Another year over...

It's December 30, 2007. In two days it will officially be a new year and with it, a whole host of possibilities.

I can't believe the month is almost over, let alone the year! December turned out to be just as eventful as the entire year. Christmas was lovely. Ryan and I enjoyed our first Christmas together as husband and wife with family and friends in Victoria. We visited with who we could and generally took it easy. If was so nice to actually be able to relax over the holidays. Normally it's an insane combination of constant visiting and travelling that sees us entering the new year exhausted. This year we insisted on only doing one place at a time, meaning that we actually got to enjoy ourselves.

I missed seeing Ryan's family but his mom and dad came down a couple of weekends before and we went out to dinner with them and Aunt Dagmar. I really enjoyed spending the time with everyone.

Speaking of time together, I was soooo happy to see my Dad. 6 weeks away, he was really looking forward to those two weks at home. He even got to come home a couple of days early. This was all well and good but the plan got a sudden complication. My parents picked us up on the 21st from the ferry and went around, had lunch and did some errands. Got back to the house to find a message on the answering machine. Turns out that they wanted him to come back early to open up a new camp. This is HUGE news becuase it means that it's my Dad's kitchen and he calls the shots. It also means that he gets paid accordingly for his management role. There was no way he could it down but he did refuse to leave on Christmas Day like they orginally suggested.

So I got up at 4:45 am on Boxing Day and my Mom and I took him to the airport. I was never more nervous to drive that on that drive back to the house. It was very dark and the roads were icy, sucking up what little light there was. I desperately focused on the white lane lines hoping to stay in my lane. Proble was that every time cars came in the opposite direction, I momentarily lost the lines. That and I was incredibly tired. It was 5:30 am and no coffee shop on the Pat Bay Hwy to be found. Got back to the house at 6am and promptly put my Pjs back on and crawled back into bed to sleep fitfully for another two and a half hours. Finally dragged myself out of bed at 8:30 to find out that if we wanted to catch the 11 o'clock ferry as planned, our bus left at 9:01. Shit!! So we raced around packing the last of our stuff, eating breakfast and woke my Mom up (who was as tired as I was) to say goodbye.

Got back into Vancouver, did a load of laundry and met up with my friend CR. We went out to Burnaby and enjoyed the leftover Christmas snow that still clung to the ground at the higher elevations. After the brisk and lovely walk, we went to Metrotown to grab dinner and then we went our own way; Ryan and I popped into a few stores to see if any deals were to be had. I got one top. That's it!

I've come to the realization that although I haven't gained significant pounds back since before the wedding (when I stopped goiing to the gym), I have in fact lost my slimmer figure. Which, when you try on the sizes that used to just fit and now can't even be done up, it quite distressing.
So, 2008 is the year I finish losing the extra weight. No more games. If Ryan and I want to go ahead with starting a family soon, then I want to have the healthiest body and mind possible. I owe it to myself and to the child I hope to carry someday soon.

Speaking of baby... I have fallen in love with the sweetest little girl. She is so beautiful and I want you to meet her too. Please say hello to Kairi Leanne:
















Isn't she just amazing?!? She slept in my arms for a good half an hour. A little restless 'cause the poor sweetheart has a cold. Ryan widely avoided holding here not becuase he didn't want to, but becuase he was afraid that if he did, he'd want one too. Ha!! Go figure...

Seeing this beautiful child has only solidifed our plan that much more.

Work is working out my contract and hopefully it'll be in place in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I've got two major projects to complete in January (at least that's what my boss would like- we will see what the reality is). The one I'm really excited about is the uniform catalogue. I get to create a catalogue of everything that is in our uniform program, including doing photo shoots with our employees. how cool is that? The only downside is that I'm supposed to have it done in a few weeks! That's a lot of work and coordinating and a travel and editing and so forth that may or may not take longer. But we'll see what happens. Right now, I'm designing the page layouts. Next up are the written sections and the photo taking. After that is editing and pasting all the photos and text. But you know what? I think I'm up to the challenge. Bring it on!

As 2007 comes to a close and 2008 is about to begin, I'm reflecting. But more on that later...