Something new.

Well, it's been so long since I posted, I really felt a need to post something new. Not totally sure what though!

We are in Courtenay this week, and I have to say - after the last manic couple of weeks being in Courtenay to work 9-5 for five days in a row with my husband here actually feels like a holiday! Working holiday, but holiday nonetheless. Unfortunately we slept in yesterday and had to rush around packing, so we missed Church before leaving. Sad. It was a beautiful ferry ride over. And we had a wonderful evening cooking good food together and talking with our friends we stay with here when we arrived last night.

I think, I really do like being on the mainland. I didn't realize how much I missed the mountains, and the sense that any weekend, if we wanted to (not that we have time to right now, but...if!) we could hop in the car and head up to Kamloops, or Kelowna, or Cultas or Golden ears for the weekend. I love that feeling. I think I felt a bit penned in on the island.

My secondary goal for this week, while here, is to get caught up on scoring video for my thesis. I'm dreadfully behind, and need to score this video before moving to the next phase with the next participant. More video will be coming in soon, too.

It is definately lent. Definately.

Soon it will be Pascha though.

A sneak peek

Now that we have signed the lease to rent our new place for May 1 (we're actually moving in April 22nd), I feel like I can post a couple of pictures. We are so unbelievably blessed to have found this place, and found it within our price range. The landlord has actually lowered the rent by 250.00 per month so we can afford it, because he really wants good tenants and feels we are a good match. I still cannot believe we'll get to live here. For the rent we'll be paying. Long term. We may not ever buy. lol! So here is a sneak peek of the house. It is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, with a family room and living room (both with fireplaces), a loft, a walk in closet in the master. Overall it's over 2000 square feet. I know. It's like at least 2.5 times the size of anything we've ever lived in before. It will be very empty for the first few months! Please know that though it looks like we'd be paying thousands of dollars per month in rent, that is NOT the case, we are getting this place for only a couple of hundred dollars per month more than our last place (which was about 7-800 square foot apartment with none of the ammenities this place has!). Also note that we will not have the furniture that is currently in there! The first picture is the formal livingroom when looking down on it from the loft. That room will likely not have any furniture for a few months :)

Quite appropriately, we'll be waiting to move in through the rest of lent, and we'll move in part way through bright week. We have been jokingling saying we're fasting from having a house for lent. Ha!

We're baaaack :)

We are now officially back on the mainland. The moving weekend was crazy. Once again we over-estimated our own strength and endurance by a gargantuan amount. We thought we'd have no problem packing the apartment into a 1-ton truck by ourselves over Friday evening and Saturday. We very naively, or arrogantly (depending on how you look at it), though we'd be done and out the door by 1pm on Sat. Hah!!! We managed to catch the 9pm ferry! Then Sunday we unloaded everything (with lots of help on this end) into the two storage units and D.'s parents house. We are now semi-settled here, and I'm very thankful for our space here! We'll be staying here till near the end of April, when we (assuming nothing goes horribly wrong between now and March 10th when we sign the lease) will be moving into the most beautiful wonderful giant house! We really really lucked out with this place, and are getting it at a steel. Email me and I"ll give you the deets :). And of course, we'll have one heck of a house-warming party to break it in (though right now we only own enough furniture for about 1/2 of it...maybe!).

D.'s parents have given up their dining room so we can use it as an office. I can't tell you how comforting it was to set up my office area there today. It was like as soon as that was set up I though "Okay. Now I can cope." Work nut. Right here.

Anyways, the next two weeks are full to the brim with work, including a conference on Saturday (have to be at UBC at 7:15 am to do conference committee duties!! ICK!), and work the following Saturday. Despite the fact that it would be nice to have a real day off to recover from the moving craziness, I am thankful to have so much work booked right off the bat, as we really need the money to finish paying my tuition right now (SO overdue!!).

I am so looking forward to seeing everyone more often again!

I am thinking though that I need to find a way to keep a piece of the slow-moving-calm-peaceful-layedbackness of Victoria within me so I don't go manic. I'm realizing that despite the fact that the pace in Vic was challenging for me (too slow!), it may have been good for me :).