We Have Moved

I started this entry back in October... it took a while for me to write, I wasn't ready to actually put the "words to paper" and make it official by writing "we have moved". It's now the third month of living in a new country - I'm finally ready to write this entry.

In January 2011, Activision offered Adam a full time position at their central location in Santa Monica California USA. Adam accepted. The company, on his behalf, applied for a visa to work in the USA. The process of getting the visa was long... but eventually the visa was granted to Adam. The visa was dated for October 4th, and our international lawyer advised Adam to not cross the border before that date. Okay... hey wait not okay - we needed to go down to LA to find a place to live! I solved that problem by taking Anita with me to go apartment hunting. We had the service of a relocation company that hired a Santa Monica local to set up appointments for Anita and I to view places for two solid days. It was like speed dating, and my dates were apartments. Some were dumps, some were not... just like blind dates right? My mission was to find a place in Santa Monica close to the beach and a short commute for Adam. I was very successful and signed a lease to go steady with an apartment for one solid year.

SEPTEMBER:
We put our Vancouver home on the market and it sold in 10 days. The international movers then scheduled to move us out of our home at the end of the month. The month of September was a blur. How quickly those 30 days passed for me, there was no time for tears...

West coast crab dinner with Auntie Nancy and Uncle Chris

my last Tuesday dinner with Jen, Anita and my other kids.
















and then it happened Adam got old too.. just like Troy.
SEPTEMBER 15th, 2011 ADAM TURNED 40 !!!!
and surprise - Troy and Sheri flew down to celebrate with us!

September 28th, the movers arrived.
As some of you may have heard - our elevator was out of order. BUT the international moving company was not going to delay this move, oh no! They just hired a few young beefy men to pack the boxes down 5 flights. What a huge job for them, I just sat back and watched men pack up my house. It was not difficult to watch... They wrapped every single thing we owned in their custom paper - even my couch got wrapped up like a Christmas gift.

On that final day when the last box was removed, and the packers were all gone - I was so ready so spend our last days in Vancouver in a hotel as it felt oddly unsettling to wander around our totally empty condo. I had expected it to be harder to say good bye to my first real home. This was the condo that Adam and I moved into as newly weds, the place we brought Chaplin home from the hospital to, all my memories of baby Chaplin, to 5 year old Chaplin - his growth chart on the wall. As i closed the door to my old home and walked out for the last time, I knew I would be okay because I was not walking out alone.
What was hardest about moving?
Leaving behind the expectations of how life was going to unfold. I envisioned Chaplin growing up in the Nordby house-hold. I thought that Waltham's would always be close by, and it's hard to accept that I moved away from Auntie Nancy and her infinite amount of support she has given my family over the years.

I did hold it together really well during September, and did everything we needed to do to make our move to a new country. And most important, I made certain Chaplin was excited about the move, and I didn't show any fear or sadness. It wasn't until the very last day in Vancouver as I left Anita's house for the last time that I cried. The move finally hit me - I was moving away from Jen and Anita and would no longer have them in my daily life. Anita has made me a better person, a better mom and it was impossibly hard leaving her and her family behind. I cried for an hour before sending Anita a text to tell her i was upset and couldn't stop crying - she text me back telling me "Get it together girl, you are on your way to a new adventure. Life is all about changing and growing. You will be fine!" The wisdom of that girl is endless! Thank you Anita for helping me through this all, and i dare to say i hope you and Jen are missing me!

And with Anita's advise - I embraced our new adventure:
We were on our way to sunny Santa Monica California via the Coast Highway.
OH and everyone should make this road trip at least once in their life.














Day 1 ) Vancouver BC Canada - cross the border and deal with border crossing agents for 5 hours to get our visas stamped - to Cannon Beach














Day 2) Cannon Beach to Crescent City














Shortly after leaving Crescent City, we drove into the Redwood Forest, and did a short detour to go through the famous Chandelier tree. Our jeep just - and i mean just - fit through the tree - there was about half an inch on each side of the car.

Day 3) Crescent City to San Francisco














I thought about ways to make this drive fun for Chaplin. So each morning he had a 'treat' bag he could reach into and pull out a new toy. He loved his hang-man board. I packed a tub of toys and activities that i put right next to his seat. He did amazing on this journey.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE CHAPLIN!!!
We did find ways to break up the drive - like this for instance!


































We noticed that a re-occurring theme from town to town was the light-house.
There were light-house shaped restaurants, pubs, gas stations... bla bla bla...


Day 4) San Francisco to Pismo Beach
From what I recall - Pismo Beach is a great beach town.We stayed at a fancy hotel right on the beach.














And here I am in the car with the ocean scenery in the window. Honestly, a lot of the drive was this beautiful to look at. Adam had me to look at as well!

Day 5) Pismo Beach to Santa Monica














It's hard to tell from this photo - but on our last day drive - Chaplin wore his CANADA shirt.

The drive was a therapeutic brain break for my whole family - and we needed it because the day after we arrived in Santa Monica the movers showed up and unloaded EVERY SINGLE THING I OWN onto my street. This photo shows just a portion of what lay on the side walk. I had plenty of cars drive by and actually stop and look at the spectacle. Honestly - it was a nightmare and i couldn't wait for the day to just be over. Eventually it was, and what we were left with was our new place full of wrapped up boxes that took me a full two weeks to unpack.














So here we are living in Santa Monica and how do I feel? Strange. It does not feel like home. Maybe because we have been really busy? It just seems surreal to me, that this past three months have not been a vacation!

OCTOBER:














First official work party!

Two weeks after we moved - Sheri and Donovan came down for a weekend visit - and just like that - we went to Universal Studios, and we even purchased annual passes. What a great sister in law i have. I love her to pieces!





































Chaplin lost his tooth - just before my family arrived for a visit - he wanted to keep his tooth so with some help spelling the words - Chaplin wrote a letter to the tooth fairy.
































Next weekend: mom and dad arrive - and Adam and I jetted off to Las Vegas for a party leaving the grandparents to look after Chap for the night. Not a bad deal for everyone! mom and dad caught the train to Yuma to spend their some time in their winter home.




































Adam at the party in las vegas. he's so cool!


THEN we drove to Yuma to spend American Thanksgiving with them.
See what I mean about how this does not seem like reality - I was able to drive from my Santa Monica home to my parents home in Yuma in less than 5 hours. I now live closer to my parents than i have in over a decade! crazy. and Thanksgiving in November. crazy.

and my top story is meeting the extraordinary Royea family.
THE ROYEA's - Peter, Jen and their three sons Linden, theo and Jack.
I don't know where to begin - perhaps I will have to save that story for another blog as it is too amazing to cram it into this one! They are now part of our life in this new country. I can't say thank you enough to Jen and her family for opening up their hearts and home to include us into their life. I love that I have another girlfriend named Jen.

This is a picture of Jack, Theo, Linden and Chaplin decorating a gingerbread shack together (not sure where Linden went in the photo...)

















So that brings us up to December -


















Santa!


















Staff party just happened to be on the same night as my birthday. Lucky me, lucky Adam!
Peter and Adam work at the same company - lucky us ! I got to celebrate my birthday with Peter and Jen at the most glamours event I've ever been too! What a night! I am holding up a frozen tequila drink made with liquid nitrogen. And I don't have any decent photos of Jen and I to post.. lets just say we enjoyed a few of those frozen drinks.



















Chaplin's first time on skates.


And now I'll end this rambling blog entry by showing you how Chaplin and I have spent many days -





.

children's garden

Kindergarten: the translation/german meaning of this word is absolute perfection in description of what I want the word to be. A children's garden! I LOVE IT!

Today we sent Chaplin off to his first real day in Kindergarten.

Before class, the children all line up and one by one they greet their teacher Ms.K

"Good morning Chaplin" - and Chaplin replies "Good morning Ms.K". I think manners are important so we are going to encourage Chaplin to make eye contact with Ms. K when he greets her tomorrow.

Okay - so I have one story about first day of school for Chaplin - and it doesn't even involve him (or me...) - BUT it is a great story to go along with the word Kindergarten.

On our first day at Kindergarten we were pleased to see Jonas, a charming and quiet boy that we knew from Chaplin's pre school. After the first day at Kindergarten we meet up with Jonas's parents outside the school (side note - I've been intrigued by Jonas mom since pre school days and wanted to work up the courage to talk to her...) We were taking photos when Danielle (the father) excused himself. Xenia (mother) explained that Danielle was going to the car to get a sugar sack for Jonas, and that all german kindergarten kids get sugar sacks. She has a delightful german accent and i got lost in her translation - so I thought. I was sure I heard "Sugar Sack" and thought maybe Rogers Sugar bags like the kind you buy at the grocery store, and you wouldn't give that to a kid... i was confused.

Then Danielle came back with the sugar sack. SO i had heard correct - it was SUGAR SACK

And what you ask is a sugar sack??

It is a cone shaped vessel to hold candy. And when Jonas saw it - he was beaming! We took pictures for them and then Jonas opened it up and shared his candy. This should be a multi-cultural tradition - what kid wouldn't want to get his own sugar sack!

his grandparents brought this sugar sack from Germany.

Schultuete - Sugar Sack -

In Germany, the first day of school has long been acknowledged as a special occasion with customs that have been documented back to the middle ages. The custom of the "Schultuete" goes back to about 1810, where sweets were given to the children on this day. The tradition spread quickly soon becoming an institution all over Germany.

and our tradition growing up was to wear something new. So on his first day Chaplin wore a fancy Ben Sherman shirt

Eggs, Cake, Pony and one Graduation!

Spring Break.

Auntie Nancy took us to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

It is unlike any other museum I've been to - it's a teaching lab and the contents are setup in 'stack' style. So you wander up and down stacks, pulling out drawers to see what surprise is hiding inside. It was a great place to suggest going - thank you Nancy!

Easter.

Chaplin had enough lung power this year to blow the contents of an egg out - and enough skill to not just squish the egg.

Notice the painted bunny trail picture on the wall? It lead up to the Easter basket.

Lucky kid - he got a Kinect from the bunny this year!

Pony Rides

Chaplin on the horse named Truck.
Leif on the horse named Blackberry.

I asked Tineke if she wanted to ride the horse by herself. She said "no Lori, not horse it PONY." She was torn between wanting to ride this pony, and being so scared. She didn't let go of me for the whole ride, and would look down and then smile and grab my arm tighter. She talked about the pony ride all day - so i guess she liked it.

Troy is oldish now.

He turned 40, and to celebrate he came down with Sheri for the weekend. No kids - Chaplin went to Waltham's for a weekend sleepover! So it turned into The Weekend of Troy! We did all things troy loves - which is mostly eat.

Champaign, Cheese, Olives, Meat, Bread. Yum

Birthday muffin with a message.
Chicken feet - Not yum.

Birthday dinner at Guu with Friends. I think i look squished and neckless!But i'm drinking one good sake mojito - I think i had six. I think...

Waiting for shrimp at the Spotted Prawn Festival - more food. And then we went to watch THOR in 3D. That was good eye candy for the ladies. And i think we ate Poutine in the movie theater - just to keep with the theme of the weekend. And by Sunday Sheri announced "Troy your birthday is over. Pack your bags we are going home." So anyways = thank you for coming down brother! that was the best weekend i've had in ages.

Summer Holiday plans

One day we were talking about going to the cottage we've rented on Salt Spring Island this summer. Chaplin decided he should make a play-dough scene. Our cottage is right on the water - so this is what Chaplin thinks he'll find in the ocean. YIKES and I hope not!

Bathroom painting - I over heard Adam giving Chaplin instructions

"up and down with the brush, your not painting a picture so try to keep the swirls and poke-a-dot style for art class."

Introduction to Kindergarten and a Graduation.

Adam’s Convocation Ceremony - Wednesday June 15, at SFU

He was awarded with his degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts (and minor in Communication). Adam got his robe and came to find us in the open seating. We got there early enough to get decent seats and blankets (it was chilly).
This is Sarah McLachlan performing - She was awarded with an honorary degree, and after she performed her two songs I clapped - but not as loud as when Adam was on stage. I wasn't there for her - but she does have a lovely voice.

Adam walking across the stage. Sound track - Chaplin and Lori clapping and wooting.
Chaplin was such a good boy. He sat waiting for the convocation to start, which took two hours, and sat watching the boring (sorry!) speaches and people walking across the stage - another two hours - and he didn't complain once. this was the largest graduating class SFU has ever had, so our morning at SFU started around 7:30 and we left by 1:30.