Beans On Toast: Day 336

Christmas Letter » 2015

This year started off horribly. I've not liked January nor February for the past 10 years because that's when we experienced the first, and the last, of our multiple miscarriages. I always look forward to March as soon as December 26th passes. And this year, there was a new sadness and a fresh heartbreak.

In January, my good friend Diane died of complications due to her cystic fibrosis, 11 years after her double lung transplant. Sadly, I only knew her for three and a half years. She was a shining light of exuberance with a smile and a happy word to say to everyone. I miss her laughter and I miss painting with her and I miss talking with her. I cannot say this enough - take photos of you and your friends, because you truly never ever know when the last memory will be made; when you'll never get another chance to hold onto them and crack a goofy face while you attempt to get a picture to capture the moment.

At the beginning February our dog Maggie Mae, our ever-present heartbeat at our feet and light of our days passed away suddenly. We were shocked by her passing, even though we knew about her health issues (collapsing trachea and enlarged heart) and were medicating her and having issues with the medication working as well as it used to. Perhaps we should have seen the signs of what was coming, but we were either blind or subconsciously choosing to be blind. We originally adopted Maggie Mae when we were unsuccessfully trying to start a family, and she became our little soul to spoil and treat like the baby we never did end up having. We were gutted.

I'm pretty much looking forward to 2016 just to be done with 2015.

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The rest of the year was a bit less busy than last year. I went to Eden Prairie early in the year and helped Andrea set up some things in their new house. Desiree came out at the beginning of the year for work in Port Alberni and we're hoping she convinces Steve to move out here. Cousin Danielle and her kids stayed for a month around the same time, and it was great to spend some time with them in Tofino. I headed back to Calgary for Diane's Celebration of Life and spent my birthday with my folks. We hosted the Hwangs for a week and went to Victoria for a night and stayed in the best B&B ever (Fairholme Manor). Mum & Dad & Andrea & her kids came out for a week and we stayed in the best house-for-rent ever (Departure Bay House) and we travelled all over the place collecting a lot of memories. It was Dad's 70th birthday and Evan picked out a cake for him at the local German bakery. Dad met up with an old friend who is now on the Island, got to help chop up a bunch of driftwood with a new friend, and even had a short trip out into the Bay to pick up crab traps.

In April I headed back to Calgary for a week and overlapped with Scott's time there, and we were able to see a lot of friends and go out for a lot of great meals with quite a few people. Plus, I got to go shopping while people were at work, so that was pretty awesome too. We had received a weekend in Tofino as a gift at Christmas and took the opportunity in Spring to go and watch for whales and we were in for a treat! We saw one whale for a bit, then a mum and her baby popped up as we were heading back in. Very cool. Harrison & Sunny bought a condo in Maple Ridge and we went over and helped out a bit getting it renovated. It's a huge job and I wish we lived closer so we could've helped out more. Tyrone & Isa came over to watch her eldest play ball and introduced us to the game "Sequence". I love it!

Mum came over for her birthday and we got to work on the unruly yard. I'm not yet used to the idea things grow in the Winter here, and the weeds and tall grasses had really taken over. We became pretty proficient at replacing the weed-whacker string. But we did manage to have fun too (never fear!) and even had ginger cake for Mum's birthday at a great restaurant (Nest). Scott travelled out to Ontario for a short week to visit everyone out there, and spent a lovely time on a deck and then a great time on the river...but uh-oh....he forgot sunscreen and came home looking like a lobster.

Big news on the job front for Scott - after years and years working with or for Global Edge, the declining oil & gas market was taking its toll on the amount of contract work he was getting and so he applied for work at Real Estate Webmasters here in Nanaimo, and is now the Team Lead for Internal Support Services. They're one of the biggest private employers in Nanaimo, and they have three buildings for all the staff. Dropping him off and picking him up helps define my day as well. It's a mere 7 minutes from the house, which is closer to his work than when we were in Riverbend in Calgary! Plus, I get to see the ocean as I drive down the hill through Old City, which is a huge bonus. Scott had really enjoyed having a year of being a consultant, working from home, travelling back to Calgary on someone else's dime, staying with friends and generally being totally spoiled by them when he visited. And I enjoyed all the time I got to have him at home too....but I like the benefits offered by his full time position just a bit more. haahahaahaaa

July brought with it a couple solid months of dental visits (see aforementioned benefits). I had an abscess (ewww!) which translated into a root canal, which was too much for the regular dentist so I had to see a specialist, but it takes two visits to get it done after the consultation visit, and then the visit for the temporary filling, and then a cleaning, and then a couple fillings because ...why not?... and then I was pretty much tired of the dentist and had a heck of a lot less in the bank account. sigh And they want me to come get a crown too, but I'm putting that off until 2016 because, seriously, how much money do they need from me in one year?

Karla & the girls came from Dubai and I met up with them in Vancouver and stayed for a couple nights at her sister-in-law's place, which was pretty much perfect except their dog couldn't decide if he liked me or hated me, which I've never experienced before (dogs love me....I love dogs). And throughout the year Aurora and I have kept in touch via Skype and she is on quite the kick with baking and then I introduced her to Pinterest...and the rest is history. The woman makes homemade ice cream, for goodness sake. It's amazing. Dad came out for his week out on the ocean with Phil & co., and brought Norm along for the fun. In the short time they stayed at our place they helped out with our well and ate a tonne of blackberries. I had thought they were going to help me pick them to freeze! I was mistaken.

In September we took off for Scotland and made Glasgow our home base. We found a few great restaurants in the area of our flat, and met a great guy at the local convenience store as well. Everyone was so very nice. We went up to Loch Ness and Inverness, over to Oban, across to Edinburgh, and down to Ayr. I guess we missed Aberdeen, but one can only see so much in 10 days. I would've like to have gotten down to London to see Catherine's cousin Jane, but again...one can only do so much before one is completely pooped. We had the best ever fish & chips, the best chai ever, and walked the most I've ever walked in a day. Stirling Castle was my favourite Castle, and the Burrell Collection was simply amazing. I wasn't taken in by Edinburgh, but would go back to Ayr or Oban in a heartbeat, and would take the time to go out to the Isle of Skye next time around. The trains were great and always on time, and we got a great deal because we signed up for the Together Pass, where we had to take awful passport-like photos and show them to the train tickets sales people. It was a quick trip, but it was also just long enough, if that makes any sense.

In September I also went to Calgary and Eden Prairie. I was heading to EP to help Mum take care of Andrea's kids while Mike & Andrea went away for their 20th anniversary, and Andrea made my 3 hour stop over in Calgary just a bit longer....by a week. So I was able to see almost everyone and was hosted for dinner a lot (so I felt like a Queen), and enjoyed dinners and lunches and coffees out too. Plus that ice cream I mentioned earlier....yeah, well I was staying with Aurora so I had a bit of it every day. Yum yum! In Eden Prairie, we tackled the main project Andrea asked us to look at and it took us damn near the whole week to do. A bench seat for Lauren's room. We went to the fabric store a couple times, tried to use Andrea's old machine, called KristyAnne in desperation and she rescued us by loaning us her machine, headed to umpteen stores for the foam, measured and planned and cut and sewed annnndddd ..... (drum roll please).... Lauren loves it. Thank goodness! Because if she hadn't I was going to take it home for myself to lounge upon.

The Autumn has brought some rain out here on the coast, and frostier temperatures in the morning. I had been looking at dog rescue sites for a while, and finally convinced Scott to take a look at fostering some dogs, just to see if we were ready to have a dog back in the house. Su, who knows pretty much everyone on the Island, knew we were starting to think about a dog so she introduced me to someone on the board of the Victoria Humane Society, and a couple days later we started with a couple Shih-Tzus and while they were super cute, they were definitely not the dogs for us. A couple weeks after we had them placed in great homes, I found a dog on Dog Bless's site and we went to visit her. Before the temporary fosters showed up with her, we met Toni a Boston/Boxer mix and I got down on the floor to spend some time with this sweet snuggle bug. We met the dog we intended to foster, but she was a crazy terrier and not a dog we were interested in having around. But Toni....yeah we could foster Toni. She was an outside dog, and although she's only 18 months, she's already had pups. I'm not sure what her previously life was like, but she's a calm girl who doesn't bark much, is quiet in the car, knows a few commands, will pay attention to me when we're inside the house and completely ignores any command I try when we're outside. It didn't take us long....we failed at fostering and now she's part of the family, and has a new name.

So while this year started out on a very sad note, it ends on a happy one.

Merry Christmas to all

and to all a good night!