Our Final Post

Hello Everyone, 

We are sad to say that our project has ended and this will be our final post.  Life is a funny thing.  When we started this project on January 1, 2010 I looked ahead at the year to come and thought that our life was quite settled and that it wouldn't be "life's circumstances" that would make it difficult to complete this project.  If anything, I thought that we might get lazy and just give up or possibly run out of ideas.  Neither one of those things led to us giving up on this idea. 

We had some big changes in our life near the end of July.  The first one came when Ken decided that due to our current financial situation (basically living paycheque to paycheque), in combination with our goals for the future, one of which is to be able to buy a home in our lifetime, that he need to get a different job.  He decided that the best option for him was to go back to working out of the city on the oil rigs.  We had planned on this not happening until around September.  Well, it's not yet September and he has been doing this for 5 weeks already! Things happened so quickly that I felt like my head was spinning around like Beatlejuice's. Ken wanted to do some research on which company he wanted to work for.  He had worked in the oil patch in the past and knew the reputations of some of the companies but still wanted to check in to them a bit more.  He went to two companies, just to ask questions, and they both offered him a job.  One lady actually filled out an application for him eventhough he said repeatedly that he was just there to ask questions and didn't want to fill out an application.  So before we knew it he was whisked away to work.  He works for two weeks and comes home for one week.  For about 5 days before he left on his first hitch (that is what they call their sets of shifts)we were running around like crazy making sure he had the proper clothes, supplies etc.  It was that week when we decided to give up our project.  He was still working at his old job during the day and after work and in the evenings we were doing all of the preparing.  It just all became too much and we couldn't find any time in the day to do a "different thing".   Meanwhile, my brother decided to come stay with us in Edmonton because he needed a bit more steady employment too.  So that meant that I had to find extra time to get our spare room ready for him and orient him to a new city.  Ken drove him around one day to talk to some people about jobs while I helped him do research on bus routes etc.  I wanted to have some time to spend with him to help him with things that he needed and make him feel comfortable here.  He has been here for short visits before but never had to navigate the city on his own. So life has been a bit hectic lately.  One part of me really regrets giving up the project, another part knows that realistically I couldn't have done it every day with everything else that was going on and yet another part of me wouldn't want to do it without Ken.  So, as you can see I have mixed feelings about it being over. It was a really great project and I do miss all of our adventures.

I thought I would share some of our favourite adventures with you all.  These are in no particular order they are just some things that stood out for us.  Feel free to read back in our blog to see why we enjoyed these days:
Day 9: Family Game Night
Day 13: Olympic Torch and Theatre
Day 16: Watching our friend's band
Day 17: Ice Festival
Day 20: River Valley Walk
Day 26: Couples Communication
Day 27: Motley Crue Concert
Day 26: Ted.com
Day 51: Silver Skate Festival
Day 64: Audrey's 80's theme party
Day 66: Listening to birdies
Day 73: Flying a kite
Day 78: Documentary - No Impact Man
Day 87: Chicago!
Day 90: Jigsaw puzzle
Day 102: 50 questions that will free your mind
Day 104: Carving our initials in a tree
Day 108: River Valley Hike
Day 111: Story Slam
Day 117: Visit with my brother
Day 122: Ravine Clean-up
Day 124: Cardmaking
Day 164: Chinese Lion Dancing
Day 170: Dance Recital
Day 173: Landscape photo lecture
Day 174: Meeting the author
Day 176: Edmonton Oilers Draft Party
Day 183: Batting Cages

There are many reasons that we particulary enjoyed those activities.  For some of them it was because they were a completely new thing to us, for others it was because we shared them together or with family and friends.  I am thrilled that we have this blog to look back on and remember those days.

I want to end our blog by telling you about some of the exciting things that we had hoped to do but didn't get the chance to.  I kept a running list of things that we had hoped to try or see.  I will keep this list in the hopes that we get to do these activities at some point. Here they are:
-photobooth
-124th Street Art Gallery Walk
-visit historical churches
-Ride the street car
-Devonian botanical gardens
-watch a sunrise
-play hide and seek
-geocaching
-indy film
-gopher museum
-drive-in theatre
-buy "real" art
-road trip
-wear our pj's for one whole day
-host a dinner party
-host a traditional afternoon tea
-horseback riding
-volunteer
-Muttart Conservatory
-watch Jr. lacrosse
-curling
-play horseshoes
-go to Katie's Crossing (a train car in the country where you can have lunch)
-Family Tree
-be an extra in a film or an audience member in a show
-tubing or sliding down a snowy hill
-x-country skiing
-bowling
-skinny dipping
-sleep under the stars
-try a spin class
-take free community classes such as art or dance
-make homemade bread
-learn to knit

The list that I have is about 5 times as long as the one that I just wrote.  I truly only included the ideas that I liked the most on this list. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on our project.  Hopefully we have inspired some of you to try different things or just get off your couch and experience life.  My greatest learning from this is that if I ever decide to take on a similar project I will limit it to about once a week. I think that way we could free up more time to spend on the activity (it was always easiest to fit in activities on the weekend) and possibly put a bit more money into it.....although we did learn that there are ALOT of things you can do on a limited budget.

Take Care Everyone.  Thanks for your support of this project.  Sorry we only made it half way through!