it's december?!?

so big change: we are moving. our time of living in-house with ben and jen is coming to close. this is a sad event that i suppose needed to happen eventually, only it has arrived a little quicker than foreseen. Ry has been feeling the weight of his almost daily commute to St Paul for homework, school time and work. A lot of what we do centers in St Paul and so we've decided to locate ourselves there. We are excited to have a place of our own, as well as the prospect of not relying on our car for daily life. There is a park, grocery store, beautiful walking street, window-shopping shops, Ry's university, Ry's coffee shop (2nd home), and many friends are all within walking distance! Our apartment, in a 5-plex, is on the upper level which will take some time to adjust to, but owen loves the steps. We'll have 2 bedrooms and a small office so Ry can a paper-writing place to call his own (also will function as a room for guests;). Oh, and the bathroom has a heated floor and a claw foot tub! It's a beautiful apartment though it needs a little love, like a fresh coat of paint, and some good decorating (erin is helping me here).

and so, this advent season is a little more stressed than usual. Stressed is the wrong word. I would like to be able to take care of all details about the apartment now, and have all things I need to do before we leave for ontario DONE however that is not possible. So, I am making myself feel stress while there actually aren't the circumstances. Oh well. I will putter away at what i can control and be content with that. we move into our apartment the day after our flight back from ontario so we plan to be packed before we leave. we'll see if that happens...

ry is writing and writing and writing his final papers. we leave for Christmas in Ontario on dec 16 and we've decided that he really must be done this semester's class work by that point because there is no way he will have time while we're away.

Come the new year, I will pick up a third day at work. This feels fine at this point; i certainly have been spoiled to only need to work 2 days. But with having our own apartment comes more financial need. And so I will work one more day. Also: Sandy now works at my office! yay! and so, my job is sandy-erin pleasant. perfect.

owen has been doing well with this whole cold-weather thing. i wasn't sure if he would be okay to staying inside more (he spent SOO much time outside while it was warm), but he's been doing fine. Also, he really loves playing outside in the cold. He also is a-okay wearing mits, tuque, and boots. He actually loves his boots (i think this is partly because boots = outside). He rides his bike outside, though i do see this option coming to an end soon, as we just got a little dump of snow last night. Parks are still fun for him, even though he slips around on the ice and snow and his arms and legs are more padded and thus harder to maneuver and control. But he just wants to play play play.


We drove to Winnipeg one weekend, to visit Steph. It was a good time, and a lot road time. Lucky for us, owen is a good traveler.




my apple pie




cozy & enjoyable thanksgiving (US)