Hey, Mrs. Wilson!

My WordPress is not working.  I have to update AGAIN!  Didn’t I just do it last week?

Our trip started out bright and early on Sunday morning. We left at 7:30 am (BC time), which, according to Noah, was not early enough. We made about eight thousand stops between Terrace and Jasper. We stopped in Smithers to pick up Kaylie (she’d gone ahead with Grannie), in Houston for gas, a bathroom break in Vanderhoof, in Prince George to drop Kevin and his stuff off and then we went for gas and lunch, in McBride for a bathroom/gas stop, and finally we got into Jasper at about 9:00 pm (Alberta time).

All five of us bathed to get rid of the sweat we’d accumulated that day. The bath tub was quite disgusting by the time we were through with it.

We started out early again the next morning (again, not early enough for Noah) and made it to Edmonton without having to stop for even one bathroom break. I was quite impressed with that. We made the two most important stops in Edmonton. IKEA and Wendy’s. Noah and I (and my dad) are quite the Wendy’s fans. Our usual order is a Jr. Bacon Cheese with fries and a chocolate Frosty (coffee for my dad). I then dip my fries in my Frosty, as Todd taught me on an infamous Breakforth trip many years ago.

After Edmonton, we started out to Saskatoon to Noah’s parents’ place. If I remember right, we made it there with just one gas stop but without a bathroom break (besides a really quick road-side one for Kaylie).

On the third day of the trip, Canada Day, we chilled in Saskatoon with Noah’s parents and sister. We checked out their places of employment, enjoyed my mother-in-law’s cooking, and saw the beginnings of their new home, which at the moment consists of only of a foundation and basement walls.

We really enjoyed our time with the other Wilsons while we invaded their house. We slept seven people in two bedrooms, with one on the couch. They were nice enough to buy some homogenized milk for Liliana, and right before we left I filled up all her bottles with it since I didn’t think they’d be using it. I put 3 full bottles in the fridge, and then promptly forgot them, remembering about 30 km outside Saskatoon. Brilliant.

Finally on the fourth day, Wednesday, we headed to Regina. Before we left, I went to a clinic to get checked out as I’d been sick for a couple days and Noah finally convinced me to go in. Apparently I either have bronchitis or tonsillitis. I haven’t gotten the call back from the doctor yet. That day, we forgot to charge the two-way radios. Thankfully it was the day with the shortest drive and we got to our new home without losing each other.

We found our place quite easily and unloaded the van and truck while Liliana took a nap. That nap could not have been timed more perfectly.

Thursday we fumbled around the city and bought some things for the house. We’re doing pretty good so far. We’d both been here a couple times before for punk shows while we were at Briercrest, so the main roads were familiar. We finally bought a map so that we could cut down on the number of u-turns we did.

Friday we brought my dad to the bus station and then took off to camp. Another funny thing that happened at camp during chapel was that Liliana was constantly trying to get up to the platform at the front. Whether it was during a song or while Russ was speaking, she made a bee-line for front. A not so funny thing that happened was that Kaylie met some not so nice girls. Kids are mean. When Kaylie tried to play with a certain two girls, they usually tried to ditch her. I finally convinced her to find a girl that was by herself and to play with that girl. She finally found a couple nice ones that I was thankful for. Also, I went through 6 packages of Kleenex while at camp. Apparently I’m allergic.

I’ve literally been sweating since I left BC. Apparently Saskatchewan is HOT! I’ve been stoked for the cooler weather we’ve had since Sunday. It’s quite a relief.

In one week, we packed up everything we own, moved it halfway across the country, set up our new home, and went to camp. I’m a little exhausted. But, for your benefit, I put together a little montage for you to enjoy.

Moving with the Wilsons from Jen on Vimeo.

In exciting news, yesterday I got a job and today we (FINALLY!) got the internet. I have to say I’m a little more excited about the internet, although the job allows us to have the internet so apparently they’re connected. So, now hopefully you’ll be updated more often and Chelsey won’t be disappointed anymore! And, I can read blogs again. My Google Reader is up to 366 and I have to admit I don’t think I’ll be able to read all of them unless I stay up all night for the next couple nights.

My favorite thing so far about living in a city is the shopping. The SALE shopping! Between yesterday and today I spent $150.00 on new work clothes and got 2 pairs of pants, 2 dresses, 2 sweaters, 4 cami tanks, 1 t-shirt, 1 hoodie, 2 pairs of shoes, and 4 necklaces. I LOVE it here, but I desperately miss my friends. You know who you are!!

Traveling in a air-conditioning-challenged van = 950 km
Gas for 2 vehicles = $459.00
2 salads and some vegetables in Jasper = $42.00
A long hot shower after 12 sweaty hours of driving = priceless

Sorry about the feed issues. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, contact your local psych ward. Ask for Jen.

Dumb Canadians we are.

I spent the evening at Ann’s doing more painting and such. It was supposed to be just the two of us, when all of a sudden most of her growth group (small group from the church) came by and said that instead of doing a Bible study, they were going to help her finish the suite and do anything else she needed done.

How awesome is that? That is true Christianity. Helping others. Showing love to others. Showing up and doing what needs to be done when you were not asked or expected to do it.

So, instead of Ann and I doing all the work, there were 13 of us.

We ran out of trim paint, so Jeny, Ann, and I whipped over to Wal*mart to get some. While Ann was waiting to have the paint shaken, Jeny and I went to go look at curtains to section off the bedroom-ish inlet thing (more on that later).

The space that needs to be sectioned off is 11 feet long. We were trying to figure out how many inches that is. Um, there are 16 inches in a foot, so 11 x 16 is … what? It took us about 10 minutes to figure that out. There was a lady standing by us who must have killed herself laughing at us Canadian idiots.

Ann came with the shaken paint and we told her what we were trying to do. She looked at us like we’d just told her the sky turned green and said. “Guys. There are 12 inches in a foot, not 16.  There are 16 ounces in a pound.”

“Oh.”

And I call myself a bookkeeper and she (Jeny) a nurse.

It was almost as bad as Harold, with his back to the living room, turning the dimmer switch up and down thinking it didn’t do anything just to be turned around and asked by the painters of the living room what he was doing.

But not quite.

Or maybe we were worse.

What can I say. I grew up with the metric system, eh?

Garage salers are crazy.

I advertised that we’d start at 4:00 pm. A guy knocked on the door at 2:00 pm saying that we’d advertised for that time. Noah told him to go and check his list (I wasn’t even off work yet) and he came back and said, “Oh, you’re right, see you at 4!”

As I was setting up inside our garage, a lady was scoping out the place at 2:45. She sat there in her car across the street until 3:10. I wasn’t about to open the garage door because all hell would break loose if I did that. I finally was ready and opened the garage door at 3:25. We were bombarded by about 60 people even before our real start time (including the overeager lady).

The bad news: It was stinkin’ cold! We closed up shop early because we were freezing, and because it seemed as though Rush Hour was over. The good news: we made $638.63. Wahoo! In reality we made $200 less than that because we sold Todd’s guitar and apparently if it’s his guitar we have to give him the money. Pffft. (No Todd, that’s not farting, it’s spitting.)

In other news, I got my hair cut. And dyed. And my eyebrows waxed. That hurts! I’ve never done the eyebrow waxing thing before, but my hairdresser is also my friend and we’d talked about it the day before, so I figured I’d try it. It’s worth the pain.

Oh, you want to see pictures? Okay.

I have to say that this is my favorite hair cut in a long time. (I should have gotten Noah to take the picture this morning, instead of after a day of work and dealing with crazy garage salers, but alas.) I like the color, I like the cut, I like the fact that my bangs go behind my ears, I like that it’s short enough not to annoy my neck, and I like that I can still put it up.

What’s that? You don’t like it? Well I’ll do to you what I did to Noah earlier.

I may have given Noah the hairy eyeball for making me laugh when I was trying not to look like a geek for once. You know Noah, you’re supposed to put me in focus, not the background. Nice try though. You may have deserved the hairy eyeball.

But you know, when all the hairy eyeballs are said and done, I still love this guy. Because he’s hot.

Every sentence that I wrote after this, Noah made me delete because of supposed inappropriateness (which apparently isn’t a word) he exercised creative control.

The end.

I put on rice and went to read blogs play with my baby.

I heard a boiling noise.

I remembered that I put rice on and went to check on it. Whoops.

It was bad. It was not as bad as this, but it was not good.

Nothing was damaged, but I had to start the rice over again.

While I was in the kitchen, I left my baby alone with my laptop and my slurpee.

When I remembered this fact, I ran back to the den to find Liliana flicking blue slurpee on the keyboard.

Awesome. (Noah. Breathe. In. Out. Repeat.)

When the rice was back on, I remembered that Liliana was supposed to be having her evening nap. She went down 15 minutes late (which is okay in the morning and afternoon, but not that swell in the evening.)

As I came back down the stairs after tucking her in, I remembered again about the rice. It was boiling. It was okay. I put a lid on it and turned it to low.

Like I said, I’m a genius. And Mother of the Year.

I’ve climbed on the band wagon. I opened an etsy shop. If you don’t know what etsy is, it’s like a giant craft fair. It’s a site where people sell all things handmade. From clothes to diapers to lampshades … you name it and it’s there.

I listed my first item last night and will continue to list items for the next couple days. My first one? A taggie blanket. I’m starting small. There is a link to my shop in my left banner.

My goal by the time we move is to be able to work from home. I love working outside my home, but more than that, I want to raise my children myself. Kaylie started daycare when she was 7 months old and was in it until just before she turned six. I don’t want to do that with Liliana. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with daycare, it’s just that Liliana will most likely be my last baby and I want to be there for the early years.

The plan (after the move) is to have a day home caring for 2 or 3 children that are not my own and to have an etsy shop. I’m hoping that it will be enough for me to contribute to our income. If not, I will find a job outside our home. Plans change, but that’s what I’m hoping for.

During this now-over Christmas season, I think we’re over saturated with false pictures of Jesus. False physical pictures. All the pictures I’ve seen portray a white baby or a white man. Jesus was not white. Are you shocked? Think about it. He was born in Israel to Israelite parents. I know that He was not conceived the conventional way, but I do believe that he looked just like any other Israelite man would. He had dark skin and black hair. He was not white, he did not have blonde hair, and he did not have blue eyes. He did not look like Brad Pitt.