Reflections

2018 comes to a close tonight, and just like that another year is gone.

Like any year, it had its ups and downs, fortunately it was mostly a positive year.

I started the year with a part time position supervising students in the horse programs offered by UoG and Ridgetown college. It was a great experience, and I lived working around the horses again. The jury is still out on the students 😉 In all seriousness, most of them were fantastic but it was eye opening to see the bullying and entitlement that existed as well, even towards supervisors and teachers. Honestly that aspect was disheartening.

On family day I found out that I was pregnant with baby #2. That was super exciting news, but came with a few challenges when the initial ultrasound showed possible complications. We had to travel to London a few times for ultrasounds and genetic testing. It was a stressful time but everything was okay!

One of the more challenging things this year was living in a small town while the main employer had a 12 week strike. It created quite a bit of division in the town, with us being on the ‘wrong’ side of the labour dispute. My husband is an engineer which meant he worked through the strike. We had some people show their true colours to us during that time, and felt like we were living in a very hostile environment. A list of employee names was released, people know where we live. Honestly, it felt downright unsafe at times. Our entire street was lined with unifor support signs and our house was being watched (yes, seriously). It got to the point where my husband had to change his routine and drive a different way to work because he was being watched as a source of information about when salaried employees were going to work. The positive impact for our family was the schedule. Salaried employees adopted the miner schedule and while the 12 hour days were difficult, they had a week off every month. I’ve never seen my husband so much! It allowed us so much family time and adventures with Lucy.

We also got married this year, which was lovely, intimate and everything I ever wanted. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

The fall came with the birth of Odette. My birth was perfect, only 4 hours and a happy healthy baby. She is the sweetest little baby girl and we are so blessed to have her. With her came the adjustment of having 2 kids, but overall I’d say that’s been going very smoothly.

Honestly, 2018 was a great year. We are healthy, happy and very lucky. My husband has been a great source of support and has really shined in his fatherhood role. My daughters are fantastic and bring us so much joy (and some frustration, but that’s part of the package ;)) My parents are the best grandparents my kids could ask for, and have been a huge support.

I’m walking into 2018 feeling very thankful and looking forward to what the next year will bring us.

Happy new year everyone!