A piece of my quilt

by Susan

As usual the end of the year comes and I am not sure where the time has gone or what I have done for the past 365 days. Work has kept me busy 4 days a week as has travelling to exotic places like Chattanooga, Dallas, New Orleans and Pisa, Italy.

This year (thanks to my boss, Dr. Sussman) my co-worker, Cathleen, and I received an invitation from Giovanni to speak at the European Academy of Childhood Disability meeting in Pisa, Italy. We met and put faces to the many names of researchers that we have read articles from in our collaborative journals. The European style of medical care for children with disabilities is different in many ways from ours, as well as fascinating.

Rewards have also been bestowed on my co-worker and I with the funding of both of the research proposals we submitted. Although we are both excited about the potential research projects we are uncertain about the expansion of our work days from 4 to 5 days a week, which eliminates the errand days we have both come to love for the past 10 years. Stay tuned for next year's letter to see if I and the rest of my family have survived the change in my work status.

Over the past year I nurtured my creative side by painting and redecorating many of the rooms in our house to fit with our style and needs. The girls enjoyed picking out colours of paint for their playroom and bedroom, which we painted and redecorated while Jim was away for a week. We will have to see how many projects we can get done while Jim is out of town. I am sure he nevers know what he will come home to. I finished several quilts this year, however my timeliness was not optimal as I finished my friend Julias 40th birthday quilt as she gets ready to turn 42. I guess, better late than never, should apply. I took a quilting class which lasted 9 months during which we learned a new skill each month. By the end I had a fabulous quilt that I actually kept for our family to snuggle under during the winter.

I continue to try and find time to work out. The girls have given up swimming and replaced it with gymnastics 2 nights a week for 2 hours. This has given me and my workout partner Karla time to run and lift weights while the girls are enjoying flipping around the bars, balancing on the beam and everything else they fill the time with. Dianne and I still walk on Fridays, although, my work schedule will require an adjustment in days, however we continue to enjoy the time to chat so I’m sure we can make it work.