Spring

Ever since my surgery, I have needed a bit more sleep, so in general Jeff gets up before me. This morning I woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had come and left copious amounts of chocolate and candy. Apparently I just missed seeing him, as he stopped by sometime after Jeff got up but before I did :-)

We also made our traditional Easter dinner of homemade pierogies, accompanied by sweet and sour red cabbage, roasted asparagus, and homemade French rolls. Other than cooking dinner (most of which was prepared ahead of time yesterday), the whole day was spent relaxing and eating chocolate, and talking to family on the phone. It was nice to have a holiday.

Easter dinner

It is actually starting to feel a little bit like spring here. Even though the temperatures are only getting above freezing for an hour or two every couple of days, there has been quite a bit of snow melt. The snow in our backyard has gone from being about 4 feet high to being about 3 feet high in just a few days. If you look around, it still looks like winter, except for the giant puddles of water everywhere – a sign of spring. Fortunately, the snow is melting fairly slowly, so there hasn't been flooding so far, and I'm hoping that it will work out perfectly so that the snow melts as fast as it can without causing trouble.

Exactly one year ago, Jeff flew to Regina for the first time for his job interview. That set in motion a whole lot of changes that have led us to where we are now. There have been a lot of struggles and challenges in this past year, but it has also been a year of new beginnings. Spring is all about new growth, and I expect this season to bring smaller but nicer opportunities to grow!

P.S. I decided to give the blog a quick spring makeover :-)

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

It is still snowy and snowing here. But it was sunny this afternoon, and Jeff and I decided we might as well enjoy the snow while it is still here. We went out to our backyard where the snow is about four and half feet high. The plan was to climb on top of the piles of snow, play around up there, and maybe build a snowman. However, this is not the wet dense snow we are used to in the Northwest, and that Jeff is used to from growing up in Ontario. The snow was light and powdery, and you would sink almost all the way to the bottom taking one step in it. So, Jeff went in ahead of me and cleared some paths, then he helped me walk and crawl into our swimming pool of snow. I was able to tromp around a bit, and when I fell down it didn't matter because it was like falling into a pile of feathers. We had a lovely time, but couldn't stay out too long because it was still quite cold.

In other news, on Friday I received report from my neurosurgeon that a recent follow-up MRI confirms that my surgery was successful in completely removing my cavernous malformation. I was very happy to get this confirmation, and so to celebrate Jeff and I went out to dinner at a local vegetarian café, and today I baked cupcakes– chocolate with maple buttercream frosting. As soon as I finish posting this, I will be going to eat one or two of them!

Of Our Winter We Are Now Discontent

It is starting to look like spring may never come to Saskatchewan. It has been snowing here for the past couple of days, and although it is a light snow it has been fairly constant, and has added maybe another 6 inches on top of the snow we have already had. There have been a few days over the past month or so where things melted a little bit, but mostly the snow that was here in November is still here now. All told, this winter we have had about 6 feet of snow.

Jeff shoveling the front walk for the millionth time

Seriously people, this is supposed to be March

This is a record-breaking amount of snow for Regina, but unfortunately for some reason it can't be counted as an official record due to snowfall no longer being recorded at the airport. As bad as the weather can be here, people don't seem to take it very seriously – I am not sure there are actually any local meteorologists here, I think they rely on people located elsewhere to make weather predictions for the province. They keep saying that spring is coming, but I'm starting to think that is just wishful thinking. I can hardly remember this town without snow on the ground, and there is a small part of me that questions whether those hazy memories from August through October are actually real. I have never seen this much snow except on a mountain, and with no real rivers around, I can't imagine this snow melting because it seems like there is nowhere for it to go. I am told it will end up in many people's basements, because the soils here are clay and don't drain very well. I hope that our basements – in the house we're renting, and the house we're buying – are spared.

The melting and refreezing of spring brings treacherous conditions to anyone walking outside, but with my balance issues patches of ice on sidewalks and in parking lots are particularly hazardous. On the recommendation of a professor in the English department here who recently had foot surgery and is currently using a cane, I have added ice spikes to the ends of my crutches. They look like dangerous weapons and could probably be used as such if needed.

Speaking of, I have been walking primarily with crutches recently, using my walker only when I'm very tired, or need to be able to carry large/many things. This is a positive step forward, as forearm crutches allow for walking that is much more similar to normal walking. However, it also comes with some challenges. For one, if I have a crutch in each hand it is not only hard to carry things (which I can compensate for by using a backpack or carrying a bag), but hard to press elevator buttons, open doors, or shake someone's hand. In addition, it is apparently putting a fair amount of stress on my hands, wrists, and arms, particularly on my right side. This is problematic, because I have reduced/altered sensation on my right side, and without the normal signals telling me what my arm feels like, I can't compensate for the increased pressure so well by doing things like altering my hand position or taking a break to stretch. As some of the sensation has started to return on my right side, I have developed quite a bit of neuropathic pain (I will post more about that another time), and the pressure from crutch walking seems to be exacerbating that pain. This is not fun, but the upside is that I may soon be getting a pair of fancy new crutches with better handles and arm cuffs, to replace the ugly clunky standard-issue crutches I have been using. I have to have them special ordered to the medical supply store, and then when they come in I will try them out to see if they will work for me. I'll post pictures if I end up getting some of these "designer" crutches :)

Normal Things

My last several posts have been about exciting things, but not every week can be that exciting. I was trying to think about what would be interesting to post about today, and realized that for the first time in a while we had sort of a normal week. I realized also that I haven't really posted much about what day to day life is like lately. In many ways, despite the many changes we have had in the past year, life is sort of just like normal.

We go to work five days a week, try to get to the gym most days (in my case sometimes replaced by PT), come home and eat dinner, and then either work a bit more, run errands, do housework, or just relax. Jeff spends more of his time running errands and doing housework, and I spend more of my time resting, but otherwise this is not so different from our usual routine.

Our jobs are going well – there is always much more to do than there is time to do it, and we are each figuring out how to manage this in our own ways. But I know I am in the right job when I am thinking about all of the different things that I get to do rather than thinking about what I have to do. I am heading into my ninth week of teaching this semester, and I'm finding that teaching is really fun and rewarding. I taught a lot as a graduate student, and even though I was the instructor, I never felt quite like I was in charge the way that I feel I am now. I get to decide everything – what textbook to use, from what orientation to teach the class, whether to do things completely differently from how they have been done before. I am teaching a class I have never taught before (Personality), and at first I found the topic a bit daunting because it was new to me, but I'm finding that I am able to teach it in such a way that I get to weave in my expertise.

Besides work, we are also trying to have some normalcy on our downtime. This morning we made pancakes, and spent a good part of the morning doing crossword puzzles together. This afternoon Jeff spent some time on the phone with a friend, and I went to the mall (all by myself!) to do some shopping. Despite the fact that everything is kind of crazy, our life is also full of normal things.

We Bought a House!

For the past while, we have been looking at houses, with the non-urgent attitude of being happy to move anytime before next winter (Jeff is not willing to weather another winter without a garage). Our real estate agent said that we would know the right house when we saw it. Well, last Sunday we saw it. We were fairly certain when we saw the listing that we would like the house, and when we walked in it felt right. So last Monday we put in an offer, and the sellers accepted it right away. Over the past week we have gotten final approval on our mortgage, home inspection, and worked out all the other details that go into buying a house. Earlier this evening we signed the final paperwork, so if we back out now we will lose substantial sum of money. We have no intention of backing out– we are extremely excited to own our first home!

We will be moving in the last week of April, after the end of the semester here, and before I teach an intensive course in May. The house is very well maintained, and although it's an older house and a little bit small, I think it will be perfect for us. It is also in a really good location, tucked back on a tiny little street where the only traffic is the people who live there, but close to main roads so it's easy to get places, and within a couple of blocks of the extensive bike path and park system. There is also a large fenced backyard. Here are a few photos, taken from the real estate listing:

Front yard and trees in the summer

Front of the house in the winter

Living room with big window

Dining area adjacent to living room

Kitchen adjacent to the dining area

In addition to these main living areas, there are three bedrooms, and a fully finished basement. There will be plenty of space for visitors, so we hope you will come and see us!