Counting Down the Days

This is it: our last few days in Canada are ticking steadily away. We have been in Landmark since the kids and I returned from Banff and are enjoying being around all of our family here. We have been keeping extremely busy trying to get everything squared away. I haven't even really had any time to feel lonely without Dustin's company, and the past three weeks have gone ridiculously fast, so the being busy has been a great thing.

Selling memories

The first weekend in August was taken up by a massive garage sale in which I was able to sell a lot of our things off while gaining a bit of change to pay for our flights. It was a fairly successful endeavour and was worth the effort of setting it up and getting everything priced. I was afraid that Theo would go ballistic when he saw other kids fondling and leaving with his toys or books, but he only had one mild episode and then was pretty much o.k. with it. I was pretty sad to see a lot of things go and I was actually surprised to realize how sentimental I was being about the littlest things. After the garage sale was over, I donated the remaining items to our local thrift store and felt the true final severing of the Manitoba chapter in our lives.

We spent last weekend at the old farm house that my in-laws are renovating outside of Riding Mountain National Park. They own 160 acres of forest and field with a national park on one side and basically no neighbours. It is a really nice way to get away from everything and Theo had an absolutely wonderful time wandering around, getting to ride on the quad, and generally enjoying the outdoors. William is truly a lover of the outdoors so there was hardly a fuss from him all weekend.

Theo contemplating the meaning of life on his stump chair

William is always calm when he gets to be outside

Theo pretending to fish on the little beaver dam pond

So proud to go for a ride with Grandpa

This week I have continued to keep busy with the remainder of our packing, mailing a few bins of our things, and stuffing everything else into suitcases. I am going to be relieved on Monday when all of this preparation is over and we can finally board that plane. 

Meanwhile I have been talking with Dustin on Skype and everything seems to be going well on the other side of the ocean. He is pleased with his job so far, the people living near us, and our apartment. It seems surreal to think that at this time next week, we will all be there together, crammed into our teensy apartment!