Away We Go!
Jessica Glaze • Aug 27, 2014
San Diego has been good to me. I have lived here just shy of 10 years. I always dreamed I would spend my entire life looking at waves rolling in, smelling the sea salt air, and taking my kids to the nearby slash pad in the middle of December. I found Jesus here. I graduate from college her and then later I earned a Master's degree here. I found the love of my life here and brought my babies into the world here. I live the dream here in California.
Rusty and I were presented with an opportunity to give our lives a 180. We spent weeks going back and fourth with our decision. Can we leave our California life for a new start? We have friends here. Friends that have been around for years and friendships that are just starting to grow. We have friends that have children who are best friends with our children. We have family here. Family that moved here to be near us. Can we just pack up and leave our family behind? We love our church here. How can we leave the church that has shaped our faith into what it is today? But what if this opportunity is God knocking on our door telling us it is time to find something new?
So after praying, and crying, and discussing, and researching we have made our decision. We believe with our whole heart that God is calling us to move away from everything we know and put our trust in him as we move to a place we know very little about. The Glaze family is moving to Canada.
Leaving San Diego is going to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. I cannot believe I will no longer have weekly playdates with my dear friends. Carter is going to miss her friends so much. She already asks to play with them almost every day. I am going to miss my sister more than anyone can imagine. Carter is too young to even realize that she won't be seeing "Auntie Bweezy and Hersh Hersh" very often, but I know it, and it breaks my heart. Just the same, Rusty is very much going to miss his brother and his beautiful family that Carter has grown very fond of over the past few months. But the truth is, the internet is a beautiful thing. We will never be completely out of touch with our family and friends here in San Diego. Plus, California will always be our choice vacation spot!
The Glaze family is moving to Canada. Man, that is crazy to say... It will be a huge adjustment, obviously. Goodbye 80 degree winter days, hello freezing cold! My kids will now have a childhood similar to mine; winter jackets, cabin fever, and possible snow days. We will also be a short 8 hour drive from Chicago. That means much more time spent with Grandmas and Grandpas. Canada will give our kids the chance to grow up in a different culture with different opportunities, opportunities that we likely wouldn't be able to offer our kids if we stayed here in San Diego.
We have made our decision and there is no looking back. Contracts have been signed. Visas have been approved. All that is left to do now is pack up and move. I know I will be a sobbing mess our last few weeks here in California. It is always hard to say goodbye, but it will be exciting to find a new church, a new home, make new friends, and put Carter in a french immersion pre-school! I am anxious to see what God has waiting for us in Toronto, Ontario.
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!
Four kids, I have four kids! Sometimes (well, every day if I’m being honest) I have to remind myself that I have FOUR kids to be responsible for. If I’m not forgetting to keep an eye on my mischievous 2-year-old, then I’m walking out the door for dinner without dropping a jar of baby food into my bag. (Fries for dinner never hurt anyone, right? That’s what Mr. August survives on once a week at least.) Life as a parent can be chaotic sometimes. #thisisparenthood Thank God my two older kiddos are basically self-sufficient otherwise we would never be able to leave the house. Being responsible for four other human beings (Sometimes five if my husband is in town, am I right ladies?) is so hard!
It’s no secret that I am no fan of winter. If you live up north like we do now, you know just how cold, cold is and I can barely survive the frozen temperatures. Even though I would happily leave behind the cold, but there is nothing I love more than Thanksgiving and Christmas! Best holidays of the year, hands down!
It has been three years since we left behind our life in California. Three years since we made the announcement that we were moving to Canada. Three years since we started a new adventures as immigrants in a country that is so close to home, yet so very different. And now, after three life changing years, we are on to our next adventure.
Eli is 5.5 months old, rolling left to right and every other which way, so that means it’s time to ditch the swaddle. *Que the ugly cry.* If you didn’t know, we love swaddling in our home. Rusty and I can count the number of times we have ever had to wake up more than twice a night with one of the three kiddos on our fingers and we thank swaddling for that luck. We start swaddling from day one and we use that as a basis to establish great sleep habits from the beginning that last forever. Sadly, once the skill of rolling is learned, it is no longer safe to swaddling and the transition from swaddled to un-swaddled can be rough. Thankfully, we found the Nested Bean sleep sack this time around and the swaddled/un-swaddled transition has gone perfectly smooth.
The Glaze Brigade spent the second to last official weekend of summer (which is kind of a joke because summer never actually arrived here in the GTA) at Center Island and we loved it! I’m actually a little bummed that we have lived here for 3 years and only just decided to make the trip on the ferry over to the island.
We are just three weeks away from the start of the next school year and I am so not ready! There is nothing I love more than the freedom of summer. No school schedules to follow, flexible bedtimes, endless weekend adventures, and daily trips to wherever we can get some sunshine. Sadly, all of that is about to end and I am already planning our next summer.
Since moving to Toronto, the best part of summer is getting outside. Our days are usually filled with trips to the playground, our near by amusement park, riding our scooters around the neighborhood, or taking a fun road trip, but even in the summer, there are days we are stuck inside. Sometimes we spend those rainy days cuddled on the couch, watching a movie and eating junk food, but another fun rainy day activity we enjoy is visiting our local mall.
I was just a little surprised to learn that Carter would be starting kindergarten, at the ripe old age of 3, just a few months after moving to Canada. I considered putting her in a preschool a few days a week, but never did I think I would be sending her to an all day, every day, kindergarten class in a school that holds kids up to the 8th grade. Cue the mommy freak out. Of course, Carter loved it and I had nothing to do worry about.
My middle child, Monroe, was born with a severe tongue tie, it was actually so severe that he couldn’t swallow. For the first week of his life, we had no idea that his entire tongue was attached to the bottom of his mouth (behind his bottom gums), but over and over again he would choke and sometimes even turn blue. Rusty or I or a nurse would have to suction his airway to get things cleared out. It was the scariest time for me as a parent.
Facebook is filled with groups of moms complaining about the lack of help they get from their husbands. Either dad has never changed a diaper, he doesn’t help pick up toys, dad doesn’t help discipline, or he flat out cannot keep the kids alive if he is left alone. I understand that it can be completely frustrating to get no help from the one person that should be helping you the most, so I am going to share with you a few tips that I’ve used to encourage my husband to be a hands on dad.