Well tomorrow, 2nd June will be our 7th Canniversary.

What can I say? I love Red Deer, I really do. It's a lovely little city that meets everyday needs. I love the summer months when everything is green and it all holds promise, I love the long days, even in winter time the days are longer, I love the sunshine.

There have been highs and lows in the past seven years, the lows are more frequent unfortunately, some are our own fault some are beyond our control, we are at an all time low right now and this one is our own fault but compounded by events in the past that were not of our own doing. I find myself asking what on earth are we doing here, surely there is no need to be this unhappy?

A lot of our problems are the winters and the effect it has on my OH and the effects it has on his hobby - cars. Hopefully with the new garage we intend to build this summer and our new home, some of that will be rectified. It does at times feel as though we are only living half a life. If we could turn back time we would have done things a whole lot differently. I think we would have still done the Canada thing though.

We move house again in the next two weeks - this will be the 4th house we have owned (one was an investment which went wrong). The 1st was the biggest monstrosity we could afford, we were there for 9 months, we then bought a smaller, older more private home and now we are moving a few miles out of town, the house has more square footage but a very different layout, less bedrooms but more living space and we have just under two acres, backing onto a creek and lots and lots of trees, it's also a renovation in progress, which is mostly overwhelming as my OH is ill and I have little idea of how to do things other than paint and clean Due to the amount of stuff we have it will take two days to move, we arrived with two mechanics tools boxes and 40 cartons, we will have a garage sale or two after we move in to the new place, before would have been better but ho hum

I've seen people come and go, some have given the place a chance, some have given up after a couple of months. I truly think that once OH is better our lives will return to the positives it was the first couple of years. I also don't think we will end our days in Alberta. The winters are too long, I would like to see spring in spring, not just a day or two before summer, there is something wrong about daffodils popping up at the end of May

Our daughter is 17 now and she is still a stroppy teenager that favours black, she doing OK in school (could try harder though), she's still in the Air Cadets and she has a job. She should be driving pretty quick too as we are going to be where there is no bus service, by the end of this month she should have passed her test and then I can worry about her being killed on the roads by a drunk driver There's barely a weekend where a teen isn't killed. We personally know three families that have been destroyed by drunk drivers.

I have some lovely friends, some Canadian, some English, I do try and spend as little time as possible with people that are negative about Canada as that does have a detrimental affect on ones well being. I seriously doubted the whole Canada thing during late 2010 and early 2011 as I was spending time with some very negative about Canada people and they made me question everything, however a trip back to the UK last Christmas did put things into perspective and no everything is not cheaper, shinier and brighter in the UK

Who knows what the future will bring, I know I will have a trip back to the UK this year, when my Mum loses her fight with cancer - amazing woman, so brave and strong and she defies the odds on a daily basis We are tentatively starting to investigate other Provinces for the future, we still can't see ourselves living in the UK, but we do want a better quality of life, which we may achieve right where we are, we are a project in progress

Good luck to everyone embarking on the emigration roller coaster, those that are on it and those that are calling it a day!

Congratulations, if thats the word...

Some of these threads are making me feel old. Seven years...

Possibly one of the best posts i have read here...a true reflection of life in Alberta for many expats..its not all sunshine and roses in the garden.

Really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Well, congrats on the 7 years - we have alternated our crappy days with yours, just to balance things out!

Sorry your are in a dip right now - but you know what? You do come out the other side (honest!) so fingers crossed hubby feels brighter soon, and a long warm summer will do you both no end of good as you mow those acres and start painting!

Hugs for a less up and down next 7 years.

I'm going to vote for this post at the end of year awards

Congrats on living that long in Alberta and may all your dreams and hopes live on forever in a world of treacle covered pancakes

Happy 7th Anniversary PP, through good and bad you are still here

I hope things continue to improve for you and you enjoy your new house

Happy Canniversary! Great post! You tell it how it is. I think if I had had children here, I may have wanted to stay or looked for a different area of Canada. I probably would not have been so homesick for family! Up to 5 years, I do not believe you really get a true reflection of life in Canada. The first few years are full of excitement and new experiences, not to mention going for your citizenship and feeling you belong. How it changes after that, is dependant on your circumstances, both in your control and out of your control and how you have also changed. An old friend once told me that what you want at 50 is not necessary what you still want when you get there! You change. I admire your determination and enjoy reading your posts and comments. Hope your OH gets better soon. So sorry to hear about your mum.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to collate all 5 years plus Canniversary articles under one umbrella, the good,bad and ugly so that prospective immigrants can read them before coming out here. Lots of them seem to go missing and are hard to find.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes. It certainly will be interesting to see where our journey takes us. I suppose a lot of the future will depend on where our daughter goes to University and where she wants to make her life. It will also depend on how my OH copes with subsequent winters, it's not nice seeing someone you love suffer so much.

congrats PP- I hear your pain and turmoil- thoughts and prayers re your Mum- its hard being so far away from parents when they are ill and dying- we have lost 3 parents between my OH and myself, still have my Dad but he is 80.

Only you will know what is the best thing to do in the long run- Kingston Ontario is a nice area to live and work.

Congrats Piff Poff and family on your 7 years. Hopefully things will settle down and you will enjoy the summer months in your new place.

Sorry to hear about your OH and Mum's health problems. It's really hard having parents poorly and being so far away My Dad is not well and both my mum and OH's mum have had falls in the last month.

I understand your trials and tribulations of a teenage girl we have a very stroppy 18 year old daughter who is bloody hard work at times. She is not yet driving but desperately wants to and I dread her getting behind the wheel here with the lunatics on the road. Then we have a 9 year old going on 19 and just as stroppy as her sister.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, good and bad and wishing you a happy summer and brighter times.

Thanks I hope both the Mums get better after their falls. I am also dreading my daughter my daughter driving, but it's a case of needs must unfortunately as there is no bus service of any description to where we are going.

Doctor has just increased Mum's morphine by 2 and a half - whatever that means, she was already on liquid morphine that she can take whenever she needs to as well as tablets. My sister was so shocked at the sight of her last week, she is going to visit again this week as she's not sure she'll be around the week after. My sister live 2 hours away and they don't own a car so it involves car hire and stuff. So it all pretty much sucks right now, non of it however is 'Canada's Fault', it's just a case of sh1t happens We are off to paint some more walls today and moan about how much the blinking grass has grown and comment on the dandelions, however we have more important stuff than grass right now, we've got all summer to cut the stuff

This year I'm looking forward to a long weekend away with my OH whilst DD is in Japan and then a week or so somewhere that's warm and has waves in the winter, those thoughts are what keeping me going right now

Hi ya

Great post ,hope your hubby and mum are better,we hope to move to red deer some time soon.

All the best and heres to another 7 years +

For mild winters - southern BC isn't bad. If you can put up with a lot of rain and high housing costs, there's Vancouver. Or if you don't mind being on an island again, there's always Victoria.

A lot of Albertans have retired to my area - mid island. You don't really feel like you are on an Island except for the cost of ferries and air fares to get you to Vancouver, but if you don't travel much, everything is here. However, I always caution people to try it out first our winters are horribly grey and miserable and very stormy. I really suffer in the winter because there is not much to do, unlike in England you can always find some event or a pub! If you can afford the house prices, then there is always the skiing and golf which is also expensive.