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
