The final exam in my final course has been completed. Now we wait.

I could have sworn I’d written a post in 2013. Apparently not. I do intend to write and backdate a post in April and May 2013 in a few short moments. Mostly so I don’t lose track of the important moments in life; good and bad.

One of the downsides of watching the not-for-profit we’re involved in blossom is that I have less and less time to remember I have a blog of my own.  Which likely explains how nearly eight months passed between my last post and today. I spend so much time working on their newsletter, blog posts, twitter and Facebook page that I find it’s become an extension of my life.

The end is near. I’m busy working on my final paper in my final class in my degree. At the end of the month, I’ll be writing a final exam for the last time. Or at least, for the last time in a while. I’m definitely taking a few years off of school after I complete this degree. I’m tired. My brain is fried. But I am looking forward to walking across the stage at commencement in November.

I fell off the health wagon months back and have slowly gained back about 1/2 of the weight I lost a few years ago. Stress, injuries and laziness seem to have played the biggest part. I’m hoping once school is finished that I can get back on track. I miss fitting into my clothes!

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got at the moment. Today, we write a short post. Rather than making a silly resolution to return to blogging almost daily, I think I’ll try to add a new post to this blog once a week and see how it goes from there.

I struggled picking my charity to support with my annual Poppy count this year. The non-profit I’m involved with supports Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, and Edmonton’s Youth Empowerment and Support Services so as much as I love those three charities, I thought I needed to select a different organization. In the past, I’ve also tied Movember donations to the poppy count. This year I supported a few people in their moo-stache escapades at the beginning of the month, which took it off the list of potential charities…

So that left me with a handful of military related charities and my favourite dog rescue to select from. I was leaning towards a military oriented charity (mostly because I support CaliCan all year long) when the unthinkable happened. A CaliCan pup, on it’s way to it’s fur-ever home, got lost in Leduc in the middle of winter. Poe had only arrived in Canada a few short weeks before and, being from California, had no exposure to bitter cold before. The snow flew, the temperatures dropped, and dozens of volunteers scoured the neighbourhoods of Leduc to find a 6 lb black chihuahua. Reports of sightings came in near daily. After 5 days of being on the run, Poe was finally found and returned to CaliCan. Which, of course, meant a trip to the emergency vet.  Having had experience paying emergency vet bills (thanks Zoe!), we know that it can be significantly more expensive than visiting a vet during normal business hours. So, with that in mind, we’re sending our poppy pennies to CaliCan to help defray the costs of Poe’s visit to the vet.

Seems to me that life has become crazy busy lately. In addition to working on my final course for my degree at RMC, the not-for-profit organization I helped establish (Alberta Browncoats) has been growing by leaps and bounds lately. We’ve been attending conventions, planning a shindig, and rolling out membership options over the past month. And, of course, I’ve been knitting like a mad woman so we have convention stock.

Somewhere in there I still manage to work full-time as an eLearning developer.

Next week Drew and I will be taking a much needed vacation to Ottawa. Drew’s been many times but, despite living in capital cities of many states and countries, I’ve never been to our own country’s capital before. In addition to traipsing around museums and spending a few days with Drew’s parents we’ll have a chance to participate in the Remembrance Day ceremony on Parliament Hill.  Something I’ve had on my bucket list for years now.

Time to pack my bags. And knitting 😉

In a week it’ll be 6 years since dad passed. A lot can happen in 6 years. Many memories that never get shared. Many times when you pick up a phone wanting advice and remembering, at the last minute, that the person you’re calling isn’t there. Since his passing we’ve been putting an annual memorial notice in the local paper. This year, partially because so many other things have been going on, I didn’t send in a notice for publication. I’m torn. It feels weird knowing that this year there won’t be a letter from mom with a snippet out of the local paper containing the memorial notice. It feels even stranger that I’m quickly approaching university graduation (May, 2013) and knowing dad won’t be there to celebrate.