My dear friends, summer is over and I have missed you all. I missed our monthly newsletter and I have especially missed our usual interactions! We all tried to take advantage of our short but warm summer. And even though this year we were rather taken advantage of by these horrid mosquitoes, I hope you all still had a fabulous time. I personally had a very interesting summer –I experienced an array of extremely mixed emotions – the excitement for joining Remax and gaining more freedom with regards to my business decisions, but absolute and total frustration with technology. I would not consider myself a “technologically challenged” human being, but whatever software or hardware I touched or even ordered failed. I have not been through as many technological challenges in my entire career as I have went through in these past 60 days. To sum it up – my phone and my pager are finally working, but my website is far from being functional. And since my new email address is attached to my website – my email is unreliable and entirely unpredictable. So far I have hired 3 professionals, obviously there must be a glitch in the system as it seems that no one can help me. I would just like to apologize to all of you. If you have tried to reach me and I have not responded to you – it is not intentional.

The best part of my summer was my family. I was truly stressed out with all the uncalled-for challenges I had to face. My husband and two kids proved themselves to be my biggest supporters. I feel like a queen whenever they are around me. While watching, feeling and living my pain, they continuously tried to find a way to ease my situation. I was showered with bowls of fruit, cups of water, from day to night. They took such good care of me (can’t say I appreciated them forcing me to go on walks too much at the moment)...I must be the luckiest woman on this Earth to have such an amazing family. I know there are many couples who choose not to have kids nowadays, and I don’t blame them at all! There are endless reasons not to raise kids in this world- but I can honestly tell you that I could not have it any other way. Yes, kids are a pain. And yes, sometimes you wonder how on Earth you can still possess enough energy to teach them to do the right things in life. There are always times when you nearly lose that last shred of hope that is telling you it is possible to raise decent human beings. But there are those proud moments that bring heaps of hope. Like when my son got accepted to university a couple of days ago, or when he said that I am his role model, or when we had that honest talk that I never thought I could have with my 18 year old boy that’s “too cool for everything”. I realized that he is a smart, analytical man and I should not dare to worry about his future. And there is that friendship and trust between my daughter and me that we have worked so hard on, and there is that admiration I have towards her strengths, her values and her beliefs. She is an incredible girl who learns fast from her life lessons and finds positive side in any situation. We are a small family and they are my world. I admire people who make this hard decision to have kids. It’s a long road where you lose a lot of your freedom, you lose life as you knew it and of course there is financial stress associated with this endeavour; but, it is worth all the trouble in the world. For me, this is the reason I live – to make my best friend/husband happy and to be there in any situation for my favourite son and my favourite daughter.

Even though my immediate family consists only of the four of us, my extended family consists of you friends. There are actually five of you who took the big leap this year and became parents!

My heartfelt congratulations to you and your beautiful, healthy babies! I love you all! Mamma Mira

It took ages for me to create an office that meets all my requirements. It needed to be functional as well as private. I also wanted it to feel “bubbly” and “cozy” so I will enjoy working there. Since I don’t like to sit in a chair it had to provide me with a sitting/floating position still comfy enough to work on my computer. It needed to allow me to multi-task as well as provide a space to relax while checking voicemail and responding to email. It had to have space for my files, my drink (I mean chocolate milk) and my laptop, and I had to have instant access to the water – yes I still struggle with drinking at least 8 glasses of water daily. It was a challenge but I am happy to tell you that I have done it. Welcome to “The Oval Office”!

PS: I do try not to make splashy noises in my office while we are on the phone! And please don’t try this at your home before consulting your electrician and your physician!

Your favourite Aquarius,

Mira