THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life ~ March Edition

Things have been go-go-going! After almost two years of weirdness I feel like we really are just back to living a completely normal life. I can't think of anything that we're avoiding anymore and it feels great. 2022 is off with a bang! The pandemic is... Over? Ha ha, well not quite, but kind of? The numbers have continued to drop steadily and it generally doesn't seem like anyone is getting very sick anymore. I am so relieved that we might finally be entering into an endemic phase. Archie, Tim and I still have not caught Covid - certainly not that we've been aware of - even though it truly seems as if everyone around us has. I am certain that we've had exposures at this point and either our vaccinations simply worked or we caught it asymptomatically and didn't notice. On February 9th Alberta entered Step 1 of "Easing Measures" which included the end of the Restrictions Exemption Program (proof of vaccine). Archie also stopped wearing a mask to preschool at this point. And then as of today Alberta entered Step 2 which removes ALL REMAINING RESTRICTIONS. So that's it. There are no more rules. Everything is normal again. We can do whatever we want. There is still a Step 3 (no date announced yet) but when that happens people will no longer be required to isolate if they have Covid. It's all pretty surreal. But I'm also very relieved. I can feel the weight and fear of the past two years easing and I'm starting to remember the way that life used to be before the pandemic started. What a wild thing to have lived through! At this time Tim is still working from home. When he finally does return to the office that will absolutely be the strangest thing imaginable. I forget what that's like. He has not "gone to work," not even once, since March 13th, 2020. Things that happened in February! Kind of a lot! The biggest news is that we added a new family member and got a cat! As you know, Ramona passed away before we moved to Edmonton and we have truthfully enjoyed our pet-free time a lot. But now that we're more settled into our Edmonton life, we missed having a cat. Our family felt incomplete. There's supposed to be four of us and one of us is furry. You might recall that cats weren't allowed when we were renting our house... But we solved THAT problem by buying the house. Now we can fill this place with as many cats as we want! Ha ha! Anyway, I'd been casually checking out some of the rescue sites, and as soon as I saw Pixie's picture on the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) website I just knew that she was our cat. She was a 10 month old calico and sounded like the perfect cat for us. We went to see her and adopted her on the spot. She's been with us for a month now and fits in perfectly. She is super sweet and friendly, easy-going, loves to cuddle, uses her litter box reliably, and all four of us inevitably end up sleeping all together in one bed each night in a big family pile. (Thank goodness that we have a king size.) Pixie really just seems grateful to be living in a comfortable home with a family that loves her. Our family feels right! <3

We went to Ice on Whyte and that was very cool to see. Our favourite ice sculpture was this one:

We threw Archie's 5th birthday party! As you know, his birthday was on January 16th but with us having left the country we wanted to wait until we had been home for two weeks before throwing him an actual birthday party with his friends. The party was cabane à sucre themed because Archie was born in Montreal. He had such a blast with his friends!

As I've mentioned before, Rachelle got engaged! She is getting married in September and the wedding planning has begun! Amy, Nicole and I helped her pick out a wedding dress and she found the most beautiful and perfect one. Rachelle also asked the three of us to be her Bridesmaids and we couldn't be more honoured! <3

Edmonton had a Sweet Treats & Latte Festival going on and you know that I got all up into that! Plus, you know, just my usual shenanigans...

The Olympic Games Beijing 2022 happened this month and we loved watching the events ALL THE TIME. We mainly just kept the TV on all day long, watching various events! We got really into it and I'm sad that it's over.

Valentine's Day happened! It was a very cute and fun day. Tim and I got the Valentine's Fondue Kit from Biera (one of our favourite restaurants) which we enjoyed in bed once Archie was asleep.

This is what our life typically looks like on the weekend...

We also celebrated the 14 year anniversary of the day that Tim and I met! We decided that it would be fun to go out to The Melting Pot and to bring Archie along for the experience. We all loved it!!

Over Family Day long weekend we visited TELUS World of Science and we had SUCH a fun time! We liked it so much that we bought an annual membership. So if anyone wants to join us at the science center, we can get you in for 25% off of the admission price. I can't wait to take Archie during the week as something fun to do. This reminds me of our pre-pandemic life so much!

I mean, I GOT TO SEE LEONARDO DICAPRIO'S CLOTHES.

We also finally got to celebrate Rachelle's birthday (which was in October) and that was very fun. We had a wonderful dinner together at WestLake Grill in Red Deer followed by a slumber party at Rachelle's house.

So as you can see, I am essentially back to living a completely normal life. I am very happy about this and I highly recommend that everyone does the same, as much as your comfort level allows. My mental health feels a million times better lately. I just needed to be a normal human again. I feel like I have my life back. In other news, Tim had his second post-vasectomy test done (you have to get two) and he has officially been given the green light that his vasectomy was a success! No more birth control! We are freeeeeeeee! Life with Archie: Archie had a great month of preschool, gymnastics, swimming lessons, and generally getting out and doing fun things.

They had a Valentine's Day Party + PINK & RED DAY at preschool. Archie loved getting to exchange valentines with his friends, which they weren't allowed to do last year.

His preschool also made Olympic torches. And they took a field trip to a gymnastics gym! This was exciting because it was their first field trip ever (because of the pandemic).

There were birds, as usual...

And there were food adventures, as usual...

Lastly, and most exciting, Archie has officially started taking snowboarding lessons. He is doing a weekly Mite Snowboard program at Snow Valley, which is a small local hill about 10 minutes from our house. He is very excited and enthusiastic about it! Our dream is to be able to take family snowboarding trips to the mountains very soon!

Can you believe that it's March?! March is like the spring. It's basically spring now. I am not mad about this. There isn't a whole lot going on this month, except for the fact that we are FINALLY bringing back bi-weekly girls nights!!! Back when I lived in Edmonton before we always used to do our girls nights every two weeks. The pandemic made it very challenging to get back into any sort of regular flow... But now it's happening! I'm so excited! There really isn't much else going on, which is good because things are going to start to pop off in April. THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

March 7th is Susan Murphy’s 40th birthday!

I feel like I talk to you every day... Because I literally do. And I love it! I am wishing you the most incredible milestone birthday and I hope that you have SUCH a blast with your friends! I know that they are going to make things very special for you - and you deserve no less! Someday (soon!) I will come out to the island and I can't wait to see you when that happens!! Love you! <3 March 12th is Kristen Smith’s 38th birthday!

Wishing you a most magical and festive day, my friend! I am so impressed at all of the cool stuff that you've been doing lately and I can't wait to get to see you soon. I miss your face! You're such a badass woman and an incredible mom. I am very proud to know you and I love you very much! <3 March 19th is Sarah Swalm's 11th wedding anniversary!

11 years, 1 kid, same husband. I'm pretty sure that's a feat in itself! ;) I hope that you and Adam have a chance to celebrate!