Christmas Letter 2015

This has been an EPIC year for our little family.  It all started with snow, & more snow until Prince Edward Island broke the all time snow record & got 18 feet of snow!  The kids had fun in it, I had fun looking at it from inside the house with a cup of coffee, but I don't think PChad had fun snowblowing it!

We had a long winter full of snow which lasted us right up 'til April!  PChad has been doing an Executive Masters which means lots of travelling to Paris & London, & I got to join him for one of his weeks in London!  Now, when I say I joined him, what I really mean is that we flew together, then he went to Oxford for the week, & I gallivanted all around London visiting friends & shopping, then we met back up at the end of the week & flew back to PEI together!

April was also my Dad's 70th birthday, & my brothers & I few out to Seattle to surprise him!  It was awesome to get together for a few days.  We also had a breakfast together with a bunch of Aunts & Uncles & cousins we had not seen for a few years.

PChad received & accepted a call to a church in B.C., with a move at the end of the summer.  We knew we had to take full advantage of our last PEI summer, so we hit the beach as often as the weather allowed!

At the beginning of August we packed up, & headed across the country.  We decided to take our time & visit family along the way, which made of an EPIC 3 week road trip!

We stopped at both of my brothers' places, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, met my parents for a weekend at my Uncle's ranch, & Chad's parents house!

We arrived in BC just as they were having a huge windstorm that caused a 2 day power outage.  Thankfully we had a lovely couple from church to stay with & they took good care of us.  We housesat for the first almost 3 months living in BC, & looked for a house to buy.  We found one really close to the church, but it was being rented & we had to give a full 2 months notice to the renters.  Unfortunately, that means we couldn't get into our house until January, so we are now renting a duplex with furniture donations from church people.  So, for the last 4 months, we have been 'camping' as I like to call it.  ("Sorry kids, we can't bake Christmas cookies, we're camping!  Everyone knows you don't bake cookies when you're camping!")  The kids have learned to adapt to our transient lifestyle quite well, but I think we are all ready to be in our own place with our own things.  When we packed for this adventure it was July, & we never anticipated we'd be without all of our household belongings this long.  Thankfully we packed a few sweaters & long sleeved shirts as it has been a bit chilly, & we have even had a tiny sprinkling of snow!  Now that we live only 4 hours from my parents, we are taking full advantage & spending a few days with them over Christmas!  It's been 9 years since we celebrated Christmas together & we are really looking forward to it!

My address book is in the moving truck, so this is as close to a Christmas card as it's going to get this year...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Idle Threats

Last night PChad had a meeting, so I put the kids to bed.  Asher knows that once he's in bed, he needs to be quiet, & if he calls out we usually ignore him because he will just keep talking if he knows he has a willing audience.  So, when a few minutes later I heard him calling for me, I did not answer.

He was persistent though, & after awhile decided to change tactics, "Mummy!  Are you being rude & ignoring me? ... Mu-mmy!  Well, I guess I will just have to turn my light on & read then!"

(We have also discussed that he may not read at night, & have removed his bedside lamp because the temptation was just too great)

"I'm going to read now, & I might just read all night!"

I wasn't too concerned that he would actually do it because he knows he'd be in big trouble.  But after a few more minutes he couldn't take it any longer.  He came out of his room to tell me, "My arm really itches & I need some lotion!"

Grocery Store Prices

After 3 months of living in BC & always wondering if the "closer, more convenient" (Save-On) grocery store was THAT much more expensive than the "seems cheaper, but farther away" (Superstore) store I decided it was time to make a list.  And make a list I DID!  I wrote a big list of the regular type things that I buy from the store, sometimes I get these groceries from Costco since it is so much closer than when we lived in PEI, but here's what I found...

On my list was:

Broccoli
Cranberry Juice
Veggie Juice
Dr Pepper
Milk
Coffee Creamer
Pilsbury Biscuits
Eggs
Butter
Margarine
Yoghurt
Magnum Ice Cream Bars
Vanilla Ice Cream
Cream Cheese
Bread
Bagels
Coffee
Coffee Filters
Tortilla Chips
Salsa
Flour
Sugar
Brown Sugar
Ketchup
Soup for Cooking (cream of mushroom)
Soup for eating (Italian Wedding)
Pasta Sauce
Butter Chicken Sauce
Oatmeal
Granola
Peanut Butter
Nutella

I compared the same sized items, & priced according to the brand I would normally pick if I was shopping at that store.  I only put the full price of the item on the list so I wasn't comparing sale prices  I then added all the prices as if I had bought one of each item at both stores & compared the final cost.

The results were...

Save-On-Foods (with 6 store brand items)  $203.04

SuperStore (with 5 store brand items)  $168.64

Individually, the only items cheaper at Save-On were bread & broccoli.  I did not compare other produce, but I'd be interested to know if that is cheaper.  I don't really like the selection at Save-On for produce though...  I was shocked at some of the price differences!

Brown Sugar       Superstore $4.98          Save-On  $6.49
Peanut Butter      Superstore $8.97          Save-On  $11.88
Salsa                    Superstore $6.99         Save-On $12.89

I'll still shop the flyers since I know Save-On have good sales on some of my regular items (Magnum Ice Cream Bars!), but I definitely will aim for Superstore more often now!

Three Things...

It's been a busy few weeks, so just for fun, I decided to do this fill-in. 

Three names I go by
1 Sherilyn
2 Mum
3 Chad's Wife

Three places I lived
1 Poulsbo, WA
2 London, England
3 Charlottetown, PEI

Three places I have worked
1 Solicitors' Office
2 Western Retail Store
3 Doctors' Office

Three things I love to watch
1 The 100
2 Orphan Black
3 The Chicago Fire, PD, & Med shows :)

Three places I have been
1 Israel
2 Newfoundland
3 Greece

Three things I love to eat
1 Pizza
2 Brownies
3 Shrimp Cocktail

Three things I am looking forward to
1 Christmas with my parents for the first time in 13 years
2 Moving into our own house after 5 months of temporary housing
3 Summer!