Big News!

"Mom and Dad tell me that I have to learn how to share, because we are getting another member to our family."

Surprise! Zac and I are going to be parents. Our little "Cookie Crumb" (get it, COOKie Crumb) is due to arrive November 6. Today I am officially 16 weeks (or 4 months) along.

So, that means that we drove across country while pregnant? Yes, very true. This made frequent bathroom stops and motion sickness paired with pregnancy sickness quite "fun."

That also means that our baby will be Canadian? That's part true too. Cookie Crumb will be a dual citizen. Overall, we decide that dual citizenship would be an asset. That is unless he/she plans to run for President. If they do then they have to deal with the Supreme Court and Donald Trump. (Good luck, kiddo.)

This past weekend. Nearly 16 weeks/4 months along. We will see how much longer I can tolerate riding a bike.

In a few weeks we will get to find out if Cookie Crumb is a boy or a girl. Luckily my parents will be in town soon after that, and we are looking forward to tell them the exciting news in person.

Needless to say, 2013 has been, and will continue to be a BIG year for us. We are so grateful for this wonderful blessing God has given us, and we pray that we are equipped to handle this new amazing job.

How Did I Get Here?

Destination: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Origin: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Who: Husband, dog, and I
Vehicle: My 9 year old Malibu sedan with a trunk and backseat filled to the brim, and 2 bikes strapped to the back of the car.

Six days of driving for over 3000 miles (that 4800 km, as I am now starting to immerse myself into metric system only.) We saw 13 different states that week. The view along the way was amazing, you find out how diverse this land truly can be from mountains and prairies, forest and desert, snow storms and sun.

Day one: This was definitely the most difficult day, emotionally and physically. It was one of the longer days on the road but it was also the last day in our Pittsburgh home.
Zac woke up early and headed down to Lexington, Kentucky with our old loveseat that we gifted to his brother, then he was to head onto his parent's home in Paducah, Kentucky to spend some time there and leave his old truck for his day to use. I stayed behind to finish a few last minute chores in preparation for realtor viewings later that afternoon. My sister drove up from northern Virginia to receive a guest bed that we gifted to her and her husband. I have never been so grateful for my sister in my entire life because those "last minute chores" turned into "final hour to do list." My target ETA of 10am turned into 1:30 after everything was loaded, I pawned off my refrigerator contents to neighbors, and cleaned every single square foot of flooring in the home.
I was grateful for those last moments when a few neighbors came by for a farewell hug and to wish me luck. In hindsight I remember being so very nonchalant with their farewells, but I know I was too stressed about getting on the road to get emotional. But boy-oh-boy, did those emotions come flooding in when it was time to walk out of the door one last time. I cried like I lost someone dear to me. That final moment and realization of what I was leaving behind sunk in and hit me like a truck. Thank God for my amazing sister who was an all-star at comforting me at that moment, I know I couldn't have done it without her.
Anywho, I ugly cried as I drove out of our neighborhood and all the way to Wendy's for my late lunch, (I didn't care if they saw me ugly cry, I was leaving town and when I come back to visit I doubt dining at Wendy's will be on must-do list.)
I recall some advice a friend gave me about moving, "it hurts when you first leave, but soon the excitement of your new journey will take over and it won't hurt as bad." My goodness they were right! Later that night when I finally reached my 1st overnight stop at my in-law's Kentucky home I wasn't sad any more. I think pure exhaustion was the only feeling I had.
Day one states: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky

Day two we crossed the Gateway to the West in St. Louis, Missouri. (Sorry for the crappy phone pictures that we took in-transit)

Day Two: We spent most of the morning spending time with family in Kentucky, which is certainly time well spent. Looking back I wish we gave ourselves more time in our travels to enable us to spend more time with family.
Eventually we hit the road, leaving Kentucky and crossing Illinois and Missouri it wasn't until we reached Kansas when we started to discover unfamiliar topography. The prairies were so peaceful and beautiful. I'm sure to those who live there and see this everyday it's boring to them. But to us it was new and exciting.
Thanks to my Aunt Jan, Uncle Mike and my cousin John for letting all of us crash at their home in Kansas for the night. Luckily my aunt was smart enough to document our chariot and the lovely packing that we somehow rigged.
Day two states: Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas.

Yes, that is a banjo on the roof of the car... That's how we roll.

Cotton is afraid that we would forget him, so he is on-guard next to his crate.

Day Three: So we departed from Central Kansas and continued onward on the Vancouver Trail. We made it to Denver without a bump in the road. However, as soon as we reached Denver a blizzard started to reveal itself. So we pressed on our intended route to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Day three states: Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Bike-cicles

Day Four: Rise and shine in snowy Cheyenne, Wyoming! We soon learn that our intended route was closed due to the storm. So after much deliberation we decided to turn back towards Denver and continue our west-ward journey thru southern Utah. Bad news; we had to backtrack and lose over 4 hours of driving time. Good news; we saw some of the most beautiful sights in America while driving in Colorado and Utah.

Day four states: Wyoming, Colorado (again), and Utah.

West Colorado

Utah, near the Colorado state line.

Southeast Utah

Day Five: Now we are getting to the part of the trip for us where all of the romance of the exploration starts to wear off. Despite our exhaustion of being in the car for nearly 40 hours in less than a week, we still somehow had a patient for each other. We were fueled by the excitement of what awaited us at the end of the road and to start the new chapter in our lives.
We stayed the night in central Washington, our last night of traveling and staying in a hotel. Hooray!
Day five states: Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

We missed the Oregon border the 1st time, so we looped around to view it again. 

Day Six: Final day for travel. Yippee!
We saw the rest of Washington, including our last major city, Seattle. Then we crossed into the amazingly beautiful British Columbia. The rest and best is yet to come.

Monument at the border. Inscription reads "Children of a Common Mother."

Welcome to British Columbia! We've made it!

Moving to Canada, eh?!

Today marks our 2nd full week as Canadian immigrants. If you told me 3 years ago, while I was living in Nashville that I would be moving from Pittsburgh to Vancouver I probably would have had a panic attack. But we have been blessed with a wonderful job relocation opportunity to move in one of the most beautiful areas in the world.
How did this happen all happen? Well, let me summarize:
Zac was scouted out by a fitness and yoga apparel company, perhaps you have hear of them, Lululemon. At that time we were looking for a opportunity to move to the Pacific Northwest region and to work with a lifestyle retailer and Lululemon fit the bill.
Leaving Pittsburgh was a hard decision to make. We has dear friends and neighbors who we could barely tear ourselves away from and a beautiful home that we were making our own. Sometime there are sacrifices to make in pursuing dreams and goals.
Since we have left Pittsburgh we have been blessed with rewards and immense good luck.
1) Zac has started his new job and loves it already
2) We were able to sell our Pittsburgh home in less than 2 weeks for a profit.
3) We have found a new apartment to rent here in Vancouver that is blocks away from work, the beach, and several other great features.
4) I have received not one but TWO job offers from two great companies. Both of which want me to start on Monday, so my day's as a housewife are soon over.

Hopefully in the next few days I will share with you all of the fun experiences in our travels here and while we explore our new home.
Until then, here are some teasers pictures.

Sunset Beach, at sunset of course

Hiking in Capilano Park

Capilano Park (with Cotton photo bombing the shot)

Zac after the Vancouver Sun Run 10K

Afternoon on Kits Beach

Upcoming Trip!

News Flash! Zac and I are going to Italy.
Why? > Why not!
When are we going? > Sunday (in 4 days!!!)
When did you decided to go? > Officially, about 3 weeks ago. But we have been talking about it for several months now. But just recently Zac found a great deal on a trip, I mailed off and expedited my passport update (because my old passport still had my maiden name on it) and now here we go.

I'll post pictures later. But in the mean time you can follow my Instagrams @ http://web.stagram.com/n/kellcook/

Ciao!

Oh Hipsters....

Are you watching ABC's Happy Endings? If not, you should check it out.
Any who... last night's episode had a reference to hipsters. Oh hipsters... you are odd, snobby, ironically fashionable and you are fun to watch. Nashville had their fair share of hipsters, East Nashville to be exact. But this show cracked me up because they had the hipsters defined to a tee. I just wonder if they found it as humorous as I did.

But, in honesty, hipsters, I have love for you. Even if your desire is to be unique and not care about your appearance, but you all dress the same and you do strive to be trendy. Cheers!

A down payment and 40 Signatures Later...

A month and a half ago Zac and I put an offer on a house. (You don't remember that: here is something to remind you.) After several agonizing weeks dealing with lenders and what not we finally closed!

Sadly, it will be over a week before we will be living there because we have to wait on the movers. But we did take Cotton there to introduce him to his new home. He loves the place, he has tons of room to run around inside.

I'll keep you posted as we move in and settle in the new place.

Here is an interesting article on our new neighborhood: NY Times



Spring Time and Fun Times in Pittsburgh

Zac and I have had an amazing week this week. I started my job and I am so optimistic about my future there at AE.
Thursday night we went to a KT Tunstall solo show in a convert music hall that was formally a church, you can imange the acoustics there were amazing. Her solo show consisted of her, her guitar or piano, and a loop machine. I am a huge fan of KT's music and she is so fun and witty everytime I see her in concert. You should remember her from her hit in 2006ish with Black Horse and Cherry Tree, but since then she has mainly stayed on the independent music scene. Here is a clip of that song from the show.

Saturday was a rainy spring day, so we ventured out to the suburbs to price shop IKEA furniture and to find some home decoration inspiration. We were able to leave with only purchasing a coke. However I was very temped to buy a small lamp and a plan for my work desk. That evening the weather cleared up, so we walked to neighborhood Mexican restaurant for some "happy food and margaritas."
Sunday we took a bike tour of the city between our new home and our new work. Spring is definitely blowing in, and I literally mean "blowing in." It was quite a windy day! But the sun was out and everything is starting to bloom. It am so exciting and I can't wait to move in and settle in here!

On the Hot Metal Bridge with the city in the background

Over my shoulder is the AE Corporate office, notice the huge metal eagle on the side of the building.