And so it begins...

Luke and I started packing stuff up and getting things organized in the house. It's totally amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over such a short period of time!! I basically was just going through paperwork and filing everything we needed to keep and chucking away as MUCH as possible! :) I brought in a whole pile of paperwork to the office yesterday to shred - which was really good cause I hate throwing out stuff with any kind of personal information on it!

We're going to try and see as much stuff as possible and store as very little as possible. We don't have that much furniture that we're planning on keeping - not much has sentimental value or anything. Mom and Dad have offered us storage at their place, which is a huge blessing because storage units look like they may be fairly pricey per month, even for one that's only 5' x 5'! So that'll work out so well. We're going to go through our clothes and give as much away as possible. Stuff that we haven't worn in ages or that just doesn't quite fit right, etc. May as well not store stuff that we don't really care too much about! May as well let it go for someone else to use. I'm going to wash up all my scrubs and see if the girls at work want any of them. If not, I'm going to just see if I can sell them on UsedVictoria or something.

It's all coming together....slowly but surely. We have a tad over a month until we leave....we'll make it happen :)

Oh the joys of moving...

Moving to COLORADO!!

It's been a little while since I posted on here - life gets way too stressful and busy!

As you can see by the title, Luke and I are in fact moving to Colorado on July 2nd....but don't worry, it's only for a year! It's a very long story that has to do with Luke's immigration to Canada. The basics are:

• If we file for Permanent Residency (PR) status from within Canada, Luke wouldn't be able to work until it was all completed and that could take up to TWO YEARS!
• If we file for PR Status outside of Canada (i.e. Colorado), Luke would be able to work and the paperwork could take as little as 6 months and possibly up to a year.
• Luke could make a lot more money working in the States than I could as the only income here in Canada.
• Moving is the best of two sort of crappy options - we don't want to move away from my family but we will get to spend a great deal of time with Luke's family in Colorado which will be great!

So that's the long and short of it really. We'll most likely be gone about a year once everything gets finalized and of course we're hoping for fast processing times through the immigration officer that gets assigned to our application! :) It'll be an adventure - we're trying to make it as fun as possible! We're going to drive down there - so that'll be very interesting. I don't think I've ever been on that long of a road trip - but I do like road trips, so it should be good. I'm excited about living in the States for a year - experiencing a Colorado Summer and Winter! It'll also be really nice to get to spend so much time with Luke's family and extended family and friends, etc. Plus I think Luke's excited about getting back behind the wheel of a schoolbus again! :) All in all, it should be good....it'll be sad for sure, but we do have all the modern conveniences such as internet, webcam, free long distance, etc so that I can keep in touch with my family!
I'm getting excited about it....but get back to me on that a few days before we leave! I'll be a mess :)

End of the week...finally!

It's been a long week! I've been so tired lately...but I'm really trying to listen to my body and get to bed early and really go to SLEEP early instead of reading and what not. I think it was Tuesday night, I went to bed at like 7:45! I was asleep by 8:00! :) That's pretty good right?! Anyway, I am looking forward to sleeping a little more this weekend, however there is deleavening to finish up this weekend as well, so while Luke is at work on Sunday I will be doing that.

So, to continue with my last post about passports....I finally sent my information off last week. I checked it like 4 times and then gave the package to Luke to read over and make sure I hadn't forgotten to check a box or something ridiculous like that! All seemed good so I took it to the Post Office and got it sent off Express so I could track it. It arrived two days later in Quebec and I am assuming they're starting to process it...but possibly not quite yet. Oh well, I'm in no real hurry for it or anything...I just want to get my original ID back safe and sound! So according to the Passport Canada website I should be seeing it around end of May, beginning of June....we'll see!
Now on a totally different tangent....I am super frustrated with the photographer who did our wedding photos!! ARGH is all I have to say. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE our photos...they are beyond gorgeous (if you want to see them go to my Yahoo Photos link on the left side of the screen....for your viewing enjoyment!). But unfortunately Mr. Photog has been extremely difficult to deal with since the process began. He advertises an email address that you can reach him at, but he never checks it (I'm talking months can go by without a response...totally unacceptable), he doesn't do the things he promises he will (such as attending the wedding rehersal which apparently is something he prides himself on doing so he can get to knwo the wedding party by name, etc....apparently it wasn't as important to him as he led us to believe it was! I was so excited to be working with him as I have close friends who have used him in their weddings and I've been in their wedding party so know he is great to work with and his end product is amazing. However this was about 4 and 5 years ago and I think he has gotten too big in his own head and now has this snotty attitude a lot of the time...also totally unacceptable. He makes it seem like you're sort of wasting his time or he is doing you a favour by calling back or showing up!! Good GRIEF...I cannot stand people like that. So regardless to say I was disappointed in him and his professional behaviour. Before our wedding I wouldn't have hesitated to refer him to ANYONE I knew who was getting married...or just wanted an amazing portrait, etc. But now, I am really hesitant because he gave me far more stress than was necessary.

Long story short...half the price of our wedding photo package was this amazing wedding album that was just gorgeous and handmade and all this stuff...we couldn't wait to get it! So we sent an email to Mr. Photog beginning of November with our favourite photos for the album and we have been waiting for it since then! So just a couple weeks ago Luke mentioned something about the album and wondering when we would get it....so I emailed Mr. Photog and asked him what was up since it's been 7 months since the wedding, etc....wondering where on earth our album was. I got an email back from him (that's amazing all in itself really!) and he said he had never received our picture order and so therefore had NOT YET STARTED THE ALBUM!!!! Can you imagine?! And he even had the gall to mention "I'm actually surprised it took me this long to hear from you!"....does he NOT have a phone??! Could he not have realized "Hmmm....I haven't heard from the Nelsons yet and it's been (insert # here) months...maybe I should CALL them and follow up on the album THAT I HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAID FOR!!!!!"

I am angry.

So thankfully I kept track of the pictures that we'd chosen and can email them to him AGAIN. I will also be forwarding off the email from November to him again so he sees that it was indeed sent off (thanks for the idea Mom!). I just think it's so very unprofessional. He is providing a service and he needs to give his clients the service that he promises and that we pay good money for! I dont' expect him to be at my every beck and call, obviously, but replies to email and phone calls would be a good starting point. And that is not too much to ask. I will be very happy to be getting our album back finally...maybe we can enjoy it on our one year anniversary! (sarcasm inserted here)

Well, now that I've riled myself up ;) I should get back to my work! I'm all by myself in the transcription room today so I need to keep the pace up! I am so looking forward to the weekend :)

Have a great weekend all - Happy Sabbath!

Love Kristi

Passport Frustrations!!

So I've been contemplating this passport thing for the past couple months now...I figured I should get one sometime in my new married name and since I had FINALLY gotten around to changing my drivers license, etc, I figured this is a good time! Anyway, I got my passport photos done...paid the $13...got my accountant friend to endorse them for me to guarentee it's me in the photos...and contemplated whether I was going to stand in line with my passport or just send it in. The reason I wanted to initially stand in line and wait for it....even though I would have to get down there at like 3:00 AM....is because I didn't want to send in my original birth cirtificate and marriage license. But anyway, long story short, I decided to just send it in, so I was getting it all prepared yesterday and thought just for the hell of it I would measure my photos and make sure all was good. TURNS OUT....they didn't meet the requirements!!! ARGH!! So thankfully London Drugs has a guarentee on their photos so I went down there today after work and got new ones printed up....and I checked in at another store to make sure they thought they were decent and would pass inspection...and they gave me their okay :) So lets hope for the best!!! All I have to do now is get my accountant to sign the new ones and figure out the best way to send my package out :) And hopefully it gets opened in the next month or two! heheh!

Alright, enough on that...boring story, I know...but as you can see, we lead SUCH exciting lives ;) But at the moment we're watching ***24***!!! So I must be signing off now :)

Have a wonderful evening all!

First post of many!

Welcome to our blog!

We want to keep in touch with all you wonderful friends and family, so we're going to try and post anything exciting that may happen, any fun photos, etc. I hope you all enjoy it and please do feel free to leave any comments - we love hearing from you! We need to be heading to bed soon, up early in the mornign for work, so I'll keep this first post small. Dang Daylight Savings time means we have one hour less of sleep, but we'll deal I suppose! :) It will be nice to have an extra bit of sunlight in the evenings I guess.

Hope you all have a great evening - check back soon and keep in touch! :)