Ch-ch-ch-changes...

As I've mentioned a few times, Mr. McMuffintop goes away for 2 weeks at a time to work in another province on the other side of the country.  It isn't easy, but we work really hard at keeping in constant communication with each other to keep our marriage on solid ground.

But it has gotten old.  Really old.  When he comes home it's great.  It's almost like we get a bit of a honeymoon every two weeks, which is fun.  But when he's gone we miss each other like crazy.

On Friday he received a new job offer.  In the same province where he works.  An offer too good to resist (i.e., we could likely semi-retire in about 10 years - Mr. M is 39, I am 38).  But the job requires him to live there full time.  And since we already hate being apart from each other 2 weeks at a time, it means we are moving.  To the other side of the country.

*gulp*

I/We always knew it was a possibility.  We have talked about it continuously over the past year and have mentally prepared ourselves for this.  It is not permanent, so we plan to keep our existing home because we have put a lot of work into it and always envisioned it as being our retirement home.  Since it is on a beautiful lake it will be our "cottage" over the next few years and we will always come back every summer, Christmas and probably at least one other time during the year.

Here is a list of the pros and cons of moving I've been battling with over the past couple of days (although, we are indeed moving):

PROS

• Mr. M's high income allowing us to retire early.
• More/better job opportunities for me, as we currently live in a teeny-tiny town where there are very few opportunities.
• I can actually see myself fitting into the new community more than I do in my current community (there are a lot of older, retired people here).
• There are a lot of beautiful walking/running/biking trails in the new community, which fits in with my current efforts of getting fit and healthy.

CONS

• We will be far away from our families.  In particular, it bothers me a bit that we will be so far from our parents.  I already lost my father two years ago and my mumsy isn't getting any younger.  Note to self: teach mom how to use Skype sometime over the next few weeks.
• I am really afraid to give up my current doctors because they are amazing (general/family doc and my diabetes doc).  And if you are from a small town in northern-ish Canada, you will understand how difficult it is to find a doctor accepting new patients at all, let alone a GOOD one.
• The cost of living in our new community!! (Yes, double exclamation point on that one!)  Although we will be able to afford to keep our existing house AND to purchase a house there, my goodness the houses there are expensive.  EVERYTHING seems to be so, so expensive.
• We will have to give up on the public adoption process we had begun in our province.  We weren't very far along into it (because it such a loooong process), but it has already taken almost a year for us to get to the point we are at.  We will likely try private rather than public adoption in our new province in the hope that it will be somewhat quicker.

We are still waiting for details from the company Mr. McMuffintop will be working for so that we have a better idea of the timeline we are working with.  But from the little bit we do know, it sounds like we will be residents of our new province by July.

So. Much. To. Do. So. Little. Time.

p.s.  I am determined not to let the upcoming events derail me from my weight loss efforts.  I know busy times are ahead, but I will not let it be an excuse to not exercise or eat properly.