2017 - Moving and Changing

 It’s been said that there are 2 kinds of stress – good stress and bad stress.  We are more familiar with bad stress that causes insomnia and illness.  Good stress is the kind that strengthens muscles and bones, and perhaps our mental states as well. We have had a lot of stress this year – involving moves for our whole family.

Katrina and Tyler moved from a 3 bedroom apartment to a 2 bedroom main floor suite; Anthony moved from a 2 bedroom basement suite to a 3 bedroom main floor of a house; Bronson moved from our home to a basement suite in Vancouver; and after 17 years, we sold the house we had built on Middleton Way in Coldstream and downsized in Vernon.  The amount of stress in our move cannot even be measured: months of sorting, packing, discarding, donating, recycling, and talking to realtors.

Our move took place on the hottest day (July 6) to that point of the summer,  breaking records from decades before.  Friends helped us pack up moving trucks two nights before the move, and dear friends and angels helped us unload.  Unpacking is taking longer, as there were some upgrades we made to the 33-year old “new” house. The first and most necessary change was to move the laundry area from the basement to the main floor, and that took about 3 months!

Aside from that stress, we enjoyed good celebrations as our family achieved milestones.  Tyler graduated with his Associate of Arts degree in April and began working with a church in Cloverdale in May overseeing worship and youth. Katrina graduated from SFU with her Bachelor of Arts in French, so we made a quick trip to the coast in June, and an even quicker trip back home. Bronson’s graduation from UBCO was the morning after Katrina’s grad, so we watched him receive his Bachelor of Science (in Computer Science) and then got to unwind.  Anthony was back and forth between Terrace and Newfoundland during the summer months and also wound up the practical requirements of his AME-M (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer) license.

In the work world, Bronson had a quick “break” to attend a computer conference in San Jose, CA, and then began a job as a programmer for Vizzion in mid-May.  He couch-surfed at Katrina’s for a couple months, while he looked for a pet-friendly apartment in Vancouver, and eventually found a ground floor suite. Travelling with his white furry cat was challenging, but Bronson and Snowball are now settled in.  Bronson is enjoying big city life.  In addition to his job, he also takes a couple courses at UBC toward his Masters degree.  It is exciting to see him doing what he loves to do.

Katrina continued tutoring until the end of summer and has resumed her studies at SFU. She is working toward becoming a high school French teacher, and will probably have no trouble finding a job next fall.

Anthony made a job change this year and began working for White River, another helicopter company. He is still in Terrace, but doesn’t have to do the weeks or months away from home in camps or on distant projects. He has had many adventures with his job and a lot of travel, but he is looking forward to settling down.  He proposed to his girlfriend, Emily Holubowski, on the Thanksgiving weekend, and they are looking forward to getting married in April 2018.

On the home front in Vernon, Marcel gets questioned about when he will retire from the mill.  He turned 60 this year, so retirement is a possibility, but he plans to continue until he finds the job too hard.

Karen’s work time is split 3 ways, between substitute teaching, secretarial work for a non-profit and working as a historical interpreter and school program coordinator at the Historic O’Keefe Ranch.  The ranch celebrated its 150^th birthday this year, so there was a lot of excitement there. On the health front, Karen made a couple visits to Vancouver to specialists, rode out a flare-up of polymyositis, and has been waiting for a hole in her foot (from a plantar wart) to heal. Some days are better than others in terms of the energy needed to accomplish things.

Becoming empty-nesters has been an interesting transition for us:  for example, we sometimes eat out for no reason except that we don’t feel like cooking!  There is no one else to talk to so we have to talk to each other (especially the two weeks after our move when we were without phone, internet, or television service). There are a lot of decisions to make and a whole lot of discussion has to happen before we are ready to get going on any particular project.

We have had visits from all of our kids since we moved, but we are really looking forward to having them all home for Christmas break.  Bronson will get home first, then Katrina and Tyler after their Christmas Eve services in Cloverdale, and finally Anthony and Emily will fly in on Boxing Day. Our big event at church, Bethlehem Star, took place last weekend. Our tree is up and presents are getting wrapped.  So as we look forward to another Christmas season, we wish you all a blessed Christmas and health and happiness in the New Year.