Finally!

We made it here in one piece! The last few days of the trip were infinitely better than the first few - only because we did more fun stuff and slightly less driving each day. We made it across the border, somewhat surprisingly because we accidentally chose the Port of Entry* with the two crankiest customs officers I've met in recent years. They were brutal! It didn't help that it was right over the supper hour and the Little Goat was NOT happy to be waiting on food and then I had to change her on the ground outside because they didn't have a public bathroom....anyway, we're here now and phew!

We got to our new house and my parents and uncle were already there and Erin K. & Co. arrived just a few minutes after we did. Mom brought food so we ate and then started unloading. Two of my old friends from college who live in the same town also came over to help and the truck was unloaded before dark!

The house itself is huge and we are going to be spoiled! Our couches are set up in the living room along with two big end tables that are old but were already there and go rather well with our couches, and we still have this huge area of carpeted (!) empty space! Yes, that's right. Empty. Space. The bedrooms are big too and the girls' room is just the perfect size for sharing. Even the shade of pink doesn't look too bad with all the white furniture.

Our bathroom and backyard are another matter entirely. I've always wanted a purple bathroom for whatever reason and I lucked out in that the toilet, sink, and bathtub are all - PURPLE! Not even a bad shade of purple (even LJ likes them). The thing is, there's carpet in the bathroom. Like nasty green indoor/outdoor carpet. It's at the top of our list of requests to make of the landlord because carpet in a bathroom? Yikes!

The backyard is merely the product of Renter's Neglect. Most of it hasn't been taken care of in well over a year and because it's so big it now looks like a wilderness preserve. The creek which I was imagining to be so picturesque isn't so much picturesque as deadly-looking (there's at least a 6-8 foot DROP down to the bank), but then we found out it's called Dead Horse Creek so I suppose the name makes the view rather fitting. LJ has decided to design some sort of old-fashioned type sign with a horse skeleton on it just to be funny. There IS a garden though and he can hardly wait to plant it. Our landlady (who is great, by the way!) had somebody come in last week to give an estimate so the yard could at least get a good once-over and then we can take it from there. Otherwise, just looking after that could be a year-long project.

We stayed at our new place from Monday until Thursday and came out here to my parents' place on Thursday afternoon. LJ is writing his certification exam as I'm typing this and lots of people are thinking of him and praying all goes well (this really is the last hurdle that we can think of since he needs the certification to work). I'm confident he'll do great though. He's pretty smart, you know.

Our first week back has been an interesting one when it comes to re-orienting myself to living in Canada. Things really are different here and food prices and car insurance prices and truly crappy cell-phone service plans have been a little shocking. On that note, I've decided not to rename the blog just yet because I still do feel like a bit of a stranger here.

Oh, a couple of fun bits of trivia for you:
1) Erin K. & Co. only live about a 10 minute walk from us (though it's been way too cold and I'm too tired to walk anywhere lately) and we are so excited to actually have friends in the same town.
2) Our next -door neighbours to the north of us are an older couple (who we've been assured will "keep a good eye on us" [read: spy]) who used to be good friends with my late grandparents.
3) We weren't even there for 72 hours and a lady from down the street stopped by to bring us (still warm from the oven!) raisin bran muffins (the LG devoured at least four of them) and a card to welcome us to town and told LJ "see you at the clinic!" He's not sure if she works there or if word just travels that fast. I'm pretty sure it just travels that fast.
4) And finally, when we leave my parents' house tomorrow, we're NOT getting on a plane!


*If you're getting to this post via a Google search for Canada Work Permit, let me just tell you that the government website is really incomplete. We learned a lot of things that nobody ever told us and we sure hadn't read anywhere. Email me if you have questions!