Socialism Rocks!

The girls and I slept in this morning while Jeramy headed to work. It was good to do something normal! :)

Once we got up and got dressed the three of us had breakfast down in the hotel restaurant. Ryleigh had hot chocolate. I think the favorite thing about this place to her is that they serve hot chocolate almost everywhere that we go. She says that it makes her ears warm...so cute. After breakfast we did a little car investigating, but had to rush back to the hotel so Jeramy could go take a physical to make sure he is fit enough to visit a rig in the North Sea. He passed just fine and dandy and we even scored some good preschool names from his doctor. Not that we can visit any tomorrow, it's going to be a holiday. Canada Day, which is sort of like our 4th of July. After his doctor's visit he came and picked us back up at the hotel and we headed to the local university for my appointment with the graduate studies department. I had a great meeting and even got to meet a few profs from the Geography department. I'm feeling totally psyched and it is going to be amazingly affordable. I'm going to shoot for enrollment in the spring semester.

After we wrapped up there we went to a few more car dealerships and I picked my ride.....mama got a Land Rover. It too was amazingly affordable, much cheaper than the Toyota Highlander I had my heart set on...and better gas mileage! Then Jeramy sealed the deal on his vehicle and the poor boy that has been driving a Jetta ever since I started staying home finally got his Tundra. For those that remember him, Dusty Wayne (brown stepside truck from our younger years) has finally been replaced. We wrapped up the day with dinner and now we're getting ready for bed and regrettably, starting to pack.

I can't believe how quickly the week has gone. We've accomplished most all of our goals. The only thing that we haven't gotten to is looking for a preschool, but since tomorrow is a holiday, that will have to wait until we return. Tomorrow we plan on just joining in on the festivities and enjoying our last day here....until next time.

Pictures for today are courtesy of the current occupants of our future home. This is from last fall and is something that we hope to see again this fall. Enjoy!

Lighthouses, Whales and More Eating!

This morning we got up and walked across the street to a little coffee shop for breakfast and coffee. Then we jumped in the truck and decided to just start driving. Next thing you know we were one cove over where there was a working lighthouse and a museum. Jeramy and Ryleigh got out and hiked up the hill to see them both while I sat in the truck with sleeping Avery. They were gone for about an hour but that didn't bother me at all because I had the whole ocean spread out before me to look at. While I was busy looking I saw a bunch of whales come up and blow spary in the air. A couple of times I ever caught a glimpse of a fin or two. Awesome.

After driving around we headed downtown to this little fish place where they served fried cod tongues. Yeah, no thank you. We did chow down on some fish and chips and pasta. After doing a little shopping down there, we looked around at a few car lots and then headed back to the hotel. Ryleigh and I went for a great swim in the indoor heated pool and then we went out for dinner. I swear I've gained 5 pounds this week with all the eating out!

My camera went dead today so here are a few pics that I took yesterday of the town and few things that we've learned since being here:

• St. John's received the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal ever sent in 1901


• The lighthouse that we saw today is the eastern most spot in North America


• St. John's has more bars per capita than any other city in Nort America


• Newfoundland is 2 1/2 hours ahead of CST.


• In Canada a corn dog is called a pogo stick.


• The sun comes up at 4 AM in this town during this time of the year!

What a Day!

Last night we all four slept for 11 and 1/2 hours! With all that's going on I think that we just needed to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Today we had breakfast in our room and then set off to visit the current occupants of our soon to be home. First though, we stopped at Wal-Mart and, if you do not like Wal-Mart in the States, you will hate Wal-Mart here. The lines to check out were horrible and they seem to have just accepted that fact because there were longer than normal ailes roped off Six Flags style to accomodate the lines. So, that was fun.

We also stopped at a look-out point while the fog briefly let up and got to look out over the Atlantic a bit. Soooo beautiful.

So, here is our (sort of, we're renting) new house. It's an adorable little three bedroom home with a hell of a back yard, complete with a hot tub. The current occupants are from the U.K. and will be heading back in July. They told us that they've had several moose walk up into the backyard and there are always lots of squirrels, rabbits and birds visiting for a bit of food. In the pics you can see the house, the kitchen (the windows look out into the backyard), the backyard and last but not least, our Ski Doo. Yes, we are now the proud owners of a snow-mobile.

Doesn't it look fun!!! We can't wait to hit the trails in this baby!

The one thing that we didn't get to do today was find me a vehicle as all the dealerships are closed on Saturdays. Hopefully we can get to that on Monday or Tuesday. Oh yeah, we also did a little exploring in downtown where we had dinner. Hopefully we'll get to do a little more exploring down there tomorrow. It's really a cute little piece of the town, full of small shops and eateries.

That's it for today. We're so glad to have the housing issue solved. I don't think we could possible asked for anything more perfect. It might actually be nicer than our current house. There are even some children in the surrounding homes that are Ryleigh's age and a park, though not near as grand as our duck park, a few homes down.

On the home front, we have sold our Tahoe (thanks dad) and still have the Jetta for sale. We are also officially selling our eight year old washer and matching dryer. Both are in great working condition and the washer is a larger capacity washer. Let me know if you're interested!

Off to put the babies to bed. Love to all, the montys

Pictures from Today

These are some pictures taken from our hotel window:

And these were taken about a half mile from our future house:

We're Here!

We made into St. John's last night without one single major issue! We wrapped up in customs around 11:30 and headed to the hotel. The girls were all sorts of wound up, but we got them down eventually. Out our hotel window we could tell that there was water, but this mornng revealed so much more.

The water outside our window is actually St. John's Bay. Just beyond the bay you can barely see the ocean. Barely because this morning the whole city was covered in fog and there was a slight drizzle. We're told that this is pretty normal around here. So, basically, when you go to the grocery store you don't sweat a gallon walking from the car to the produce (as in Houston), but you will need a rain jacket. Sounds like a fair trade to me!

The architecture here is amazing and the terrain is sort of like Austin. There are lots of ups and downs when you drive. We're in Jeramy's office right now, but we're about to go see our potential house. I also need to go buy some socks for my poor sockless baby. It's about 58 degrees here right now and the baby, she owns no socks. Don't really need them when you live where you are constantly coated in a warm blanket of 100 percent humidity.

I have taken some pictures and will take more today and post tonight. Off to explore!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's 11:51pm, all three of our bags are packed and in just 7 hours a car will show up at our house to take Ryleigh, Avery and I to the airport. Jeramy has been in St. John's since Sunday and tomorrow we will join him.

I'm a little nervous about tomorrow. I have gone over the entire day in my head over and over. I have made lists upon lists over the past few weeks and have checked and rechecked to make sure that every item has been packed. Everything should be fine. Just fine. Really. If I tell myself this enough, it will be so. It must be so. Fine. Fine and Dandy. Just a little nervous.

So, thnk of us. I'm sure that it will all be fine and if someone cries on the plane, well, they won't be the first child to cry on the plane. They won't even be the first child of mine to cry on the plane. Oh, and yes, I will soooo be bragging about the great weather on this blog while I'm there.

That Crazy Internet

I came across one of those random internet polls today. The poll asked: "Do you think you are a better/same/worse mother/father than your mother/father?"

My answer: I try to equal that woman every day.

Strange thing is, if five years ago, I would have come across this poll: "Do you think that you will be a better/same/worse mother/father than your mother/father?"....my answer would have been so incredibly different.

Amazing what children and time can teach you.

I love you mom...this is hard.

But, if in the end, I end up with daughters as fabulous as you did, it'll all be so worth it!

:)