Christmas update

The cake is made, puddings steamed, some presents wrapped, tree and lights up, snow is on the ground so it must be time for my annual blog post!

I've been writing this blog for nearly 7 years. In the beginning there was lots to write about as every experience in a new country was new and interesting and many comparisons were made about the similarities and differences of the two countries.

As time has progressed very little is new and life doesn't seem interesting enough to tell people about. We just get on with living life and people really don't need to know when we meet a friend for breakfast, buy a new plant, make adaptations to a shed to house ducks for the winter, shovel the driveway for the 3rd time that week, go to the gym, deliver another healthy relationships conference, make Christmas decorations , visit friends and family, go to life group and a whole host of other activities that make each day full and varied.

So I am sorry if there seems very little new news in this years Christmas update except that we are all one year older and hopefully wiser!

2016 started with us having a wonderful holiday in England. It was great to visit family and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen for 5 1/2 years. We were certainly reminded of some things we'd forgotten about in England, the green grass in December, the rain, the narrow windy roads, the amazing fish n chips, curry and Chinese takeaways and just how close everything is together making walking easy. The holiday was great but the journey was long and tiring. Did I mention the rain, there certainly was lots of it!

Because of the holiday we had postponed my final chemo treatment till the second week in January. It was good to finish that part of the treatment process, it was certainly the hardest part. Then came the month of radiation in St John. We rented an apartment and stayed down in Saint John on snow days or towards the end of the treatment when we were simply to tired too do the 1.5 hour trip each way everyday.

A couple of weeks after finishing radiation I returned to work, sometimes doing shorter days and certainly not doing all the driving I usually do. My hair started to grow back and I've even had to have it trimmed to give it style rather than the bush that was growing at all angles on my head!

In April we opened up the farm after the winter and had a huge work day filling a skip the size of a small house with all the rubble taken out of the house from gutting it through the winter.

in May mum and dad came to visit, unfortunately that's bug season so we couldn't work outside but did get some more clearing out done inside. By June I was ready for a yard sale (I'm sure this will be one of many over the next year or so).

David's parents visited us in August/September, we visited some more of New Brunswick and they ventured to PEI for a weekend too. Their flights got messed up so they ended up staying an extra couple of days with us.

David took 8 weeks off in the summer to work on the farm, he did a huge amount of work but not yet enough so we can move in. David continues to work for salesforce.com as well as running the farm, renovating 2 houses and doing the audio visual stuff for church.

I still work for Partners for Youth running the healthy relationships program mainly, I also enjoy renovating the houses but I tend to do more of the final stuff after the building work is done. I cook a turkey for the sandwich run at church each month and help out with the kids work. All my treatment is basically finished now except the hormone treatment which I will be on for 10 years. I feel absolutely fine and am very thankful for the great care I've had this past 18 months or so and the continued monitoring.

Isaac works for Degree Technologies fitting heat pumps into residential properties. He is currently doing his block 2 down in St Andrews which he should finish at Christmas. He also works on the farm, he has lots of ducks and 2 cows. He does A.V at church and helps to run the youth group.

Josh is in his second year at UNB doing computer science. He is currently doing exams the after Christmas will be on a 4 month work placement with a local I.T company. He is a volunteer firefighter, does the A.V at church too and loves playing games.

Harriet is in grade 11 at Harvey High School, she also does dog agility with shadow, works at the local gas bar, worked the summer at Greenhill Lake Camp, is a social butterfly who never seems to be home especially since she passed her driving test last month!

In 2016 we've had numerous litters of piglets, kittens and ducklings. We have 3 cows and still 2 crazy dogs. We went to 3 weddings and celebrated 6 years in Canada, it's been fun!

Feel free to come and visit us in 2017. Happy Christmas one and all!

Hitting the gong to celebrate my final herceptin treatment last month

I do have some hair now!

We still have 2 kittens like him left if anyone wants one!

We love to celebrate with ice cream cake

Some of our babies this year

Harri and Shadow at a trial

Celebrations

David turned 46 this week and as his birthday is on Remembrance Day he has a day off, to celebrate he built an extension on the pig shed!

Warning keep off the roads! Harriet has passed her driving test and it's looking like David may be seeing a little less of his truck from now on.

We still have 3 kittens we are giving away, they are so cute!

This is the only picture I can find of the new roof and dormers on the farm. David had 8 weeks sabbatical in the summer to work on the house, he got lots done but I think it's safe to say we won't be in this year!

Isaac is currently back in St Andrews studying for block 2 of his refrigeration and air conditioning qualification. He will sit his exam at Christmas.

Josh is back at university for a semester and after Christmas will be doing a coop placement with a company in town.

Harriet is in grade 11 , works at the local gas bar, does dog agility and has a very full social life!

I am in my busiest time at work with 5 conference to run over the next few months. I have just had treatment 17 of 18 so my next appointment in a couple of weeks time will be a huge milestone.  I will continue taking my hormone treatment for 10 years in total and be checked frequently by my oncologist and surgeon  for the next 5 years.

In case I confused anyone, when i came to write this blog I found a post I'd written but not published, anyhow I published it yesterday so you can see the progress we've made.

We are busy getting ready for winter, thankfully the snow is holding off, we've only had a couple of evenings of flurries so far. It will be here soon enough then we'll get nothing done for a few months except snow shovelling and keeping the fire blazing.

Beautiful summer

I was once again reminded that I hadn't updated the blog for many months, sorry folks I'd better get up to date!

A couple of weeks after finishing my radiation I returned to work. It's been nice to get back to some sort of normality and to get busy again. I've mainly been doing camp planning and cooking and I go out with our outreach social worker 1 day a week which is very interesting. 

My hair is growing back....really slowly! It has a mind of its own and sticks out in all directions and is a variety of colours including grey! I look rather like Harriet's old Guinea pig, Nibbles!

Photo taken in January 3 weeks after finishing chemo

Photo taken July 4th nearly 6 months after chemo

I'm still having treatment every 3 weeks (herceptin), this will continue till about November. I also have to take hormone treatment for about 5 years. I get checked out every 3 months to make sure my heart is ok with the treatment. Back in April/May I had a month off treatment to let my heart rest. 

Mum and Dad came to visit for a few days in May, we had a good time exploring some different local places.

Harriet and Shadow continue to do dog agility and went to their first trial of the year in June. They did really well and Shadow got his first 'Q' (qualifying) round. So Harriet was over the moon. She is working at Greenhill Lake Camp this summer. It's a leader in training position so she has to raise funds for the share a wage program she is part of. She had to send 50 letters to friends and family and decided to send one to the Queen telling her about her life in Canada, church, camp, dog agility and she included some photos. She was delighted when she got a response!

Isaac has bought himself a calf called Oscar

Josh is working for a company during the summer called Fit Path as part of his computer science degree. 

I had a yard sale a couple of weeks ago to try and get rid of some of the stuff at the farm. I think it will be one of many as I have hardly made a dent the place. David is having a sabbatical from work for 8 weeks this summer to start rebuilding the house so we can move in later this year.

This summer seems to be the summer of weddings, we have 3 to attend which should be fun. We went to the first of these last week. David's parents are coming over at the end of the summer for a few weeks so we have lots to look forward to!

Many hands ......

Now winter has well and truly gone we can get round to doing the outside jobs again.

Last Saturday some friends from church came to help us fill a dumpster (skip) at our new farm. There were approximately 250 bags of rubble from the work we've been doing on the house once those were loaded we made a start on emptying the barn. It was hard work but lots of fun especially finding great stuff in the barn. A big thank you to all those who came. 

The spring piglets have started to arrive and are cute as ever!

Before pictures

After pictures

how I spent my spare time!

I thought I'd show you what I did with all the time I had to fill in Saint John. 

I went out for daily walks to explore the area, I read and actually watched t.v. (This is novel as we don't have one at home) and did a jigsaw. I decided I wanted to do something I used to do when I was much younger and had so much more time on my hands, painting! I asked for canvases and paints for Christmas in preparation.

I dug out an old sketch pad and played with ideas first before deciding on my final 4 picture designs.

Playing with ideas around Whitby beach huts

Beautiful piggies of course!

More beach huts

Radom flowers experimenting with charcoal and watercolour

More beach huts! 

Famous New Brunswick covered bridges

Different beach huts! Ok so I like beach huts!

Canvas 1: this one is called radiation, as you lie in the machine you look up at a ceiling which has glass panels lit from behind with a picture as though you are looking up through spring trees to a beautiful blue sky. This is my interpretation of it.

Canvas 2: poppies of course, I love poppies!

Canvas 3: my chosen beach hut became very stylized

Canvas 4: Whitby lighthouse

I had lots of fun doing these and maybe when our farmhouse is complete I may do more.

Milestones

Once again I've left it far too long to update the blog I have no idea where the past 3 months have gone!

After my final chemo treatment in January I had 4 weeks to rest up before starting radiation therapy in Saint John. There are a number of routes for us to take to Saint John but all are 1.5 hours or more. My daily appointments for the month were very short, sometimes as quick as 10-15 minutes. We decided so that David could work as much as possible and because February is usually the worst month for snow storms to rent an apartment for the month. The apartment was 5 minutes walk to the salesforce office in Saint John where David worked from for the month, and 5 minutes drive to the hospital where I had daily appointments. We didn't really want to be away from home all week so we drove down most days and I had the apartment as a base to chill, sleep, eat etc while David was at work. There were some stormy days where we stayed over and by the end of my treatment we were getting very tired of the travelling so we stayed over a couple of nights per week to break up the week. I was looked after very well by the radiation department, they do as much as possible to make it a positive experience. As the treatment progressed I got more sore and tired but on the whole I found it much easier than chemo. To celebrate finishing treatment I got to ring the bell, it's funny how the little things get to mean so much! I've finished all my major treatment but I do have to go in for my herceptin once every 3 weeks till October. I also start on hormone therapy next week for the next 5-10 years! I will be followed up by my oncologist and surgeon very regularly for the next 5 years or so. I am returning to work next week which I'm looking forward to.

Harriet has been busy, she started working at the local gas station a couple of shifts per week which she loves. She enjoyed volunteering at Greenhill Lake Camp last year and decided to apply for a summer job there this year. She got the job and will have a very busy summer between both her jobs! This week has been March break it instead of taking a break from studying she enrolled on a drivers Ed course for 4 days then went and sat her written test which she passed. This means she has 8 months to practise driving with us and have lessons before she can take her road test and drive by herself. As you can imagine she is wanting to practise at every opportunity!

Josh is coming to the end of his second semester at UNB. so will  be taking his  final exams in April. He is also working towards his level 1 firefighters qualification which he finishes in May. He is applying for coop summer jobs as part of his course.

Isaac is keeping busy working for Degree Technology and doing projects up at the farm.

We have started to renovate the farm we bought. It needs such a lot doing on it that it's easier to take it right back to basics which is the current project. We are very thankful to have help with this project.

Spring is already here in Harvey. We have had very warm unseasonal weather and lots of rain and some freezing rain all of which has melted most of the snow. The sun is shining and we have plus temperatures most days giving us hope that soon the grass with turn green and we may see flowers. The clocks went forward last night so it's light till nearly 8pm this evening.

Harriet with her beginners licence

Upstairs in the farmhouse

Downstairs in the farmhouse

Suz ringing the bell

Christmas 2015

Well we made it.....to the UK and back for our much anticipated trip!

To be honest when the Dr's said I could go as long as all went well with my treatment I really didn't believe we could make it especially after ending up in hospital during the first round and then even when things went well after that, the general toll of the chemo and the constant vigilance to stay germ free all seemed just too much.

The journey was good, long with going via St. John's but good none the less. It amazed us what we'd forgotten about the uk. It was very green, especially leaving New Brunswick as winter was getting started where you get snow then melt for a while leaving very brown unhealthy looking grass.

Everything seemed so small and squashed together, you almost felt like breathing in driving down the road just to fit through! Places are so close by too. Of course the rain has to be mentioned too, lots and lots of it effecting the beautiful Yorkshire towns and slowing down some of our journeys.

The time of year, my health and weather meant this was a holiday for seeing people rather than sitting on a beach or climbing Ben Nevis!

It was good to get out and visit favourite old haunts when we could.

The rest of the time we enjoyed visiting with family and friends.

Our journey home was more eventful. We were just reversing out of Heathrow airport when Isaac said he felt dizzy. At first we thought it was because we were going backwards, then he passed out. Thankfully he come too enough to tell us he'd just been watching the wrong film and an unexpected gory bit came on making him pass out! It certainly caused a stir on the aircraft and he was very well attended to all journey. Although he was banned from watching anything other than Disney the rest of the flight!

Harriet was our photographer and took hundreds of pics so I'll share one or two at the bottom of this post.

Thank you to all who made it possible for us to go and looked after us so well while we were there.

Sorry we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked with some of you and others we missed altogether. We won't leave it as long next time! Alternatively you could come over here to visit!


Sorry the pictures are from the end of the trip to the beginning but you get the idea of what we managed to do and see.

 Uncle Robert and James came to visit

 Us with Mum and Dad Laver

 Uncle Ken and Auntie Heather  came round too

 Suz and Henry taking down the decorations

 We were welcomed like royalty (almost) everywhere!!!!

 Us and Mum and Dad Woollin

 Would ya believe Isaac turned 20 while we were there?!

 Fish n chips #2 to celebrate Isaac's birthday

 mmmmmm Whitby scampi

 New Year's eve playing pie face!

 and drinking lots of tea...

 cousins chilling

 Whitby

 Harri

 Mum in Goathland (Heartbeat country)

 6 cousins

 Harri and the hat!

 Mum and Dad taking a good picture!

 Us, Mum and the Pages

 Arty pic 

 Have you heard the tale of Stephen and the whale?

 mmmmm fish n chips n mushy peas!

 All our old haunts

 We got married in 1993 when this bridge was being erected so we had our photos taken on a baily bridge just up river.

 Robin Hood's Bay

 Trying to recreate a photo taken at Megan and Jack's wedding

 Woollin Christmas dinner

 Henry wanted to be Isaac!

 Don't ask!!!!

 Harri and Grandad doing a onesie (selfie)

Someone came to visit on Christmas day!