2012 - year of major changes

It's hard not to look back at this year as one of the most difficult we've had to deal with. We finally decided that with both our jobs being secure, we could invest in some of the more expensive home repairs that we'd been putting off. The first was the kitchen. In addition to installing a storm door to give us more lighting and ventilation off the deck, everything inside the kitchen was white! The counters were deteriorating so we priced it out and decided to get new laminate counters and a new black granite sink, brushed nickel faucets then add in a new island for more work space and storage. We put a 50% down payment on the kitchen reno and the new door.

So we went from this....

To this... A dramatic and spectacular change! Absolutely love it!

However, between putting the money down on the new kitchen and the installation, Brendon (and 53 others at NRC, part of wide-spread layoffs in the federal gov't, especially in sciences. 20 more Winnipeg NRC'ers have been laid off since the first round of cuts.) We were not expecting this at all and there wasn't even the slightest inkling that NRC would close and sell the building?! Since we'd already paid for half of the kitchen, you may as well pay for the other half and plow through the rough parts in the budget. Brendon's termination came as a shock but he had a few weeks to get his resume in order and start looking for work. He was immediately offered a position at Boeing at $10/hour with a raise to $12/hour after he'd completed a few months of training. Neither of us was happy with that offer! Fortunately, a job opened up at HSC in Adaptive Technologies (building custom electronics for people in wheelchairs) and I happened upon it the day before the deadline to apply. He had most of the necessary skills, a polished resume, and a great dossier of previous work from NRC. It took less than 4 hours for him to be interviewed and be offered the job. He now works across the street from me, so all things considered, it's an incredibly positive change for us. Brendon has a difficult but fulfilling job giving people independence and improved quality of life. Every day is a challenge for him to come up with new ideas and adapt mp3 players, cars and Kindles to each person's abilities. The downside is the new hours - we have to drive during rush hour so it can take up to an hour and a half to get home some days, mostly due to construction and traffic volume on Nairn. The worst thing is the amount of time we waste motionless in traffic 5 days a week. Brendon used part of his severance package to buy a new car so at least we're idling in style! ;-)

The next major change was the crushing disappointment to find out that we won't be having biological children of our own. We have had a difficult time moving past this but working with Adoption Options to open our file and create our family with them has been great. We get a lot of support from friends and family, and the AO staff are wonderful to work with. Brendon and I have had a lot deep conversations about what it means to be parents, the way we'll raise our child, and our shared values. It's a discussion that few people have before they become pregnant but as difficult, emotional and uncomfortable as the discussions are, it really helps our relationship and hopefully, will make us great parents. We're at the stage where social workers will be visiting our house so we're about 3 months away from "getting in the box", which means our file can be shown to pregnant women choosing to place a child in a family. We try to remain strong for each other and hope that someday, we'll be picked as parents. In the meantime, we just try to stay positive and optimistic.



Finally, we said good-bye to Kitty on September 12. Our beloved 18 year old, deaf, toothless, clawless cat finally succumb to her kidney disease. She had stayed with us for almost 2-1/2 years longer than cats normally live with kidney disease. She was quite sick in the end and despite our best efforts, we had to make the decision to put her down. The vet came by and quietly put Kitty to sleep and days later, her ashes came home forever. It's still difficult seeing photos of her and we miss her terribly. The grief of losing her is still very real.

After 2 months without Kitty and still deeply depressed, we discussed whether or not we should get a new cat. We drove across the city to D'arcy's Arc to look at some of the rescues but were told that we'd have to come by every day to spend time with a particular cat, but could only spend time with her in a room with 20 other cats. With both of us having terrible cat allergies, we'd never know if we were allergic to that cat or one of the other 19. The first cat we played with was a deaf older pure white cat with a temper. It was too much like Kitty and too soon after saying good-bye to her to replace her like that. We drove home quite dejected and decided to swing by PetSmart to see if they had any cats from the Humane Society. They had two and we spent time alone with both Sabrina (4 month old callico) and Tommy (8 month old mixed short hair). After nearly 2 hours and very little sneezing, we picked Tommy. He's a rambunctious, hyper-active, highly destructive, very much clawed and toothed cat! He's the type of kitten who'll chase lasers and spiders and shoestrings for hours, tearing around the house at top speed crashing into walls and bouncing off furniture. He's always underfoot and we're constantly stepping over him, but to have him purring on your lap will compensate for any of the million hilarious and annoying things he does each day. He's the opposite of Kitty and a happy addition to our family. We're both allergic to him like crazy but he's so much a part of our lives now that we'll just invest in anti-histamines and Kleenex instead of returning him to the Humane Society.

And finally, leaving NRC was equally difficult for me because I won't do lab work anymore. I write grants and have had to accept that I'm not a tech, but the day after my birthday, I received a phone call from a teacher in a small town who wanted to apply to send samples to the International Space Station next year. My officemate and I worked for months on the application and it was accepted two weeks ago, so on April 5, 2013, our project (to which we are technically the scientific consultants for, but we're going to take whole credit for the work) will blast off from Dragon X launch site and go to the International Space Station for a month. We are testing whether green tea prevents DNA damage due to cosmic radiation. It's incredible to be part of science again, especially in such a huge manner.

I wonder what 2013 has in store for us.....

So Long 2011!!

2011 was supposed to be the 'and baby makes 3' year. Just like in science, theory and reality don't often meet. We found out in March, after my exploratory surgery, that we're part of the rare 5% of infertile couples that have 'infertility of unknown etiology', which is the I-paid-a-lot-to-go-to-med-school way giving us a big ol' shrug o'dumb
and sending us on our merry, albeit childless, way with a referal to Heartland Clinic. We're starting the first type of fertility treatments (Letrozol, for those in the same situation) in January. *fingers crossed* *pray for us* *burn incense and chicken bones and chant to a fertility goddess for us*

Since our world wasn't being shaken up by a stork, NRC decided on a restructuring plan that saw me leave my job of 12 years as a tech at IBD and start fresh at CancerCare. When I saw who else was being "work force adjusted" into unemployment, I got the feeling that I'd be next. A feeling that was confirmed at my exit interview when the DG said "your unique skill set (government-ese for "we're not sure what you do here so therefore, you're uniquely skilled to do that thing you've been doing for a long long time") wouldn't be needed here much longer." When a position at CancerCare opened up, I applied, had a good interview, and left IBD. That was a really tough decision because B still works there, my friends are still there, I was really comfortable with my job and knew how to run magnets, my boss was AWESOME, I knew where things are and who to talk to about them - to go into a lab that doesn't have a single magnet in sight, doing weird blots and spinning disk microscopy, having to understand new acronyms (CCMB, PTMs, HER2s, BNIP, etc).... It's been 6 months of feeling completely overwhelmed and really dumb, but I'm settling in. I'm still overwhelmed and feel dumb, but at least I know where the copier paper is stored!

It wasn't even just leaving IBD that was hard, it was leaving the lab that was the hardest. Watching everyone else pipette and dilute and section, stuff I LOVED to do, and instead, going to endless meetings to discuss leverage potentials, trying to find someone competant at CIHR (a work in progress), or fighting with ResearchNet to *not* crash on the day a grant is due... Well, it's tough but it's also different, the people are great, and I really hope to be there for a long long time.

We'll see what happens in 2012! Hoping you guys have a Happy New Year's!!