New Digs

Things have been a little crazy over the past few weeks. I broke my back and was in the hospital for four days. I was back at work the next week, but I was wearing my clamshell brace the entire time. When I went for the follow up appointment on 7 Mar 2011, the doctor told me that I probably wouldn't have to wear a brace, and he was surprised when I demonstrated that I was wearing one. He then told me that it would be in my best interest to take my brace off for a few hours at a time. He also told me 'formally' that I should not drive while wearing my brace. Combine the two pieces of advice, and I can drive again!

When I got home that evening, I took off the brace, and kept it off for about 90 hours. (three and a half days) The reason I put it back on, was because Friday morning when I got to work, it felt like there was a piece of hot glass right at the fracture point, which was the L1 vertebra. I took my brace and put it on as tight as I could manage, and I felt fine. I was a little stiff and had to make more of an effort to breathe, but I was functional yet again, with minimal pain.

All the while, things were being moved to the new apartment, but there was still a big thing missing: Beds for our daughters. We had been searching around, with the main focus being Kijiji, and just last week we found something. A set of bunk beds, two end tables, and two chests of drawers, all in a very fine wood. Not sure what kind, might be maple or birch, but there are very nice. The best part? It cost $200 for the entire set. We could not believe our good fortune!

Also the fact that we were able to move into this apartment in Beaumont, which has always been a dream of Caitlin's to have our own place in this town. The amazing thing is that it's cheaper than many places in Edmonton! There are some advantages to having a single income household. Most people would wonder how we get by on so little money, but I just grateful that things have worked out as well as they have.

There are a few trouble spots on the horizon, such as the fact that I have yet to get a response regarding my student loans repayment assistance application, but there was a massive SNAFU simply because I wrote the wrong date on the application. Instead of 1 Dec 2010, I put 30 Nov 2010. This was too early, and I was told this when the deadline had almost run out. Furthermore, there was a mark on my application for permanent disability, so it had to be reviewed in Ottawa, and I was told if there was any further documentation needed then I would be notified accordingly. The only issue with that is I thought the permanent disability application was discarded because I failed to produce a doctor's note stating my situation.

In any case, it's been nearly two months since I put in my application, and both the National Student Loans and Alberta Student Loan people are starting to breathe down my neck. The other day I got a letter printed on green paper reminding me that payment is due. Every time I get one of those notifications, I call in and they tell me not to worry, because the application is still being processed.

I wish I could just get rid of that debt, but I brought it upon myself, and I'll have to get out of it myself.

However, our new apartment has been working quite well for us. It's smaller than what we're used to, and we're still searching through stuff and sending clothes to Goodwill, but this has been a long time coming. Even when we were moving in, there were a number of things that we threw out. There was a shirt that I inherited from Chris that was too big and had more than a few holes. Caitlin threw it out while I was incapacitated. Eh, I have lots more shirts, so I don't think I'll miss that one!

The other thing that I need to work through is the orange foot locker I got from my Grandpa Joe. It has stuff in there going back to when I was seven or eight years old. WAY BACK. My plan is to take pictures of things, make a blog entry about it, and then toss or donate it. I'm certain there are some toys in there too, and those I might give to Erini and Bronwyn, depending on what shape they're in. I can start with that project now because we picked up the camera from the Tolley's on Sunday.

There is still a bunch of stuff that's over there, such as all the boxes in the Mezzanine, and a couple of jackets, and there's my murse that I can't seem to find anywhere. Caitlin suggested that it's hanging behind my striped jacket, but I'll have to check next time we're over there.