A Long Overdue Update

At some obscure moment this week, I realized that I had not posted an update on us recently and though nothing much new has transpired, it's always nice to let those you know and love that you're around and not getting into too much mischief.

The move to Fredericton has proved a good one and we seem to have settled in enough to call this city home. To boot, we even have some folks who we seem to like us (they haven't chased us out with torches and pitchforks yet so that a good sign) and want to hang out with us too. Jeff still drives for the same company...he's been with them now for about a year and a half...but he's having a tough time maintaining his gusto about the job. He really just wants to be home. We need the income his job creates to meet the goals we've laid out for ourselves, primarily getting me back to school.

Speaking of school, I have applied and been accepted into nursing school for Sept. 2010 and we are excited! To a measure, it is still slightly surreal but that will change as it gets closer to my school start date. In the meantime, I have not been sitting idle but I've also not been working as crazily as I was this time last year. I have to say, I am really enjoying not having to work a lot of hours a week. In some of my spare time, I have decided to take swimming lessons at the local indoor pool and have been thoroughly loving that! It's helping me to realize that how if I choose to think that I can learn new things, even though I'm not as young as I was yesterday, I really can learn new things. I was surprised at how quickly I think I caught on to the swimming concepts we were being taught but there still is plenty of room for improvement and practice.

We have discovered that we are big fans of IKEA and the products they sell. I suppose you could say that's an upside (with a catch) for Jeff when he's in areas where there is an IKEA store. It's great for us because we can buy the things we like and could use (smallish things...he has to be able to fit it in his truck) but he also gets to "test drive", if you will, the product before buying. The catch with being able to stop in at IKEA usually means that he's been held up somewhere due to scheduling issues with his load to be picked up or dropped off or he could be just plain ol' stuck with no load. Getting lost in IKEA is a pretty good alternative. There are many IKEA fans in our small body of believers and they all get a dreamy look in their eyes after they ask where he is and find he's in or been to IKEA. They keep threatening to pool their resources and take a road trip up to the nearest IKEA to us but so far, no concrete plans have been made.

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October while Americans have theirs in November. As a tribute to Jeff's American heritage, we hosted an American Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Jeff did the inviting of the guests and before we knew it, we had 20+ people on the list. Our rental house is plenty big enough for the two of us and our two kitties but certainly not in any danger of becoming "large group gathering" central. Up to that point, we had only had 6 people in at any one time. It took some creative maneuvering and a re-arrangement of the living room but we made it work. The folks who came said that they didn't feel cramped but we were definitely full. The whole meal went over with smashing success...loads of food and laughter...an overall good time. It was nice to host a gathering like that...it's been a long time since we've had that many people in our house at one time.

This post has been brought to you today by the letters X and F and the number 5. Thanks for reading! B-bye!