More stuff

We made further changes to the kitchen layout, it looks so good. We picked lighting today, got some gorgeous artisan lights to hang above the peninsula. We will have a mountain view from the front of the house, so nice too. We chose to upgrade to the jacuzzi bath, and the main bath also has a skylight. We have decided on the exterior as well, dark taupe with black and the dark rock front. Two other houses on the street did a similar finish, looks so good. We meet with the builder tomorrow-at least Dave will be here to keep an eye on progress.

We took the kids to Union bar and grill for lunch-very funky, nice menu-lots of artisan type dishes. Blaine met with us for lunch, he's had a bad last few months, but it looks like things are on the upswing now. We wandered a bit up and down the street, lots of artsy shops there, I spent some time in the tea centre, and got a great cobalt teapot, will go great in my new kitchen. I am slowly picking up new stuff for the house, hopefully we will have it all by the time we move in. I never want to leave this place, everyone keeps saying how there is endless stuff to do-it feels a lot like Kingston. Oh yah, and it was +5 today, so the bonuses are obvious. We all swam at the aquatic centre tonight, nice big wave pool and slides.

I do not look forward to going back to the peg for the next spell, we will survive I guess I forgot to mention our holiday open house was so much fun. We stayed up late and ate and talked and just general holiday merriment. It was a great end to the year!

So much to do

We were busy all day, picking out flooring for the whole house, plumbing fixtures, and changes to the kitchen layout. Tomorrow we look at lighting and pick the siding colours. It is so hard to decide quickly, but such is military life. I can truly say that our military friends completely understand the semantics, you know who you are! I would never change being military, the excitement makes up for the hassles, big time. I can't wait for the house to be done! We meet with the builder tomorrow to sum up the plans.

We had dinner with Beth and Adam tonight Silverado's is awesome dining. I had an assortment of seafood-oyster, smoked salmon, scallop and clam as a starter, then pan seared duck, then a butternut squash cheesecake-so fantastic-and the wine pairings were perfect. We had such a nice night, I am so glad they are living here too!

I worked on my course a bit today, lots to do but so interesting. I am glad I have time off to do it. I don't know what I would do if Dave couldn't support us income wise-I would never have the chance to spend time with the kids the same or do courses.

I must go-we are watching superbad of all things.....!

We just bought a house!

We bought a brand new house. New subdivision, we pick the amenities. We go tomorrow to pick floors etc. It was the only option in the end, as there is too much crap on the market, and the prices are high. Small community but tack on a big price tag over the old peg. BUT it is so much nicer than the prairies, hands down. We would still be much less culture shocked had we just come from Kingston mind you. The cultures there and here are far more similar. I do not feel nostalgic about prairie life, I did not miss it the first time, and I am glad to leave again. All our friends who have lived elsewhere concur-there is so much more everywhere but there. I eagerly await the completion of our home!

We and such a nice evening with Jeff and Diane-it was like Erin and Amelia were never apart! The kids had a blast, and we had such good conversation-and they got a great house! It is so nice to be making a connection with the west. i look forward to immersing myself in the culture.....oh and Nick and Relic are here-it is so true! ROFLMAO!!

New year, new post, new life

Well after some mucking about, the blog is up and about again. So much going on in the past while, no time to sit and write. This will also be brief, as any comp time I have needs to be focused on my current course, as it is a bit time consuming, but interesting.

I am done my scheduled shifts at work. What a great bunch I worked with, what a nice job. I had a very nice rotation, and I am honoured to have worked with such a dedicated bunch. I felt so touched to be told that "the good ones always leave" and how much I would be missed, I wish I could have stayed. I am feeling appreciated lately, my old boss from Kingston sent me an email when I said I was not returning(sadly), and in it she said I am an excellent nurse. That is the highest praise I could receive, as she is absolutely my mentor. There is no one professionally whom I aspire to more, so it was very high praise indeed.

We are preparing to stay at a luxury golf resort, this time tomorrow I will be dining in their restaurant looking out over the greens. If we can get sitters, Dave and I will hit the greens together, if not he will do a round on his own. It was a former PGA tour site, so it is one of the best. We are staying in the loft suite, the kids are excited! We have so much to do next week, but I can't wait to go to fall/spring climates. I could do without Manitoba winters forever. I hope we can get settled in soon, there is a lot of things we are anxious to do. The kids are just thrilled to be living on an island and have ocean and mountains in our daily view. We have been super shopping for spring clothes, I think I need to take out stock in the Gap. I will be posting pics of our adventure on facebook, so stay tuned.

Filling out the passports, getting prepped for a trip this year. We are hoping to embrace the rest of the world as we become west coasters. Another chapter begins!

stuffage

A little dull today, trying to hammer out plans for the holidays still. We are trying to fit skiing with friends in, I think after Christmas will work, and more like after New year's. I am going to try and convince Dave to take a holiday on our posting, I think we need it. I just hope we have enough time to go somewhere good. I am going to have some time off likely waiting for childcare to be available, so I can [ ] on my studies and get settled in our house. I did not go anywhere today, the weather bites and I didn't NEED to go anywhere, and I really did not!

Next day-never finished this post! I realized I have yet to buy gifts for the coaches, so I am heading out to get those today, and also the secret santa gift for mimi's party.I still need a new ski jacket, so I will look today, all I got before was a puffer from the gap. I am also going to pick up our holiday pics!

Four days. So near yet so far. Unfortunately they aren't consecutive days, but in total they spell 8 days. I am sitting on frickin pins. BTW, Dave has suggested a trip-whoohoo! We want to go to Chile, but I don't think he'll have enough time off. Hawaii is his suggestion?

Busy fun weekend

What a nice weekend we had. We spent in all in for the most part, except for gymnastics Sun am. We baked cookies, made stew, watched holiday movies, sang songs and made spicy popcorn. The kids did crafts on Sun, making little trees and decorating more cookies. It was so nice and relaxing, just what we needed to recharge ourselves and get set for all the windups and holiday stuff coming up. Josh did the cutest thing too. After he made his little tree he hung it on the snowman tree. He then went and got my snowman potholders and carefully hung them on the tree too. It was so cute that i left them there. He was quite proud of himself. He really loves to get involved in our activities, even though he makes a large mess usually. He was funny saying "mmm tasty" eating big spoons of icing out of the bowl! Sat a friend brought over some wine and visited for a bit, then we settled in for movies and I was baking till 930!My only venture out was for an hour on Sun when the kids and I slipped out to Michaels to pick up craft supplies, gift tags, and supplies to wrap up baking gifts. I then wrapped up 4 baking packages and gifts for friends.

Talked to Mom on Fri, she has surgical consult next week, hope all goes well. A friend is having her twins tomorrow too-it is so exciting for them! I packed up 3 large bags of clothes and toys to donate, as pick-up is next week. I am so glad to be getting rid of more stuff, as the tree is over-flowing with stuff to take its place. Damn sales, I bought too much. Good excuse to replace old stuff I find we hang onto too often. Noni voluntarily gave away 10 barbies. I am so pleased, as she had a ton. A whole pile of old baby stuff went too, everything JR has outgrown has gone. This reminds me, I still need to buy some toys to donate pronto, as well as more food packs. Tonight I will gather up cash to donate too. Tis the season, I feel deeply sad at the thought of children with nothing at Christmas, there is no worse time of year to be without. It is nice to be able to buy things and pay bills and eat well. It is way too convenient to forget that so many can't really do any of those things. I cared for some really impoverished people in community nursing, and it was all the more poignant at this time of year for sure.

Dave makes the best buscuits. They are fantastic, he has been making them for years, but they are honestly better than the ones I make. We had them with turkey stew last night that the kids loved. It can be challenging putting meals together that everyone likes, but this one was a winner. I wanted to use up all our frozen turkey as more turkey will soon be on its way...

We are anxious to get out of here, the weather is nuts. Why people choose this locale is a little beyond me. Its funny, people who have never lived anywhere else seem to like it, and the rest of us just want out. I can't wait, despite family and friends we have here, it has not felt like home.

the holiday windups et al

I have not blogged in awhile, due to time constraints. There is just a lot going on. The kids both finished their swimming, and the gymnastics is having their seasonal windup in a week, and then we have 2 school concerts. Those things aside, Dave and I are both busy with work as well. We soon will know our schedule, if all goes as planned, we will know by the 21st. We have now planned our holiday visits, and I spent the entire day yesterday tackling my baking. I baked sugar cookies, gingerbread, lemon pistachio biscotti, and pecan butter balls. There is a bake exchange to be held at work, but I don't like those, as there are certain cookies I like to make that are labour intensive, and not all exchanges are equal-some people give oatmeal cookies or something and that to me is like cheating on a holiday exchange. So I baked, got it done. Some years I make more kinds, but this suits us this year. I may throw in one more kind yet, but I'll see. I still have to make fudge, so I think this will do for cookies.

I am ready for the holidays. I am on a stretch of 10 days off right now, so I have done some cleaning and organizing, getting rid of a bunch of toys and clothes we don't want or need. I have had a lot of wardrobe replacement since last winter, dropping about 5 sizes has necessitated that, but I have bought some nice sweaters and basics to stock up. We also bought coats, hats, mitts, scarves just to replace things, shoes and boots too. I just remembered I need to pick up pants I dropped off to get hemmed! Now that we have also made some decisions about New Year's eve, it solves the dress equation!I have all the gifts but one wrapped, as I am including a package of fudge in that one, so it will wait till I make it. I wrapped them all myself, JR kept trying to help, so you can imagine the challenge of that-a 2 yo wielding tape and scissors! I am anxious to open some of mine-I know what most of them are, but I can't wait to get my bootie slippers(gap) as I want to wear them!!!It is too damn cold in this silly province.

Noni scored very well in school, at or above grade level in everything. She has a great teacher, I would like to keep her for a few years! I already updated about Mimi, who also scored as well, but I like how hard her teacher worked them last year better. I am looking forward to their concerts, Noni has been reciting her songs around the house, and Mimi is in a choir, so I can't wait to hear them.

We are missing Kingston right now. We were looking at old pics with the kids, reminiscing about Kingston. We had such good time there. So much going on this time of year, so enjoyable. Just a different mood there. I miss it terribly, I hope BC holds a similar charm, cause the peg certainly holds no charms. We have had some fun here, but the mood is a drag, and so are a lot of the activities. I look forward to change for sure.