RRSP Contribution

As I said in the last post, even though I wasn’t feeling to good last month that mood didn’t affect our finances. In fact, our net worth was able to jump by $9876 in May. The biggest bulk of that jump was from our transfer getting finalized and our personalized envelope payout. This ‘envelope’ has one month of G’s salary and can be used incase we need something paid for during our move that isn’t normally covered. Luckily for us nothing extra came up so we had the full amount ($7092.33) available to us. We had two choices with that money:

     1. Have a cash pay out.

• This would have only netted us $3700.06 after taxes, CPP and EI were deducted.

2. Roll it into an RRSP (spousal or individual)

• CPP and EI are still going to be deducted but taxes would be waived for the contribution. 

Important thing to note is this payout is 100% taxable for G, just like our CMHC reimbursement we had last month. Although that is a good amount of money to have in cash we didn't need it. We were able to do the bathroom renovation with cash we had already saved up and currently saving enough to cash flow a new patio door plus our yearly property taxes. So really it was a no brainer for us to roll it into my spousal RRSP - G has the tax benefit and we get the long term growth for extra money we weren’t counting on. 

After CPP and EI were taken out there was a $6607.92 contribution done. G will get the CPP and EI back next year when we do our taxes as he is only a few paycheques away from maxing both his out for the year. This entire move has netted us just a little under $10,000 in extra income G will have to pay taxes on, but I’m confident we made the right decisions to help prevent taxes (in the short term) and will net us much more during the decades it’ll be invested!

- M

Bad Month

It’s been a weird month - hence me being quiet on my blog. This happened to me last time we moved, things are new and exciting the first few weeks. I’m busy organizing and cleaning, really motivated. Then things around the house start to settle and depression settles in aswell. This is obviously something I need to get better at handling because G’s job requires us to move in the future, that’s a fact. This time was better than last, I will say. I remember G coming home from work and I would start crying for no reason, I would sleep all day, and online shop like no tomorrow. This time the sadness just sort of drained all the energy from me - I felt completely unmotivated. Looking back on the last month I can’t even remember what I did to make time pass, it’s really weird how days can just get away from you when you are walking in a haze.

 

This last week is the first all month I’ve felt somewhat like my old self again. I’ve been exercising, doing yoga twice a day (morning stretching session and relaxing session after my workout in the evening), starting my vegetable garden, eating better again and paying attention to our finances (still debt free even after this blip!). I’m hoping this motivation continues to get stronger but I’m not trying to rush it either. I’ve got time these days (lots of time) and I want to make sure I recover properly without any ‘quick fixes’. One day at a time, things will get back to a normal. <3

- M 

Move Update

Just an update from my last post: thank you all that responded! We decided it was best to put the money into my spousal RRSP as it will help G at the end of the year with taxes and we didn’t need the money for anything else. G will also be getting one months’ salary ‘bonus’ once all the transfer paperwork has settled and we don’t have to submit anymore claims - it works out too a little under $7000. This money however, only has two options: either take as cash (this is taxable income so they take regular payroll taxes off) or roll into an RRSP. Since the beginning of this entire process we knew we would roll it into my RRSP without question and that hasn’t changed now that the transfer has happened. We just have to wait for all the behind the scene paperwork to finish up which may take a bit but once it’s done it’ll be another nice boost to retirement.

The move itself went really well. EXTREMELY stressful though; I don’t think I will ever get used to G's transfers. There was one point when the moving staff was unpacking the kitchen and kept asking me where I wanted everything I just got so overwhelmed I had to leave the room. I should have taken an anxiety pill in the morning but I thought I could handle it: obviously not. We opted to unpack ourselves last time so I was able to go at a normal pace not have three people shoving things in my face asking where they go. Everything found a home though and I’m really happy with how everything came together.

Three things did end up breaking, unfortunately. Two lamps and an antique glass jar my parents had given me. It's weird because everything is covered under insurance but they ask you to put prices on the items that broke. The lamps were IKEA lamps, and even though they didn’t have the exact ones we found similar lamps in the current catalogue so those prices were easy to figure out but for something like an antique from my parents - that was a lot more difficult. Not that it was crazy rare or expensive (we found one similar on eBay for like $10) but my dad remembered exactly were he got it from when they were on vacation. I felt horrible telling them it was broken, even they they understood. We submitted the claim this week and they will be sending us a $100 cheque (what we estimated the replacement costs to be). We won’t be replacing any of the items so that money will most likely just be going into the home fund for upcoming repairs. 

And the job. I had my interview and it was an hour and a half long! I had such a good feeling: they were asking lots of questions, open discussions, they seemed sooooo interested. I didn’t get it. I honestly thought I had it, everyone I worked with did, I was so sure... I’m still in a weird funk about it. I’m in-between everything happens for a reason and where did I fuck up? Although I’m mopey it hasn’t stop me from applying for other jobs. Technically, I’m still employed but only as casual. Better than nothing though. One thing I’m extremely grateful during this time: no consumer or car debt. It has made things so much easier this last month, and one more thing we didn’t have to worry about.

- M

Help!

Hi everyone! I survived the move and will write a more detailed post in the coming week but I need some advice.

We didn't have 20% down to purchase this house so we had to pay CMHC insurance - this was rolled into our mortgage. Now the Crown pays for CMHC insurance - but it is a taxable benefit. We received a cheque from the lawyers office yesterday for $3250.00 to cover our CMHC fees. This money doesn't have to be used to pay CMHC, it's ours to do whatever we feel right - I've checked and rechecked, the only thing that we were constantly reminded of is it will be taxed at the end of the year. So my question is: do we put it on our mortgage - which we are on track to pay off in 18years and have a 5yr fixed rate of 2.89%? Or should we roll it into my spousal RRSP so G gets the tax benefit this year? Or should we go on a vacation (lol jk).

We are leaning towards the RRSP since it'll have more time to compound and we are comfortable with our mortgage amount.

Any opinions?

- M

Move Date

The movers are here today !

Last night we took possession of the new house. The final walkthru confirmed we made the right choice. The seller did everything we asked of them and more - I was blown away. 

Going to be a crazy week but it'll be worth it :)

Goodbye old house <3

Mortgage Chat

We decided with this new mortgage to change things up a bit.

When we first bought our house 3.5 years ago, we went with a 25 year mortgage. It was a manageable payment, that's all we really cared about at the time. I remember the first anniversary of our mortgage we got an information sheet from our bank explaining how much we paid, the interest rate, etc etc. Pretty neat overview of our largest debt - until I got to the principle and interest breakdown from our payments. How depressing to see more money going to interest than principle. But alas, we had much bigger and more expensive fish to fry.

Now we are in a position where the mortgage is our only debt. If we kept things the same and ported our mortgage, we would have been on track to pay it off in 21.5 years (that half is important to me for some reason). But what fun is that? So instead we opted to pay the fee to break our current mortgage and secure a much better interest rate plus change the amortization to 20 years. The biggest difference, however, was when we changed our payment frequencies. Right now we pay monthly, we could have changed this any time but never really thought about it. With the new mortgage we changed our payments to accelerated bi-weekly. Doing that alone shaved off an entire two years of payments! So now we are set to be mortgage free in 18 years - or when I'm 43. How sick is that? And that's not if we pay any extra - which our mortgage allows without any penalties.

I'm really proud since not only did we get rid of 3.5 years off our mortgage by just changing a few things, but we also did this all while doubling the amount of our mortgage. Not that the mortgage amount is something to be proud of but it's a huge motivator to get it paid off even sooner!

We are also taking this opportunity to change our insurances (both auto and house) around a bit, but once I get the final numbers I'll share with you what we saved. :)

10 days until the move!

- M

Budget Update

With the transfer pretty much dominating my life, I haven’t really shared how our budget has been. Even though things have been stressful I’m happy to report that we are kicking ass - and extremely lucky because there have been a few windfalls this month.

This week we will have cleared out our chest freezer and can begin to defrost it. Even though it is staying here with the house (the buyers wanted it and it's at least 20+ years old so we were find letting it go) I want to give it a good clean. I have meals planned that will get us thru next weekend - and a rough idea of meals to get us thru until our move. I’m really happy there has been minimal food waste. I’m happy and our budget is happy. We’ve only spent $91.67 this month for groceries and this includes the shop that will get us thru until next Sunday. I have $300 budgeted this month but I’m striving for $200. April will be a big stock up month/city run but at least I see it coming and can budget for it. 

Our dog Mocha has been doing so well! After such a tough last year and the vet bills to prove it, she is perfectly healthy. No issues at all so far this year other than insulin, needles and special food. Next month we will have to take her to the new vet to get checked and most likely purchase some more insulin but other than that she is really good. I’m a bit nervous with how she will adapt to the new house - since she got to know the layout of this house before she went blind. However the new house has less stairs for her so I won’t be worried about her falling. G and I will be home with her the first few days so we can keep an eye on her (there’s a joke here about her having no eyes but it’s too easy).

"It wasn't me who jumped up on the counter and ate that delicious bread..."

February our moving fund took a bit of a hit when we transferred $4000 out to put down as cash on the new house, but we made up for it this month. First, we got our tax refunds: just a tiny bit over $5000 for both of us, that money was moved right to the savings. Then we got medical reimbursements for some massages and eyeglasses. Those appointments were already paid for by the budget so it was extra money, so $400 got moved over to the savings. Our moving fund is $7500 currently. G just signed paperwork for the milage, meals and incidentals for our house hunting trip so we are expecting another $700 sometime soon - which again is extra since it's all already paid for. This is also a three paycheque month for G. If we stick to our budget we will have $4200 extra we can do whatever we want with. I’m aiming to add $3000 to savings, which would leave us some cushion in the chequing account. If G get’s some overtime on his cheques that’s even better - but I’m only calculating what his regular pay would be. 

So goals this month:

1. Meal plan so all perishable food can be used before the move
2. Grow Moving Fund to at least $11,000
3. Groceries budget $200

- M

Job Crazy: Read at Your Own Risk

Yesterday was the last day the job I applied for was accepting resumes. I’m hoping to hear anything (good or bad) by next week. This waiting is killing me and I’m starting to make theories I don’t think are entirely rational lol.

I was working on a project with the HR Manager - I’m a teller but also help with marketing for the company (yay finding a way to use my University Art Degree) - and she forwarded me a email with some information I needed. This email was from the manager at the branch I applied at… Not only was the information I needed in the email but also something I could be looking into waaaaaaay too much.

See the Credit Union I work for buys us all corporate wear about twice a year and the spring shirts were going around to the different branches for sizing. The manager had all the sizes in the email for the employees and asked the HR manager “Should I be ordering an extra? If so, what size?” Now, if they were still accepting resumes (this was earlier in the week) and hadn’t done interviews yet how would they know the size? And further more, it wouldn’t be the HR Manager who would be doing the interviews because she told me herself it was all going to be done by the branch manager so she would have never seen any other candidates to even guess their size. Hmmmmmmmmmm. 

I just need to stop and ~chill; I’m not being myself. One of my coworkers said “It’s good to be nervous, that means you really want it and aren’t expecting anyone to hand it to you”. And that’s the thing, I really want this job. To have a transfer where not only G gets to have a job in the speciality he wants to be in but for me to transfer within the same company (which is very small mind you): that doesn’t happen often. 

I know, I knew what I was getting into when G joined the RCMP. I was there when he signed the paperwork. The lady said “You understand the RCMP can send you anywhere in Canada?” “Yes” “Think about it, have you seen a map of Canada? Anywhere.” Yes that means anywhere for him but it also means anywhere for me as his wife. G has never put the pressure for me to work, I put that pressure on myself. I’m being my own worst enemy right now... 

Deep breaths and get it together (my mantra this weekend).

- M

A Home Sold & A House Bought: The Final Chapter

If you haven’t read Part One or Part Two click for the links

Okay, so ND Chic totally got it right. We went with house #2!

Not only was it the house I had the best feeling about; it was also in the best shape, in our price range, and was the ‘youngest’.

Okay, so there we were in the basement of House #3. G and I discussing, our realtor adding some input and then G and I discussing even more. We opened up the offers $40,000 below asking price - we knew no matter how much we offered, the seller would counter and we weren’t going to offer the asking price. So we were able to sign the documents right then and there and went along our day.

The next morning our realtor calls up and says we have a counter. The seller only dropped by $10,000. We aren’t impressed. So we add $10,000 to our offer and the seller counters back within a few hours, dropping only $5000 more stating they were firm. At this point we are only $10,000 shy of agreeing and we were getting at the top of what we wanted to pay. There was lots of back and forth that day, all within a short amount of time too. So we backed off, or at least that’s what the seller and their realtor thought. We talked it over with our realtor and she suggested playing a bit of head games since so much had happened that day. Wait and counter in the morning - give the seller one sleepless night with our pause. Let them think about if it was really worth loosing the sale of the house by a few thousand dollars. We agreed we would counter $5000 more - meeting half way but not doing that until the morning. 

It’s totally worked.

First thing that morning (before the offer went in) the sellers realtor was contacting our realtor asking if we were going to consider the offer. “Well they aren’t sure, there are a few other houses they were looking at and they are getting new the top of what they want to spend on this house.” Late morning, our offer went in and we had a signed acceptance within the hour! Yay! 

The only conditions we had: Make sure it was cleaned up, aka all the garbage and crap was gone from the renters, Financing and Home Inspection.

Financing is approved. We were actually approved within two days, lol. I remember when G was trying to get approval for the mortgage on our current house and had such a rough time. No assets, LOC and Credit Cards all with balances, car loan and a shitty income. How much can change in a short amount of time. 

Home Inspection was done today and was extremely positive. The guy was really impressed with everything and confirmed the fix ups we already were figuring. G drove down to do a walk thru with the inspector after he was done and said that the renters had been all moved out and things looked a lot better then when we first seen the house.

Conditions should be removed this week. I’m so excited!

This month is going to go so fast. Now to get everything else organized, at least this move isn't from Ontario to Saskatchewan. Two provinces (then) vs. two hours (now). Much much better.

- M  

A Home Sold & A House Bought: Part Two

If you didn’t read Part One of this post here is the link.

I’m so glad we went on our own that day, I really needed the time to mental regroup. We looked at every single house that seemed promising - over 15 houses. Two that we really wanted to look at - we couldn’t get appointments for that day.

 

• I’m just going to add a little side bar here: I know that doesn’t seem like a lot of houses but it was ALL of the houses in our price range. We are transferring to another small town so that was pretty much the majority of the housing market.

Out of all those houses: only one was left on our list (plus the two houses we couldn’t get into). I have never been so defeated in my life. When we go home to our little sweet old home that night I started crying. We weren’t going to find a home within our price range that was livable. Time was running out, I was exhausted, still sick and stressed. Thank god for G because he calmed me right down and promised me we wouldn’t be homeless (lol).

So the week goes by, we get pre-approved for a $250,000 mortgage (out of our price range/comfort zone). We also finally get approved for the House Hunting Trip. So beginnings lots of conference calls, reading of policy, asking questions, referring back to the policy when answers are slightly confusing. I shouldn’t complain because there are a lot of perks that come with a transfer - which I will get too - but oh my gosh is there a lot to take in.

So fast forward to this last Monday, three houses left.

House Number 1: Slightly out of our comfort zone but if we got it for the right price it would work. A few issues with it that we would need to fix but awesome for resale (remember we aren’t only trying to find a home for us but G will get transferred sometime in the next 5 years so we need to think about resale too). Any changes we do to the property won’t add anymore value, since it’s pretty much all done. Hmmm, something to think about. We get a text from the realtor who is selling the property: very motivated sellers. Hmmm.

House Number 2: This is the only property that made the cut during the first house hunting trip. The realtor (different from House Number 1) texted our realtor and let us know that the seller was flexible with the price. Hmmmmmmmmmm. 

• Side bar (again) - You might be thinking “Wow. Desperate much?” Yup! We are buying not only a buyer market but a depressed buyers market. In the last 7 months: only two houses have sold and they sold for way under the asking price. So many of the houses we looked during our first trip were vacant, because people up and left due to the downturn in the economy there. It sounds evil but during negotiate we used this to our advantage. 

House Number 2 (cont): Okay, price thing shoved to the back of my mind I needed to focus on the property. It currently is a rental but the people were starting to move out and it would be vacant for March (so might be available for a quick closing). Kitchen is beautifully upgraded, new furnace, brand new fascia, soffits and eaves, new washer and dryer, attached garage with huge workspace for G, very family friendly. The bad: the bathrooms need a complete gut job, the roof is old (no leaking yet) but will most likely need to be replaced soon, the renters completely destroyed the place… It was so dirty, they had a puppy who chewed on the stair railings. I guess the owner didn’t even know about all this and when we texted the realtor to let her know it was disgusting she was shocked. The renters had only been there for two months… Oi. 

House Number 3: This house is a foreclosure, title already had gone thru the court systems and is now owned by a local bank. It has been on the market for over a year, just sitting there empty. G was so excited about this one, it has so much potential! Amazing price, 150k below what the other houses around it were trying to sell for. But once we got inside I understood why. So much work, it wouldn’t even be livable right away. I tried to open some of the kitchen drawers and they wouldn’t open because the tile on the kitchen counters was blocking the drawer from opening… LOL I was just laughing at this point and saying nope nope nope nope nope. Surprise: this isn’t the house we chose. That tile mistake wasn’t just in the kitchen, same thing in the bathroom! The bedrooms were so small, only a twin would be able to fit in two and maybe in a double for the master. And the real kicker: some of the siding was already falling off. Like one piece was crumpled on the ground. Really? 

So while we were in House Number 3’s unfinished basement we discussed our options and made an offer one of the houses. (HGTV's House Hunters Theme Song): Did we choose:

House Number 1: The finished, slightly-out-of-comfort-zone-priced property with the motivated sellers but no room to make money?

House Number 2: The dirty formal rental that needs some work with the good bones but also potentially expensive fixes for the future? 

House Number 3: No, just no.

Stay tuned to find out ;)

A Home Sold & A House Bought: Part One

Let me just start with: I don’t know how we pulled this off but we had too and we did it. 

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! :D

Okay, enough celebrating (yay!), let me go back to beginning:

In the last post, I let you all know that the buyer had accepted a counter offer and our home was under contract. There were three conditions: financing, home inspection, furnace inspection. 

Step One: The financing. The Credit Union wasn’t an issue - the guy that bought our house has been a long time member and helps run the very successful family business here in town. Not a major risk. CMHC however stepped in. They wanted an appraisal of our property. Normally I would think this is routine but the following text from our realtor scared the shit out of me:

“Now you can start praying too. If this appraisal is too low (Buyer’s name) either has to come up with cash difference or you will have to negotiate a lower price for it to go through. (Buyer’s name) argument could be that no bank will finance it at that price. Just giving you the worst case scenario."

I didn’t sleep at all that night, lol. 

So the appraisal came and went. A few days later, we were told the financing conditions were removed. Huugggeeee sigh of relief. We actually just found out that the appraisal did come in under the purchase price (although we will never know what the amount was) but the buyer just put down more money. I guess that’s one plus about living in a small town with not a lot of good housing options: people over pay. We got $4000 more than we were expecting on this house (aka our bottom line) so it was a nice plus for us. 

So one condition down, two conditions left. 

Step Two: Furnace Inspection. Tuesday (two days before the conditions are to be removed) I get a text from our realtor asking if the furnace inspector could stop in a few hours to do the inspection. I'm not going to say no, we are running out of time to do all of this.

Wait - I need to you to also know during this hectic/stressful week was also the week my body decided to get the flu. I haven’t had the flu since I was a kid! I was off work for 4 entire days and technically should have stayed home an additional day because I had no voice from coughing and throwing up. I had an infection PLUS Influenza 1 - I lost a scary amount of weight in a short amount of time, I couldn’t stand up for more than a few minutes before needing to sit because my heart rate was so fast, and couldn't keep anything down. Not fun.

Anyways, so I was home (throwing up and on my death bed) and was able to let the furnace man do what he needed to do. That went well and passed - the furnace in this current house is old but still does it’s job. 

Step Three: Wednesday (one day before conditions need to be removed) we get another text from our Realtor asking if the home inspection can be done Friday morning. Sure…. but conditions are supposed to be removed Thursday with this contract. “Oh shit.” We said the extra day doesn’t matter to us, but we would like to negotiate our closing date. The original closing we supposed to be March 11th, this wasn’t going to happen realistically for us.

Wait! I need to explain a bit with how these RCMP transfers work. There are a lot of people you need approval from to go look for a house. We have our Brookfield rep, who has been awesome and answered every single question we had so far. Then there’s our … hmmm I forgot what she’s called, lets ask G:

Me: “(Name removed), what is her title technically?"

G: “Relocation something or other. The technical term for her job is useless"

We had a good chuckle. 

That woman, works for the RCMP and gives us approval dates for the House Hunting Trip. Then there G’s sergeant. Then there’s also our realtor, although she is very flexible with dates and my manger too. A lot of working parts here... Okay so we were looking at getting our House Hunting Trip approval the week after our conditions removed (oh I guess I should let you all know that Brookfield and the RCMP don’t see your house as ‘Sold’ until all conditions are removed thus leaving not a lot of time if you need a short closing), G’s sergeant stopped that request right away: not enough officers to cover. The soonest they could all make it work was this week (Feb 22-26). So we asked our buyer if we could push the closing date to April 1st to give us more time and we would approve a one day extension on the condition removal date. 1 days for 3 weeks: seems fair right?? Thank a higher power he is flexible with dates because he agreed no problem. Other huge sigh of relief.

And guess what? We went on Family Day to go look at houses anyways. G and I both had the day off and didn't feel like waiting around. I'm glad we did because THAT was a rough day and a huge reality check.

(To Be Continued...)

Accepted Offer

Wow, what a week!

Remember that little perk of working at the credit union? Well that hunch turned into an offer! Only it was $15,000 below what we were asking. When we got the offer - we countered right away, no waiting around. We dropped our price by $5,000, leaving the buyers conditions. Today our real estate agent came over the signed and accepted offer!

There's still things that can go wrong, of course. The current conditions we still have are financing and home inspection - which is pretty routine.

Staying positive!

Oh wait... now we need to find a house to live in. Fuc--

Perk

Perk of working at the local Credit Union: You find out when someone is looking to get a pre-approval to purchase your house.

Fingers crossed! Means nothing, obviously, but it is a very good sign.

Update

- House on the market
- Last bit of donations (and by bit I mean 4 trash bags and 13 boxes) picked up this week
- The house feel so much nicer now
- Finances are on track, still debt free and topped up our emergency fund plus some
- Christmas shopping done, feels good to spoil those who we are close too. So many have given us so much over the years this is the first Christmas we don't have any debt and can truly give
- I am on fire with my food budget these last few months
- Sold $50 worth of random items today on the local buy and sell - meaning even more stuff gone from the house
- My life is full of reading policies after policies, this is our first proper government move and we are entitled (according to these policies) to different things. I want to make sure we understand everything and what certain things mean for G's taxes
- Lots and lots of meetings
- Enjoying this oddly warm December while it last, definitely making my walk to work more enjoyable

Although everything is pretty overwhelming right now I'm remaining positive and remembering to take things one step at a time. Breath ~

- M

Transfer Talk

Okay, so lets talk a little more about the transfer.

We weren’t looking to move necessarily. The town we are in now is extremely small and the detachment itself has been understaffed a majority of the time we’ve been here however that has allowed G to work a lot of overtime – and I really believe we would not be in the position we are today (debt paid off, good emergency fund, etc). Also, I have a secure and excellent job, which isn’t easy to get in a small town where they know for a fact one day I’m going to move because of what my husband does for a living. Regardless, a really good opportunity came up for G and he was offered a traffic division position in a small town. This is what G wants to do, his career path within the RCMP needs him in a traffic unit so he gains more experience and can more easily get approved for specific courses and training. I think the total conversation lasted about a minute before I told him I was on board and that I thought he should accept, lol.

We’ve been looking at the town and it’s really cute. Still small town Saskatchewan, which I enjoy but a lot closer to Saskatoon and some other smaller cities with proper grocery shopping. It’s going to be very convenient for us and we can still be a single car (paid off car, I should add :P) family without any issues. G has already talked to his new Sergeant to see what the shift will be like and they are niiiiccee. I’m actually jealous. They are longer shifts but his rotation will only have him working max four days in a row with a minimum of two days off in between shifts (mostly three days off though). The only thing that will be different is there won’t be as much overtime. However, there are opportunities if G wanted on his days off to do prisoner transports in Saskatoon. G said he would be totally up for since it’s easy money and you don’t have to do any extra files lol. So there is hustling opportunity and my husband is a hustler.

So, what about me?

Yeah! What about me, this is MY blog afterall :P First of all, this life is not for everyone. The Force does not care about the spouses job, what is good for families (moves in the middle of a school year), a lot of spouses have given up careers to follow their significant other around Canada. I understood this 100% going in. I was there the day he signed the papers accepting their offer and the woman who was there said "You understand we can sent you anywhere in Canada?" and Gabe said he understood and then she said "Have you looked at a map of Canada?". I would never hold anything related to his job against my husband, because many of these things are out of his control. However, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. Like I said, I have been so grateful for how open and accepting the Credit Union I currently work for has been to me. I mean I scared my dog when I got the job offer and cried when they gave me a raise (haha lame). This mindset did not change last Friday when I told my manger what was going on. I went into her office after letting her know I needed to talk to her in private and just flat out no bullshit told her Gabe got his transfer notice. She said they knew this would happen one day, but didn’t expect it so soon and said it was going to be really difficult to replace me. I let her know we still have to sell our house and get all that stuff done so it’s not my notice or anything but I want to be open and honest about what is going on since it’s not my intension to screw anyone over. She appreciated that, lol. Now one thing I haven’t mentioned was the post that we got was at the top of our posting list (members need to have a list on file of places they would wish to go too) for a reason. Not only because of the traffic division for G but because about 15mins away, just up the highway, the Credit Union I work for has a branch. I let her know the location and my willingness to stay with the company – even if it’s just as casual as I don’t expect the same position/hours I have now. She said she would talk to the retail manger but she is sure that they wouldn’t deny an offer from someone that is fully trained. So I left her office feeling extremely positive. A few minutes later she called me back in and said that the retail manager was totally on board and understood that there isn’t a set in stone timeline for this transition to happen. But then she had a little pause and said “I can’t go into details, but there may be an opportunity at the beginning of next year that would work out perfectly with your move. –Insert managers name- doesn’t want to loose me”. Then gave me a very big smile. Eeeeeeee! Holy crap I couldn’t stop smiling all day. I mean honestly, even if it doesn’t work out just working the casual is going to be okay but how sick would something more be?! I’m not counting my chickens but yay!

So how about that for a perfect move? For both G & I. Now if only all future moves are going to be this lucky, lol.

- M

Update: Raise, Transfer, Vacation & Surgery

Things have gotten a tiny bit busy around here (nervous laughter)… and I’m really surprised how well I’m handling everything. I’m not sure where I'm going with this post so I’m just going to start, sorry in advance if things get a bit jumpy.

We had an amazing time in Vegas, more so then I thought we would! We stayed at The Signature at the MGM and felt like royalty. I was so comfortable and there was a Jacuzzi tub – which was needed after walking up and down the Strip all day. The first day we got there we rented a car from the airport and drove to Red Rock Canyon where we hiked until evening. Other things we did: helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon & hike on Eagle Point. As someone who lives in very flat Saskatchewan seeing something like the Grand Canyon really takes my breath away. I’m surprised how well I did riding the helicopter but I think I was so distracted by the view to get nervous, lol. The tour we choose had us land at the bottom of the canyon for pictures and a quick picnic of snacks and champagne then flew to the top of the canyon for two hours of exploring. We could have gone on that glass walkway but we decided to spend the whole time up at Eagle Point and hike to the top – which I’m definitely glad we did. G also went on an air combat school flight, which was expensive but he really enjoyed it. I also shopped, a lot. I had been saving all my personal spending money, birthday money, etc for this trip and haven’t bought any clothes since back in the Spring. All the money I had saved up was converted to USD so it really forced me to make sure what I was buying was something I really loved and fit good. When I came home and started putting everything away in my closet I told myself it was going to be one-in-one-out, it actually ended up being more like one-in-two-out. The pile of donations keeps growing. Back to Vegas talk – we did gamble. We had a specific amount set aside that was our gamble money – and the rule was: once it was gone we don't gamble anymore. Turns out luck was on our side and with a nice 0, 00 split bet on Roulette we ended up leaving Vegas having doubled our money! Definitely glad we set limits though, we would watch some of the higher betting tables and I died a little inside… But what brought back to life by the food. More specifically the avocadoes, they were so fresh! By the time they make it to our grocery store up here (if they can even get them in) they really just cannot compare. We went to some fancier restaurants, some cheap ones, sometimes even cooking at the hotel (there was a kitchen in the hotel room), and we went to one buffet. The food and helicopter tour were definitely my favorites. We also did a couple of shows: one Cirque du Soleil, Penn and Teller (we got to meet them after the show too! So cool) and then had tickets to see the Red Bull Air Races (can you tell my husband likes planes? lol). Then the last day we rented a car again and drove out to the Houver Dam – what an amazing thing to see in real life. We had a really really fun time and we would definitely go again.

Giant drop right below my feet

My very unfortunate sunburn...  

We were happy to get home to our dog though. The day after we got back from our vacation, I went straight back to work and G took Mocha to the vet for her surgery. Everything went extremely well, even while healing she’s had no complications. The first few nights were hard for me. I would get upset and question if we did the right thing or not but as the days went on and she was taken off her pain medication she become more and more like herself. She even went into her toy bin the other day and got a few toys out for us to play with her, she hadn’t done that in such a long time! The vet called about two weeks afterwards and said that the lab results came back on her eyes and one eye lens had completely burst, which would have been extremely painful and that the other eye the retina was becoming detached and they same thing would have happened eventually. That news made me feel a lot better about the surgery. Around Hallowe’en I called her my Franken-puppy. <3

Recovery <3

Now for the big news! Last week G got his transfer notice, we had a hunch it was coming but I didn’t expect it this soon or for things to happen so fast! I’m really glad I’ve spent the summer declutter and organizing. I think it’s definitely going to make this progress go a lot smoother. Today we signed up with the relocation company so I’ve spent a good portion of the day reading their different help guides. We will have an actual meeting with our representative soon, I told G it was really important to me that I be there, so we will have to work it around my work schedule and his. We are really pleased with the town we got transferred too, although I’ll miss this one. I’m going to write a more detailed post once we get more information – as we literarily just found out that it got finalized. I’m excited and nervous all at the same time! This will be our first transfer and I’ve heard some horror stories from some of the other force spouses. I’m just going to try to keep a level head and make sure I understand everything related to this entire process. I’m going to be the annoying girl asking a million questions, lol. I’m sure our rep is going to love me :P

Gabe got his yearly salary raise, even though he is way over that amount as it stands right now with all the overtime he works. Nice though because at the new posting there may not be as much overtime. Oh! And we finally got his LaRonge expenses paid out today. $1300ish deposited into our account. Yay! Only took since July…

Okay, expect more random posts in the future. My mind is going a mile a minute with everything going on.

- M

PS: We are still going to be in Saskatchewan - so I won't have to change my blog name, haha