The 30 day mark and a change in plans

I believe this is a Sandpiper (feel free to correct me :))

 I have included a few more shots of our recent trip to Quadra Island as haven't taken any pictures for a few weeks.  Today marks 30 days since my Stepdaughter moved in with us full-time permanently.  Things have gone much smoother than we could have even hoped for.  We have accomplished a lot of things that needed to be sorted like getting her in school, rewriting her learners license for driving, signing her up for driver training, and looking for a job.  We all seem to be getting back into the family groove and there is peace and happiness in the household (fingers and toes crossed it continues :)).

The economy in British Columbia is not as healthy as Alberta and it is much harder for young people to get a job here as adults are competing for the same jobs.  We shall not stop looking however, as she cannot get a car or have decent spending money without one.  We are trying to be supportive as possible as we think that teens should work so they can learn to be financially independent.  That includes driving all over to look, plus agreeing to be taxi service when she gets the job.  Fortunately, being self-employed we have that ability.  It is much harder on teens here who don't have that support.

A few things have needed sorting, like today I found out our internet usage exceeded our allowable so our internet bill is $20 higher this month than expected.  It turns out for $5 more a month I can get twice the bandwidth and usage so I have upgraded it today. We were nearing our limit with two adults in the household (includes business use too) so this didn't surprise me.

Cormorants

We have finally sorted out our flights to Alberta at Christmas - we decided to cancel them altogether and rather than try and go in December we are flying out next week.  Hubby was already scheduled to do so for business and a client is paying for his expenses(hotel, car rental and meals) so we just changed my flight - this should save us quite a lot of money.  My 3 stepsons are all now adults so fully understand the earlier than intended visit and we will be able to see my Mother-in-law as well.    We will bring their gifts and try and have a Christmas celebration.  It would be nicer if my Stepdaughter could come but we will book it so she can come next year. She must stay behind to complete this term in school which fortunately it appears she has caught up with and will stay with my Mom for 3 nights.  This arrangement had to happen eventually, when you have adult kids you are not always together at Christmas time.  For Christmas day there certainly will be a bit of Facetime/telephone calls happening instead.

Young harbour seal

Needless to say, our move up in plans means I have to sort out four Christmas gifts and two Birthday gifts several weeks earlier than expected.  We are giving the boys money as young men starting out will appreciate that far more than anything else we can buy them.  I do have to do a bit of shopping for my Mother-in-law but she has dementia and lives in a very small 1 bedroom unit in a senior facility so have decided to go with some smaller items:  personalized picture calendar with shots of all of us with our names (names seem to be one of the major things she is forgetting lately), some candied popcorn twists that she loves (will teach my Stepdaughter to make this year as her present) and some other doodads including hubby's book to make her happy.

For those of you living in the USA wondering why I was skipping Thanksgiving and thinking about Christmas already - no slight intended but we have had ours already - Canadian Thanksgiving was on October 13th.  All of the rest of my Christmas preparations/decorating and shopping will be waiting until the end of November/early December.  Now that we will be at home all of December I can see us doing a lot more things locally like seeing Christmas lights and baking.  Not what we initially planned but I am looking forward to it.  Now I have to go get myself organized - yeah right!

Rebecca Spit and the mountains of mainland BC beyond