And I love it.  Love love love it.  I just might move into it just so I can be surrounded by all that delicious green-ness...

We're painting the hall today!  And, take some kind of wild guess as to what colour we're painting it???  Green!  The prettiest springiest green in the world.  It's called yellow lettuce, but it's green.  A bit reminiscent of a granny apple green, but lighter.  It's bee-yoo-te-ful.

I tell ya, this place is really starting to feel like home.  I was talking with my girlie friend Jen today about how weird that is.  I never felt like any of our apartments were truly "home".  It's a bit hard to explain...  I liked ((most)) of those places, but they were never really mine.  And even though we're still renting here, it really feels like it's mine.  I am at home here.  I look around my living room and I am so happy.  My kitchen is warm and welcoming.  The hallway is inviting.  It's really great.  Even our teeny patch of land in the back is great.  With a sandbox.

I feel like God has given us so much.  So much that we don't deserve, and yet He still keeps piling on the blessings!  I can't be thankful enough.  I couldn't even begin to list my blessings, and those would be just the ones that I know about.

Ahhh yes, life is good.

and I have a green hall!

Want to know what we're having for dinner tomorrow night?

Do ya?

It doesn't matter.  But, whatever it is, it'll be BARBECUED.

Oh ya, you heard me.  BARBECUE.

And, it will be BARBECUED in my own back yard.

Commence drooling...

 

 

now.

---

UPDATE

It's raining.  A lot.  And hard. 

Barbecue tomorrow night instead!

Whew.  I finished the faux finish on part of the bathroom today.  I quite like it.  I would have finished the whole thing, but I had to clean up once the horribles woke up from their nap.  It certainly hides the nasty walls, and I'm quite happy with the tone on tone.  We'll see how it dries.  I just have to figure out how to get it close to the ceiling without getting it on the ceiling!

Had a very busy week otherwise.  Company every day since last weekend!  Whew!  No plans for today tho.  Unless we get a drop in. 

We had the beautiful Caleb overnight on Tuesday.  Allyson had to go to the hospital for some nice iv fluids to pump her up again.  I can't believe how good he was considering that he had no boobies!  Well, no working boobies, anyways!  He slept right through the night, even though I didn't, and we had to wake him up to get him ready to go home again!  He did...  okay...  with the bottle...  wasn't too sure what to do with it to be honest.  He kind of chewed on it while I squirted mommy milk into his mouth... 

I have actually never seen a baby with fatter legs than this little guy.  He makes me laugh.  I think even his ankles have rolls!  Al must be feeding him cream instead of milk...

Since it's a beautiful day, I think I'm going to try and convince my daughter to put some clothes on so we can go for a walk....  we'll see how that goes.

I think the colour bug has bitten me.  I can't wait to paint our hallway....  It's so dull and bland compared to the downstairs.  DOWN WITH WHITE!!  Whew.  Glad I got that out of my system!

Monday I went to the dr's to get a little cist removed from my toe.  I've had it for a few years now, and always just kind of thought it was a wart.  Tried all those over the counter wart jobbies, and they never ever worked.  I finally decided to get it checked out at the dr's, and he said he wasn't surprised they didn't work, because it was a cist!  Interesting...  So, I went in on Monday to get it removed, and now I have two cute little stitches in my big toe.  He said I can take the stitches out myself on Monday if I want to.  Or I can come back in to get them removed.  I'm probably lazy enough to do it myself, or, maybe I'll just get dad to do it on Sunday!

Last night we hosted our first big party!  We had about nine or ten people over for Care Group, and they were all quite impressed with how settled we are...  Is it a compliment or an insult when people tell you that it doesn't look at all like you just moved in??  They brought a lovely birthday cake for Ja's birthday, and even a little housewarming gift.  So sweet!

But now, now, I think it's time for naps.  For all of us.  More company this weekend, and I'm already exhausted!

Okay, so we have these awful awful floors in our new house, and they have been filthy since we moved in...  Crazy filthy...  But, today, my lovely hubby went out and bought me one of them thar Swiffer Wet Jets.  It totally rocks.  Especially for these crapola floors!

In order to get them clean today, first, we vacuumed, then, we mopped...  after the mopping dried, we Swiffered!  I couldn't believe the crap that it picked up after all the other stuff we had done.  Amazing.

On a side note, anyone got some carpet they want to get rid of?

Whew.  We're in.  We have three whole floors to fill with junk now!

Friday we painted, Saturday was move in day.  I am so happy with the colour of my living room.  It is gorgeous.  So warm and sunny.  The kitchen is much more...  smurfy blue than I had expected!  But, that's okay, it's definitely growing on me!

Saturday was organized chaos...  from wakeup at 6:30 until almost everyone left at about 8:00 that night.  We had so many great friends helping us out, it was fabulous.  Ja figured we had about 15 people in here at one point, hauling hauling hauling...  It was pretty much a big chain.  But, it was great to finally be in.  Gotta love the space!

Sharlene and Peter came on Sunday to organize the furniture...  and I love what they came up with.  It's nice and cozy....  I love that I feel happy when I walk into my living room!

So, a huge thanks to all of you who participated in the craziness!  Both with painting, and with moving!  You are all brave brave souls!!

Okay.  Five days from now we will be painting our new town house.  And we're running out of places to put boxes.  They are seriously stacked almost to the ceiling.

I put the kids in there for scale shots...  although, I do think the perspective is off a bit.  Last night, Ja and I packed a bunch of kids' toys.  Mostly so that we don't have to clean them up every night...  but, that's really thrown the kids off too.  Hopefully today I can get the laundry done and start sorting through their clothes tonight!

I tell ya, it's been a few days!  And, it's only going to get worse.  WE. ARE. MOVING. IN. 5 DAYS.  5!!!  commence freaking out... now.

Yah, so we're moving.  Next weekend.  Ack.  Crazy.  Insane.  Can't I just go to sleep and wake up in the new house?  Everything clean and tidy?  Nice and put away?  Now that, that would be ideal.  But, instead, I have a bazillion things to do this week...  and a zillion places to be.  Play practice Monday night, Women in the Word and Ballet on Tuesday, Wednesday we're going for dinner at Ja's Aunt's house...  Thursday, babysitting and packing like a maniacal woman....  Then Friday is painting day!  Hooray! 

Have we been packing?  Probably not as much as we should have been.  Friday I went to see an old friend from Highschool...  who, weirdly enough, has a little girl now!  Man, we used to pass notes in math class all the time.  It had been far too long since we had seen each other.  I tell ya though, she hasn't changed at all!  Still the same old Patricia!  Her baby, eight month old Alexandria is too cute...  She will just about melt your heart with those huge blue eyes.  What an absolute doll.  Don't you agree?

Then, on Saturday, we went bowling with Russell and the boys for their birthdays...  belated for Dalton, and the day after Noah's.  Hard to believe that they are 7 and 5 respectively!!  You can take a peak at some pictures here...  or click photo ops, then find the Bowling Party category.

Frankly, I sucked at bowling.  Came in dead last, but Russell did Cheat!  Lori played a few rounds for Russell, cause she made some crazy excuse as to the baby being hungry...  yah yah.... 

But, it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  Even though I lost hideously.

Today, it's time for church, vegging out, and more packing...  at least unpacking will be fun, won't it???

Why is change so bittersweet?

Ja and I have been doing some work to get the apartment ship shape, and it's really quite sad.  This place has been really good to us.  Jack and Ruby, the building managers, have been amazing.  While we are excited to be going into a new house, we're really sad to be leaving this place.

So, here's some of the progress that we've made....

This is the pile of boxes that we have at the moment...  kind of jammed in the corner behind my knitting chair.

The boxes are taking over the house!  There is now also a stack behind the couch...  Keeping the kidlets off of them is becoming a bit of a problem....

We also took down the bugs from the kids' room tonight...  now THAT is sad.  ((remember those bugs, Amanda???))

Here's the wall of the room before...

How cute, I know...  We had drawn them all on cardstock, coloured them with crayons, and then cut mack tack out a bit bigger than the shape was, slapped them on the wall, and voila!  The beauty part?  They peeled right off without damaging the wall or the paint.  wahoo!!  I don't know if we'll be able to or want to use them again...  But they'll definitely go in the scrapbook.

Here's a close up of one of a couple of bugs...

It's funny how depressingly empty this place is starting to look.  The hominess that I was working for has all but disappeared.  Especially in the kids room.

It's so empty and hollow sounding in there with the shelves down...  I'm surprised the kids aren't more freaked out about it!  I actually think it's Ja and I who are the ones freaking out!

This old apartment has so many memories.  While it's great that we're moving into a bigger place, we're still a bit sad about leaving this one behind.  It's funny how now that the end is near, all the things that annoy us about this place have become 'quaint'.

Well, God seems to be working overtime in our lives right now. 

I don't know if I've mentioned it to any of you, but we'll be moving into a townhouse soon.  A place where I WILL NOT HAVE A WAGON IN MY BEDROOM UNLESS I SO CHOOSE TO ADD A WAGON TO THE DECOR.  Anyway, we needed to supply a fridge and a stove for this new place, and, lo and behold, we have been supplied with a fridge and a stove!  A good friend of mine was at her uncle's place, and he happened to mention that he had a fridge and a stove to get rid of, and she happened to mention that a friend of hers needed a fridge and a stove, and voila!  we have a fridge and a stove!

In our new townhouse, there is also a hookup for a washer and dryer.  We weren't too stressing about getting some, didn't think we could afford it, and etc...  and yet, and yet, God really thought that if we had a house, we should certainly be able to get clean in said house.  Again, my good friend found us a washer and dryer!  Oh, what a good friend she is.  (((Rachel, I love you!!  You're the best!!  You can come and put things in my fridge, and cook on my stove and clean stuff in my washer and dry stuff in my dryer whenever you want to!!)))

So, our new townhouse will be nicely furnished with a fridge, a stove, a washer and a dryer.  And world peace will thus ensue.

When we move into our new house (February 25th), our children will behave, we will be organized, our food will be hot or cold, our laundry will be cleaned...  ahhh yes.  All good things will happen once we are moved.

Am I delusional, or what?