The Love Movement
We are starting a movement, centered around love to help raise the vibration of this beautiful planet.
You can expect to hear casual conversations and interviews with some amazing people as we chat about many topics all centered around three main pillars:
Loving Yourself: Explore practical tips, personal stories, and scientific insights on self-love.
Loving Others: Hear inspiring stories of kindness, empathy, and connection. From random acts of love to deep friendships, we celebrate the beauty of human bonds
Loving the Planet: Dive into discussions about environmental consciousness, sustainable living, and our responsibility to care for our beautiful home. Discover how self love extends to nurturing the Earth and creating a more compassionate world.
Tune in to “The Love Movement” and be part of a global shift toward more love, understanding, and positive change.
The Love Movement
Ep 1: Our Love Story: From High School Sweethearts to Lifelong Partners
We all have those moments that change our lives forever. For us, it was the summer of 2000, at a high school party hosted by Brian, then affectionately known as BJ. Join us as we reminisce about the nerves, awkward moments, and the undeniable spark that ignited our love story. Laugh with us as we share some early memories set the stage for a love that has flourished over nearly a quarter of a century.
Fast forward through the years, and you'll find us navigating the ups and downs of young adulthood, from university students to budding entrepreneurs. Whether it's Brittany's career shift from pre-pharmacy to hair school and her life-changing experience joining Arbonne, or Brian's launch of his DJ business and the excitement of buying our first home, this chapter is filled with pivotal moments that shaped our lives and careers. Relive our engagement and the events of 2008, highlighting the unwavering support we've given each other along the way.
Our journey to parenthood was an emotional one, filled with fears, therapy sessions, and intuitive guidance. Discover how a letter to Brian's dad and a session with an intuitive led us to embrace parenthood and conceive our son Marty. We'll share the funny story behind his name, and how his arrival, 16 days overdue, transformed our lives in ways we could never have imagined.
Reflecting on 24 years together and 14 years of marriage, we'll explore the connection that defines our relationship, the joy of feeling truly at home, and our belief in a love that transcends lifetimes.
Julie Veresh - Innate dynamics intuitive energy coach
Peg Cleland - Human design, energetics and mindset coach
you're listening to the love movement with your hosts britney and brian johnston.
Speaker 2:We're starting a movement centered around love to help raise the vibration of this beautiful planet.
Speaker 1:If that's your vibe, hang out with us as we chat about many topics all centered around three main pillars Loving yourself, loving each other and loving the planet. So if you're ready, let's jump in.
Speaker 2:Okay, babe, I think we should start this whole thing off and we need to explain to people how we met. Since this whole thing is all about love, love, we need to tell our love story. Okay, and you've got it all laid out here, so I'm gonna let you do most of it.
Speaker 1:Where do we begin? Because this is almost 24 years into our journey, but I will say, for anybody that doesn't know anything about us um, we do everything but the decade. So we started dating in the year 2000. We got married in 2010 and we got pregnant in 2020 and here it is 2024. So let's just like set the scene here. We'll go back circa 2000. Isn't that so weird? 2000 doesn't seem that long ago, but like it was 24 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So weird. Anyways, it was the mid to the end of summer. I was between grade 9 and 10, and you were between grade 11 and 12. Yeah, 11 and 12.
Speaker 2:I was the old guy.
Speaker 1:You were the old guy and I was just getting over. You guys won't even believe this when I say it chicken pox, worst time of my life. Well, at that point it was the worst time of my life. Anyways, brian BJ, as we called him in high school I didn't even know his name was Brian that's a story for later in the podcast but he was having a party at his house and I just remember. When I think of BJ, I have to refer to you as that because that's what we called you in high school. But I was like mildly obsessed, maybe more than mildly obsessed.
Speaker 2:If there's posters of me, she would have had them all over her wall.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say that.
Speaker 1:I had Backstreet Boys, nsync, jtt, devon Sawa posters on my walls and then there was BJ in high school in the flesh, and I remember I was always like kind of obsessed with this, with this guy from afar, like afar, because I was like this shy, quiet, little grade nine girl and you were like this super cool, popular, like life of the party it seemed that was my perspective like grade 11, and all I remember is your smile and how it just reminded me of jim carrey in the mask, stanley, ipkiss stanley, ipkiss yeah anyways.
Speaker 1:Um so this party. I was like I could not believe we were going to your house for a party. I was like so excited, so nervous. It was also like the year that it was cool if you wore skate skater shoes not that I rode a skateboard, oh my god, could you imagine or board shoes, whatever you call them I think mine were blue sketchers anyways. It was cool if you wore them with no socks apparently, short socks weren't invented by yet, or something. But the thing is I grew up dancing, you guys, and like, if you know a dancer, they don't have the best smelling feet brian smelled my dance.
Speaker 1:I found out later very smelly feet not anymore it was literally when I was dancing yeah, it was from dancing anyways and I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to this party, but like I'm wearing these cool shoes and I'm not don't have socks on, so like obviously I'm not taking these, I'm not taking these shoes off. And first thing he says we walk in the door is like you guys want to take your shoes off it's like, yeah, we don't wear shoes in my house oh my god.
Speaker 1:But who does like? Why did I think I was gonna walk into your house with shoes on? I would kill somebody if they did that here, and so would you. Anyways, I just remember I had body shop lemongrass spray. I like went outside on the porch and sprayed my feet and then I sat on my feet on your couch because I was so nervous that you were just going to think.
Speaker 2:I remember that you were cross-legged on the couch downstairs.
Speaker 1:You remember?
Speaker 2:that. Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1:Were you like. Why is she sitting like that?
Speaker 2:I just thought you were just chilling.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I was really dying on the inside. What was your memory of? Like that party?
Speaker 2:Well, it was my buddy's birthday and there was a lot of whiskey going on and, yeah, I was just like, yeah, bring bring on the girls, more girls at the party.
Speaker 1:Such a player, but he wasn't. No, you hung out with players, but you were not a player no, I definitely was not.
Speaker 2:It was a fun party, but we went our separate ways.
Speaker 1:But that was probably probably like first little yeah, that's the first like memory I have really of like hanging out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first little spark we had together.
Speaker 1:And then you were talking earlier about this, but there was like a second party at I don't know whose house. You were at Some basement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, some basement on the South side of Swift Current, saskatchewan, and I came there with a couple buddies of mine, brought some beer, went down to this basement and, yeah, pretty sketchy basement and there's a bunch of girls sitting around this random bed that was pushed up against the one wall. It was kind of dark and I remember seeing her sitting at the edge of this bed and she had white shoes on. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I remember that yeah, I had good shoes yeah, you had white shoes on and I just remember talking to you a little bit and then I don't remember what was going on. But we all went outside. We were going across the street to the park there's an elementary school across the street and all of a sudden the cops show up and I'm holding like a two, four of beer it was pilsner and I ditched them in a bush and I ran as fast as I could over to the playground and there was this monkey bar structure that was like a giant dome we call it the boob, and yeah, so it's in the middle of this playground here and there's some people from the party sitting up on this thing. And I ran up there and Brittany was sitting there and I sat beside her and I was just like hey.
Speaker 1:And then uh, I just remember you said hi to me and I literally turned my head, looked behind me Cause I was sure that he was not talking to me.
Speaker 2:Anyway, the cops didn't get us. I was all innocent over there, wasn't doing nothing. Uh, our beer would end up still being there later, after the cops left.
Speaker 1:I don't remember any of this because I had the earliest curfews and my dad came to pick me up early, which was like such a vibe kill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I do remember sitting beside you and just being like, oh this girl's cool.
Speaker 1:Which was crazy because for me I felt like I was always the girl who was like unseen, Like no one saw me but they would see, like my friends who were cooler than me. It's kind of like I stood kind of behind my friends who were the cool ones. That's actually kind of how I felt too, so I guess that's why we connected and then do you remember the strike we had at school?
Speaker 2:yeah, there was. So this is the start of the start of school year. There was like a teacher strike or something like all the students went from the high school over to this like administrative office thing, which was probably far, five, six blocks away. I'd say longer than that, even maybe longer, yeah, probably longer than that actually. So all this, all the kids were walking on the sidewalk. I had just replaced the transmission in my car like the night before, got it all back together and I'm driving, I'm right near the back of this convoy of students and my car dies.
Speaker 1:His red Honda Civic hatchback Red 82 Honda Accord hatchback.
Speaker 2:It was an Accord, babe Accord, and my car dies right there. I'm like, oh crap, so I'm with my buddy. So, okay, we're going to get out and walk with her, with all these students, over to this administrative building, and I get out. I started walking. I'm kind of up on a hill and I just started looking for her in this giant crowd and I seen her like way close to the front. She was really tiny, she was really far away and I just was looking for her which I remember.
Speaker 2:When he first told me that story, I was like yeah, right, you were not looking for me yeah, I just pointed, I pointed her out and I was like there's that girl and I remember you were like you've always been into music.
Speaker 1:So like then we all got to that building. Everybody was hanging out doing whatever we were doing shenanigans. You had your like hatchback open on the car and you were playing like super loud music and it just seemed like he was just like the life of the party, like if you're watching a movie of, like these high school kids.
Speaker 2:it was like he was the guy. Yeah, I had a massive stereo. I was in a stereo competition, so I ended up getting the car over there and I was, you know, providing music for the whole giant strike that was going on on this, like main road and swift current.
Speaker 1:I just, I just remember being like so I don't know more obsessed all the time that I was around you. But you drove us home that day. I sat in the back seat, not in the front yeah, we went to 7-eleven got some slurpees yeah and then dropped. I don't remember. I could just remember being in there thinking like, oh my god, now I'm in his car like this is crazy.
Speaker 1:Little did I know, it just stalled earlier it was kind of half-assed working but so then school would have started so september of that year 2000, and I start grade 10, you start grade 12 and I was at a friend's house one night and I remember you picked me up in like a nicer vehicle I guess it was your uncle's suv, for some reason yeah, we had my uncle's suv. We were driving around and so you took me to your house well, you guys were in there.
Speaker 2:I was on the lawn laying on the lawn waiting for you to come out. So you came out, we went for yeah, went from that place over to my house I just remember your mom sitting.
Speaker 1:It was dark. Your mom was sitting on the front porch like the light was behind her from like in the house and she had the cord of the telephone that was attached to the wall a 25 foot curly telephone cord. Talking on the phone stretched all the way out having a smoke oh, I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 2:I absolutely detest smoking.
Speaker 1:My mom was smoking well, and so do I, but like my dad smoked, so I yeah, I didn't think anything of it right, but I did.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh mom, why you gotta be smoking? Which is so funny because like now in 24 years. I don't remember her ever smoking, except like that day, yeah like she must have quit right early I was quitting all along not long after that yeah, which is so funny that that was my first memory. I helped her with the quitting too.
Speaker 1:Hypnosis, wasn't it? It was hypnosis, yep, yeah, anyways, I just remember that. And then somehow we just were in your room and here I'm thinking like yeah, we're sitting in my room.
Speaker 2:I'm laying sideways on my bed, leaned up against the wall, and she was sitting kind of by like my pillow.
Speaker 1:And me kind of like.
Speaker 2:I don't remember looking at your face and you asked me no, I was like facing out to the room and you were facing like the side of me right, kind of and you asked if I would be your girlfriend yeah and I think, before you finish the sentence, I was like I'm yes, probably.
Speaker 1:I was like is this?
Speaker 2:happening. I was so nervous I was so excited well, the weird thing the night before. Actually we were at like a party out at this pit and I drove you home and I wanted to ask her out that night, but I was too scared to ask her out.
Speaker 1:And you should have, because the day you asked me out happened to be my dad's wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't have known that.
Speaker 1:They're not married anymore. But that's just funny that that was the day of 365 days in the year. Anyways, I just remember looking at you and your face was so red yeah it would have been very red your cheeks were like fire engine. It was just so cute. Anyways, it's just so weird thinking back to like passing notes in high school and in between classes and writing in each other's yearbook, and like just all the little things that we don't have in this world. Like today we would send a text.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like back then we had like notes are awesome so many notes and folded them up really cool ways and like all of this stuff. And I remember the one time when I called your house and I was like, hey, is bj there? And you answered and then you said something to me at one point and we were like, just call me Brian. And I was like, why would I call you Brian?
Speaker 2:because that's my name and it was just the weirdest thing.
Speaker 1:It's like you thinking my name is Brittany and I'm just like, oh, call me Jennifer, like it was so weird to get used to calling you Brian, anyways, um, okay, let's fast forward a little bit because we got a lot of years together.
Speaker 2:We had our first kiss that night. Oh yeah, we had our first kiss when I drove you home from from my house right, right.
Speaker 1:So you pick me up, ask me out, drove me home first kiss yeah, I don't even think I slept.
Speaker 2:That night is sealed forever fate is sealed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy and I remember too, like, um, I was in cosmetology and I would one day, I remember just like, floating into class and everybody was like what is this like shit eating grin on your face about? And I was like pj just said hi to me, like I just was. It was all so surreal, like I couldn't believe it was happening to me, because normally, like like I said, the guys would like my friends not, but I just felt always seen with you. Um, so 2001, you graduated, and then 2003, I graduated and I think it was the summer before. When did you move to Saskatoon?
Speaker 2:A few months before you did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I did two years of well, my goal was to be a pharmacist, so some pre-pharmacy arts and science classes at the university of Saskatchatchewan, um. I lived in res for two years and you lived in a little basement suite not far away um, and then, 2005 I guess it would have been my third year of university we moved in together yeah, moved into.
Speaker 2:I guess it was a three-bedroom house main floor. House upper floor yep little red door, cute little white house big yard yeah, and we got our first puppy yeah, that was our first good first little girl first little girl, little bailey.
Speaker 1:I was almost 20, I was a teen mom. I was 19, I was a teen mom. Um, yeah, so we lived there. I think I did a year of university, still there and then you did yeah, and then and that's when bailey was a puppy because I remember going to school and being like, oh my god, I gotta leave this like crying puppy at home.
Speaker 1:I was taking the bus back and forth to school like the city bus yeah, and I went from working in an electronic store to working, you know, like a wholesale distribution store order desk yeah, you were the sales guy yeah, I was a sales guy yeah, and then I um ended up going to hair school for a year at Marca College downtown Saskatoon, and it was in that year I was introduced to um network marketing in the company that I later then joined. But it took me a while to come around to that idea, so my aunt had to sort of introduce me to it. But my plan in hair school was just to like have a skill that I could acquire in 10 months so that when I got into pharmacy, which was four years of university, I could do hair on the side. But life often doesn't go as you plan, and I got four rejection letters from the college of pharmacy. So I remember finishing hair school that summer it was summer of 2007.
Speaker 1:I finished hair school, did really well, but I didn't want to pursue it as a full-time thing at all. And then I got my fourth rejection letter from pharmacy and I was like, oh my gosh, what is happening with my life? Like I felt like I just dug myself this huge pit, like I'm not even 22 and I have fifty thousand dollars of student loan debt and no career path that I wanted to pursue. I mean, it was just the worst. I don't know what your memory of that time was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1:Just brutal, anyway. So I decided I was going to join this network marketing company, despite like a million fears, hesitations, so much doubt, so much uncertainty. I was very shy, quiet, like not confident. No, and my aunt was my sponsor in this company. My dad somehow believed that I could do this and kind of help me get started and you had some kind of belief in me. I literally felt like I had to borrow it from all three of you because I had none myself. Anyways, I always say that, outside of saying yes to dating you, saying yes to the network marketing company, which I'm just going to say the name, because this is episode one and I'm going to bring it up all the time, but it's Arbonne and actually next month, in real time, it'll be 18 years I've been with Arbonne. But saying yes all those years ago, with all of that fear and all that uncertainty, it was like the second best decision of my life because it changed pretty much everything for us.
Speaker 2:Everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what were you doing?
Speaker 2:2007. You were 2007. I was still working at the automotive distribution place and you were djing and, oh yeah, I just at 2007 I started my dj company. I'd always always been into djing, but I actually started doing it as like a business on the side.
Speaker 1:Why did you start that?
Speaker 2:why did I start that? I think you're you doing? Our bond, I think, gave me the courage to to do it like she's stepping out and doing this thing. I was always into djing and music. I had turntables like speakers and I was like, well, let's make some money on this thing. She can, you know, conquer some of her fears. Get out in public. I'm gonna do the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that that was like part of why I did that too, until he told me, obviously years ago. But, um, 2008 was a big year for us. I promoted within our company there's only four levels of management and I promoted to the third level, which is where you can earn. It was just a. It was a company car. At that point, it was a white mercedes-benz. Today it's a choice you can get cash or a car, but visit earningsarbonnecom to see what's typical disclaimer. Anyways, I had promoted to that level of management. We bought our first home on the west side of saskatoon, yep and we got engaged at my first global training conference, which that year was the only year. It was never in Vegas, that year was in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in April and then he came home and eight days later, or something like that, or three days later, I think it was we moved into the new house.
Speaker 1:That's how it went. Yeah, we got engaged, moved into the new house and then that fall I promoted to regional vice president, earned my car. Yeah, so, that's actually the time I had the timeline wrong with that. Regional vice president earned my car, yeah. So that's actually the time I had the timeline wrong of that. Yeah, and brian um did the whole nine yards like limo. We did a hip-hop ballet. You took me to what was that band called outcast outcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, big boy, I think it was from yeah outcast.
Speaker 1:It was the producer of it and then a limo picked us up from that. Yeah, that's what it was, and we went to the rose garden. Yeah, and you proposed in a rose garden went to the Rose Garden. Yeah, and you proposed in a Rose Garden. We went to the Botanical Gardens, yeah. Atlanta.
Speaker 2:Botanical Gardens yeah.
Speaker 1:And you proposed in a Rose Garden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was very nervous.
Speaker 1:I wish like there was phones back then. I have no memory I actually lost my phone that night. You had a Motorola Razr. I did the flip phone, the cab, as we were going to the Tim McGraw which was the closing party at our conference that year. Yeah, and then I was like I couldn't tell anybody, I was engaged like nothing because I had no phone and Facebook was.
Speaker 2:I mean, it had only been.
Speaker 1:Facebook was like a year old for us at that point. Yeah, hardly anyone even had it really yet. Oh my gosh, it's so weird to think of that world 2009,. I quote, retired you? Yeah, retire is I got to leave the nine to five job to do what I really wanted to do, yeah, which at that point, you knew that you wanted to be in the solar world somewhat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I've always been a big advocate for environmental everything, I just a big nature fan and, yeah, I got to do solar.
Speaker 1:Solar was on my on my radar and I think it was 2013, 2012, 2013 when I really started forming the plan around solar, but it was way too early, so sort of like in between that space like 2009 to 2012, 13 or so that three, four year period when you didn't have to have a job because my business was, you know, making more than enough that we needed. You were still DJing and doing yeah.
Speaker 2:I was DJing.
Speaker 1:You were also like installing, like.
Speaker 2:I was doing remote car starters, remote car starters Brian's like super techie.
Speaker 1:If you know him, you know this. You're so smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of random work on the side.
Speaker 1:He's like a MacGyver Jack Wilson definitely a MacGyver. 2010 was awesome. It was our literally dream wedding. We I always wanted to get married on a beach and we just did it. It was Jamaica.
Speaker 1:December 10th, 2010. It was so good. We had about 30 of our friends and family there, um, and then I don't know, between that and I would say, 2014 was like the next big milestone. The end of 2014, um, I promoted to the top income level in our company and a year following that promotion so the end of 2015, we moved into our like dream home in Saskatoon, on the other side of town yeah dream knowing what we know now, it wouldn't be our dream home anymore. But then it was our dream home.
Speaker 2:But then at that time it was yeah, it was a huge upgrade.
Speaker 1:Huge, Huge. I'm pretty sure the movers were like do you guys sell drugs? Like why? Why?
Speaker 2:yeah, from like a 700 square foot house to this like yeah, massive house 3 500.
Speaker 1:I guess it would have been with the basement. Yeah, and it was just awesome. We were there for, I think, almost seven years, like eight years, eight years yeah, almost, oh yeah, almost eight years but our businesses really started flourishing um when we moved there. Like I feel like everything just started really clicking and going really well, like your solar started taking off, it's just like the environment was better when you have that space to thrive in more.
Speaker 1:And even though we'd both been on a personal development kind of journey since I started Arbonne really that started, so we'd been on this journey for maybe a decade personal growth, but sort of like this spiritual journey started coming in for me, and I don't mean like in terms of religion per se, but just something bigger than myself, like whether you believe in the universe or god or whatever that is. I started by seeing an astrologist. I don't even know who referred me to him in 2017 and all I remember was I was in this space of like am I supposed to have a kid? Like, are we going to have a kid? We're going to have a family. Because I think we got so caught up in this life that we were living with you know, our bond, that it was like we were earning incentive trips and making great income and like having all this time and flexibility and freedom and not a lot of other friends in our their 20s.
Speaker 1:We're living like that we just had dogs we just had dogs and we were like I'm pretty sure people have kids because they don't love their life and we love our life, so why do we want to add a kid to the mix? We literally had these conversations and so I and people were bugging us like crazy because we've been married for seven years. When you're having kids, when you have, and together for 17 yeah, it's getting annoying.
Speaker 2:Eventually we shut it down. People stopped asking us yeah, we did.
Speaker 1:We were like we're not having kids. But in 2017, when I saw this astrologist, he said you have one boy in your chart. He's like it's not soon, but you have one boy. And I was like, huh interesting, 2018,. I saw a tarot card reader, which I'm not really sure I'm into that that much, but, um, a lot of what she said came true, and one of the things where she said you have a very special bond with one boy and I was like, well, my neighbor was having a baby at that time and I thought maybe it's him, maybe it's my cousin who's having a baby Like I was trying to justify that it wouldn't be my kid.
Speaker 1:And then in 2019, I'll never forget September 1st 2019, I saw a girl I was recommended to see by a friend. Her name's Julie Verish. She's amazing. She's a body talk intuitive. Amazing. She's a body talk intuitive. She's just multifaceted. She's so incredible. And I'll never forget it was what.
Speaker 1:30 minutes into that session, and she said you don't have any kids, do you? And I said no. And she's like and you don't know if you want any. And now I'm like are you in my brain? And I was like no. And then she says with so much certainty and confidence huh, she looks into thin air, kind of above me, I'm laying on a bed, and she's like you have a baby boy in your mom. She's like you're gonna be a mom and you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1:And I was like I immediately start bawling, bawling, bawling, because this is the third person in three years. Different modality, nobody knew anything, and all saying the same thing. And she goes oh my gosh, he's beautiful. She's like he is an earth angel. He's your guiding light, he's this, he's that she. It's like she could see him. It was so weird. So, anyways, I come home, you're mowing the grass. I was like stop mowing the grass, like sit here listen to this and I was freaking out. And then I think, as you started seeing me do these sessions with her, suddenly, all one time you just went yourself yeah, I booked it myself when zener and I'm like, and this was you, weren't really into the path of this kind of stuff, really no, I was.
Speaker 2:I'm very analytical and like, everything's like facts and it's got to have a reason why it's happening like. And so I I booked a session and I was like, okay, well, I'm going to be open to this because I want to be on the same kind of pages as she's on.
Speaker 1:Because I always said, like when I started personal growth, I was like we're going to grow together, we're going to grow apart. You decide Like I'm going to be going a bit early in reading, you probably should do the same. Yep, and you did. And so it was kind of the same with this journey, even though you were a it. But I think obviously she was good and telling you the right things because you kept going and for I had a team call on Brian's 30. What seventh birthday? So Brian's birthday is May 3rd. And this particular day was a Sunday when we had our call and I was like oh my gosh, like what can I do for him to like have a good birthday when I'm upstairs on my team call? And you had a session with Julie because this was on zoom yeah, it was a zoom was it COVID times then?
Speaker 1:or why yeah?
Speaker 2:must have been just after just after.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, it was May 3rd 2020 and so I was so jealous by that session, because that session you did a lot of it was really powerful. What do you want to say about that session?
Speaker 2:um, it was a lot of stuff to do with my dad, a very complicated relationship with him, but uh, I actually just started writing a letter to him earlier that week and then she started telling me all the stuff like you need to, like you know, get, get something out on paper to your dad. And I'm like weird, I've already started this process, but she kind of pushed me to to finish it and I got all these thoughts out about my dad. It was a basically needed to. I don't know how you'd say it. I had a lot of childhood wounds and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I needed to kind of get over before I could even think about having a kid and it's's weird, because this will be maybe an episode for another day but I my mom didn't raise me, so my I was raised by my grandma and like I was kind of like the family project. My dad was in my life, so we're kind of opposite, like where you, well, you had your mom and your dad, but you're close with your mom, whereas I didn't have my mom in my life, but I had my dad, and so I had these issues with. I think, as I was thinking about becoming a mom, the fear set in. I'm like, well, I don't know how to be a mom. I didn't have a mom, and even though I had mother figures, I would just go there in my head Like I didn't have a mom. So I was scared. I was also scared of dying in labor.
Speaker 1:I had so much fear around having a baby, and so Julie helped me with a lot of that, because she just kept saying, like you have to get over this fear, because all the joy in your life is on the other side of this fear. And so I was so jealous of your session on your birthday that I booked a session like five days later, on that Friday it was May 8th I did this session with her and she starts laughing in the beginning and I was like what? And she goes baby, it's all I see. And like big, it's like big shiny lights ahead, like above me, that just baby. And I was in my head I was like f this, like I'm going to see somebody else, like Julie just wants me to have a baby.
Speaker 1:And we got into a conversation that night, maybe a bit of a tiff about it, because it was like we had to decide. I mean, I was going to be 35 and we had to make a decision like are we, are we not? And you guys, the next morning was a snowy may 9th snowing, snowing. That's how I'll never forget it. And that was the morning we conceived.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was magical so people often think like we probably had issues getting pregnant. I think it's just an assumption people make and I feel for people who struggle in this area big time and we know lots of those people so I almost feel bad saying like how easy happened for us. But that's just the reality for us is it was like once we tried once and he was there and it was like oh my gosh. So I always joked, I was like I know I got pregnant with my husband, but I think I got pregnant because of julie. She helped us with blocks and things and she also said that you are going to have a son and he's going to heal both of you and it was just like full body chills. So 20 weeks into that pregnancy we confirmed that we were having a boy. We didn't really question it because, like, whatever Julie says always happens. She checked again. She's like no it's a boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's so confident Like she just knows. And it's a boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's so confident.
Speaker 2:Like she just knows, and it was a boy.
Speaker 1:And then do you want to talk about his name?
Speaker 2:Oh, so he's. So my favorite movie all time is Back to the Future, and not long after we started dating we were joking that you know if I ever, if we ever have a kid, we got to name him Marty.
Speaker 1:And I was. You know, if I ever, we ever, have a kid, we gotta name him marty. And I was like as if I just I will never name my kid marty.
Speaker 2:That is such a terrible name. I just always love this name, marty. So for 20 years it was this joke like oh yeah, we ever have a kid name, name him marty obviously it got so planted in my head that I was. I even named him before I told brian yeah, so I played the long game of planting this name in her head, in his subconscious, for 20 years for her to be able to tell me that he's be my decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's her decision, but it's almost like he named himself, like I couldn't it it. Could you imagine him being anything else?
Speaker 2:no, couldn't imagine being a carl or a steve, he's just nobody but a marty.
Speaker 1:so, anyway, our little marty man was born 16 days overdue. He was supposed to come out on June, or no, january 30th, and he was born February 15th 2021. And our lives have truly never been the same since. Like it's hard to think about life without him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how lame it would be.
Speaker 1:And how much we really almost didn't do it like I. Really we were like what would you say? I'd say I was like 90 10 to no yeah, it was always no, it was always no. But there's always like that 10 deep down, it's like yeah that's why I feel like, unless you're 100, no, it's not actually no at least.
Speaker 1:That that's, I guess, what I know now looking back. But so rewind a little bit to pre-pandemic, I guess, because in 2018, Arbonne brought all the national vice presidents to Bear Mountain in Victoria BC, and that was the first time I'd ever been to the island I'd only ever been to the Okanagan prior to that and so I just, I think I was shocked by how much the island was just so different and beautiful. It felt like a slice of Hawaii was just cut off and added to Canada, Like it was just remember me calling you just freaking out yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you weren't here and I was like I remember thinking the seed was planted about the island because I thought if Brian ever came here he would never leave. Like this weather is amazing all year round. Like I couldn't believe it was Canada but it was just bad timing. It was like we didn't know what was around the corner in terms of a pandemic. Having a baby.
Speaker 1:You were totally tied and fully immersed in your business with solar, which was booming at that time yeah, there's no way I could go anywhere you had trucks and trailers and crews and, yeah, houses, and it was at a really weird season of life, because I remember just thinking, like is this life? Like I'm just here doing my business and you're just spending all of our only good times of the year, which is the summer, in Saskatchewan on other people's roofs, putting solar in, like it just felt my life felt empty, it felt unfulfilled, it felt like there there had to be more, but what was the more? And anyways, then I think life kind of hit everybody in a weird way and so we spent our pandemic days being pregnant and having a baby and going through all of the postpartum things and all that. But then post pandemic, post baby, um, post solar business that's again another story for another day. Brian's business kind of came to an end right before the pandemic. I guess end of 2019, um, not really because of your, your reasoning, but government stuff, government stuff, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1:So 2022 we came, arvon brought us back out to for a retreat, back to the island, and it was to oak baby chotel at this time, and this was where I was like huh, we could be here now like you're, you're not, you don't have the solar business. We are totally flexible. And now we have this human being that, like he will be five in 2026. So like, where do we want to be when he starts kindergarten, and just all these thoughts. It was like we had a timer on. Finally, by having a kid, is that how you felt, kind of yeah. And so I just remember my friend said to me well, just bring Brian out, just bring Brian and the dogs and Marty and just like live out here and see what you think and like just see if he likes it, because you'd never been to the island no so we booked this trip.
Speaker 1:Three months later we drive out. I just gotten a new mercedes suv, my first suv. We took the two dogs and marty, who's 18 months old. Three days took us to drive to the island right it was a good trip it was a good trip. Anyways, we get to the island. We stay out here at my friend's cottage. It's oceanfront in souk.
Speaker 2:It's just beautiful and brian's like online looking at rental yeah, I started looking at rentals, just yeah, you know what's it like, what's it gonna be like yeah, and you went biking too, and you love the biking oh yeah, I was like, I'm not coming out here, they'll bring my bike.
Speaker 1:I'm a big mountain biker and if you've lived here, you could do it year round. Yep, lived on the island, right? So, anyways, um, things just happen on different timelines, because I think our goal was, like, my goal is to get you out here to see it, to see if you liked it, so you could, like, make a five-year plan and be out here by the time marty starts kindergarten or something like that. And you guys, day three of our four-day trip, we found a place that we just everything fell into place and we were like, let's do this, and we called our parents well, we woke up the next day after we found it.
Speaker 2:The guy wanted to give us this place and I'm we're thinking about actually pulling the trigger. And I woke up that next day and I was like oh yeah, I was like fuck it, I'm 40 this coming year.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. You're like I wanted to live in bc my whole life. What are we waiting for? That's right. You said that the next morning and you guys, brian's not the decisive one in the relationship I am, and so the fact that he was that decisive. I was like, okay, we're doing this. And so we, we said yes, we sent the deposit. We literally called our parents on the ferry on the way back to the mainland and told them, like your mom didn't even believe us, no, she thought I was joking.
Speaker 1:I mean 20 years in a relationship. We finally have this kid everybody wants us to have, and now we're taking him from Saskatchewan to the island in BC, and so we had to go home. And you know, when something's meant to be, everything will fall into place. And so we went home.
Speaker 2:Um, we sold our house like all our stuff it was crazy, it was nuts, it was absolutely bonkers we had.
Speaker 1:So much help, thank god, from friends and everything. It just like. I look to that season of our life and I think how did we do that in two months with an 18 month old? It was insanity because we ended up, from the day that we said yes to that place on the island to the day that we like drove to the island was two months in one day yeah it's.
Speaker 1:October 12th was the day that we got to the island of 2022 and you've never been back to saskatchewan. Since I have not been back. It's been almost 19 months that we've now been here. We just moved to our second place here in souk about a month ago, just before easter. Um, but it's just wild because, like you know, sometimes you think you have a plan, but the universe has a different timeline yeah, and being out here I feel like I've been here before, like I just like it's just a.
Speaker 2:It was a magnet we had to get. We had to.
Speaker 1:We would have been ended up here somehow people always ask like why I thought you wanted to move to canmore and I was like, well, that's kind of what we said, what we talked about, but like nothing was motivating me about getting there and all of a sudden, this just happened and transpired so fast and felt so right. And actually, julie, back to my friend Julie, who predicts my whole life November of 2021. I did a session with her and she said weird, I see you living on the west coast of Canada. And I remember out loud laughing to her and I was like Julie, no, I was like we've talked about this. We're moving to Canmore, we talked with the Okanagan, but that's too far west.
Speaker 1:So when all this came to be, I was like, oh my god, brian julie said this like months ago, like november to august, so however many months, that is that's how long ago. She said it to me and I remember messaging her and saying, oh my god, we just did this, like was this the right move? And she's like this is the best thing you could have ever done and she'd forgotten that. She said that to me in that session. She doesn't remember, but we couldn't be more west coast of Canada. We literally live. Essentially, we can see the ocean out of our, out of our window. Yep, so it's so crazy to think that this has been our journey. And do you remember back in high school we were sitting on your bed in your room and we were saying when are we going to be in 20 years? Where do you think we're going to be in 20 years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a couple moments like that. I remember sitting in the parking lot at the high school.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:When you were still in high school, I was picking you up and we were sitting there and we were talking about the future.
Speaker 1:I feel like we were eating Burger.
Speaker 2:King Weird, just 20 years. Where are we going to be?
Speaker 1:But that's like now. That's the other thing too, when we moved here people were like do you feel homesick? Like because none of our family's here. No, I feel like I'm home. Yeah, and I said I've never felt more home in my life. This, this place, feels more like home than any home has ever felt. It's the weirdest, most undescribable thing. And now people get to come visit us and have a mini holiday. Yeah, love it, it's perfect. I just, in closing, I wanted to say when did you know that I loved you?
Speaker 2:It's I don't know. It's like this weird thing when you meet someone and you just have a feeling, your heart is so open and you just completely trust them. You want, you know, you think about them as soon as you wake up, before you go to bed, and just like they're always in your head all the time, living rent free in my head, babe.
Speaker 1:Rent free.
Speaker 2:I just I don't know. I just had this insane love for you. We'd only been, we'd barely been dating and I just felt like so connected to you already, which is weird because I was only 17.
Speaker 1:But now knowing more what we know, and like it's a bit woo if you're not down this path at all, but like we've had other lifetimes together and we've been told that by multiple, multiple people. Yeah, and it's obvious because there was no explanation why the two of us, the most unlikely couple because people remember we started dating people were like they're not even gonna last two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And like we're celebrating 24 years together and 14 years of marriage this year and like life just keeps getting, it feels like better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're always on the upswing.
Speaker 1:And some people are like, don't you get sick of being together all the time? Like you both like work from home and no, like I hate being apart. Like some people are good when their husband works away, I like I I hate it. I don't even need to talk to you, but just like knowing your presence is around, you know. Or like when I do travel with our bond, you're home and out more with marty. It's like you're fine, we're fine, but whenever I get home, you're like, oh, just feels good now, yeah, complete, feels complete. And it's funny about that whole complete thing because, like I knew when I was 16 years old that I was gonna marry you. I knew I was like it was like the weirdest thing and I almost felt bad about it because I felt like some people are, you know, 50 and don't even know who that person is. And I knew at 16 yeah, I remember.
Speaker 2:She is actually the one who wrote me a big long note saying she loved me first, before I told her.
Speaker 1:And it was like very early in our relationship, two months in, two months in, I'm like 15 years old, you guys yeah, oh my God, that's so weird. I think a 15 year old now and I'm like you're just a child, but in my head I was not a child, like I felt like I had it all figured out, I knew all the answers so funny. But we were told to by this same astrologist because we had a session together with him and he said that our charts when he looks at our astrology charts, he said you two, it would be hard for you to have not found each other in this lifetime Like your charts are like magnets to each other.
Speaker 2:I remember him saying that he's never seen two charts that are more like connected. Yeah, I feel like I want to talk to him again yeah, that was a really interesting session we had with him and my friend peg, who we'll have on a later podcast.
Speaker 1:She is all about human design and I'm obsessed with human design. Me and marty are manifesting generators. Brian found out marty's design about an hour after he was born. We were so into it. Brian's a reflector. He's's my unicorn. The one percenter. But what Peg also said with three of our charts that our charts complete each other, like the three of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And for anybody that's wondering no, we're not having more kids. Brian took care of that three months postpartum.
Speaker 2:Now everybody knows my balls don't work.
Speaker 1:But just for anybody listening, are you going to have more kids, don? But just for anybody listening, are you gonna have more kids? Don't ask us if we're gonna have more kids. We are not. We are having one boy. We feel so complete, it feels so right and I just I'm so grateful that we did it. But it all started at a freaking party at your house, with my stinky feet now.
Speaker 1:I massage those feet all the time yeah, he really does, but it's crazy that is. That is where our love story began, back in swift, current saskatchewan, bringing it all the way to souk bc wow, souk saskatoon.
Speaker 2:I know swift current saskatoon souk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're staying here I said to people if this island goes down, I'm going down with it yep, like I'm so committed to this island. Anyways, you guys, I hope you enjoyed a little walk down memory lane. That was fun for us to even like reminisce on.
Speaker 2:Put this in 24 years into well, I guess we're at 40 minutes, which is pretty long.
Speaker 1:I wanted to keep it shorter, but hope you followed along and had some fun with that, but at the end of the day, we have lots more to say on this topic. There's a a lot of things we can say, I think, after 24 years of being together with the same person. So stay tuned for another episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're still here listening this far in, we appreciate you. Yeah, stay awesome.