Home

For the four different homes that Tim and I have lived in over the years since we were married, I distinctly remember the very first time I saw each place. For our home on the Long Stretch Road, it was just land the first time I drove to see it. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I immediately pictured the boys running around the yard that we would clear. It was our find, and we fell in love. When we moved to Fort McMurray, there was so much anxiety on my part about, well, pretty much everything. Would the boys adjust, would I make friends, would we like it here, and would we find a home in our budget in a good neigbourhood.

I like telling the story of how we found our house. I had arrived in Fort McMurray during a boom in the housing market, and there was lots of pressure to find something fairly quickly, as all our stuff was in storage, and we were in temporary housing. Not an ideal situation with two young kids. Tim was out here working already, and in the middle of a shutdown when we arrived. So I had no help at home, and arrived to no help(from him) in Fort McMurray. I remember dragging the boys to see about 12 houses, and nothing seemed to fit. And then one rainy night the boys and I went to see a house in Dickinsfield, and once again as we walked to the car afterwards we all felt so disappointed. And I remember the next part so distinctly.  I turned on the windshield wipers, and pulled up to the stop sign, and looked across to this scene:

There was a man standing out in the rain, putting up a for sale sign on the lawn. On a whim, I pulled up in front of him, and asked what the asking price was for the house that looked inviting in the dark evening light. It was over our budget, but he asked if we wanted to come in to have a look. I hesitated for only a moment. As we came in, the open kitchen/living room concept that greeted us was exactly what I had been looking for, and by the time we were walking down the hall, the boys were whispering that they thought this was "our house".  And after convincing Tim, and getting the bank to approve, it did in fact become our house. And we still love it. So today, you get to see my house in Fort McMurray, our home.

And Mitchell posing, as we are running to get to cadets.