Room 1 – It’s really, really looooooong.

Walk in closet. It has shelves and bars just like this on the other side too. The closet can be reached from room 1 and room 2.

Room 2.

Bathroom. It has a nice deep tub that I’m excited to use.

Kitchen. It has a REAL fridge {if you follow me on Twitter you know how important that is to me}.

Linen closet. We’ll probably use it as a pantry instead.

Coat closet.

Family room/dining area. It’s big. Adam measured it. We’re probably going to have to build our own baby gate because it would cost $330 to buy a wide enough one with enough extensions to reach across the room {plus shipping}.

So, there’s a peek at the new place. I cannot WAIT to get in there and decorate for Christmas!!!

I met Adam August 27th, 2005. Two weeks later we were in a ring shop looking at engagement rings. Exactly four months later, on December 27th, 2005 we got hitched. Yes, I know how crazy that sounds.

Two weeks after we asked ourselves “hey, what if we moved to Canada?” we were crossing the border.

So yeah…we make big decisions quickly and go for it. So far it’s worked out really well for us.

Here’s the newest one…we’re moving {again}. See, unfortunately our two fur babies have been getting more and more aggressive with our real baby. They attack her. She has been bitten and scratched and my mama-bear instincts won’t stand for it anymore. They may not sound like serious injuries but cat bites can actually be very, very nasty. I also don’t want Lucy growing up with a fear of animals because the animals in her own life are cuddly sometimes and unpredictably violent at other times. It’s sad for me. And I feel guilty for “divorcing” my cats. But I keep telling myself, the cats are cats. Lucy is my daughter. And she comes first. So, we’re paying a forfeit fee and taking them to the shelter tonight. :(

What does that have to do with moving? Well, we’re in our current place because it was the only place we could find that welcomed both children and animals. It’s bigger than we need. It’s got some issues we don’t like. And it’s in a neighborhood we have grown to hate. Once we had made the decision to say goodbye to the kittehs we wondered if we might be able to find a smaller, cheaper place to live since we’d no longer need a pet-friendly rental. And we did. And I’m in love with it. Why?

• It has carpet. No more ugly foam mats to protect Lucy’s little knees. No more falls and bonks on a hard floor.
• It has a normal-sized refrigerator that isn’t leaking cold air.
• It has a dishwasher.
• It has lots of space where it counts. In our current place we have more space than we really need, but it’s all in the basement/rooms we don’t use. The new place has lots of space in the kitchen, the family room, and the dining area! In fact…it’s spacious enough in the living area that we’ll now be able to fit all the people we want to invite for Lucy’s birthday party! Yay!
• No more stairs! There are stairs to get up to the apartment. But there are none in our living space. I hate stairs. Knowing I don’t have to walk up and down stairs every time Lucy needs a diaper change or I need to use the bathroom makes me want to do a happy dance.
• It’s within walking distance to the library. I repeat, it is within walking distance TO THE LIBRARY. I cannot begin to describe how happy that makes me…you know, the bibliophile without a car all day because Adam takes it for school/work?
• Walk-in-closet. *swoon* And it’s a niiiice closet with lots of shelves and multiple bars at different heights and magical fairy dust.
• Nice, new windows (did I mention it was renovated about a year ago?). That means no more cold, Canadian, winter air pouring in our home through gaps between the glass and the wall.
• The only utility we pay is electric.
• The building is nice and secure. You can’t enter without a key or without being buzzed in. And there are security cameras in the hallways. Medicine Hat isn’t exactly the crime capital of Canada. But I can be a bit paranoid some times. So the security definitely appeals to me.
• It has those fancy hot water heaters that provide instant, on demand, unlimited, hot water. Um…maybe that’s a bad thing because it will probably mean I’ll use up the city’s entire water supply taking hot showers/baths and that’s maybe not so good for the planet…
• It’s just really pretty.

The one drawback is that there is no in-suite laundry. That means we’ll be washing the cloth diapers in the coin-op down the hall (but at least I don’t have to go up and down stairs to do it). Paying for laundry always sucks, but even taking that into account we’ll be saving money in our new place. {If you’ve ever done cloth diapers with coin-op laundry please leave any advice in the comments.}

We’re going over there today to take some measurements (so we know what kind of baby gate to get) and to drop off some paperwork. I’ll try and take some pictures while I’m there. We move in Dec 1st. So…yeah…I’m going to be REALLY busy in the coming days. In addition to moving and all the hassle that entails I’m still doing NaNoWriMo {I don’t think I’m going to finish by the 15th but I still hope to finish early}, I’ve got a few clients at the moment, I’m planning Lucy’s birthday party, I’ve got some Christmas crafts {advent calendar and some gifts} that need to be finished, and Adam is approaching finals and picked up some extra hours at work recently. So, we’re sorta, kinda, maybe a little busy right now. That means the blog posts will be sporadic at best until some time in December. But oh boy, once they get going again you are going to be pleased. I’m going to have posts about the new apartment {with pictures of course}, posts about the holidays, posts about Lucy’s AWESOME party that I’m currently preparing for, some product reviews/giveaways, and, you know, my usual awsomeness. ;)

Life’s a crazy adventure. Wish us luck!

ETA: Adam said I might want to point out that this is NOT Twilight fanfic. In fact, this is the antithesis to Twilight as far as the message of the story.

I always thought I’d be too embarrassed to share excerpts from my NaNoWriMo novel…but I’ve had a lot of people curious about it. So I’m gonna just post a few snippets and hit the “publish” button really quickly before I can chicken out? OK? Here we go…{no laughing and remember this is YA fiction}!

He didn't like the idea of me spending 4 years and tens of thousands of dollars for no degree. I tried to point out that an art degree is almost as worthless as no degree at all so it really made no difference.

…

“It's OK.” He said. “I'm Erik.”

“Eleanor Whidstoe” I replied.

“Ew.”

“What?”

“E-W. Your intials spell 'ew.'” Great. The first thing he had noticed about me was that my name was gross.

…

“What the hell, Erik! You bit me!” I touched the side of my neck and looked at my hand. The lighting was dim, but I could barely make out blood, and I could feel it. “I'm bleeding! What is your malfunction? What, are you a vampire now?” I hissed sarcastically. He just stood there for a moment, eyes wide and then he said

“Yes.”

NaNoWriMo is going well…which explains why I’m not writing much here. ;)

Depending on if you trust Open Office, Google Docs, or the NaNoWriMo site I’ve written 14,250 words, 13,955 words, or 13,796 words so far. Unfortunately the NaNoWriMo site is the count that counts in the end {yes, I’m punny, deal with it}. But I’d much rather say I’ve written 14,250 words, wouldn’t you?

Either way, I’m pretty pleased. Just to put things in perspective for you, as of today, to be on target for finishing by November 30th I need to have 8,335 words written. Adam has challenged me to finish half-way through the month and then start editing during the second half. That would require writing 3,600+ words per day from now until the 15th. That’s over twice as much as the regular daily word quota. But I think I’m going to go for it. Writing is going waaaay better than I expected, even with Lucy out and about instead of trapped in my belly. And I’m enjoying my story so far.

And with that brief update I go back to my novel.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? How goes it?

Did you know I’m an actress? Well, I am. I started doing musical theatre when I was just a little kid. I love being on the stage. But I also love being in front of the camera. Maybe you’ve seen some of my work?


The Whedon shows were probably my favorite ones to be a part of. But getting to sing and dance on Glee has been fantastic so far. I’ve met so many wonderful people through my acting career. It’s been fantastic. There’s a biographic movie in the works. They wanted to get Angelina Jolie to play the role of me, but I said “She’s a hack. I’ll play myself thankyouverymuch.”
There you have it, the highlights of my life as a thespian. It’s not the only career I’ve dabbled in. I’ll have to write posts about the others. Remind me to tell you about the time I designed the Large Hadron Collider.