Unpacking and enjoying being home. March 16 - 21

Home Sweet Home, of course it doesn't look like this yet until June lol

Since getting home we've been busy unpacking the motorhome, and changing our mailing address with all government agencies. You might wonder why, as we are not moving anywhere. I went in to the Post Office to check our mailbox, as the mail forwarding to Jason and Kristi came off a few days earlier. Imagine my surprise when my key wouldn't work, so I went in to inquire.

When I put in our temporary mail forwarding to Jason and Kristi last September, the post office clerk incorrectly filled out our information on her screen. The clerk entered we were moving and needed our mail forwarded for a year instead of only a temporary forwarding for 6 months. She charged me $100 plus dollars for this service! With this error in their system, they gave our post box to someone else, so we cannot get it back. So now the only recourse is to get a new post office box number and change all of our government information, vehicle insurance, drivers license, banking, township etc. You can imagine the pain this is.  Ray spent over three hours yesterday online and on the phone. Today we went into Duncan and did the insurance papers and driver's licenses. We still have a few more to do. The only thing the Post Office could do is give us 3 months of redirecting our mail to our new post office box for free! 

After all of this, we at least had a good day enjoying the sunshine and warm temps at 10C (50F) which was nice and warm compared to snow last week. Hot tub was filled just waiting to heat up. :)

I watch the water level on my phone lol

We spent the next few days sorting through things and hauling more stuff out of the motorhome. It's amazing how much stuff we've squirreled away for the winter in there lol

We managed to enjoy sitting outside with our fire Saturday afternoon in the sunshine. First fire since last spring I think. Sure was nice to be outside in the relatively warm sunshine.

Two days before we got home, our neighbours took down a large tree between their house and ours. My plants will get a lot more sun, however it sure got rid of any privacy between us. We will have to get some kind of screening that allows light through. Ray wants to continue with the steam locomotive theme on the other side of our sundeck. The maple tree is still there, but the spruce tree infringing on their sundeck is gone. The maple will get it's leaves and be encouraged to grow into the open space.

Sunday, Ray put together Amelia's toddler bed so it's ready for her overnight here next weekend. She is growing up, so no more crib for her. She loves dinosaurs, so I found  dinosaur bedding for her and a rug to soften the floor if she falls out of bed which does happen occasionally.

Monday we headed out early to Nanaimo for our chance to finally spend time with the kids and Amelia. Amelia was sick with a bad cold and fever earlier last week. Then Kristi's girlfriend come for a 3 day visit planned months ago. So nice to finally get to see her in person. What a cutie, lots of hugs and she didn't play strange at all. She dragged us holding our hand all over their house showing us her new bed and toys etc. Melted our hearts.

She patted the couch and said "Nana sit" and then crawled up to cuddle with me.

Cuddles for Nana

Jason scheduled the concrete pour for the forms for their new sundeck today. Amelia enjoyed watching the pumper truck.

Kristi and Jason's yard is going to be completely redone. What a mess currently. Their yard is very unlevel with very little soil on top of the rock of Nanaimo. The landscaper will do specific levels for areas with gardens and play space. It should look fabulous once done, but this summer will be a right off to use it as the grass gets growing etc.

We took the kids out for dinner at the Driftwood Chinese Restaurant. They have a fabulous buffet and Amelia loves the food and watching their service robot.

She ate 2 platefuls plus desssert. :)

We headed home back to the lake from the restaurant. A lovely visit. The kids will be back to our house on Friday, leaving us with Amelia for Saturday overnight.

Tuesday our detailer came to detail the car, cleaning out all the desert sand inside etc. He also gave the MH a bath that from all the road dirt coming home in the rain. While Kevin did that, I spent half a day planning and reserving our week's road trip with the car in June to visit some friends in Quesnel.  Ray spent his time on our income tax, a necessary evil this time of year. The contract on Ray's phone is up thankfully, as he had a lot of trouble in the USA with it not connecting to different networks. He found it very frustrating. His new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra arrived, so he's also busy transferring stuff to his new phone. 

That's our first week at home .... not too exciting. As Ray isn't taking any fabulous pictures this week here is an older picture of our Cowichan River a few miles from us in the fall from a couple years ago.