In 1988 we moved from our huge one bedroom apartment with a Walnut five poster king sized water-bed to a small two bedroom house at McDonald and 8th with our two-year old son. We slept on a mattress on the floor as the water-bed couldn’t possibly fit through the door. The only daycare we could get was a parent participation one at UBC.

I would drop our eldest off at UBC at 730 am and then park our car at McDonald and 16th. I would bus to my job at Granville and Georgia. At lunch I would bus back to my car and drive to UBC where I “participated” at the daycare. I cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen.. I would then bus back downtown to work late and make up for my long lunch break.. E would bus to the car parked at McDonald after his day and “participate” by doing the daycare’s books. He would then pick up our son and drive back to Kits to get dinner going.

It wasn’t easy but it worked for us.                            

In 1989 we had our second son. We bought our first house.It had three bedrooms and we moved to L.

We hired a live in Nanny. It made life less complicated and worked for us

Two years later we completed the family unit with our daughter and moved to our five bedroom house.

We were fortunate to have three excellent live in Nannys over the next seven years. E and I were able to go to work everyday knowing our kids were safe and well cared for. We came home to happy children, a clean house and dinner on the table. We were able to have the mental energy to have fun with the kids, participate with school PACs, Beaver groups, and sports teams.. It worked for us….

On Friday around 4:30 E noticed spouts in front of the house… The five Orca weren’t really close but we had a good view of them for probably an hour as they wandered from the Narrows down south. It was the first time one of our children was here to see whales from the perch. We sent a memo to the Orca Bosses requesting another visit when out daughter is here this week.

It was twenty-six years ago today that we welcomed our second son to our world. His arrival sparked an amazing chapter in our lives. A chapter where we focused on raising three happy kids in an amazing community where we all thrived.

Now in our latest (hopefully not last) chapter,  E and I live off grid on an island and the kids are on their own. We get to see our children, usually one at a time, for a few days every month or so…  We are back to a one bedroom house. We are in a different amazing community where we seem to be thriving. We still have no room for a king size water-bed but it

works for us