They're Heeerrrre....

Look!  It's our stuff!

I said I’d believe it when I see it and Thursday morning, just after 8am, I became a believer…Our stuff had arrived!  Sort of.  The driver of the semi was at our door but he was also telling us he had parked three blocks away and wasn’t quite sure how he’d get to our street given how narrow things were. 

(Ah HA!!  I was right!!)

But wait…He says he’ll be able to do it.  I said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it…’.

About 20mins later, there he was rounding the corner to our house and getting that big beastly semi parked and ready to unload!  WOW.  To say I was impressed was an understatement.  The guy was dripping with sweat so I’m making the assumption it was because of the stress of the short drive versus the 28C heat at 9am…ya, that’s it.

Now the REAL fun began…Deciding where all these boxes should go!  Suffice it to say, our house was no longer empty.  Once the boxes were all brought in – and the furniture – the duo began unpacking. 

As an aside, can I just say that watching people load and unload your stuff is quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable/boring experiences one can have.  I mean, you don’t want to look like you’re supervising, but at the same time you want stuff put in the right spot.  And the unpacking part?  Tedious…So, I just joined in.

Terri had to go to work just around the time they were finishing (how convenient!) so I was left with a house FULL of stuff/boxes in every room and wondering where to begin.  You see, when they unpack everything, they don’t unpack it and put it away – they unpack it and leave it there for YOU to put away.  I didn’t know that!  Terri gave them strict instructions to do so in her kitchen – which she wanted to organize herself….So, here’s what the kitchen looked like once everything was unpacked.

After Terri got home, she dove right in and by 8am Friday morning, here’s what it looked like:

Not bad, not bad at all.  There are still a few little things here and there to stuff away but she’ll do that easily.  I can say that our bedroom, spare room and bathroom is also done – and living room (umm, TV set-up, PS3 and other associated electronics was the FIRST thing I did – hello?!).  The upstairs ‘office’ looks like an episode of ‘Hoarders’ but I’ll get that sorted Saturday while Terri spends the day at work.

Having all of our stuff here gave us each moments of pause today – and a wee bit of sadness.  Our stuff is here.  This is real.  This is happening.  It hit each of us at different moments today and there were some tears shed, not going to lie.  But, I’m happy to report it is only temporary – as in, OK, that chapter is over.  Let the new chapter begin!  We truly know we are no longer in Canada though and it has us a bit homesick.  I may actually MISS some of the cool fall weather…Maybe. 

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It’s been so wonderful hearing from everyone in these past weeks.  With our phone set-up and Skype ready, we’ve each had time to talk to our families and Melissa (Terri’s best friend) and it has been great! 

Terri’s Mom is coming for a few days next weekend and it will be great to see her!

For those that have been regular emailers, texters (via Apple and WhatsApp), please keep it coming!  We love hearing from you - and about every little thing we are missing back home (I’m looking at you Erin and Andrew – and Kevin - and Ashton!!).  We miss you all and look forward to your correspondence!

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Friday morning – and afternoon – we had a wonderful new experience: setting up a US bank account.  Now that Terri has all her documents, we decided we should probably set-up an account here. 

What a schmozzle.  We’ve been doing our research and have discovered the following:

-If a bank cannot verify your address - ie: if you live in a new development - they cannot verify that you are real – call back in 6-12mos.

-If your Social Security Number is too ‘new’, they cannot verify who you are and do not believe you are real...even though the SSN proves you ARE indeed real and can legally get paid to work.

-If you want to set-up an account at an online bank (like ING Direct/Ally), you have to have another US bank account somewhere else that proves you exist...to someone else (ok, if they trust you, we can too.)

-Even if you HAVE that US account, if you do not have your name on some kind of bill payment or credit file elsewhere (US credit), you are also not real – even if you can answer all the security questions they had you set-up for safety TO VERIFY WHO YOU ARE on a previous phone call.

-You cannot set-up ANY US account that will link with a Canadian bank account for the purposes of electronic transfers – you must ‘wire’ the money to yourself between countries….for $40 per transfer.

The one bank that DID let us open an account let us do it as ‘foreigners’ and then promptly told us to go get a gas credit card and start building up our credit so that in 12-24mos we can qualify for a REAL credit card.

Apparently – as previously stated – the credit history we’ve been building up in Canada is useless anywhere else BUT Canada.  Does that seem strange to anyone else reading this?  Do these companies honestly believe that the average, right-thinking, responsibly employed person would decide 'ya, I'm gonna move there and I'm gonna just go hog-wild with credit - spend, spend, spend'....destroying that which has taken years to build up?  I would think US banks/creditors should be more leery about their OWN citizens versus ones from other, more economically stable countries.

Now I’m sure that if I was to apply for a mortgage or a car loan, they’d access that same credit history and use it against me if they could – but they’d never let it be used in your FAVOR, oh no...

To say this has been frustrating is an understatement.  But, thanks to Alex at the bank we ended up going with, we now have a suitable place to put our US money into…Getting it back to Canada may be another story.

Erin, if you’re reading this, I may need that sign you and Andrew were working on so I can walk into a few banks with it…walk in, shout ‘HEY!’, point to the sign for 30-seconds so everyone has a good look at it, turn around and walk out.

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We found out an interesting tidbit about our dog last weekend – he likes the water!

Now, we expected him to be somewhat cautious and enter the water with some trepidation...like Frankie would.  Nope.  Jonny goes right in and plops right down.  We were stunned...but we laughed and knew we had to get it on video.  That dog is an oddball...  

Terri mentioned this in a previous blog post but here is the video…

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I don’t have a job (yet) so I started my new duties as ‘house husband’ Friday by whipping up my first batch of chili!

Terri gave me the idea to document the process in a ‘photo blog’ so, enjoy the pictures below!

Most of the ingredients required for my chili...

Gotta brown that lean beef & add some seasoning salt...

Chopped onions & garlic - peppers next!

First - don't rub your eyes with onion hands...that's bad!

Adding stuff to the beef - looking tough...or constipated.

A gorgeous array of color and substance.

Stir it, stir it good...

Once it's done, taste it, make sure it is yummy!

And it is...

It's also freakin' spicy like a mo-fo!

One of many quick glasses of agua...

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Lastly, many of our Manitoba friends know that both Terri and I used to work for Global TV.  When I was working at Global/Fox, I used to work with a gentleman by the name of Rich Pope.

Rich worked in the graphics department and was one of my favorite people to work with - one of many people's favorite actually.  Like many of us, he is a bit of a sports nut and plays hockey so we had a lot of things we could discuss and give each other grief about.  Rich is very jovial and every time I've run into him since, he's still the same ol' Rich - and that is a good thing!

Workwise, Rich is the kind of guy that when you brought him a graphics request at 4pm (when the deadline was 3pm), he’d get it done (and get it done well) for you without a complaint.  And that’s on top of his regular exemplary work.

A Bombers scout watches Pope kick for a million..

Rich left Global years ago – as many of us did – and is now a multimedia editor at the Winnipeg Sun, where his high level of proficiency and exemplary work ethic continues to build the Sun’s online video content.

For those who hadn’t heard, Rich was also picked to take part in the ‘Wendy’s Kick For A Million’ contest this fall (thanks to the 1,047 entries he submitted) and Friday night, got his shot at $1-million bucks at Skydome in Toronto during halftime of the Bombers/Argos game. 

Prior to this, Rich had beaten out a few others to reach the final.

Down here in Florida, we didn’t get to see it happen LIVE but we followed the commentary by former co-workers online and even had my Mom msg’ing me us she watched it.  Rich didn’t win the million but he won a $25k gift card from 'The Source', a 2012 Nissan Titan and $42,000 cash ($1,000 for every yard his 50yd kick travelled in the air if it didn't go through).  Not a bad haul – but Rich is worth much more than all of that and judging by the responses online and on Facebook, I’m not the only one that thinks that. 

This could not have happened to a nicer, more deserving guy.

I LOVED the Winnipeg Sun headline when it was over - "Pope Doesn't Win A Million - But He's Still Rich". I imagine he'll get quite the reception when he heads into work on Monday.

Way to go Rich!

Have a great weekend everyone!