Yeah, it's me

Yes, I'm well aware that I haven't blogged in well (*counting on my fingers, give me a sec) almost 10 months. And anyone who knows me personally knows that the last ten months has been... not so great. Lots of things to blog about, you'd think, but I just didn't. Even now I shouldn't be. I'm taking part in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) and I'm supposed to write 50,000 words on my novel this month. Every word I'm writing here is a word I should be writing there, but oh well.

Here's the condensed version of the past ten months (and I mean CONDENSED):

1. Shortly after my last post Hal lost his job. COMPLETELY out of nowhere and for no reason. Company A tried to completely screw us, too, so even though we were supposed to be out of the country within a week, we stayed long enough to fight them (laywers and everything) and get a half-decent settlement in order to be able to afford to get home. We got screwed by just about everyone in this move: Company A, New York Unemployment, the company that made us think they'd offered Hal a new job, only to find out that they hadn't... it's been pretty damned sucky. He finally did get back to work, but it was a really rough few months. NOT how we intended this "adventure" in the US to go. So, needless to say I'm a Canadiyank no more, but I'm not changing blogs again, so there! Plus, after 10+ months in the US we've figured out that we can never be the same people again. I think I will be a Canadiyank forever, in some way.

2. The same day that Hal lost his job (and I SWEAR I am not making this up) his father had a heart attack. A week later, with us still stuck in the States, his dad had a QUINTUPLE bypass. As in FIVE. I had never even heard of someone having a quintuple bypass before. Quadruple, yes, but man. It was really hard on all of us, being stuck in another country while all of this was going on. He's getting better now, all these months later, but he'll never really be the same, either.

3. We rented a "temporary" house when we came back, sight unseen. My friend went and looked at it for us, gave us her approval and we agreed to rent for 3 months while we "found a house to buy". Unfortunately, Company A has essentially ruined us financially (they're such GIVING, LOVING people in the US, really!) and at this point, buying a house again just isn't going to happen. That's killing me, because, as I may have mentioned before, I HATE RENTING. Plus, it's a little townhouse. Well, maybe not "little", but far too little for us. Especially now that...

4. I'm pregnant. Yes, you read that right. I am pregnant with Baby #4. We've always been a stupidly optimistic pair, Hal and I, and we decided that hey, why not... we'll just see what happens and surely we'll have fixed our mess by the time I actually GOT pregnant (after 2 sets of fertility treatments, you don't expect much from "let's just see what happens." But two months later, much to my surprise, I saw my first ever positive home pregnancy test, and here I am now, 17 weeks along.

5. So now we're trying hard to find a bigger place for all of us to rent for a year or two. Poor Millie has now been in 3 different schools, and she's only in Grade Two. We told her we'd probably be moving again, and have to go to another school and she said, "That's okay, I'm used to it." Ugh. Mommy guilt.

6. Leah is in nursery school. Ian is jealous. I'm just trying to keep from losing my mind, still be a SAHM in a much smaller house, with a toddler and a preschooler who want nothing more to run, in a house that is NOT conducive to running. I am NOT a domestic person. I hate cleaning. I hate cooking. I love my kids, though, and I keep telling myself that's what matters.

And now I have to go do laundry. I'm not too fond of that, either :)