I Did It Myself!

Last week I took it upon myself to get our TV room sorted out. When we moved in I told the people helping us that any box labelled “Games,” “Videos,” “DVDs,” “Video Games,” or “Stereo” should be brought into the TV room.

Now since we still haven’t gotten the french doors installed to separate PC’s office from the playroom, the TV Room has become a bit of a playroom as well. It worked pretty well to have the boxes there b/c Asher left the boxes alone alot better than he would if the contents of the boxes were unpacked. But, I had some girls coming over on Friday night & I thought I should get things a bit sorted out.

First I had to determine WHAT to do w/ all the boxes. I had to assemble a shelving unit in the storage room to put all our games on. Then I had to sort through all the boxes & take all the “Games” into the storage room & shelve them.

Aren’t they Pretty?

Then I sorted through all the videos & decided that if there is to be any room for couches/chairs I’d have to limit what I have out. So I settled for the “Kids’ Videos” & the DVDs to be out.

Then I saw the box marked “Video Game Systems” & I couldn’t resist getting them out. I decided that if I was getting ONE system set up, I might as well set them ALL up! So I did:

It only took me 1 naptime & 1 evening to do it all. Lots of wires & power strips (I won’t show you the mess of it all behind the TV). And here’s the finished product:

GAME NIGHT AT MY PLACE!

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Lessons Learned

This isn’t the first house that we have bought, but apparently the home inspector we hired for our first house was a little bit better than this one, & perhaps we paid a little bit better attention to things ourselves as well. Of course the first time around we were living in the same town so we could take our time to look around the house & check things out for ourselves. This time we were in a bit of a time crunch & we weren’t around for the inspection.

The first things we noticed a day or two into it, was that while in the contract we had said we wanted the window treatments, the ones we received were not the same ones that had been on the windows when we viewed the house. Not too big a deal, except that in one of the washrooms, she simply draped some fabric around the window & there is nothing to cover the window.

Next we noticed that under the kitchen sink things were getting a bit wet. The hot tap had a continuous slow leak that apparently had been like that for quite awhile b/c the shelf is cracked & there is an abundance of mould in the corners. I suppose that might not have been to easy to spot b/c you had to run the water for quite awhile to find where the leak was coming from.

A few days later I noticed that the kleenex under the washroom sink were all damp. Basically every time the water goes down the drain, instead of it all going down the drain, it goes under the sink. This would have been obvious had he run the tap AT ALL, but of course, since we weren’t here, we have no idea what he actually charged us for in his inspection…..

Do you think we can get a refund?

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Fun w/ Appliances!

Last night I cooked pizza for dinner & was seeing what different button on the stove are for. I find it’s always interesting figuring out the “quirks” of new appliances whenever we move. For instance, the last place we were at had 2 burners that never got past warm, & the oven was always cooler than the temperature indicated. The freezer in one apartment we were in would freeze things in the back much more than things in the front for some unexplained reason, & I learned the hard way, that the oven timer didn’t work at our house in Grand Rapids…..

So, I pushed the “lock” button on the stove, but it had no effect. I decided to try to figure out where the lock was, so I looked around, found it, & slid it over manually. Then I closed the door. Only to discover that I had locked the door, & couldn’t open it. I thought if I ran the cleaning cycle it might unlock on it’s own after it finished, so I turned it on. 2 hours later the house was cooking, the cupboards on either side of the oven were hot to the touch, & the door was still stuck shut. After about 20 minutes of Pastor Chad & his dad fiddling with it, we finally got the door open this morning, along w/ a “don’t try that again” lecture!

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Nope, Not Dead Yet

After a loooong hiatus, I’m back! I have a new house all the way across the country from where we were last, a new baby & a son who wants extra attention. All this leads to nit having much time to get on the computer. Today I logged on to discover I had 89 new emails & 443 blogs in my reader. Needless to say I feel very behind, but I can’t foresee it getting much better for the time being. I hope to be a little more consistant than I have been lately! Don’t give up on me yet!

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Our Trip So Far

I haven’t been able to keep up w/ this very well, but we’ve been having an interesting trip. The first night we stopped in a small town in Saskatchewan & all the good hotels were full & the nearest town was 50 miles away & it was 8pm already. We checked into the only hotle w/ rooms left & lets just say that calling it “rustic” would be very generous. It was a dive. I was worried I was going to get bedbugs, & I figured that I’d stay cleaner by not having a shower than by having one!

Our second night on the road was better. WE stayed in a bigger town (there was a Caribou Coffee, so I got my morning Latte). There was a pool, plus jacuzzis in our rooms. Day 3 we stayedin a nice hotel too & had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster! We have seen so many commercials for the “Endless Shrimp” this summer, that we all were craving some seafood, so when we saw it, it was a forgone conclusion that we’d have dinner there.

Day 4 has been the best so far. WE stayed in Frankenmuth, MI, which is known for 2 things, the HUGE Christmas Store, & the hotel w/ the Water Park. WE didn’t make it to the Christmas store, even though it was right across the parking lot from the hotel. WE were enjoying the waterpark too much! They have 2 waterslides for intertubes, but you are in the dark the whole time, so you don’t know what’s coming. It was really fun, but Pastor Chad said that when he went down by himself it wasn’t nearly as fun as w/ Asher b/c it’s more fun to see how he reacts. They also had a breakfast buffet in the hotel w/ Starbucks! (so I got my mornign Latte again!).

Last night we stopped in Strathroy, but the hotle was full b/c of a wedding, so we went on to London & stayed at the Motel 6. They warned us when we checked in that the jets in the hot tub weren’t working, but it was still hot. At night, Pastor Chad’s parents went to take Asher too the pool only to discover that the pool was freezing, & the hot tub was tepid. Come to find out that an alarm for the hot tub had gotten stuck on, so they turned off the breaker, not considering that that might shut off more than the alarm! We had planned to stay all 3 nights, but since we have to find ways of keeping Asher busy, we have moved to the Ramada. Hopefully we have a better stay here.

Tomorrow is basically a relaxing day. The guys are going to get all our stuff moved over from the storage to the U-Haul, & PC’s Mum will watch Asher so I can go get Chancery signed up for Health Insurance before we leave. Hopefully that won’t take too long. Maybe Chancery will cry & people will have pity on me & let me got first!

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A Little Over A Week

In a little over a week, we’ll be off to PEI. It’s gonna be an interesting road trip. We’re taking just under a week to go from here to Ontario. Coming this way took 4.5 days of driving, but now we’ll be having to stop every 3 hours at least to feed Chancery.

Then, we’re taking just under a week to go from Ontario to PEI. I don’t think that will be too difficult since that part of the trip is shorter. I’m excited to do the ON to PEI jaunt b/c I’ve never been through those provinces. I’m also pretty excited about seeing everyone in Ontario again one last time on our way through.

Mostly I think I’m excited to get into our new house. I know it won’t be easy to get everything all sorted & put away w/ 2 kids underfoot, but Chad’s parents will be there too, so we’ll have some help & I’m really glad for that b/c I think that otherwise it could be months before we would feel settled.

So, I’m wandering around the house looking for things of ours that have been unpacked & left lying around to make sure we don’t forget anything. Oh, I’ll be glad to be in our own house! Less than a month until we move in!

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The Last Few Days

Over the last week there have been many exciting developments. I was asked at the grocery store if I was pregnant, which Chad & I found quite humorous, since I have only 3 weeks to go. But many people have said I am not very big. From the back you can’t really tell that I am pregnant at all, so I suppose I don’t look as far along as I am, but “Are you pregnant?” I’d have to have something incredibly wrong w/ me to look like this & not be pregnant!

I didn’t have to worry about them stopping me from flying b/c I don’t really look like I’m in my 9th month. On one of the flights we were seated in the emergency exit row & the stewardess asked if we felt comfortable to perform the duties of the row & we said yes. Then she came back a few minutes later & asked, “wait, are you pregnant?” “Yes,” I replied & she said she’d have to re-seat us b/c she hadn’t realised that at first & apparently pregnant people aren’t allowed to sit in the exit rows.

We did end up buying the house we had looked at. The offer was accepted Saturday night, we set up the mortgage, insurance, got a lawyer & did all the little things we had to do before we left PEI, so we feel good about getting all that done. We didn’t have much of a holiday, but it feels really good to not have to worry about any of that. We’ll close on Sept 22, so we can move in then.

I saw the Doctor today & he said he’s going w/ a due date of Aug 26. Can we just say THIS BABY IS NEVER COMING OUT!!!!” Normally I wouldn’t mind. Asher was overdue by a few days, but it was ok b/c I figure the more days he was inside, the more nights I got to sleep through the night before he came out. But this time we have a bit of a deadline. We have to get to PEI by the 19th of Sept, & we want to be in Ontario for the 14th of Sept, meaning we have to leave here by the 8th of Sept. Having Baptism on the 7th, but I’m not especially looking forward to travelling w/ such a small baby. I was hoping for a month to get everything figured out before we had to go.

They’ve already moved the due date from Aug 10 to the 21st & now to the 26th. Pretty soon I won’t have a baby, but a giraffe! (I believe giraffes gestate for about 26 months).

Oh well, I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it by worrying or ranting, so we’ll just wait until the little one is ready to make it’s appearance. I suppose it might be a good time to pack my bag for the hospital & get the baby clothes out as well.

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Online House Shopping

In September we will be moving out to Prince Edward Island. After much deliberation & prayer we accepted the call to go out there. So after the baby is born at the end of August we’ll be making preparations to make a very loooong road trip from Alberta to PEI. We must have a masochistic side.

So, in the mean time Chad & I are planning on flying out to PEI next week for a week to go house hunting. We’ve been in contact w/ a realtor out there who has sent us property info for over 25 homes & we’ve been trying to narrow that down to about 10 to start looking at when we get there next week. It’s quite a difficult proposition. Some of the hosues really sound great & then you start to look through the pictures only to discover that the house was decorated in the 70’s complete w/ green, brown, & copper carpeting. The walls were papered w/ rust & brown striped wallpaper w/ floral bouquets. The cupboards are an appealing stained plywood……

Other houses are really hard to figure out b/c you have no layout of the house you are left to a few pictures & your imagination to try to figure out if the kitchen is near the living room or not. Some houses only have a few pictures of the outside & a picture of the kitchen. None of the bedrooms or the rest of the house.

I think we’ve got our short list now, I hope we find something we really will like while we are there next week. Of course, my main concern is that “Baby X” will wait at leat until August to make it’s appearance b/c anything earlier than that & we may have a PEI baby instead of an Albertan! Yikes!

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Are We There Yet?

We are in Marathon, Ontario tonight. We have travelled about 1200 of 3500 kilometres on our trip. It feels like we’ve gone much further. Chad mentioned today that he already is not looking forward to making this trip again in 3 months. I agree.

Trips like this used to be fun, but now I am constantly having to turn around in my seat & being 7 months pregnant it’s not too comfortable to try to reach for toys & books that have been thrown down on the floor. Asher’s actually being fairly well behaved, until we get out of the car. He just wants to run & be crazy, but who can blame him? After 4 hours of having to sit still in the car seat we all want to run around & be crazy.

Driving is proving to be less than enjoyable for Chad as well b/c of the trailer. We can’t use the cruise control b/c it makes the car work too hard, so Chad has to drive w/ his foot on the accelerator the whole time rather than being able to move a bit to get more comfortable.

Right now Asher is standing in his crib saying, “hi, Mummy!” over & over. We have set chairs on the table & draped a blanket over the top so he can’t see us. Having to share a room w/ a toddler who has not expended enough energy over the course of the day, is not a whole lot of fun.

There will be no TV watching before bed. I always feel a bit sorry for the people on either side of us when we are in hotels. Asher is great at going to sleep at home now, but I think he saves all his bad nights for hotels. I suppose it makes sense since his routine is all askew.

Wish us luck on this trip, that we get the sleep we need…….

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I Think I’m Ready To Move

Last night we got a call from the U-Haul guy saying that the closest place that had a trailer of the size we had reserved was 2 hours away. Well, we had ordered the smallest trailer b/c we have a VW Jetta to pull it with, so getting a bigger trailer wasn’t really an option. His offer was to cut the price from $250 to $100 for the week…..

So Chad has gone to get our cheaper trailer! I declared it unfair that he gets to go driving for 4 hours this morning while I have to stay home & pack & clean, but then I remembered that I would have the computer, so I decided that I’d check emails & blog a bit!

So, now I have a few loads of laundry going, everything is pretty much packed, & I basically only have vacuuming to do, which I will wait until everything is pretty much out of here to do b/c you can’t really vacuum w/ boxes everywhere. I’d show you a picture of all our boxes, but the cord for the camera is packed & I don’t really know how to connect it to the laptop. Maybe I’ll get them up in a few days.

Surprisingly, our phone has been disconnected already. I ordered it to be done today & they kept saying it would be done by 5 pm. I checked it at 9am & it had already been done. It figures that if you need a phone connected they’ll wait until the last minute, but to get it disconnected it’s done right away so you can’t make anymore calls!

Tomorrow we head out on our way from Ontario to Alberta! It’s supposed to be a 42 hour drive. We’re going through Canada b/c we’ve never been that way before. It adds about 8 hours onto the trip, but since we have a trailer full of stuff we figured it doesn’t make sense to cross the boarder if we don’t have to.

I’m actually really looking forward to the trip both b/c it’s seeing things we haven’t seen before, & b/c we’ll have lots of time to think about the calls we have received from churches. We don’t really know where the Lord is leading us, so we have to really pray & figure out what His will is for us. We have 3 really good offers & we just don’t know what our decision is.

So for the next week I’ll be at the mercy of hotel internet. Hopefully most the ones we stay at will have wireless so I can still post about all the exciting things we do & see on our “big trip” as Asher has been calling it.

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