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

If I could describe the past month in one word it would be: FRIENDS. I saw so many other humans and it was amazing. It felt like a wonderful end to the summer where I got to spend time connecting with people that I care about. I feel ready to move into the fall season with purpose and determination and a more regular routine. Ugh. As you've probably heard the pandemic is a shitshow in Alberta. Edmonton is now making masks mandatory once again (as of Friday) in indoor public places, which I totally support because I was still wearing a mask in those settings anyway. As things currently stand, in Edmonton there is 0.2% of the population with known active cases. (Although the vast majority of people in the hospital/ICU are unvaccinated people.) Things are definitely worse but I'm also not really interested in putting my life on hold anymore. I've gotten my damn vaccine and I still take the basic precautionary measures. I'm going to continue enjoying my life and I won't be hiding under a rock. We were pretty busy in August and it felt fun! At the beginning of the month we were still in Regina. The main purpose of the visit was to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday (on her actual birthday) and we also celebrated my dad's 70th birthday at the same time (which was back in January but we couldn't really do much back then). It was great! I surprised them with flowers, a couples massage, balloons, T-shirts, and dinner at the best restaurant in Regina. I think that they really enjoyed their day and felt special.

I also spent as much time as I could seeing all of you Regina ladies and it was wonderful to connect! <3

Once back in Edmonton we FINALLY celebrated Christmas Girls Night, which we had to put off for eight months because we weren't allowed to eat indoors with people who weren't from our own households. Since that rule changed we've been trying to catch up on half a year worth of missed celebrations! It's been our tradition for many years to have our Christmas at The Melting Pot and to exchange gifts there.

Then the Fringe Festival happened, my favourite Edmonton festival, and we really leaned into it and spent a lot of time visiting the grounds, seeing shows (I saw six), and eating green onion cakes (they're a thing). I loved getting to experience the Fringe again, especially after it being cancelled last year.

Now that we're allowed to hire a babysitter again we have started doing monthly date nights once again. (Our babysitter Mariana is fully vaccinated and she's awesome. Also, WAY cheaper than the prices we were paying in Toronto and Vancouver.) This has been WONDERFUL. I would say that the biggest thing that the pandemic took away from us was the ability to access childcare other than ourselves. With no family nearby, we really didn't have any options at all.

This is me on date night.

And then we rolled into FRIEND WEEK! First I attended a Yelp event with Nicole (which got rained out but turned into a fun car picnic).

Then Carrie came to stay at my house from Regina for a few days. We ate many an ice cream.

Then Laura was in town from Ottawa and it was great to see her a few times.

And then Sarah and Crystal came to stay at my house from Regina and Oxbow for a few days. I got to meet baby Rowan who was only a month old! (Crystal also came with her 15 year old daughter Paige.)

It was truly wonderful to have such a fun and normal summer month and to see so many of you guys whom I love. It's nice to know that we're all still here together, even while we've been apart. <3 To update on some of the other things that have been going on, my period is now missing once again. I got it that one time but now I'm on day 47 of my cycle again with no mensuration in sight. So who even knows what's going on in there!!! The one thing I do know is that I'm not having sex anymore and I'm definitely NOT pregnant. BAH HA! But the MOST exciting thing that has been happening with us is our house purchase!! The entire process seems like it has been taking forever. The lawyers (on both sides) have been SO slow and there seems to be endless amounts of back and forth. But at this point everyone has signed the Offer to Purchase, our mortgage financing is approved, and we had the house inspection done and it didn't reveal any items of major concern (which was a pleasant surprise because the house was built in 1949 and I figured that surely they would find something). We had to push out the possession date a bit because everything was taking so long and are now expecting to close on September 9th. It will be VERY exciting to finally own this place and to own property once again! Pretty sure that we need to buy a bottle of champagne... Life with Archie: Archie has had a busy month of friends as well! I think he has really enjoyed seeing so many different kids!

Archie also attended a KinderGym Summer Camp for a week with his best friend Jona and he really seemed to enjoy that experience a lot. (Plus he was out of the house every morning for a full week!) Archie likes gymnastics and we have enrolled him in more for the fall!

Archie had a great time in Regina, attended his fourth Fringe and saw his fourth Fringe show, rode Edmonton's High Level Bridge Streetcar for the first time (and won't stop talking about it), and saw his first movie at a drive-in theatre. We had a lot of fun this month!

The next big thing coming up is Archie's return to preschool!! He is attending four year old preschool this year for three mornings a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday). He's going back to Green Circle Preschool (the same as last year) because we loved it so much. He also has the same teacher. His class has 15 kids in it this year, including four kids returning with him from last year that he already knows (one of them being his best friend Jona). His first day is September 10th. I'm really looking forward to him getting back into that routine! It's weird that September is here. It always surprises me how quickly the summer seems to fly by, even though I do think that we made the most of it. We don't have any major plans for the Labour Day long weekend, although we are tossing around the idea of going to Drumheller for a couple of nights. We'll see if we're spontaneous enough to throw that together. Then of course Archie starts his last year of preschool on September 10th, which is exciting. Archie is also starting KinderGym Leaf Hoppers gymnastics on September 23rd, which is a 12 week program. It's happening at the same gym where he did the summer camp, so he's excited to return as a serious gymnast! We are finally going to celebrate my Birthday Girls Night!! (Yes, from eight months ago!) I told you that we're working on catching up. We each get to pick the restaurant for our birthdays and I have picked La Petite Iza, which is my current favourite restaurant in Edmonton. And then at the very end of the month my parents are coming to visit again and we're making another trip out to Jasper with them. We'll be staying at Beckers Chalets, which is probably our top favourite Jasper accommodation. We'll also be doing our annual family photography while we're in the mountains (with our same wedding photographers!). Very much looking forward to it. It was a HOT, HOT, HOT shot girl summer. I love that I got to spend it with so many of you! But I've gotta admit, a cozy pumpkin spice fall sounds pretty great right about now... THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: September 6th is Zena Domanski's 46th wedding anniversary!

I would say that I hope that you and Dad are able to ditch the kids and do something special... But your kids are already thoroughly ditched and don't live at your house. FREEDOM!!! I hope that you guys get to do something fun! September 10th is Sarah Tasker's 10th wedding anniversary!

10th on the 10th! I hope that you and Darren can ditch the kids and do something special! September 17th is Sarah Tasker’s 39th birthday!

I've been thinking of you lots and miss you very much. I really hope that Darren spoils you and that you get to have a wonderful birthday! It was so nice when we were living close to each other and I'm sad that it seemed to end so quickly. I appreciated that time to reconnect with you a lot. I love you very much and cannot wait until we can finally come back to visit someday (hopefully soon!). <3