The Move

As most of you know, Greg moved out West about two months before I did.

There were a few fazes to this move.
  1.   Greg leaving to go out west while Meredith and I stay in our apartment.

a.      During this time, Meredith and I spent lots of time together and did many special things.

b.      I was also taking care of a 6 month old baby every day.

c.      I was slowly packing the house. (one box at a time)

      2.  Meredith and I go from living from our apartment to my parents house

a.      At this point, I get people to help me pack

b.      The apartment gets empty and the movers come for the boxes

c.      I make many trips to the dump and to the salvation army

Phase one and two went faster than I thought they would. Meredith did very well. It was not until the end of the 8 weeks, that she was noticeably needier. If I left for the night and she was put to bed by somebody else, she would notice and need me more the next day.

      3.   Meredith and I travel out west. We join Greg and live with Greg’s brother and sister in law
       4. We finally move to the new place

We are currently in phase 3. The move went well. Our stuff is somewhere between Ottawa and Edmonton. Our new place is empty and ready to receive our goods.  

Meredith has done well with the move. She is not sleeping great, but I know it’s an adjustment and will settle down soon enough. She still needs mommy more than she did before Greg left, but I hope that this will decrease as so gets use to the fact that Dad is not leaving for a long time. Meredith loves seeing her dad on a regular basis.  So much so, that when he leaves, she clings to his legs and does not want him to leave. As you can imagine, this makes leaving for Greg that much harder. We both hope that this phase does not last long.

As for me, I am slowly realizing that this is home. It has not sunk in yet because I know we have one more phase to go and we are still in transition. Once things settle down, I think I will feel like it’s the real deal. No going back.

My hope is that I can make friendships with people before the baby comes, so that I will not spend months wishing I had made friends and using the baby as an excuse to stay close to home.

As of now, I am just really enjoying seeing my husband every day, even if it’s not for a long time.

We have lots to explore and lots to do, so posts might not be regular.

Half way there

I am glad that we are half way to reuniting as a family. It’s been 3 ½ weeks and we have 3 ½ weeks to go.  Thankfully, for me, the time has gone by very fast. It helps having a toddler and a baby to take care of every day. It leaves me no time to think about how much I miss my husband. Then, at night, when I should feel lonely, I am so tired; I just want to do nothing.  This lack of energy at the end of the day is slowing down my packing. I have no desire to do anything at night, so I don’t. Impact: nothing has been packed since Greg left.  

One of my big concerns was how Meredith was going to be without Greg around. She is a daddy’s girl. She loves spending time with him and even misses him when he is at work. Thankfully, Meredith has been doing great. Because of Skype and free calling, she can see Greg 2-3 times a day and talk to him just as many times. She sometimes does not say much on the phone, but I think it gives her a sense that He is around. With Skype, it makes her feel like Greg is in the room.  She has taken a very serious liking to my phone and will kiss and hug it when Greg is on. At the start, she would grab the phone from me, run to her room, close her door and sit on the rocking chair and just have a grin on her face and say nothing. This chair is the chair we use every day to rack her before bed and hold her when she is sad, scared, or tired. So, it holds a special place for all of us. Seeing her take Greg there was bitter sweet. I knew that they both wanted special time together and could only have it over the phone. There are times when she says: I want my daddy!! I have a hard time explaining why she can’t see him or be with him, but The Lord has been giving me wisdom about how to answer her during those times.

Even though we all miss each other and wish for the calendar to magically speed up, things are going well. Greg got a job and started last week. We are both very thankful for this. One, because it’s in his field, two because it gives us a stable salary, and three because it gives him something to do everyday besides look and apply for jobs.  Now that the main task of finding employment is done, Greg is looking for a place to live, getting us a family doctor and an OB and getting a church home to start connecting with Christians in the area.

In the weeks to come, we both have lots to do. Those tasks will make the time go by fast. I know that soon enough, we will all be together again. 

Why are you moving?

When I tell people that we are moving to Edmonton, most people ask why. This post is to give an answer to that question.

First, every single one of our actions, plans and steps were brought before the Lord and we truly believe that God has guided us every step of the way. We pray every day for wisdom, guidance and to walk in His will.

Saying that,

The journey started a few years ago when Greg was in a Job in Ottawa and had gone as far as he could go in the company he was working for without moving to Toronto. At that time, we started discussing school options.  

Fast forward to September 2010. Greg started school at Algonquin College in a one year program and would graduate with a journalism diploma.

Fast Forward to April 2011. Greg graduated from college top of his class. He spent the next 6 months unemployed to be then hired at a company for 4 months and then let go.

A week or so before Greg was let go, we found out that we were expecting baby number 2. Before finding this out, we knew that we needed to find a sustainable solution to our financial situation. A solution where Greg could work and get paid a decent salary. As thankful as we were for his previous journalism job, he worked ridiculous hours and got pad very little. We spent months living pay check to pay check and knew that we could not do this for long.

When the news of the new baby came, we knew that we had to do something. Greg had been in Ottawa for 7 years and had yet been able to find a full time permanent job that he was qualified for. We wanted a job for Greg that would pay enough so that I could stay home.  Had we been desperate, I would have gone back to work, but teaching in Ottawa is an almost impossible field to crack into and the possibility of work in Ottawa for me was bleak.

We both love Ottawa. But the more we looked at it, the more we knew that Ottawa had no employment for either of us. We knew that we would have to move. So, Greg started applying for work all over Canada. As he started to do this, he noticed that most jobs he was qualified to apply for were in Edmonton and Calgary.

As we looked at our situation, we did not know what to do. Every day, we live by faith, but we knew that we could not sit around and wait for a job. We had to put a plan in place and see if God would open the doors.

So, we looked at the calendar and set a date. We said: ok God, Greg is leaving for Edmonton May 1rst, if this is not your plan, change our hearts or close the doors. The closer we got to that date, the more we realized that God was going to move us across the country.

There is more to this journey, and I will write about it soon. But, for now, I think this post covers the question: why are you moving? 

New Direction

I want to thank all the people who read my mom points blog. It was a way that I could express myself and use my creative mind. As many of you may have noticed, I have not posted a blog in a while. One such reason is that I found the my days were not as diverse as I thought and my failures and triumphs were the same as well.

So, on to bigger and better things. I have renamed my blag to Markey Adventures. I will write about all the stuff going on in our lives. All of it, or most of it will be new for the next few months as we are moving to Edmonton Alberta and soon after enjoying the arrival of a new daughter. This blog is also a way to remember the cute and funny stuff Meredith says and does, all the ups and downs of motherhood and the way we live our lives. 

Cottage week

For the past 7 days, I have been at a family cottage with my husband and daughter. I would like to say that in that time I accumulated LOTS of points. For the first 4 days, my husband and I hosted friends of ours with their son. So we were 6 people. Then for the last 3 days, it was just the three of us. Before going, I was afraid of how the kids would get along. They are 7 months apart and at this age, it’s hard to know how it’s going to go. I am happy to say that the kids loved each other. Well, Meredith had lots of love for her friend. I am not sure of the other way around, but he put up with her. They balanced each other well. I think we only had one occurrence when both kids had a meltdown together. I think that’s pretty impressive. Usually, when one was crying, the other comforted with hugs and kisses or was out of the way.

The only down part of the whole weekend was Meredith’s sleep habit. For some reason, she decided that it would be a good idea to wake up at 5 or 5:30 in the morning and be up for the day. Because we had guests and did not want to wake everybody up, we had to try to keep her quiet for a few hours. We took her to our bed for the first 40 minutes where she lay with us and then took her downstairs. Meredith soon figured out that she could open doors. So, in her excitement to play and love for her friend, she would run into him room and wake him up. I would stop her, but the whole exchange would end with her in a time out.

Meredith also discovered that she can climb out of her pack and play. So, in the morning, she would get out of her crib and come find us. She would also do this at night when putting her down for bed. She quickly learned that we were serious about bed time. She would get out of her crib, and climb down the stairs to where we were. When she saw us, she would run the other way. You could tell that she knew she was doing wrong.

Days were filled with fun times at the beach, watching the kids dance while listening to music,  lots and lots of food, games with friends and lots of relaxation. The kids were entertaining and the weather was perfect. All in all it was a fantastic time.

Points for the week:

300 points for packing for the cottage while Meredith “helped” (taking things out of a bag after I had put them in, sitting in our suitcase unwilling to move)

500 points for keeping her safe at the beach and not letting her get hurt (it helped that she was afraid of the water and would not go in further then water at her ankles)

200 points for taking Meredith on a kayak adventure (these points should rely belong to Greg because he was the one paddling while Meredith and I sat in the front and enjoyed the view)

600 points for getting up with Meredith at ungodly hours

-200 points for keeping her quiet with Disney movies

400 points for putting her to bed and making sure she stayed in

300 points for making Meredith my helper with setting the table (I would give her a plate and she would place it on the table)

500 points for cleaning the cottage and packing up with Meredith’s “help”. She loves the broom and feels it her responsibility to use it every time it makes an appearance. I was hoping that her fear of vacuums would extend to the vacuum at the cottage, but sadly this was not the case and she felt the need to “help” with that as well.

I am sure there are other points I accumulated, but I can’t remember them right now.

Total points for the week: 2600!!!! 

I think we should spend more time at the cottage!!!