Oops... It's been a while!

Hey Everyone!

Apologies for my serious lack of writing. 6 months... there's no excuse! It won't happen again. Let me give you the highlights and lowlights of the last while!

I moved to Victoria on October 1st! The Harbottle's are renting me a room downstairs in their house and I LOVE it here! Victoria is a wonderful city, the family I live with is great, the neighbourhood is quiet, I'm close to everything!

I enrolled in the Emergency Medical Responder course. I'm glad that I have the certification, but the career itself (working as a paramedic) is not my thing. I managed to get through the course but I wasn't passionate about it.

Sadly, October saw the passing of my Grandma Kitty. She was 96 and a tough old girl! Her body gave out before her mind, so we are all very thankful for that and to have kept her as long as we did. It was a tough time for everyone, but we got through it. Her service was on October 30th. Lot's of family and friends made it out and I thought it was a beautiful service. There were many shared memories, life stories, music, laughing, crying. Good work Mom, Auntie Marty & Auntie Rhonda for organizing everything :)

November and December were great months for my reffing! Victoria was so good to me, all of their associations and the other refs. It was nice to be received well, encouraged, and given so many opportunities! So many people were offering to help improve me and it was great all around.

In November, my Uncle Chester passed away. 5 weeks after his mother! Chester was the oldest of 10 kids. He also passed suddenly, in the night at his home. It was another shock and sad time for the family. His service will be a get together in Northern BC in June. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it, due to my school schedule, but I hope I can!

In December I met a really nice American boy named Coleman. He trains in kickboxing, Brazilian Jui Jitsu, rides motorcycles, shoots guns and flies Helicopters!

On December 21st I headed home to Comox for Christmas time. Unfortunately this really old guy turned left in front of me. I had my leg straight on the clutch. The accident messed up my torso/neck on the right and my left hip. Boooo. I'm doing lots of rehab to try to get better.

We had Christmas with the little kids (Braden and Hannah) on the 23rd! It was the first time we got to enjoy a Christmas morning with them, so that was great fun! After that we all headed over for a long overdue Christmas at the Cooke house! I was very beat up from my car accident, but it was a good time seeing everyone!

I headed down to the states for a week between Christmas and New Years to visit Coleman. I couldn't do any fun activities but I enjoyed my time there anyway!

In January I started a 27.5 month program to become a Registered Massage Therapist! The program is very intense. As I write this, I am just wrapping up my first term. It has been difficult but I've managed to grasp most of the material, and I'm passing all my courses! The first two terms are academic oriented, then it becomes more of a clinic setting where I am actually treating people. That will be in September.

My injury from the car accident has made school a bit difficult. Some days I have a hard time giving massages, and can't participate. Luckily we only have that class twice a week so it's not too much. Hopefully it's a lot better by Term 3, so I can continue with my schooling.

I also had to give up reffing for the rest of the season, so that was a real downer. I was improving and having a great season before the accident. I am hoping that I'll be able to get right back into it next season and be healed enough to do what I used to!

I continued to see Coleman after school started and things are going really well! It's been years since I've been in a relationship so some things are an adjustment of course. I look forward to all of you meeting him soon!!!

Anyway team, that's all I have to report for now. I will stay on top of this more often. Promise! Cheers!