THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life ~ February Edition

I have been wanting to sit down to write this blog ALL WEEK and I literally haven't had a spare moment to do so. I don't even really know why things have been so busy but I've definitely had a hard time finding any spare moments. Such is life, I guess! I saw a lot of jokes this year about how January lasted for 87 days and I tend to agree. Thinking back to the start of the month (and year) feels like absolute ages ago. It's been really cold and snowy in Edmonton which I'm sure contributes to the feeling of time dragging on forever. We're in that part of the winter where it stops feeling novel and you just want it to end already. I'm doing my best to embrace this season and to take advantage of the good things that it has to offer. Cold temperatures can't keep me down! Back when January began (117 days ago) we were still in Regina. We had welcomed the New Year there and then made our way back home to Edmonton, putting all of the holiday festivities to rest for another year. January is a big birthday month for us and I kicked things off by turning 43 and celebrating in various ways! First was my Birthday Girls Night and this year I chose Brew + Bloom for the extra girly esthetic. I actually really enjoyed their dinner food, which I'd never tried before. Our table was called the Goddess Oasis table - ooooh!

On my actual birthday Tim and I went out for a coffee flight at Aspen Coffee and then later in the afternoon I met up with Mary at La Bosco, a different cafe. I was feeling the love from all of my people. <3

And then on the weekend Tim took me out for an official romantic birthday dinner without our child, which was very nice. We went to Bernadette's, a really incredible Indigenous restaurant and we had their Astam Michiso Tasting Menu Experience that I was super excited to try. Every single dish was incredible! As a birthday present Tim also signed me up for a six month Cavern Cheese Club Subscription (our favourite cheese shop in Edmonton) and it was a perfect gift!

Next up was Archie's birthday and he turned 8! I'm not sure when my newborn baby became an 8 year old but it happened. On the day of his birthday Archie had early dismissal (at 2:30pm) so both Tim and I picked him up from school and we told him that he could pick ANYTHING that he wanted to do that afternoon. Anything at all!... He wanted to go to Bulk Barn to buy candy and then go home to play video games. Ha ha ha! We also went out for dinner that night and Archie got to pick whatever restaurant he wanted. He picked Olive Garden because he watched all of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies over Christmas and the characters mentioned how much they love Olive Garden several times. Well played Sonic, your brainwashing worked. HA!

We held Archie's birthday party on the weekend and it was at Chuck E. Cheese! 20 of his friends attended the party and they all seemed to have a total blast. Kid birthday success!

Here's me having my birthday at Chuck E. Cheese in 1987. I think I had three birthday parties in a row there in the 80s! It's a rite of passage!

The rest of the month was fairly low-key (although somehow not). We spent time outdoors, went skating with friends, and finally attended the Canoë Volant festival for the first time which was very magical.

Now I need to talk about Tim for a bit because he's had a bit of a time this month. First of all, he has now become a Scouter (leader) in Archie's Beavers/Cubs/Scouts/Venturers group! They had the Investiture ceremony which made it all official. I think that this is a really great fit for Tim because he's so paternal and he suits the Scouter vibe.

Secondly, the work drama. Some of you may have seen his Facebook post. As you know, Tim works for BioWare (which is owned by Electronic Arts AKA EA) and his previous game was released in October. Since then he was kinda just "hanging out." It was certainly a deserved break after all of the hard work that he put into Dragon Age. But everyone was sort of waiting to see what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, a lot of people ended up getting laid off because with the game being complete they no longer required such a large staff. EA is a massive company with different studios all over the world, so they also ended up moving many of their valued employees onto new projects at different studios to keep them within the company.

This is what happened to Tim. He now works for Motive which is out of Montreal and he'll be working on a game called Battlefield. NO, WE ARE NOT MOVING TO MONTREAL. Tim already works from home and will continue to do so. (Although if we did want to move they would move us there. We don't want this.) As you know, we used to live in Montreal and Tim already worked for this studio (back then it was called BioWare Montreal but they re-named it Motive and it became its own thing). Tim is looking forward to working with a lot of his old co-workers from when he worked there before. I think it'll be really good for him to switch things up and to have a new working environment with different people. He is keeping his same salary and benefits and stocks... And maybe we'll get some fun free trips to Montreal out of it. All in all, we were very fortunate that things worked out so well for us. Tim was upset at first about being moved out of BioWare but now that the dust has settled I think that he's seeing the benefits. Plus it's entirely possible that once the next BioWare project amps up again, that he'll end up moving back over there. I'm proud that Tim is viewed as a talented and valuable employee that is not disposable. Life with Archie: As always, Archie is somehow the busiest of us all. Archie's programs have started up for the winter! This time he's doing: Junior Snowboard at Snow Valley ~ Archie has been taking snowboarding lessons for many years in a row and he continues to improve his skills!

Swim for Life Swimmer 2 ~ He finally passed Swimmer 1 and has moved on! He's actually getting a lot better at swimming.

Archie built a Piggy Bank at the latest Kids Workshop at Home Depot and also a Soap Box Racer at a LEGO free-build event.

Archie had "Dress as Your Future Career Day" at school and he dressed as an Architect. At this current time he still intends to take the Architecture program at the University of British Columbia and I look forward to seeing if this pans out, ha ha.

Here are some additional highlights from Archie's birthday including presents and Olive Garden.

And here is more of the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party mayhem!! There were 20 kids at the party but getting them all in one photo was like herding cats. Archie has enough new toys to last him for the whole year.

Archie has recently informed me that his girlfriend is Seraphina, the girl sitting across from him.

Highlights from the rest of the month consisted of outdoor adventures, PD Day breakfast, and mini golf.

AND Archie got to see the Dog Man movie in the theatre on opening day! This was a very big deal for him since the Dog Man books are basically his absolute favourite thing. I also need to give a shout-out to Susan who HANDMADE the most incredibly gorgeous and detailed one-of-kind Dog Man sweater for Archie's birthday. I still don't know when she had the time to make this (she didn't).

Overall it was a good month! Settled back into normal routines after Christmas, lots of fun birthday stuff, kinda chill with some drama sprinkled in for effect. February consists of Valentine's Day and this year all three of us are going to have dinner at The Melting Pot for their Valentine's menu to celebrate! Family fondue fun makes good sense! (Did you know that this is the only location in Canada? There are many in the USA.) We aren't doing anything special for the Family Day long weekend... Except the next day we're leaving on a little wintertime mountain snowboard vacation! We'll be off on our adventure for six nights; visiting Jasper, Golden, and Banff (two nights in each). We haven't been to the mountains in almost a year!! It's been too long! This will also be my first time back in Jasper since the fire and I'm nervous about that. We intend to snowboard in all three places as well; Marmot Basin, Kicking Horse, and Sunshine Village. It'll be so nice to get out there and spend some quality time in the Rockies! I also have a ticket to attend the Science on Tap: Menopause event at the Telus World of Science. Give me ALL the good menopause content!! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: February 9th is Laura Mitschke’s 39th birthday!

Wishing you a fabulous day that likely involves a spa visit!! I hope that your whole family goes above and beyond to celebrate the wonderful person you are. I'm so glad that we were able to meet up this summer because every time that we get to reconnect I'm reminded of exactly why we hit it off so easily at Chapters so many years ago. Love you always! <3 February 18th is Candice Weingartner's 13th wedding anniversary!

Congrats to you and Ryan on 13 big years! I hope that you get to do something special to celebrate! Cheers!