Our Weekend, by the Way, Was Great!

LJ called the immigration people at the Port-of-Entry and the lady he talked to said there was something medical showing up in the system but then her computer froze. So we spent Friday evening getting together all the documents we needed to file LJ's Canadian Work Permit application. Letters, passports, pictures, emails, and receipts. Saturday morning, he called the POE again and talked to the Immigration guy and the medical exam information had all gone through and was positive so were set to go.

The POE we had to go to is only about an hour away so we got there at around 1:30 and were there for about two hours. As it turns out, they only needed three things: LJ's passport, his letter of offer of employment, and the Labour Market Opinion letter. We had the first two but only the system number for the LMO so LJ called the guy that's in charge of hiring him and he emailed it to the immigration officer and about a half hour and $150 later, we were set to go! He didn't even look at the stupid passport pictures OR the receipt that my Dad took great pains to scan and email first thing on Saturday morning (thanks anyway, Dad!).*

So, it's Officially Official. We are MOVING! It's REAL. The plan is to leave here on May 2nd and be in MB hopefully by the 12th. If you're calculating, that means we have three Saturdays to pack before we spend the fourth Saturday packing the U-Haul. This Saturday we're having Chris & Holly over for one last Easter Hurrah (I just filled some plastic eggs about 10 minutes ago). That leaves us with two Saturdays and then the evenings in between. Yikes!

If you know us at all, you know that LJ and I are both very gifted procrastinators. Very. Gifted. We can come up with numerous excuses - both legitimate and ridiculous. But, I just finished packing up the first box of kitchen stuff. Conveniently, most of our breakables are still packed from our last move since my china cabinet was destroyed when it flew off the back of a truck just before we moved (*ahem, LJ* and *sigh*) and since our current kitchen is so small, I keep a lot of my lesser-used kitchen articles in big plastic storage bins in a back room. That's at least eight boxes already waiting for a moving truck. Last night, too, we went through the freezer and threw away old freezer-burned food that we didn't need (like popsicles from two summers ago!) and threw away a few things from the pantry that were seriously outdated.

That said, I think I'm going to go work on packing up some of the LG's toys in her playroom which has been off-limits for several weeks already because it's been cold out and we don't keep the heat on back there. We drastically streamlined her toys last week when we were cleaning for the house showing and she hasn't seemed to miss them yet so I can pack those all up too. Not to worry! She's not completely devoid of toys! We've been building forts to read and play in in the living room, looking at catalogues before we rip them up for packing material, and she's been spending evenings playing with the big box of dominoes with LJ or colouring or SAYING WORDS - at least as of last night.



*For anyone that found this via googling Canadian Work Permit Application - let us encourage you to apply at a POE. LJ got his medical done first and they submitted the paperwork for that. Less than three weeks later that info had all gone through Ottawa and was in the computer. Applying at a POE was so much easier than having to send all the paperwork in the mail and risk getting it sent back because the information wasn't complete. You should make sure to bring all documentation listed on the checklist though, just in case the Immigration officer you see decides s/he wants more info than the guy that we saw.