When you grown up with a dad who’s a expat for an international oil company and a mom who takes up travel blogging for HuffPost, chances are you’ve been around the world a bit, and stayed in some pretty swanky…
Borrowed Time
The saying has never rang so true as it has for our family right now. This was our summer to move. We were back home in Canada for a ‘pause’, as they say en francais. Contractually speaking, we were supposed…
Reflecting on Life on the Move
As I sit here reading the final proof copy of Life on the Move, I can’t help but be brought back to my expat days. I can’t stop myself from reflecting on what has gone on over the past year.…
Bonded by Ice
Every morning when I drive my kids to school, we pass by a high school, where the bell time must be earlier than ours because there are always teenagers lingering around outside. On more than one occasion my kids have,…
Reality: Pass the Water
Imagine not doing a single piece of laundry for three years, or never having to put gas in your car because it magically gets washed and detailed daily without you even noticing. Picture coming back from vacation and your suitcase…
Moving, again.
In Congo we talked about buying a new house once we got settled in Canada. The house we bought before we were married was waiting for us in Calgary, and was a great little starter home, but the configuration of…
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It’s Back to Work I go!
If you’ve been following my stories for awhile, you likely may know that when we left Canada to move abroad, I was an Assistant Principal of an Elementary School in Calgary. I dabbled in the idea of teaching when we…
Reverse Culture Shock and Multiple Personalities
Preface It was the first night in our mostly empty house in Canada. ‘Mr. Lisa’ was still in Congo and I had that weird feeling of heavy responsibility of being in a new house, with new sounds and smells, in…
The Return to Canada
It’s a random Wednesday night and I’m sitting with a glass of wine beside me, typing away on my laptop while my husband showers, getting ready for an impromptu date night. The house is silent. There isn’t a child’s voice…
13 Suitcases, 2 Kids, and a Trip to Paris: How I Managed, Logistically.
“Just so you know, I think you’re totally insane for wanting to do this.” That was my husband’s reaction as I lay out my plan for my journey back to Canada with our daughters.But let me back up a bit.…