graffiti

every year i look forward to my year-end entry. i often collect thoughts and experiences throughout the year to share in my year-end reflections. but this year i gave it little thought. in a way, i feel like the year was too full for me to think forward or collect moments. i'm not sure if that's good or bad really; it just is what it is, i suppose. trying to think back one full year seems like an almost impossible task. but let me try....

january
• we started off the year as new home-owners and first time landlords
• we faced the very large task of trying to legally and fairly evicting our tenants
• my dad had triple bypass surgery

february
• i bought a washing machine on kijiji, then brendan and i tried to navigate it down our narrow stairs with me nearly convinced that it would slip from my grasp and end up crushing my dear husband. thankfully that didn't happen, but it was stressful enough that we wouldn't want to try it again. getting plumbing installed was another hassle, but has ended up being worth it
• on family day weekend, we took a road trip down to cleveland to see the rock & roll hall of fame

march
• on the first of the month we were given 5 days notice from our tenants that they were going to be moving out instead of at the end of april as we had requested. while it broke every appropriate protocol, we didn't give them a hard time about it since we were so happy to see them go
• when brendan's reading week rolled around a week or so later, i used some vacation time so we could do the lion's share of our apartment renos upstairs. it still took a number of weeks to wrap up the final details, the transformation was remarkable

april
• our dear friends andrew and shannon moved in to the newly renovated apartment in mid-april, and we have enjoyed their close proximity since then. they are night and day to the experience we had with our previous tenants
• on the night they moved in, brendan and i headed up to toronto to see ani difranco perform an acoustic set

may
• brendan spent the first half of may digging up the front yard to convert into a garden
• i had my very own intern at work. this was a challenging and growing experience for me
• we planted our 'garden of eat-in' with andrew and shannon
• and i started volunteering at KGH visiting elderly patients

june
• it was a stressful month for us in terms of brendan's summer job hunt, but he ended up volunteering at rustle's general store and that was a very positive experience. looking back to his job search, it was a very value time for us and we learned a lot
• once again we enjoyed skeleton park music festival, which is a major summer highlight

july
• our most busy month of the summer. we enjoyed a whole whack of fun activities: a roadtrip to ottawa with andrew and shannon on canada where we hooked up with john and joanne; a weekend at nancy and gerry's trailer; another trip to ottawa for bluesfest to see the tedeschi trucks band; for our second wedding anniversary we drove down to stratford to go to the famous stratford festival and enjoyed the weekend with jill; followed by a weekend at fair havens with my family
• and to top it all off, we took a trip to costa rica for 10 days!

august
• filled with home-grown produce, august was a relaxed slow paced month
• in the company of shannon, brendan, beckie and kate, i enjoyed yet another wolfe island music festival
• followed by another day on wolfe island celebrating andrew's birthday
• while in costa rica, i lost my ipod, so i replaced it with an ipod touch!

september
• brendan and i became addicted to 'angry birds'
• i went to calgary as a bbd representative at a conference
• out of the blue, brendan was offered a job!
• my good friend and colleague david passed away suddenly
• i got a promotion!
• and all us nexters went up to echo lake for a weekend away

october
• brendan and i hosted a quirky, yet sophisticated wine-tasting party
• i endeavored to take the 30-day house cleaning challenge (and did very well, then promptly forgot about it at the end of the 30 days)
• b and i celebrated our 3-year dating anniversary in a memorable way
• and carved pumpkins with a+s (it was b's first pumpking carving experience, and boy was he grossed out)

november
• shanno and i went a-gambling in gan
• and rach and i FINALLY (after my foiled attempts) went to the one of a kind show in toronto

december
• a month filled with get togethers, celebrations, food and much needed time off
• we took a road trip to north bay
• and will wrap up yet another good year with rach and jase

in addition to all these things, i've enjoyed many visits with bren and dinners with her clan. sunday lunches with my family, meals with b's family. potlucks at next, cups of tea with friends, many good books and new experiences. it's been a good year.

a long december and there's reason to believe,
maybe this year will be better than the last.