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.

Update on the Rigmarole of Moving In

My heavens, I'm tired. That could be my summary right there! *grin*

We're getting there, truly we are. And perhaps I'm expecting too much, as it hasn't been that long since we moved in. But the closer we get to making things look decent, the more I want to just get it done!

We (OK, Trev) finished assembling the last of the living room furniture today. The dining room is all done except for the bench we want that's out of stock, so our 6 person table currently only has 4 chairs. The 2 bar stools are done for the little breakfast bar in the kitchen. And we're steadily wading through the contents of boxes.

The boxes are taking longer now, because I'm unpacking them after the children are asleep. I do this for two reasons: the more obvious first reason is that this way the kids don't grab items and run away with them, depositing them who knows where, and the second reason is that Trev and I are seizing this opportunity to simplify our possessions, and it's easier to sort and cull when we're on our own. It'll get easier once my Mom moves out here next week, and we can deposit her share of the boxes in our garage into her lovely condo. Right now there's hardly space in there to turn around, and it's hard for Trev to sort anything.

As a happy side note, we've had some lovely visits this week; last Sunday we went down to Red Deer to visit friends, and this week, my little brother stopped by for a wonderful but regrettably short visit as he was in town for work-related reasons. I only wish Tom could have brought his lovely wife and their children...I know Adara was taken aback to see her uncle but not her beloved cousins. *chuckle* I'm so happy to be in a location where we can visit and be visited regularly by so many dear people; we'll have even more capacity to do that once the basement is finished.

What else? We got library cards (hurray!) and are figuring out where the nearby rec centres and such are, for swimming and other possible activities. We also placed our order for Adara's Sonlight curriculum, and are looking forward to that arriving. We figured this year is a good year to give it a try and see whether it works for us.

Going back to being tired, I think I need to hit the hay. So many boxes, so little time! *grin*

A New Home

We've arrived, and are settling in nicely. The house is absolutely lovely. Trev was so worried about whether I would like it or not (which was sweet) but his worries have evaporated since it's so obvious I'm happy here. Mind you, I'll be happier when we have a dining room set and some living room furniture. Eating on the floor is wearing on me.*grin*

I've been working very hard to conquer my natural inclination of unpacking everything right away and not stopping till it's all done. My goal has been to try to tackle a room a day if I can. So far the kids' rooms, my part of our bedroom (Trev's part will have to wait until the poor man gets enough time to unpack anything), our bathroom, the kids' bathroom, the kitchen and the toy room have been conquered, at least as much as I could find the boxes for. You see, some of our boxes are in the garage, all mixed together, and we haven't sorted them all out yet. But what I had in the house for those rooms, I've unpacked. The living room and dining room stuff will have to wait until we've got furniture set up, which will hopefully happen at least in part this weekend.

Good news on the house-selling front - it seems we have two bidders, one of which has already upped their offer to our full asking price (hoping to outdo the other, I assume). After a long stint of nothing at all, this happens all at once! Trev is up in Fort Mac today and tomorrow, sprucing the place up and helping Mom clean up the mess we left. She gets possession of her condo at the beginning of September, so she has opted to stay in the now fully furnished suite with her pup until then.

The kids seem to be handling things well. There's a nice play set in the fenced backyard as well as a small enclosed trampoline (the kind meant for 3-7 year olds, not the big kind), so they're loving that, and there's a nice playground about a 5 minute walk away. We've been to the Zoo three times already (since we have the annual passes and the parking is free, it only costs gas to go) and are having fun picking out which continent we want to visit (that's how the Zoo is divided up) and which animals we want to learn about that day. Adara has been pushing boundaries pretty hard, but is slowly learning that she can't get away with acting up. That's pretty natural in my opinion, and I'm not taking it personally. Things have been chaotic enough over the last 6 weeks or so that it will take some time for her to feel secure again.

I've rambled on enough for tonight. I'm going to go grab some sleep...both of the kids are coming down with colds, and the extra whininess and clinginess demands extra patience (and therefore extra rest) on my part.

Gathering Speed

We're getting there. Trev has been working so very hard to line everything up on the Calgary end...getting a steam cleaner in before he heads up here (the previous owners had 2 cats) and getting the locks changed, transferring utilities, phone, Internet, and home insurance, and of course getting all of the legal stuff done. He should be receiving the keys at noon on Wednesday. Hurrah!

On this end, I've been taking all the pictures down, emptying and defrosting the big freezer, packing bags of the clothes and things we'll need for the next few weeks, sorting out papers I'll need, ordering enough contacts for the next 6 months, getting haircuts so that we'll have some breathing room before finding a new stylist, returning all the library books, getting rid of anything I don't want moved, and of course trying to entertain and not stress out the kids. I only have until tomorrow night, really, to get it all together, and then on Wednesday morning the packers will descend in force and I'll mostly be trying to keep the children and myself out of their way for two days.

Even with all of this going on, I'm still excited about moving to a new home, and exploring a new city. The excitement is just shoved to the back for now. *grin*

Almost Ready to Launch

The packers are coming next Wednesday and Thursday, and the movers will be carting everything away on Friday. Yes, that's next week. And we found out yesterday afternoon. To add some excitement to the mix, Trev has to work this weekend, and will only be able to get here next Thursday. Needless to say, there's a lot to do and not much time to do it in.

On the plus side, we'll be in our new home very soon - I'm so excited about finally seeing the inside! We'll be leaving a bunch of our furniture here to furnish the downstairs suite, so we'll be getting new living room furniture and a dining room set...likely at IKEA. Love that place.

Still no condo for Mom, so to prevent Zoe from having to stay in a kennel for weeks, and to avoid being bored and living in our spare room for weeks, Mom will be staying up here for a while. Her stuff will travel via the movers with ours, but since the basement suite is going to be furnished, she doesn't need much other than a suitcase of clothes. Once we have papers signed for a condo purchase, she'll look at picking a date to come down to Calgary.

It's been very warm these last few days, and there's no air-conditioning. The kids are hot, cranky, and confused by all the moving preparations. I'll be glad when we can leave for Calgary (the new house has air-conditioning too!).

Falling Into Place

The little things are starting to come together with regards to planning for life in Calgary. I've been finding all sorts of interesting things to see, do, and/or get involved in.

First off, I've found a neat homeschooling co-op that meets once a week to do activities that are hard to do solo or are simply more fun or more economical in groups. Parents are expected to stay at the facility and help out in some way, something I really like, rather than it being a drop-off situation. There is a playgroup for siblings under four, and they have a preschooler group (4-5 year olds) that meets from 9 to 12 each week. This fall they'll have an art class, story time, and an 'open gym' time in those three hours. Parents are expected to contribute in whatever way suits them best, from teaching to organizing to cleaning to whatever. I was very happy to learn that they needed someone to help with the preschoolers, that's something I know I can do well at and it will help Adara to have me close by. Mom has offered to either watch Connor for me or alternately to bring him to the facility but stay with him in the playgroup, as I would be unwilling to leave him there alone. In between this co-op, dance class, and whatever activities will be run by the church we will choose, Adara will have lots of opportunities to meet and play with other children, which I know my little extrovert will love.

Another co-op I'm looking at buys fruit and vegetables in bulk to save money; a 40-45 pound box of seasonal fruits and veggies once a month would cost me a grand total of $25. In between that and going back to buying our beef and chicken in bulk from local ranchers, we should be able to cut down on grocery trips, and also save money. I'm hoping that a trip to Costco and then maybe a health food store once every two weeks will do it. We'll see how it works out.

The Calgary Symphony Orchestra has a special series of symphonies for children 4-12, four of them over the course of the fall and winter. It's on Saturday afternoons, and they even have a "musical petting zoo" for the hour beforehand, where kids can try out the instruments and talk to the musicians. How cool is that! Best part is that a family pass (2 adults and up to 2 children) for all four costs only about one and a half times what it would cost two adults to go to one regular performance. Mom, Adara and I are going to have a blast.

I've even managed to find a stained glass supply place in the north end that has classes and also rents out studio space. If all goes well, I will be able to resume my favourite hobby without worrying about shards of glass being all over the house and endangering the children. I can't even describe how excited I am about the possibility!!

So needless to say, there are a lot of exciting things coming up. All is not roses, however. The movers still haven't told us when we'll be moving, which is driving me slightly batty. Even worse, attempts at securing a condo for Mom keep falling through. We've had two places that both looked perfect slip through our fingers. Trev is our scout, but even if he finds something perfect on his next trip to see condos on Tuesday and they write an offer that night, it will still be at least three weeks until possession, which means Mom will be in limbo for a time and poor Zoe will be in a kennel. Hopefully something comes up soon.

Moving is always such a whirlwind of activity - some people hate it, but I really enjoy it.