the Moose Jaw Minute: Moose Jaw Minute #7: One Month and Counting...

It's been one month since I crossed the border to enter into Canada-land. What a month it has been! I can say without a shadow of a doubt that while I miss Chicago to no end, I am ridiculously happy to be in Moose Jaw with Dave. It has been a busy month for us...setting up the home office, traveling to Banff and Calgary, a couple of trips into Regina and several attempts to secure a driver's license and cell phone for me to no avail. We have cooked and camped, walked and talked, and are settling into married life in the Jaw.

I had the opportunity to tour the Moose Jaw YMCA on Thursday of last week with their CEO, Jeff Fox. He is engaging and the YMCA is doing a fantastic job in the community with their child care centres filled to capacity, what looks to be a happy staff, and a great facility with the right kinds of community partners involved. I will be looking for more ways to get involved and have some ideas floating around in my head. I know more conversations with Jeff will come. I am also excited to report that the Regina YMCA is also on my list of places-to-see in the coming weeks!

This last weekend, weather forcasts were predicting temps in the mid-70s and after several weeks of nothing but grey skies and chilly rains, we wanted...no, we NEEDED to get outside. We took the short road trip to Lake Diefenbaker with a canoe strapped to the top of the car, hoping that this weekend of gorgeous weather would permit some time on the lake and decent camping. Camping, yes...canoeing...well, not so much. The water level in the lake is high and putting in anywhere was presenting us with some challenges. Every small road (and by road, I mean a dirt path) we turned off provided nothing more than a steep look over into choppy waters as the wind picked up. While the wind was warm, it would have made for some challenging paddling across the lake. We searched and poked along the shoreline, hoping for a good access point to reveal itself and instead we found an abandoned RV (think Breaking Bad), cows blocking a path to the shore along one route, and grassy patches that, while beautiful, would not have allowed for a good campfire. Since we couldn't find anything, we headed into Douglas Provincial Park to pay our dues and set up shop in a proper walk-on site for the night. We made the short walk to the lake where we dined on cold cous cous salad and semi-frozen mangoes as we talked about the past month and the differences between then (pre-Canada) and now (in Canada).

It's been a good month and as I get used to the different money, the working from home, the big skies, and the quiet of Moose Jaw, I look forward to the next month...and counting.

ps. A note of congrats to good friends of ours, Amanda and Regan...welcome to the world Oliver Thomson!

pps. I have been without my camera for the past two weeks after leaving it in Chicago (I'm getting it back soon!). So, here are some pics from our last trip to Diefenbaker back in July. Cheers!