To kick off 2010, we’ve given our blog a major facelift, as you’ve probably noticed. Not only do we have a new layout, but we’ve got a whole new domain as well. The old gallery system has been replaced by a slick Flickr account integration; you can see the most recent uploads in a photostream off to the right there, and clicking the “gallery” link above will take you to all of our photos (most recent sets at the top) and photo collections. Everything from the old Look At Us Go gallery has been moved over and old links on Look At Us Go will now redirect here to thekarpiuks.com. (While we feel like we’ve caught them all, if you find any faulty links just let us know!) Our email addresses have also changed accordingly. You can email us both by using us [at] thekarpiuks.com or individually with our name [at] thekarpiuks.com. With all of the immigration dust nearly settled, family is hopefully on the horizon; a fresh start with our family blog in a fresh new year seemed to be the way to go!

Speaking of immigration, we took a quick road trip to Toronto earlier this week for Lucas’ medical appointment. All went well and he flies back in to pick up the results for his final interview appointment in Montreal on January 5 to get his green card.  We’re really excited about the final piece falling into place so that we can move on. While in Toronto we enjoyed good sushi and good company and were sure to get our fill of Tim Hortons and other Canadian goodies that we’ve been missing. Special thanks to Ronald and family for their amazing hospitality!

2009 went out with a bang.  We treated my parents to dinner and their first live hockey game: the Indiana Ice vs. the Chicago Steel at Conseco Fieldhouse. It was a great time and afterwards we went back to their place and played Wii Fit until the ball dropped. Pictures can be found in a set on our gallery page. Lucas was of course my first kiss of the new year, with Oliver and Winston a close second and third ;) I sure am lucky to have such a great family. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in 2010.

May 2010 bring you a fresh start, new excitement, and good health! Cheers.

1. We spent a fantastic belated honeymoon/anniversary trip in Nova Scotia in June. (See our last post.) It was wonderful!
2. We moved back to the states (Indiana) at the end of July/first of August.
3. I started teaching Computer Applications at the middle school, and love it.
4. We moved into our own place at the end of October.
5. My brother and sister-in-law had their first child — we’re now an aunt and uncle to one adorable William Herman.
6. We had our first (U.S.) Thanksgiving with Indiana family in three years.

That pretty much sums up the last few months! It’s been an exciting adjustment period getting all settled in back in Indiana. This weekend we put up our Christmas tree and today we got our first central Indiana snow… about a quarter inch in fact, which helped get me into the Christmas-y mood. (After living in Canada for three years, I’m not used to NOT having snow by now so I was having a hard time believing the holiday season was actually here.) It was hilarious driving to work this morning because it felt like everyone was driving SO SLOW over such a minuscule amount of snow. Dare I say I adjusted to driving in Calgary snow?

Our Christmas cards will be going out shortly, and I’ll post one up here closer to Christmas to share with the rest of the world. It’s a pretty cute one, if I do say so myself. Not because I made it, (I’ve got too many knitted gifts to finish this year, so we opted for a Walgreens photo Christmas card instead of my usual handmade) but because the new family photo is darling. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

A mama goose built a nest in one of the most unlikely places (though common downtown so I’m told) on a ledge of a tower of the office building I’m working at for the summer. Lucas comes over and we meet up for our lunch hour each day, and today we checked out the fuss over the baby geese that hatched from the nest on the ledge. The area near the window had some caution tape to keep us pesky humans at bay, but you are able to be close enough to see the little miracles. It’s like a little mini zoo off the side of my building. First there were just eggs. Now there are four little ones. They’re growing rather quickly, considering they were just hatched this week and it’s only Wednesday.  Mom and dad are always with them, keeping a watchful eye out. If you don’t see them sitting on the ledge with the babies, don’t get too comfortable… they’re definitely not far away. Today mom was down below, coaxing her little ones to go over the ledge. What seems like a deadly fall to me is apparently no big deal to birds… however, these guys aren’t quite big enough to get over the lip of the ledge to attempt flying (read: falling) yet. I took several (non-flash) photos today because while this has been really neat to witness, people came today in attempts to relocate the geese and I’m not sure if they’ll still be there tomorrow.

Want to see more photos? Of course you do. Be warned: they will make your heart melt. Especially the one where cute little yellow fuzzball has his tiny little eyes squeezed shut. Totally adorable. To see the full gallery of fuzzy cuteness, click HERE. OH! And I made a little video of the window ledge action for you, too. Don’t mind the round hole/opening on the ledge that one of the babies falls into in the beginning — it’s a shallow (but stable) drain thing (like my technical terminology?) and the other two little ones are down in there. They’re just not quite tall enough to hop back out once they fall in, lol. But I promise they’re safe and sound in there. Enjoy!

Lately Lucas and I have been talking about our future. We know that one or more children are definitely on the horizon for us; we’re almost ready. But in the midst of talking seriously about starting our own family, it hit us: how can we start a family so far away from family? Let’s face it… in Calgary we’re nowhere near either of our families. Lucas’ family is out in BC and mine is all back in Indiana. In going over our options and the benefits of a move towards family, we ultimately have decided upon moving to the states. Indiana specifically, or possibly Chicago depending on job situations. I’ve always been very close with my family, and I know that my brother and his wife will be starting a family of their own at some point, too. I’ve always wanted our kids to grow up together and be close. I also never imagined having my own children without my parents being involved. I’m betting they never imagined I’d be 1800 miles away when we started having kids, either. And we’ll most definitely still see Lucas’ side of the family just as much as we do currently, regardless of where we live. So the choice seems clear and simple to us. And we’re happy with our decision. In fact, we honestly can’t wait.

So wait, how is this going to work with Lucas being Canadian and all? Well apparently because I am a U.S. citizen AND have Canadian Permanent Residency, Lucas as my spouse can apply for a K3 visa. This will allow him to live and ultimately work in the U.S. until his permanent residency is fully processed. On March 23 we’re going into the U.S. Consulate office here in Calgary to turn in the first part of the application process, which is to establish our relationship in person with the Consulate. They will verify our documents and send everything off to Montreal. This is the part where we wait… as we’re not sure how many months it may take to get this interview. Depending on turnaround time on paperwork it’s entirely possible we could move as early as this summer, but around Christmas seems more likely. Who knows. Once we have an interview date, we’ll fly out to Montreal and attend, and then supposedly 2 business days later… voila! Lucas will be legal to live in the states, and we can head on down. For an additional fee he can get the ability to work tacked onto his visa, which of course he’ll opt for. The downside is that the medical exam part will force him to take a quick day trip to Vancouver and we’ll have to pay for that and a quickie trip out to Montreal together for the interview, but in the grand scheme of things we truly feel it’s worth it. The benefits far outweigh the few bumps in the road we may encounter on the way to this change.

I do have a few issues with moving back home, though. First of all, no Tim Horton’s. Note to our friends in Canada: we want cans of ground Tim Horton’s coffee for Christmas so we can brew our own in the coffee maker at home. Sure it won’t be quite the same, but it’ll be better than none. And while I’ll miss Tim Horton’s dearly, there is an upside to Indy in the form of Chik-Fil-A. MMMMMM. And Bob Evans. And Steak ‘n’ Shake. My second issue with moving back home is that Lucas politely informed me last week that if he’s living in Indy he’ll most likely have to become a Colts fan. I immediately put on the brakes and emailed my parents to tell them that the move was off. I’ve gotten over the shock, but I may have to disown him if he becomes a Colts fan. GO BEARS.

So it’s a bit long-winded and I’m sure it seems like we’re gluttons for punishment turning around and dealing with new immigration stuff to go the other way so soon after I finished all of my Canadian immigration stuff, but there’s our news. We don’t know how long the process will take or when for sure we’ll be loading up a U-Haul and riding off into the sunset, but we hope to have a better idea of the timeline estimate after our U.S. Consulate visit on the 23rd. We’ll keep you posted :)

This evening Lucas and I ran a few errands to get some essentials for my first week of work.  We picked up some great items for the classroom (I think my kiddos will love the giant dinosaur egg that “hatches” in water in 24-48 hours when we do our dinosaur unit) and then I picked out some sweet winter boots.  These babies have an inner insulated form fitting sock that velcros into place within the sturdy boot shoe.  We’re talking warm. I’ve never experienced a second inside piece of insulation on boots before.  Though in all fairness I’ve also never lived somewhere where it gets as cold as it does here in Calgary before, either.  The traction on these real winter boots can actually be called real traction.  No more slipping on the sidewalks!  They hang on tight.  And the best part?  They’re pink and brown. Awesome.  It’s about time I became a real Calgarian, eh?

Work is going really well.  It’s challenging, but at the end of each day I’m already looking forward to the next day. And all I do is constantly scribble down neat little lesson ideas I think will get my little guys excited and engage them.  They’re really a great bunch of kids and the support staff I have to lean on as I get acclimated to the routine and students has made all of the difference in the world. It feels great to have a meaningful position again where I truly feel like I’m changing the lives of kids for the better. I love my job :) And of course, my sweet and wonderful husband surprised me by having flowers sent to me on my first day. I am so lucky.

I’m also thankful for our good friends — yesterday we were fortunate enough to be invited to spend Thanksgiving dinner with the Glab family.  The food and company was amazing and it really meant a lot to be treated like family by such wonderful friends.  Mom Glab made the most delicious ham and homemade scalloped potatoes and Michelle’s grandma baked the creamiest pumpkin pie made from real pumpkin.  Yum!  We are looking forward to returning the favour and having them over for American Thanksgiving next month.  I love holidays.

I’m thankful for beautiful fall weather; on Saturday the little Karpiuk family took a trip out into the Canadian Rockies and spent the day hiking around Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, getting to revisit the exact spot where nearly a year ago Lucas got down on one knee and proposed.  The weather played nice and it was sunny and clear all day.  A little nip from the wind every now and then, but after 2-3 hours of hiking we didn’t notice and the sunshine was nice and warm anyway.  We were able to take some absolutely amazing photos, too!  We have a new family photo taken along the shore of the lake and lots of other gems to remind us of the perfect autumn day together.  You can see all of our new pictures here in the gallery. Aren’t they beautiful?  I am so thankful to be part of such a loving family.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We’re off to enjoy another pretty fall day rollerblading along the Bow River and then dig in to the yummy leftovers that Mom Glab sent home with us last night. Mmmm!

It seems like if you blink, several months can just fly right by before you even notice!  Here it is October, and our last post was back in July.  You’ve not missed too much, though there are a few new things going on in the Karpiuk family.

Oliver is still Oliver, and Winston is still Winston.  Oliver has turned six years old today, can you believe it?  Also today happy anniversary wishes go out to my little brother and his wife as well as our friends Joe and Jeri.  Congratulations on your first year of marriage!

Lucas recently switched jobs completely and is now working happily at Shell in web development at their big Shell Canada building downtown.  I’m still teaching; guest teaching full time until a position opens up for me.  I like it well enough — I’m teaching and it’s a new classroom every day, which keeps things fresh and exciting.  They’re really keeping me busy and I’m usually booked solid every single day, which is great! I spend a lot of time explaining especially to the elementary kids that my last name is NOT “car puke” … :groan:  I’ve really gotten to know a lot of teachers and principals as well as been able to get a taste of what each school in the division is like.  One school has already booked me for every opening they have that they know of right now up through May, lol.  I like being in demand when it comes to my work.

On a sad note, we made a trip back to Indy a few weeks ago to be with family during my grandfather’s passing.  I was able to help with the arrangements by getting pictures together, and the video slide show that the funeral home put together was beautiful.  Rest in peace, grandpa.  You will be missed.

Last weekend our little family decided we’d plan a trip out to Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park up in the gorgeous Canadian Rockies so that we could get the boys some fresh mountain air and take photos of the pretty fall colours before they disappear or are covered in snow.  Unfortunately the weather forecast didn’t want to play nice and it rained instead, so we’ve rescheduled our day trip for this coming Saturday.  We’re really looking forward to seeing the beautiful spot Lucas chose to propose among all of the autumn colours.  When we were out there last November it was so cold and the hiking trails were blanketed in several feet of snow. Cross your fingers for better weather this weekend!

So that’s what the Karpiuk family has been up to.  I know it doesn’t seem like a whole lot in the span of  just over two months, but we’ve been busy just the same. I’ve had no troubles updating my craft blog because as my darling sister-in-law pointed out, Christmas is just two months away (eek!) and I need to get cracking on gifts.  Plus I’ve recently been trying my hand at digital art and creating digital scrapbook papers and elements for my digital scrapbooking obsession.  Check out the pages I’ve made for our digital scrapbooks here. That will give you a visual of what we’ve been doing the past couple months instead ;)   But I’ll do my best to keep things updated here a bit better, ok?

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving next week, Canada — take care everyone!

The rest of the weekend we spent visiting with friends and family.  We had dinner with Lucas’ mom, spent time with Clay and Alyson and met baby Aiden, and had dinner and games with Lucas’ dad & Linda and grandma and grandpa Karpiuk.  It was boys vs. girls in an intense game that seemed to be a mix of a little Aggravation and Sorry.  The girls won, of course!  On Sunday we had a picnic lunch with the game crew on the shores of Okanagan Lake between Penticton and Summerland. It was beautiful.  Afterwards, the boys took a nap and Lucas took me on my first Sea-Doo ride ever.  We rented a 2-seater for a half hour and took turns driving. It was awesome!  We definitely need to get one of those.

So, the moment you’ve read all the way to the end for… of course there are pictures!   And knowing me, there are literally hundreds.  I think by day two of our long weekend I had already taken 237 photos. Mostly of the boys playing on the beach.  Can you imagine how photo happy we’ll be when we have REAL kids?  There’s even a couple little video clips I put together of some of our adventures that you can watch as a six and a half minute long movie HERE.  All of our photos can be found in our gallery under Travel, British Columbia Summer 2008, or via direct link to the HTML version of the gallery HERE.   Enjoy!

In case you’ve forgotten the link:
http://wedding.lookatusgo.net

The photos can be accessed directly at this link:
http://www.lookatusgo.net/gallery/index2.php?d=content/Lucas%20and%20Lesley/Our%20Wedding/

Note that the photos you’ll see initially are the ones from our personal digital camera only plus the photos we received from the photographer at the chapel after the ceremony.  As we receive photos from others in attendance, we’ll add them to the page.  We’re planning to set up an FTP server so that those of you with digital photos to share can login and upload/download at your convenience all in one central location to make it easy for everyone to get a copy of every photo they want.  The photos on the site have been resized, so if you want the full-resolution version, just let me know.

We are still waiting for the DVD version of the actual ceremony to be mailed to us from the chapel.  Once that arrives we will make that available to you online for viewing and I’ll send out another email to let you know that it’s ready.  Until then, we have strung together some little video clips we took with our camera of our adventures in Las Vegas into a little 5 and a half minute video that you can watch at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZcO1G5yVQE

Be sure to click the link that says Watch in High Quality just underneath the video so that you can get the most out of it ;)

Once again, thank you so much for your love and support and enjoy all of the photos and video!  We are planning to update the look of the HTML gallery a bit in the next few days, so don’t be surprised if you see some little changes here and there.  That won’t affect the images available to view there, and of course, as we receive digital photos from others you’ll see new photos pop up on that page to see.  Stay tuned for another post once we have the DVD of the ceremony ready for view, too!

love,
Lucas & Lesley Karpiuk