Bad News and Not Quite So Bad News

The really bad news yesterday was that the house sale has been delayed - the buyer's lender has done some last minute demanding of more paperwork, or something. It may be a week or more before the sale finally does go through, which unfortunately means our having to pay the extra mortgage payment this month as well as get by without the house sale proceeds we were expecting. Not happy-making, I tell you. I had about a half hour of silently repeating "I trust you, Lord, I trust you" in my head before I calmed down and got on with everyday life.

The not quite so bad news was that the movers coming to get Mom's stuff were delayed, delayed again, and delayed some more. They were originally supposed to be here at 1400, and ended up coming almost 5 hours later. Fortunately the condo manager is a sweetheart - he could have caused trouble because moves are supposed to be supervised and one of the two elevators must be reserved for the move, but instead he just let us borrow his elevator key for the evening. So the move did happen, and Mom has the great majority of her boxes and all of her furniture now. There were a few things we simply couldn't reach, but they will all fit into the van when we eventually uncover them.

Today was a much better day...no one dropped any bad news bombs on my head, and we enjoyed a lovely sunny day. We even explored a huge local park, the fields seemed to go on forever. The kids loved it - they ran and ran, especially Connor, despite his frequent stumbling and falling. I can't get over how much nicer the weather is down here, and what a glorious fall we're having.

A Sign That I'm Really Settling In...

...is that I'm over the initial "let's get the next thing done" mentality, and I feel compelled to sit down and work out a schedule for our new life in our new home town. I get stressed if I don't know what's next, and Adara's much the same way, not to mention how much the kids pick up on my growing tension as the day progresses. So I'm hammering away at my Excel spreadsheet, trying to figure out what's what.

We're going to start our search for a church next week, which is an exciting step forward too. Since Mom will be watching the kids while we try out the possibilities, we want her to get the chance to be all settled in first. Besides, this Sunday Mom, Adara and I are going to the first "Sunday Symphony for Kids", which should be fun. It's been years since I've heard a decent orchestra play, and I'm looking forward to it.

The house sale for the place in Fort McMurray should finally go through on Monday, Lord willing, and that should end the extra headaches from that quarter. I'm looking forward to not having to talk real estate for quite some time. And Mom's stuff will all leave our garage Monday too. It feels like we're really moving forward, after waiting for weeks, and it feels really good.

On a completely different note, I just picked up "Book Lust" at Chapters today, and am loving it so far. Nancy Pearl has not only grouped book recommendations to suit any subject or mood, she has also done it in an intelligent and witty fashion. What fun! Guess I'll be requesting quite a few books from the local library in the near future. *grin*

Funny Kids

Life is full of precious little memories, and they slip away so easily. I'm going to try to write more of them down so I won't forget.

Yesterday, Adara started singing the "Veggie Tales" theme song in a silly voice. She sounded absolutely hilarious, and I couldn't get over how much she reminded me of Trevor, my beloved entertainer. I laughed and laughed, and she smiled at me and said "I'm like Daddy, Mommy - I like making you laugh." What a sweetheart.

Another funny memory to share, but not as 'sweet', more like pungent: this morning, Connor began shrieking in panic from his crib. When I ran in, I found he had taken his sleeper off and flung it out of the crib, and then undone his (poopy) diaper. My finicky son, who hates getting food or any other gunk on his hands had accidentally gotten poop on his hands from the diaper, and had then (in I assume panic) rubbed his face. He was shrieking for a cleanup! It was too funny to be upset about...I just popped him out of the crib and cleaned him up, and he was so relieved. I don't think he'll open a diaper again. *grin*

In the Past 10 Days...

...we've been battling this nasty head cold/chest cold thing, Trevor's brother and his lovely wife stopped by for a wonderful weekend, and my Mom finally got to move into her new condo. It's been a busy few days, and my head's been too muzzy, in between being sick and being up with sick kids, to think of anything but sleep whenever the littles are in bed. However, since I'm starting to feel better, I thought I'd get back to rambling. *grin*

Trevor left this Monday for a business trip, and Joel and Jeannette headed home then too. After all the excitement of the weekend, at least half of Monday was spent curbing acting up, as Adara was very wound up. Mom arrived on Tuesday evening, very tired after a day-long drive, and the kids and I showed her to her new home (which she likes very much) and helped her get settled in. OK, it was mainly me helping, the kids shrieked and ran around in circles. Today we picked up basic household supplies and showed her our new house. Zoe, her dog, loves the fenced in yard, and she and the kids happily ran around for over an hour despite the chilly weather.

I've set an official moving date with the condo management people for next Monday afternoon; they pad one of the elevators and give you the control key so you can move everything in effectively. It remains to be seen if we can round up some local company to do the lifting and hauling, but I'm hopeful. Mom's excited about getting her stuff back, and I'm excited about getting access to the rest of the stuff in our garage.

Calgary's so cool when it comes to homeschooling - I've booked Adara in for features at the "home school day" at the science center next Monday morning, and both kids in for an hour-long demonstration at a similar day at the Zoo in October. Basically, the kids get to see and do everything that a school group of similar ages would do, for the same (minimal) cost per child. And the home school community here is such that days like that are very well attended, which means they keep having them. Hooray!

Because of the family colds, I haven't had a chance to meet many new people, but my neighbour across the back fence and I have continued to hit it off, as have our kids. Adara loves the social interaction, of course, and she needs the positives because she's hit the age where she's noticing that not all kids are nice. Up until now, she didn't necessarily notice if other kids excluded her or teased her at the playgrounds and such. Now she does, and it's so hard as a parent to watch. I'd love to charge in and protect her from everyone and everything (and I will of course intervene if there's bullying or seriously mean behaviour) but she has to learn that not everyone will be kind to her, and not everyone wants to play with her. I wish it weren't so...but then, I often wish I didn't need to deal with unkind people either.

OK, this post is plenty long enough. More to come, and more regularly!

SO Not Into the Upcoming Holiday

Today I popped into Michaels (craft store) to pick up two frames that were on sale. About five feet into the store, set up front and center so that everyone coming in would see, is a Halloween decoration that consists of two life sized figures, dressed as a bride and groom. The groom is made up like a zombie (kind of like Beetlejuice), and the bride is decapitated and holding her own head by the hair in one hand. That's creepy enough, but the groom also talked saying gross things such as "I like marriage...it's great tying the knot" in an evil voice, followed by nasty chuckles. I scooted past the thing as quickly as I could, thanking the Lord I hadn't brought the kids with me, and was startled by a voice coming from a hanging cage, pleading with me in pathetically terrified tones to please let it out, followed by shrieks of terror. Nice.

Add that store to the list of places we won't be going until the beginning of November.

Starting to Feel Like Home

I don't have a lot of time, but I thought I'd post quickly to say that things are settling out nicely here. Despite not having finished the boxes, we hit the farmers market today and got enough fresh tomatoes and peppers to make a winter's worth of salsa, as well as a big box (40 pounds) of ripe and juicy peaches. I couldn't resist the peaches - I'll probably use half or more to make spiced peach jam, and the rest I'll just peel, slice and freeze for baking in the winter. Having made my own jam and salsa for the last several years, I'm finding I really don't like the store-bought stuff at all (unless it's the expensive gourmet stuff). Trev won't eat store-bought salsa at all! So it's worth it to us to put things on hold for a week while I do the canning.

Otherwise, we've met a few of the neighbours and their children, all friendly folk. Adara starts her dance classes on Monday. We've made progress in making the rooms feel homier, though we're not done yet. So I would say things are going well. It's a bit lonely, of course, and I'm looking forward to beginning our search for a church family once Mom settles in and can watch the kids for us while we attend the various services. But overall Trev and I are both pleased with how well we're settling in.