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???

Beware... below are cute shots of adorable children... children who, today, I can and want to claim as my own...

 My boy with his Petey Bear....  I tell, ya, poor lion must feel so lost and alone.  Ephraim is always all over Petey...  and, the durned bear weighs a tonne!! 

And, I mean, really, don't you just want to snatch her up and kiss those cheeks???  I think she gets more beautiful every time that I see her.  Gorgeous.  (I'm not biased at all!!!)

 

I know.  I can hardly believe it myself.  But they were getting along!  And here's the proof!!!  Ahhhh....  a couple of creative kids....  that's what I like to see!

Wahoo!  The Knitty surprise is up!  Just two pattern surprises, but oh my goodness, how ADORABLE is miss dashwood????  You must go and look at it.  Really.  Look, another link to click on...  Would three links make you look???

 

Why are you still here???  Go and See ALREADY!!!

I am in process of posting a bunch of pics of my crafts...  hopefully I will link them all here, and if you're interested, just click on the link!  Otherwise, or just to see all of them, click on Crafty Hands, and then on Crafts.

Crocheted Lizard Scarf

Wrong Gauge Chicknits bucket (how gorgeous is that model??)

Chicknits Bucket hat pour moi

Granny Square Purse

Sharlene's Granny Square Purse

Ja's ribbed touque - crappy picture

Ephraim's crocheted slippers

I think that's about it at the moment...  unfortunately, I sent my crochet-a-long hat to my sista Glenna for her birthday.  So, no pic of that just yet!  Mebbe she can send me a pic???

Thanks go to mom for relinquishing her digital camera so I can go nuts with all these pictures!!

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'.

Whew.  Are we there?  Are we back in the realm of the healthy living?  It has been two weeks since we've all been healthy.

Here's how it went...  Ephraim got pneumonia, Jason got the flu, Jason got over the flu, Ephraim, while having pneumonia, got the flu, Keyzia got the flu, Ephraim got over the flu, Keyzia got over the flu.  We did about ten tonnes of laundry.  Then, I got the flu.

Nice.  I thought that Momma's weren't allowed to get sick!  Doesn't it say that in the handy dandy momma handbook we all get upon giving birth???  ((please please note the extreme sarcasm here!!))

So, Ja took the day off work to take care of me, on Valentine's Day, because he just might be the sweetest man alive...  although, it was him that brought the flu home in the first place.  But, I digress.  I had not one but two naps.  Two hours each.  That totals four hours of sleep DURING THE DAY.  WITH. NO. INTERRUPTIONS.  I know, it's very hard to believe.  In fact, I'm kind of wondering if I dreamed it.

But, by the will of God, I think we may all be on the mend.  Ephraim just has a couple of days of meds left, Keyzia's totally better, Ja's totally better, I'm still tired, but feeling better all the time.

Now, back to packing.

ick.

 Imagine a room with 50s decor where everything's made from wool. Knitted cakes, teapots, cups and biscuits - even a knife and loaf of crusty white bread - while over in the corner sits a knitted valve mantel radio.

This is really amazing.  An entire room made out of knitting!

me:  Keyzia, can you put this diaper in the garbage for me?

Keyzia:  It would be my pleasure, momma.