J&B SHARRATT: April 7, 2013

I haven’t written anything in a long time mainly just because I wasn’t taking the time to do so but I certainly appreciate that people have been asking me why I haven’t written, so that has prompted me to update on our lives. I am pleasantly surprised that friends/family actually read my blog but it is much appreciated! Since my last entry, Brian has had one more round of his 3-monthly chemo in February and as usual tolerated it quite well. He finds now that the chemo effect is lasting a little bit longer each time. This time he felt quite tired and unwell for about 4-5 days but then after that he was almost completely back to normal, even going out for his runs. The weather though has not been very cooperative with it being so cold that Brian hasn’t been able to run as much as he would like. April is here now, surely we are going to get some warm weather soon, aren’t we??? We have not been up to much over the last couple of months, basically just enjoying the normalcy of every-day life. We have both really come to appreciate “normal life” over the last year or so. One thing we just completed is the “grandkid’s bedroom” in our house. Breanne and James have asked us to babysit the weekend of April 13/14, so that prompted us to buckle down and get that bedroom done and now it is complete other than I need to buy some headboards for the bed but Brian is giving me a real hard time about that. The ones I want cost $800 each but they are so cute……they look like Princess headboards and what wouldn’t we do for our sweet granddaughters, right? So the compromise is that I will keep looking but if I don’t find anything I like, then I’m ordering the ones I do like!

I personally have had a little upset with David over the last couple of weeks as I found out he has bought a motorbike. It has taken me a while to accept that he has a bike and there is not much I can do about it but it scares me to death about how dangerous they are. I know that David will be careful but it is the other guy I worry about it. David promised me that he will drive safe and will not be a speed demon on it; so I will just have to trust in God that he will keep him safe.

Otherwise our family is doing well; David and Jenn have been dealing with a leaky basement in their new home and have had to spend some money on fixing it that they weren’t counting on but that’s all part of owning a house I guess! It is a good thing that Jenn has had a full-time teaching position this year! Breanne and James and family are also doing well now although they have gone through a couple of months of being sick with flus, colds, headaches, muscle aches that just kept going through the family. James even took himself to the E.R. as he was feeling so bad and Breanne insisted he go. Then he starts to feel better after some antibiotics and then heads off for his Florida Training Camp and then Breanne falls ill and without James being around, it was quite a long couple of weeks for her. Then Brian and I ended up with it although we didn’t seem to be as severe as they were. It seems that Annika or Selena brought it home and then it spread like wildfire to everyone else. I think we will all be happy to finally see spring arrive and hopefully that ushers out these cold/flu viruses along with it.

My dad is doing well. His leg really seems to be bothering him more of late and when at home, he is now using a walker as it is much safer than using a cane although he uses his cane when out of the building. We are also contemplating dad moving to a new Senior’s Residence they have built at the Arboretum here in Guelph. It is being built by Schlegel Homes and is really quite nice and it might just be a nice change of pace for dad to go to something new and different. They have a “community concept” in their buildings with a vibrant hub called the Main Street that goes through the center of building with a pub, general store, hair/barber shops, library, bistro, dining room and café. We are taking dad to see the model suites sometime this month and my brothers and I are hoping that dad would like to live there as I think he will find it quite nice especially as he would then have a patio off his room which would be nice in the summertime for him to sit out on and enjoy the fresh air. I will keep everyone updated on that one.

Brian and I are planning a holiday back to Europe this summer with our really good friends (Roseleigh and Richard) who we met on our last European Riverboat cruise and they are from Perth, Australia. We are so looking forward to meeting up with them again and spending a couple of weeks together on another Riverboat Cruise; this time we leave from Basel Switzerland and end in Paris, France. This trip includes a riverboat cruise starting in Basel with ports at Rudensheim, Cochem, Cologne, and ending in Amsterdam and then we all disembark the ship and travel by train to Paris, France where we stay at the Paris HIlton Arc de Triomphe for 3 nights (this is all included in the trip). Once the trip is finished, we then plan on taking the Chunnel over to London, England where my cousin, Geoff, will meet up with us and we will stay a few days to visit with Geoff and Lynn; then head home. So we will be gone for just over 3 weeks at the end of August/September time-frame. We are both really getting excited about this trip now and we are so looking forward to meeting up with Roseleigh and Richard again. They are great travel companions and we all get along so well; so should be a great trip.

So that is about all my up-to-date news. I will include a couple of pictures to end my blog. I hope all our friends and family are doing well and thanks once again for taking an interest in our lives!

Nana and Papa with their special girls!

Selena loves to read with Nana when we visit. She piles up all the books and we go through them all; and I say words and she repeats them after me. She is just so darn cute!