The beginning of each new year always finds me reflecting on the past year, like where did it go so quickly, did I achieve all I planned to, where did I spend all my money, how could I possibly have spent it all, did I spend enough time with friends and family, and what will this year bring?

Funny how the custom of making New Years resolutions is always about doing better. I think this year I will just congratulate myself for having an extremely eventful year and plan to have another one in 2011.

But I still did that reflection thing. 2010 was a fabulous year. Building on the self confidence I gained in 2009, travelling through Thailand, I continued to strenghten both my physical and mental health. There is nothing better than feeling that you have never been in better shape or had more confidence than you do now. No matter what age you are, you know that you are never going to get younger and always need to work against the challenges of age, but if you are at your best today, maybe tomorrow will only be better. Is it possible? Of course!

The fun of keeping a blog is knowing when we are 80, sitting in a rocker on the porch we can pull up the blog and share the adventures and memories of days gone by with the grandchildren. If our memory fails us we can relive our adventures all over again..lol.

Now the challenge of course is that you keep the blog up to date. Of course I haven't, which probably speaks to why I was never successful keeping a diary as a kid. So maybe I will catch up first of all.

2010 was a year of working on The Plan.

The first step was to sell the house and move to a small condo downtown. When I say small I mean really small. 600 square feet. Moving from a 2500 sq.ft., 4 bedroom house to the condo meant it was necessary to do a significant downsize our material possessions. Garage sales, give aways to the kids, numerous trips to the Thrift store and lots and lots of trips to the dump, saw 3/4s of our possessions find new homes. Tears of joy and sadness rolled down my face as a happy little girl walked away with her new special treasure from my doll collection.. I am still sure that a box of clothing must be missing because how could I possibly have only this limited amount of clothes left? Anything too big, too small, slightly worn out, out of style or just not cool was given away.

What we kept: our bed, the massage chair; dishes, only 4 of each item, golf clubs, skis, camping gear and photo albums. Oh yes, and 1/2 my doll collection and Randy's fish.

For the first time we didn't purchase a freshly renovated or brand new home, so we decided to renovate. Now you would think that renovating a small condo would be fairly simple and only take a few weeks to complete. Well not so. Small or large it takes a lot of coordination of contractors and them to actually show up and do a satisfactory job. So we hired an interior designer to manage the job. Oh it would be so easy and hopefully she would provide great ideas and have the job finished quickly. At least that is what she promised. Then reality set in. Contractors were hired, but the coordination of the work not so much. The quality of the work, not so good. The to make matters worse, the interior designer went on vacation. Now remember we are sleeping on the floor in the middle of the construction. Living out of our suitcase, since we decided to keep our limited possessions including our winter clothing in storage until the renovations were completed. We had originally thought we would be finished construction before winter hit , but it was now November and 30 below. We were freezing, living in a construction zone, and breathing drywall dust. Patience was wearing thin. Someone needed to take control, so, I did.
Forget the designer, we needed to get the job done. So we did, but I now have a whole new appreciation for general contractors and interior designers. Thank goodness I had the flexibility to leave work when necessary to let the trades into the suite and provide guidance and direction.

With Randy's creative insight and vision and my work with the trades we now have a very cool condo. We love the location, we love our condo and we are one step closer to accomplishing The Plan.

Prior to selling the house we had booked a trip to Jamaica with friends. Since we had hired the Interior Designer to take care of our renovations we were extremely excited to head off on vacation. Warm weather,sunshine, beaches, sand,and fun with friends we couldn't have been more excited! Unfortunately our friends backed out but we quickly made new friends as we enjoyed the sights of Negril. Days were spent at the pool, or in hot tub on our private patio, and at the gym. The evenings always entertaining, with dinner performances, followed by entertainment at the piano bar and a late night dip in the hot tub before bed. Every night had a different theme and half the fun was putting together the costumes to wear to dinner. The friends we made, the fun we had and the and the adventures we had made for a very interesting holiday.

One day we hired a taxi driver to take us on a tour of the area. We headed off to a waterfall deep into the island. It was a rainy day and after traveling over a dirt pathway considered a road that was more potholes than not we arrived at the most amazing waterfalls. Being the only tourists to arrive at the falls that day we got our own guided tour up the falls and personal photographer who took our camera and captured the entire adventure for us.. SO much fun. The guide showed us all the great spots to enjoy the benefits of the falls. At one point Randy was positioned under the falls, completed hidden by the water pouring over him, enclosed in walls of water but his upper body out of the water. How cool. What an amazing experience as we climbed up the falls, warm water pounding down all around us.

Rick's cafe is claimed to be the best place in Negril to see the sunset. After a 20 minute taxi ride from the resort we arrived with anticipation of seeing the most beautiful sunset in Jamaica. Just as we arrived the skies opened up and it started to rain. But the evening was not lost. Young Jamaican men were capturing the attention of the tourist as they cliff dived for tips. More daring and possibly difficult than the jumps you see in the Olympics the crowd was entertained. Then there was the question could we jump too. Yes it was possible, but in the pouring rain none of us took advantage of the opportunity. Not to have regrets, but should have we? A quick drive back to the resort and we headed back to the hot tub to enjoy the the evening and conversation with friends.

Creatures of habit, it became a daily routine. Sleep til ten, 1 hour run at the gym, brunch, time at the pool, a nap, dinner, the piano bar and an evening trip to the community hot tub. After 10 days we were ready to come home, but we had 2 more days to enjoy the warmth of the Jamaican sun.

After a very nice but quiet Christmas we headed up to Slave Lake for our annual New Year's Eve party. This years theme- Italian. Lot's of pasta, pizza and tiramasu. There is never a lack of food. At midnight the guys set off the fireworks to welcome the new year in..we are all in ah as the sky lights up with a spectacular color of lights. Each year sees a bigger and brighter show, as we all cheer and celebrate the arrival of the new year.


Recapping 2010: I ran three 1/2 marathons, and am probably in the best shape of my life; Got a tiger tattoo to match The tattoo on Randy's shoulder. I love my tattoo, it is truly a piece of art; learned to Teach English as a Second Language; made some very special new friends and had some amazing adventures.

Most of all 2010 saw my relationship, partnership and love for my husband become stronger than ever. Truely my best friend and soul mate. I am a very very lucky girl!!

The scary thing ....I am posting this recap in June 2011. Can I promise to do better...probably not.