Beginnings

Trevor and I have been anxiously waiting to see if his old company in Lethbridge would be able to offer him a job this spring when he finishes school, and he just spoke to them yesterday and they CAN!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!  We were so worried that he wouldn't have a place to work in May, and that we would be living with my dad and grasping at straws for a place to work so we can start saving for a house.  Needless to say, we are SO very relieved and thankful that the Lord has answered our prayers so generously once again.  Here I am cheering on gas prices and the Alberta economy  *ra ra ra*.

The little guy is just waking up from his nap, so this update is going to be short.  We now need a place to live in Lethbridge for May 1st.  Obviously Trevor's mom is very happy that we're able to move back to Lethbridge.  We already have the moving truck booked, now comes the fun stuff - packing.  At least I don't have a baby that can walk yet - he'd be following me around the house unpacking everything I had just packed behind my back.  

I've also just started teaching him his first 5 signs - I know that the earlier I start signing to him, the longer I'll have to wait until he signs back, but then I'll be able to move onto some new signs right away so I'm starting early.  First 5 are:  Mom, Dad, Clean (for changing his diaper), Sleep, and the all-important Milk.  

On that note, he just started rooting and swirming so I've got to fulfill my duty as "Milkbags", the tender term Trevor's mom started referring to me as when she was here (LOL).  

Movie

This is my personal review of the movie Revolutionary Road.  There are no particular spoilers.

First of all, the film is rated 14A.  I'm not sure if I was aware that it was 14A before I went.  I went to a showing of this movie at Ridge Theatre in Vancouver during Movies for Mommies, and the facebook page for this event said it was a "love story", so I didn't particularly search for the rating (I had trust in Movies for Mommies although I hadn't been yet).  Alright, so I should have taken the rating as a warning.  In writing this post, I also found out that in the US, this film is rated R.  I no longer trust M4M.

Second of all, I am absolutely shocked that this is called a love story.  This movie was IMO a hate story!  I am very disappointed that I spent actual money on this movie!!!  I do not think it was appropriate to show at a M4M showing.  There were many swears, the F word being the most popular, and two very graphic sex scenes.  There was a lot of general anger in this film - yelling, screaming - as well as obscenities, intoxication, and plenty of adultery.  

I have been so looking forward to going to my first M4M, and was foiled in my last attempt due to the car being towed.  Now, my chance to go had finally come and I braved the rain, spent the money, only to receive two hours of a lot of trash that I can get for free on TV - literally free, because the first three months of our TV service is free.

Also, I am very disappointed by The Mom Show, which I have enjoyed watching every other time on TV.  That is, until yesterday when they had a repulsive conversation about pornography and how great it could be for your marriage.  I am strongly against anyone taking part in any type of pornography, married or unmarried, watching it alone or with someone else.  

It has not been a week that has given me hope in the world - it has definitely been the opposite.

Tonight Trevor and I are going on our first date without the LO - to the symphony.  I doubt that the beautiful music of Bach and Haydn will disappoint!  We are excited for a few hours away, but I know I will be so worried and missing my baby the entire time! 

Sleepyhead

I thought Grant must be dead today when I woke up... I was even afraid to go out to his crib and see if he was alive or not... but he was still alive, thank goodness.  I have a huge fear that he is going to die.  I was worried though, because he slept from around 11:30pm until 8:15am, when I woke up on my own and went to go see him - it was 8:20am, and he was starting to wake up, then he heard me come in so he started to wake up even more.  Then, since he slept all night, he was awake almost all of today and wanted to be held lots and lots!  He doesn't know what to make of his little toys and things yet, so he just wants to be held when he's awake.

I am working really hard on getting thank you cards out - I mailed the ones out today for the people who made meals for us... I'm bad, it's been almost 8 weeks!!!  Eep!  I feel badly, especially since one lady scolded us through Trevor's mom when we didn't have our wedding thank you cards out at 5 weeks.

Trevor is struggling to get through his last few weeks of school, and it will be REALLY tough.  If he doesn't pass math, then we'll be somewhere where he can work as a technologist (probably Lethbridge) for the summer, and back here for September - December, if we can somehow make the money work - I don't think he can take out any more Alberta student loans, and maybe not Canada Student Loans either.  Ugh.  We need lots of prayers for him to pass, and also to get a job afterwards that is for sure.  

More on that later.

"Owie"

Yesterday afternoon, at 4:38pm (lol), Grant was lying in his crib just goofing around, practicing waving his hands and making sounds with his mouth and (accidentally) said "Owie" very distinctly.  Hahaha!  I don't think anything was actually hurting him though... so it was just another random sound to him.  Also, he is already over 12 lbs.!!! I obviously bought way too many Size 1 diapers, but I am probably saving them for the next kid since they are expensive.  Good thing we are ready with some Size 2's, since it won't be long (sniff!).  He's not supposed to be growing up so fast!

Answer?

This is the answer to my big long email - hahaha!  It doesn't even make sense.  More evidence that landlords are crazy...

You can park in the stall this Fri night, Sat night and Sunday night as we need it at those times.

Thomas Peters

Parking

This is a copy of the email I sent to our landlord just a few minutes ago; tell me what you think.  It is followed by the email he first sent us - there is a little loading stall just out front of our building and I have parked the car there a few times in the last week - twice overnight, but not for more than 1 day and 1 night at a time (I'm desperate here, I'm trying to carry my own stuff plus a baby and all his stuff).

Hi Thomas,

Sorry about that, that is our car.  We can refrain from parking it there.  Let me give you some background.

I suppose we probably wouldn't have wanted to buy a parking permit for only 2 months, but we actually have never been able to obtain a parking permit for the area, in spite of  reassurances to us that it would be no problem.  The only reason it was complicated is due to the fact that we wanted to keep our Alberta plates and insurance instead of switching to ICBC. 

I worked very hard to obtain a parking permit when we first moved here, and we should have been able to - we had to compile a list of documents for ICBC - our rental agreement, a piece of mail addressed to us here, a letter of enrollment from UBC, our car registration and something called an MV23 form from our insurance agency.  While I quickly obtained everything else, our insurance agency had no idea how to help us obtain an MV23 form and the BC branch of our insurance company would not even speak to me on the phone as I have Alberta insurance. 

Our insurance broker was able to determine how to get this form for us after a few weeks, during which time we had a temporary permit that was good for mid-March to mid-April 2008.  This form was going to cost $30, so I gave our insurance broker our CC info to bill us and he told us the company would either mail or e-mail us the form.  We waited a few weeks for this, during which time our temporary permit expired.  We assumed that any tickets we received would be forgiven as soon as we purchased our permanent permit since we are actually residents and they had forgiven one ticket already when we obtained our temporary permit.

Keep in mind that this list of requirements was to apply to ICBC for a student status exemption, which we would have had to wait for, and then take that with our other documents to City Hall.

After more than two months of waiting, during which time we had been reassured again by our broker that the form was on its way, we found out that our broker had made some error and had not properly ordered the form, and our credit card had never been charged.  We still wanted a permit obviously...

But we wanted to find out if the city would forgive the tickets before we paid $30 for the form and another $30 for the permit.  The city told us they would not forgive the tickets, whether or not we had all the paperwork for the permit, and we are not about to pay more than $450 (5 tickets at $90 each) to pay another $60 to get a permit. 

So for the time that we have been living here, at least since last spring, we have been parking in the "free" zones - the last few stalls at 11th and Pine, and along Pine Street, somewhere between 11th and 16th Ave.  It has been more of a pain with a baby, of course, and when we buy groceries.  We have eight weeks to go and we are counting them down...

All that being said, you probably won't have another tenant who is out-of-province and needs a permit!

It is possible for us to find parking, it is just usually a 10 or 15 minute walk just to get to our car.  I parked at 11th and Burrard today, which is fine.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  You can probably understand our frustrating with the entire situation now that it has been over a year.  

I'm hoping that maybe we can use the loading stall for just a few minutes at a time to unload groceries?  I can move the car after unloading.  

Thanks.

Skye

From: Thomas Peters 

Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:35 PM 

To: Trevor Curtis Skye

Cc: Laura Peters 

Subject: car

Hi Trevor & Skye, I am presuming that you have a car Alberta plates DUA 714.  If not then please excuse me from being presumptuious and ignore the rest of this email.... We have noted this car parked in our private stall on many occaissions when we have come to the building.  Laura and I have not been able to park because of this car occupying our stall. This has been frequent. We have avoided towing as we don't want to cause hardship. I understand you have a baby and might like its convenience.  I also understand that you may not want to pay for a city parking pass in order to park on the street.  None-the-less we need to be able to use our stall. Please let me know if in fact this is your car.  If so maybe you can find some other arrangment to park... (possibly we could help you by allowing you to park at specific times only, although I am not sure how this could work.) Please get back to me if in fact this is your car.... Let me know if it is not yours. Kind regards, Thomas Peters

Travel

The little one and I are going to Los Angeles to visit family for a few days in July, which I am SO looking forward to - my older sister, Megan, is allowing us to use her points again and paying the taxes for us, as she did last summer when I flew to Calgary.  This time she won't be out on the west coast, at least not north of the 49th, but wants to meet the baby (obviously!) - and she usually lives in Singapore, so we don't get to see her much.  Now... to get passports!  Neither Trevor or I have a passport, and Grant doesn't yet either, so I've begun filling out the forms for our passports - the exciting part will be the photos.  How they will get Grant to hold his head up, have his eyes open, mouth closed, and not be frowning or smiling all at the same time seems pretty impossible for me.  When his eyes are open, his mouth is always open too!  So wish me luck.  I'll post again once the pictures have been done!