Photo: mollypop on Flickr

I’ve been on hiatus.

I haven’t been online much other than for work lately. In the last month I haven’t touched either of my blogs nor have I spent much time on Twitter or reading my feeds even. My Google Reader has over 1000 unread items and I haven’t had the energy or the inclination to read them lately.

I think I have officially experienced online burnout. There has been so much going on in my life that I haven’t had the time or the drive to document it. I wish had. It’s been an amazing month.

May started with the BCAMA Vision 2009 conference, which I documented – my last blog entry until now. I went to the Third Day concert with friends, spent a weekend at the Unite in Worship Conference, spent the long weekend rehearsing and leading the music at my church and spent every spare moment at John Lawson Park with my husband and son or running the seawall from Ambleside to Dundarave and back. I also fit in my first Grouse Grind of the summer, did two concerts at Lynn Valley Days in North Vancouver – one playing my trumpet with the Lynn Valley Black Bear Band and one singing with a cover band called Lost & Found.

If the sheer pace of May wasn’t enough, here’s what’s been keeping me really preoccupied: we’re selling our home.

We bought our little condo from a friend of my sister in law 5 years ago, just before we got married. It has been our little slice of home here in North Vancouver and has served us well. I love this area and even launched Urban Shore to share my neighborhood with others but now the time has come to move on. My son is now 3 years old and needs more space than an 800 square foot 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 2nd floor apartment can provide.

We’ve cleaned and packed stuff we don’t use, hired a realtor that we met when we went to look at a great little townhouse in Burnaby – in Greentree Village, one of the neighborhoods we’re considering, and fixed up a few things that needed it… a little patch here, a little paint there. Our realtor, Ruth Hanson (from Prudential Sussex Realty) has been great; she’s the kind of woman who inspires confidence. She’s not overly ‘sales-y’, she’s sincere and knows what she’s doing. I think we’ve made a great decision, but we’ve been busy…

Last week Tuesday we moved out extra stuff we don’t use; Wednesday we had the carpets and furniture cleaned (why did we never do this for ourselves?! They look great!) and Friday Ruth had a photographer and a floor plan guy come through and do their thing.

We then signed the contracts with Ruth on Sunday and the condo then hit the back end of MLS on Monday. Monday mid-morning Ruth had the realtors from her office through; Tuesday was a realtor’s open and I hear several realtors and a couple of private parties came through; and Wednesday our listing went live on the public MLS site.

This coming Sunday is our first public open house from 2-4pm.

This has happened quickly. When we haven’t been cleaning, fixing, packing or viewing other places, we’ve been glued to MLS to find a new home. Here are a few of our photos:

Front of the property on West 3rd Street, North Vancouver

The kitchen we renovated with our favourite finishes

Our dining table; you can see the Italian porcelain tiles *sigh*

You can see all our photos in a great little slide show on Ruth Hanson’s website, or have a look at our public MLS listing for all the specs and details. Here’s the floor plan: 204 – 310 West 3rd Street (.PDF)

I wish I knew where we were going to end up.

I wish I could say we’ll be staying in North Vancouver, but I don’t think it’s in the cards for us. I love it here; it’s my home… but for only a little more than our place is worth here we can get at least another bedroom, another bathroom and a yard in some other places in the Lower Mainland. The places in our price range in North Vancouver are really small or more run down than we’d like, so as much as it will break my heart to leave, I promised my son we’d find him a place with a small yard.

We’re going to look at two places on Sunday: one in East Hill on the side of Burnaby Mountain, just off the Barnet Hwy and one in Westwood Plateau in Coquitlam. East Hill is more modest but closer to my life in North Vancouver, and it does have an indoor pool and clubhouse for the complex residents. Westwood plateau is way bigger – 2,600 square feet rather than 1,600 at East Hill – but it doesn’t come with the pool and is a little more expensive… not to mention 15 minutes farther away from my job. I’m actually not sure yet whether it has a yard at all, so it may be off the short list once we see it.

My home will always be in North Vancouver. I have no intentions of changing jobs, churches or daycares. I will keep going to band rehearsals and hanging out with my family there. So I’m really torn between a more modest place closer to my life or a bigger, nicer place a little farther away.

This kind of change is so stressful… I can only hope the perfect solution lands in my lap.

In the meantime, if you are looking for or know anyone who is looking for a 2 bedroom apartment condo in North Vancouver, feel free to contact my realtor to schedule a tour:

Ruth Hanson
Mobile: 604-880-5036
ruthhanson [at] shaw [dot] ca
www.ruthhanson.com

Photo: bigoneep on Flickr

Music is slowly taking over a larger and larger portion of my life… and I couldn’t be happier. It does leave me less time to blog and share my thoughts, but it’s helping me to put things in a more natural order in my life.

I’ve shared before about my thoughts on music – the serenity it brings – so I’m absolutely thrilled to be a part of a new R&B/Soul Gospel band that is going to be doing some super fun music. I’ll share more about it once it’s a little more public I think, but it is an absolute pleasure to be able to spend 3+ hours once a week making music with this talented bunch… this in addition to my time spent with the Lynn Valley Black Bear Band and my monthly weekend for leading worship at my church.

I’m also really excited to be going to some great events in the near future:

Third Day – May 9th

Multi-platinum-selling, Grammy-winning Third Day will be at the Abbotsford Centre at 7pm on May 9th.

Here’s the video from their latest release “Revelation”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPniMv6te64

I have been a fan for almost as long as I’ve been a fan of Jesus.

Unite In Worship Conference – May 22/23

On May 22nd and 23rd, I’ll be at Willingdon Church for the Unite In Worship Vancouver 2009 conference to hear some amazing speakers and worship leaders and learn more about worship ministry. Brian Doerksen and Bluetree will be highlights for me, but sessions I plan to attend include:

• Vocal Skills – Speaker TBA
• Creating a Culture of Invitation – Ian Campbell
• Corporate Worship: God and Us – Donna Dinsmore
• Becoming a Songwriter who Serves the Church – Brian Doerksen
• Eggshells No More – Paddy Ducklow

The conference opens up with Bluetree – a band that came to my attention thanks to my friend Andrew. Here, Aaron Boyd of Bluetree explains the story behind their hit song God of This City:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXh_tgjnYJw

This song is touching, but the story of how it came about is even more so.

Creation Northwest – July 22-25

Creation Northwest ’09 takes place July 22nd to 25th at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington. I have wanted to go to Creation Fest since I became a Christian 4 years ago. It’s a multi-day outdoor music festival featuring the best Christian artists in the world plus speaker sessions and, of course, camping.

I’m still waiting to hear back from some friends about who may wish to join me, but I’ll be going regardless.

Music for a Hurting World

I’ve had a lot of really deep conversations with people lately. I guess that’s another reason I haven’t taken much time to blog. The truth of the matter is there are people out there who are hurting… I have been hurting. Things are not always easy. In fact, they’re usually NOT easy. People have such misconceptions about what it is to have faith in Jesus Christ… to be a Christian. It doesn’t make you perfect and it doesn’t make things easy. Sometimes, it actually makes things harder.

I have friends – Christian and non-Christian – who suffer or have suffered through some horrible situations: addictions, infidelity, suicidal thoughts, divorce, depression, abuse, even coming out as gay to a wave of condemnation from those who claim to love them… to all my friends who have ever put their faith in God. Here’s a song that hits right to the heart of it:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BkN-4NYQj0

I hope you have a listen; the message is for you.