Wow! It has been a while....

OK, it has been a little while - hmm where to start? Wwll, we just a had our 1st dinner/bbq party and house warming type thingy. It was fun! Seven adults, and 6 kids - no older than 5. Steak, Ceasar Salad, peas, baby potatos, rice, wine, beer, etc. YUMMY!

sorry - no photos. Too busy enjoying myself.

We also had our yard sale - the post move-in sale - the one where we get rid of the stuff that doesn't fit in our smaller house! We did well, and got rid of at least 3/4 of the stuff! We will have another yard sale in about a month or so when we put out the excess kids toys, etc.

I had another Real Estate photo job, and will start proper advertising soon.

Finally we are mostly settled in - there are about 10 boxes left to unpack; 2 xmas lights, and about 8 toy boxes. I am feeling more at home. I also found my developing stuff and have processed about 3 rolls of black and white film. I got some good shots of the kids and cousins with my new portrait lens and some fine grain film:



Larissa's second trip to Halifax for the tattoo festival was break even - but she had fun!

The weather is warming up here - yesterday was 36 on our deck - I bought 3 celing fans which were on sale at Canadian Tire today!!!

Take care!

We are settling in, but not down!

OK - in for 3 days, and what have we accomplished? Kitchen almost box free, all bedrooms almost box free, rec room almost box free. All these rooms are functional! Oh, and the living room, too.

My computer has mostly been found and just setup - yay!

The woodworker is coming on monday to refinish the entranceway stairs. So, tomorrow is dedicated to setting up the house to function for 3 days upstairs only.

We have decided to finish the large 'storage' area before setting up shelves, etc. 1/2 of this can then be Larissa's office.

We will be having the massive yard sale - we realized than not only do we have too much stuff for this house - we just have too much stuff!

Here are some photos:



Photos were taken Thursday morning; (left to right from the top) - storage room, family room, office, living room, living room, kitchen, kitchen.

We're in! The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Ahhh, scotch in hand - time to write. Today is wednesday (I think). I will start on Sunday.... first a little pre-info...Our house inspection/walkthrough was moved ahead from Monday AM to Sunday 5 pm, then to Sunday noon, then to Sunday 11:30 am. Yay! for us as we would rather get the whole thing done and get out of THAT apartment SOONER than later. We also found out that if everything was good on the walkthrough we could get the keys and move in asap! Larissa was grinning from ear to ear.

So, back to Sunday, we asked a friend to watch the kids from about mid morning to mid afternoon so we could get stuff done unencumbered. The walkthrough went fine, we got the keys and started to move some stuff in from the mini-van. We then got the U-Haul rental, and picked up the kids and took them to our new house. After we unloaded some more from the minivan, and the kids (and we) ran around the empty house, we went back to load up the BIG van with the furniture, etc.

Oh, yeah - I was rather ill most of the day and useless until late afternoon.

Larissa decided that she did not want to come back to the house on Monday, and we would be completely out on Sunday. Our original schedule was for Monday - so now we were busy. Our schedule had been changed from 'loose' to 'tight'. We loaded the truck and drove it to the house - then went for dinner. At which point we realized that time was slipping away and we need some help. We called in some troops to help unload after dinner. Everything went really fast (Thank you!) But there were still some boxes left at the apartment...so Larissa and a couple of guys went back to get the rest of the stuff. They were greeted by our previous upstairs neighbour who proceed to tell our friend that we picked a great time to move and probably f'n woke up his kids (I think it was about 9 pm) He seem to vanish quickly when he saw my brother-in-law - a big guy, goatie, and a shaved head. So everything got moved from the apt. on Sunday.

Monday - Hope off to school, unpack as best we can. Hope had some issues going to here new swim class - we will try again for next class.....

Tuesday - The carpets got installed! We went from a red carpet in the family room to a flecked berber, and a stained grey carpet in the master bedroom to a new beige one. Exciting - I know. We made sure all was ready for the move on Wed. Oh, Hope got upset and refused to go to school - oh, well - the stresses of moving I guess.

Wed. (today) - We said Hope could stay and see the movers come and start to unload - then off to school. We expected them between 8 and 9 am, we called at 9:30 or so and found that they were coming for 11:30. So we packed up Hope and decided to walk to school for the 1st time. Less that 10 min. from door to door, with Alex in tow! And only about 20 min to pry Hope from my leg once I got there....she was fine in the end, and I picked her up at noon (Wednesdays are 1/2 days). We came back and ate lunch, and the kids were excited to see their bikes. I had to raise the seat on Hopes bike by about 3 inches! We then went to the park with Hope's friend and grandmother. This left Larissa checking numbers and the movers unloading our ton of stuff into the small house. STEP 1: Unpack - STEP 2: YARD SALE!!!!! The movers were done by about 5pm and we have most of the kid's rooms unpacked, a path to the kitchen created. and our bed set up.

We ordered pizza for dinner, it was kinda funny - Larissa called in the order, and saif 'no thank you' to the Donair sauce. When I picked up the pizza, the lady commented that Larissa declined the Donair sauce - and she wondered where we were from. She then proceeded to give us the sauce anyway to try, as we would need try it and like it if we were to "become one of them". She said it was really good on your finger, and not too bad on pizza. If you are not familiar with this eastern Canadian delicacy - think of it as 'garlic icing dip'. Yup. That's what I said - 'garlic icing dip'.

I will take some photos tomorrow morning before too much more stuff gets unpacked (and post later) - man we have a lot of crap. And we got rid of soooo much before we left.....ahh well, less stuff means a simpler life.

g'night.