A day in the ER

So today, Lair's day off, didn't go quite the way we had intended.

Lair woke up early this a.m. with pain in his mid right back. It got progressively worse and he woke me up ~5am. It got really bad and he decided he needed to go to the Hospital.

He got there and they thought it was Kidney stones. He was in incredible pain, and it moved to the front Sternum.... they gave him morphine... the guy said "you are a big guy, so I'm giving you enough to knock out a horse"... Lair was able to catch up on his sleep and fade in and out of La La Land. They did a CT Scan, blood, urine. Results came back with a clear abdomen and no explanation... So, why the pain?

10 hours later discharged him with 'undiagnosed Abdomen pain'. They gave him some pills, said if the pain comes back take them. If the pain is severe, come back and they'll do an ultrasound. Thinking it could be Gall stones.


So we left. He became horrible ill before we even got to the car and was ill all afternoon. Must have been the drugs.


He's doing 100% better now. Ate a good dinner. No pain. Food staying down.

So a mystery.


What a day!

Stunned...

We got a phone call last night from some near and dear friends of ours... He hasn't felt well for several months. Stomach problems, pain, weakness. He rapidly dropped 25 pounds & finally found a doctor who listened to him...

He has Throat cancer...

Not too sure how to process this. My Sisters father-in-law fought and won Throat cancer... So I know it can be done.

So I guess for now we will pray, pray, pray and ask that all of you pray for him as well. And if they need anything at all, I'm not working right now so I can help them the best I can; take care of the kids, clean, cook... hug, hold, sit.

I know how this makes me feel, I can't imagine it on their/his side.


:(

Tomorrow is December...

This is our new view-------->

Much different than Abbotsford! I didn't realize how much of a city girl I was until I left the city! It's pretty cool living downtown.

So the weekend after we arrived, Bassnectar was in town, it was also Steve (early) b-day celebration. Was so nice to see so many familiar faces and get lots of hugs. The show itself was boring to me, but I loved the people I was with!

The gathering afterwards was terrific. Had a great visit with everybody. It was a wonderful way to be re-introduced back into my real life!

Quinn started his pre-school (Tue & Thur) last week and is loving it. Though he is a tad dissapointed on M-W-F's as he wants to go to school everyday! He seems to be adjusting well, though there have been a few outbursts of crying and tantrum's, that has me a little worried as it is so out of the ordinary for him; but I guess it's to be expected.

I've been able to get around for various visits with friends; more coffe dates and play dates in my near future! Such a novelty compared to the past 2 years of NO social life!!! (Thank God for Facebook!).

Lawrences new job, week 1 is done. So far no real complaints from him other than the 5am start is a bit hard to swallow! So I more or less tuck in Quinn, then turn around and tuck in Lair! Good thing about that shift is he's home by 2pm. Sometimes he naps with Quinn. :)

Life with mom has been great. I don't feel any stress and we fit in the space well.


Ok all you Bloggers - It's month end! Time to update your blogs!

Home safe and sound!

The Eagle has landed!

The first part of the move went great.  Moving day got pushed back a day so we were able to be 110% ready.   Got up friday morning, took Quinn to school, grabbed some Starbucks and the movers were an hour late... no big deal - we don't pay them by the hour!  

The driver + 3 guys showed up with smiles on their faces.  They were fantastic.  We got out of their hair immediately.  We ran some errands then went for pedicures :)  Best move ever.  Upon our return they were finishing up.  We cleaned for about 2 hours then grabbed Quinn and brought him to the empty house to say goodbye to his painted animals.   He ran in, yelled good bye and was ready to go.

We headed into Vancouver and went to the Aquarium, then over to Scott & Dee's for one last visit and sleepover.  Alex and his friends came to.  It was a nice evening.

Saturday we bid farewell and hit to road by 10.  We actually hit the road at noon once we done everything we needed to do.  We picked up some 2-way radios from Costco as i don't have a cell and wanted to be in contact with Lair.  We made it to Chase in no time!  Like under 3 hours!  The road was clear and a good drive.

We had a nice visit with dad.

Sunday we were up at 6am and on the road by 7:15.   The drive was great right up until three valley gap where the snow began.  Man oh man what crappy weather and road conditions!  Mostly drove 50km/hr.  I wasn't very happy - pretty slippery, not quite a white knuckle drive, but close!  It finally cleared at Banff where the highway divides, then it was clear and dry all the way to Calgary!

We arrived at Karen & Steves door step exactly 8 hours later :)

So there you have.  We are Back!  WOO-HOO!

A.D.D.?

During the past few weeks, while trying to organize, pack, purge, clean, mother, wife - I've concluded that why LISTS are so important to me, is they focus my brain on the task at hand.

Without a list, I am all over the place! Lawrence has mentioned in the past how I go from one thing to another to another without finishing what I started then back again and repeat. I never noticed. However, in the past few weeks, I've wondered from either Making a list, or following a list and my brain has been chaotic and I find myself all over the place.



This morning, I concluded that I must have A.D.D., and my medication is a List.


Profound!

Fish and Chips and guilt....

So last night we headed out for dinner. The 2 restaurants we chose were either CLOSED (on a wed) or closing at 6 pm on a wednesday. Grrrr.... Abbotsford sucks!

So we ended up going for Fish & Chips. It was a hard choice because Quinn has NEVER had French fries with us (though it seems he knows what they are >:\ not sure if that means he's had them or just knows about them)....

We figured since it's Fish & Chips and something we don't normally eat, it would be a treat.

Man oh man was it ever good! All you could eat Cod & chips for $9.99 ($2.99 for Quinn). And eat we did! But, while eating I wasn't paying attention. Quinn more or less just ate Chips.... sigh. Then was too full for the fish (or didn't like it? though he never said that).

So, if/when there is a next time for chips/fries - I will tell him he has to eat his meal first, then may have the fries.



Not bad. 3.5 years with no fries and trust you me, this isn't opening a new food door.





Today is Lair's last day of work. Moving day has been pushed back a day which is a relief. So that mean's we'll both be here - so we'll both go for a Pedicure!

We'll stay with Scott & Dee tomorrow night for a final visit with them and hopefully Alex, then Saturday will head to Chase to see dad and sunday push through to Calgary where we will stay with Steve & Karen for a night or 2 while we arrange to pick up our futon .

T-Minus 24 hours!

Radio Contest

When we arrived in the Lower Mainland, we were tickled pik to find out there was a Jack FM 96.9 here with the same format as the Calgary station. We are loyal listeners in rush hour as the traffic updates are quite important!

While working at Cellcom, I listened to the internet radio (BC) Jack FM a lot and gathered up a lot of points for the 'Jackoholics club' (you earn point going on line for contests/surveys/etc). This was how I won the Power Within tickets in the Spring.

Anyways, Here we are moving and Alberta doesn't have the jackoholics club, so we're sitting here with megga points to spend. So - There is a contest that opened last week and closes nest weekend - a trip for two to the Mayan Riviera at the Coba (where we stayed last year).

250 points for one entry. I entered 27 times and Lair entered 23 times! Wouldn't it be awesome if we won! One hell of a BC parting gift!

Wish us luck! The draw is on Monday, Nov 19 between 9am - 3pm - so I hope Lair's cell phone rings!

Joe Rogan

Wow, what a fun night out! a few months ago Lawrence surprised me with ticket to Joe's show! We love him on so many levels!

It was a great night out. We arrived a little early so went to the casino and lost $20 in about 2 minutes... Didn't make me want to spend anymore! LOL

The show was awesome! The opening comedian was hilarious and Joe was rediculusly funny. Worth every penny! Well, maybe not the $7 drinks... ;) I was so glad he shaved his beard! 2 weeks ago we watched some UFC and he had a huge beard - I wanted to see his pretty face ;-)

We've never really done 'date night', getting out without Quinn, so when we get to Calgary, we plan to change that! It was nice to feel all pretty and twitter-paited without a 40 lb 3 year old in between us!


I had my last day of work yesterday. 2 people called in sick and it was a gong show of stupid. Very stressfull BUT, it's over.... Thank God!!!!! Worst job I've ever had. If we hadn't decided to go home, I would have quit in August.


I just did a search on calgaryjobshop.ca for part time office work and there are TONS of postings. After new years I will try to find something for Feb 1. I'm hopeing for mornings 4-5 days a week, or a full day a few times a week. The stressful part about finding a job is finding the childcare for Quinn, especially now that he has pre-school. I'm not sure if the pre-school I found provides before and after care, if they don't I will have to find something else.

Oh well - it will all fall into place, I will take it one day at a time... Plan for the/Live in the NOW (a novel concept for me - I like to plan everything out for days, weeks, years!)...


Love you all! Thanks for reading! See you soon!

Packing....

Wow. Working, parenting, packing and trying not to stress... Not so easy.

Packing is coming along slowly but surely.

We don't get home till 1:30, then have lunch. Quinn demands attention the moment I pick him up from school. Stories and playing, then the fight to get him down for quiet time for an hour. During that hour I get very little done unless he actually falls asleep and try to get the housework done while he's down.

Next thing I know Lawrence is home. Time for dinner, that means one cooks while the other tends to Quinn.... so no packing; then after dinner is family time. Then Quinn's bath time I can putter for a bit then it's bedtime. Stories, hugs, kisses, cuddles.... 8:30.... Putter for 30-60 minutes - screw it. Relax for an hour (which usually means TV & Laundry)... - sleep.

Repeat.

This has been my daily grind. Then for weekends, Lair hangs out with Quinn most of the day and I get some good packing in. It just feels like it's never ending.

With Quinn, I've decided not to just 'pack it all up' and live bare bones as I'm trying to not disrupt him too much. When we painted and the house was up-side-down, we could see how it effected him, so I've been cautious while packing.

This weekend is the final push though - hopefully he can handle it for the week after. I'm praying to be DONE by monday night so Quinn and I can go say our goodbyes to Crissy & the boys on Tue (stat holiday), and on wed maybe go see Madagascar 2, then Thursday is moving day.


Craziness with a three year on top! But he's so awesome, so far so good - we'll see how he reacts with all the changes in Calgary...



OH, I almost forgot. So yesterday I did a internet search on preschools in Calgary.... I found one in Wellington Square! (MOM lives in Wellington Estates!). Can you believe it? So convenient! So tue/thur 9-11:30 :) They have room for him and are excited for a meet and greet upon our arrival.



That's it for now....

Halloween 2008

tFun was had by all....

We carved 2 pumpkins. I am extremely pleased and proud of my pumpkin-head horseman! It turned out very good, especially considering how fast I did it!


Quinn was a Dolphin, a costume cousin Benny gave him. He loved it! Was so cute! I went to his preschool halloween party. That was loud and crazy but fun.

Took Quinn around the complex with a neighbor then he helped hand out candy. :)




All is well on the homefront. T-Minus 12 days till moving moving. I'm off work on friday so what's not packed, will be soon after!

Castle Fun Park

Last sunday, we decided to finally head over to 'Castle Fun Park', one of Abbotsfords only tourist/family attractions. Never been as we thought Quinn was too little, and assumed it would be ghetto as it's been there forever... surprisingly, we had the place to our selves!

It has 3 large and very impressive 18 hole mini gold courses. 1 outdoors, and 2 indoor (underground) theme courses (Under the Sea and the Jungle). There are also bumper cars, go- carts, batting cages, golf cages, huge arcade, kiddie games and other various fun stuff. We had a fantastic time.






We played our first round of mini golf with Quinn in the under the sea room. He scored TWO holes in 1! Having no traffic in front or behind us, we had an awesome game and were able to goof around and take our time. :) I am glad we went to check it out.




The Sale of our home is FIRM, done deal, just need to deal with the lawyers and such now. We never did paint the basement!! Woo-hoo!

I've been packing a bit every day. Next week will be full steam ahead. We've hired movers, using the same movers who brought us out here. Decided it was worth the extra bucks to have a stress free trip over the mountains, so we'll just have to worry about ourselves the car & van, not a truck and all our stuff! The money we spend will be re-cooped at tax time.

So moving day will be Thursday Nov. 13. Lair's last day at work. I will take Quinn to school, come home, meet the movers and get them started, then I will go get my hair done and maybe a pedicure :) Now that's my idea of how moving day should be!

Now we need to find mini-storage in Calgary for our stuff, this weekend we'll scour the internet for the best deal and safest facility.


Man are we ever getting excited!



xoxoxo

SOLD (Updated with details)

Well, that was a lot faster than we anticipated! We were expecting the house to sit on the market until at least January - March!

It's been a horrible experience (unlike our other real estate experiences where we laughed all the way to the bank)... In the end, we feel like we've been taken advantage of.

This was definatley a depressing experience. We are very lucky that it sold in 17 days, so NO complaints there as we were leaving for Calgary regardless of the sale for Dec. 1st! We seriously planned for it to sit on the market until Jan-march.


So we had a live buyer on the line. We listed it 10K less than we were hoping to; First offer came in almost 25K under list price (which was 10K less than what we wanted in the first place)... We countered; they countered; we countered; they gave a final offer...

We reluctantly took it. We asked our realtor, if it sat on the market for 30-90 days, what kind of price reductions would he suggest in that time.... He said $5000-10000+.... We decided to take what we could get now instead of risking a major loss later.


I feel violated. By the time commissions, fees, lawyers, etc are paid out, we will have lost most of our home equity which was our down pmt for a calgary home. So we're kind of ^$&#ed right now. :(

The only good thing out of all this is at least we will be in Calgary. Sigh :(

Not sure what we are going to do. We stay with mom till the new year to save some coin/pay down some debt. Need to talk to Jen to see what we qualify for with what down payment we have and have a pow wow with Tom about the Calgary Real Estate market. I am quite deflated that this is proving to be in my mind, disastrous... Again, at least it's disastrous in Calgary....


Our possession date is Nov 15 - so we'll be in calgary then - Lair may have to stay behind and work another week or 2 before he transfers over to AG...

I am quite numb. I feel like I am Free-falling without a parachute :(

Phew! Everybody knows now!

So things at work have been a bit stressful for everybody. A few weeks ago the Facility Manager was fired. He'd been there 20+ years and was a few years away from retirement. Since then, other big wigs from head office have taken over and they've been interviewing everybody and getting us to do anonomous employees reviews on our fellow work mates, do our own self-evaluation, have round tables in a safe off the record environment... over all, it just feels 'off' there, like we're waiting for the Axe to fly. So for me, being the part-time admin support, I have felt like I would be the first to go, so I was waiting to tell them until november as I was afraid they'd can me on the spot now if I told them.

Today my Boss, the office supervisor, wanted to have a 1 on 1. Before we got started, I told her everything. She is very happy for us and sorry to see me leave. We had a quick chat about work, then just talked about everything going on in my life. She will be very accomodating to my departure. I gave an end date as Nov 21, but this may change pending sale of house (like I may leave earlier or might stay an extra week or 2 into december; who knows!).



We had two showing on the place last night. No offers :( Still waiting for feedback.

Pumpkin Patch & Thanks Giving

We had a pretty good Thanks Giving weekend so far. It was absolutely gorgeous on saturday so we headed out to "The Apple Barn Pumpkin Farm"... Here's a pic of my 'Punkin' with the pumpkins! They have U-pick Pumpkins, apples, plums, farm animals, hay rides, pony rides, Trike Farm, Marshmallow Zipline, Jumping Pillow, orchard tours, Cider Mill, Veggie stand, Honey Bees, Store and concession. It was a lot of fun we had a fun afternoon!

Quinn picked out his own Pumpkin. Found it in the middle and off to the side of the patch. We were glad he chose one his size and not any bigger!



Today was laid back and quiet, just chilled and relaxed. I cooked a nice Prime Rib for dinner with Yorkshires and cauliflower casserole. Made the rub from Olive Oil with fresh chopped Garlic, Oregano, Garlic, Basil, Garlic, Rosemary, Garlic, Parsley, did I say GARLIC? :) And the Yorkshires came out great - didn't even fall after they came out of the oven! (I could easily eat all 12!)...


I am Thankful that this will be the LAST Family Holiday where we are alone with no extended family of friends..... I am thankful for Lawrence and Quinn the most amazing Beings in my life, and I truly thankful for our Families Health and of course, the trek back to Calgary.

Lair has to work tomorrow. Not sure what Quinn and I will do. Was thinking maybe one last trip to the Zoo or maybe go swimming. Who knows.



Happy Thanksgiving!

My head is spinning!

Oh my Gosh My head is spinning! So All of August and September we've been primping the house and trying to organize and strategise to get the house on the market and us to Calgary.

So here we are, October, the house is on the market (MLS# F2828851), Lair starts his new job Dec. 1, so now we need to get to calgary. So this weekend will be full steam ahead pack & purge.But, we need to pack for two things: <1> our temporary situation which could be a few weeks or a few months.... and
<2>our full move to our new home.

Ug, trying to think of what we'll need for 3 months is tough. Clothes, pillows/bedding, bed? (will probably buy a futon in calgary); will probably bring Quinn's bed as he misses it lots when we travel; I need to find out if mom has certain kitchen items; Our cpt, printer, speakers, PVR.... TV? It will be so hard to say good bye to our beautiful flat gorgeous baby.... toys? books? Yikes.

I guess we will have to use the mentality we do when packing for a vacation - once we are gone - if we need something and don't have it, we either buy it, or didn't need it that bad....


WINTER.... Am I ready for it? didn't miss it one bit... The visual beauty of winter and the crispness in the air will be nice - the big Blue sky.... But the cold and slush and crappy roads.... :( So, I keep reminding myself of how much FUN I had in Winter as a KID.... Spending HOURS outside in the snow....

Am I ready for 'The Big City' again? My life has been centered around Abbotsford this year - no traffic, everything you need is literally 15 minutes from my door (the whole city is only 20 minutes driving radius...)....

LOL - who am I kidding, I am a PROUD CALGARIAN! I am sure we will slide right back into things; will be interesting with Quinn in toe. Will be cool to see it through new eyes.

He adjusts well and travels very well. I just hope this move won't be too hard on him. Right now he is in Montessori 5 days a week and learning so much! I hate to shake up his little life but it will be for the best. Better now than when he's actually in school! One of the first things I will need to do is find a temporary pre-school class for him near moms that is cheap (as I won't be working yet) and I won't worry about a permanent spot until we buy a place and settle in one area.

So I gotta think about packing for December, packing and staging the house (maybe finding a temp renter to help off set the costs), finding a pre-school for Quinn, not driving mom crazy, selling the van and getting a cheaper reliable 4 door car (BTW - the van is for sale if you know anyone looking!), finding a job in the new year, buying a new place in Cowtown, flying back here to do the final move (U-haul or mover?), Moving again, settling, and finding a school for Quinn... Just to name a few things on my plate... Sigh.

Will be nice to have cheaper car insurance (Meloche Monnix how I've missed you!), cheaper gas, health care paid for.... :) Higher wages! We're trying to sell in the suckiest time in Abbotsford - however, we welcome the soft market in calgary as it will be cheaper for us to buy - so in the end it will even out. I'm hoping the calgary market declines considerably in the next few months so we can get into a newer development (We're looking mostly at Townhouses).

Oh - we've hired a painter to paint our basement.

So this is going to be painted the light color on far wall.... Sigh.







A year ago today we were in the Mayan Riviera... Quinn wasn't talking yet! I can't believe how much he has grown as an individual. He is such a nice boy. Very thoughtful and careing, sincere and considerate....


I digress. It's bedtime.... Thanks for reading my random babble. Just needed to get some things out of my head before bed.