{our family's} Year in Review 2010
Christmas greetings from our home to yours!
It has been a whirlwind of a year, but then again, everyone has had a whirlwind year, so I suppose ours is not abnormal.
In January, Graeme finished up work at the Medicine Shoppe, which we’d sold a few weeks before. This transition work helped the new staff ease into their roles, and it was sure nice to be done! After a much-needed 7-week break, Graeme started working for his business partner at another Medicine Shoppe, part-time, to cover off a maternity leave. In addition to that, he started a new part-time position at the Primary Care Network in {another town}. Now that the year is closing, Graeme’s part-time position at the pharmacy is drawing to an end, but at the beginning of January his PCN job starts in full time! He is enjoying the consulting, collaborating with other health-care professionals, and spending one on one time with his patients (took out the part about rat-race). Graeme continues to teach Promiseland (our church’s equivalent of Sunday School), this year to Joshua’s class. He also has taken up flying radio-controlled aircraft, which has proven to be rewarding, albeit quite the learning curve!
Joshua, 6 ½ years old, is now in grade one at {a fantastic school} here in {our town}. We are fortunate to have excellent teachers for him, as well as fantastic bussing to the school from our home, with a short ride on either end of the day. Joshua is excelling in all areas, so much so, in fact, that at parent-teacher interviews, his teacher actually said that she likes when he misbehaves a little bit because it shows that he is a real boy! Joshua continues to be an eager learner, reads at a grade 3 level already (which comes in really handy when I want to leave him instructions on the table or a fun note in his lunch box!), is incredibly helpful around the home, and is adored by his little brother and sister. He sure is a light in our lives!
Dustin, 4 ½ years old, is now attending preschool at a portable building outside our church. He has several friends that also attend his Tuesday/Thursday class. Dustin continues to be our rough-and-tumble little guy, executing perfect front-flips on the trampoline and finding ways to jump and do other crazy things from any apparatus he can find. He is growing into his own helpful realm in the home, and is an incredible playmate for his baby sister when Joshua is at school. Dustin makes us laugh constantly. What a ham!
Meaghan is now 19 months and has picked up quite the vocabulary. She talks non-stop, is starting to show her funny side by pulling pranks and playing choo-choo with her brothers (where she holds onto their back pockets and makes them say “choo-choo” as they lead her around the house), and loves to unload the dishwasher. Who knew? Meaghan is a good combination of her brothers – Joshua’s serious and introspective side, and Dustin’s insane and crazy side. She is a good match for both of them, and loves them to bits. Meaghan will become a big sister in May, and while she has no concept of what this means, her big brothers are incredibly excited to welcome a new baby into our home!
As for me, I continue to be involved in leading worship at our church. I also took up running again last January, after a nearly 15-year hiatus. Let’s just say that having a history of cross-country running in high school did not make me a present-day runner by default! I had a lot of work to do, but found that after the first few weeks, I started loving it again. I ran my first 15km race in July, and chased that down with my first half-marathon in August. I wanted to do a couple more half-marathons this fall, but I became very ill with this pregnancy, so my running career was put on hold. I will start again after Baby is born, and maybe – just maybe! – even fit in a half-marathon again this coming fall.
Other than those little updates, we had a few other highlights in our year! While Graeme was off work, we took a 10-day trip to Maui (with Meaghan, since she was still too little to be left with Gramma & Grampa). Unfortunately, on the day of our 11th anniversary, we woke to tsunami warning sirens and so spent nearly the entire day higher up on the island. The weather then turned ugly for several days afterwards, so we did not fit in as much beach time as we wanted. We did, however, still have a very relaxing time, and got some great pictures! We enjoyed roaming the streets of Lahaina and finding little restaurants, and I think we’d have to agree that Bubba Gump’s was one of our favorites!
We also took a short holiday with Graeme’s parents in Banff, and chased that back with a little holiday with some close friends in Panorama. We spent a ton of time in the hot springs, hiking, resting, playing games, and exploring. We also got to spend part of a day with some long-time friends of ours in Invermere, whom we hadn’t seen in several years. It was a tremendous time!
December was a tough month for us on a number of levels, not the least of which was the sudden and unexpected passing of one of Graeme’s best friends since childhood. Murray was the best man at our wedding, and was the first of Graeme’s friends I had met waaaaay back when we first started dating. His loss leaves a huge hole in many peoples’ lives, but we also know that Murray, who was left a quadriplegic in a car accident 9 ½ years ago, is now running and walking the streets of gold with his Savior. What a hope we have!!
All of this being said, and as busy as our lives have been, we know how blessed we are. We are not so busy that we feel like our lives are out of control. We like how life sits for us right now, whereas a few years ago, we definitely felt like some of the things on our plates needed to be removed. God is good, and we are thankful for His mercies. We have also been surrounded by some really close friends who have walked with us through some of our toughest moments this year, as well as celebrated with us at our biggest highlights… and we’ve been blessed to do the same with them. We have much to be thankful for.
May the Hope of Christmas and the Peace of Christ dwell with you in very real ways this coming year!!
Blessings,
Graeme & Melissa
Graeme & Melissa
Joshua, Dustin, & Meaghan
