Jensen House

 The day I arrived in Calgary with my parents and Luke, we decided to pitt stop in Banff. My mom was so excited and we had never been before. My feelings of dread about saying goodbye the next day were masked by moodiness and irritability. It's something I still feel guilty about; she wanted to have a good time and I just wanted to leave. It was getting harder and harder to stuff my sadness down. I felt like I was supposed to be thrilled about being in my new home, but I was just so stressed out.  It didn’t help that I couldn’t talk to Brody. While I was travelling to Calgary, he was finishing up his time in Guyana, and in just one week, he would finally be here with me. That same week, though, he would begin his four-day journey back to Canada while I was starting my new job. His mom had invited me over for dinner in the middle of the week, to which I accepted. I had met her about eight months ago (story told in part 33) so it was nice to have a familiar face. I was also movi...

 The time had come. It was the second to last week of September and I was moving out.  My grandpa helped me buy my first car, a classic Honda Civic. I could hardly believe it was mine. I could just get in and drive wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. As I pulled away from the dealership, my grandpa followed behind in his own car. On the freeway, he passed me and gave me a thumbs up. I returned it, beaming, feeling like a real adult in my new car. He sped ahead to catch his exit while I stayed behind, driving more slowly and a little nervously. Just as I began to relax, I noticed a strange, unpleasant smell, the kind you recognize instantly when something is burning that should not be. I glanced down and saw the coolant gauge in the red. Then smoke started rising from under the hood. I pulled off the freeway into a parking lot, my excitement fading as it became clear my car was in trouble. Ethan came to my rescue and my grandpa came to pick the car up. He was going to take i...

 The summer of 2022 had such a fun feeling. I was officially preparing for my move to Calgary and Brody's return home in September. The James family had agreed to let me rent out a room in their home, and my grandpa was helping me find my first car.   It was an exciting time of life, but sometimes I would get really sad thinking about how I was moving away from my family. The sadness was just a bit less than the amount of excitement I had about seeing Brody again. We took a trip to Bothell to see family for my mom's birthday, and it is still one of the best weekends of my life to date.  Jill graduated high school in June and went to prom looking so grown up and beautiful We took a trip to Veranda Beach. It was our first one since the pandemic and it was so fun  I was finishing up my Cosmetology and Barbering program and was supposed to graduate in August, so I could get a job hairdressing in Calgary. The program had been full of great highs and lows. The school ...