I haven’t felt like writing in a long, long time. I can’t believe my last update was December 2020. There have been so many changes.

We moved houses – after 11 years in Arbour Lake, we bought in Silver Springs a year ago now. Oh, how I missed this neighbourhood and this sense of community. I walked Cameron to her first day of preschool and pick her up three days a week, we spend time at the park with her friends. She’s been able to take a dance class and play soccer with them, and I’ve been able to make friends with a few of their parents. I also managed Nicklaus’s U11 hockey team – they won the city championships and we had the best group of boys. Nicklaus made fantastic friendships that I hope will last him years. A few of his teammates are even junior members at Country Hills, so we’ll see them through the summer too and hopefully next year we’ll have a few of the same kids on the team. 

I started running again, and I’ll be running my first half marathon this weekend – YIKES! But I love being out on the pathways, getting down to the river. Even when it was so cold that my eyelashes froze. Riggins and I have been getting out 3-5 days a week – sometimes Cameron joins us on her scooter, and sometimes Nicklaus rides his bike. And every day we get outside. I can’t believe how helpful it is to clear my mind, change my mood and see places. I’ve run in Arbour Lake, in Silver Springs, in Scenic Acres, in Varsity, along the river from Shaganappi to downtown, in Radium, in Arizona, in Vancouver, in Ottawa and in Halifax. I’ve run mostly with Riggins, but sometimes with friends. It’s been better for me than I could’ve imagined. 

Finally, I left my job after five years. This might not seem like it’s anything remarkable, I get bored and need a change of pace relatively often. In fact, I think my longest with one employer was seven years, and I had multiple roles within that company. But this was different. I was still challenged by my job, I loved my team, I believed in the work we were doing. But there was an opportunity: to be closer to home, to have a better title, to build something new – and to work with a friend. It was a hard decision to leave, but I started the New Year at a new place, learning new things with new people. It’s taken a bit to get my stride. Change is hard. But it’s good too – good for me anyway. With change comes growth. And now we’ll see what comes next.