Another decision made....well sort of!

Well its all change in the Northernlass1 household. Our eldest is 18 and is doing an Art diploma in UK at the moment......he finishes summer 2009. He had planned to take a gap year before starting OCAD in Toronto in 2010. Well it turns out he has now changed his mind. He's now considering starting Uni in the UK in 2009. He'll either complete the degree there or may transfer to OCAD later. He'll still land with us in 2010 to activate his PR and then he just needs to be in the country for 2/3 years.......that's if he wants to make Canada his home! I think that flying in and out for hols over the next few years will let him see if Canada is actually for him that way he's not being pushed into going just because the rest of us are. Hubby remaining in UK will help too. So as of now it may just be me and the girls moving permanently with the boys flying in and out for a while. It's not ideal but its a compromise that enables us to move and stay financially stable as well as meeting everyone's needs. Thanks to my pal Amanda, as well as hubby having worked in China in the past, I know long distance is feasible!! Mind you as he's 18 he could still change his mind lol!!!

Ticking off the boxes!

Well I've found that the most important part of this damn process is to have plenty of goals so you can tick them off as you go... rather like a countdown! So just ticked off Halloween...it poured with rain but 4 little peeps in fancy dress came knocking and were richly rewarded though we still have enough sweets left to see us through till spring!

Next goal is Guy Fawkes....this actually isn't as fab as it sounds as I'm working till about 8pm doing tutorials in Newcastle.

After that its the run up to Christmas. There is soooo much to do and sooooo little time. I've about 40+ assignments to mark as well as write a 3000 word one for my own degree. Then there's the xmas shopping to be done...thank god for the internet! The kids are doing a million things all at the same time and guess who's chief taxi driver?!! This year we are spending xmas just the 5 of us at our home....we've never done this before but are looking forward to it. In the past we've either been with family (usually about 12 of us in total) or the 5 of us have flown to Florida and spent xmas with Mickey Mouse!! I guess we need to get used to xmas being just the 5 of us as this is how it will be in Canada. I'm going to use this xmas to start some traditions of our own that we can continue once we've landed....just not too sure what they'll actually be!!!

Also now beginning to pull our documents together for the CHC should they ask for them next year (yeah!!).... need all my cerificates of education, payslips for the last 10 years, birth and marriage certificates....sad though it may sound I have actually kept them all!!!!!!!

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have found out for definite today that the first Simplified Skilled Worker application is being processed!!!! They were also sent a 90 day letter rather than the 3-6 month letters that were expected. If nothing slows these applications down we may well be contacted by CHC next summer (2009)....OMG!! That's a huge reduction on the 42-48 month wait we were originally given.

Canada 2010 here we come!!!!!!!

2 years!!

It's hard to believe that its been 2 years since I took the girls and visited Collingwood for the first time! That was the first time I met my fab pal Sophie (Hi if you're reading this!!). Who'd have thought that one little week's visit could have had such an impact on our lives.

So another Thanksgiving has passed and another Halloween is fast approaching. Before we know it it'll be Xmas! Then hopefully we'll have one more Xmas in the UK more before moving to Ontario! We've decided to try a Xmas Day on our own this year....not something we've done before in the UK but we have to get used to it as we'll be on our own once we've moved. As next year (2009) is our last Xmas here we're having a big family get together at a restaurant......yeah no cooking!

So for now its back to getting sorted for the half term holiday and Halloween!!

Prioritising!!

This week has been hectic to say the least. My workload has doubled and I'm desperately trying to catch up on my Masters as I fell behind a couple of weeks ago. I decided last weekend that I needed to prioritise and reorganise what I do on a daily basis. Both hubby and I are working like crazy to build up funds and extra qualifications to boost this move. But our family life bears the brunt of this. The kids and hubby leave the house before 8am every morning and the first gets back at 5pm and the last is in between 6pm and 7.30pm. Up until recently the older kids also attended school on a Saturday. I'm now getting myself organised so weekends are solely for me, hubby and kids. Obviously extended family are also a part of this. I'm now taking Wednesday mornings off to take the youngest to school and then go to Costa for coffee with friends.....this gives me my 'me' time! I also decided this week not to log onto mymuchmor and was horrified to realise that I had been logging on three to four times a day everyday for the past year!!!!. It had become an addiction. I'm going to allow myself to log in on a Sunday night only!! Following these changes I have completed a load of work in the last 5 days alone! My new students are all prepared and organised, all tutorials are planned, my masters is back on track though the last research paper that I submitted may have fallen victim to me spending too much time on other things! I have even allowed myself a few minutes each week to post in my blog and best of all I am now using the exercise bike each day to prepare for the medicals...yes it will take me 2 years! By reorganising and prioritising I have actually reduce my stress and I'm accomplishing a lot more than I did before.....yeah!!!!

Plans!!!

I know its ridiculous to be thinking of xmas this early but I do have reasons!! If everything with the immigration goes to plan we should now have 2 xmas's left in UK. As xmas 2009 will probably be our last we will spend that with all the family.....there'll be around 13 of us! So we've decided that this xmas (2008) we are going to spend xmas day on our own...just the 5 of us. We' ve never done this before in the UK though we have had the odd xmas in Orlando with just the 5 of us. What we're hoping to do is set up xmas traditions that we can easily carry over into our future xmas's in Ontario.
So the planning has already started........watch this space!

As there is a distinct possibility of CHC contacting us at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010 we've started to collect all our documentation.....no easy feat I can tell you. I'm the principle applicant and have worked for many organisations over the years. I think I'm going to need to track my past jobs through the Tax Office......pretty sure that at least 2 of the organisations have long since ceased trading!

It's been a while!

Well it really has been a while since I was last on here. So what's been happening....
I re did my points score and came up with 80....forgot to add the correct amount of time spent working!!! The person discussed in the last post is still waiting and it now looks like the appeal will go to Federal Court!
The weather here is turning...very autumn feel in the air. This is making me feel really homesick for Canada. My new pal Amanda is now living in Owen Sound and her daily emails are keeping me going.....so if you're reading this Amanda don't stop emailing!
We are hoping that we may hear from CHC at the end of 2009/early 2010 which would be brilliant!! We'll know more when they start to process the first batch of simplified skilled worker applications....lets hope they don't slow down.
Good news re doctors....Ontario is now going to allow doctors from other provinces and the US to work on their existing qualifications and the hope is that this will spread to UK docs too....hurray!! This would enable hubby to work in Ontario and then he can land with us and not have to go back to UK to work!