Losing my mind!

OK, so I'm not sure how I'm keeping this all straight, but I am just putting my head down and plodding along...

We are hosting Graeme's pharmacy staff for one final get-together/Christmas party - tomorrow night.

We've FINALLY finished unpacking the office.  It's amazing!!!!!!  I love it.  I will take pictures and post them soon - tonight?  Tomorrow?  Monday?

I put two items onto Kijiji, and both were spoken for within 2 hours of posting the ads.  One got picked up that night, and another got picked up the next day.  My weight gym is officially gone.  :(  We couldn't assemble it in our basement - ceiling was too low for assembly.  I guess Graeme has to let me get out to MP once in a while now again.  But we are a few $$$ richer.  Maybe that'll be our Christmas fund?

Work for Graeme is NUTS!!!  Big suits everywhere (and by 'suits' I mean head honchos from Rexall)... installing new technology and equipment that the 450 square foot store doesn't need and doesn't have room for... getting in the staff's way so that they can't get their jobs done... what a mess.  People are about 2-3 days behind on their work because of these trades & technicians getting in the way.

Now that the computer is officially downstairs and in its place, I'm seeing it a lot less.  This is a good thing AND a bad thing... 'good' because it means I might spend more time doing productive things.  Because connecting with friends is not productive, right?  :(

Today - Costco run, Superstore run, Wal-Mart run, recycling run... kids keep losing hats & mittens so I need to find some back-ups... tidy house, put away junky toys (and by 'put away' I mean 'fire into the garbage'!)...

Tomorrow - Sobey's run, finish cleaning house for party tomorrow... do a bit of baking... prep the meal for about 16 people... and maybe even *gasp* sleep tomorrow night!!!  Joshua also has a dress rehearsal for our church Kids' musical tomorrow...

Sunday, I am on worship team, and we're standing in the gap for someone at church who is under a bit of attack from someone else at church who is not quite healthy in the head...  that's a whole 'nother story...  kids' musical for two services...

And then i get to sleep.

I ramble.

OK, so some really cool news - we've been getting to know this other young couple a few houses down from us; Jeremy helped Graeme get out of the cul-de-sac the other day, and his wife Kim was overdue with their third baby.  Well, shovelling snow must've kicked things into gear for her - she had a HUGE baby boy on the 7th, and named him Seth Clancey.  He was 9 lbs 6 oz.  Their first boy was 7 lbs 6 oz, but the same length.  Their middle was smack in between these two...  But they are home and resting.  Yay for babies!

I gotta jet, change the laundry, and get the littles up to go get Joshua from the bus stop and hit the road again.

Sunday

Nutsy day.

Meaghan doesn't fall asleep in church much any more; the nursery is very noisy these days!! So, I wrapped her to me and she fell asleep for about 20 minutes during the worship service today. I was hoping for more, but she was at least super-content while she was wrapped. I LOVE my wrap! That thing has saved me sooooo much grief, and has saved Meggie a lot of grief, too.

That being said, she was super-crabby today. She is definitely teething - yesterday I felt a little tooth trying to pop through. It's *just* under the gum now!! Poor honey. She is not the easy teether that Joshua was. She is, however, better than Dustin was. :)

She finally napped this afternoon, but after about 45 minutes, woke screaming. Since every single bed in the house was taken, and Graeme had the 'big' sofa in the living room, I headed down to our newly carpeted basement, laid down on the floor, laid her beside me, latched her on, and we both fell asleep within about 10 minutes. Graeme woke me up around 3:30 and said, "There's something attached to you!" Hee hee. Normally I don't let her nurse that long - she wasn't nursing, obviously, for an hour, but I was so tired that I didn't even care that she was using me as her pacifier. We both slept, and that was the goal.

We were supposed to go swimming as a family with Mike & Christina & their girls this afternoon. But in light of Meggie's grumpiness (it continued when she woke again), I opted to stay home with her while the boys went. Good thing; she blew her diaper twice. Can you imagine? I'm not sure a swim diaper would contain breast-fed baby's poop, would it?

So anyway, Graeme came and picked Meaghan and I up a little later and we headed over to M&C's for supper. It was fun, chaotic, and uplifting all at the same time.

Got home, got boys ready for bed, put Meggie to bed, cut Graeme's hair, and then proceeded to continue working on my office. :) We bought Ikea cabinets like we had in our office at the acreage, but this time, different colored door fronts. Anyway, this is night #3 of working on them. First night; assemble 10 cabinets (including two corner cabinets with carousels in them). Second night, mount cabinets on wall. Graeme had to help with that one, although I did ALL the assembly alone. Third night (tonight), install door hardware - handles and hinges - and mount doors (again, alone). Check, check, and triple-check!!

Maybe I'll start filling the cabinets. We can't build the tall cabinets and install the table-tops until the floor and baseboard are finished, so I can't really settle into my office yet, but I can sure get a head start!!!

Good night... 's late again.

Today's the beginning...

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I suppose that packing and getting ready to move have just taken up too much of my time...oh yes, I neglected to mention the plethora of online scrabble games that are also taking just a touch of my time, too. Nah, it's not so bad, but you know how it goes. Soon enough we'll be on dial-up and e-mail and other such online endeavors will take up but a smidgen of my time.

So, today is the beginning of a dream Graeme and I have had for years and years. Today, we take possession of our new home "in the cunchwee" as Joshua says. We begin acreage life. Peace and quiet will begin. Busy-ness of traffic will cease when we're sleeping. Campfires, lawn-mowing, outdoor games, and open spaces for the children to run (without having to drive to get there).

It's exciting, but surreal. I know I'm going to love it. I'm going to miss this house we're in now - so many memories - both boys learned to walk here. Dustin's first home. Lots of birthday parties and other gatherings. I suspect I'm going to be a bit emotional leaving this house, but I am constantly reminded that we are still taking our home with us. Praise God for His faithfulness and supply!

I will try to post a few pictures once we've settled a bit. The big move happens on Saturday, and we have to be out of our current house by Tuesday. It will be a busy few days!!

Time for an update

Much has happened recently, but I've just not been in a blogging mood. Not even much in a facebooking mood, either. What's wrong with me? Actually, I think I've just been so busy and pre-occupied with the house sale, constantly cleaning and shining things up after the kids have gone through *just in case* someone comes to look when I least expect it, and catching up on laundry and other things after our Victoria Vacation.


Our family - day of the wedding:




















I finally have two sisters!!
















Anyway, uploading pix to Facebook is SO much faster than doing it here. This is not to say that I won't still post a few pictures on here, but for BIG projects, I'll just give a link so you can go see the album at your leisure. You also get to see way more pictures for the time it takes me, if you just go to the link! As promised, here are some pix from Jordan & Carly's wedding. There are lots of people you probably won't know, but there are tons of cute pix of my own darlings, too! So, as before, click on the link, click on the first picture (it will bring up a larger version), and then click "next" at the top of the picture to view the next in order! Easy as pie!!

Jordan & Carly Wedding Rehearsal

Jordan & Carly - Wedding DAY!!



My Cool Dudes:
















Joshua got to go to a Teddy Bear Picnic three days after we got back from Victoria. There was face-painting, all sorts of crafts, a big inflatable jumpy thing -and tons of other things! It was such fun - and I didn't bring my camera as I had a thousand other things to take care of that day. But I did take a pic of his face after we got home, and he's holding his sweet little "Blue" -that's his favorite "teddy" that he brought with him for the picnic.


Josh, his paw prints, and his bear-ears (doesn't he look MEAN??)




















I've also included a picture from Joshua's birthday party. Unfortunately, I was so busy making pizza that night (Joshua wanted pizza for his birthday, and I LOVED making it for him!) that I relied on others to take pictures of the special event for me. However, I've not received copies of the pictures from anyone yet!! So, here's a picture of Joshua's cake, and I'll proceed to hound everyone who took pics that night to burn me a CD of J's birthday party pix!


J's birthday cake:























So, other than that, it's business as usual. Constantly cleaning house. There were about 3 or 4 showings today, and a couple of really promising ones. And two showings booked for tomorrow. I pray that this home sells by the end of the week, so I can get on with my life - the kids are getting frustated with me always cleaning!! I love a clean house, BUT cleaning to to this calibre every time I want to leave the house gets to be a bit much. Once a day is fine, but three times a day is just OCD under normal circumstances. :)


I packed 8 or 9 boxes of books tonight - books are easy and it makes it look like I've accomplished something. :) I'll get Graeme to bring them downstairs before he leaves for church in the morning.


Speaking of church - I've been asked to sing on the worship team for our community-wide church service that we're having on Canada Day! Eek! How humbling, and what an honor! Three big churches here (the Alliance Church, a couple thousand people; our church, about 500 people; and another Alliance church, about another 1000 people) are collaborating to put on a celebration service in the middle of the 'hamlet' for Canada Day - at noon. There are a few musicians from each church being asked to participate (which I didn't know till the other night), and I can't believe that I've been asked! Maybe it's just because no-one else was available...heh heh...Keep me humble, Lord!

Amendment to last night's post...

I realized that I didn't say WHY we're opening a new chapter in our lives...and why the cleaners were coming (which they aren't after all - they were given a wrong number and have been harrassing some poor man somewhere in Sherwood Park)...

We're moving!! Yes, again. We bought an acreage two days before we left for Victoria!! We'll still be close to Sherwood Park, but we'll finally have our dream of acreage living. We'll take possession on August 1st. More on that later!

Anyway, our realtor will list our house this week, and has offered to pay Molly Maids to come in and clean for me since I'm stressed about the "quickness" of the whole process. So, the cleaning ladies will now come on Tuesday morning to get our house picture-ready and listing-ready and showing-ready!! If all goes according to plan, the house will go on the market on Thursday morning, realtor open house on Friday morning, and public open house on Saturday morning. Best case scenario is that we end up with multiple (competing) offers on our place, upping the price, and the place will be sold on Saturday! That way I won't have to keep the place spotless on a moments' notice...

Okay, I really must run now. I'll post some pictures from Jordan & Carly's wedding soon...just not right now.

Whew!

Home from Victoria!!

WE'RE HOME!!

What a day it was. Dustin and plane rides do not get along. Joshua and napless afternoons do not get along. Graeme and the flu and the last day of holidays do not get along, as it leaves Mama to do all the packing, kid-watching, luggage-lifting, kid-and-luggage-carrying, diaper-changing, entertaining, and cleaning in the hours preceding our departure from Victoria, the ferry ride to Vancouver, the flight home, and the drive home.

I'm glad to be home. I was glad for the holiday, but returning home opens a brand new chapter for us. I just found out the cleaners are coming TOMORROW - ACK! - instead of Tuesday like we expected. Which means I have a boatload of tidying and unpacking to do before morning. And it's off and running tomorrow - J's thing in the a.m., although I might skip depending on how he does tonight (he's super-grumpy and spent a long time tired-crying before bed), etc. And Graeme doesn't think he has someone to cover him tomorrow if he's still sick. He threw up all over the airport this afternoon....eww. I'm glad I wasn't around - he had taken off in search of an emergency bathroom, but didn't make it. I'd have thrown up, too, if I'd been there to watch the whole thing go down.My allergies sprung up within about 20 minutes of touching down this evening....hmmm.....I didn't even make it into the van before starting to itch, and my first run of sneezes hit before I pulled into our driveway.

HOWEVER, all in all we had a really good trip. It rained a bit, but that's OK. We went out and enjoyed the days anyway. We went to the Butchart Gardens, the children's petting zoo, Joshua went to the bug museum (Graeme got some NEAT pictures!)...and we did some walking and sight-seeing, and some swimming in our pool at the hotel. And I made really good use of the gym. :) Oh, and we did lots of sleeping!! It was really good. Some minor troubles with the boys throughout the week, but not anything unlike what we'd see here at home.

I've posted some pictures of our trip on my facebook account. Click below to see the two sets of pictures. There are just WAY too many to upload to my blog!! You can also see quick descriptions with each of the pictures I've put on facebook. For those of you unfamiliar with facebook: If you want to see the descriptions and the full sized versions of the pix, make sure you click on the first picture in each set, then you can scroll down to see the description. You can then click on "next" at the top of each picture to see the next one.

Victoria pictures, Set 1

Victoria pictures, Set 2

Well, that's all the new news for now....must run!!