10 years of marriage

Okay so I've neglected my blog for the last 6 months.

I did start to write the following post for my anniversary in June but it never got finished. I started it on our anniversary and celebrated with our friends late into the night. I must have planned to finish it the next morning but that was the day I found out I am deathly allergic to asprin. Thank goodness for good friends and good drugs.

I'll post an update soon with all the excitement we've had in the last 6 months but for now here is the post from June.

June 2008
I can hardly believe I've been married for 10 years! Turning 30 didn't faze me a bit but being married 10 years makes me feel old. Of course the fact that my Grandparents have been married for 60 years makes 10 seem like a drop in the bucket.


All the same it is milestone! Although the time has flown by it certainly hasn't been an easy ride. We have had the normal ups and downs that come from being married young like learning to manage money and stress. We've survived law school, three heart surgeries, years of fertility treatments and the related drama. We've also had a lot of fun, adventures and good friends. One thing I can say for certain is that it has never been boring.


When I look back I think we were soooo young. I was only 22 and Hubby was 24. We didn't rush into it by any means, we had dated for 4 years and were engaged for a year and a half before the actual wedding. We were the first of our friends to get married and the girls who stood up with me then are still among my closest friends today.



Things I've learned in 10 years of marriage:

• You can be truly in love at 22.


• The person you marry today will be exactly the same in 10 years. You will not change their habits, bad jokes or hobbies. If they leave dirty socks in the living room they probably always will. (you can't undo 24 years of habit in 10 years but maybe by our 25th anniversary...)


• My personal opinion is that you should definately live with someone before you get married. The things that drive you nuts today will still drive you crazy in 10 years. You may think that leaving that you'd get over the fact they leave the cap of the toothpaste but 3650 mornings later it will still annoy you.


• It takes just as much patience for someone to live with you for 10 years as it does for you to live with them.


• "Your in-laws" eventually become just "your family".

• "In sickness and in heath" is not just something you say in your vows, you have to mean it.

• Even though you think in 14 years you could know everything about someone they will still say/do/buy things that will completely shock you.

• You will remember some details from your wedding day but will completely forget some of the names in the guest book. ("Didn't they work with you?")

I'm not sure what else I had planned to add to this list back in June but I have to say that a marriage, or at least my marriage, could not survive without the support of friends and family. The secret of our success has been having friends who surround us with love, share our sad days and celebrate our good times. Some people put a lot of effort keeping up appearances but Hubby andI rely on our friends and luckily they are always there for us.

Packing and Unpacking

Last week our office moved up from the 1st floor to the 4th floor of our building. Just far enough that we had to pack everything and unpack everything, and we have a lot of things! It has been a good excuse to do some spring cleaning and I did find some hidden gems.

I found a note that Lil' Bro had written for me when he was in Grade 5. I was giving a presentation for his class and then had to meet with one of the local police officers to talk about my video project. My Lil' Bro lives about an hour from me and while I was pretty sure where the police station was I wanted to be certain. I asked the teacher to give me directions and Lil' Bro pipes up and says he knows the way and he will write the directions for me. This is what he wrote

- left from school

- left at Daliys

- left at lights

- left at licker store

- left at poleice

I found a print out of the article about the "All Ice Cream Fertility Diet". I think I'm still carrying around some of the "High Fat" from that one. It didn't work but maybe I just didn't try hard enough. Just in case, I had ice cream twice last night.

I found some pictures of our Birthday Weekend a couple of years ago and discovered that our new bookkeeper knows my friend's ex and had met RB a couple of times before.

I found an email that RB recieved from someone when she was doing the online dating thing. The guy wrote in all caps about how he couldn't have overnight guests where he lived but he did have a car. A great pick-up line when you are 16 but not so much in your 30's. Besides WRITING IN ALL CAPS THAT YOU WANT TO DO IT IN YOUR CAR GIVES A KINDA CREEPY VIBE. I'm really glad that she eventually found a really good man who is very good to her.

To wrap up the week, we took my boss out for drinks and dessert on Friday night. Hubby came to pick me up and had flagged down a friend on the way. She joined us for dinner and then I dropped her off at home on my way to a 'stitching function' with the girls.

On the home front, Hubby got his date to go for his surgery. He goes in on the 28th, surgery on the 29th and if all goes well we'll be home by the 30th. In the meantime, he is preoccupied with Hockey (Go Habs) and he and Monkey are having a hockey playoffs sleepover tonight while Lil' Sis is writing her final exam. Foxy will be coming too! We got permission from the landlord and he'll be gradually moving in over the next few weeks.

Sugarbush and Foxy Brown

I've had a great weekend. My workshop on Friday went off without a hitch and I was able to come home Friday night instead of Saturday morning. Hubby and I had a quiet tv night. On Saturday morning we picked up my Monkey and my friend's little boy and took them out to Kings Landing for the Sugarbush. Another friend and her son went with us and we had a great time. Fresh air, maple candy right from the tree, sliding, mud puddles and music make for a perfect outing for little boys.

I'd like you to meet Foxy!

Foxy was seized from a very bad home and has been in fostercare with Lil' Sis. (She calls him Herbie.) I think he is beautiful. He is a 3 yr old Pomeranian and weighs all of 6 lbs. Even Purl out weighs him! Sis has gone on an overnight excursion to Maine and Hubby and I have taken Foxy for a sleepover to see how he gets along with the cats. So far it is MUCH better than we expected. He is so timid the cats are not afraid of him.

He has been very good. He has spent most of the time curled up with me or following me around like a shadow. He has not made any noise other than some wimpering this morning which was resolved by bringing him to the bedroom. This afternoon he and Athena were both curled up in the chair. He still needs some time to be housebroken but Sis is going to get him litter trained. so we don't even have to worry about getting home on time or getting up at 5 am. Hubby is sold and now we have to convince the landlord that he really is just another cat.

Do you think I can pull off a hot new look?

I came home yesterday after a lonnng day at work and an appointment discussing transplant centers with the cardiologist and decided that all I wanted to do was lay in the sun. I changed out of my work clothes and stretched out on the living room floor under the picture window. I was going to pretend it was a beautiful sunny day and not the last week of March.


It lasted for about 2 minutes before the kitten decided to pounce on a shadow and use my face as the launch pad. OUCH! I had two fresh scars for my presentation tonight. I tried my best to pull it off as the newest fad. It is two bright red lines coming from the corners of my eye. I put on a pound of make-up, darker lipstick to draw attention away from my eye. I also posted a picture of the vicious 8 pound puffball that attacked me as the backdrop for my presentation.

It must have worked because I had some very positive comments on the presentation despite the fact that the material is dreadfully boring. I'm leaving tomorrow for my last tax law information session. I can't wait to have it over and done with. On a high note, the script for my video new video for youth victims has been approved I will soon start to working on a project for youth in foster care. Something with more 'life' to it than tax law.

I'll be taking my WIP to work on in the hotel! I can't wait for a little downtime, I can lay around without fear of a kitten making trackmarks on my face.

Hello again

I finally got a few minutes to myself on Easter Sunday to catch up. When I last wrote Hubby was waiting for surgery again. They did not end up doing the surgery in January. When he got to SJ they did all of the tests, got him prepped for surgery and just minutes before they began the surgeon decided to run the diagnostics again. He thought that it may just be a matter of time before the lead settled into place and decided not to do the surgery.

A few weeks later with a change is meds Hubby is feeling much better and is back to work (promoted even!). Unfortunately, the wire did not settle into place and we are once again waiting for surgery. They are consulting with other surgeons to see if they should proceed. At least this time he will not have to be in hospital waiting.

In the meantime, I have been working my butt off to get all of my work projects wrapped up by March 31st. Once the projects are done I have to pack up my office for a move to the 4th floor. This is a pain in the neck but good news. It means I will be able to open my curtains and enjoy the sunshine. Being on the ground floor, I had a view of the loading bay and lots or delivery guys staring in. I kept my curtains closed so I didn’t always feel like I was in the zoo.

In the crafty end of things my last project turned out great! My friends Wordnerd and MD just had a beautiful baby boy and I made a pillow for the nursery. The new Papa produces his own comics including one that features their very handsome beagle, Genghis. I took one of his drawings and turned it into a knitting pattern for the pillow. The back is a very soft plush. It was a hit! You can a few shots of the pillow in a fantastic short video Papa MD made of baby’s trip home. (Love, love, love the video.) I am so glad they are finally all home safe and sound. I also got signed up for Ravelry. I think it will be great when I have more time to play around with it. If you are on you can look me up as TheCraftyCanadian.

I’m looking forward to catching up more with everyone when March is over.
C.C.

Starting Over

So my Hubby is right back to where we started a month ago, sitting in hospital waiting for surgery.

He spoke to his doctor here on Thursday because he was not recovering as quickly as they thought he would and was feeling sick and tired all of the time. The doc decided to squeeze him in for an ECG at the hospital on Friday. The ECG came back that his rhythm was good so doc figured that it was most likely the medications that were causing him to feel worn out. He decided to reduce the drugs and let the ICD take over controlling the heart rate.

We were scheduled to go back to SJ to have the machine checked in 3 weeks time. The hospital here only has clinics for pacemakers and ICDs on Fridays and they just do one brand, or make, of machine each week. Luckily we knew what make his ICD was and it just happened to be that company rep who was doing the clinic yesterday. It was pure luck and they were able to squeeze him in.

When they hooked the ICD up to the diagnostic machine and looked at the history everything looked great, but when they tried to make his heart speed up so they could check the rhythm it wouldn't work. In the end they discovered that one of the wires into the heart had come loose so they had to shut off the machine immediately because it could shock him unnecessarily and in the wrong part of the heart. In an a matter of minutes the situation changed from being on our way home to being admitted and waiting for surgery again.

They think they can get him in for surgery next week. In the meantime, Hubby has to stay in hospital so they can monitor his heart. He was pretty upset about the whole thing yesterday afternoon but once he had something to eat and a visit from Monkey he was in much better spirits and less cranky about his accommodations. (they didn't have a regular room available so he is in a treatment room.) He also got the first good night's sleep he's had in a long time and looked better rested this morning.

He is not thrilled about having to redo the surgery and start his recovery from scratch. We both realize how lucky he is that they happened to catch the problem before they took him off the medications and relied on the machine.

Personally, I'm exhausted from the last month. I can't even imagine how tired I will be after another two months! I just want to have him healthy and at home. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this is the last surgery he'll need for the next 5 years.

Thanks again to everyone for all the support.