It's 2025 already?!? Here's a life update that no one asked for...

Can we talk about my life in 2024 for a minute. Here is the family update that no one asked for haha. 2024 was a big year with a lot of big changes for me and my big crew. I will try to organize things so that if you only want to know how a specific person is doing their update will be in all in one spot.

                2024 was a year with a lot of changes for me. At the start of the year there were still tons of appointments for Sarah so that was my full-time job. I spent that time on EI so there was still money coming in. I’ll talk more about the appointment in Sarah’s update. As EI ended in the summer I started taking more shifts at Sky Hangar. I was promoted to liaison supervisor and worked my ass off until just before Christmas. Now begins the slow season. The biggest thing for me, I think, in 2024 was having to figure out how I was going to sustain my family in a better way than I had been doing so far. This led me to the decision to go back to school. It was a long process of applications, interviews and writing appeal letters but I managed to get enough student loans to pay for school! By this fall I will be a professional counsellor and looking for clients, so keep that in mind for me if you don’t mind. My relationship continues to be a source of love, joy, strength, safety, and calm grounding for me, and damn if I don’t get lost looking at the man’s beautiful face on a daily.  Currently, I’m looking for work that will help me pay my rent and still be able to get at least 20 hours of school done a week. I also need to do 180 hours within the industry, as part of the requirement to graduate. Hoping to find something that fits all 3 of those, but time will tell. I will continue to power through my courses. I am in the 6th of 16 and so far, all A’s.  I will continue to feel blessed watching my family and for the peace my guy brings to my life! The family court stuff is ongoing and so is the business with ghosts of the past. Hopefully family court is going to be all done with soon and I’m hoping we can all forge forward with kindness and respect and as a team for the best interest of the kiddos. The damn ghost still won’t go away. He’s managed to legally keep his foot in the door of my life but refuses to take any action beyond that because it allows him to just keep his foot there. Unfortunately, he is still within my proximity, and I am still looking over my shoulder all the time, as are the kids. It still sucks, but for the time being there is nothing we can do so we just keep swimming.

                In 2024 Stephen made a big move from Kelowna to Vernon. He is living in his first, all alone, basement suite with shanks (his kitty). He turned the big 3-0 this year and I was privileged enough to be able to take him out for dinner on his birthday. Stephen continues to work as a red seal journeyman in sheet metal and his loving his trade! Now if he could just find the right girl and give me some more grandbabies (Stephen…I know you can’t because I haven’t found your wife yet.) For Christmas/ birthday Stephen treated himself to a really cool DJ system and if finding a love in mixing music!!! Watch out, in the future he may just end up being the next big thing!! Last year Nate turned 20 and made a huge leap and moved to Vancouver Island. He has started his own roofing company with a partner called Canadian Roofing and Contracting. He is currently in the process of registering his company. He’s been talking about this for 5 years! It’s very exciting to see him fulfilling his dreams! He has started seeing a lovely girl here in Maple Ridge, so I still get to see him all the time because he commutes to see her often! I’m looking forward to seeing the growth of Nate and his company in the coming year.

                This is probably the update that most people want to know about. It’s the one I get asked the most about in person. 2024 has been a difficult year for Sarah. She is a fighter and fights every day, but she is tired. She is burnt out from all the appointments and has cut them back to 3 a week. At the height of the appointments there were a minimum of 6 a week but usually more. Sarah and her occupational therapist have worked very hard on ways to help Sarah be more independent. Most often she gets herself to her appointments now. There are many, many things that she can do on her own that she couldn’t when she first got home. Simple things that most people take for granted, like taking a shower, doing her make up, brushing her teeth and hair and making her own food, are all things that she’s had to figure out modified ways to perform. Early in the year Sarah had an EMG and found that the nerve controlling her right arm function was dead. She had little to no movement. In April Sarah had a nerve transplant surgery. The surgeon took a nerve from her tricep and replaced the one in her bicep. She has a follow up EMG in October. The nerve is definitely firing now, and she does have some mobility. In one respect the Dr’s are excited with her progress and in another they are discouraged that it is not firing more. In an MRI she had in the summer they found a cyst around her scapula which could be compressing the nerve not allowing it to fully function. This has been causing Sarah considerable pain. It is still unknown to us what’s going to be done able it. Prior to the accident Sarah had some mental health struggles, which seemed to disappear for a while after the accident. I hope one day that Sarah will write a post for me explaining to everyone what life is like for her but until then I won’t go too deep into it because that is her story to tell. I will say that the struggles are back and worse than before. To make matters worse Sarah still struggles with short term memory as well as processing and comprehension, since the brain injury. This is a source of great stress and distress for her. She feels like a completely different person than she was before, and she misses who she was. To add to her stress, she struggles with the amount of scarring she has and works hard to hide it when she goes out. On a positive note, she was approved as a PWD (person with a disability) and for disability payments. She will also be getting money from ICBC and possibly more in future due to the accident. She is so excited to be able to pay for braces! She also got herself a kitten to keep her company. Cute little black and white guy named Amoni (not sure how she spells it). She is a great cat mom and likes to spoil him. I think for the coming year she is going to continue to work on her recovery, she would like to get a job and be able to move out. Even though she has a long way to go I am so proud of how far she’s come and I am optimistic that she is going to be able to do great things!

                For Joe 2024 has been a year of increasing his skill in the things he enjoys. Joe had a good year in school for grade 10 last year and this year in grade 11 he has a renewed desire to graduate! He is completely excelling in welding. To the point his teacher, who used to own his own shop, would hire Joe over some first-year apprentices. He has a natural, generational talent that has been handed down from his grandpa and dad! While in school he welded himself a skateboard rail to practice slides on in the back yard. Last winter Joe got all the use he could out of his snowboarding season pass at Seymour. His skill level improved greatly. Winter is his favorite season because he loves the mountains. He has another season pass this year and says his skills are already better than last year! Once the season was over, he took advantage of the rail he had welded and has now also become a really good skateboarder. He can definitely rival any of the boys I used to watch when I was a teenager. Any sponsors out there??? Besides that, Joe is still taking his fitness and nutrition seriously and lately been focusing on flexibility because he knows it will help him when he’s my age hahaha. Elizabeth started grade 8 and high school this year. It’s been a big change and adjustment. Let’s just say school is not her favorite subject. She is, however (that one's for you Elizabeth), growing into an amazing young lady. She is extremely helpful around the house. She cooks cleans and bakes. She also loves being an auntie and watches Zach and Hazel often just because she loves them (She’s great to have around if anyone wants to hire her). She does this usually with either Ashlynn or Keanna. It’s great watching these girls, that I have known since they were 3 and 4, still be friends. I enjoy watching them grow up so much. They are all so feisty. They are who I wish I was when I was 13. I was never that cool though. 2024 is the year that left Matthew as the last Mingo in elementary school. It’s also been a bit of a rough start. He used to have his big sister and posse there to stick up for him, but without them ended up in a fight defending himself and got suspended. That was a new experience for me. He’s the first to be suspended in elementary school. In true childhood fashion he and the other boy are friends now. Matthew got to spend half his summer in the Okanagan and most of that with his besties Jimmy, Aiden and Dougy (that’s what he calls them). Another quarter of the summer was spent camping. We even went camping for his birthday! He’s growing up too fast. Hard to believe that my baby is already 10. His main activity is video games. I wish he would get off them more and before anyone says it, I know as a parent it's my job but he’s entertaining himself and he does still play outside when it's nice out. He’s a very sweet kid. Very loving and considerate but also makes all his siblings nuts. I hope that changes as they grow up. My aunt was the baby in my mom’s family, and it seemed to me that even when she was a kid everyone loved her (Auntie Dede…Yes? No?). I assumed they would all love Matthew too. I just hope that they all get along once he is in his teens too and not just an annoying kid to them.

                Not sure how many people know but one of my bonus sons moved in shortly after Sarah’s accident! Tyler and Zachary live in the basement. It’s been such a God send and blessing to have them here. Not only does Tyler help elevate some of the financial stress, but he’s also always ready to help with anything. He worked hard last summer on returning the back yard to its former glory. We didn’t quite make it, but he put in so much work, and it looks so much better than it did last year!!! I truly enjoy hanging out and talking with him and he has one of my favorite laughs of all time. Tyler was officially awarded custody of Zachary in 2024, which was a momentous occasion. He is now working on having Hazel here full time as well. Currently she is here 5 days a week. I am so blessed to have my grandbabies here. It’s so nice to have tiny humans in the house to love, play with, snuggle and sometimes spoil and then send back downstairs to Dad, haha. Zachary turned 3 and Hazel turned 2 in 2024. They are both talking up a storm and are hilarious together.

                2024 was a decent year. Some ups and downs but overall, I am happy with the direction my life has been taking and the people that are here along with me. 2025 is going to see a lot of us turning 50 this year. I’m looking forward to a bunch of 50th birthday parties and seeing lots of familiar friendly faces! I really wanna start seeing more friends this year! I miss you guys. Oh, and I think it's time for another Maywood reunion…What do ya say Mr. Snow?  2025 I’ll be graduating again, but this time into a career that’s going to give more stability and security to my family and something that I can do even past retirement age. This year I want to finally be allowed to put the past behind me and get all the useless junk and clutter outta my house and life. For the first time since I was a kid, I’m excited that it’s a new year. 2025 is going to be a big year and I can’t wait!!!