Forget the boxes, let's get on with life!

Alright, so I'm done with the move-in thing for now.

We're pretty much not any closer to being done since the last time I wrote, but I figure that we've either found or bought whatever we need on a daily bases, so the rest can just chill for a while.
It will feel like Christmas when we open them, you're pretty sure you know what's in there, but often it comes with a surprise!


What else is up, you ask?

I started working. Full timeish. Woot, woot!!! At a big girl job and everything!! Yup, this past Monday I started working for a prenatal health clinic downtown, four days a week, and on the fifth I baby-sit for a girlfriend. She was the cool chicky that set me up with the gig downtown in the first place, so the least I can do is hang out with her 12 month old one day a week (and she pays me for it too, which is kind of nice). Her mat leave it over, so she's back gone back to school to finish up the last year of her master's degree (the same one I did). So she has her 25 month old in day care, and a baby-sitter at the house with the 12 month old. Now she's a busy lady!

The clinic that I'm working for has a tonne of demographic, medical history, intervention, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcome data that they want statistically analyzed to help determine if their services improve empowerment of low-income at-risk pregnant women. And that's just one project. They also have a study going working with the Ministry of Health of Quebec that they need reprocessed, and a number of other things. Never did i think I would be a research consultant/analyzed, and never did I think I would have this much employment in Montreal (and being hired while pregnant!) but so far it's going really well and I get to work from home two out of those four days! Sweet deal. But maybe the sweetest part is that in Quebec, any income in the calendar year prior to your due date qualifies for mat leave. Booya!!! So forget the boxes, let's spend a bit of that energy on income generation, shall we?

I'm also really diggin' my baby-sitting gig on Wednesdays. It offers such a change of pace from spreadsheets and number crunching, and sometimes a change is as good as a break, but it also offers a glimpse into what life may be like a few months from now. (Well, minus the gorgeous house they live in!)

Tom's doing well too. Not only with work but he's also helping start up a young men's program for youth. Our Montreal church is very much into outreach, especially to those at risk, and he's getting in elbow deep. It's very cool to see some of the lessons we've learned over the past year relay into the life we are setting up in Montreal. Tom also spoke at a men's breakfast last Saturday morning, so he's got the young and the old guys covered, lol!