My sister in law Mel announced today that she is going to start blogging and I thought to myself "Self, why don't you get on board and update your sad little blog?". So here I am. SO very much has changed since the last time I posted it is crazy! Let's reflect a little......
Last year this time was an incredibly stressful time at our house in Spruce Grove. Charlie was studying like crazy for his final exam and we didn't see too much of happy relaxed Dad to say the least. SO much pressure for him, all your training and learning boiling down to one excruciating exam that decides if you pass an go on to set up practice.....OR fail and wait another YEAR to re-write and try again. And obviously as most of you know we are happy to report that of course he passed with flying colours! I never once doubted him, Charlie kicks butt at whatever he decides to do.
This time last year the kids were heading into the home stretch of Grade 5 for Mason, Grade 1 for Tatum and Kindergarten for Sam. Mason was in Middle School (grades 5-9 = YUCK) and Tatum and Sam attended the same elementary together. :) I was starting to think about organizing our lives for a year in New Zealand which would begin the coming December. THEN in May an opportunity came up for us to move to Vernon, BC for the summer/fall before New Zealand and we decided this would be a great place to spend the 5 months between end of residency and leaving for Charlie's fellowship in Auckland.
So we packed up some personal things to take with us, packed up most of our house to put into storage, put the house up for sale and headed to beautiful British Columbia July 1st.
Leaving Kenz. I was so happy when she moved to Spruce Grove with Nolie so that we could spend time together and if I could, help her out however I could. Kenzie came over to say good bye the day before we left - so hard. I felt like I was abandoning her in Spruce Grove. I knew full well that she is a big girl and could take care of herself but after seeing up close and personally the sadness and hardship that she was going through with the divorce, it hurt my heart to leave her behind. At this point I will add that little did I know she had met the love of her life and would indeed be VERY fine on her own without me, but that is another story!
July 1st, time to go. That was a happy sad day for us and our very good friends the Flexhaugs. I remember it clearly. We had our U-Haul to pull behind the trailer packed up, got up and got the kids packed into the Yukon and F-J, and drove around the corner to say our good bye for the next year and a half. :( I had been putting off the crying to say good bye to Jackie or might have cried for weeks off and on! We got to their door and went in to say see ya in a year and a bit and it was bad. I was sad for our kids too, they love Cade, Jenna and Ally and have spent so much time with them. Patchy face and tears for everyone but Charlie!
But we got through it and drove off down the highway towards Jasper. We got to Vernon very late and headed up the mountain to our new temporary home at Silver Star. Man did that bed ever feel fantastic! Our rental was beautiful and we couldn't ask for a more beautiful location - WOW. Because I don't want to turn this post into a novel I will summarize so that I can somehow get us to the present....okay that will take a couple more posts. Or maybe I just summarize and get us up to date....you can skim if you like!
We had such an amazing summer. We were at the beach several times a week, eating delicious fresh fruits and veggies, swimming and playing together - it was fabulous! We didn't really know too many people that well in the summer and so we spent the majority of it just us as a family and it was a good bonding experience. I loved that summer. Both of our parents came to stay with us at different times which was so fun. Once September rolled around we decided to try and find a rental in Coldstream so that Charlie was closer to the hospital and the kids were closer to school. As beautiful as Silver Star is, it is ALOT of driving everyday down to Vernon. We found a really nice place just down the road from the kids school and 5 mins from work. We moved in the end of August and the kids started school the first week of September.
We had been going to church all summer and we all started to make some friends in the ward. We have felt very welcome from the first Sunday we got here and really appreciate the effort the people in our ward made to make us feel at home. It was really nice once school started to meet even more new people and friends in the Coldstream community. Things were going really well for us and we were feeling very comfortable and happy in our "temporary" location. THEN there was talk at work for Charlie to stay on full time and to make Vernon our new home......honestly, there was not much hesitation. We really felt like everything just fell into place for us here and that this is where we are supposed to be. We started house hunting and found our dream home in the fall with a December 2nd possession we were pretty excited to say the least!!!! Our house in Spruce Grove sold in September and everything clicked into place to buy our house here. We moved in officially around the 8th of December - Charlie did some painting before we moved in. It was so great to spend Christmas in our own house even if we didn't get a tree up until the week before Christmas!! Crazy! Charlie's parent came just before Christmas to visit and have some holiday fun with us. What a great Christmas.
So so so so awesome to know that this is our home and we aren't moving again for a long time. I feel like we can build on relationships and connect to our community and be involved more than before because this is it. Does that make sense? Such a good feeling to settle. All the kids have made really good friends at school and at church we could not be happier with that. Good kids from really good solid families with similar values - aaaaahhhhh.
Things are going really well for Charlie at work also, he set up his practice in a building with another orthopaedic surgeon and he has a fantastic secretary - woohoo! As for me and my business I have pretty much just taken a little vacation from running a photography business. Really it's been quite nice to be the Mom and not worry about my lil business for a bit. I do miss the photography end of it but not really the business end! I will get back into it just not sure how big or when yet! I need a commercial space so that will factor into the timing as well.
As far as church callings go, I was called to be the 2nd counsellor int he Young Womens in November and Charlie just got called a couple of months ago to Elders Quorum presidency - he's one of the counsellors. To be honest Young Women's kind of freaked me out and surprised me since I haven't had anything to do with the program since I was one! But now I do love it and love the girls, they are so GOOD. I hope I can be a good example to them and that they will enjoy being there with me. I work with incredibly talented women which is slightly intimidating but I learn so much from them all the time.
Okay, so this is WAY longer than I anticipated but I'm going to cut you off right there for tonight. I will add photos another day.....unless I find a goodie....but for now goodnight! It is my goal to use this as more of a journal because my journaling skills are horrible. I don't think I will ever be as good at this as Kelsey but I will try to keep the Grandparents updated and make this something I will want to print up!
If you made it this far thanks for stopping by that is a really condensed version of our life the last year! Maybe as I remember important details I will add them in the future but for now that's the scoop as to how we got from Spruce Grove and heading into the end of residency to - SURPRISE we live in Coldstream British Columbia now!
Have a fabulous evening my lovely friends and family and see you back here soon! :) Right? Right.
~Caylee~
