Hi everybody!

How are you? I hope you're having a good winter, and I hope you are staying warm.

I've had a good winter so far; I went to Hawaii with my best friend and roommate for 5 weeks. It was so nice to wear T-shirts, shorts and sandals, and be outside in the sun. My skin was soft and it was nice to not have to put on lotion every day. My hair was also soft and clean so I only washed it two times a week.

I did a lot of exercise while I was there; I went swimming every day, and did 30-40 laps a day in the pool. I did it all without a life jacket. Instead, I had a flotation belt around my waist. It was fantastic to get back in the water and swim. I forgot how much I miss the water! Every day after swimming, we went back to our place where we were staying at, and had something to eat. We changed into dry bathing suits, laid by the pool and got tanned.

There was one day when we went shopping, and I wanted to get a necklace and a couple things for myself. A couple days before, it was a bit chilly so we went shopping. I bought some things for my nieces and nephews because I thought that it would be better to get something for them in Hawaii than in New Zealand which I would have to carry around for 37 days (I'm going on a cruise to New Zealand in April). On that day, it was raining, but it was a warm rain. When Laura and I were walking around, there were people trying to get out of the rain. It was kind of funny because it wasn't a cold type of rain where you can freeze your butt off. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and after we finished shopping, we had to walk far because we had to park a ways away. It was nice to walk in the rain, but when we got home, we were soaking wet! It was still a good day.

We went to the beach for one day only because it was hard for me to get in the water due to the waves; you have to move fast to get in. I sat on the beach instead and watched my roommate go in the water.  When we were getting ready to go, we saw a whale. It was cool to see! I felt a little sad though that I couldn't go into the water where we were at. At another beach in another town (Kihei, which was 15 minutes away from us), I could have gone in the water because they had a floating wheelchair there, but every time we went to this beach, something else came up. The week before we were able to go, my ear got infected, so I didn't want to get in the water.

For food, we mostly cooked all of it. We only went out to eat three times. The first day, we went to IHOPs after we landed. The second time, we went over to a friend's house to have supper. Finally, the night before we left, we bought burgers. Also, I made a couple of new friends at the pool; they were the lifeguards. So now, two of them are my Facebook friends.

The 5 weeks that I was there went by so fast! I hope I can go back soon.

Plans for this year

Hello!

Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a good holiday. I had a good holiday with my family and this is a new year so I am doing a lot of things.
First, I am going to Hawaii for five weeks with my best friend, relaxing and having fun. Then in April, I'm going to New Zealand and going on a cruise back to Vancouver. I will see a lot of new places like Sydney, Australia and Fiji Islands. There are a couple of places where the cruise ship can't go up to the dock, so I can't get off. There will be a little boat that comes out to get the people from the cruise ship, and they'll have to climb over the side to get in. It will be difficult for me to get in the little boat, so I decided to stay on the ship. I will blog about the places I'm going to and how able I am to get around in a wheelchair.
I also thought of a new idea for my next book to write. So I have started writing it and I hope it doesn't take me fifty years to finish it. 
This year, I am working more on my writing and getting better. So stay tuned!

Happy Holidays

It's that time of year when we all get together with family and friends. Yay! If you need to get a present for someone, then you can get my book off of Kindle! :) It's a good present to give. http://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Person-Speak-Think-ebook/dp/B00Q8A5BFU 

I wish you all Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah, etc.) and Happy New Year!

Family Celebrations

I celebrate the basic holidays with my family like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, birthdays and weddings. There are several different kinds of celebrations around the world.  To name a few, there is Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Ramadan and St. Patrick's Day.  In Canada Christmas is a big deal.  Some families don't celebrate Christmas the traditional way with exchanging gifts but they still get together with family and friends to enjoy their company and food.  As my family grew our gift exchange routine changed a bit but the menu my mother prepares for all of us remains the same each year.  This is our way of being connected and sharing a happy time. 

I also enjoyed getting together with my family to celebrate my sisters’ weddings, the birth of their kids and everyone's birthdays.  We spend all the traditional holidays together as a family.  We also spend some unique times together celebrating.

It was Halloween last week and it was also one of my niece’s birthdays on the same day so we got together for supper to celebrate and then the kids got ready to go out with their costumes on for trick or treating.

I love to get together with my family and have these special times with them. Some families don't have any members of their family around or they live far way so they spend the holidays alone. It is very sad to see when someone doesn't have any family around to share and celebrate. Everyone needs to have love and support.  I am so lucky to have a wonderful and loving family to spend time celebrating life with no matter what day it is.  Having a special event just makes it lots of fun.