new drapes

Our new drapes were installed by Linda today.

They are lovely. The photo doesn't do them justice. They are fully lined, fuller and heavier than my old Fabric Land drapes. Lining really makes the difference.

I think they are a wise investment. According to an article I read, on average people who purchase custom drapes keep them on their windows for 7 years versus one-two years for store bought. In my case, my Fabric Land drapes last just shy of 2 years. They never fit the window properly -- too short in both directions. It is a relief to finally see how good this window can look.

some new drapes!

After almost two years of looking at the curtains in our bedroom, which are a sorry state of affairs, we broke down and enlisted in Linda Whittaker, a local seamstress to help us with a new pair. She is very talented - she helped me with Sophie's pumpkin Halloween costume 5 years ago and got me back interested in sewing.

She has been over twice to our house now, this time with her books of sample fabrics. This is the fun (and slightly overwhelming) part of the process. I'm really looking forward to having the room look more polished.

sewing and wood

Vic and his buddy Ray drove up the 110 forestry road just outside of Salmon Arm on Sunday and fell standing dead fir trees (2 of them actually). Vic came home with a truckload of very nice, dry wood for our fireplace. We now have a tidy little wood pile outside of our house.

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I've become completely obsessed with sewing. I watched a couple of tutorials last night and finally figured out how to place, pin and sew in Fynn's stretch banded neck for his PJs. I even took it to work on my lunch and pinned it. Unfortunately, when I came to sewing it, I sewed it in backwards so I had to rip out 1/2 of my work. Second time was a charm and I finally got it in and, all things considered, I'm happy with it. I hemmed the sleeves tonight. Tomorrow I'll place in the sleeves and sew them in place.

Sophie has already eyed some fabric that she would like a skirt made from. The projects are piling up!

vintage look bunting banners

Paula and I were back sewing today. Make two more vintage look bunting banners. One is already spoken for by a co-worker. Check out our Esty shop if interested.

In other news: We finally have lawn! Yippee!! The turf was laid in our little front patch of dirt and in our backyard. Certainly better late than never.

coming up for air

Life is very full right now.

This past Wednesday I had my first meeting as secretary of our local chapter of Parents for French (it is a national organization that encourages French activities/support for French in the school system). Since Sophie starts Kindergarten French Immersion in September, I thought it would be a good way to be involved. The President is really happy I joined up because they needed a secretary who could type! So, I packed up my laptop and took minutes at this past Wednesday's meeting. All went well and it was interesting to meet some of the parents / teachers who have kids in the older grades in French Immersion.

Soccer also wrapped up today for Sophie. While I can't say she loved it, she did persevere (and so did Vic and I), so it was worth it.

My friend Paula and I did a little shopping for our house after soccer today. I needed to replace my living room lamps (Fynn broke one of them and the other one is moving on to a different room). We found some lamps on sales, plus we found some really inexpensive artwork for our ensutie. A successful trip!

Sophie's little friend Eva turned 6 and she had her party out at Sunnybrae beach so that is where we headed to this afternnon. Whew!!

in search of...

new lamps!

today we started our search for a new floor lamp and at least one new table lamp for our living room.

i really want a crisp white drum shade. like this.

of course these sorts of things are always easier to find on-line than in real life. so the search continues...

Dec 8 - around the house

We don't have our tree yet -- that's for this coming weekend.

Just a few decorations so far. I think we'll keep it simple this year.

We have a cool little alcove in our hallway that has a huge apothocary jar in it which is now filled with green balls.

cozy Sundays

It was nice to chill out at home today and enjoy our surroundings.

Sophie (and mom) wrote her letter to Santa (our retired Canada Post employees pen the letters back to kids) and we watched this.
The holiday season has officially begun.

handy man Fynn

He is such a little man.
Vic was putting up some floating shelves we picked up at Canadian Tire for Sophie's room (she has so many little tchochkes).
Fynn gets right in there. Into the tool box. Into the drill bits. Into everything.
He also looks quite adorable in overalls.

little spiders

I really like some of the Martha Stewart Craft things. I picked up these spiders at Michaels last week. They are kind of cute and a little creepy.

This is our front entrance of the new digs.

i am blogging at work...shhh

We are still missing the adaptor for our laptop, so I can't use our computer at home.

We have settled into the house. Thanks to Bryan, Paula and Auntie D who helped us on various days unpack rooms that we were having a hard time getting to.

I promise I will have some photos soon. Life is hopefully going to slow down a bit.

Moving In

After a long wait, we finally moved into our new home last Sunday.
It was a day filled with boxes, movers, more boxes and a fair share of stress.
But, it's behind us now and the house is slowly starting to shape up.

Sophie enjoyed jumping into the piles and piles of paper.
And here is the living room one night -- still a long way to go, but starting to look like home to us.

so happy that....

Today is our last day living in a hotel!

Tomorrow we get up early to meet the movers at the new house.

Can it be? Has this day really come?

Whining

I feel like I'm whining. Not my best quality, but lately it seems it's the first few words out of my mouth.

The latest:

- Fynn has come down with Pink Eye or some weird conjunctivitis. I had him in at the doctor's today and he has been prescribed some strong drops. Poor little critter.

- We are living in a hotel. I shouldn't complain. Vic negotiated a screaming deal ($50/night) from the manager (a friend of his). We are in a suite, but still it isn't our home. Our microwave is the size of a large shoe box. Or is that the fridge.

- Our dear friends Bryan and Patti thought they would surprise us last night by dropping off a home-made dinner to our new place. Turns out we weren't there when they showed up (we were at the hotel). We ended up having a nice dinner with them at their home. Perfect leftovers for today, too.

- Fynn's party that I had planned for this Sunday has been postponed a couple of extra weeks to allow the dust to settle (literally) at the new house.

- The trim kit for the new microwave is missing. Sears ordered it twice. Still MIA.

- Sophie's Lands' End shoes that I ordered are one size too small. Back they go tomorrow. Bummer...however the little jumpers are so cute and will look great on picture day this week.

How was your day?

a noggin crusher

That's what we call the 2 big bruises on poor little Fynn's head.

On Thursday, the thing I worried about most while living in our temporary accomodations happened; Fynn fell down the entire flight of hardwood stairs. All the way to the bottom step (cork flooring).

I was in a rush to get Sophie to a doctor's appointment to get her earache checked out. I put the two of them in the living room and ran into the bathroom to dispose of a diaper. While I was in there, I heard a terrible, odd thumping sound. And then Sophie screaming. I ran to see Fynn crying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. I screamed. I swooped him up and headed into the doctor's. He was checked over thoroughly and other than the 2 goose eggs on his head and a bloody lip, he is fine. I have barely let him out of my sights for the past 2 days. I'm still having thoughts about how horrible that morning was and how much worse it could have been.

In other news...we thought we would be moving into our new house tomorrow. It has been delayed yet again. The flooring installers have given new meaning to the term "to putter". They putter. The floor looks great, but they still have a fair bit of our main living area to go and it just didn't make sense to have the movers come in and then have to move stuff around the stacks of hardwood flooring, etc.

We have to be out of the house we are in tomorrow. So, we are headed for a motel with a kitchenette. It's only a few more days I keep telling myself.....

Besides, I go back to work on Wednesday, so we really have just 2 full days in the motel, plus a Saturday. I can trips to the library, Junglemania and the pool are in our future.

the good news and the bad news...

10 For Tuesday:

1. Our movers refuse to move us in tomorrow because the house is not "ready enough". Too many trades people working/in the way.

2. That means we move in this Friday (good news) since things will be more settled down.

3. I have my colonoscopy on Friday (routine for my little hemmeroid problem). That's crummy timing. Oiy.

4. I have not lost one single library book in this big moving schmazle.

5. I finished my HR conference presentation (very good news).

6. I got the invites out to Fynn's birthday today (and people are coming -- HURRAY!)

7. Vic got my cold (crummy).

8. I found a winter coat at Rickis. Normally, things are so picked over by the time I get to them, I'm out of luck in my size.

9. Some photos of Fynn from this morning and our house (stairs, kids' bathroom....little school house lights!)

10. Happy Tuesday!

Back at the blog

Between taking a trip to Vancouver, then to my parent's (twice) and house sitting, my blog has taken a low priority (poor blog).

It is a crazy, stressful time.

We are back housesitting tonight. It's a lovely home and we are grateful we

are able to stay here until our house is finished (should be mid next week), but this has been TOO long. Plus Fynn finds cords, outlets, open staircases and sharp tables at each turn.

Anyway, what's new:

Sophie starts preschool tomorrow

Fynn is TROUBLE. He's into everything.

Sophie also started ballet last week -- I swear she thinks she's Karen Kain.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics. A photo of the living room of where we are house sitting. Hard to see, but the kids are in the photo....getting into things undoubtedly.

And Sophie getting ready for ballet.

69 boxes later...

At 7:20am this morning, the 3 ladies who make up the packing team of Mur's Moving (led by Mur's wife, Marie), began packing what we still hadn't.

Between the stuff my mom and sister helped me pack, and then a few more boxes I packed last night, there was still a big bunch of things still to go.

They worked until 2:30pm. They stopped briefly for a lunch break. A few times they asked me questions about what I wanted packed, but mostly they worked without interruption.

Fynn and I ran errands instead: off to the bottle depot to take back the last of our empties, off to the Salvation Army for one final load, off to the lawyer's office to sign the property transfer documents and off to take Sophie to the doctor (I suspected she may have a bladder infection, but so far the test she took today was negative), and I dropped off our plants at Vic's office for one of the women to water. Oh, and off to the chiropractor again for me -- more neck work.

While the packing ladies were doing their bit, the pool table mover guys came and took apart the pool table and loaded it on their truck. They will also store it for us. I also met with the painter who is going to touch up our picture holes for the new owners.

We made a couple of last minute drop offs tonight: one more RubberMaid tub and the high chair at the house sitting place; our large flower planters off to the new house; our fridge condiments off to Ray and Doris's for refrigeration, as well as the Exersaucer (we didn't want to impose our housesitter's anymore with our stuff).

Tomorrow the movers arrive at 7:15am to load all the boxes into a storage unit for about 4 weeks while our house finishes up.

Fynn crashed early and Sophie is a little out of sorts since her selection of toys has been really downsized, as so much is in storage. She's hugging her mermaid Barbie tightly.

Off to bed.....

Moving is hell or purgatory, and then you die.

We are getting down to the crunch day of moving.

The packers are coming in this Tuesday to pack up whatever we didn't do ourselves.
We've elected to pack the craft room, kids knick/knacky toys, books and most of our clothes. The rest is for them to pack up.

We basically have to pack for 3 locations:
1. our 6-7 day vacation (?) down to Vancouver/Whistler. That means suitcases.
2. our 3-4 week stay at the Hill's house. That comprises 2 large RubberMaid tubs.
3. all the rest of the stuff that will stay in a big old storage container awaiting our house to be finished.

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On a less dreary note, Fynn officially joined the big boys and took a bath in the big tub tonight. He's really not quite ready for it yet, but he and Sophie had a few giggles.

one fine day

I will have an effortless, lazy day. But not today.

8:00 am - feed Fynn, Sophie, eat breakfast. We are meeting Paula, our builder, to go over a glitch with our hardwood flooring choice. Turns out the wood we selected has been having problems in other people's home. Need to find an alternative.

9:00 am - get dressed, etc, etc. Definately need a cup of Tim's today. By now it is almost 10 and we are supposed to meet Paula at 10.

10:00 am - meet Paula and Vic at the flooring store. Several samples have been laid out for us to look at. Fynn crawls around the store while Sophie finds a corner to colour in. Paula and I dig through more samples. I'm no longer so keen on "hand-scrapped", but definately would like the wider plank look. Tough to find.
Our sales guy tells us about a house out in White Lake (20 min north of Salmon Arm) where a home owner has installed one of our possibilities. Paula and I decide it's worth the trip

11:00 am - we make it out to White Lake. Takes longer than 20 minutes. Find the house -- by now Fynn is asleep in the car and Sophie doesn't want to come in because of the big dogs at the house (don't blame her). The flooring is nice, but I'm still not 100% sure. With hardwood, you need to love it (it's a big investment).

12:30 pm - drive back to Salmon Arm. Drop Paula off. Head over to A and W for lunch with Sophie and Fynn. I have a hair appointment at 1:30pm. Realize that I need some cash as my hair guy doesn't have debit. Off to grab some money from Vic.

1:30 - 2:00 pm - get hair cut. Totally not relaxing as Fynn is everywhere. Sophie does her best to reel him in.

2:00 - 3:00 pm - head up to JungleMania (indoor kids play place) for an hour of fun and to burn off some energy (the kids).

3:00 pm - head back downtown to the chiropractor since my neck has been bothering me. Stress perhaps???

4:00 pm - head back home. Answer and return phone message from cleaning lady who had gotten the day she is supposed to clean our house mixed up after we move out next week. She thought it was today....oiy. Speak to Paula on the phone and decide that we need to go back to Kelowna (2nd time this week) to look at more hardwood. The selection in Salmon Arm is limited. Off we go to Kelowna tomorrow. Re-arrange another appointment I had to make this work.

4:30 pm - provide the usual late afternoon popsicle to Sophie while she watches cartoons. Fynn is content (for now).

5:00 pm - Vic is home with food for dinner (thank you!) and I head out to my fitness class.

6:30 pm - eat dinner, give Fynn a bath, clean up.

7:30 pm - Then we all head over to the place we will be house sitting at for a week or two while our house is still being finished. The house we will be staying at is very nice and just 2 doors down from our new house.

8:00 pm - home...Fynn to bed, Sophie in bath.