Like a hamster

As we patiently sit on our hands and wait for that phone call or email, we predict, dream and conjure images of what may be.

Our life these days is lived day to day, sometimes hour to hour. Because we know in a flash things could flip and my husband could get a phone call from New York or Monaco (or somewhere else) saying “Come and have a meeting” in which case everything would be paused and off he’d fly to that location.

I once watched an MTV interview with Jennifer Lopez, where the interviewer asked how she ‘made it’. The thing that stuck in my mind all these years is when she answered “It’s like you’re a hamster running on a wheel, just going and going, going to auditions here, interviews there, more auditions, more meetings. You just keep on going on and on. Then one day it all falls into place. You get that part or that record deal, and it goes from there.”

At the moment, we’re the hamsters on the wheel. I never knew I could have so much patience. 

When you’ve had a taste of the life that you’re working towards, you know what’s coming (well to a degree, because experience has proven you never really know what will happen). And you can’t help but compare that life to this.

That life is employing more than 60 people in Yerevan; working hard but loving every minute of it; full of excitement and doing what you think you were put on this earth to do (ie The Dream); being able to help more people than we ever imagined…the list goes on.

This is where we refer to ‘sliding doors’, in reference to the movie. Just by one event (telephone call/email/meeting/one decision) the direction of your situation/life can change.

Reminds me how my husband and I met, but that’s a whole other story…

The highs and lows

"It’s easy to be positive when things are good, but when things are hard – that’s when you need to remain positive." 

I read this quote somewhere not long ago. 

While working towards our dream we’ve gone through many hills and valleys. So many ups and downs, highs and lows.

We recently had a high followed by a low, and to be honest it rocked me. Not in the ‘he rocked my world’ type of way, but in the way when you stumble for a moment, almost fall, only to straighten yourself and keep going.

When you believe in something so much, when you know that God will make a way where there is no way, you can’t help but put all your hope into an opportunity that presents itself. 

We recently spent a month working on an updated business plan for Yerevan United FC. The excitement it created was reminiscent of 2004, and thrilling to say the least.

The near-sleepless nights, the research to gather current figures and facts, the putting your dream into words so that others (namely potential investors) can comprehend just exactly what it is that you’re so excited about – we relived it all.

Then there’s the excited talk about the possibilities about what may be. When your focus is so much on the possibilities, you tend to forget reality, and that I think was my biggest mistake.

Although I kept saying “It could go one way or the other, we just don’t know.” I know now that in my heart I 100% believed in a positive outcome.

And after it didn’t come (well it hasn’t come yet, I’m still hopeful J) I was a little shattered.

But now I’ve regained my balance and dusted myself off, I’m back on track, still with a heart full of hope, still the woman behind the amazing man.

At the moment my husband paces around like a caged lion, eager to pounce into action, to go back and re-start what he was put on this earth to do. To quote him: “Faith and Patience”. 

Last night we received an email from a dear friend in Yerevan who, out of the blue, met a Councillor from England who knows Yerevan United FC, and was very excited that said friend is good friends with the President of Yerevan United FC (ie, my husband). The Councillor eagerly provided all his contact details to said friend, so they could be forwarded to us. Surprisingly, he’s not Armenian.  

God will make a way where there is no way.

Life's good

You know that feeling when things just fall into place, and you are happy not just about one thing, but a few things and things in general? That’s where I’m at right now.

 I have just embarked on a Diploma of Publishing (Professional editing, proofreading and publishing), that I have wanted to do for years. I know this is so right for me, because I get excited when I’m studying lol.

We’ve just spent a week trying to fix our PC, to find out it was the graphic card that needed replacing. So all is now fixed and we’re ready for a very busy and exciting week.

I’ve also been getting involved in my online communities more, after all is said and done when you’re working/studying from home you can end up feeling a little isolated.

We’ve gradually done some adjustments and updates to Blanky4me.com which I’m happy about. One of them is cutting out product and categories to get back to why we started in the first place – making personalised blankets.

When it comes to our dream….well I’m not so frustrated anymore, at the moment anyway. Because I know if it’s meant to happen it will and it’s about the whole journey, not just getting there. So I’m enjoying the journey. This last week we finally hooked up on Skype with a very dear friend who lives in Armenia. I am so excited about this because just seeing him on the screen and chatting reminds us a lot of Armenia and makes it seem more real.

Struggling to express

If you get me talking about Armenia, I won't stop. And if you try to tell me things about Armenia that aren't true, I'll tell you straight how it really is - that's what comes from living there for six months.

Unless you've really been there, or even lived there, you really have no idea how much it can move you, how it can imbed itself in your heart, so deep that you can never remove it.

These days, living away from Armenia, I struggle to express my passion in writing. But, oh, when we lived there - I took a notebook everywhere because words would poor into my mind and out my pen a hundred miles an hour. And when I'd get back to my computer, my finger tips would hardly touch the keyboard as sentences seemed to put themselves together - as if Mother Armenia herself was writing through me.

A funny thing happened last night. We were at Carols at the kids school. I went to buy some things for the kids and spoke using as much Armenian as I know - the stall holders were baffled and couldn't quite believe their ears. I couldn't help but shrug and think - we're at an Armenian school function - where else are we going to speak Armenian at a function?!

If you want to feel truly Armenian, the only place on this Godly earth that you can is in Armenia, where you breath the air and gaze over the Great Mt Ararat as Armenians did 3000 years ago. You walk on the soil where Armenians fought, lived and died. Where you're amoungst Bibilical history that rivals Jerusalem (the Garden of Eden and Noah's Ark are both said to be in Armenia).

...and the dream continues...

I always love talking with my husband. Especially when it's about our future, our dream. It's also the thing I miss the most when we're apart. We can talk for hours non-stop, about our plans, business, the kids, travelling....anything really. On our first date 18 years ago we were together until 2am talking.

So last night we were talking about our dream and plans. We made an approximate date for moving next year, a goal to work towards.
The Hovivian Foundation has now been started, which is really exciting, even if the projects don't get started for another year or two, it's started.

When you dream about something for years, and then you begin to get prepared to fullfill the dream it is one of the most exciting feelings.

Chocolate - Armenian style

There was a report on the local TV station news here during the week - one that had our family going "ssshhhhh" and turning up the volume.
Last weekend the Guinness World Records certified that the largest bar of chocolate was created by the Grand Candy Factory in Yerevan, Armenia!

The bar of dark chocolate was made with cocoa beans from the African nation of Ghana. It weighs 9,702-pounds, and measures 224 inches long, 110 inches wide and 10 inches thick.

The chocolate will be served to the public next month!

I've been to a Grand Candy store in Yerevan - they're really great and their Armenian Delight (as opposed to Turkish Delight, which is a copy) is absolutely delicious!

Totally obsessed

Goals are such flimsy things. They can be made easily, and just as easily forgotten. I had a goal when I was a child, to be as tall as my 6ft brother, much to my parents dismay (it would be harder to marry off a very tall daughter!). I spent many days measuring myself and stretching so I could reach my goal.

I’m the type of person that writes down goals. I read somewhere that it helps to make them happen if you write them down (they appear less flimsy that way). So as you walk through our home you will see goal notes on the walls. The one I have in the kitchen reads “10 kgs in 20 weeks, by August 28”. I wrote that goal 18 weeks ago, when, after having baby #4 I felt I was ready to start my weight loss schedule again.

I have been successful before with loosing weight after having babies. After #1 I took my time, was casual about it and didn’t have a definite goal. After baby #2 I was slightly obsessed with losing weight and being fit again, so six weeks after giving birth I began my journey, with the goal to lose it by our son’s christening, six months later. I achieved this and got quite obsessed by it in the last few kilos. By husband actually suggested that “that’s enough weight loss now.”

Come along baby #3 and I was so eager for my six week check up to get the go ahead with getting back to my weight loss and fitness. I didn’t have a goal this time and it took 15 months after the birth to get back to my usual self. To lose those last few kilos again I had to be obsessed. But I managed it, and then got pregnant again!

So now I’m up to post baby #4, which is our last baby. I asked the physio in the hospital (after giving birth) exactly when can I start exercising! Now, I’m two weeks away from my deadline. My weight has been dropping off, I’m on my way, despite a few slip-ups and not finding the time to exercise until recently when I decided to put myself first (as a mother that is so hard to do!). The past week I have been obsessed about it, so I guess that means I’m going to reach my goal.

There is no doubt in my mind what my obsession to be fit, slim and healthy is due to. Besides wanting to live a long active life, I have a fear of being overweight/obese like my mother and sister. At the age of 18 I went to the doctor in full health just to ask her what could I do so I don’t end up overweight. She advised exercise and a healthy diet. 

I never did reach my goal to be as tall as my brother, but I think that has more to do with it being out of my control!