THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - February Edition

This past little bit has felt like a lot. January is already a tough month because we spend a lot of it trying to recover from Christmas and getting back into the swing of our normal life in a new year. But on top of that, it’s a big birthday month for us. Plus we had house guests for a large portion of the month. Plus we have another situation that has begun to materialize in our lives (more on that later). So yeah. This month has felt very emotionally draining and just exhausting in more ways than one. On the other hand, I do feel like 2020 is off to a good, strong start and I feel ready to conquer. I feel an energy within me that wants to attack and do what is necessary. You know, like the beast woman that I am.

Starting off the month of January, we were still in London. But we got home and got back into the swing of our normal life. The first major event of the month was my birthday! I turned 38 and it was SUCH a wonderful birthday.

On my actual birthday day (Friday) Tim took the day off of work so that I could relax and do whatever I wanted to. He made me breakfast and then I went to a yoga class - because I always love to celebrate my birthday with a yoga class. In the evening I went full home-spa and spent the night pampering myself.

Then the next day (Saturday) was my birthday party celebration day! I can’t think of a more perfect day. First, in the afternoon, I had Afternoon High Tea with all of my girlfriends and it was wonderful. ♥

Then in the evening, Tim and I shared a celebratory night that was perfect. Archie went for a sleepover at his aunt and uncle’s house in Kitchener and Tim and I had the whole night to ourselves (so rare!!). We went out for an incredible dinner (I blogged about it here), he took me to see The Phantom of the Opera (my 6th time - I cried!), and we spent the night in a swanky boutique hotel downtown. Even just having the night to reconnect with Tim as adults felt incredibly valuable. The whole thing was exactly everything that I could have ever wanted.

Then the following week it was birthday: round two. Archie turned 3! On his actual birthday day (Thursday) we surprised him with his presents from us in the morning and we also have a tradition of eating special birthday nachos for dinner (because they were the last thing that I ate when I went into labour). In fact, our whole life is basically a series of traditions at this point, HA HA.

On the same day as Archie’s birthday, Sarah and Blake arrived in Toronto from Tisdale! They were in town for 13 nights (basically two weeks) and spent 8 of the nights at my house. It was really special to get to spend that much time together and our kids are pretty much siblings now.

Sarah also won a contest (because of course she did) to take a HIIT workout class at a fancy gym downtown with Roxy Earle (one of The Real Housewives of Toronto wives and a bajillionaire). It was also a Joe Fresh contest because Roxy has a line of athletic wear at Joe Fresh, so Sarah also won a bunch of free clothes. She got to bring a friend to the workout class, and obviously I’m the friend, ha ha! So that was super fun!! Roxy was very friendly and sweet.

We got up to tons of different things during her visit and had an amazing time adventuring around Toronto, eating good food, going shopping, doing cute kid activities, (and Sarah developed a nice strong hate for the TTC). She also got a tattoo and we went to a concert. A highlight was when we went to a rager in Pickering, took edibles, and drank a lot of wine. BAH HA!

We went to Ben Lee's show and I got to meet him.

We also threw Archie’s birthday party on the weekend at McDonald’s and he absolutely loved it. Nine of Archie’s little friends attended the party and it was pretty adorable. Archie made friendship bracelets for each of them! I am so appreciative to everyone who came to make his day so special! ♥

Things have been pretty quiet ever since Sarah left. Tim also left for a night to Montreal for a business trip. And that has been the month!!

In other news, Tim’s parents went to Florida because for the past few years that’s what they do. They go to Florida for about two months in January/February. Except this past week Tim’s mom tripped, fell down and broke her arm. It required surgery. So she had the surgery done in Florida (thankfully their insurance covered it) and then they cut their trip short and his parents returned back home. So Tim and his siblings have been scrambling to deal with all of this and to facilitate their early return (everyone has to book all of this stuff for them because they don’t know how), and making sure that the appropriate care is in place for them. So THAT’S been a whole thing and a stressful item on our plate. Thankfully they’re home now and Theresa seems to be doing well, all things considered.

Life with Archie:

He’s a three year old!

Archie had his three year physical check-up and he’s a totally healthy, perfectly great boy! He weighs 31.3 pounds which is apparently dead-on average and he is 3 feet 12 inches tall which is apparently a tiny bit short for his age (but still well within the curve). The height actually surprised me because people always comment that “he’s so tall” when they see him. He also got his flu shot, which he did not particularly enjoy.

Otherwise, things are great with him. He has gotten way into making puzzles and has finally discovered Paw Patrol. I mean, it was bound to happen sooner or later! (He says that his favourite pup is Marshall. But also Skye.) He really enjoys going to see shows at a theatre (plays, puppet shows, etc. But also movies.).

I love my time with Archie a lot these days because it feels more and more like he’s my little sidekick and we get to have conversations and inside jokes. We have fun together. I definitely feel like I prefer being a parent to this age a lot more!

As for February... I do feel like I could use a bit of a break... But it doesn’t seem like that’s necessarily in the cards.

This coming weekend we’re going to Edmonton. I haven’t been to Edmonton in two years and I miss everyone there terribly. It’s going to be a short visit though, only three nights.

Family Day long weekend is coming up and it’ll be really nice to have that break.

We’re kinda waiting to see how Tim’s parents are doing because we might end up having to go to London for a weekend to put in some “shifts” to help them out.

We also have a Muskoka cottage weekend near the end of the month. I was looking forward to this one because not many people were planning to attend (and Tim’s parents were supposed to be in Florida) so it was going to be nice and low-key. Not sure what the case will be now.

So Edmonton.

I should get back to that. Honestly, I feel too drained to even type about this, at this point. But I do want to talk about it.

Tim is going to Edmonton to make a presentation at BioWare.

BioWare’s animation department is currently non-existent... And Tim wants them to put the entire thing into his hands and he wants to rebuild the whole animation department himself, using his own plan, in a completely different way than they’ve ever done things before.

So he contacted them about this... And now BioWare is flying Tim, Archie and I to Edmonton, putting us in a fancy hotel for three nights, giving us a rental car, and paying for our meals.

And part of me is just like: FUCK.

When does this end? When will Tim be satisfied in his career?

I also feel like this is just what my life IS and it fills me with adrenaline.

But the issue at the root of this is that we are having a very difficult time keeping our heads above water in Toronto. It’s way too expensive - prohibitively expensive. We don’t really see how there can be a future for us here. We’ll never be able to buy a home and we can’t save any money. The money that we do have doesn’t go very far and we’re living on a strict budget that makes us miserable. I haven’t even told all of you this, but Tim has been driving Uber to make extra money. So while Tim does love his job at Ubisoft, we’re finding things in Toronto to be pretty hard for us. We LIKE going out all the time, doing things, eating in restaurants, taking trips, and experiencing everything. Our lifestyle is very important to us. We also do not want Tim to have to commute for hours just to get to and from work. And none of these things are really adding up for us right now.

Because of this, we’re feeling pretty stuck and this has compelled us to entertain the thought of returning to Edmonton, a place where we would be MUCH better off financially.

I lived in Edmonton for 9.5 years and I always loved it there. Even when we left, I was very clear in the mindset that I loved Edmonton and that I would miss it, but that I wanted to get out and try something new. I certainly have no regrets toward the journey that we have taken for the past 6 years, quite the opposite. The different slices of life and cities that we have experienced living in have BUILT ME.

So we’ll see what happens and I’ll keep you guys in the loop. BioWare may hate Tim’s plan/ideas and that’ll be the end of that.

...The mountains are calling and I must go?

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

February 9th is Laura Mitschke’s 34th birthday!

Are we calling you Mitschke now? You changed it to that on Instagram so that’s why I’ve been going with it, ha ha. Wishing you a beautiful day to celebrate the amazing person that you are! I definitely want to make a trip over to Ottawa to see you ASAP!! Love you! ♥

February 18th is Candice Weingartner’s 8th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you and Ryan a special time to celebrate! ♥