June 25, 2012 – Finally moved but not quite settled

The longest three weeks of our lives is over and we are finally moved in but definitely not yet settled.  It was sad to say good-bye to our old home and I am sure the new owners are going to love it there.  It truly was a great home and moving into a townhome has definitely made us feel somewhat melancholy.  It was a lot of hard work moving what we could on our own and it was a real eye-opener at the amount of stuff we have and don’t need.  So the purging is still ongoing as we sort through things.  Basically our finished basement is a mess with everything piled down there and we are slowly going to go through it and keep on taking stuff to the dump or to the Goodwill. Our townhome just doesn’t feel quite like home yet until we get more pictures up on the walls, my window coverings are on order and once they are installed, it will look better than having sheets up at the window!  I have had California Closets in to measure 4 closets so we can create more storage space and that will really help with putting things away. Unfortunately they cannot be installed until the end of July so we have another month of still living amongst boxes until I have the room to empty them. 

I am already feeling quite comfortable in our new home as I can envision what it will look like when all is said and done but Brian is really struggling with it and says he doesn’t like it. I’m hopeful that he will feel much better once we are more settled but it definitely is a different way of life living so close to other people.  Having said that though, all the people we have met in our complex are very much like us, most are empty-nesters living out their retirement years in a smaller place and having less responsibility and it is going to be a quiet complex which is just perfect from my point of view. 

The best thing about the move though is how close we now are to Breanne and family and for a short while David and Jenn.  It is so nice that they are able to pop around to see us by just walking up the street.  Brian does loving having his best buddy “Annika” over who is helping papa put things away and putting up shelves and pictures. She goes with papa when he takes his weekly trip to the dump or to Value Village to donate things we don’t need anymore.  This is what is going to make Brian love being here and once our house is looking nice inside; I’m sure he will be fine. 

On another happy note, David and Jenn have just sold their condo and are moving to a new home in Cambridge.  They are having a hugely busy year, what with getting married on July 21 and moving into their new home August 23.  Cambridge will make it a bit closer for David to drive to work in New Hamburg but Jenn will have to drive to Guelph to work but it is not that far for her really as she can take all the back roads.  Another piece of good news from Jenn’s point of view is that she got a teaching contract position from September to December in one of her favorite schools here in Guelph.  It is only until December but hopefully something else will come up after that.  Jenn is a supply teacher for the Separate School Board and one day is hoping to get a full-time position but it seems to take forever with very few jobs becoming available.  It is hard for these young teachers and I feel so bad for them as they are keen to work and are young at heart and would make great teachers. 

Well, that is our update for now.  Otherwise, Brian is doing well health-wise other than a chest cold he has been suffering with but that now seems to be on the mend.  The grandkids had the same cold, so I think Brian picked it up from one of them.  I will update with some pictures once I find my camera!!!!!!

Finally the big move is here!

I can’t believe we are finally moving!  We get the keys Thursday morning after our last walk-through with the builder.  We had a walk through last week and everything looked great.  There were just a few things they have to fix up which should be done by Thursday and the cleaning crew will have gone through by then too. I am so happy with all my decor choices and absolutely love my new kitchen.  The appliances are delivered Friday but not installed until Monday.  We have Rogers and Bell coming in Friday to install our services; so our first priority is to get my office moved.  Brian and I spent today dismantling our desks and packing up our office stuff.  We also have to get all the TVs disconnected and over to the condo before Friday morning too.  James is going to help us move things we have packed Thursday morning and David and Karsten (with his truck) will also be helping us later in the afternoon.  My concern is just getting my office back in order for Friday once the services are in.  We then have a full week for Brian and I just to move things we can move on our own before the movers come on June 12th for the big move. Hopefully within two weeks we will be somewhat settled and hopefully most things put away.  Then I can start looking for and buying new furniture.  That will be the fun part!  I will post pictures later of the condo. 

I will end here with a little video of our Timmie and how he has become a big part of our lives now!  I definitely will be glad when he gets a bit older and out of the puppy stages as he can be quite a challenge with his energy and chewing at times!  He still is not fully trained and has had a couple of accidents but for the most part he is pretty good. 

Our little boy – Timmie

I just couldn’t resist, I knew going to the breeder to “look” was going to be very hard to do.  It didn’t help that Breanne was encouraging me to bring Timmie home now but I had promised Brian I would not come home with one and I ended up breaking that promise.  Brian rightfully so was quite upset with me as I had broken a promise and he had trusted me and I do hate the fact that I did that as I am usually good at my word.  Breanne and I kept coming up with excuses of why we had to bring him home now and not later.  One big one was that Timmie (the breeder had named him Sydney) was so forlorn.  Of all the puppies (different ages) that she had there, he was staying away from the crowd of dogs and just laying in the corner.  Breanne went over to encourage him out and she pulled him on her lap and just said “mom this is the one, you have to bring him home”.  I then took him and cuddled him and he seemed so afraid and timid..  His name alone was a sign to us that he was the one – his name was Sydney – my dad’s name.  I knew the timing was bad and that I should not be bonding with a dog right now what with moving and the upheaval of that but my heartstrings were tugging and I just couldn’t come home without him.  And now a week later, Timmie has made us all fall in love with him – even Brian.  Timmie is 5 months old and has been living with his litter mates all this time so having more human contact has just brought his little personality right out.  He is definitely coming out of being some timid; we are now able to go for a walk without him taking a few steps and plopping himself down; now he looks forward to all his walks and is really doing well with his training.  He has had a couple of accidents in the house but for the most part he is doing all his business outside and is really getting the hang of it.  He has had Mavie to help him as we visit with BJAMS a lot and Mavie is showing Timmie the ropes.  Timmie had a sleepover on Thursday night with BJAMS as Brian had his follow-up oncologist visit Friday morning.  I have pictures of Timmie below.

Brian had blood work and saw Dr. McCarron on Friday and she is very pleased with Brian’s progress.  All his blood work is totally normal except for a high bilirubin and she is not sure why his bilirubin is remaining high.  She did the CAT scan and it showed his liver was normal, so she says it could be something totally unrelated to his lymphoma and really of no consequence but she is going to keep following it.  She mentioned that it could be Gilbert’s syndrome but I haven’t had a chance to look that up to see what that means.  So, Brian is all set to go for his first maintenance immunotherapy on Tuesday of the Rituximab. 

Our little granddaughter, Selena, has been very very sick this week.  She started with vomiting and diarrhea  on Tuesday and has been very unwell the whole week.  Breanne had to take her to the emergency department on Friday as she was so listless and Breanne was afraid she was dehydrated after waking up with a dry diaper and crying with no tears.  They gave her an antinauseant and after she had a little sleep they gave her a popsicle which she ate so they felt she could go home as long as Breanne and James kept a close eye on her symptoms.  She is only now starting to eat a little more but she is still very quiet and fatigues easily.  Hopefully over the next couple of days she will start to get back to normal.  I don’t like to see our little ones so sick. 

Now here are some pictures of Timmie:

This is when Breanne pulled Timmie out from the corner.

Then I held him.  Isn’t he just so adorable!

He needs a haircut badly!

This is Timmie a week later….nicely groomed!!  He has visited with the vet and he is in perfect health as well.  We all love him to pieces…..including Brian!  Thank-you Brian for letting me keep my little boy; I love you for putting up with me!

Friday, May 11, 2012

I’m so excited…..we are going to see Warhorse tomorrow!  A few months back when Brian was undergoing chemo, I thought it would be nice to have a celebration for the two of us once he was finished his chemo treatments; and I organized a weekend away just for the two of us. We are going to Toronto, staying in a very nice hotel, going out for supper to a nice restaurant (haven’t decided which one yet) and have tickets for the Saturday night performance of Warhorse at the Theatre.  We will have a nice leisurely breakfast and head home on Sunday for Mother’s day. 

I am also doubly excited for Sunday as Breanne, the grandkids, Mavie and I are going to visit a Bichon Breeder to look at her puppies.  I promised Brian I won’t come home with one but I’m sure I am going to see one I want to get.  Annika is very excited to finally get to see some puppies and Selena will totally love it when she sees them too.  Then we are coming back and having a little get-together at BJAMS with David and Jenn as well to celebrate Mother’s Day.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family! 

We are now only 3 weeks away from the BIG move!  The neighbourhood is having a giant garage sale on Saturday morning; so we have compiled some stuff together to put out in the garage sale and it would be great if we got rid of a few things that way.  I have attached some pictures of our new condo which I took on my Blackberry last weekend. 

Front view of the condo.

This is our back porch.  We have a terraced lot, so that is why there are stairs going down to the patio. 

This is a little parkette that the builder has put in on the corner (you can see our condo complex in the background).  One thing I love about Reid’s (our builder) is how he cosmetically has really nice landscaped areas scattered throughout the entire neighbourhood.  It really adds the finishing touch to make things look nice. 

Sunday, April 29, 2012

I seem to be writing now about once every 1-2 weeks.  We can’t seem to keep up with our lives at the moment, everything just seems to be so busy.  I did so well with my running regimen when I wrote last time and then we got that nasty weather and we got busy with packing and other things and I only got out for my run once last week.  I did do some of my Wii exercises in lieu of running when the weather was bad and I have been keeping with my calorie count when journaling what I’m eating.  Nevertheless, I got really frustrated when I weighed myself this past week and I have gained 0.7 kilograms.  This is the norm for me, I basically have to exercise 2-3 hours a day in order to see any change in my weight whatsoever.  Oh well, I will not give up, I will just try to get back on track this week.  I should be running 2 minutes and walk 1 minute for 10 sets which I will start this week.  I just have to be patient and hopefully the 5-10 pounds I would like to lose will come off by July 21st!! 

We have been babysitting the grandkids this weekend while Breanne and James are in Windsor as James was the Race Director for a race he organized there which had over 200 runners registered which was an awesome turnout.  We took the girls out for a long walk this morning and then later to watch David run 15K in the Billy Taylor race here in Guelph.  It is a beautiful sunny day out but still has that nippy cold wind.  I hope soon it gets warm and stays warm.  I’m really ready for the warm weather to get here and sick of all this cool or cold stuff that seems to be the norm right now.  Selena is having her afternoon nap and Annika is playing quietly with papa.  Once Selena wakes up, we are taking them both to the Butterfly Conservatory in Cambridge.  I understand now why we have kids when we are young; it is pretty exhausting and I think we will be thankful to see James and Breanne return later this afternoon.  They are both such good kids though; they go to bed and sleep and eat and are definitely not whiny; so it is a pleasure being with them, just exhausting keeping them busy!

We took a look at our condo (through the windows again) on Friday and our kitchen is now in and I am quite happy with my cupboard choice although Brian seems less so but to him a kitchen is a kitchen and he really doesn’t care too much about colors and what they look like, as long as they are functional and do the job they should do!  I am just dying to get into the condo to walk around so hopefully they call us soon to go through our last walk-through before closing at the end of May.  We are starting to get packed now and have got a rid of a few more things we don’t want.  We are going to have a neighborhood garage sale on May 26th, and anything that doesn’t go then, we are going to ship off to the Thrift Store. 

One other thing that we just found out this week is that my dad does have a fractured sternum from the car accident he was in.  He was just not getting over this pain in his chest very quickly, so the doctor did a chest x-ray and he definitely does have a fractured sternum.  There is nothing they can do other than just keep him comfortable with pain medication and over time it should start to heal and he will feel better.  Unfortunately for dad, that seems like a long time as he really struggles with the pain when he coughs or sneezes or has to use those chest muscles to pull himself up out of a chair etc. 

So that is all our news for now; will update again in another week or two!

April 17, 2012

Well, life is certainly zipping along at a fast pace.  Here we are now halfway through April, six weeks before we move and three months before David/Jenn’s wedding.  Last weekend Breanne and I went out to look for a “mother of the groom” dress at Le Creme downtown Guelph and I actually found a dress!  It was the second dress I tried on and although I was more critical of how it looked, Breanne kept saying it was the one; so after trying on a few more that were definitely not for me, I tried the one on that Breanne liked and admitted to myself that it was the one and thankfully it was one I could buy off the shelf and didn’t have to order.  I even bought some jewelry to go with it at the same time!  Now all I need are the shoes.  You have no idea how happy I was to have that over with!  We have so much on our plate right now, that worrying about where I was going to get a dress and/or shopping from store to store certainly wasn’t appealing; so this is one huge stress I don’t have anymore. Of course, for Brian (as for all men) it was easy.  David booked an appointment at the tuxedo store, and all the men including the fathers go there for half an hour, pick out a tux, get measured and their done!  They don’t even have to buy shoes, that is also included in the Tux rental.  Women definitely have it harder than men! 

So now I have a goal, I HAVE to lose 5-10 pounds in three months.  My dress fits but it is a bit snug and would look so much better if I lost a few pounds; so this week I have started back to running and I am starting from scratch and building up from there with the Running Room Program; so I have started with 1 minute run, 2 minute walk – 7 sets; then subsequent weeks I add 1 minute until I’m running 10 and walking 1 – 10 week program.  I also found this awesome app for my I-pad that counts calories. All I do is put in the bar codes for any foods I eat and/or add in food portions and it calculates calories, proteins, carbs, etc.  It even calculates how much I should be eating (RDI) in a day for my age, gender and whether you want to maintain or lose or gain weight.  It has to be one of the best apps ever and is so quick to enter things.  If even has calculations for foods eaten in restaurants. So in 3 months I hope to say goodbye to 10 extra pounds! I just have to stay motivated now!

Our condo is looking good; all the painting is done now, baseboards and doors are up, ceramic tile is down at the front door.  The rest of the floors are going to be hardwood (except the finished basement which is carpet); so that will probably not be done for another couple of weeks so that the workers do not damage the floor.  When we went through our walk-through in March, the site supervisor told us that although hardwood floors are beautiful, they are a nightmare for him as he has to “babysit” it so that they don’t get damaged, so I’m sure he was not pleased that the whole house is hardwood.  On the outside they have poured our patio at the back and have the stairs in up to our balcony. I will have to get a couple of pictures this weekend and will post on my blog.

Brian has actually started to do some packing and we had the moving company over yesterday to give us an estimate on moving us; so things are falling into place and I can’t believe we are only 6 weeks away now.  I am definitely not looking forward to the actual move but am looking forward to getting settled in our new place and especially being just down the street from my kids’ homes.  It is going to be awesome being all so close.  Oh yes, and another thing we did last weekend was buy a dining room suite!  We have put in our order and it will be ready in about 8-10 weeks!  Now we just have to buy some living room furniture but we are going to wait until we actually have possession so we can visualize more of what we need for the room size. 

Health-wise, Brian is great and we are all doing well and excited for life!  We are truly blessed!

HAPPY EASTER

Brian and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and hope that you are enjoying your Easter weekend.  Here in Ontario, the weather has been nice and sunny although still on the cool side with a cold breeze.  I love the spring though and seeing the buds come out on the trees and perennial plants starting to sprout; it is like a fresh new start to life and saying goodbye to the winter.  We certainly can’t complain about our winter this year though, it has been a very mild winter indeed. 

We are looking forward to our Easter today; we are heading off to church with David and Jenn this morning and then heading over to BJAMS for Easter “brunch”.  We were going to pick up my dad today so he can celebrate Easter with us but unfortunately dad just called to say he is just not up to coming as he is still suffering with chest pain from the car accident.  He has started some physio to see if that will help but it looks like it is just something that is going to take a while to heal. It certainly has gotten him down though and I hope that it starts to get better soon.  He feels that he really needs to stay put so that he is not moving around so much and pulling at those chest muscles. My prayers today will be for my dad and that he soon gets over this chest discomfort. 

To all our friends and family, have a very Happy Easter!