Still waiting . . .

We are still here, and STILL without our stuff. This experience of waiting for our shipment has been far from pleasant to say the least. At the end of last week, someone from the move management company contacted us to let us know that the delivery would likely be at the end of the delivery spread, which was two weeks away at that point. You can imagine my confusion, as every indication I had was that it would only be one more week at the most. I started somewhat panicking and asking people for a reason for this delay, and finally someone came back and said that the reason for the delay was because "Mr. Kroeker did not submit the paperwork to us when needed". I can't even begin to tell you how furious this response made me. Brian submitted the transit number the day after we crossed the border, and on Tuesday was asked for pictures of the passports and sent them immediately. They had everything they needed by Tuesday, and they actually tried to tell us that this "delay" in getting what they needed is why our shipment was going to take three weeks. I continued to demand answers and continued to get the runaround. I did talk to someone at the van line who explained that our shipment had already left, and that because of the delay in paperwork we might have a different driver (apparently she was only able to talk to the dispatcher so she wasn't able to get any details). She promised to continue to ask every day about our shipment until she got answers.

On Tuesday of this week (the day our driver told us he would be leaving to bring us our shipment the day they were loading) we find out that indeed, our delivery would be at the end of the delivery spread, but that the driver was aware we were wanting our shipment before school started. Aware but didn't do anything about it evidently. At this point, I'm thinking it will be nearly impossible for them to even switch things around so that we could have our stuff by the weekend, but you know me! I had to try! I continued to demand answers as to what the heck was going on, why I wasn't getting a reasonable explanation, etc. Yesterday morning, I FINALLY talked to someone that gave me a straight answer. She told me that our shipment was coming at the end of the delivery spread because the van line was just using the full delivery spread to their advantage. It had nothing at all to do with our paperwork - that was just thrown at us to make us feel like crap apparently. Apparently the delivery spread is not in place to protect against unforeseen circumstances, as they apparently are confident that the truck won't break down and they won't have trouble at the border. If those things happen, we will just be screwed. As for the truck "leaving" last week, well, our driver is currently still in Calgary completing other moves. One final kick to the gut. I appreciated the last person I talked to because I finally got the truth from her, and wish I could have talked to her a week ago, back when there was still possibly a chance to influence the van line to come sooner. Nobody fought for us, and because of that, we are getting our shipment mid next week, almost three weeks after it was picked up. I'm letting it go because I am acutely aware that no one else involved cares even a fraction as much as I do, so to keep my own sanity, I have to move on. I am praying for a gracious spirit when they show up and that I won't feel too sarcastic and nasty when the driver gives me some BS excuse (or worse if he offers no apology at all).

So that is the saga of how we have been living out of our suitcase a lot longer than expected. I know there will come a time when this will all seem like a distant memory and it will be nothing more than a story I tell. This past week especially has been so hard since Brian started work and I've been alone, some days I think I am literally going to go crazy! I am way too impatient with the kids, who are really coping amazingly well considering. I seem to be having the hardest time coping! The end is really in sight now, with Wednesday only 5 days away. We can make it!

As mentioned, Brian started work on Monday. He would have to elaborate, but from what he's told me, things have gone okay so far. He's already gone to a Mariners baseball game one afternoon instead of working, so it can't be that bad:). Apparently one guy on his team is from Edmonton and moved last year, so I would think that would be a bit comforting! Apparently he has even worked at some of the same places Brian has. One thing he has noticed is the late work culture, everyone seems to come in really late and stay late - something that doesn't really work great for us. Meetings sometimes start at 4 or 4:30! We will adjust to everything I'm sure, and he is starting to get a handle on the bus schedule and when is the best time to go in etc. His commute isn't actually that bad, about an hour door to door on the bus during rush hour, even less when he leaves at slightly off peak times. Driving would be faster for sure, and Amazon does provide him with a bus pass AND up to $160 a month in parking so he can drive sometimes if he wants to.

I don't want to miss out on talking about the kids and what they are up to just because of all the details of what is going on in our lives! Lynsey went to the meet and greet at her school yesterday! We met her teacher and saw her classroom and the rest of the school. I talked to the teacher about her age and how she already completed Kindergarten and that we thought she was ready for Grade One. She did seem a little skeptical, especially since she doesn't know anything about the Kindergarten program she finished (apparently Lake Washington has a VERY academic Kindergarten program). Brian assured me that Alberta Ed also has a very academic program that should be perfectly comparable, so hopefully Lynsey will do just fine. I don't want the teacher to unfairly scrutinize her because she is younger than everyone else, but I did think she should be made aware of her situation. I guess we'll see how it goes. We will have to be prepared for the feedback that she doesn't think Lynsey is ready for Grade One and deal with it if it comes. We have the option of putting her in Adam's school for this year if they want to push her back to Kindergarten, which is I think what we would do. Hopefully it won't be an issue and she'll just blend right in with everyone else:).

Adam has been looking at us a lot more lately. And the eye contact you get when he has pooped in his shorts! He just looks right at us - I always know when he's done this before he even gets close. "Oh no Adam! Oh gross Adam!" he says:). I will say that he has made some progress in the poop area, we've had a few poops on the potty since we got here! And he hasn't been wearing a pull up at night and was only wet the first two mornings early last week, been dry since. I've noticed that he comes close to us now when he wants something instead of just screaming about it in another room. He still does that sometimes, but he has made some progress in this area lately. He doesn't always look us in the eye and ask, but small steps! We went to the zoo last Saturday (nice zoo! I was impressed!) and he was much more interested in the animals than we thought he would be! He was jumping up and down in front of the penguin exhibit saying, "Do you see the zebras Adam?". At least he recognized the color similarities and made that connection! I thought it was pretty funny:).

Nathan has been the highest maintenance of all three kids since we got here. He's just a toddler, what can you say! He's a lot of fun, though:). He has started being affectionate with hugs and kisses sometimes, and his vocabulary is expanding. I've even heard what sounds like a tune coming from him! He doesn't sing the words, but "da da"s to familiar tunes! So cute:). His temper tantrums can be quite bad - he had a bad one at the zoo that lasted a long time. I wanted him to have a nap in the Ergo, and he did not want to. It wasn't pretty! If you put him down, he rolls on the ground, actually very much like the stereotypical tantrum that you might imagine. Poor little guy, just doesn't know what to do with his big feelings!

All three kids have been sleeping well, which has been invaluable to us, and they are all enjoying the trampoline (Nathan is pretty high maintenance on it, as he wants to be on it but doesn't really like to be bounced around). Really I can't complain with how they've adjusted so far. Here's hoping they adjust well to school, too!

I've included pictures of our room and Adam and Lynsey's room just to give people an idea of how we are living right now. I hope I don't forget this time too quickly and appreciate all the wonderful furniture we have for a long time! We booked a room in Tillamook by Canon Beach on the Oregon Coast for Saturday night. We are getting out of this empty house and going for a bit of a drive!

Family Pics taken by Cala Photography

On the Wednesday before we left, Vicki Friesen took yet another session of pictures for us:). Once again, we were really happy with them! It was a really hot day and we had a hard time convincing Lynsey to wear jeans (it was a bit of a stressful time leading up to the pictures!) but at least you can't see that in the pictures! No pictures where everyone is smiling, in most of them it looks like at least one child is trying to get away. BUT this is where we are at, captured to a tee:).

We are here!

This has been one of the most exhausting weeks of my life! But we are here and all alive and things are going pretty well so far:). I will start where I last left off!

Thursday morning, the packers showed up to start packing up the house. Two ladies showed up and I thought, there is no way these two women are going to pack up everything in here by the end of the day! They were there for about 6 hours on Thursday and 1 hour on Friday morning, and they were done. Could not believe it. The downside is that they don't go through everything, so they ended up packing some stuff we wanted left out. All in all though, so much better than packing ourselves! I had some friends over Thursday night to say good bye, a very surreal experience. I still don't think it's sunk in that we've left Calgary. I'm not sure when it will hit me, when the loneliness will set in. So far it's been far too busy to feel lonely! The truck arrived Friday morning and they loaded everything up and were gone by 2pm. When you leave this stuff to the professionals, the efficiency is astounding! The driver said there was a remote chance we might get our stuff later this week, but most likely it will be mid next week. Too bad, Brian will already have started working, but what can you do! We had dinner at Bobbi and Jer's house and stayed in a hotel Friday night (Brian's parents had a room as well so they could see us off Saturday morning). Saturday we were off! Traveling that day went pretty well, we made quite a few stops (stopped in Sparwood for lunch and got some pics with the world's biggest truck:)). The border crossing was pretty uneventful, just took some time. We got to Spokane just as things were starting to fall apart for the kids - don't think they would have made it much longer! We were able to spend some time in the hotel pool with waterslide the next morning - I was so proud of Lynsey going down that big slide all by herself! Once she did it one time, she realized how fun it was and did it over and over again:).

The drive to Seattle wasn't too long the next day and so we killed some time at a local park by our house and had some supper before the walk through at 7. We've slowly been settling in and getting some things checked off the list. I think if we had realized how much there would be to do, we might have chickened out of this move. I just want to scream at everyone that I talk to that, NO - WE ARE CANADIAN AND DO NOT HAVE A SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!! I seem to have to say this over and over again to everyone I talk to - they just don't even know what to do with you if you don't have one! Isn't America the land of immigrants?? Surely we aren't the first non-Americans these people have come across? I guess I should have predicted this, but I certainly did not predict that when I went to the DMV today that I would be told I had to take my learners and drivers test again! And I have to have some kind of interview to verify my residency. Ridiculous! My husband is here working for Amazon, I am his wife, therefore, I have residency here as well! Because my visa is a TD and not a TN I have to jump through these hoops. I want to yell at them all to just get over themselves and stop making this so hard, but I have to just move on. We made this choice knowing what the US was like, so I shouldn't be that surprised. Brian took his written and driving tests today and passed, so I'm hoping I can do the same - how incredibly embarrassing to fail!

Our kids are handling things pretty well, have slept fairly well which has been a life saver! Lynsey is a bit bored and a bit disillusioned with the house (the basement smells a bit, it's all just not as nice and new) but I think she is starting to come around. I found a trampoline on Craig's List today so we'll pick that up tomorrow, I think that will help some with the boredom! It looks like the neighbours have a few little girls, although Brian didn't know how old they would be (he just saw them in the backyard through the trees). I wonder if having a trampoline might encourage some of the neighbour kids to come introduce themselves! Adam is doing great, he loves all the dirt and weeds that he can sift through his hands - he is dirty all the time! Nathan doesn't know what's going on and is the same as always. I find it a bit funny how I was so scared to go from my new house to an old one and that I am already finding things I like much more in this house! I love being on the same level as the kitchen and living room, and we don't even have furniture yet! This kitchen is actually quite large with lots of cupboard space and so many drawers! And a lazy susan! Awesome! The counter tops are a terrible dull red colour that are hard to clean, but all in all I am happy with the kitchen:). Definitely having only one bathroom on the main floor will be the hardest thing to adjust to.

One thing we settled this week is that we are going to be renting out our house in Calgary on a one year lease. Our property management company found a family that had been renting with them already for the last year and a half and just needed a house for one more year until his own house was ready (I think he's building or something?). Apparently he's been a great renter so far (single dad with two kids, computer engineer just like Brian) so I feel a lot better going down this path. We will likely put it back up for sale in June while he's still in there and hope it sells quickly. Not as clean cut as a sale, but we just weren't getting offers that were good enough. We invested too much money in that place to give it away to someone who didn't want to pay quite what it was worth! The property management company helps us take care of most of the headache with taxes and all that, so that's good. Hopefully it works out well!

Tomorrow Lynsey's school opens, so I will call and find out about Lynsey entering Grade 1. She is a bit apprehensive of going to school here because she doesn't know anyone. What she doesn't understand is that it won't be any different than going to Grade 1 at her school in Panorama, because they were going to scramble up all the classes anyway. She will only feel this way for the first day and then she will see that all the kids are in the same boat, that she won't be the only one that doesn't know anyone. If there's one thing we know about Lynsey it's that she has the ability to make friends where ever she goes!

Just a few more days!

I can't believe we are just a few days away from leaving Calgary. I don't know when it will hit me! We have been so busy the time has just flown by! We were just in La Crete for our family campout (I forgot my camera so there are no pictures unfortunately!) and it was a great time! Adam was a bit out of sorts, but all in all it went very well. Lynsey has been pretty "emotional" in general as of late, and had a few meltdowns on the way home - that was not fun.

We have signed on with a property management company to try and rent out the house. We are leaving it up for sale, so basically whatever comes first is what we will do. Our first choice is still to sell it for what we feel is a fair price, but if that is just not happening, we will rent it out on hopefully a short term lease - 6 - 8 months would be ideal. Then we can put the house for sale again in the Spring. I would certainly prefer that this was taken care of before we left, but I guess things don't always work out the way we want! Just praying that the right people come by soon - either buyers or renters.

My next post will be from our home in Seattle! Will hopefully be next week sometime - stay tuned:).