Decision Made!

Alex, Chloe and I took a trip to Victoria and Nanaimo a couple of weeks ago to look at schools. We attended some open houses and Chloe went through an application process for St. Michael's University School. The outcome of that was an enthusiastic and quick acceptance of her into their school. That meant Alex and I had to make a location decision between a better job, lower house prices, etc. in Nanaimo and a good (but not quite as good) job for Alex in Victoria, higher house prices and one of the top schools in Canada. We chose option two reasoning that we've had our turn of prioritizing our educational and career needs; the kids only get one chance for their childhood education, they are eager and it doesn't get any better than this!

This weekend was Ava's turn. We made arrangements for her to do what Chloe had done at SMUS but at a different school. SMUS suggested we let Ava try them out too (where they previously hadn't had a place in Grade 5, one came up) - guess they loved Chloe so much they wanted to meet her sister. We'd done such a good marketing job on the other school that Ava vacillated and finally decided on a day with SMUS as well.

Unlike Chloe's assessment day where we just dropped her off in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon, I spent a good portion of the day with Ava at the junior school. It began with chapel and that was wonderful. A girl from kindergarden played everyone in on the piano. That morning's service was from the Christian faith but they rotate chapel through world religions. They also have a monthly virtue (following the Family Virtues Project) and the Reverend introduced this month's virtue, understanding, through a lovely story about how he had recently developed his own understanding of those he works with. There was some singing from the children that included the school song with children singing in harmony! At the end the children were played out by a teacher playing Morning Has Broken on the piano. What a way to start one's week!

After chapel Ava and two other applicants went off to do testing. Ava thought it was great fun because they allowed her to write a story. She wrote about a snake named Bono from Ubud, Bali. During her interview the school principal expressed interest in Ava's experience at Green School (she even asked if Ava would do a power point presentation to the school in traditional Balinese dress). After two hours of art class with some really nice children Ava didn't want to leave and asked if she could stay for Japanese class as well. So by 3:00 armed with her letter of offer Ava begged me to call the other school and cancel her day with them.

Ava's really feeling good about her choice as are we. Alex and I really want to give the girls a push, but not a push for the sake of

pushing but to maximize the potential in each child. When I asked at SMUS about theorists like Sir Ken Robinson (who talks about the importance of cultivating creativity) they were all over it; some of the teachers have attended conferences with him. Staff are encouraged to go right to the top for continuing education and are sent to leading-edge institutions like Harvard.

I feel so thankful both to be able to offer this opportunity to our children (thank you, Alex!) and also thankful that our children recognize opportunity and are willing to risk taking big bites out of life. Way to go girls!

So there you have it, decision made! Let the next adventure begin...

Ice2Rice2Where?

What in the world are those Hoechsmann’s doing?

It’s been a strange three months. Maia and I returned to Yellowknife mid October after Alex, Chloe and Ava. After Bali we had a great summer around BC, travelled to Lake Tahoe, and then we spent a month in Europe (Pont du Avignon to the right).

My first impression of being home was to feel completely overwhelmed by the volume of STUFF in our lives. The amount of time taken up by stuff-management was a stunner. Not only had we been “on the road” for the previous 10.5 months where our stuff was limited by the size of the suitcase, when we were last home we were looked after by the extremely competent Lorielyn. Lorielyn was our live-in caregiver who not only looked after Maia while Alex and I worked, also gave the impression that our family doesn’t even make mess by her behind-the-scenes constant tidying. I still remember having tears in my eyes the first time I opened my sock drawer and found clean socks neatly folded in my drawer - the last time I’d touched them they were being tossed into the dirty hamper. That is a beautiful thing! So I had just simply forgotten how much work it is to manage a house, children’s activities, and the endless messes.

I also began a Master of Health Administration degree at UBC in September. In my mind I imagined dropping the girls off at school then diligently studying for my classes all punctuated with regular visits to the gym and of course lunch dates with friends.

If that previous paragraph didn’t induce either a panic attack or laughter you either have no idea just how much work is involved in a MHA or, if laughter was your response, you clearly knew better than did I. Panic was a steady state for the autumn. I never had any time – it was almost worse than when I was working full time (back to the Lorielyn factor). There was school drop off (8:30), working until school pick up (3:15), then bagan “mom’s taxi” service from 3:15 until, some days, 8:00. There are a total of 13 different after school activities the girls are involved in. One of the things that are great about Yellowknife is that everything is within close proximity so nothing takes longer than 10 minutes to get to/from. Still, it’s a lot of moving around and when you have to drag other siblings around to do drop off and pick-ups it’s an added challenge.

Somehow I managed to limp my way to the end of the four autumn courses at UBC; by the time Christmas break arrived I was exhausted! My mom brought her energy and helped make Christmas appear.

Throughout the entire holiday period there were two pressing questions: first, would I continue to study? If I continued to study would I change programs or stay at UBC. Second, what is our family doing? The latter is a question we’re asked regularly by friends wondering if we’re digging in or skipping town. The only truthful answer has been an unsatisfying “I don’t know.”

Alex has decided that he’s ready to get back to the coast and to try a busier work environment – one that’s closer to family. We also want something different for the girls’ education and what we want isn’t available in Yellowknife. We found wonderful schools in Victoria, but the work situation is, well, sub-optimal. Even so, we went ahead and applied for school for Chloe in Victoria since she's so keen on this particular school.

I've felt stressed and nauseous thinking about giving up everything we have in Yellowknife. Aside from a community of people that we know and trust, there’s also the ski club, the swim club, Ava’s amazing guitar classes, the excellent early French Immersion school, the kids friends, our house that works wonderfully, proximity to friends, great work opportunities, Alex’s dependable job and so on. Not to mention that everything’s so close so it’s possible to take the kids to 13 extra curricular activities a week and not to be in the car hours and hours.

There are great swim clubs in Victoria, but it requires so much driving. The skiing is too far away to be a regular activity, which is especially disappointing for Chloe since she's loving it! Ava is on board with the Victoria school and we’re sure that it’s a great school, but it doesn’t have room for her in grade five, which would mean immersion school for another year. Seems straightforward since in Yellowknife you basically decide what school you want and register. Not so in Victoria. They use “catchments” and require proof that you live in the catchment before allowing enrollment. And the good ones are full. Not only the classes themselves are full, but the school buildings have no more rooms to expand programming! Imagine in a country that’s “bilingual” turning kids away and saying there’s not enough room for people who want to acquire the French language! And on another note, don’t even get me started on the price of houses in Victoria! A 1930’s bungalow with a “face lift” for how much?

Even though it's a bit hard to swallow as a package, we booked a weekend for Alex, Chloe and me to go to Victoria mid February so we can see how it feels to be there. Chloe will interview and take school admissions tests. I added one extra day for hiking and relaxing, or so I thought.

Is it a Karmic Joke?

For years as we drive up and down Vancouver Island Alex and I, and my parents before that, teased a sprawling small city that sits mid-Island. We teased it for being the “mall capital of Canada,” for it’s congested roadways, and for it’s nightmarish labyrinthian “dream communities” that sprang out of what had earlier been wilderness. So when an OBS/GYNE locuming in Yellowknife from Nanaimo told Alex about the amazing new ER being built his initial reaction was feigned interest. But for some reason he was induced to take a look and, as he was impressed by what he saw, he looked into the school system. When he came across a small International Baccalaureate school that garnered a perfect score of 10/10 from the Fraser Institute, he both fired off a note to the ER director and told me I had to look at it. I protested, really I did. But after resisting, I had to admit it is impressive. The whole package, that is. Sounds like an innovative group of ERPs and a new ER with, imagine it, a focus on having daylight for the staff instead of the usual ER which can be likened to a cavernous tomb where one doesn’t know if it’s day or night. Housing in Nanaimo also offers many options. The public French Immersion school has a great reputation and the IB school (which, funny enough, the ER Director started) sounds fantastic. There’s also the ski hill just an hour away so the girls could keep skiing, also there's a 50m pool with a good training club, and it’s equidistant between all of our parents.

In mid February Chloe will spend a day at both the IB school in Nanaimo and the school she chose in Victoria. She’ll also ski with the team at Mount Washington. Meanwhile Alex will meet with the ER group in Nanaimo and the Hospitalist group in Victoria and see which is a better fit. In the beginning of March when Chloe skis in Bragg Creek and then the rest of our family goes to ski in Banff, Ava and I will be going camping with my mom in Nanaimo. This is how I’m choosing to frame the situation that means for me to get Maia into the French Immersion School in Nanaimo I need to spend a weekend camping out in the school parking lot! Seriously! The school secretary tells me that people bring RVs so we’re planning to rent one and camp in the school’s parking lot until Monday morning when we can turn in Maia’s registration forms! It reminds me of those contests where people can win a car by being the last one left touching the car because one representative for the child has to stay in the "line" the entire time until Monday's school opening.

Ava will then have a day at the IB school in Nanaimo after which she’ll decide if she wants to go to IB school or to continue in immersion.So I guess at this time it’s safe to say, “I know” when asked what we’re doing. It looks like the "Hoechsmann Bus" is leaving the station (you can imagine how delighted we all were to see the bus in the photo when we were in Germany). We’ll be moving this summer to either Nanaimo or Victoria. Either is fine with me.

Yesterday I had a call from someone who heard rumors that we might move and is interested in buying our house. We had some confusion arise last summer when some kids played a joke on the neighbourhood by moving for sale signs from house to house. That led to similar inquiries...

And as for my own education, I am on a leave of absence from UBC and hope to jump back in this coming September. That way I can plod my way through the 24 courses and research project to get a turtle-paced MHA.

So that's where we're at in the beginning of 2012. Feels like another year of big change and it will be exciting to see how this year rolls out. It reminds me about the title for the last blog post quoting the sage words of Dr. Seuss - " don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I know we'll miss the north and I'll likely wonder if leaving was the right thing to do, but the ocean's calling and it looks like we're going to answer...