Road Trip - Arizona

On New Year's day we flew to Arizona to start our road trip. Don't even get me started on the whole 'new baggage' restrictions into the States. Especially because they don't have the same rules when you are on a flight in their country.

Our flights getting there were delayed so we arrived extremely hungry. This was the start of the Rules List. Rule #1 We have to be nice to each other all of the time. This rule was broken daily, but it gave us something to strive towards. Rule #2 - Carman is responsible for controlling his hunger and shouldn't take it out on others (a.k.a - me). You know how men get when they don't eat every 3 hours.

We stayed the night at Ray and Anita's. Ray plays ball with my dad. Thanks Ray & Anita for the beer and accommodations!

The large sand dunes near Yuma are quite something. It was weird to see all of the people RVing along the sand dunes with their families. But campers could look at us and think sitting around a campfire drinking beer is weird. The checkpoint for smuggling Mexicans is also unsettling - I guess Carman and I looked unsuspecting because we didn't get pulled over.

Road Trip - Kelowna

Carman and I had a great time on our vacation. We first flew out to Kelowna to visit our friend Fred for two nights. I just love his parent's house - it is about 100 years old. Snuggling up by the fireplace reading my book was better than staying at a 4 star resort. Their cat Enzo agreed.

Carman and Fred went skiing for the day while his mom and I went for a walk. Thanks again Rod and Doreen for opening your home to us. We had the most amazing meal at RauDZ Regional Table. The next time you are in Kelowna you must eat there. My mouth is still drooling from their Char fish.

We met Fred at the dog park here in Red Deer but he now lives in the U.S - his parents live in Kelowna. Fred totally cracks me up. When he picked us up from the airport and we were heading out to he car, the guy in the truck in front of us was beaking-off about how he had parked. Fred's park job was fine considering who he had parked behind when he got there, but it left little room for this 'hot head'. Both Fred and I are not good at keeping our mouths shut. Of course I was the first one to pipe-up to the 'tacky-skido jacket wearing- redneck' which probably didn't help the situation. Then Fred flew off the handle. Poor Carman. You had to have been there, but it still brings a smile to my face.

Burning off Fat

I think just about everyone starts off the New Year thinking about getting active and burning off some pounds. Just about a year ago I got out of the hospital and stepped on the scale and weighed 114 pounds. According to the BMI at 5'1 this is what I should weigh. I remember not liking the way I looked or felt. Actually, when I got home and looked in the mirror I cried because I thought I looked half dead. I told myself when I gained my weight back I wouldn't get after myself. Well, I am back to my pre-cancer weight, I feel like a whale and I am not doing very well at keeping my promise to myself. I think the difference is my body used to be quite muscular and now I feel quite flabby. So, I have told myself I need to get more active. How are you keeping active these days? Carman has been shedding the pounds at a spin class. My body can't handle that level of intensity yet, but I hope one day to join him.

The picture is of Becky and I snowshoeing on Boxing Day. The snow seems to be melting very quickly around here, but I thought of buying a pair. It was a workout and enjoyable.

Merry Christmas

I know this is delayed, but it is never too late to celebrate Christ's birth. Christmas was a bit hard because we were so sad with Rudy gone. Our nieces and nephews, along with our crazy families kept us preoccupied. We spend one night at my parent's in Camrose- eating Ukrainian food and fighting over my auntie Carol's cookies (my grandma's famous recipe). My nephew Rykan is a little shyster (I know it is not nice to call little kids names, but he is quite the little boy and his mom agrees that he knows how to 'ham' things up) really wanted to play the board game Battle Ship. My loving and patient husband agreed to play with him and I wish we had it on video. You see, Rykan is 4 and knows how to count and the alphabet so Carman thought he could teach him. Carman would say, "do you see the letters along the along the top - A,B,C..." and Rykan would start singing the alphabet. And then he would have Rykan look for the numbers and Rykan would start counting to 20. Alex (my 6 year old niece) and I enjoyed playing with her sticker book - she is so smart. Jacob really didn't like Rykan taking his toys - I don't worry about him being bullied. Jacob also liked Auntie Carol's cookies wanted to go to be with 3 of his new trucks.

Then we spent 2 nights in Drayton Valley with Carman's family. Carman's dad made Ande and Kade (2) each a rocking chair. It was cute to watch them sit on their chairs and play only as two year olds do. Baby Tobi is so good and loves to cuddle (he must get this from the Park side of the family). Becky (Carman's sister) and I got out snowshoeing to try and burn of some treats. One of the gifts in the gift exchange was a game called 'Fart'. Can you imagine! It came with a CD and everything. For over and hour we had to listen to the guys play that stupid game.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I know this particular holiday can be quite stressful for many families. Family members not getting along, disappointments when someone doesn't attend, words said, words not said........ It really isn't worth it. It make take a compromise on your part, but family is family.

Here is a picture with me and my sisters - Tara bought me a matching sweater for Christmas

last year. Tara, Me, Jodi, Kari. FYI - Tara is 30, lives in Edmonton ans is single. If anybody has a great guy .... they can contact me to go through the application process - when we were in high school a guy came to take Tara on a date and I had him convinced that we had an application he had to fill out before they left!!!! In advance, sorry Tara for the embarrassment!

Passed!

I just wanted to share that I passed my CFP exam!!! Of the 1272 candidates who wrote, only 44.7% passed. Of those writing for the first time, 50.3% passed. Tomorrow, January 14th, my name will be on the list published in The Globe and Mail. It feels so good to finally have that done!

I miss my Nurse

Last night Carman and I went to a movie just to get out of the house. We have become so accustomed to leaving the radio and light on, and giving Rudy 3 treats before we leave. Leaving a quiet dark house was hard. Then, coming home and not having Rudy casually come out of her kennel to say 'oh hi guys, your home', was hard too. Lot and lots of tears fell yesterday.

To be honest, I feel like we have suffered so much pain already this past year. I have had so much physical and emotional pain having to cope with cancer, and now to have a broken heart is really unbearable right now. And I feel so bad for Carman- here we were living a fantastic life and now he has had to watch his 'girls' go through so much and hold so much responsibility on his shoulders.

Rudy often got the title 'Nurse Rudy', and she took it seriously. Here is a picture of us cuddling downstairs. I was in the middle or radiation (I still had hair), and felt like total crap. Rudy was good at just being there for me.

Goodbye Rudy

Today was a very, very hard day for Carman and I. This morning we put our dog Rudy to sleep. Several years ago now she was diagnosed with Wobblers disease. - she was dragging her front paws to the point of bleeding and falling down the stairs. With chiropractor care we were able to manage her symptoms very well, but even that was no longer working. Over the past couple days she was loosing bowel control and no longer wanted to go down the stairs or get-up for her daily walks - she was loosing her zest for life.

Rudy came to us when she was only 8 weeks old with a Shriner's hat on (her ears were taped-up to a foam cup). She won over our hearts right away. As she grew, so did her personality. She loved to jump over fallen trees, roller-blade and run with our bike, peanut butter, sleeping on the bed when we went camping, sun tanning, sneaking food off the counter, giving kisses, barking at the mailman, but most of all she loved to be petted constantly.

We have met many people becuse of Rudy, and some have become lifelong friends. Rudy was also there to be sense of comfort over the past year for both Carman and I as we battled cancer. There were many days when she would just lay beside me a cuddle while I cried. And there were also days she was the best physical trainer and got me out walking even when it was the last thing I wanted to do - and I always felt better for it.

Some people are blessed with children of the human kind. Our baby had four legs, and we called her Rudy.