This morning I realized that I have lived in Spokane, WA longer then I have lived anywhere else in my life, over 5 years now. My passport tells me that I am Canadian. I was born there and lived there for about 3 years. My mother and most of her family lives there but beyond loving Nanaimo bars and butter tarts (and really, who doesn’t?) I do not consider myself Canadian.

After my family left Canada we lived in Raleigh, North Carolina until I was 8, Poissy, France until I was 13, Indianapolis, Indiana until I was 14 and Sitges, Spain until I was 18. We always moved in the summer as not to mess with my brother and my school year. We spent most summers visiting my Grandma Mason in Canada we never had much to do with the actual packing, house hunting and moving though. While I don’t regret how much we moved, I always missed loosing all the friends I had struggled to make.

I left home a week or two after I turned 18 and lived in Indianapolis again for about 8 months before moving here to Spokane, WA. I’ve been here since September 11th, 2004, just over 5 years now. I think I have lived here the longest, give or take a couple months. I have most certainly lived in the United States for the largest portion of my life, about 12 years, (I lived in Europe for about 8,) so if anything I am more American then Canadian, even more European than Canadian. I don’t think I could even vote in the Canadian federal elections as I did not live there long enough, certainly not the provincial ones as I do not have a permanent residence in Canada. It doesn’t both me, if anything I considered myself a Washingtonian, which by default makes me an American in all but legal status. I fully intend on getting US citizenship when I am able.

Sometimes people are baffled or downright opposed to me becoming an American but I don’t think they realize how much I have invested in this country. My husband and my son are Americans, my daughter will be and in all likelihood any other children I have will also be. I am deeply proud of the diversity found in the United States and care about the issues of this country more then any other and yet as a permanent resident I do not have a say as I cannot vote. (I can’t vote anywhere, that just isn’t fair!) I cannot even legally sign a petition here.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my realization more then anything. I remember someone telling me when I moved here I would be bored within a couple years and itch to leave, but after more than twice that time I still have no urge whatsoever to move. I love Spokane, I love the United States, and while I am for the most part grateful for the opportunities I had moving so much as a child, I am beyond happy to have found a place that I love so much to settle in and raise my family.

I have been soooo busy lately, helping Mommy unpack and all. I also caught a little cold, which was no fun at all, especially since I was teething at the same time. I now have six teeth! I love tearing my food (and some non-food items) with them.

I have also learned to climb up on things, like the futon. I’m not so great at getting down though, I have had a couple of big booms. Mommy or Daddy kisses the ouchies away though.

I really like our new home, I can crawl around for hours inspecting (and tasting) anything and everything. The only area that is off limits (until I figure out a way around it) is the basement and bathroom. The door downstairs is always open for the cats but that part of the hall is gated off. I don’t like baby gates! Especially when Mommy goes over them without me.

Mommy says I can’t be in the bathroom because the toilet paper roll is not meant to be unraveled all around the house. I don’t know why she has a problem with it. I think it is hilarious! Speaking of the bathroom, the potty is not so funny. While we moved I was in disposable diapers since Mommy and Daddy didn’t have a washer yet. I got use to going without a potty. I am starting to get back into the habit though, when I feel like it.

So that is what’s up with me lately. How are you? Oh! And I went to the doctor on Friday, Dr. Kincaid says I am growing fantastically well and he was AMAZED that I could walk all by myself. I am so tall for my age too. I am going to be a tall and handsome, just like Daddy.

Miss me? I have been offline since we started moving. I am spending most of my days unpacking at the house, which will not have phone or internet until March 14th, and most of my evenings packing for the next day’s load. Other then that I sleep, and reheat food (when I am back online regularly I will be reviewing Your Table Gourmet, which is where said dinners came from.)

This weekend, we will probably finish moving the big items in our friend’s brother’s truck. Everything is going fantastical though. I just wanted to post some kind of notice to let you all know I probably won’t be back online much until after March 14th. If you need me, call the house and leave a message, I’ll get back to you in the evening. Or call my cell phone (but I can’t talk long on it since it is prepaid.) I am updating my twitter with my cell phone too, if you want to keep track of my lesser thoughts throughout the day for some reason.

Type to you all in a couple weeks!

Have I shown you a picture of our place yet?

We signed our lease today!

We have till the end of March to be out of our townhouse, so our move out will be relatively gradual, but I am so happy be have this fantastic new place to turn into our home.

It will take us a couple weeks to move, which is fine since John (our new landlord) needs to put in the fridge and oven installed. He is also having a tankless water heater installed for us, since energy efficiency is important. We still need to buy blinds (the cost of which we can deduct from our rent) and a washer and drier too.

But still, it’s all official, it’s ours!
Yay!

(Photo taken at sunset on the deck.)

Those of you who keep track on me via twitter or facebook may have seen statuses about Michael and I looking for a house. We were thinking about purchases but decided to rent. We found an amazing rental that we positively loved last week but I have been waiting for our credit/background check to pass to blog about it. All that passed with flying colors this afternoon (our FICO score is 792 and we don’t have criminal records, so it was never really a worry for us…)

This Friday we will be signing the lease and getting the keys to the house! I’d post a couple pictures from the craigslist posting but they do not do the place any justice (which I am kind of grateful for, we were on a short list of applicants.) The owner seems to be a great guy (he called me today asking what color I wanted my fridge and if I had any oven preferable, how cool is that?)

The house, oh my gosh, SO BEAUTIFUL and in a nice neighborhood. I has a large fenced yard with a detached two car garage (with a workbench.) The yard is pretty much a blank canvas, I can do whatever gardening I choose with it. It does have a swing set and a large wooden deck in the back which is lovely. Everything inside has been redone, the main floor has two bedrooms and one bath, a large kitchen with and open dining room by the deck doors, and a living room of course. It has an unfinished basement with the laundry (we will need to purchase our own washer and drier though) and two extra rooms, one of which will probably be my bulk food pantry. It has an attic too which seems fullsize with the large windows you can see from the front lawn. We haven’t been up there (you get to it through narrow steep stairs in a bedroom closet, little bit creepy! Extra storage space if nothing else though.) Forced air natural gas, new carpet and stone tiling, did I say it has a big yard? A yard!

We are officially signing the lease on Friday and receiving the keys. Our lease is up in our current place at the end of March so we have plenty of time to move and switch services over. SO EXCITING!!!

(A couple people have asked if we need anything so the new place, which is really sweet. Since we have lived together for several years we are pretty well stocked (except for gardening items I suppose!) But if you want to check out any of our wants or needs they are all on our wishlist.)