-Never say Never-

We had a fantastic Christmas with our family. We were fortunate to have both sets of parents spend Christmas at our home. What a gift it was to have them get up with the girls Christmas morning and share in the excitement. Even though it was 6am and we’d all like to get another 3-4hrs sleep it was a wonderful memory we will cherish forever.

Today, December 31, 2010, we all look toward what the New Year will bring and also reflect on the last year. For 2010 it is going down as the year I learned to “never say never”! So many lessons learned this past year and so many wonderful experiences and some not so lovely experiences have brought us to this day. In each experience we learn something, even if you don’t realize it at the time.

Here are the highlights of our year (definitely a year to remember):

• January – We enjoyed a lot of outdoor time building snow forts and snowmen, skating and sliding.
• February – My husband attended his med school interview on my birthday. We packed our bags and headed to Florida with my parents!
• March – We received my husband’s acceptance to Medical School!!
• April – Celebrated our oldest daughter’s birthday. We began to try and figure out our next steps in life…move, commute, accept?
• May – I ran my 1st Half Marathon (1st never say never teaching moment “I’ll never run farther than 10kms”)
• June – Listed our home for sale and made plans to move to another city (2nd never say never moment “I’ll never live in this city”)
• July – Sold our home and took a trip to see a Taylor Swift Concert (The concert was a nice distraction at the time. A 3rd never say never moment “I’ll never take my kids to a concert”)
• August – Moved into our new home and spent the first 3 days cleaning and painting the whole house.(4th never say never moment “I’ll never buy a split level house in half acre lot again”)
• September – Sent my 3 students off to school and attended my husband’s “white coat ceremony”.
• October – Celebrated our youngest daughter’s birthday and my husband’s. We also mourned the loss of a dear Uncle.
• November – Celebrated my husband being the recipient of a very generous bursary for med school (what a huge relief!!!) (5th never say never moment. “We’ll never win this!”)
• December – Held a family open house with 57 guests! Had our first Christmas in our new home!

We’ve all had some crazy years, good and bad. The last few years we’ve had a share of not so great ones; from being laid off just before Christmas (both of us) to various health problems. But we’ve always remained strong as a family unit and that is largely due to the people we are surrounded by. Our families are strong and have always been supportive, in an unbelievable way. Our friends new and old have been encouraging and given us great strength.

We want to say thank you to our amazing family and friends that have supported us in our recent adventures, even when we’re sure some may have shook their heads in confusion. Thank you for your continuous encouragement and we wish you all the happiness possible in 2011. Happy New Year, bring on 2011. We have so many great adventures to look forward to.

As Gloria Swanson stated “Never say never, for if you live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by its restrictions. Never is a long, undependable time, and life is too full of rich possibilities to have restrictions placed upon it.”

5 more sleeps…

Ever since we’ve had our children we calculate everything by “sleeps”, for some reason it simplified things for them and for us.

My husband writes his first exam in 5 sleeps, on Saturday morning at 9am he will be sitting down to write the first test that will begin his long journey of examinations.

As I sit and write this entry I am surrounded by papers, and diagrams in the office. When I look closely at the massive whiteboard that is filled with words that I can’t even pronounce let alone have a clue what they mean, I am overwhelmed with the knowledge a physician has to ascertain (and this is only year 1!!). It seems nearly impossible for one to cram all of this knowledge into one’s brain!

He’s been studying day and night for weeks now in preparation for this exam and will for the next 5 sleeps…we are all very much looking forward to getting over this first hurdle so we as a family unit can move forward and get some quality time together.

The girls are dealing with my husband’s nonstop studying fairly well. This past weekend we travelled home and had to leave my husband behind to study. This was hard for him as well as us because he was missing family and friend annual parties that we always looked forward to attending together. But he was happy to see us arrive home with a plate full of food for him and even a gift from the Yankee swap. We’re making the best of our situation and realize that life could and will be so much more difficult. But at the same time we’re sad to not have him by our side.

Happy Monday!

I just got the kids shipped out the door and they undoubtedly missed the bus today. So my husband would be dropping them off, which is probably good since my oldest daughter had her project to bring in today. They were up on time but just moving at turtle speed today. I can’t say I blame them as we half expected a snow day today but we didn’t get it.

This past weekend was wonderful, probably my favourite weekend here so far. We spent Saturday morning searching for a tree farm in the area and had no luck. So we ended up at the local market to get our tree. We “thought” we found a perfect tree, so we loaded it onto our vehicle and home we went.

In the evening the girls and I headed out to get supplies for our Gingerbread house constructing that would happen Sunday. We also had to pick up more recipe/index cards for my husband's studying…he’d already written out 100 and needed more. Gulp!

Sunday we pulled our Gingerbread house planning together and decided on a “simple” pattern. My youngest and I prepared the dough and baked the pieces. The girls and I had fun putting it together. My husband stopped by for a study break to get a few pieces of candy and helped hold things together. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it went together…..I truly anticipated the house collapsing and melt downs occurring. But here is the end result…















Penguin family


The tree also got put up today too. It on the other hand is not so pretty but it is what it is.

Family Update...

Life in the Wood household is going well. The Christmas decorations have come out in full force and we are on our way to being ready for Old St. Nick. Griswold (AKA my dear husband) has managed to turn our outdoors into Candyland. The girls and I take care of the indoor decorating aside from the tree. The tree is always a family event and we strive to make it as “enjoyable” as possible.

My husband has his first exam in mid December and he’s been preparing for it since week 1. What a tremendous amount of work, but nothing can stop him he’s determined and loves it.

My oldest daughter is working on her first school project of the year and is still struggling through some anxiety from the move. But she’s doing well and making some lovely friends along the way.

My youngest daughter is this resilient little individual and not much seems to faze her. School is going well for her and she’s been singing us some pretty Christmas songs in preparation for her upcoming Christmas concert.

I still play my part in fretting about all three of them. Worrying if my oldest daughter is too stressed out sometimes and takes life too seriously, while on the other hand I’m concerned that my youngest is just being strong to keep her Mom and Dad from worrying. But at the end of the day I look at us and think we’re doing pretty darned good.

Now it’s time to get focused on what’s next for me and where I fit into this puzzle aside from being the organizer/cook. I’m not working but hope to find something in the new year that will pan out. I’ve let my running slip quite terribly so my plan is to get back at it. I need to start making this place my home too, now that I know the rest of the family is on its way to a successful transition.

For now I’m getting shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning and taxiing done. I’m enjoying almost every minute of it and looking forward to the future.