You and I (Welcome Home)

Don't you worry there my honey

We might not have any money

But we've got our love to pay the bills

 So lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France

Lets get rich, and give everybody nice sweaters

And teach them how to dance

Lets get rich, and build our house on a mountain

Making everybody look like ants

From way up there

You and I

You and I

("You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson)

Lonely Saturday Night Rambling.

It's Saturday night and Keith is away again. So I'm going to ramble. 

Things are starting to get crazy in the Shologan rental-cave. We drove up for the final house-visit on Monday, and every time I see it I fall more and more in love with it! I hope that every day we live in that house it gets filled with more and more love.

There is so much that needs to get done once the house is here, before we can actually move in. My head starts to spin as soon as I start thinking of the big daunting list (plumber, electrician, basement floor, natural gas, electricity, furnace, driveway.... aggghhh!!!). I drove out to the property yesterday to meet with people since Keith had already flown out to Montreal, and I wasn't even sure on the drive out there exactly who I was meeting with. Bank people? Road people? Gas people? Turned out to be natural gas. And I had to point out where to imagine for all the lines to go. Scary job.

It's starting to get cold out. The wind is blowing and the leaves are changing very quickly. I'll need to take a road trip to take some pictures. Lots of pictures. Today was a bit warmer and I went for a long bike ride with Nova around the neighborhood and the lake in town today. It was beautiful and still sunny but not so hot that I couldn't wear a long sleeved shirt. Keith brought me home a beautiful long sleeved Rough Rider shirt, I don't own a ton of Rider gear, so expanding my green wardrobe makes me feel like I blend in with the Saskatchewan crowd quite well.

And for tonight... comfort with a suggly blanket, hot chocolate, and maybe a smore :)

The newest addition

So. Because we seem to be more than content building our little funny farm. We have a new addition.

Meet Sofi.

 
Her father is a Bernese Mountain Dog and her mother is a St. Bernard. Right now she's ten weeks old and weighs just over 16 lbs. We're expecting her to be a biiiiigggg doggy. Which is exactly what we wanted in a yard dog for the acreage.

Her story is actually a pretty cute one. Keith and I had found this breeder back in the early spring and were planning on getting a puppy from the fall litter when we moved out. Well the fall litter came a little earlier than we expected so we went back and forth back and forth back and forth about whether to get a puppy now or to wait until the early spring for the next litter. After much debate (MUCH debate), we decided to wait.

Then I left for Calgary to go to my brother's wedding and when I came back on the Sunday Keith had gone to get a puppy.

Love. 

Nova is handling the change pretty well. For the first few days she acted as though the puppy didn't exist. Then she went through a big of a "disgust" period when she realized the puppy wasn't leaving. And now she's actually doing pretty good with her and runs around the back yard and tries to play with her.
 

She's catching on to the house rules pretty quick (she has a lovely role model to look up to - thank you Nova!), no woofs allowed in the kitchen, etc. She gets along with the cat great, and we're looking forward to watching her grow (and grow and grow and grow!)

September Long Weekend

Labor Day is a biiiiiigggg deal in Regina. The Labor Day Classic is possibly one of the biggest games of the entire Rough Rider season. They usually make a whole weekend of it, with Fan Day on Saturday and the game on Sunday with all kinds of festivities. This year they even had The Sheepdogs playing for half time, pretty awesome.

One of the highlights of my weekend was one of my very dearest friends from home came to visit. Erin and I were pretty much inseparable during high school. She would come to my fiddle contests. I would go to her dog agility trials. We did drama club together. We spent week nights at each others houses. In the mornings before school I'd bring her to piano lessons and sleep on her parents couch until we had to go to class. When I left to live in Austria for six months she was at the airport with my parents to send me off.

So, I was so so so happy when she decided to fly down to spend the weekend with us. (Pictures are courtesy of my iPhone... I'm a sucker for self portraits!)

I successfully transformed Erin into a football fan, and she even admitted that she needs to now add TSN to her satellite package.  We had way too much fun at the game. We wore the silly face sticker things. Erin cheered like a champ. We ate bratwurst and churro sticks.

On Monday we drove out to the property with Nova. The basement backfill is done and looks fantastic. We wandered the property, admired the not-yet-finished fence. We got a tentative moving date for the house and things are going to be a whirlwind in the next few weeks as we prepare. And then I'm sure it'll be even crazier once the house is here with all the things we need to get done before we can actually move in. And then... we move in!!

Afterwards we went for a tour of the lake, and ate some of the best burgers in Saskatchewan at the Lumsden Snack Shack. This is a great little place just off the highway and is always crazy busy! 

A quick peek of the basement... :)

 I am so so so so glad Erin came to visit. She's one of those friends in which it feels like true kindred spirits (yes, I was an Anne of Green Gables nerd as a child). I brought her to the airport on Monday evening and afterward went home, curled up in Keith's arms and cried.   

Reunited and it feels so good

Love love love (A+M 25.08.2012)

Things are finally starting to quiet down! I'm hoping I finally get to catch up here on blog posts.

A week ago I was honored to stand up and witness my older brother get married to the girl of his dreams. It was so unbelievably beautiful. I don't know if it was just because he's the last of the kids in our family to get married, or if there's something in the water down there in Calgary, but I bawled my eyes out. Literally could not stop. I don't know if I've ever met a couple that compliments each other as good as Markus and Allison do. Saying they complete each other hardly begins to explain it.

We had so much fun. Everything was beautiful, and I got to spend an awesome weekend with friends and family. I danced like a total idiot with my brothers and my sisters-in-law (who I am now going to refer to as my sisters, just so you all know), got to get all dressed up and wore killer shoes which were so painful my right toe went numb for four days.

It was absolutely amazing. And I couldn't be happier them :)

Photos are courtesy of Gabriela Husch.

Happiness. Warmth. And so much love.