Category Archives: family

Blogging, Camping, Dogs, family, Grandparenting, Lifestyle, Relaxation, Summer

What’s Up

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Our newest grandson, Levi, was born healthy and beautiful on 6/28. He’s got the cute little nose gene from Mr. NOA’s side of the family. He’s got blond hair, like his daddy and his 11-year-old brother. He is simply precious and so very loved.

On the day Levi was born, our oldest grandson (the 11-year-old) and I took our kayaks out on the lake for the first time. One thing checked off my summer bucket list! The kid was a natural in his kayak. Me, not so much. But I did not, to my surprise and delight, tip mine over, despite how wobbly I was for the first 15 minutes in that thing.

We “hosted” our daughter’s family’s puppy, Dash, for a couple of weeks while they settled in at home with baby Levi. They have another dog, the scrappy daschund/pug mix, Max, and the two of them together in a house with a new baby and two other kids is a lot for them to handle. Mr. NOA and I made it clear to the kids that we are open to keeping Dash for good. He and Radar get along well, and Dash really benefits from having an older dog around to model how to be a good boy.

Dash in a rare moment of rest
Radar, the OG

A couple of weekends ago, Mr. NOA pulled the camper out of it’s space next to the “We Shed”, after it sat unused for the better part of three years. We cleaned it from top to bottom, inside and outside. We took it, along with Radar, up to the Northland to visit family and friends last weekend. It was so good to reconnect with the people we love and soak up the natural beauty of our surroundings.

Dash stayed with the kids while we were away. While it went well for them, they did ultimately decide that Dash is better off staying with us for good.

So, now we are a two dog household!

As far as blogging goes, I’m taking things in stride. Life has been more eventful (clearly) as of late, so publishing posts here has been sporadic. I suspect it will continue to be so throughout the remainder of this summer.

A few pics from our trip to the Northland:

Instead of my usual song at the end of this post, I’m sharing a video I took on my sister and her husband’s property last weekend. I’ve gotten slightly better at taking videos with my phone, but I do apologize for the speed at which I moved it as I was capturing this footage. I hope it’s not too jarring. I recommend having the sound up so you can better appreciate the soothing sounds of the babbling Baptism River.

Baptism River July 2025
Arts and Crafts, Creative Pursuits, family, Grandparenting, Gratitude, Lifestyle, Love, marriage

For the Love of Quilt

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Over the course of my life, I have been fortunate to be the recipient of several quilts and afghans.

My mom, Bonnie, was so creative. I am a creative spirit as well, but the execution of my creative ideas is historically pretty spotty. One of Bonnie’s creative pursuits was sewing quilts and making afghans. They are some of my most prized possessions.

I am in awe of those who can create in this way. I never had the manual dexterity nor the type of brain required to create works of art such as these. In fact, I vividly recall back in about 8th grade being unable to finish the sundress I was supposed to make in Home-Ec class. My BFF, who had decided to sew herself a sundress alongside me in this class, also had a mother who was a talented seamstress, I wound up relying on her to finish my pitiful project. God bless that woman. Don’t ask me why I didn’t ask Bonnie for help, because I don’t recall. I imagine shame was involved.

This is all to say that I cherish the quilts and afghans that have been bequethed to me over the years because of the love, artistry, and tedious work that was put into them.

If you’ve been reading this little blog of mine for a bit, you may recall that Mr. NOA and I recently celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. There was one very special gift we were given as a wedding present.

It was this quilt.

It was made by Paula, the wife of Mr. NOA’s boss at the time, a man named Ken. Mr. NOA, who is a bit more than 3 years younger than me, was in his last year of college when he was hired by Ken, who ran a small vending machine business that stocked vending machines on our college campus and the larger community. Ken was blind and needed someone to not only help him with the manual labor of stocking the vending machines but he also needed a driver.

The fact that Paula, whom I believe I only met once or twice, sewed this quilt for us to commemorate our new marriage, really touched our hearts.

This quilt has been laid on by drooling babies (our daughter being the first). It has kept us warm while we laid under it on our tent-camping trips. It has served as protection for us as a family from the rugged ground it covered as we watched the fireworks on the 4th of July or enjoyed live music outdoors.

For the last three years, however, this quilt has been quietly taking up space in the trunk at the foot of our bed.

As I got a wild hair the other night and decided to pull this beauty out of its hiding spot, Mr. NOA and I talked about its future.

I think one of two things ought to happen: I find a local seamstress who can restore it to it’s former glory (if you zoom in, you can see the rips and tears here and there), OR I find another creative who can repurpose it. I’m thinking they would carefully cut it up and place it in a shadowbox frame. Maybe a couple of them, so baby Levi (who’s coming soon!) can have one hanging in his room too.

Mr. NOA, on the other hand, said he thinks we should just…let it be. Keep it in it’s current form and use it as we always have. Maybe we could lay it out in our yard late at night and gaze at the stars with it underneath our outstretched bodies. Maybe it could be cover for our 11 year-old grandson when he’s sleeping overnight with us in our camper. Maybe we pull it out for Levi to rest on when he’s at our house and it’s “tummy time”.

Knowing myself as I think I do, I feel a sense of urgency to decide this beloved heirloom’s fate; otherwise there’s a damn good chance it’s going back in the trunk and forgotten about while my brain comes up with yet another creative repurposing idea that may never come to fruition.

~As always, I have a song to share that fits the vibe I’m in while writing this piece today~

Celebrate, family, Grandparenting, Lifestyle, Love, Planning

Grandma is in Planning Mode

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I recently caught myself adding “make to-do lists” for various events coming up in my life on my semi-regular weekly “to-do” list.

Yes, I am neurotic. And/or ADHD.

Let’s just say I am in full-on planning mode right now, friends. I am a bit out of practice in this arena, as the last gathering I executed with more than 8 invitees was almost 10 years ago.

The nearest of these happenings is the baby shower I’m planning for my beautiful daughter, who just arrived at the third trimester of her second pregnancy. This is coming up in less than 2 weeks.

Yikes!

I’ve got games lined up. What’s a baby shower without a few goofy games, right? One of the games is an A-Z challenge where people are given a set amount of time to write down baby names. Whoever gets the most wins a prize.

Silly yet serious question: do I play a song-maybe one with the word baby in the title, or use one of the plastic hourglass timers from one of the many board games we rarely play, while folks are rapidly trying to capture every baby name they can think of on paper? I want to make sure everyone has enough, but not too much, time for this challenge.

Here’s another one: do I fulfill my hosting daydreams by baking various sweet treats to display on the beautiful tiered treat stand thing that I’m on a mission to buy this weekend? In addition to the cake I ordered yesterday from the grocery store bakery, because like those aforementioned goofy games, what’s a baby shower without a cake?

These are but a few of the thoughts that are plaguing my brain these days.

These two kids of ours-our daughter and her fiance-have not yet determined baby’s name. There have been a few (which I won’t share because one of them I really love and secretly hope they choose and I don’t want to jinx it) they have talked about, but at this point they think they’ll know baby’s name when they see his face.

Plot twist!

I wrote the above paragraph earlier in the week…and guess what? Our daughter texted me yesterday to say they have landed on a name. It is the one I favored! His name will be Levi.

From parents.com: The name Levi has become a favorite amongst new parents for being both traditional and trendy. It means “united,” “joined,” or, sometimes, “joined in harmony.”

To think that 11 years ago, I was beside myself with angst about becoming a first-time grandma at the oh-so-young age of 47!

I’ve looped in our daughter’s fiance’s mom and step-mom to help with executing this affair. I find it slightly awkward texting back and forth with them, as I’ve only met them in person a handful of times since our kids got together almost 3 years ago. But I am looking forward to interacting with my future son-in-law’s large family as time goes on. This baby shower is going to usher in the joining of our families.

Isn’t it just an amazing and beautiful thing how families evolve over time?

Enjoy this cover of a sweet song I love to sing to babies!

family, Love, Memories, Storytelling, Wisdom

Pearls on the Brain

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This post is inspired by two things.

Well, two women I loved and the “Pearls of Wisdom” theme the non-profit I work at has going on to celebrate our 30th year of serving the senior citizens and adults living with disabilities in our county. Because the traditional gift for 30 year anniversaries is pearls.

The two women I am referring to are my grandmothers, who both passed away years ago, when I was a young adult.

Both of my grandmothers were named Pearl.

Recently, I found what is surely the only photo in my family’s history of the three of us together. I, aged 8 or 9, in my red, snazzy, and bedazzled dance costume flanked on either side by a Pearl.

I’m so bummed that I cannot find that photo for the life of me.

But I did find these two:

Me, in my baby goblin era, with my dad’s Mom, Pearl.
What I’m certain is the last photo with me and the other Pearl (my mom’s Mom) when I was 19.

The two Pearls were very different from each other. Like, very.

One tended to stay awake late into the night playing solitaire.

The other read tarot cards in her younger days, which my Grandpa was vehemently opposed to. Something about it being “devil’s work”.

One was a great cook. The two things I clearly remember her making on the regular was chili with big chunks of celery, stewed tomatoes, and spaghetti. It was more like soup, but my mouth waters whenever I recall how delicious it was. The other was white cake with chocolate frosting. I remember there always seemed to be one of those cakes sitting on top of her washing machine (why there is beyond me).

The other Pearl comes to mind when I smell Noxema. The woman used it religiously. Speaking of religion, she was a believer of the evangelical pentacostal variety. She donated gobs of money over the years to the Billy Graham/700 Club nonsense. She was a teetotaler.

My other Grandma Pearl loved to laugh and socialize, (though I don’t think she was laughing when our family accidentally left her at Disneyland during our one-and-only big cross-country multi-family vacation in about 1974. A stellar moment in our family).

The other Pearl was a bit misunderstood and under-appreciated. I, along with several of my family members, believe she was living with an undiagnosed case of manic-depressive or bipolar mental illness. She could be super silly but also super not. We never knew what version of her to expect when we came to visit. One famous story from my mom’s youngest sister was when her friend Ruthie came to hang out after school, Grandma Pearl, for whatever reason, wanted her gone. She told Ruthie, “why don’t you go home and get acquainted with your own mother?” My aunt was mortified!

I’d really like to learn more about my two Pearls. Perhaps I will bite the bullet and sign up for one of those ancestry dna sites, so I can learn more about their lives before they became my Grandmas. Maybe that’d give me more of a notion of what their “pearls of wisdom” would be if they were still here with the rest of us.

Please don’t hold back with sharing your “pearls of wisdom” with me in the comments. The more original, the better!

I hope you enjoy today’s sweet song.

family, Humor, Storytelling

Story Time with Jim

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Someone I admire recently gave me the nudge I needed to follow through with this plan, which had been in my head for the last couple of months, to start capturing family stories.

Thanks, Stephanie H.

I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with my almost 90 year-old father-in-law, Jim, since last month, asking him to tell me his stories. Anyone who knows this man knows that he loves to tell stories (and talk political conspiracies) about his life growing up in Mexico.

Mexico, Missouri that is.

Here’s a little tale Jim told me recently.

Jim and his friend, Jimmy, purchased an old Model A together back around 1950. My MIL, Alice, commented, as he was telling this story, “you know there was going to be trouble when you had two ‘Jimmys'”. They’d drive it to school (they were about 16 at the time), then Jimmy would drive it to his after school job and our Jim would walk to the body shop where he worked after school. Then, when his work was done, Jimmy’s sister would pick Jim up in that Model A and drive him home.

Jim said that one night, he took the Model A out for a drive on his own. It was dark inside the vehicle (no inside lights in cars at that time), so Jim didn’t see that the gas tank was leaking. Fuel pumps had yet to be invented, so the gas tank was actually inside the vehicle, on the dashboard. It had to be higher up than the engine under the hood, so that gravity could allow the gas to get into the engine.

Jim drove it a ways down the road, and when he shifted it into a higher gear, it backfired and flames erupted inside. He said he “bailed out”, thankful that he had just installed a handle inside the door, and then watched, while he was on fire himself, the Model A careen down the road, fully ablaze. He thought to himself “now I’m going to have to leave town” because he was certain that the car was going to drive itself into town and set the whole place on fire. Fortunately, the Model A crashed into a ditch before that could happen.

As Jim was flailing about after bailing out of the Model A, there was what he called a “tramp or a hobo” walking along who quickly threw off his coat and covered Jim with it to extinguish the flames.

This could be known as the story where we all thank that unhoused person for saving Jim’s life. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have met Alice or fathered 3 kids. I wouldn’t have met Mr. NOA and we wouldn’t have our kids together. Our grandson wouldn’t exist.

So, thanks “Mr. Hobo”, and Merry Christmas to you, wherever you are.

Anxiety, Christmas, family, Grandparenting, Holiday Traditions

The Old Christmas Card Tradition

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I’ve been stressing about the whole Christmas card situation. Every single year, I am talking at least 25 years of my adult life, I have taken the time to create a greeting card online using photos of me with Mr. None of the Above, the kids, the grandkid, and our dog. Mr. None of the Above and I usually wrangle a bit over it, as we often can’t agree on what pictures to use and how they should be positioned on the card. It’s honestly the least favorite “tradition” of Christmas for me. I really don’t want to even do it this year.

I feel guilty about that. I absolutely love receiving all the cards we get from friends and family, near and far, each year. It’s a treat to see these cards come in the mail. I love putting them up for display and then sharing stories about the people in them with friends and family that drop by. And I keep them all. I’ve got them mixed in the boxes of Christmas doo-dads in the basement. I can’t say why exactly I have kept them. I guess it’s guilt? Or my nostalgic nature?

Perhaps I could re-purpose these cards, by cutting out the pretty parts that don’t include the actual people and make a huge collage? That sounds like a lot of fun. Time-consuming, but fun, right? Maybe that’s something my grandson and I can do together.

Yes, I did just get on Pinterest and boy, oh boy, there’s a plethora of arts and crafts one can create with old Christmas cards.

I think where I’m landing with this (first world) “dilemma” is to send “Happy New Years” cards instead. It’s already 12/10 and if I tried to order Christmas cards now I’d barely get them in time to send out. I think, for now, I’ll concentrate on my other Christmas tasks, like baking cookies, finishing up the present shopping, and wrapping said presents.

Ordering “Happy New Years” cards can wait a week, maybe even two.

Now, there’s some folks on my Christmas card list who I suspect only send us a Christmas card in response to the one we send to them. Like they feel obligated to reciprocate. Mr. None of the Above and I sending out Happy New Years cards might throw them off. I wonder if they’ll just grab one of their leftover Christmas cards and send it to us in response? No shame on them, honestly. I think it’d be hilarious actually. Here it is, January 8th, and I’m getting a Christmas card from someone. Right?!

How about you, my fellow Season’s greetings card givers and/or recipients? How do you “do” this aspect of the Holiday season?

A little blast from our family’s Christmas card past:

***Header image courtesy of https://inamatchbox.com/blogs/news/41-funny-christmas-messages-to-write-in-a-card***

Blogging Community, family, Gratitude, Holidays, Lifestyle, Thanksgiving

The Best Holiday is Upon Us

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When anyone asks me what my favorite holiday is, I always say it’s Thanksgiving. How about you?

Thanksgiving, to me, is all about baking and cooking copious amounts of food and feasting with my friends and/or family. It’s simple. It doesn’t include the stress of finding just the right gifts for my loved ones. It doesn’t come with a slew of events that proceed the actual day that I feel obligated to participate in.

It’s a time to enjoy hearth and home, and consider all the things for which I’m grateful.

As Jen Sincero, author of “You Are a Bad Ass” says, “Gratitude is the gateway to Awesomeness”. And I firmly believe that. A blogger I follow, Erin, of https://existentialergonomics.com/, recently wrote on the Sharing the Heart of the Matter blog, “when we pay attention and we track our progress, even the worst days are filled with reasons to be grateful” Attitude is everything, don’t you think?

A short (ish) list of the things for which I am grateful as Thanksgiving approaches:

  • The teachers that have patiently worked with my grandson to ensure that school is a place that he likes to be. They believe in him, and support him to be the best he can be. They appreciate his intellect and sense of humor. He is thriving, and one of the primary reasons for this is the dedication, patience, and kindness of his teachers.
  • Work. Not just for me, with being able to work part-time in a healthy non-profit organization, but for my family members. Both kids and Mr. None of the Above are supported and appreciated by their employers. They have been empowered to be autonomous in their day-to-day work decisions and they enjoy what they are doing.
  • Community. From having neighbors we can count on when we need help of any kind, to the generosity I witness from our volunteers on the daily in my work, to the doggies in our neighborhood who come to visit Radar at least a couple of times each week.
  • The community of bloggers I engage with. I often learn new things or new ways to think about old things from you all. I often feel inspired and encouraged by what you put out there in the blogosphere, and for that I am grateful.
  • The many great in-person conversations and laughs I’ve gotten to have since last year at this time with friends and family. These would have not happened had Mr. None of the Above and I not moved here to Minnesconsin in 2022.
  • That our daughter is in a loving and healthy relationship now with a guy we all think the world of. She had not experienced that in her life until she moved here (when we did, in 2022). To see her being appreciated and emotionally supported the way he does is so meaningful for me as her mom.
  • 33 years of marriage to Mr. None of the Above. We have experienced our trials and tribulations as we navigated adulthood, parenthood, grandparenthood, careers, moves to different states, deaths of family and friends, and everything in between. And we remain a strong unit.

What is on your list of gratitudes this Thanksgiving?

***Header image courtesy of https://www.rd.com/list/thanksgiving-quotes/***

Entertainment, family, Family Dynamics, Fun, Game Shows, Humor, Psychology, Television

8 Reasons Why You Need to Watch This

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In the last few months, Hubs and I have been amusing ourselves by watching Family Feud (with “your man” Steve Harvey) in the early evenings.

The two of us have a pretty short list of the shows we have gotten into together over the years, and for many of them, we only made it to just beyond the middle of the series, if that.

But then there’s Family Feud (with Steve Harvey): a game show pitting two American families against each other to win an amount of money, after taxes, which covers most of the cost of travel/hotel/meals for them if they’re lucky.

These are the things, perhaps because of my social work background, that I think about sometimes when I watch the show with Hubs. I hope for their sakes that none of them wind up in the negative financially as a result of their participation.

So I got a little side-tracked there. My apologies.

But, you know what, and I say this on account of my rosy-shaded lenses, I imagine that if you were to interview members of these families shortly after their experience on this hilarious and life-affirming half-hour American game show, they’d tell you that they had so much fun. Not only while taping the show together as a unit, but the getting there. The great seafood they had the night before at the restaurant across from their hotel. The brief, perhaps awkward and funny, conversations they may have had prior to taping with someone from the other family’s team.

Anyway, that’s my theory. Pardon my verbosity.

Truthfully, I’ve just got so much to say about what I think, feel, and wonder about this show, I should just find some fan club online so I can really geek out about it.

Excuse me while I imagine a scenario in which I’ve befriended legit fans who are real and decent people and together we form a weekly Zoom gathering during which we watch one episode together and gab about it as we go.

Fun, fun, fun!!

Ok, I’ll end this post with the most important point of all, which is why YOU, yes YOU, need to DVR (that’s how these Gen X’ers do it), stream, or simply watch Family Fued in real time with Steve Harvey ASAP.

Consider it a pitch, if you will.

8 Reasons Why YOU need to watch FFWSH (or fwish, if you prefer):

  • Because diversity is awesome! You get a more clear picture of the diversity of American families in the here and now when you watch it.
  • Steve Harvey’s ad-libbing and the faces he makes. He is a comedic genius, to me, with his deadpan responses or imitations of other family members’ potential reactions to the contestant’s answers.
  • The questions! But MY biggest question about the questions is thus: Who are and where do they find the people being surveyed? Ok, yes, this question is a two-parter, I realize, but come on! I have theories, let’s just say. It’d be interesting to find out if they were baseless or not.
  • The answers! How I see it is that there is one of two ways the almost always bonkers questions can be answered: from a completely subjective point of view (as in, how you would answer if someone came up to you in the cereal aisle of the grocery store and asked you this question), or from a more objective point of view (as in, how you think this random group of 100 married men would respond to the question).
  • “Your Man” Steve Harvey’s impeccable suits (most of them anyway-critiquing them is something I’ve been known to engage in while viewing this show).
  • The simplicity of it. Anyone can play! Not necessarily well, mind you. There is often that one contestant that’s either jet-legged or overly nervous or terribly hard of hearing or whatever, who gives the strangest possible answer. And it’s hilarious, because once in a while that “strangest possible answer” is on the board!
  • The fashion! I appreciate that the families on the show, in the majority of cases, put careful thought into what outifts they are going to wear. They typically wear a matching color scheme, have treated themselves to manicures, and put on their best ties or dresses. It’s maybe a little of a throwback to days long ago, when people were first experiencing air travel. They dressed to the nines to commemorate the exciting event.
  • You get just a little peak into family dynamics. Maybe that sounds voyeuristic, but it’s interesting to me. Seeing the love, the trust, the support displayed between family members gives me good vibes. Witnessing a truly surprising reaction via body language to an answer another family member comes up with can be hilarious.

And now, a little song and dance courtesy of You Tube and Sister Sledge. Check out those chic matching outfits!

Adventure, Anxiety, Changes, family, Humor, Life, Summer, Travel

At The Moment

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Is it starting to feel like summer where you live? Are the kids you know and love all graduated and working towards getting ready for their next chapter? Are you eagerly anticipating the next great summer pop song?

I’m cautiously optimistic about this new life that we, as a couple, are going to craft beginning this summer, in Wisconsin.

Hubs, our good boy Radar, and I will be hitting the road in less than 24 hours.

Towing this:

Our summer home!

But for this brief moment in time (aka me trying to remember that #thistooshallpass), things in these parts are super wonky.

Examples:

There is a box of cleaning supplies sitting on top of Hubs’ office chair at this moment.

My dining room table is filled with a combination of disposable grocery bags filled with clothes that need to be put in our camper, 2 old computer monitors , recently found plastic easter eggs with jelly beans inside them (score!), and a parking ticket courtesy of the city of Denver (my bad-but hey I got it paid online just now!).

We cannot park our Tacoma in the garage any longer. It’s filled with stuff for the movers to put in their truck, stuff for the junkyard dogs to pick up, and whatnot.

But that’s the sucky part of moving, right? And it’s almost over.

Did you know that prairie dogs are plentiful in Colorado? Well, now you do!

Hubs and I will be celebrating our recent 32nd wedding anniversary on the road, as we make our way to our next (and final?) destination. To find our “forever” home, as they say. The home we will die in. Or maybe not actually physically die in. I will just say the odds are that it’ll be the house in which we reside when we take our final breaths.

Ok, that’s just dark. Sorry folks, my anxiety is showing.

Really, what Hubs and I will be doing on our cruise through the upper Midwest is a lot of talking. We collectively have some shit to process. Stuff to discuss. Ideas to share. Plans to make. Pages to get on.

But also: the two of us have this unfettered opportunity to cut loose and have some fun. Maybe try some new food and drink, discover new places to rest our heads at night, and just sort of savor the quiet.

I am trying to resist the temptation to segue into how I hope for things to turn out beyond this road trip. Once we’ve landed in small town Wisconsin and reunited with our family and old friends.

At the moment, however, I’m going to make the wise choice and live in the here and now. Give myself and Hubs the “present” of being plugged into our present.

Raise a glass with me, friends! Cheers to a happy, fun, and safe summer!

Adult children, Balance, Blogging, Changes, Empty Nesting, family, Home, Lifestyle, Planning, Time

Ch Ch Ch Changes, Part Two

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My first ever post on this blog was entitled “Ch Ch Ch Changes”.

I wrote it as a way to introduce myself. To share the major life transitions that led me to where I was in that particular moment of my life: unemployed and living the “empty-nester” life with Hubs in a new state.

As of April 1st of this year I again am unemployed (by choice). Because of all the things that need to be done. Addressed. Thrown out or given away. Packed.

Our move back to Wisconsin is slated for late May/early June. Between now and then, my mental and physical energy will be split between reviewing the past, savoring the present, and planning for the future.

I, along with my family, are in the throes of transition. I am a bit freaked out and searching for the balance in all of this.

Reviewing the past will include playing the “should it stay or should it go” game with all of our worldly possessions and the reminiscing this will bring about. There are countless pictures and assorted memorabilia to go through. You can no doubt expect blog posts to come out of this.

This is a good thing, because I’ve got some catching up to do. I’ve all but ignored my blog for the last couple of months. Case in point: my 5 year blogging anniversary came and went with zero fanfare.

The present: practicing self-compassion and actual mindfulness, which I now realize I’m only beginning to grasp after using it as a buzzword willy nilly in the recent past. Making memories with my daughter and grandson, as these two will not be living with us indefinitely. Come summer 2022, they will most likely be living in their own place again. Spending quality time with Kid #2, who intends to remain in Colorado while the rest of us are moving to Wisconsin.

The future: staying on top of the housing market in the area of Wisconsin we plan to settle in. Finding the house that will suit us best. One on the waterfront, large enough to host friends and family on the regular. Familiarizing myself, via the internet, with the area and getting a feel for the job market there.

Time is of the essence for me right now. I aim to use it wisely so I can avoid being overwhelmed.