Merry Christmas (letter)

Dear friends,

What a year it’s been. Welcome to the first (and possibly only) edition of our annual Christmas letter. It’s been such a big year for us, full of so many changes, we thought it would be prudent to try to sum it up for those of you that haven’t been able to keep track.

As you’re likely aware, we sold our sweet little house in Regina and moved back to Victoria at the end of March. We always knew Saskatchewan was a 3-5 year plan for us, but that didn’t make the transition any less difficult. We left behind incredible friends, a greater community than we could have ever dreamed of, and the best coffee shop. We were back in April to see Jeff and Kim get married, and are hoping to make it back for a visit in 2019.

My mom graciously let us stay with her for 8 long months while we got settled and looked for a place of our own. With three adults and one bathroom, it was hard, but we persevered and are the stronger for it.

When we sold our house in Regina the only thing we knew for certain was that my mom would take us in. We had no jobs or childcare lined up, just the faith that Victoria was our next destination and the hope that God would provide so we could hit the ground running. And that we did. We had childcare and jobs lined up before the UHaul was even loaded.

Karl and I each have good jobs. We’re lucky enough to have dear friends watching our kids during the week.

If you’re a little behind, you might not know that we recently bought a home with my dad. We are now the proud owners of half a pink duplex in beautiful Sidney by the sea. Dad is living in the main level suite, while us Mortons mostly occupy the upper level. The house needed some work done to make it livable and hygienic, but the bulk of it is scheduled for completion right before Christmas. As you read this (likely in the new year, let’s be honest) we will be done all the renovations that I naively thought could be completed in two weeks.

The kids are doing great. Parker never stops talking and is so curious about the world around him. He wants to know everything, and has a great imagination. Molly is incredibly sweet, but also becoming very strong willed. They have both done so well with all the changes of the last year and totally exceeded our expectations of them.

We’ve settled back into life in Victoria and have found a new church, new community, and reconnected with old friends. It’s so good being close to family again, and the kids absolutely adore seeing their grandparents regularly.

We accomplished a lot this year. Moving, starting new jobs, putting the kids in daycare, and doing a renovation are all big things. We’re also currently navigating through some serious health issues in the family. While I’m not sure we’ll be sorry to see the other side of 2018, it was a big year for us. We grew, we stretched, and Karl and I got our first ever night away from our kids.

We did not do a great job at keeping in touch this year. We’re sorry. You’re important to us, we just got overextended.

Please consider this your formal invitation to come over for dinner in 2019. If you’re from out of town, bring your pajamas and spend the night. We don’t have a proper guest room anymore, but our laundry room fits an air mattress quite nicely and we promise to make it cozy for you. You’re also welcome to bunk with Parker, who transitioned into a double bed this year and would love to tell you about dump trucks as you fall asleep next to him.

Merry Christmas, friends. We hope 2019 brings you much joy and happiness. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. We’d be nothing without you.

Anna

If you're still here, as always, thanks for sticking around.

My kids are currently eating popcorn and I'm introducing Parker to The Santa Clause. My tree may be coming down tonight as part of our roaring New Year's party, (I also plan on binge watching Travelers and eating Oreos in my sweat pants) but we'll finish the season strong with Tim Allen in a fat suit, just like Jesus always liked to.

Living on a prayer.

Hi.

I am not crying over boiled potatoes anymore. Today. As much. The potatoes were edible, for the record, but I'm not sure I would go through the process again.

I am feeling so much more grounded and in routine than I was a month and a half ago. We can throw lunches together in less than half an hour now. We all have clothes that are fit and are seasonally appropriate. I took two naps this weekend. Things have improved greatly.

This season of life still ranks fairly high on the crappy scale, but we're getting there. My job is okay, Karl's job is okay, the kids do well at daycare, and we found a church to call home.

We also got approved for a mortgage earlier than expected, so house hunting has officially begun. It is the slowest, least eventful hunt in existence, but it's a thing. If it were a TV show, no one would watch it. Not even our moms.

Part of the reason that the hunt is so slow is that, while we are looking at houses that cost at least double what our last house cost (this is not an exaggeration), they are not as nice and there aren't a lot of them out there that fit our needs. Everything up until this point fell into place so quickly that I can only keep relying on God and trust that the right house in the right neighbourhood for the right price will come up at the right time.

On that note, I don't think I ever explained on here how quickly and easily everything came together for us these last few months.

We sold our house for a price we were happy with in 6 days in a buyer's market where the average house sells in 64.

Where I was struggling to find appropriate work in Regina, Karl and I both had jobs lines up when we moved to Victoria. He had three offers, and I had multiple interviews and was still receiving interview requests a few weeks after I started my job.

We found childcare. In a centre. For both kids. In an area that isn't too far out of the way. It's painfully expensive but they had room for our kids to start right away. Childcare here is next to impossible to get, particularly in a centre, for siblings, and especially infants. All of those things on their own are huge challenges and, somehow, we got in. People are on waitlists before their kids are even born. It took us less than 45 days. I contacted over 60 places and have the colour coded spreadsheet to prove it.

We got approved for a mortgage a few weeks ago. I've been at my job for two months. I have a six month probation period and, due to the nature of Karl's work, one mortgage broker told us it could be two years before we got approved.

God provided.

I have an opportunity coming up this week that I have been waiting on for over two years. Had it come four months ago, I would have said yes in a heartbeat. Now, though, it looks like I'll likely have to turn it down. This is really hard.

We're going through some things with Molly that we didn't with Parker and, while I've been mostly okay with it in the past, it's starting to get to me. It's hard.

Parker and I have been struggling lately, too. I'm not his favourite person (he's obsessed with my mom) and I'm okay with that. He's little, he's allowed to go through phazes and have preferences. Today Parker and I had a big fight (don't judge me, I parented and he pushed back) and it was really really difficult. In the end, though, it had the sweetest resolution. Parenting can be awful and hard and so unrewarding, but today it paid off.

I know sporadic, kind of downer updates like this aren't why people like reading blogs. Believe it or not, I started out with the intention of talking about a show on Netflix that destroyed me. Then I realized that I needed to give a proper update.

I'm doing okay. We're doing okay. It feels like we have a lot going on and pretty much nothing at the same time. I know that's weird. My mom's out of town tonight and Karl and I joked about having a party with all our friends over. Then we laughed and laughed and did housework instead.

I'll be back. I promise. I've got one more serious post rolling around in my head, but I also have a burning desire to share with you the inane and interesting thoughts going on in my head.

You guys, we're halfway to Christmas. We're halfway there. This year of chaos is halfway there.

Crying over boiled potatoes.

I have been busy. So utterly, agonizingly busy. This move has not been very easy, not that I ever expected it would be, but that doesn't mean it has been anything short of Hard.

The transition of moving to a new city, leaving our beautiful home, friends, church, and established routine and life is difficult. As is starting new jobs, no matter how much Karl and I both enjoy them. For me, in particular, not having worked full time in nearly three years makes it even more of an adjustment. Living in another person's home is also very difficult, even when they are incredibly accommodating. 

It's all just really hard. 

I've got a draft post from March 20 that was meant to be about our trip to Victoria and back before the big move. I got as far as the title before packing took me away. It hasn't slowed down since.

Getting into the new groove means that I'm up at 6 or 6:30 and do not stop until 8:30 or 9 at night. Get ready for work, get the kids ready, go to daycare, go to work, work, take an inconsistent lunch break, come home, make and eat supper, spend an hour with the kids, throw a load of laundry in, put the kids to bed, make lunches, then collapse on the couch for 44 minutes if I'm not too tired.

Our weekends have consisted of unpacking, a quick trip back to Regina for a wedding, or shopping for groceries and clothes. I realized after my first week of work that I needed to buy a new work wardrobe. This is not as fun as it sounds. It took me two Saturdays to feel like I finally have enough professional clothes to get me through a full week of wearing items that fit my large and in charge mom bod. The seasons have also changed here, and not only did I need to get summer clothes for the kids, but Parker can't wear pajamas all day every day anymore so he needed enough jeans to last between laundry days. I am haemorrhaging money.

Today Karl brought my attention to a large bag of potatoes in the pantry that was slowly starting to spoil. Thanks to extensive googling, I decided to brave new territory and boil then freeze them. We started the process as Molly went down for her nap and Parker was getting ready for his. Molly decided to wake up just as I was turning the potatoes on to boil. Calamity and miscommunication ensued, and the lid to the pot I was boiling didn't get put on and there wasn't enough water in it.

What I'd thought was going to be a 30-45 minute chore was suddenly taking over an hour and a half. I'd been planning to spend the remainder of naptime reading my book, having a snack, and enjoying some blissful, long sought after time to myself. Those plans were gone, and I stood in the kitchen and ugly cried over our mess of dishes and improperly cooked potatoes.

I didn't think I had many idols in my life until recently, and today in particular was like a large pink neon arrow pointing right at mine. My comfort, specifically time to myself and the order of my home are huge idols in my life. I do not feel calm and rested living in the state of chaos we live in. Our stuff is everywhere. I do not feel complete without my quiet time to myself every day, time that I used to spend reading or catching up on shows. I resent everything that gets in the way of those two things in my life. And, well, right now that's everything. 

Right now, life is busy. We don't have a great routine, we don't have much space of our own, and it feels like we sprint from moment to moment because there is so much to get done. But crying over boiled potatoes is not the way I should be living my life. I hate it when, in the middle of my grand pity party, I get told I'm wrong. 

What's the expression? Shape up or ship out? Part of me wishes we could ship back to the comfort of six months ago, but I know that's not our role right now. I'm also not moving provinces again if I can ever help it. So, if you need me, I'll be eating boiled freezer potatoes for the next few weeks, and figuring out how to better manage my time and change my expectations. I'll also be working on putting my comfort where it should be.

An update on our current state of chaos.

Things have happened since I last checked in.

We sold our house. In six days. In a market where the average house is listed for 64 days. We were so surprised when the offer came in and it wasn't a low ball. It was absolutely an answer to prayer. While on the job hunt at the end of January, I prayed that I wouldn't get the job I wanted if the house was going to sell in February. Against all odds it did and, if you'll recall, I bombed that interview in spectacular fashion.

We weren't completely prepared for what selling our house in a week would mean. We are so grateful that we didn't have to keep it on the market for long. Even though it was, in a way, easier to keep the house pristine than just normal level of tidy, it was still exhausting.

Going into this, we knew we didn't want to move in winter. Four years ago, we moved out here in the middle of a very long, cold winter, and it was brutal. I'm not sure what the rest of the continent is like, but we are still in full winter mode here. It might not be -40 anymore, but we did get 35 cm of snow this weekend and people are still digging themselves out. 

Now that we've finished the uncertain phase of selling the house, we get to enter the next one, which is almost more uncertain. Initially I had dreamed of moving straight from this house into a new one in Victoria. Bless my daydreaming soul, but that isn't our reality. 

Karl and I aren't transferring jobs or moving because we've been recruited (like last time), we're going in with nothing. That means that we're not able to qualify for a mortgage until we've at least both got jobs, so we're going to be staying with my mom for an indeterminate amount of time. She has lots of bedrooms, but only one bathroom so you can pray for us if you think about it. And pray that no one gets food poisoning.

On the job front, Karl already has a couple offers and is set to start working a couple days after we arrive. I've got an interview already lined up for next week, and a couple other positions I've applied for that I suspect I'll hear back from. Hopefully the job market in Victoria isn't as brutal as the one here. We also have a few childcare options to interview next week. The thing is, if we don't find childcare before I find a job, because Karl already has a job, I'll be turning down any potential offers until something gets lined up. Kids are such liabilities.

Can we talk about the extreme stress of finding childcare? Never mind leaving your kids with complete strangers that you know next to nothing about, it's going to cost us at least 50% more in Victoria than it would in Regina to have two kids in daycare. It's in such high demand there, too, that I emailed over 70 providers in the last few weeks, and heard back from maybe half a dozen of them that they might have room. Factor in some negative reviews I got on a few of them, and we're interviewing two places this week, maybe three. Pray for no secret sociopaths.

We'll be doing the move in two trips because we're fun like that. The first trip is going to be really short. It'll take longer to get there than we'll actually be there. We'll be towing Karl's Mustang, bringing as much stuff as we can, and interviewing/being interviewed out the wazoo. After that we turn and burn, come back to pack up the house, say our final goodbyes, and leave before the Easter long weekend. Pray for no more blizzards. And that we can get the car out of the garage.

When we're not battling colds, I've been slowly packing up the house. It's a weird thing to pack up in phases. We packed some things before we listed the house that we knew we wouldn't need for several months. Now we're packing things and labelling them to go in storage until we get into our own house, or to go to my mom's house with us. Some will get unpacked, some will hang out in her basement. Is it weird how much I'm going to miss my pots and pans? And coffee mugs? And food processor? And blender? I have attachment issues to my kitchen gear.

While I may be sentimental about my small appliances, I'm surprisingly not about a lot of other things. We've sold our couches, are getting rid of most of our dressers, and are trying to sell our bed frame. And the house. I love this house so much, but I'm finding myself less sentimental about it than I expected. Sure, it's our first house, we brought our babies home from the hospital here, and made a lot of memories here, but it's just a bunch of walls and a really nice roof. We'll see how I feel when we say our last goodbye, but I got more emotional last week after my final appointment with the doctor that delivered our kids and saying goodbye to him (not pregnant) than I do thinking about leaving this house.

So here we go. Our year of chaos 2.0 continues.

Somebody pass the manna (oo-na-na)

I had an interview last week. It was in an area that I've never worked in before and a change I was up for. While the pay wasn't stellar ($0.03 less than the job I turned down the week before), it was a part time gig so I could overlook that. If you're completely confused by my reasoning I can't blame you. When you have kids, they make things complicated. Of course I could have worked that full time job because the experience was great and it was in an area that I get excited about. It just wasn't exciting enough to take me away full time from my kids and everything else going on right now.

I put on a nice dress and dropped the kids off with the sitter. I had almost 15 minutes to get to my interview five minutes away. I was cruising and living my best life. Then I had to cross some train tracks which just so happened to have a train on them. A train that slowed down and stopped right in front of me. I called the woman that was interviewing me, only to get an out of office that she was sick. I tried, I really did, but by the time I found another number to call the train was moving and I was two minutes away.

I think there are a few ways to really blow an interview, and showing up five minutes late is definitely one of them. I was lucky and they were really understanding (do trains fall under "act of God"?) so we moved past it.

Not to toot my own horn, but the interview went really well. I think I might have been made for the position. Everything the company stands for sounded good to me. It was like a match made in employment heaven. I charmed them, they charmed me, we now have a group text going where we send witty GIFs.

Just kidding, I don't know how to group text.

So aside from being tardy, I slayed that interview. I knew they were going to hire me. I put on my coat and we shook hands and said our farewells and did the obligatory casual post-interview chit chat.

"So, what are you up to for the rest of the day?"

I wasn't ready for it. I should have been. Everyone always asks. They need to kill any potential awkward silence as you leave and do a last minute psychopath check. They're trying to catch you off guard and delve deeper into who you are. They're no longer your interviewers, they're just Steve and Diane and Steve and Diane are just being friendly and you tell Steve and Diane what you're doing.

"Just going home to clean the house to get ready to sell." ABORT! ABORT! (That was my filter, kicking in a little late.)

"Oh, are you moving in Regina?" Still calm, still doing the psychopath check.

"Um... Well..." And that was it. I ruined everything. No more group texts. No more funny GIFs. No more future with the company and climbing the corporate ladder all the way to the presidency because you, my friend, have officially bombed your interview.

The thing is, that 2018 is another year of chaos because we're moving back to B.C. Last week was utter insanity because our realtors, the day before I turned down that job, told me that, in this market, it's a good time to list our house. So I spent the whole week scrubbing and packing and organizing and wondering how on earth my children have accumulated so many toys.

When we contacted our realtors we gave them a large window of time that we wanted to list in. We weren't in a rush, we just wanted to get the most value out of our home as possible. So when they said to list and it was right in the middle of my job hunt we said okay and made sure we had plenty of Tylenol on hand for our tension headaches.

I cried the whole way home from my interview. If we hadn't had an established timeline for listing I wouldn't have said anything, but I was glad it was out there. I had been feeling a lot of guilt about keeping it secret. Even working for a few months can make a big difference, and we honestly thought we'd be looking at an April list date. That's lots of time to work, wait for the house to sell, then close. I'd been looking for jobs since November so I'd always assumed I'd be committing to around six months of work.

I've given up. I'm not meant to work in Saskatchewan anymore and I have a lot of peace about it. I did hear back from the job, and they told me that if our plans change and we don't move to give them a call because they'd love to have me. Then we bonded on the phone over migraine cures and now have a meme email chain going so the whole thing wasn't a total loss.

I prayed before going into my interview that I wouldn't get the job if our house was going to sell in February. Time will tell if that prayer was answered, but I'm confident that my job right now is to stay home with the kids, host as many play dates for my mom group as I can, and get this household ready to go to the promised land. If me not working means that we have to subsist on manna in the process, well at least we're getting biblical.

I've decided, though, that I'm not a stay at home mom. I don't think that's a title that really fits me. Under different circumstances you could probably call me a home maker. Except, well, I'm packing everything up. I've taken all our pictures off the walls already and made our house feel so much less like our own in order to get it sale ready. So ladies, lock up your books, knickknacks, and family pictures, because I'm a home wrecker and I'm on a mission.

My future on television

So you know I've been in a music video before but maybe what you didn't know is that I've also been on Much Music. No big thing, but when I was 14 or 15 they did this event called Much Does Victoria and the singer from one of the bands jumped off the stage into the crowd and walked right by me while the camera was rolling. So 15 minutes of fame? Try 15 nanoseconds, but it was totally aired all over the country.

Me, as seen on TV. Sans keyboard.

And now, my audition tape for a spot as the new Ellen.

This was take two and a half. The first one and a half were done a couple days ago, right before company came and the kitchen didn't look as lived in. Then Larissa was all, let's put you in the video. So I wore my new sweater and curled my hair which promptly deflated in the rain but whatever. I then proceeded to walk like I have a stick up my butt and look way too cool for school. Me vs the camera is always me looking like I am deeply uncomfortable. But that just might be me all the time, keeping it real.

We have new curtains for the bedroom sitting in a bag by our front door. They'll go up this week. Same with the real shower curtain for the guest bathroom. I forgot to show off our new closet curtains in the bedroom. They were dark brown and super drapey, thus making the room tiny and dark, Two sets of new curtains and painted nightstands make everything brighter.

And when I said our basement reno went really well and was easy and not a challenge you might not have caught the sarcasm in my voice. But it was there. And our basement is done and looks nice and will look even nicer when it's not empty. And there's no towel rack in the bathroom down there. Clearly the people who owned this house before us were big on air drying.

But that couch? And that bowl with cupcakes? Home Sense for the win. I would gush about them, but just know we scored that $499 couch for $370 and that bowl was only $12.99 and it fits three dozen cupcakes AND my head. Just not at the same time. 

And just for a refresher, here is the tour of our Victoria basement suite and the place we rented before we bought our house. 

Coming back

My goal to blog once a week this summer kind of fell flat after we got back from California. To be fair, though, a week after I wrote that post we were pretty much back in Regina and summer was promptly over. Except for last weekend, which was glorious, but now it's pushing -1 and I actually dug out my mittens for the drive to work tomorrow. So there's that.

Our trip home was so good and so full. And I had only two surprisingly emotional moments the whole time. And by that I mean there were only two occasions where I nearly lost it.

After a very long day on the way out and missing two ferries due to road accidents and traffic, we got to Victoria an hour after anticipated. I was exhausted, and driving to my mom's house and down the familiar streets I started getting choked up. It's not my neighbourhood anymore. Those streets aren't mine anymore. I'm not going for painfully slow jogs on those hills anymore. Sure, the ugly eggplant coloured house still looks the same and the people at the end of Mom's street are still (how many years later?) painting their siding, but it's not my neighbourhood anymore. Because I live 2000 km away.

And that was a lot to take in.

The other tough moment for me was walking into our church in Victoria. We'd only been going there about eight months before we moved to Regina so it was never the home that the church we grew up in and got married in was. Most of our friends go somewhere else. But when we walked into that church that Sunday morning, 11 hours after getting back from California, it was only about 30 seconds before I was attacked from behind and given a huge hug from one of our good friends. And that made me feel all the feelings.

The drive back to Regina was surreal. We stopped in Swalwell and spent the day with the family, then headed east to Saskatchewan. It felt like a backwards holiday, but as soon as we got into town it was very real. And, yeah, I cried, because Regina isn't home and it feels less like my neighbourhood than the one we used to live in in Victoria. Because at least I can find my way around the old neighbourhood without having to look at Google maps.

But home is where your family is, and Karl is in Regina, and, following that, I think home is where your bed is. And I am in love with my bed. And now that the duvet's on it's kind of like all the good things are all together at once.

The week back was frustrating and crazy. I had vacation brain at work all week and even went so far as to delete meeting minutes I was supposed to send to the whole staff. We also had to paint our entire basement (thus saving us over $800 off of our reno) and that was a whole new level of hair pulling frustration due to a contractor that doesn't communicate as well as we'd hoped. And painting. Because painting always sounds so easy and relaxing but after six hours of it on a Friday night you need to do the dishes to mentally slow down until 1 a.m. Because painting will damage you. So. much. spun. cotton. 

Sunday morning came around, though, and it was glorious. I had breakfast on the deck, then our church had a bbq, and later we invited the neighbours over for a drink on the deck. It was kind of the perfect way to end a hard week.

As we were sitting in church I knew, again, that God brought us to Saskatchewan for a reason. As much as I don't love Regina, I've never really doubted that this is where we're supposed to be right now. We're not thriving like some people would, and I'm so glad we have a house to keep us busy, but we're simple folk and I'm glad that regrets aren't part of this package.

And you know what? In less than 48 hours we're going to be those people with a separate living room and T.V. room. And that just doesn't happen in Victoria for people like us.

I'm looking forward to having you over for a visit in our living room. The pumpkin scones will be just coming out of the oven when you show up.

Hats are very trendy this year.

My mom is here right now. Kind of. She's a few hours away visiting family and the farm, but she's back tomorrow. She got here late Saturday night thanks to a bird that hit her plane several hours earlier. No word on whether the plane was flying at the time of encounter, but paperwork is paperwork.

Mom and I came out to Regina for my Grandpa's 80th birthday almost seven years ago. Grandpa wanted top take me to the RCMP museum but I wasn't interested. Later on Mom told me that he'd really wanted to go with me. Grandpa died quite suddenly about nine months later. I know it doesn't make any difference now, but when we moved to Regina I wanted to make sure we went to the museum. You know, for Grandpa and to see what the fuss was about.

We went over Easter with the Alberta Mortons. So this post has clearly been a long while coming.

My sister in law is a relatively new Canadian and she has a huge appreciation for museums and Canadian history. She was a natural choice to accompany us to the museum. And I guess my brother in law was down with it, too. Karl and my nephew came, too. Some unedited cellphone pictures were clearly in order to commemorate the occasion.

I can't remember what this nautical steering wheel has to with Mounties, but if it's there I'll steer it.

Karl isn't big into history or museums, but this horse wowed all of us.

Yes, that's a real horse. Once upon a time, Nero was a living, breathing, black horse. Now he's a stuffed, standing, brown horse that died at least 50 years ago. Clearly he was a favourite. I took about a million pictures of him. 

Mountie Karl.

Mountie me.

Mountie Natalie.

And obviously the best Mountie yet, Mountie Michael. He even has that whimsical look down.

In case you're wondering, I will be changing my career again shortly to enter Depot and become an RCMP officer. I mean, to not enter would be a wasted opportunity. Regina is where all the RCMP in the world get trained, after all.

Natalie is also a much better Canadian than I am.

This is the official Mountie pose. Because Canadians are very friendly.

Family photos are the best. Especially when they're in uniform.

Nero, we salute you.

Now that I've shown you the highlights you really have to come visit us to see the rest for yourself.

I could DIE.

Today was a big day in our lives in Regina. Big. Huge. Collosus. So big that I don't even think I can tell you in words how monumentally life changing it was. But I'll try because I've come this far already.

Today was the day that things started turning green.

Yes! You read that right. While the blossoms were peeking out right around January 1st at home, today was the first day the grass decided to show a little colour other than brown here in the elbow of Saskatchewan (not to be confused with Elbow, Saskatchewan, where my grandfather was born).

We had a lot of rain yesterday. I practically salivated over all the non-fluffy condensation. Rain. It's a west coaster's original love and hate relationship. We hate it because dang it never goes away and we reallllly wanted to have a BBQ this weekend, but we love it because it keeps everything so lush, so fresh, and it almost never turns into snow because it's so balmy all year round. Displaced west coasters yearn for rain like addicts crave their next hits. Yep, yesterday had some gooood stuff. It did not disappoint.

I asked one of my co-workers if she thought the rain would turn things green, but she was sceptical, saying that it would need to be warmer. Well, joke's on her because I, like every good west coaster, know that it doesn't take much rain to rejuvenate the world and bring forth the new hope of GREEN.

I had a grumpy morning so I decided to go home for lunch and treat myself to a hot chocolate (almond milk, chocolate chips, microwave, frother, boom, you're welcome) which I never do. There's something about a nice day that makes me feel like the world is full of possibilities, so I cranked up my Switchfoot song, rocked my brand new and utterly amazing sunglasses, opened the sun roof, and rocked out half way home. That is, until I saw. Seriously, it was all I could do not to drive my car into the meridian on the highway and roll around in the grass when I saw the bits of green peeking out amidst the brown. I was so giddy I wanted to shriek. (I may or may not have.) I wanted to take at least eight pictures of the grass and Instagram every single one of them.

I wanted someone to be there to share in my heartfelt joy that, holy cow, they weren't lying! Winter does end here eventually. There may be a bit of snow in the forecast for later this week but you can't blow out this green spark once it's lit. It's like a freaking fuse and we're about to ignite in the glory of the warmth and the GREEN. It's like a rebellion and, everyone knows, you can't stop the signal.

It was so green I could DIE.

Part of me wants to take my car shovel (yes, it's a survival tool here in the elbow) and sneak outside tonight to bring in a patch of grass and put it in our dining room. We have the space, and I think it would really cheer things up in here. I'm not sure, though, but our landlord might get fined by the condo association if we get caught. In less than two months, though, I can drink my hot chocolate on my own lawn. Front and back and, oh, I can't imagine it would turn brown by then. Mmm... green...

Sorry, still fantasizing about rolling around in it. I just want to hug it.

One story of commitment, another of backing out.

So. News.

If you follow me on the Instagram or we’re friends on the Facebook you may be able to predict what I’m about to say. No, I’m not wild with child (seriously, people), but something equally as money sucking is going on in our lives. Officially. Team Morton has, as of 1:40 p.m., - wait for it - bought a house. We met the house last Saturday and since then we’ve gone through a mini bidding war, the home inspection, the financing, the getting a loan built in to our mortgage to give it a killer basement reno/new roof, and the deep breathing with our heads between our knees as we realize that, woah, life is mega different than we anticipated six months ago. Can I get an amen?

We’re all set to take over ownership on June 13^th. I anticipate a meteor shower will happen that night right onto our roof because everything’s gone so smoothly up until this point. And our realtor even loved the pumpkin scone I gave him while we closed everything down. So I mean, a house buying and an appreciative audience for my baking? Perfect day off. Well, that and we've got Alberta family visiting for the holiday. I'll be putting on my bunny ears in the morning to make my nephew's first ever Easter memorable to the max. At least for those of us with fully developed adult brains and hand-eye coordination.

Anyway.

Someone put a notice up at my gym offering free massages because she’s a student. Normally, I wouldn’t reply to that kind of thing but a) it’s a women’s only gym and b) my benefits don’t kick in until September and wouldn’t it be so nice to just have to pay a tip and get a free massage? My back shivers with delight just thinking about. So do my aching shoulders. Ah...

So I texted the number and indicated my interest. It didn't take long before I got a response and we back and forthed a little about my availability before she gave me her address and offered to see me the next evening.

The thing is, her address is in The Hood. Yeah, we live in a city with an area commonly referred to as The Hood. I'm not even kidding you.

Regina has a decently high crime and murder rate but something like practically all percent of it takes place in the North Central part of town a.k.a. The Hood. The rest of the city is pretty safe unless you count everyone on the road driving like they stole it and their hair's on fire.

I texted a couple people I knew in the city about whether it was a good idea or not to go there and to verify if it really was The Hood and their responses were pretty much the same: Well, it's up to you, but maybe don't go at night? 

That kind of seals the deal doesn't it? I totally backed out.

So two more months until Karl's benefits kick in and four and a half until mine do (weird, I know) and then I can have some professional work out the shoulder knots without having to carry extra tension in my them the whole time wondering if my car will still have wheels on it when I get out.

On unicorns

Karl and I realized something this weekend: We are unicorn hunters. Kind of. Figuratively. If we saw a real unicorn I think I speak for the two of us when I say we would want it to run free and would do our darndest to point it away from Regina, although I guess there are a lot of fields it could frolic through. Maybe I'd point it to the north where I hear there are a lot of lakes. I bet unicorns like lakes. When it's sunny they could all sparkle together, but not like vampires because cannibalism isn't very nice. Unicorns, like arcs of the covenant, should not be in museums, Dr. Jones.

Anyway, Karl and I realized on Saturday that we're chasing this figurative unicorn called "Lazy Saturday." We've officially been here a month and we keep thinking that we're going to spend our Saturdays relaxing, being lazy, and doing whatever we want, much like we used to on the island. It's weird, even though there's more sun here I'm pretty sure the days are shorter in the sense that the clocks move a lot faster because holy cow there is never enough time for anything. Especially laundry, but I guess the world's dinkiest machine might have something to blame for that. I have two towels and four face cloths in there right now and I'm worried I've overfilled it. Can you even wrap your head around that? Maybe it's a safety feature, because I definitely know people who have gotten stuck in the dryer before (could be easily confused with a front-loading washer) and I'm confident my four month old nephew couldn't fit in there. His cheeks would definitely get stuck on the threshold. What use is an extremely energy efficient washing machine if you need to do four times as much laundry to get anything done?

So, time flying. (And, for the record, I'm talking non-work time. Obviously.)

Last week was a challenging week. It rained a lot last week. And then it poured. Figuratively. It was way too cold to rain, so it just snowed because what up, Spring? It's all pretty much sorted now, but things kept coming at us that made me want to crawl into bed with the duvet over my head until Lazy Saturday came along.

Even though last week had its frustrations, there were many high points. Our sister in law and nephew came for four nights to hang out. My brother in law had to go away for work so I invited Natalie and Michael to do the nine hour drive and hang out with us. And they did!

We've never had family aside from our parents geographically close to us and it was really nice to have them as house guests. It was also really, really easy. You wouldn't even have known there was an infant in the house except for when I was trying to fit him in the dishwasher.

After they left on Friday morning I was looking forward to a lazy Saturday. The morning was going to consists of Karl giving blood while I supportively drank juice and ate cookies on the sidelines (I'm stocking up on iron for our next visit) then we were going to look at houses in the afternoon.

Giving blood took longer than anticipated, then we had to go to the bank before rushing across town to look at houses, hitting up Superstore (chocolate!), shopping for a car, getting a flat tire, going to the bank, buying a car, and did I mention that my mom's cousin and his girlfriend were in town and called me while we were at the blood clinic?

Anyway, we were out from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. when we came home and had lunch. We would have died without our trip to Superstore and the mammoth chocolate bar we consumed.

As we were sitting in Applebee's with my mom's cousin and his girlfriend at 10 o'clock at night, and I realized I would not be watching a movie that evening as part of the Lazy Saturday agenda because I was about to fall asleep on the table, I felt really content. There's something nice about having people that will randomly show up in town and want to hang out, not because you know them really well, but because they're family. And they didn't have to call us and let us know they were in town, either. They wanted to.

While we don't have any friends yet (frankly, I'm not sure how we'd make time for them) and we're still chasing our Lazy Saturday unicorn, one thing that Regina has brought is the opportunity to have family around us, even if they live several hours away from us. And it's nice. Not that I don't miss my immediate family back home, but it's nice to experience what a lot of other people have. Family.

And, in case you're wondering, we had our most relaxed Sunday yet. Instead of having the usual meltdown in the grocery store (WHY DON'T THEY HAVE GOAT YOGURT?), like I have every week before, we had a very relaxing time shopping at Superstore of all places (the one at home is so dirty I can't even look at their produce) and were home by 12:30 after going to church AND Home Sense, too. Boom. And it was good.

I've got your back.

One of the joys of living in a new city is that there are very few things to distract me from blogging, like friends and social events. Aside from the six days of work I had this week, sleep, trying to find a grocery store that sells Earth Balance squares, and the multiple trips to Costco that are apparently inevitable when you move provinces.

We just wrapped up a big week at work that started on Sunday with a conference we were putting on. Come Wednesday morning everyone in the office was scratching their heads trying to figure out why their brains said it was Friday but the calendar said it was Wednesday and holy cow, did we really have to keep showing up for two more days? It was all good in the end, though, because you never quite appreciate five o'clock as much as you do when you're stuck in a work related time warp and don't even talk to me about how exciting, nay, giddy I was yesterday when it was FINALLY Friday and I had a hot date with my husband, couch, some leftover spaghetti, and Frozen.

Yeah, we went there. I kept hearing about how Frozen was THE movie to see. "So good! So amazing! Life. Changing." Well, it was entertaining, refreshing (and not just because while they have rather Swedish sounding names I'm pretty sure it was based on life in Regina), and funny, it wasn't alllllll that. I mean, the songs didn't change life my. All they did was make me feel inadequate about my relationship with Karl because we never sing about our feelings to each other. Like, not ever. 

My brother in law is going away for work next week (you know, the Alberta family) so I invited my sister in law to come visit for the week. And she is! And she's even bringing my nephew with her, so score! My first set of multiple house guests (not counting my dad because he is not a multiple, unless you're multiplying by one) in our unpacked, set up place. I wasn't going to clean the bathrooms this weekend because I'm lazy to the core and love to make excuses but I will clean all three toilets and even vacuum the stairs for this occasion. And guess what? If you come stay with me on our open-door guest policy I will do the exact same for you, too!

It was while I was restocking the downstairs bathroom with toilet paper this morning that I realized Karl and I might be in trouble. We used to be the people that had more TP and paper towel than we knew what to do with (okay, I knew what to do with it. I was going to use it to barter for protection come the zombie apocalypse because while we do have a lot of peanut butter and canned beans we don't have any guns or crossbows or any skills with them that we know of and don't even think for a second that toilet paper isn't going to be a luxury item. Especially three-ply Charmin like we're currently stocking. Just like the queen.) but now we're only down to a couple rolls (hello, fourth trip to Costco in a month!) thanks to having three bathrooms that constantly need to be stocked. I am NOT that host that leaves you wanting for TP and hoping there's a stray Kleenex around to save the day. But, in case you're wondering, there is always a box of Kleenex (Puffs, actually, because we are JUST LIKE THE QUEEN) right behind you.

Anyway, even if we're running low on TP, but still doing well with paper towel, thanks for asking, I have a new item to barter come the apocalypse: chocolate chips. Non-dairy chocolate chips, at that. Karl and I hit up Bulk Barn before going to Costco on Wednesday night because I know they carry chocolate chips I can eat and I needed cashews. There's something about the grocery stores here that makes them highly inferior to the ones in B.C. It was also Karl's first trip to Bulk Barn and if you've never been there it's basically Disneyland for fat people because EVERYTHING. The thing is, not everything is a good deal so you have to know your prices, but I knew that cashews and chocolate chips were a good deal (especially since they were both on sale). So I spent $20 on them. 

Cue our trip to Costco and all of a sudden Costco has the 2 kg bag of semi-sweets that don't have any dairy? You do not pass up something that valuable and rare because you just might never see it again. So in case you're wondering, we now have about 10 lbs of chocolate chips. I'll be wheeling and dealing in chocolate chip cookies come the zombie apocalypse. It'll be legendary. I'll be the chocolate chip lady up in Regina and people will QUEST to get here. Just like Atlanta, but less zombies and more chocolate at the finish line.

I also got a library card. Look at me go! I got it with my new Saskatchewan driver's licence in which I actually look good. Why didn't we move to this province years ago? B.C.'s license gave me five o'clock shadow! And as much as I love five o'clock these days, I do not enjoy rocking it on my less than chiselled jaw line.

Anna out.


P.S. Frankenpie was not a flaming failure!

And we do it again.

Here it is, the long awaited sequel to last week's video tour of our first home.

I apologise for focussing too much on the roof you can't see and have no idea why I bothered to point out my laundry basket in such detail. Also... the stairwell down to the garage. Apparently I'm fascinated by it.

One thing I didn't mention that I wish I had is the art on our fridge. It's goodbye art from the kids that were in our wedding. My, my how they grow up. Sniff.

Cheers!

Welcome to the new.

I was planning on posting another video tour, this time of our new place, but it's taking forever to load. I'm thinking it's going to have to be a next weekend thing so I can give it enough to upload. I only have about three hours in the evenings from when I get home to when I get ready for bed these days and apparently that's not quite enough time for my 6+ minute snoozer of a tour to upload to YouTube. (But seriously, am I doing anything wrong? Are there any tricks to uploading videos faster?) I'm also thinking I'll do another take, with natural light this time, before posting it.

I've gotten some pretty positive feedback from that first initial little tour of our place. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but it took me a good three years to get that place somewhere I was really happy with. And then we moved.

It's taken a week to get this new place somewhere I'm happy with. That's growth. And space. About 1400 more square feet of space, actually. I've mentioned it before, but this is just a temporary hitching post for us before we buy our own place her in the flat land. Rent is really expensive, and the mortgage for a place like our current one will be less than rent. That and we really want to own our own place. Because paint.

I know what you're really wondering about is how things are going so far. Well, like I said before, the drive out here was mostly uneventful if a little colder than the North Pole. It would have been way out of Scott Calvin's league. We moved in on the coldest day ever, followed by the second coldest day ever that Sunday, and then four days of snow. It was more snow than home's gotten in the past few years and all for my first week at work. Fabulous.

It wasn't actually too bad, and I learned pretty quickly how to get around in it. Look at me now, world! It's been melting like crazy, though, and the roads are turning into lakes. Mom grew up here, and informed us that she can remember people canoeing down the street back in the '70s. We're not quite there yet, but a few more days above zero and we might be.

I never thought I would say this, but anything warmer than -10° feels downright warm. If one more person says "it's a dry cold" to me, though, I might throw something at them. Like a fit.

I worked four days last week, having Friday off as a chance to get settled. It was necessary and wonderful. Dad was here until Saturday afternoon and he did a ton of unpacking for us. I'm pretty I'd still be looking for dishes in a box if he hadn't been here.

We went to a home church on Saturday night, which basically translates into a Bible study, with the friend of a friend that I'd never actually met in person until then. We went to church with them the next morning and out for lunch at McDonald's afterward. They have kids, we all had coupons, and I can't even tell you the last time I ate a chicken McNugget. Karl was giddy. For his burger, not my chicken McNuggets.

It's been so nice that even though we're mostly on our own here, the connections that we've made have been easy and good. My great uncle hooked Karl up with a job (we're taking them for dinner in a couple weeks as a thank you), Karl's work is looking to hook us up with a good deal on a second car (we are so desperate), and now we have new friends to boot. And it's all happening so fast.

It was also really nice to have a few hours last night to just sit, the two of us, watching a couple episodes of The Walking Dead and just feeling back to normal. Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest from unpacking but I've somehow become the kind of person that enjoys putting things away (NOT moving furniture, though) so I spent the afternoon eating chocolate and putting frames on bookshelves. And Skyping with Mom.

Karl started work today and while it was good, but different, it scratched his itch to get back to fixing cars. He kept telling me he had an itch, I kept telling to have a shower then, and he kept saying it was an itch to fix cars. I don't think I've ever had an itch to send out correspondence or write meeting minutes, so I can tell Karl's really in the right business.

Work's been busy and challenging. Having gone in and met most of the staff during my interview, then coming in for another day three weeks before I started, really helped with the transition and the not puking or fainting on the first day. My hours aren't ideal, but hopefully I'll be able to negotiate them a little because they make for really long days. We're actually putting on a conference next week, so I get to dive right in with crazy overtime and the possibility of no weekend coming up. I get exhausted just thinking about it, but I'm really looking forward to the next time I have a day to just do. what. I. want.

I joined a gym but don't have much time to go to it with the car sharing and driving all over town to get to Karl's work. I've been filling that exercise void by eating a lot of chocolate. And somehow justifying it.

Speaking of eating things, we have a garburator. It eats things. I'm not entirely sure what garburator etiquette is, aside from running the water in while in use, but I've been putting my banana peels down it and watching them spin around and die. Or just spin and imagining them die. That's okay, right? Bananas in garburators? Someone please tell me if I'm breaking the drain. Actually, I'd rather be reassured that I'm not.

And, finally, can I just say how much I appreciate this time change? Before you start hurtling insults my way, know that Saskatchewan doesn't change its time, and now we are no longer two hours ahead of home and one ahead of Alberta. We're right on schedule with Alberta and only an hour ahead of home. While you're all bleary-eyed and cursing the advent of Benjamin Franklin or farmers or whoever invented daylight savings, I'm relishing in the fact that it's only 60 minutes between here and home. Trust me, two hours is huge. Mom and I practically ate dinner together over Skype tonight. Because I ate at 7:30. All I can say is it's a good thing I can't eat pizza because with my late hours we would be eating a lot of it.

It's funny, though. Karl and I spent 99% of our lives in Victoria, but I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. Granted, it's only been a week and a half (whaaaaaaat?) but I feel a real sense of peace about being here. So far. And I've only really cried twice (I have a lot of feelings).

Anyway, that's probably enough from me for one night. I'm off to dream about work. And possibly pizza.

You can leave your shoes on.

When it became clear that Karl and I were moving, I decided to make a little video tour of our first home together. And when I say "when it became clear that Karl and I were moving" what I really mean is that the day before we started packing I finally got on it.

Is this weird? I dunno, but I think it's worth remembering. All 600ish square feet of it.

I'm pretty impressed by my lack of excessive "ums" and moderately steady hand. Less impressive is my loud, nervous gasping as I talk to myself at the beginning. 

Aren't those tulips lovely? My co-workers bought them for me before my last day.

Confession, our closet was usually messier than that. And that's pretty tidy for the laundry room.

I never found the two missing pieces to the puzzle.

There was something like 10 boxes of books.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour. Next time? Another tour.

I'm a survivor.

This is just a quick little post to let you all know that yes, we did indeed make it to our destination. Even with stuff like this going on moving day:

CELCIUS.

And we still have almost all of our toes!

We're halfway there.

If you just started singing Bon Jovi then I think we're on the same wave length today.

We left our home sweet island home at 5:30 yesterday morning to catch the 7 a.m. boat to the continent. Doesn't that make us sound fancy? Boating to the continent and all that.

After a weekend of horrible road conditions (read: avalanches, accidents and road closures), the highways were nice and clear for us on our drive East yesterday. There were a couple times when things were a little less than ideal, but I didn't have to drive on snow or ice until ten minutes away from our destination. We encountered a bit of a snow drift on the highway, which may or may not have led to me getting stuck and Dad saving the day. Karl was in the U-Haul behind us ready to lend a hand if needed. 

We made it, though, and are spending today in Alberta with Christopher, Natalie, and Michael as a bit of a rest day before finishing up out little journey tomorrow morning.

It's going to be stupid cold in Regina tomorrow, but we're hoping that unloading takes less than an hour and goes incredibly smoothly. And then I start work on Monday! Yes, I'm tired just thinking about it.

What I'm really looking forward to is sitting down to dinner tomorrow night in some restaurant, knowing that all our stuff is safely in our garage just waiting to be partially unpacked. (Seriously, the first thing I am  going to go digging for is going to be our Keurig. I'll wear sweatpants on Sunday as long as I can have a coffee that morning.)

For now, though, we're enjoying our little impromptu visit with the Alberta Mortons.

Successing.

No puking, fainting, or yelling at HR departments took place last weekend so I call our trip to Regina and the new office a success. As a side note, we found a place to live and Karl is officially 100% working at a dealership. So boom. Multi successes.

Today's a special day. It's the day I quit my job (or fulfilled my quitting that took place 3 1/2 weeks ago), found out I have no official allergies, ate a cupcake for breakfast (not too unusual but today it felt right), got mocked by a fortune cookie ("A romantic interlude may have to be postponed"), and had to tell Karl that even though he climbed onto the roof of the shed he's using the dang ladder to get down because we have had enough falls and breaks at this house.

Tomorrow we pack.

And that's all I've got at the moment.

We are just too pretty

New life path, new blog look. Fitting, right? The lovely and talented Angi is responsible for the new look. Isn’t it great? Isn't she great? Isn't everything just great?

So we’re going to Regina tomorrow. The purpose of the trip is to find a place to live (terrifying) for the next few months until we can buy our own place. The other side part of the trip is me going into the new office on Monday (Family Day in B.C. but not Saskabush) to get some stuff ready for my real first day at the beginning of March.

I hate first days.

When I flew out for my interview last month I sat in on a staff meeting and then went for lunch with a bunch of people from the office. I think I’ve met everyone at least in passing, and they should all know who I am at this point so at least the ice has been broken. So while Monday’s going to technically be my first day in the office, it’s really just another, this time slightly longer, preview of who I am. Except I’m for sure going to join the team’s proud ranks. My for realsies first day is set for March 3^rd.

That’s a lot of first day potential screw ups.

Oh, you think I’m being dramatic? I have a LONG history of embarrassing myself and getting sick on my first days at work. The worst was when I worked at café and on my first day I fainted and then threw up all over the floor. Then I left them to clean it up while I cried on a downtown street corner in the middle of the day and called my mom to pick me up. They ended up letting me go a couple shifts later. First impressions really do matter, folks.

Whatever, I didn’t want that job anyway. (I really, really did. Okay, the employment, not that actual job. I hate standing all day in super hot and cramped areas.)

Then there was the time a few years before that that I fainted on one of my training shifts at Starbucks. They had to force feed me white chocolate macadamia cookie samples and sips of strawberry frappuccino. Except I ended up working there for nearly two years, so I guess vomitting is the real deal breaker.

On my second day at my current job I had to go home early because my migraine from the night before was kicking my butt way too hard. I'll never forget how unimpressed my manager looked when I begged off to go home and sleep.

And before this? When I started my new position at my last job I ended up missing my second day entirely because of a nasty cold. Fortunately that was the last time I had a cold (April) and I'd at least dragged myself to work the day before. 

So I'm going to go ahead and blame stress for everything, but I like to think I'm a much more balanced individual now. I mean, no migraines since September 10th (boo yeah!), no dairy, more exercise, acupuncture, and more stress, but it's all quite manageable at the moment.

The temptation is to bore you with all the moving details, but I think you'd rather hear about that time I puked and it was embarrassing. Which is good because I have another good story from this past summer that I'm saving for a rainy day. Heads up, it involves a windy car ride. Usually when I puke I like to make it count and have an audience.

But, in case you're dying to know, which I assume some of you might be because, hi, new blog traffic from the link to my announcement I plastered all over the Facebook, we haven't started packing yet. I got rid of eight bags of clothing/shoes (mine and Karl's) plus one bag of random crap at a clothing swap on Tuesday night. I came home with one cardigan which is growth (emotionally and physically because all my friends are now skinnier than me but I think they're all shrinking for realsies) and a bag full of empty reusable bags. Boo yeah, downsizing. I even got rid of five books. That's about five books more than I've gotten rid of in the past five years. I'm a huge book hoarder (as you know) and can't get rid of any of them. I really want to have a room with wall to wall bookshelves completely full, but unfortunately only about two shelves will be anything remotely intellectual and the rest will be Meg Cabot and fantasy novels. Because I am very dynamic.

 I think Karl's packing up some CDs right now, actually, but I wish he wouldn't. I want to box them up with books and I need to have a good sit down with my fine literature and decide what I want to keep (everything), can bear to get rid of (probably nothing else), and what I want Mom to store for me (probably everything I read when I was younger because it was so important in my formative friendless years and what if my kids want to read the same Lowly Worm books I did?) that I know she won't want to.

We've got down coats, though, and I bought a pair of Cougar winter boots.They're so cozy I want to wear them around the house as slippers. We've even booked our U-Haul and Karl's got a really nice looking job lined up. He's going to check the place out on Monday while I'm in the office and decide if he wants to commit. Then he gets to look at an apartment without me and kill a few hours by himself in a strange city where it's so cold outside that he'll die if he has a nap in the car. So exciting! The thrill of the frozen tundra.

Until next time, stay warm out there, and please tell me I'm not the only person who sucks at first days. Or maybe I am, whatever. It's a skill I can put on my resume. Like making attractive Excel spreadsheets.