House Before Pics

The Before Pictures: And trust me when I say, it looked worse in real life. Bathroom

Laundry Room

Kitchen

The Girl's Room.

The outside of the house.

I'd love to show you the now photos, unfortunately they are still in the camera, which was dropped and now doesn't work. The pictures can't even be downloaded right now, but hopefully soon . . .

Life continues to be busy. The last month there has been a lot of sickness going around our house, well actually my parent's house. Just as it gets better, it starts all over again. Last year the twins were sick a lot of the winter. Now this year it seems Drew is joining them with it being his first year at school, it seems like he is catching all the new strains.

I am seriously considering the flu shot. But then do we get the H1N1 as well. 2 flu shots? Really? I am not very big on shots to begin with, and then to get them for the whole family? But it would be great if this winter we can get out a little more. Hopefully this will make their immune system stronger in the long run.

As for the house, it is of course going slower than we wanted or originally thought. We are supposed to be moving in, in the beginning of November. But we are moving forward. Now it looks like we'll be lucky if we get in before Christmas. Here is hoping! Today we picked up the French-doors. I am getting excited! I wish I could just go in and put on the final touches already - it seems so close and yet so far away. But I have to be patient, it will all be worth it in the end.

Drew has been collecting sawdust from the "construction site", and we couldn't figure out his fascination with it. On a couple occasions he even brought it home and put it in a special box. Okay . . . ! Well last week, he told me that he was saving the sawdust for the calves that he wanted to get. So that they have a warm, cozy place to sleep! So sweet. Now it makes sence. He would like two black and white calves. One boy and one girl. I asked him if he knew what he would name them. He say one would be 'Drew' and the other would be 'I-Love-You'!

We have the keys!  We got the keys to our new place yesterday evening!  We are so excited.  Of course we didn't stay away long.  As soon as supper was done, we all headed out there.  It was so good to see our kids enjoying the property already, and our dog.  Our dog is already trying to make friends with the cows, although they are not very trusting of her.  I wonder why?  Hope they won't cause too much troubles.  I'm sure it will be fine.  The kids were having fun too!  By the end of the evening they were dirt-biking on the field.  

Today we went back, and the kids did not want to leave.  I am so happy that they are feeling so at home there already.  Today I got to push my kids on a tree swing under the walnut tree.  It seems so romantic right now.  Drew and Ethan got to help Dad cut the lawn with a ride-on lawn mower.  Drew was in heaven today.  He said to me in a sad voice, "You know what is hard for me about the renovations?"  I thought he was going to say something about going back and forth from house to house or something, but he says to me, "I don't want to go to school because I want to ride my dirt bike all day."  He is so cute.  

When we got into the house we already knew that we wanted to do a lot of renovations, but now we also have to do some dump runs.  Yes, they left a bunch of junk behind.  And weird things too!  Like a set of encyclopedias, a rocking chair and a kids rocking chair, a can of zoodles, a flashlight or two, a hair dryer, some corning ware casserole dishes.  And other junk.  A lot of cupboard were empty except for one thing.  If you are emptying a cupboard, why leave only one thing behind?  Oh well.  It's going to look a lot different when we are done with it anyway! Can't wait until the end product.  Lots of work to do yet . . .

Goodnight!

Well, we are finally out.  Today seemed to be the worst day yet and we only had to work until noon.  But on the other side of it, we had to be out by noon.  It was defiantly a weird sort of day.  As soon as we got up, Mark and I headed back to the house and worked our buts off.  It didn't take that long, but there are all these little things that need to be done at the last minute.  Eventually we had everything over at Mom and Dad's.  Then it still took some time to find a place for things on this side of the street.  There are still boxes in our room that I have to sort through.  But the computer is working and we are technically in.  

It's been weird for the kids too.  This week we have been so busy and so here and there.  The twins went to spent some time with my Oma for two of the days, and Drew has been with My parents, Mark's parents and my sister.  They have also been with us, packing and cleaning.  " Me.  Big Helper.  Strong.  Yes.", says Ethan.  He is so cute.  They all deal with it in different ways.  Sophia has been more sensitive and tearful.  On two different occasions, just the two of us have gone shopping, just to have some girl time.  It's fun, and she loves it.  I think she especially loves the one-on-one time away from her brothers.  She gets Mom all to herself and doesn't have to compete.

Then when we had about a half hour left, I asked the kids who wanted to say goodbye to the house.  Sophia was the only one.  Drew said he already did, Ethan didn't care.  So the girls went.  My Mom joined us too.  We said goodbye to every room, Sophia even said goodbye to the fridge and fireplace!  

I didn't think I was that attached to this house.  (We've just been so excited about where we are going!)  But as we went through it, I couldn't believe how many memories, good and bad, we have had there.  It has been a really adventurous 5 years.  Bringing twins home from the hospital, living with infant premature twins,  late nights with Drew, surviving Drew's tantrums, who was in what room at what time, a christmas fire in the dining area, the list goes on, projects that we've done, things we wanted to do but never even started yet.  Let's just say there were a couple of tears, and I wasn't the only one.

Now we are out and never going back in.  It seems so final.  It's weird staying across the street and seeing other people move in to "your" house, wondering how they will set it up?  Will they keep it up?  Will they appreciate all that we've done?  The hard work we've done?  Will they like the pumpkin plant Drew and Grandma planted in the backyard?  Will they be good neighbours to my parents and the other good neighbours that will be leaving behind?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and mostly never know.

My heart is a little sad this evening as I am leaving a chapter of my life.  Somehow, I just have to leave that behind.  It really feels like a fresh start.  So in that way I am excited to look forward and begin the next part of our journey, excited for what is to come, excited for the unknown, for the way our family is growing and changing.  God is good, and He has given us this land, and many blessings in this move.  (I hope one day to share more of that story)  

A couple of days ago, Mark's Dad gave us a couple of verses he had for us in this move.  Thanks Dad!

The first one is Psalm 27:14 

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord"  It was so cool that he gave us this verse because I already had it underlined in my Bible.  I underlined it years ago, and it's one that I keep going back to.  

The second verse is Psalm 25:12-14

"Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord?  He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.  

He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants with inherit the land.

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them."  

Also very cool!  Very cool to see God at work.

Well, I'm getting tired.  Think I'll have a shower and go to bed.  Big day tomorrow.  The twins turn the big 3, and we get to go to a one year old cousin's birthday.  Fun times!  :)

Goodnight!

16 days left . . . My sister and I had a good day of packing today.  Really tiring but we actually got a lot done.  It finally seems like it is coming together.  My Mom took the twins for a while and Drew was at Nana's.  Without the kids around we went to it.   It goes faster when you don't have to repack things, explain why you are putting that particular item into a box, get a drink for someone or clean up a spill.  It is an adventure though and never a dull moment!  :)

Tomorrow I'm sure I won't get as much done, but will be glad for the break since we get to go to Oma's for lunch.  I am really looking forward to it.  My Oma is such a special women.  Someone in my life that I really look up to.  Then I'm thinking of a little quiet time for the kids, in which time I might get a little packing done.  For supper we are having a friend and some family over for dinner.  Farmer Sausage on a bun, Corn, watermelon.  Yum.

Below is a sneak preview of the place we are moving to.  

Drew and Grandma scoping out the field.  (Sorry, can't get the computer to co-operate!!)

One of the out-building on the property.  Very unique.

One of our cows.  Okay, it's not our cow, but the guy who owns it will rent the field from us until the later fall.

The countdown is on.  Some of you may heard that we are on the move.  Literally.  This past summer has been slightly stressful as we have been trying to sell our house and then deciding which of two houses we would pick as our next home.  Our house is now filled with boxes of all sizes, some filled, some waiting to be delicately packed or just thrown in, as the kids would like to do.  Although, they are pretty good with emptying the boxes too!

The winner is Mt. Lehman.  And we are very excited!  We have three weeks before we have to be out of our house.  Two weeks of packing and one week of cleaning.  But I'm hoping the cleaning won't take that long.   At that point we will be moving into my parent's house for one to two months, while we do renovations on the new place.  So many things to do, so many decisions yet to be made.  

I am also very excited for this place, because I feel like it is a gift from God.  There are many things that needed to fall into place for this all to happen and I know He is the only one to pull this miracle together.  It is  3 acres with two houses.  We will live in the bigger house and my brother is moving into the smaller house.  I will explain the whole story in the following weeks, but for now I'll just say that we are very excited for this part of the adventure and God is good!

Wow!  I can't believe that it has been about a year since I wrote here last.  Actually I wasn't sure if it would still be here.  I thought about starting a new one, but thought it would be easier to just keep on this one.  So a new background and a new start!  I won't promise that I'll write lots, but I'll do this one and see where it takes us.  

I can't believe how hot it has been in Abbotsford this summer.  We were doing pretty good, but last week seemed to be slightly unbearable in our house.  The upstairs was about two degrees hotter then outside.  So we spent time in our  kiddie pool, and then when it got too hot to be outside, we tried to be in our air-conditioned bedrooms (which we slurged on last summer - and so glad we did!) and find air-conditioned places to go to, like the Library, Costco and Ikea.  Thank goodness this week is supposed to be cooler, and by cooler I still mean 30 degrees some days.  Although the end of the week is supposed to get rain.  Ahh, Abbotsford!