The Journey Into Life Coaching: ♥♥ HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS ♥♥

Heart is where the home is - Right in front of Uncle Bert's House

The anticipation, the excitement and the love I feel as I prepare for my trip to Newfoundland. I update my Twitter and Facebook status one last time before we head out. I finished packing our bags, hubby arrives home from work & showers, I feed the cat, call my kids, say good-bye, and called the taxi, now we just wait for the taxi to pick us up and then we are off. The taxi arrives, I am running around making sure everything is turned off and unplugged, grabbed Kayla's baby (We could never forget her baby), Kevin grabs the suit cases, sets her carseat up in the taxi, and WE'RE OFF.

Yippeee, I can't wait to get there to smell the fresh air, the salt water, and most importantly, wrap my arms around my Mother In Law. We check in, go through security, and head over to wait for our flight. Time to board, off we go, walked down the mobile corridor to our plane, and got all settled in our seats. I had the window seat, Kayla was in the middle, and my husband was in the aisle seat. After getting all situated the pilot comes on and said there is a technical issue that is currently being addressed, we will have a short delay and then we will be off. That delay was about 30 mins, it felt like it was forever. The excitement was about to jump out of my chest. All things a go, we taxi to the run way, and up and away we go.

As we hover over the clouds, it starts to get a little bumpy. I was like okay no problem, a little turbulence no big deal, as we start going at a higher altitude and about an hour into our flight things got scary. I've been flying off and on for years, and generally have had a good flight, this is the second time the flight has been scary. This one though we were flying for a while, and the turbulence got real scary. People were gasping, holding onto their seats, kids started to whimper and cry. Kayla looked at me and said Mommy, what's wrong these bumps are silly. I tried not to show how absolutely terrified I was. I looked at Kevin, he looked at me, and I was as white as a ghost, his knuckles were pure white from holding on to the arm rests so hard. The plane was dropping feet, the pilot came on told everyone to get to their seats, and also told the stewardess to return to their seats. You see the carts flying by with the stewardess rushing back to their seats. The pilot comes on and indicates we will be going through some turbulence for 10 to 15 mins, so I braced myself for those few minutes. In actuality it ended up being about 2 hours. My body ached, I was having chest pains. It felt like I was bracing myself for an accident for 2 hours. I prayed the plane wasn't going to go down, I know extreme, but I have never felt turbulence like that, we were terrified. Kevin and I looked at each other, whispered I love you, and Kev said be strong, the tears started to welt up in my eyes. The anticipation of the unknown left my body very sore and I ached so much. By the time we landed I had a headache, I was shaking, and my body was in agony. The aches didn't go away for about 4 days. Never so glad to get off a flight!

When we got off the plane, we headed down the stairs at St. John's Airport. What I love about the airport is you go down these big sets of stairs, almost like a princess coming down to her prince. Except it wasn't my prince, he was already beside me, it was my Mother In Law (MIL) and her beautiful smile. Kayla let go of my hand and ran, it was like the airport stopped, and all you could hear was Kayla screaming out Nanny Nanny I missed you, I am in Newfoundland now. Kayla and Nanny embraced, then Kevin and I joined in, it was a beautiful thing. Ahhh now I can let all my stresses go, and cherish our time.

Puzzle Time - Some good simple family time

The drive from St. John's was a good one, we saw 9 moose, but thankfully they stayed on the side of the road and never bothered us. It was late, we decided to take a night flight on Thursday so we have all day Friday in Bonavista. It was not long into the 3 hour drive when Kayla fell asleep, it then gave me a chance to talk to my MIL, held her hand and just feeling so happy to be In Newfoundland. We arrived in Bonavista at 1:30 am, and Kevin's Uncle Bert (he is just like his father) waited up for us, we were all so tired, except for Kayla she had a power nap, and full of energy. We stopped in and visited for few minutes and headed back to my MIL's house where we stay while in Newfoundland.

Friday we woke up and so happy to be in Bonavista, one thing for sure, the sleep you get in Newfoundland is the best sleep you could probably get anywhere. The fresh air, the smell of salt water, and the stillness makes for great sleeping. Now if there is a bit of wind or rain, it gets a little more challenging, but you get used to it. Overall the weather was good a few rainy or windy days here and there but for the most part it was beautiful each day. One of the things I love is how Uncle Bertie can predict the weather from the way the wind is blows. He lives right by the ocean, and with the tides and the wind we have our own personal weather man LOL. He is always dead on, it is pretty remarkable. Living in Newfoundland for almost 80 years I guess he has some experience under his belt, or shall I say his suspenders lol. So blessed to have this man in our lives!

Uncle Bert - Our personal weather man

Each day was a new day for adventures, we did the typical Bonavista touristy things as we do every year and we visited family and friends. Even thought we had 2.5 weeks there, we weren't able to get around to see everyone, it is hard to fit it all in. Every lunch and dinner was planned, so time was definitely limited. There was one day in particular where Ruby (MIL) her friend, and myself were trying on different dresses in my MIL's house and we started dancing and singing around in the kitchen. We were were having a blast, if people saw us they may have thought we were crazy. We were having so much fun and then my husband was outside and scared us by howling through an open window in the kitchen. We all screamed and jumped, it was hilarious. It was one of those "You had to be there" moments.

When we are in Bonavista for the 3 weekends, we attend church, if I was living there I could see myself attending each week. I love the atmosphere, the energy, and the gospel singing. When you enter in the Grace Pentecostal Church (MIL's church) they greet you with such pleasantries and welcome you to their church. We also attend Memorial United Church (Uncle Bert's Church) which is such a wonderful church too. The people are warm and friendly you feel so welcomed when you enter the church, although it is a large church you still feel like family when you are there.

One night, Ruby, Christine (Aunt), Teri-Lynn (Cousin) and I attended the Rising Tide Theater in Trinity Newfoundland to watch" I Love You Your Perfect Now Change". What a beautiful little quaint town, I really enjoyed the town and the play was excellent, I had no idea it even existed. This will be a must when we go to Newfoundland every year. It is about a 45 min to an hour drive from Bonavista and what a great spot. Once the theater was over, we headed home, it was dark and chilly. After driving for a few minutes we started smelling smoke coming from the car, it gave us a bit of a scare, so we stopped at the side of the road. The ladies said maybe we should check the tires, so I said to Christine hand me your phone so I can use it as a light. I went around checking the tires, and looking out for moose & coyote, they can come from anywhere. It was so dark, the ladies said never mind Shelley get back in the car, they called a family member to come pick us up. The thing that surprised me the most, was that almost every single person stopped to see if we needed help. Say 20 people stopped, 2 people didn't, and half the people that stopped said they would drive behind us home (for 1 hr) until we reached our destination safely. Wow, you wouldn't find people doing that here in the Toronto area.

One of the highlights every year is the time I take to go off by myself and journal, it is one of my favourite things to do each year. When I look at the ocean, the metaphor that comes up for me is feeling free, and the cycle of life. As I watch the tide come in and go over the rocks it reminds me of life. We all have obstacles, and challenges like the ocean. With the ocean there is movement around obstacles, and then is grounded by the shore. We overcome challenges by movement and find what grounds us, just like the shore does to the sea.
I feel so at peace by the ocean...Movement is the cycle of life!

So in closing, I have attached a few snap shots from our trip...