distractions

Recently, Oprah did a show on driving while cell phone talking/texting and its harmful effects. I don't like Op and usually and never watch her, but the re-run was on today, so i watched a bit to help aid in my packing procrastination. It was pretty brutal, showing numerous totally preventable deaths that occured from texting while behind the wheel. so sad.

Off topic...you know when you're pregnant(which i'm SOOOO not) and it seems like everywhere you go ALL you notice is pregnant women. It seems like they come out of nowhere and are EVERYWHERE you look? But really, its just you noticing them more because you're in the same boat.
anyways, thats me and vehicles right now. I've never been one to notice a sweet ride, or check out a make or model of a vehicle EVER in my life. But now that we're looking for one, i CANT stop. I'm constantly twisting my head around, looking over my shoulder, peeping tom into peoples vehicles to check out the interior and I can't help but notice the make , size, color, of every nice vehicle i see. I just cant help it.

So today, i'm driving Greta to ballet and i'm at a red light waiting to turn left. At the adjacent light is a super nice black, SUV-ish, toyota, something or other and i wanted to know what it was. My light turns green, i have a turning arrow, i proceed, crank my neck, and JUST about ram right into the stinking light post. seriously, i swerved hard, and missed it by an inch. what an idiot.

right after i thought to myself, good thing i wasn't on my phone at the same time. we would have been toast. we just need to hurry up and get a vehicle so i can be distracted by something else more safe.

and the worst of it is, I STILL don't know what that toyota was.

1 month and not counting.

***Warning- Serious, story like, and very long post. tune out now if you're looking for entertainment.***

woah, its been way too long since i posted anything. mostly because this past month a and a half really has been a complete blur. okay, who am i kidding? this whole year. i remember going into this last year of school thinking, its going to be sweet, less stress, more time to chill, kids are getting more independent, time to make life plans, etc etc. Ummm....not so much. I feel like we've been on a slippery slope since september and can't level out and catch our breath. time is passing so quickly. with that said, it IS nice after all the turmoil to have things sort-of planned out and set in motion for the next phase of life. this is how it all went down...(i'm doing this more for the record than anything, so sorry if it's long)

plan a) Decide where we want to LIVE, and find a JOB

Simple enough right? look at the pros/cons of your top places and choose somewhere. easy peezy. well, lets just say that when i married dick i knew the "families from 2 different provinces" thing would be difficult. but as long as we were together it would be fine. and it has been, except we've spent almost EVERY holiday, weekend, vacation and dollar traveling many hours to visit family, and we wanted to change that. so after much discussion we thought okotoks would be a happy medium, close to my fam, close to the airport, close to shopping, close to church peeps. and so on.

then comes the finding a job part. who knew how lame that would be? not me. turns out, just because you're a dentist doesnt mean you have a foot in the door at any office of your choice. for one, they have to be looking for an associate, then they must offer some sort of almost full time schedule so you dont go broke. then the dentist has to be normal, not stinky, or pervert-y or bad dental-philosophy-y. oh, and also, if you know someone in the business, that helps...alot. too bad that ain't us. but we were able to meet with a great dentist and his wife in okotoks and felt pretty good about it. too good to be true?

so after waiting and waiting to hear from office manager after office manager, things in okotoks were taking a lot longer than we planned. and we didnt want to put all of our eggs in one baskie so we thought we better look around somemore. but the thoughts of calgary made us ill, and anywhere else in okotoks was a dead end. did i mention dick was still going to school full time during all of this? but we were still hopeful and prayerful that something would work out, and that the Lord would provide.
one morning, dick wakes up literally and says:

Him: "I think we should look in Lethbridge"
Me: "No"
Him: "Yes, i really do"
Me: " No seriously, NO!"

Usually in those type of situations, i get my way. Not that day, he kept bringing it up, asking me to call around etc. etc. So i thought i'd appease him, knowing the jobs there were pretty picked over from what we heard. Long story long, he had an interview that weekend. Before he met with the dentist, he called me and said, "Just so you know, I know i'm going to get the job and love it, and we're going to move to Lethbridge" I just laughed, cause he always says stuff like that just to annoy. 5 hours later. He calls back, "It went great, THAT is where I want to work, but I'll go wherever is best for all of us." I was seriously in shock. then tears. It was a good thing he wasnt home to see me, it was ugly. I dont know why, i just felt so sad. I think you have an idea in your mind of what your life will be like, and how it will play out, and mine never ever had Lethbridge written in the fine print.

When dick got home we talked some more, and i knew we needed to decide quickly because the same day dick found out he had the opportunity to work in Lethbridge, he also found out the same news from the Dentist in Okotoks.... crap. I wanted so bad just to say take the Okotoks job. But honestly, most of the reasons were pretty selfish. So i sucked it up, cleaned the slate and asked a higher source. It was just like when I was dating dick and he said he already felt a strong confimation about marrying me, and I was too scared to find out the answer on my end. You know how that story wound up:) Well, turns out, i did recieve an answer through the events that transpired over the next weeks.

plan b) SELL our house, BUY another one

We have had such amazing blessings in this department, mostly due to my mothers insight, but also because of timing. Timing is EVERYTHING. when to buy/sell is crucial, especially in our flip/flopping economic state. So, WAY earlier than planned, i felt strongly that we needed to list our house before we left for reading week. So I literally had a week to deep clean, pack some, organize, fix, and polish up our house for showings, all by myself. I do work best under pressure, but this was ridiculous. We strolled out of our Listed house on a Saturday, and planned to return in 2 weeks. I PLEADED with the Lord that if it was right, that miraculously our house would sell while we were gone.
Mean time, back at the ranch. (okay this is gonna be a novel) Dick was up north working, and without cell phone, internet, or basically any means of communication. BOO! Thank-goodness i had my family to help make some crucial decisions, and that they happen to be real-estate geniuses was nice too! After almost 2 weeks, and no legit offers on our house, I was packed and ready to leave back to saskatoon in the morning. I was sad, and depressed even thinking about being home alone with the kids, and showing our house a billion times blah blah blah. That night we got a call, and an offer, and sold our house. YEAH!!!! It was such a relief.

On the way home, sitting on the floor of a 7 person van, with 8 people in it. I thought about all the things that had transpired since dick said he felt strongly that we needed to look in Lethbridge. Finding a dentist that was looking for someone, getting along with him, getting the job, how i felt at the temple when i went, how i felt impressed to list our house quickly, and that it SOLD quickly. call it what you want, but it was all a miracle to me. I couldn't dent it.

This whole year we've been praying for the Lord to bless us to feel the spirit and be directed on the right path for our family. I can not deny that this has come to pass. And as much and Lethy drives me crazy, i know its where we're supposed to be, and so we'll make it work no matter what. I mean, i wasn't too thrilled about moving to saskatoon either, and look how well that turned out!

So now we're down to 1 month left in saskatoon, and i'm feeling sad, nostalgic, a little frantic, but excited.

I'm sad to leave this city, weird as it seems. I've really come to love this cold, bridge-y, spray park filled, circle driv'in place. and I can honesty say we've made so many wonderful lifelong friends, and really grown closer as a family, that I cant imagine what life would have been like these past few years anywhere else.

So, one month left and i'm NOT counting down. i'm just going to try and not stress(After the RS party of course) pack a little each day, enjoy this insanity of a beautiful spring we're having and spend time with friends and my little family!


oh, and i forgot to mention we bought a place last week. Havent seen it yet ( i know right?) but here's the outside, its going to be great!

before and after

Seeing as we sold our house I figured its time to post some before and afters of our place.... sniff, sniff.

Front Entry

Living room

Dining Area

Kitchen 1


Kitchen2

Master

Kids rooms

we didn't do much to the suite in the basement. but we really put our blood, sweat, and tears into this house. I'm greatful it sold while we were gone so i didnt have to try and vacuum behind my children as they play.
oh and sorry i've been outta commision for awhile and not commenting or posting anything. this month has been a doozy. more to come.

i was thinking

i think its natural to compare your children. their personalities, physical features, bad habits etc. and in doing so today i thought to myself. 'man, ozzie has some meaty thighs, i just wanna bite em'...i wonder if they are chunkier than gretas at that age?' so i inquired further...

i cant decide?

greta at 16mnths( ha ha, this pic kills me)


Ozzie at 16 mnths (he is mid stride)

i also think its funny that kids love being in "downward dog" all day long at this same age

G-ride


O-dizzle

one more for the road...whats up with the constant obsession with shoes?

greta has always had good taste in stilettos


these are gretas snowman slippers that ozzie brings to be every 20 min. or so until i put them on, and then screams if i try to take them off.

too funny. i love this age so much. if only i could get an translator for all of ozzie's yammering and screaming for things that i have no clue what he's talking about, then we'd be set:)

oh and p.s. to you photographers out there...why am i getting so much back shadow in my pics? help?

snowman?

it has been ridonkulously warm here this January, and all i have to say is HALLELUIA! I can count on one hand the times we've been able to play out in the snow here since we moved here 6 years ago, so needless to say we've been trying to take advantage of the global warming:) I was sick with some weird crazy virus this week, but we did venture out in the yard a couple times.

Ozzie wasn't overly thrilled about the snow blocking his path to the slide, but he enjoyed being outside none the less.

Greta was lovin it, going down the slide a billion times and making a stick garden with all of the twigs that fell off the neighbors tree.

and of course they both enjoyed a ride in the car! ( best outdoor toy ever)

Dick went out with greta on friday and began our first snowman ever. we learned from the death of the Cahoon snowman (RIP), and decided to make ours in the back yard instead. It was a bit of a process, and then we had to go somewhere, so we left him without a head. when we came outside on saturday to finish making frosty it was too cold to make snowman heads so this is what we ended up with...

nacho libre-man? i dunno, but it was all we had.

i like this pic

not sure why ozzie has 2 touques on and looks very cone head-ish


little miss greta looking disheveled and cute as per usual:)

all in all it was good times, except for an ozzie face plant in the icy hard snow bank, but i sure hope this weather continues, maybe we'll get to use our toboggans yet!

slow and steady

I dont know about everyone else, but I have a difficult time getting back into the swing of things after Christmas. I think something about the turkey, and treats, and veg-ing, and movie watching, and shopping etc. etc. physiologically makes me move slower, be motivated less, and actually feel like time is standing still in January. I'm not big on New years resolutions either(obviously), but that's for another post completely.

In light of this, I will be blogging Christmas in sessions, collage style. not the most attractive form of picture posting, but who am I kidding, posting pics on blogger sucks anyways, so this is best for now.

We did have a FABULOUS Christmas at my Mom and Dada house in Lethbridge. Me and the kids went a week early so Dick could finish exams, and then he joined up with us on our Anniversary, which was a pleasant surprise!

One of the great things about only having to do one side of the Family at Christmas is that its pretty low key, and you actually get to relax a bit. The perks of a small family I guess:) Speaking of perks, lets talk about a few this year... non-stop delicious food, the best Turkey dinner of my life(for real), babysitting at the drop of a hat, cousins to entertain the kids, trips to Great Falls for the BEST shopping, parties with good friends, generosity above and beyond anything I would ever expect, and of course lots of time to enjoy Family! Thanks Mom and Dad SO much!!!

Greta and Ozzie were both thrilled to play with their cousins, even though Ozzie swiped a few of them at times! It was cousin HEAVEN for Greta, she would have eat , slept, breathed, Kaiya and Jag every day if she could!
Here's a few pics of the kids playing, eating icecream, opening presents, dressing like ballerinas, being ninjas, and wearing cute Jammies from Grandma and Grandpa!

It was also the first time the kids have really been able to play in the snow this year because A) we had barely any snow in Saskie when we left, and b) it was too stinkin COLD to go outside! So Greta was so excited to make snowballs, and angels, and forts, and Ozzie beyond loved us draggin him around on the sled.

We also adopted a Jahn family tradition of eating the most delicious waffles of all time on Christmas morning, I haven't seen my Dad eat that much in years! Both Greta and Ozzie loved being with their Gandparents, even if it took Ozzie 2 weeks to warm up to dad:) Greta used her powers of persuasion to get everything she wanted or thought she needed from Grandma...especially Grandma hugs, and she loved learning to sing "On top of Old Smokey" with Grandpa! I'm so grateful our kids have such amazing Grandparents (on both sides) to learn from and make memories with!

okay, i'm spent.

to become like a little child

...only little children have the imagination to come up with brilliant names for their littlest Pet Shop pets such as these.

the puppy- Ulla
the iguana- Proneza
the canary- Rezella
the kitten- Rodessera (she is the cousin to Gretas My little Pony named Rodessero)
the turtle- Marsipelli

the list goes on...those are the only ones i wrote down. and its not like she just makes them up and forgets them 30 seconds later. she has it down to a science and really puts some thought into her naming system.