What a Year!

The other day, when we were driving home from picking up our "new" used car, I started thinking about all the things that we've accomplished in 2008, or will accomplish shortly. It was one of those "taking stock" moments born of being tired of the constant barrage of chores and things "to do" that weigh on you, especially if you have little kids and have to juggle living with parenting, etc. So, even though it is not Thanksgiving in Canada, in the spirit of appreciating all that we have here's my list of stuff I'm thankful for in 2008:

• selling our house, which involved two weeks of hell getting it ready
• buying our current house, which gave us and the kids more space, and a private driveway!
• Owen completing Grade 1 with flying colours
• Owen winning the championships on two different baseball teams, and (more importantly) having a great time, learning sportsmanship, and making friends
• Malcolm improving tremendously in his speech, with the help of Monica and the speech therapist Lisa putting in a tonne of hours
• getting rid of our crappy car and replacing it with another one (we did not want to go through another winter with the doors always freezing on us, and a litany of other problems!)
• finishing my Masters Degree (in two weeks!)
• Monica getting a new job!
• Monica and I getting back into an exercise routine and losing some weight
• running our first ever races!
• Owen taking up running and competing in a couple of races (1 and 2) of his own!
• my Mom getting over some health issues and back on the road to recovery
• my Dad and his partner taking control over their health, losing weight, and looking great!
• and, most important of all, our family staying healthy and happy together. I'm so lucky!

So, that's a short list as I have many other things to be happy about, but looking back on the year we accomplished quite a bit. I look forward to a strong finish to the year, and a terrific 2009!

This afternoon I was once again bumped from my lunchtime swim by a High School swim meet, so instead I went riding my bike. I headed straight uphill for a bit, the route taking my North on University Avenue, Avenue Road up to St. Clair. There is one section there that goes up pretty steep for a decent distance, and it certainly got my heart rate up so I feel like I didn't waste my time. On the way back to the office I stopped by my physio's office, said hi to Karen, and picked up a copy of a receipt that I'd misplaced and still hadn't submitted for reimbursement.

Tonight, I did another round of chin ups, and although difficult I am making progress. I managed 9-8-7 overhand wide grip, and then 9-8-7-6 underhand narrow grip for a total of 54 "ups".

Tomorrow morning I am planning to make up the swim since they have the long course pool open from 7am until 9am and Monica has graciously agreed to deal with getting the kids to school.