived damaged & had to be put back on the truck, other pieces were missing…..hopefully we will have it all ironed out soon. We still have to decorate and get a lot of our unpacked stuff organized, but Shawny keeps telling me not to stress and that everything will get done in due time (hard for me to do sometimes!).

I spent most of the 1st half of 2008 with very bad back pain, due to a really bad fall on February 19th. Since our old (steep) driveway was built on a 45 degree angle, even though it was covered by a car port, it was constantly icing over and it became my dangerous nemesis. I had the fall to end all falls on my way out to work that morning, with my legs flying out in front of me and all of my weight of my lower body being folded over onto my torso and back. It felt like I had broken my ribs from behind & I was winded for a few hours after it happened. After spending a day in the emergency clinic and getting x-rayed, I found out I had not broken anything and that I had a severe sprain. I had just announced my resignation at the printing company I had been working for a week prior, so when I had to take a few days off to recover, they were not happy. I took a week off after I finished at this job before starting my new one at a large accounting firm. I went through a few weeks of physio and was not able to exercise until a few weeks ago. Prior to my fall, I had injured myself getting off of the train as my hip (the one that doesn’t rotate properly) locked. Living with almost constant pain was mentally very draining, and took a physical toll on me too, as I started putting on weight.

Fast forward to this summer, where I got to enjoy some half days and days off on Fridays with our admin. summer schedule. I started seeing an osteopath that works out of his home in my neighborhood and my pain is now down by about 90% in just a few treatments. He was finally able to unblock my hip a couple of weeks ago and I am beyond relieved, as I can finally do things like sit cross-legged again. I decided to join Weight Watchers (something I never expected to do!) in May through our at work program (subsidized by our Health & Wellness benefits) and I lost 15 lbs in 13 weeks. I feel great (being back down to my wedding weight 2 yrs ago) and went down two full sizes.

Me at my goal weight - Aug.23

My nephew Simon turned 5 (Cynthia threw a really kick-ass Birthday party – complete with reptiles!) in May and started ‘real’ school at the beginning of this month (a major lifestyle change for his parents and a major adjustment for him, being schooled only in French). We found out that we will become an Aunt & Uncle again in early December and again sometime in March, as Shawn’s 2 brothers wives are expecting. His side is really excited for the new additions to the family! We also recently found out that my cousins Tim & Sue will become grandparents in January next year (I remember dancing my 1st slow song with a boy at their wedding when I was about 10 yrs old like it was yesterday!). Babies are popping up everywhere!

We didn’t go away on vacation this year, we figured we’d spend the extra on new stuff of the new house, like stainless steel appliances and brand new furniture. We took a week off at the end of August together, but our 3-day spa vacation up North got cancelled (and we lost our deposit!) ‘cause Shawn came down with a really bad strep throat type virus and he was sick the whole week! I was really disappointed, but a few hours at the nearby day spa and a day of ‘retail therapy’ (buying a new wardrobe to replace all of my now too-big clothes) made me feel a little better! Shawny coughed almost every night and morning for a month and then came down with a really bad head cold/cough this past Monday, and he is still recovering. He has not been sick like this for about 15 years, so he is having trouble handling it! Usually I am the one who is sick but I have fairly lucky and healthy this year, with only a couple of 2-day flus/colds in the spring. At least we had managed to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary earlier that week with a delicious, romantic meal on the terrace of our favourite local French restaurant, before hubby fell ill!

We are looking forward to celebrating the upcoming Jewish holidays with Shawny’s family, Pat’s annual Halloween party and my Dad’s 65th Birthday. We will try to squeeze in our Annual Fall Picnic on Thanksgiving Weekend, too. Then on Nov. 8, it will be my 20th (yeah, I can’t believe it) High School reunion – and before we know it, it will be December - Holiday Season again – another fun Boxing Day party – and then the year will be over! When I was in my early 20’s, I never believed older people who told me that once you turn 30, the years just fly by – but it is SO true! Life often seems to only be about the routine of getting up to go to work, surviving a long work day, coming home, having dinner and getting ready to do it all again the next day, and the days flow into months, then before you know it, it’s New Year’s Eve again.

As often as I can, I remind myself that every moment counts, and try to savour every second. That is why spending time with family and friends are such momentous occasions – pleasant breaks in the daily routine that create lifelong memories to think about and cherish in the ‘dull’ moments.

Here’s to a great 2008 – well, what’s left of it!!!

Shawny's siblings & their spouses