Where to begin ??

Well, to all our faithful blog readers, I apologize for the long delay in getting this post up! What a busy month January was for us! The move back to Canada went very well, with a few tiny glitches, but nothing major. Fletch travelled very well and was eager and excited when we picked him up, but didn't seem affected by the trip at all. We were all excited (and exhausted) upon arriving in Cold Lake - anxious to see our new house. The house was completely finished, and the walkthrough with the builder went well. Since we arrived in Cold Lake a few days before possession of the house, we stayed in a really nice B&B overlooking the lake - though its just frozen and snow covered right now, its still pretty. The B&B was awesome - the lady gave us a huge room (actually, it was two adjoining rooms), two tv's, an ensuite bathroom and even lent us a doggie bed for Fletch! We were able to use the living room downstairs, that had a tv, boardgames, a fireplace and a little snack station - plus, Fletch was allowed to join us down there. It was like a little vacation for us all. We took Fletch down to the lake each day for a nice walk on the ice, while we all adjusted back to Canadian winter temperatures - brrr!






After a 5 day stay at the B&B, our furniture from storage in Ottawa arrived, so we were able to sort of move in to our house - we still didn't have any appliances. Well, we did have an extra fridge in the basement, and a microwave - so we were able to survive, but we still ate out most days anyway. We soon took a visit to the West Edmonton Mall for some new clothes & brand new appliances. Good times ... also, good to know that it is exactly a 3 hour drive from our door to the mall.





Peter started his job at AETE on Jan. 22, and has since been doing a lot of reading, and learning about what AETE does and how he will fit in. No flying yet though ... it seems like he will have some exciting adventures though - like a winter survival course! He is going to be sent out into the wilderness for 2 days, by himself to learn what to do in the event that he had to eject out of an aircraft (which does occasionally happen). So ... the only supplies he would have would be those provided in the ejection seat package - not a lot. There are high calorie gummies to eat to keep up energy levels, but he will have to build shelter, make fire etc. He seems to be pretty excited about this .. I sure wouldn't be! Although, one of his favorite shows is 'Survivorman' ... I'm sure he'll have an interesting tale to tell once home from that adventure!

As of today, we're still waiting for our small shipment of things to arrive from the UK, but we did get our car yesterday (finally!) and things are starting to feel normal again. We've been to church 3 weeks in a row, and are meeting new people each week. The church has been very inviting and we've already made some friends in the young adults group, Peter will be the newest sound technician, and I am trying to get to know the other 12 expectant ladies in the church - that's right, 12!! I think I should have plenty of other 'moms' to hang out with once baby comes along.

Speaking of baby ... I am now 27 and a half weeks. After meeting with my new doctor, my due date was changed back to the original date of May 6th. I'm still feeling really good and baby sure is growing! She kicks harder and harder each week, and she is a very active baby, especially when I lay down to go to sleep :) We are starting to get our nursery together, I've picked a paint color and we're getting excited to get some more furniture in there and have it turn into the cutest nursery there ever was :)



That's the big update for now ... I haven't finished telling you about our England/Scotland vacation, but I think that's kind of on hold for a bit - I'll try and post some of the best pics .. at some point ..

Team PM & tadpole (more like small frog these days!)