Barring unforseen circumstances, tomorrow is the day we move into our new home. There have been some happy memories of this place, however.
Moving is HARD work.
August 1, 2006 was the day we moved into this apartment as a family. We'd lived here for a couple of months the previous year with my sister, but this time it was going to be home to us. Our idea of "unpacking" was to dump boxes of stuff on our bed and sort through them a few at a time. This strategy proved unsound and we will not attempt it again. At around 9 pm when we were still trying to find Hayden's pyjama bottoms, the poor little guy fell asleep on top of the pile of clothes. Not optimal.
Since moving here we've added another baby to the family. Silas joined us on December 5th the year we moved in, and it was this apartment that we brought him home to. This apartment is soaked in the cries of babies, the shrieks of toddlers, and the giggles of preschoolers.
Tomorrow we will start fresh in a new home. A home to be filled with more laughter and joy. More memories.
I haven't blogged much about my extended family, so I guess it's time to fill you in on some of the other people you will "meet" as you read my blog.
I have the most fantastical, absolutely amazing parents in the history of the universe. If you think yours are better, it's just because you didn't have mine! *winks* My mother, Joan, is a domestic goddess who was the absolute best stay at home mom that any child could ever ask for. She is my role model, my idol, the person I strive to be like. She is beautiful and has aged more gracefully than anyone I know. I hope at her age to look like her.
My beautiful, beautiful Mommy. *muah*
She devoted her life to God, her husband and her children, in that order. One of my most prominent memories of life with my mother is coming home from school, opening the door (we never had to use a key to get in) and calling "Mom?!" from the doorway. Door still open. Only one foot inside the back porch. 99% of the time Mom's sweet voice would call back, "Yes Joanie?" and I would come inside. On that odd 1% of the time that she had gone to a neighbour's house or was working in our vegetable patch and lost track of time, I would dump my backpack next to the door and go right back outside to search for her. It wasn't worth being inside without my mom. My mom was my friend as I grew up, but there was a balance there. She was able to still be my friend without letting her role as authority and disciplinarian slip. I hope to achieve that balance with my boys.
Then there's my Daddy, James. I have always been Daddy's girl. He was definitely not the disciplinarian in our family. A common phrase among my siblings and I was "If Mom says no, it means no. If Dad says no, it means maybe." He's a barrel of fun and laughs and still has the best cuddling lap in the world, even if I am 29 years old now. I will forever be Daddy's Angel.
My Daddy with my baby.
All I can say is "best parents ever" and I hope that Johnny and I can raise our children even half as well as they did.
I am the youngest of four children, and I'm the youngest by a lot. There's a 13 year gap between myself and my youngest sister. The oldest is Carolyn.
Carolyn and Silas WAYYYY back.
Carolyn is mom to Russell (almost 23), Tiffany (21) and Melissa (almost 20), and is about to be grandma for the first time to a little boy that we think is going to be named Wyatt. We'll find out tomorrow when he's born!
Second is my brother Jimmy, who I don't have a picture of. Jimmy left home when I was about 4 years old and I've only seen him twice since. He has a son named Kyle, who I also don't have a picture of. Kyle is 17...I think.
My youngest sibling is my sister, Linda. We've been very close for my whole life and are even able to read each other's minds on occasion. She's mom to Adam (21) and Beckie (almost 19).
Linda with Silas in 2007.
So now that you know the cast of characters, the story will make more sense. You'll be hearing a lot more about these folks in the coming weeks, starting tomorrow with the birth of Melissa's baby boy!
So here I am, surrounded by boxes, with only a week til moving day and I think I've decided something.
This is the longest week of my life.
I swear to you, it's only Tuesday and I feel like a month has passed since Sunday night. I'm so anxious and eager for the move now that I just want it to happen. I'm dying to get my dishes in the cupboards and my pictures on the walls. I want to cook dinner in my new kitchen and watch TV in my new family room and sleep in my new bedroom. I want to hang out in my backyard. I want to take pictures of the new place to post here on this blog.
Well I've been quite lax in updating because things have been more than a little crazy here. Packing, appointments for Hayden's kindergarten checkup, family visiting from out of town, etc. So here is the update that I should have posted before.
Johnny and I are getting ready to move into the house of our dreams. Now before you start envisioning a pink palace in the clouds, let me tell you what the house we've dreamed of really has. I've never been one for marble halls and diamond sunbursts. What we wanted in a home was simple:
Enough bedrooms to have a room for family that comes to visit.
A kitchen that I could actually TURN AROUND in.
More kitchen cupboards than I have things to put in them.
A dishwasher.
A backyard big enough for the kids to play in.
More than one bathroom.
A playroom for the kids.
An office for the computers.
A fireplace.
The only thing our new place is missing is the last, and that can be added later. We are beyond happy. I will post pictures the day we move in. It's a beautiful home and it's just around the corner from Hayden's school. It's truly a home that was made for us.
In other good news, as of tomorrow I will be wiping a debt off my record that has been bothering me for years. My first car (which I no longer own, having sold the stupid thing to my father) will be entirely paid for. Hurray for no longer owing money and no longer having to dish out $200 a month for something I haven't had in my possession for 2 years!
So now that you know where I've been hiding (under a pile of boxes) I hope to update you more often, even if the updates are short and sweet. And on September 1st I'm sure there'll be a lot to write about!
So this past week was too crazy to blog. Which kind of sucks when you think about it because in a week that there is no time to blog there are loads of things to blog about. I don't want to subject you to every last detail so I'll give you the condensed version.
We spent the first part of the week looking for houses and apartments since even though we knew that by law we didn't have to move, we wanted to get out of here. Johnny has been aggressive and relentless, pursuing every lead of a new dwelling that he could. We did find the perfect place. Three bedrooms plus an office that could be converted to one, big family room downstairs, one and a half bathrooms, nice backyard, quiet neighbourhood about a 2 minute walk from the primary school that Hayden will be attending, and it is just plain beautiful. We spent an agonizing 2-3 days poring over our budget to be absolutely certain that it was in our range since it's a fair bit more expensive than the dinky little apartment we've been living in and rightly so since it's about 1785697965 times as big. (Not really but work with me on the exaggeration thing.)
We decided we could comfortably afford it and then came the wait to find out if the owner thought we were suitable tenants. We spent 24 hours on pins and needles, but it was worth it when the news came that the house is ours! We move on the first and we're beyond excited. Even the kids can't wait!
That's the good news. Now to the bad news. There's been a setback in the armed forces avenue of our lives.
The day before Johnny had his medical testing done, he went to our family doctor (actually the doofus who was filling in for our family doctor who was on leave...) and got his ears syringed out. He has to have this done regularly because otherwise he gets an extreme buildup of hardened earwax like I have never seen before and loses his hearing. The doofus syringed one ear and wouldn't do the other.
The med tech who did the medical could tell that earwax was the reason that Johnny failed the hearing test in that ear because just two years ago he passed that very hearing test. The other ear was perfect. He even tried to syringe out the ear on his own but didn't have the proper tools to do it and couldn't properly finish the job. He said he was not failing Johnny based on earwax and tried to pass him based on previous test results. Ottawa wants the hearing test redone. So that means more waiting and a later BMQ date. Also the infantry profession will likely be closed for the year at that point so he will either have to pick a different profession or wait longer.
My first reaction to this was disappointment, but it faded quickly. I'm thinking this might be a good thing. First of all, it means he'll have some time in the new house with us before he has to be zipped away to BMQ. Second, I'm a firm believer that God has a hand in everything and perhaps something bad would have happened if he had gone on time. Perhaps there would have been an accident on the way to BMQ or after he got there. Perhaps he would have been deployed and injured or something if he'd gone sooner. It may be protection from God to have to wait. So I'm still hopeful...but accepting of whatever happens.
And I made a decision concerning this blog. If something does go wrong and he doesn't get accepted, I will keep going. It's still our journey. I'm still raising an army. Just that maybe my General won't actually be a soldier after all. And I'm okay with that because I love him no matter what.
Yesterday we went to look at a house. Not an apartment, a house. We fell in love with it right away since it had many of the things we've wanted in a place, and it's on one of our favorite streets in town. It's a quiet neighbourhood, 2 minute walk from Hayden's school, and has a nice backyard that the boys could play in.
Today we will find out if we're going to be moving into it in on the first of September. Oh look...I'm back to waiting! This time though, I'm waiting with high hopes because I'm almost positive that it's going to swing in our favor and for the first time since we first got married, I'll have a house with a yard for my boys to play in. A yard with flowers and rhubarb and a fire pit. A house with a dishwasher and a laundry chute!
So I won't write much more right now...I'll save it for later today when I get the final word. Wish us luck!
Just leaving you with my life's theme song for today, since I have nothing new to report.
This is a beautiful song and I listen to it constantly, reminding myself amidst the crying and noise and chatter of the boys that this time is so precious and someday I'm going to look back and wish this all back. Enjoy.
You're Gonna Miss This - Trace Adkins
She was staring out that window, of that SUV Complaining, saying "I can't wait to turn 18." She said, "I'll make my own money, and I'll make my own rules." Mamma put the car in park out there in front of the school Then she kissed her head and said, "I was just like you."
-Chorus- You're gonna miss this You're gonna want this back You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast These are some good times So take a good look around You may not know it now But you're gonna miss this
Before she knows it, she's a brand new bride In a one-bedroom apartment, and her daddy stops by He tells her, "It's a nice place." She says, "It'll do for now." Starts talking about babies and buying a house Daddy shakes his head and says, "Baby, just slow down"
-Chorus- You're gonna miss this You're gonna want this back You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast These are some good times So take a good look around You may not know it now But you're gonna miss this
Five years later there's a plumber workin' on the water heater Dog's barkin', phone's ringin' One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin' She keeps apologizin' He says, "They don't bother me. I've got 2 babies of my own. One's 36, one's 23." Huh, it's hard to believe, but ...
-Chorus- You're gonna miss this You're gonna want this back You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast These are some good times So take a good look around You may not know it now But you're gonna miss this You're gonna miss this Yeah, you're gonna miss this
Edit: If you're wondering about the video, the only version of the actual video I could find on youtube had the embedding disabled, but I wanted to share the song regardless. :)
Our landlord decides to do something so completely unexpected (and might I add ILLEGAL) that I haven't even been able to post in this blog for the past few days. (Not that I had anything interesting to talk about other than whining about the wait and wishing that we just knew something. Anything.)
His girlfriend decides she wants to use the apartment we're living in and convert it to a hair salon. So she gives us 30 days to move. Um, what? According to the laws in our province:
"In a periodic tenancy (for example, a month-to-month tenancy) the landlord may give 3 months notice to terminate the tenancy at any time, and the tenant must give one month notice." Source: CMHC
Either way, we want out. I don't have time for this crap. We could fight it and get our extra 60 days in the apartment but if Johnny gets a date for boot camp, I want to be already settled in before he leaves. I don't want to be moving a month later. That would completely and utterly suck.
So back to apartment hunting and fuming. Still no word on BMQ because the bases are closed today. ARGH!
Moving is HARD work.
