August to December

So, if you hadn't heard (but since you are reading this blog, you probably know us and probably have heard), but in case you didn't get all the details, here is the Reader's Digest version. :)

We are in Winnipeg. we've been here for 5 months now. Wow, almost half a year. Winnipeg is in the grip of winter, with no warmth on the horizon until the spring, just like God meant it.

We sold our house at the end of June for slightly less than we had hoped, and were packed and ready to go for August 1st. we had lots of help loading up the truck and everything went smoothly.

The drive was long and rather uneventful with the exception of the truck breaking down on my parents in Medicine Hat. we each drove a car, and my parents drove the moving truck. The problem was fixed and the rest of the trip went by without any problems.

we moved into a little 1 bedroom apartment on Pembina (south end of the city). Jo started work at Starbucks right across the street and began the Manitoba Chiropractor licensing process and I commenced looking for a job.

I got a job at Convergys, a huge call center, where I worked for a month doing technical support for Comcast business customers across the states. While working there I was offered a 4 month term job with Great West Life which I took with great enthusiasm, as call center work sucks and doesn't pay worth shit.

Thus began my 1 month stay at Great West Life. It was a great company to work for, but I was working in the IMAC (install, move, add, change) department, meaning I was pushing papers, and acting as a coordinator all day. All-in-all a great experience, but not quite what I was looking for. After about a month, I received a call from the St. James School District where I went for an interview and was offered a job doing computer/network support for the schools in the division, a division which our new house is in.

During my job hoping, Jo and I spent a large amount of time house shopping. We aren't renting people, and after tasting the greatness that is home-ownership we wanted to snag a place out here. Our realor, Don B., was absolutely amazing and really showed us what Winnipeg has to offer. After a few un-accepted offers we found an amazing little place and our offer was accepted. It's a cute, 1100 sq ft, 1 1/2 storey place in St. James, on the west end of Winnipeg. It has a HUGE yard, and an attached single car garage. The basement is fully finished, and it had been freshly painted througout. The lady we bought from kept the house immaculate and it is in amazing condition. Shortly after we moved in we ripped up most of the carpet on the main floor to expose beautiful hardwood underneath in really good condition.

We moved into our new place on Oct 1st with lots of help from my awesome relatives and friends.

Throughout this time Jo had been working on her licensing stuff and was also looking for a clinic to work in.

So that brings us to December. Time for Christmas and all that fun stuff. We decided not to do presents this year as we are trying to get things going with a practice for Jo. She has a lead on a practice for sale so we are just waiting for the seller to get all the info together.

At the beginning of December we had the Dueck (my mom's side) family get-together in Rosenfeld. 88 people showed up this year, and there was lots of good food. I think it has been about 15 years since I was last at one, so it was cool to be back and see all the people that couldn't make it to our wedding, as well as all of those that were able to make it.

We also took a drive out to Altona to see my grandparents old house. It was a nice trip down memory lane. :)

We didn't go home for Christmas this year, and had a wonderful Christmas dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's place. They even suprised us with a few presents which was fun.

So Christmas is over, New Year's eve is upon us and Jo is done at Starbucks at the end of the week. She is going to be doing some temp work doing mecial transcription while the chiro stuff comes together starting next week.

We hope that all is good in your lives, and this caught you up to date on the last few months. I know I missed tons, and maybe got something wrong in all of that, but Jo will be sure to let me know. :)

You can expect more frequent updates, and we wish you all the best in 2009.