One of the most influential and respected project managers of my career once said to me in passing, “The only constant in life is change”, and his words have never rung truer than what we’ve all experienced since early 2020.
Raise your hand if your life changed in any way in the last couple of years. Come on now, any way, any way at all?? I know for me and for pretty much everyone I know life has changed drastically and in so many differing ways for everybody since early 2020. At the time of this writing it seems, things are still spinning.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone to change, to adapt, to live with new rules that affected our very lives. It changed how or if we worked and who we were allowed to see, touch and hug. Rules that seem to be always moving and changing still as we navigate this pandemic on a global scale.
The Onset of Covid-19
Early in 2020 we started listening to the news (which wasn’t normal in our house), but this “Covid” thing was floating around and we started to pay attention like probably many of you. Nobody really knew what it was, and there were all kinds of opinions and blame as to how and where it started (did it start in a lab? a Chinese wet market? creatures from outer space? … who knew!) Okay I think we can all agree that someone knew, just not us regular folk.
What had started in Wuhan, China had made its way to the west coast of the United States by late January, 2020 and started to spread, and sh*t got real, and it got real really fast. Very quickly the 15 cases in the US turned into thousands, then millions and life as we all knew it spun out of control.
The world as we knew it shut down, literally. We went into lockdowns, quarantines and isolation. We couldn’t hug our parents or our kids or our brand new grandkids if they didn’t live with us, and it was hard for some to understand. Some watched as their loved ones got sick and hospitalized, then not be able to hold them and comfort them, or tell them that they love them before they passed.
I don’t know about you guys but it sure sounded pretty strange to me when we all were told to, “Shelter in Place”. Huh? Like if you’re out grocery shopping you should just hunker down and stay there? Where’d the “shelter in place” thing come from anyways – just tell everyone to stay home.
Masks became the new fashion statement, bound with way too much controversy and opinion about wearing them, not wearing them, where to wear them, which kind to wear and not wear.
All these weirdo new words and terms were popping up like, “Social Distancing”, “Shelter in Place”, “Contact Tracing”, PPE and “Herd Immunity”. We learned the differences between an endemic and a pandemic, quarantine vs. isolation, respirators vs. ventilators whether we wanted to or not.
Stores ran out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, bleach, freezer bags and even freezers as people started panic buying, stockpiling and hoarding. Pet stores and Costco ran out of dog food. Shelves were emptied of flour, canned goods, pastas, rice and dry beans.
Businesses that were able to stay open started asking for debit or credit only, either because they didn’t want to touch anything or, they ran out of coins to give as change and couldn’t get any more.
Zoom calls became the new norm as professional offices shut down. Employees were told to work from home and try to put some type of office space together, along with all their other family members at home doing the same thing. Woohoo. (can you say all day every day Zoom calls … with a toddler nearby, a second grader needing schoolwork help and a Border Collie that wants to play? Oh and don’t forget the cat that has to sit on your laptop during said Zoom call).
Are you one of those folks that freaks out when you have to miss a workout, and you’re pissed off and hyperventilating if you have to miss two, or OMG three days in a week?! Yes that’s me, guilty. I’m one of those people and you know I was freaking out when the Arizona gyms closed for (initially) two weeks. Two weeks?!?!!
The medical community, both hospitals and sadly morgues, were immediately taxed and overwhelmed and remains so in many areas today. Much respect to all of you. 💕
The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to change the way we live, how we live, where and how we work, who we can and can’t be with and when. A silent prayer and a moment of remembrance for those that were brought to question why we live, then chose not to. May I offer much peace for your heart and many blessings to each and every one of you that lost loved ones in any way as a result of the pandemic, sincerely.
Early 2020
Let’s take a little trip back in time, shall we? Not too far, let’s go back to early 2020, January, February, March. What were you doing when you first started to hear of this virus/bug thing called, “’Coronavirus”, or “COVID-19”? Say what? Corona beer what? Coved operations what???
Yep, there were lots of early jokes but as the world learned very quickly and devastatingly, COVID-19 was and still is absolutely no joke. The infection and mortality rates worldwide are staggering. Delta and Omicron have taken their toll yet coming into spring of 2022 we’re finally watching the numbers decline.
What did you think and better yet, where were you, and who were you with when COVID-19 became something to talk about? Were you at work, home, school, or on vacation? Were you having passing conversations with your family or co-workers, or out for drinks with friends?
Were you in Canada, somewhere in Europe or Asia, maybe Australia or vacationing in Jamaica? Perhaps you were in the United States as we were, as CLEARLY there were different messages shared by federal governments worldwide.
Do you guys watch the news, read the papers? I can’t remember the last time I’d done either but things just show up on our phones these days so, I started to read little bits about some new flu or virus that had started in Wuhan, China (aka “The China Virus”). It landed in Washington State around the third week of January, 2020 and I’ll be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought at first really. Did you?
I do however, clearly remember where I was and who I was with when I first had a real conversation about this thing called Coronavirus or whatever it was. It was mid March, 2020 and my dear friend Sabrina and I were on a beautiful spring hike up at Papago Park in North Phoenix. Have you ever been to Phoenix, Arizona in the Spring? By Spring I probably mean about three weeks in March before Mother Nature turns on the furnace. I’d always joke that March is my favourite “season” in Phoenix lol, the weather is incredible, perfectly perfect temperatures under the bluest skies and the scent of citrus blossoms in the air, amazing.
Anyways, back to hiking with Sabrina. Sorry 😊 With our early morning trek finished we headed down to The Culinary Dropout in Tempe for lunch, and sitting outside with our salads and iced teas we talked about this virus thing.
The WHO (World Health Organization) had just declared COVID-19 a pandemic a few days earlier, the travel ban went up for non-US citizens, and I clearly remember Sabrina’s words to me (in her delightful Portuguese flavoured accent), “Heather, you’ll see. This will be the last of being able to sit in a restaurant for a while. Soon everything will be shut down, maybe for two weeks, maybe longer and then who knows. Everything will be shut down and things are going to change. It’s not going to be like it is now. You’ll see”.
That was on a Sunday and don’t you know it, the very next day things started shutting down, fast and immediate. The US Federal Government in conjunction with state and local municipalities announced a 14-day closure of all non-essential businesses including gyms, salons and spas. Malls and movie theaters, restaurants and nightclubs, everything except for essential services shut down on a global scale and it was kind of weird. I know I know, all you guys were there too.
With the exception of essential workers we were told to stay home and we watched as country by country got infected, and country by country shut down. Canada, the US and the world closed their borders. Infected cruise ships floated in the seas as nobody wanted them in their ports. Flights were cancelled by the thousands as either people stopped traveling or the airlines were short staffed with folks calling in sick.
The world as we all knew it changed, and (to me anyway) got pretty strange.
How Things Changed For Us
We were in our second year as AirBnb SuperHosts and went from fully booked (and a decent income) to fully not booked (and zero income) pretty much overnight as travel came to a grinding halt. Hosting was a blast and we were fortunate to have so many cool folks come to stay with us. We were just about to expand and offer affordable wedding packages but then along came Covid and that was the end of that. Sigh.
With gym closures and all the social distancing in place my new career as a Personal Trainer also came to a screeching halt. As the days, weeks and then months of the pandemic rolled by it became pretty obvious that I’d have to park that whole idea for a while, just as I was getting going.
Jeff had a really good job at a local golf course and thankfully the Phoenix area courses stayed open. His shift started at 4:00am and other than coyotes, bunnies and gophers he rarely saw anyone (other than the odd golfer that would show up wearing a headlamp and try golfing in the dark). It was a good job and we were super grateful he was able to keep working, however we were going to need some extra moolah to stay in that big house.
Every day about the same time Jeff got home from work, the US president would get on TV and do his news briefing and we’d watch (we also watched in disbelief when he said we should take disinfectant into the body, or light, it could wipe it out in a minute!). Sorry :/ And every day after the news briefing we’d turn to each other and go, “Hmmm…what are we gonna do”.
Walking Round the Neighborhood
Ever since our move to Mesa from Calgary in the spring of 2000 we’d walked our neighborhood, round and round and round. As we were the very first home built in that area it was super cool to watch as all the streets and sidewalks, homes and schools were built around us. Grocery stores, gas stations and little shops filled in and bordered our new ‘hood.
Most every night (when I wasn’t traveling for work) we’d walk with the dogs, stopping to chat with neighbors and enjoying the beauty of the desert when in bloom. We’d talk about pretty much everything, including the crazy things going on in the world today, and sometimes we’d just walk and not talk about anything at all, enjoying the quiet of the night.
We’d talk about the news from the latest white house briefing, how our kids and other family members were doing and how they’re all too far away. We threw around different things for me to get back to work (as I needed an income), the lottery tickets just weren’t panning out.
And it was during those late night walks and talks I think we both started to feel uneasy with the shift in the world around us. It was during those late night walks that we started throwing around different ideas of what to do next. A mere whisper about selling the big house and doing something different – that was around June, 2020.
We’d walk and talk and throw out pros and cons of staying where we were, moving somewhere else, or moving back to Canada when we said we never would (stay tuned for an upcoming post on these very pros and cons and how we even ended up with the decision to move back).
We would walk and not talk, both of us with a gazillion thoughts in our heads I’m sure, pondering what our next move was going to be, trying to decide what was best, both of us silently adoring our neighborhood of nearly 21 years as we walked. It’s a long time to be in one place and we had no thoughts of going anywhere.
But like many of you, life changed and we had to start talking about what to do next.
The pandemic raged on and seemed it wasn’t going anywhere, and like many people I’m sure, their source of income changed, or quit like mine did. Our lucrative AirBnb business was done for now anyways. My long awaited career as a Personal Trainer was also done for the moment. Money wasn’t just going to fall from the sky so to stay in our home I’d probably need to return to my life in IT. What to do.
I can hear some of you now with the same types of sentiments, you were just about to do this or that, you were just about to go here or there or you were already in the middle of something, and then, Covid. I think it halted us all in our tracks, worldwide.
What to do. Take a breath and a step back. Arizona was our home and we’d seriously never even considered leaving, but the pandemic made us consider things that were important over where we wanted to live, or maybe wanted for ourselves. Our kids had both moved to Washington State and the rest of our family is still in Canada. Moving to Western Canada would bring us all closer. Hmmm…
Yeah, the pandemic forced us to think more about things that mattered most, who mattered most and where we needed to be. Well, we walked and talked and thought about it a lot and that is exactly why we’re here now.
Returning to Canada – Our Story
In the fall of 1999 I’d accepted a job offer in the United States and in early 2000 I moved my family from Calgary, AB to Mesa, AZ. It’s now 2022 and we’ve made the move back to Canada.
Follow along as I share our story starting with the decision to even make the move including all the pros and cons that went with both moving, staying, renting and all of it. From the sale of our Arizona home to things you’ll need for a smooth border crossing, I’ll share all the planning and organizing and resources I used to make the move as easy as possible. Hopefully we’ll have a bunch of fun along the way!
There’s a lot to do and paperwork to have ready before you hit the border, it’s not as easy as just showing up even if you are Canadian. We did it in the middle of a global pandemic and Canadian winter and I’m here to tell the story (okay we are, but I get to do the writing, Jeff’s begged off as he said this was his idea …). ☺
We hit so many little bumps and snags and OMG’s once we decided to move back but, if you’re prepared with all the right paperwork and all (which hopefully I can help you with), a smooth border crossing is absolutely possible!! We arrived at the Blaine, WA / Peace Arch Port of Entry with our 26-ft U-Haul truck, trailer, motorcycle, pickup with two dogs and the cat and crossed into Canada in about 35 minutes with zero issues.
Some of my upcoming posts will include the following:
- Bringing your pet(s) across the Canada/US border
- Bringing your vehicle(s) into Canada
- Considerations for selling your US home
- Mandatory completion of the BSF186 form (no crossing the border without it!)
- … and so, so much more
I’m not here with any legal advice or legal help or any of that, I’m just a friendly Canadian sharing her story of the family move back to Canada. My wish is that our story, resources, do’s, don’t and gotchas can help you get organized for your move back to Canada, and that you have some good laughs along the way!
I’m a newbie blogger, this is my first ever blog post and I am super excited to be here! Come on along and join me and let’s move back to Canada, eh?! 😀
