2018 In Review

At risk of repeating myself....It's been a rough year. Husband ended up being on-call over the holidays, which meant we couldn't go anywhere and I was actually a bit relieved about that. It's not that I don't want to go home and visit our families, but it's been so long since I've had a bunch of uninterrupted time to myself at home. I needed it.

Looking back..

Jan/Feb

• Cautiously optimistic that my knee was better and I could get back into an exercise routine
• That's what I see from looking back at the few posts that I wrote; I can't say there was much memorable.

Mar/Apr

• Looking forward to plans to go visit my sisters in April! All kicked off by my baby sister sharing the Rod Stewart concert event on Facebook and then commenting that it would be a nice birthday gift to her if we all went to the concert. I'd already half been thinking that it would make a great excuse for a visit, so plans were made.
• Unexpected work stuff. Bad, bad, work stuff. Stress through the roof, and me feeling miserable. This company wins all kinds of "best workplace" awards, and I will admit that the benefits are excellent (and make it hard to leave), but quite honestly I am less and less happy working there as time goes on; haven't really been happy since they acquired the company I originally worked for. Ended up taking an extra week of vacation to recover from the stress a bit before I took off to visit my sisters.
• Vacation was excellent.
• Work still sucked once I got back.

Spring & Summer

• Busy, busy with home improvement stuff 
• Allergies were terrible this year; tried different allergy meds to no avail; only thing that helped as taking Advil Cold & Sinus Advanced on top of the allergy meds when it got really bad. I know that's probably not good, and if things don't get better I'll have to go to the doctor about it.
• Heat pump installed. (Wanted by husband)
• Tank-less hot water system installed (Wanted by husband)t
• Fix dry wall at back of garage (Wanted by husband) and discover we need to have our roof re-shingled.
• Cat fence kit installed! (Wanted by me)
• I spent most of my free time in spring and early summer hanging out in the yard with Isabelle. She needed the outdoor time, or she would get wild; we couldn't leave her outside by herself, because she could easily get over the fenc.
• Early in the spring it was less pleasant, often cold and windy and mostly I was just standing around the yard watching her.
• As things warmed up/thawed/started turning green, I was able to pick away at yard work which was nice; I felt like I was accomplishing something and I enjoy being outside if I have something to occupy myself.
• Still, it meant I didn't have much free time for anything else.
• But then the cat fence went up, and for the first time in several years, I could actually have a garden!
• We actually had a pretty good growing season, and I enjoyed puttering and grew lots of tomatoes.
• I will say, I appreciated the heat pump then. Husband likes to be cool and while I often felt it was a bit too much - me in sweaters during July and August - it was nice to be able to come in from gardening in the summer heat and be able to cool off.
• Two quick trips home to NS; one for Husband's family reunion weekend, and one when my baby sis came home.
• Baby sister was home for two weeks, and actually came over to visit us for a few days and we went to see ZZ Top (they were excellent).
• Summer flew by too fast as usual.

Fall & Early Winter

• Harvesting tomatoes, canning salsa and tomatoes...
• Parents came for Thanksgiving weekend and Dad assembled a new Tardis for me (the original one was unfortunately rotting away from damp).
• I didn't get fall yard clean up done this year. I kept meaning to, but somehow there was never time. It rained a lot. We were busy. It turned cold early.
• We went to Hal-Con in late October. Lots of cool guests this year, but we only had one day. Minor crisis when I somehow lost my convention bracelet in the morning, so we had to go back to registration again. We saw Levar Burton (Q&A panel) and Anthony Stewart Head (Photo Op, Q&A Panel, Autograph). This was our second time going, and the first time we saw any of the guests, so we were still figuring things out. 
• November we were off to the  Whisky Festival for the 4th year in a row, this time with a couple of friends which made it even more fun.
• Was sick for a couple of weeks - end of Nov/beginning of Dec - and still haven't quite shaken the sniffles and cough.
• Off on vacation from Dec 21 to Jan 2nd. Did a lot of cleaning on the 21st, my first day off, and ended up not feeling well again. It felt like a mild asthma attack at first - and maybe was - but it lasted and accompanied by sniffles and cough lasted a couple of days. The feeling of having a weight sitting on my chest was gone after that, but still have the sniffles and cough. Feeling like allergies again  I may have to break down and go to the doctor if this keeps up.
• Thinking back, I found the allergies seemed to get bad this spring after we got the heat pump. I don't know if that's what is making it worse again now? I don't know, maybe it was coincidence.
• So after the first day, I spent my days relaxing for the most part. Husband was home anyway, and I find I am less likely to do house stuff if he's around. He went back to work on Thursday, so I puttered around Thurs & Fri, picking away at some things I've been needing to get done (taking everything out of china cabinet to clean and dust, cleaning out cupboard that mouse has been into, more de-cluttering in kitchen, laundry...and the list goes on).
• Managed to play around with a little bit of painting, but not as much as I would have liked. Hardly touched the piano at all.
• Friday evening we had a Pokemon Go EX Raid to go to. It was mildly snow-stormy all day, but off we went with our intrepid Pokemon Go friends to do it anyway. Normally difficult to get Husband to step foot outside in good weather, but he'll go out in the snow for an EX Raid. 
• Weekend was quiet aside from Husband's on call, and our garage door deciding it didn't need to close....sigh.
• We got an instant pot...a few weeks ago? A month ago? Made Pork Carnitas on Saturday, and that is the best thing we've done in the instant pot so far.
• And now here it is Monday, and vacation is almost over. I do feel more rested and de-stressed, but still not ready to go back to work and I wish the cold/allergies/whatever would go away.

Looking ahead...What do I want this year? Ah...Okay...Maybe that should be another post or I'll never get this one finished!