Saturday, October 15, 2011

A fresh start....


As it usually happens when change begins it snowballs at a rapid pace, it still amazes me we have accomplished as much as we have these last few weeks. Sept 26th Chris booked our flight to Vancouver and from there we needed to really get our things in order as our flight date was Sept 30th at 6:00 am. We finished packing, weighing, labeling 89 boxes of our belongings we couldn't live without. We sold the last few pieces of respectable furniture we had the week before and were stuck with about a dozen or so odds and ends not making the trip, with no time to sell them off. I put them in the yard with a big 'free' sign and was able to get rid of a good deal of the bulk. The day before our flight we had Sameday come and pick up our boxes and thankfully the people who were collecting were kind enough to put them on skids for us to avoid losing any of our parcels. The cost was around $2300.00 to move 89 boxes on three skids from Nova Scotia to Vancouver not to bad as the moving company estimates for the same amount of items were between $3500-$7000, and the moving companies would have taken 2-3 weeks as opposed to the 5 business days the couriers took. To be fair Sameday offers no insurance on your parcels, but we figured for $1000-$5000 in savings we could replace a few items that may not survive.

The only furniture item we packed was the baby's crib because it is a nice and expensive BILY model with mattress and Bambi bedding total cost around $700.00 and the baby has not even spent a full night in it. I was going to be damned if I sold it to some cheap whore for the $150.00 I was offered on Kijiji, having sold and given away a good chunk of the life I worked hard to build up I put my foot down on this sentimental item, we would just pack and ship it with us!.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house, making any last minute repairs and packing our suitcases for the trip. We went out and met my Boss and his wife for coffee and to say our good byes. It will be sad not working with them I was at that bakery for 5 years and really do consider the people there members of my extended family. The friends I made in Nova Scotia are a rare breed and although I have only been out of province for two weeks I miss them already. After that it was home again to say good- bye to the neighbors and keep on cleaning/ repairing.

By 5:30 am we still had not been to bed all night and we prepared for our cab ride to the airport. Luckily I had pre-booked our cab earlier that day, The cancelled phone service began at midnight, if I didn't have the cab coming we would not have been able to call for one as neither of us owns a cell phone (gasp!). We got to the airport after loading the poor cab with 3 large suitcases, one duffle bag, a car seat, a stroller, 3 carry-on bags, a diaper bag, the dog kennel, the baby and the two of us. We had a fairly uneventful flight two connections in total, Mushu tried to escape her kennel on the first flight from Sydney-Halifax as the noise from the small plane was scaring her. Chris just had to keep petting her in the carrier and calming her down. Once we got onto a respectable sized plane she calmed down for the rest of the LOOOOONG flight.

Then we had the fun of packing Mom's car with all our baggage after our long flight. But seeing mom on the other end was really nice, especially when Mushu was so excited to see her and the baby warmed up to her right away. Being around family is a good thing indeed.

So the last few weeks have been a bit busy but fun!. Chris started working with my stepdad getting to know a bit about workplace safety and the tools of the trade so to speak. I went out with mom and snagged some fabric and on Thanksgiving my sister and I made a blue furry monkey costume for the baby. She will be a flying monkey and I will go as the wicked witch for Halloween which should be pretty fun this year. Not so sure daddy will dress up with us. My last Halloween photo from this blog was sent into Awkward family photos by a reader and made it to the hall of fame for a few weeks before the administrators kindly took it down. 30, 000 Facebook shares later and he is not too keen to continue our family photo tradition, which is kind of sad :(.

We have gotten ourselves a storage locker for our belongings as Mom's apartment is kind of small for all of us. We are sleeping on an air mattress in moms dining room right now, but thankfully we are getting our own place on November 1st. We found a nice pet friendly building just down the road from mom, which is awesome as this is a really nice neighborhood in Vancouver.

I am hit periodically with the blues as our little Foxy never made it back home to us before we moved. I don't know what happened to her if she is alive and happy somewhere or if she has passed away, all I know is I miss her and I wish she was still here with us. We promised that poor sweet little creature we would protect her and love her and we failed her. I see all the dog friendly parks and places and know she would have been so happy here and it breaks my heart that she is not able to enjoy life with us now that the stress of home renovations and a big move are behind us.

A few weeks before we left I found and cared for a lost/ abandoned Golden Retriever for a few days, when no one came to claim her Chris took her to the SPCA. A few nights later someone called saying they found Foxy but it was a little Yorkie, we were able to find and reunite her with her owner, an elderly woman who had the little dog for 10 years so I'm glad at least I could keep her from feeling this pain. So that is a new beginning in a nutshell as time goes on we shall see how it plays out.