Air Adventure!

The adventure has now led us up into the atmosphere!!  This weekend we, along with our new friends the Sabines, took an aerial tour of our new home to celebrate Father's day and both of the dad's upcoming birthdays.  What an experience!

We loaded up all of the kids, strapped everyone in to a 9 passenger prop plane and took off!  We toured the plant sites where Chris and Doug work, the forest and rivers and our little dot on the map.  It was amazing to see everything from such a new perspective.  We truly are a lone town in the middle of nowhere! Once we left town, there was literally nothing but trees as far as the eye could see.  You could see the little rivers that flow into the Athabasca are almost black naturally from all of the oil that is in the ground here.  That explains why it looks so dirty!  The plants and mines were huge and busy, even on a Saturday!  It was interesting to see all of the work it takes to end up with gas in your car at the end of the day.

The big boys were more excited than the little ones, it was almost like Christmas for them!  The kids were engaged for a while and then started to become bored once they didn't see their schools or landmarks they recognized.  Jackson fell asleep about halfway through, not sure how as it was a loud and bouncy ride!  Aila's reaction was less favorable, she cried every time the plane dipped, bounced or turned.  Poor Jody became air sick from all the bouncing and will tell you not to eat blueberries before flying!  I am sure the pilot was never so glad to see an hour come to a close....

We ended the day with a cook out at our house and backyard badminton.  It was a wonderful day spent with friends and I hope that we have many more adventures like this one!

May-The Long and Short

May was the longest, shortest month of my life.  In many ways it flew by and in others it was endless.  May is usually full of the hustle and bustle of the end of school, my volunteer commitments culminating, sports winding down and the beginning of summer.  Not so for these transplanted Americans!  May here means another month of school, the height of lacrosse season and my duties as team manager are in full swing.

It was a bittersweet month for me.  I have found in my lacrosse experience some new and wonderful friends and I am blessed to have these women in my life.  I was desperately in need of adult conversation and a feeling of belonging, you all know I am adrift without people!  The flipside is it makes me miss everyone at home even more!  It was hard to read all of the Facebook posts about all of the fun and precious moments had by everyone in this last rush before summer!!  

While bittersweet, May has been busy!!!  We traveled 6 hours for Jackson's first lacrosse tournament last weekend and are prepping for another next weekend.  They played hard and well, even though we had no wins, they held their own against teams that have games every weekend.  These tournaments will be the only games our boys play as Ft. McMurray's league does not have enough kids to have multiple teams per age group.  I am a proud mommy!

We also spent a weekend in Edmonton shopping for summer clothes and furniture for the house and of course my list is still a mile long, there is never enough time!  I miss Houston every day, but especially when I need to shop!  

Our adventure continues to be less adventure and more logistics.  The issues this month, school and medical care!!!  We discovered that the schools are quite a bit behind where the kids were at home and were very concerned about them falling so far behind that when we get home to the states there will be no catching up. We said the word HOMESCHOOL a lot.  Thank goodness we found what will hopefully be a good solution to the problem.  On every Friday these children have off, and let me tell you there are MANY, the kids will do lessons online from a homeschool curriculum that is US based. They will also put in an hour of lessons after school every day.  We are going to try this for 6 months and will then evaluate their progress.  Please pray this works.   Medical care...pediatricians see kids, all kids, right?  Wrong!!!  Here kids see a GP unless they are referred to a pediatrician for medical problems.  That so didn't work for me, so I jumped through tons of hoops but emerged the victor!  Thanks to my wonderful pediatrician in Texas and a helpful secretary at the doctor's office here, my kids will be seeing the pediatrician ALL the time!  Now if only I could convince them to give shots at the doctor instead of at Public Health...not looking forward to that.  

On the home front, the boxes still abound.  My goal of having them gone this month has not been reached and I feel an overwhelming sense of frustration.  I need less baby, more husband in order to make a dent in the mess.  Neither is going to happen anytime soon.  :(  Chris continues to work long hours and it hampers my ability to do much more than the daily stuff.  This is why you nest while pregnant, because nothing gets done after!   Do not change nests within the first 2 years unless you want to lose your mind! (which I cannot do, because according to my new found friends there is not a shrink in town!)

 We are heading into June warding off insanity and looking forward to more adventure!

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.  Last night while I tossed and turned I was thinking about what Mother's Day means to me.  It is a day for me to celebrate my amazing mother and hopefully for my children to spoil me for  a few minutes, but even more so, a day for me to celebrate all of the reasons I LOVE being a MOM.

This Mother's Day is a unique one, it is the first in our new country, coming in on the heels of the most stressful move we have ever made.  I have been guilty of letting the stress get to me and I am afraid I have spent time on frustration and sadness that would have been better spent with my kids.  This year I am choosing to use Mother's Day as my New Year's.  I resolve to count my blessings instead of my disappointments.

I am so blessed to have three beautiful and amazing children.  Every day they give me a reason to be the very best version of myself.  Even when the best version of me is decked out in sweats, I have the best job on earth.  My children have taught me so much, if I teach them half as much as they have taught me, I will have been a success.  They have taught me the value of patience, to find joy in the small things, to take life a day at time, to love without measure...I could go on for days.  They are my greatest pleasure.

To see my list of Reasons I Love Being a Mom click below.
http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a45304f5441334d446b3d0d0a&blogview=true

The First Month

One month ago today, we drove away from our home and our life as we knew it and started this journey. It has been a month full of ups and downs and as I sit here looking back I can honestly say up and down are tied.  If you had asked me the first week if I would say that, the answer would have been emphatically, "NO!"

I have tried to keep this updated, so this won't be as much story as impressions.  Our family, while absent Chris a lot of the time, is stronger. We are Team Evans and we will emerge the victor.  We only have each other and making this work is taking a concentrated effort on everyone's part.  I am sure as time goes on it will get easier and feel like less of a battle, but for the moment, we are fighting to find our way.  Starting over is hard under the best of circumstances and these are less than ideal.

While less than ideal, I am finding the good in all things.  Every day the kids get a little more settled.  They are enjoying school and have already made friends.  The bonus to that is that they are making friends from all over the world.  They have classmates from China, India and Pakistan, just to name a few.  How amazing that they have the opportunity to experience other cultures in a personal relationship.  The doorbell is ringing and the outside time is on the up, all good things!  Jackson has started lacrosse, another sport to add to the list and while a little behind and as always, the littlest, he is enjoying it and improves at every practice.  Chloe is really enjoying school, the arts are more emphasized here and many of their lessons are taught through drama and artistic endeavors.  She is thriving and also happily ahead in most subjects, so school is a battle we are not fighting!  Today for their religion class she was the angel sent from heaven during the Resurrection of Christ in a drama performed for the whole school.  While she had no lines, she was great!  Aila is crying a little less every day, but is still her high maintenance self.  :)  I am grateful that the whole day is no longer a scream fest!  She is talking more each day and seems to enjoy the boxes and overall chaos, more stuff to get into!

On the grown up front, I have met a few of the neighborhood moms and they have all been very nice and helpful in directing me on where to go for what I need.(All in Edmonton, but hey...)  Chris is enjoying his work and seems to be impressing the powers that be.  The house is coming along, slowly, but I am hopeful the boxes will be gone within the next month and I am trying not to focus on the fact that it has NEVER taken us a month to unpack before.  All things in time....

Our overall Canadian experience has been limited to the daily life trips, the grocery, school, the bank...I am hoping this summer when Chris' hours get a little more normal, that we can explore our new country and learn what Canada is all about.    The daily life is a little different, a little frustrating at times, but we are finding our rhythm.  I will never get used to the ridiculously slow speed limits, the lack of Mexican food and the inconvenience of driving 4 hours to go anywhere(that I want to go), but I am loving the lack of homework, the opportunities for experiencing new things and the closeness our family is sharing.

Let's see what the next month brings!

Civilization!!!!!

This weekend was the first in a long line of trips that we will be making to Edmonton over the course of our 3 years here.  It was a LONG, BORING drive, but so worth it!!!  It was wonderful to shop, eat out and just be surrounded by urban sprawl...an odd comment, I know.

For the sake of full disclosure, let me say, we do have stores here...just not the variety and caliber that we are used to.  We also have restaurants, second verse, same as the first.  It is also prohibitively expensive to eat out here.  I would also classify our environment as suburban, but without the city.

 For me, Edmonton was Heaven.  Being able to walk into any store I wanted was sheer bliss.  Being able to buy things  that were not groceries or something I had to settle for was sublime.  I felt like a new, old me!  Putting a dent in the long list of items needed for the house was almost secondary to the joy I felt at being able to do so.  I discovered a few stores I had never been in before.  Ladies, Bowring has beautiful decor items!!  Home Outfitters is Bed, Bath and Beyond essentially and I left there with the same disappointment that I leave BBB every time!  :)  Home Sense is exactly like Home Goods and it was my favorite.  I left there with a haul!  4 rugs, 2 hampers, 3 huge baskets and a frivolous chair for Aila, which she LOVES!!!  We also left Ikea, the storage king, with an entertainment/storage unit for the basement and a wardrobe for the guest room.  Last stop, Costco to stock the pantry and freezer with slightly cheaper food...the Sequoia has never been so full!!  We had stuff strapped to the roof!!

Not to disappoint, in typical Evans family fashion, Jackson threw up all over the soda aisle at the Super Walmart!  His concern, his new shoes!  :)  I keep saying I HATE Walmart!

Happily, a dent was made and hopefully another will be made when Chris is off again.  At this rate the house will be put together when it is time for us to move on to whatever is in store for us next.  I am trying not to let that ruin my lingering retail therapy high....

Back to School!

It's Back to School time, again!   Yesterday morning started the kids journey into Canadian life and I am happy to say that both had a good day. I am sad to report that there is no photographic evidence, I was informed that that would be highly embarrassing.

 We got to school after a crazy morning of missing ice packs, dead car batteries and the general chaos of trying to find a routine.  Jackson is in Mrs. Dumais' class and we left him with a few small tears but to his classmates already welcoming him to his new school.  Chloe, the big fifth grader, is in Mrs. Gautier's class and was basically annoyed that we had walked her to class at all...but we gave our goodbyes anyway and left her in the hands of the other students.  

Now, of course, there had to be a little drama,after all, this is me we are talking about.  Just as I am getting Aila down for her nap the phone rings and it is the Catholic Board of Education!  Jackson had thrown up all over the floor after lunch.  Back to school I go, again!!!  I pick him up and load him in the car and I said "How was your day?"  His response was "It was great until the puking thing and get  this Mom...it is only the FIRST day of school and already girls are sending me notes wanting to date me!"  :)  Things are back to normal....But, as most of you know, Jackson is "Laying off girls until I (he) get(s) back to America".  We will see how this plays out!

Home for an hour and we loaded back up to get Chloe from school...I never thought I would say this, but I MISS CARLINE....gasp!  This pick up system isn't a system at all, it is MAYHEM.  There are cars everywhere, in the parking lot, on the street, cars blocking cars that are parked in the parking lot and kids running willy-nilly everywhere!!!  Someone is going to perish, no doubt.  We made it to the car in tact and headed home to Chloe reporting that all was well and she had already made a friend!  Thank God!

Score one for the Evans Family!  We survived the first day in a new school in a new country and everyone came home happy!  

The First Week

I am behind, so bear with me...

Our first week in Canada was a rough one.  The movers came on the first and after a full day of unloading our house was full of boxes...and nowhere to put the contents!  I have said before, the homes here are much smaller and this one, while lovely, is not well laid out and lacks storage(a man designed it!), so the task of emptying the boxes is proving to be a challenge.  The house currently looks like an episode of Hoarders and I see no end in sight.  It is making me more than a little nuts.

Adding to the insanity, Chris went directly to work on the second and he is gone roughly 15 hours a day, for 12 days straight.  Me, 3 kids and boxes-ALONE.  I cried, a lot.  Topping that off, Aila was vomiting all last week.  Needless to say, I accomplished nothing and it was a truly awful week.  Nothing makes you want to pack up and go home like that.  Thankfully, God saw my need and Chris was off unexpectedly Easter weekend.  Not as much as I wanted got done, but a small dent was made and I was so happy not to have to spend Easter alone.  I was heartbroken at the thought of him missing Easter, for all of us.

It was also a hard week for the kids, the adventure ceased to be one and there was and still is a lot of homesickness flying around(for kids and adults alike).  It is so hard to leave your home and start again, especially when everything is so different!  You wouldn't expect Canada to be different, it is just like America, right?  WRONG!!!!   Where we are is very remote, we are 4 hours away from the next spot on the map-literally.  The town itself is not overly small, just off on it's own, with nothing to do, nowhere to shop and miles away from the world.  Our highlight last week was going to Walmart, y'all know I HATE Walmart.  The food choices have also proven to be quite a issue.  Jackson may never be the same...after the chicken nuggets were brown inside(I don't think they use breast meat) he sent an email to my mom the subject line read "SOS",  the content "Get me outta here, this place is a dump".  Unfortunately, my sentiments exactly...

.But, it's time to put Debbie Downer away and focus on all the good things.  We are all together, we are healthy and IT WILL GET BETTER!!!  Life is what you make it and we are going to make it good.