Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

I’m home! Jer and I ended up staying here yesterday night already because we had moved all our stuff and we didn’t want to leave it here unattended. The girls stayed at mom and dad’s for night so that when we got up today I could just get to work. I worked all morning on putting the girls rooms together because I wanted them to get here and feel like they had their own special space. So I vacuumed, cleaned walls, baseboards, windows and doors. Put up blinds and curtains. Set up their beds with their new bedding and their canopies. Oh so sweet. They squealed with delight when they got here in the afternoon and saw their rooms : ) That was worth everything.

I’m squealing in delight cause I got my HIGH SPEED internet back!!! And because of my new kitchen, which is probably one of my most favorite things about my house. Okay, here’s a peak at my absolutely incredible kitchen…happy, happy, very happy sigh…

Last time I put up a picture it looked like this…

and now…

The fridge is just a loaner because ours isn’t in yet (it’s black like the rest of our appliances). The light fixture that has been my pride and joy. It was the first thing I picked for the house and I LOVE it (notice I got a matching dining room chandelier? I searched the internet until I found something that matched…it matches exactly. Same crystals and design by 2 different companies.)

So that’s my happiness right now. I’m going to put my bedroom together in the next couple days and then I’ll put pictures up.

I have one or two more boxes to unpack in the kitchen. Tomorrow I’ll be putting clothing away, cleaning the last bathroom (everything else is clean…yay), and hanging the pictures. I have to put up 2 more curtains and then it will be all cozy in here. I love my house. Back to unpacking…

Well, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have left me encouraging comments in the last few months as I’ve immersed myself in the process of building our house.  I know it hasn’t made for terribly interesting or regular blog reading, but it’s been our life.  It was a season.  And as of tomorrow that season has finally come to an end.  I’m wasted, I’m weary, I’m excited, I’m overjoyed, I’m absolutely IN LOVE…I love my house.  It has turned out so much better than even my wildest expectations…okay, maybe it’s exactly what I imagined : )

Today was the best day yet because our cabinets (and my awesome new custom made desk) went in.  It made it my home.  I spent the day yesterday and today touching up baseboards and little paint jobs here and there that needed finishing.  I spent the evening yesterday scurrying around packing up stuff at my parents.  I spent the evening today with Tara doing some last minute shopping for a few things that I needed.  Tomorrow will be cleaning and a really, really huge grocery shopping.  And if the toilets go in, we’ll be spending the night there tomorrow already.  If they don’t, we’ll be there Friday.  Happy, weary sigh…

Pictures will follow as soon as my internet is hooked up and my curtains are hung.

I’m DONE.  D.O.N.E.  done, done, done.  Done painting!  Bet you never thought you’d hear that did you?  Ha, ha!  I must say in my defense that I hardly painted at all in the last 3-ish weeks.  I was helping with hardwoods and now tile.  So I’ve been busy doing other things.  But as of today I put the final coat on the final wall.  There are still some touch-ups to be done, but that’s just little stuff.  I’ll work on that this weekend.

We are moving in on February 29.  That’s in 9 days.  NINE DAYS.  Woohoo!!!  Can anyone tell I’m a little excited?  It’s going to be a crazy week at our house, but it’s going to be great!  Cabinets being installed Saturday, Monday/Tuesday plumbing finished, Monday/Tuesday shelving being installed in closets and pantry, Wednesday/Thursday stone being put on fireplace, Wednesday/Thursday baseboards and doors being put up.  Friday…MOVING DAY!!!  Yippee!!!  Lots of exclamation marks in this post!

And you know what?  If anything goes off schedule (which is always the greatest possibility), as long as my cabinets and my toilets are in, I’m in.  That’s all I need.  Woman can live without stone on fireplace and baseboards on walls.  I’ll even hang my own bathroom door if I must.  But I am going home.

As for the rest of my week…Thursday we went to pick out and order our appliances.  Originally we were only going to get a new dishwasher and a microwave (OTR - Over The Range), but one night after Jer had already fallen asleep it hit me…our appliances are WHITE!  Our cabinets are DARK!  That will NEVER do!  So I woke him up and told him we have an emergency, we must have black appliances to go with our nice dark cabinets (If anyone knows of anyone who wants to buy nice gently used white fridge and stove, we got some for sale).  He agreed with my logic, late as it was.  I’m so very excited because to boot, I’m getting a flat top stove…eeee!!!  I thought we couldn’t afford it (since we didn’t exactly budget for a new fridge and stove), but they had a super deal on one and it was only $120 more than the coil top stove.  Yay me!

We had a nice weekend.  Saturday Jer worked at the house all day.  In the evening we went out for supper with Bentley and Helen to the Old Spaghetti Factory and then to Baked Expectations for cheesecake…heavenly.  What a perfect evening.  Sunday back to the house to work and work some more.

Monday was a holiday so the kids went to Jer’s parents and we worked on starting the tile.  And yesterday I painted and then we worked on tile till 1:00 a.m.  Well, I should say Jer worked on tile and I slept on the floor from midnight until 1:00 a.m. : )  (I made sure to bring a pillow there today so that I don’t get a kink in my neck from using rolled up jackets!).

Now we are off to do more tile.

• Finish hardwoods - check
• Finish painting bedroom - check
• Get 7th row tickets on the floor for Celine Dion concert in October - check, check, check!! : )

My mom really wanted to go see Celine Dion, so I said, what the heck, I’m a concert fanatic, I’ll go with her! I used to LOVE Celine Dion. Haven’t really listened to her much in the last few years, but I’m sure it will be a fabulous concert. Besides I have 8 months to brush up on any new music by her. And my mom is very excited.

As for painting, I am down to my last room. I have ONE room left to paint. I left it till last because I didn’t know what color to paint it. I decided to wait till the end to see what paint I had left over. Well, I have every color left. So do I paint it:

• white
• branchport brown (dark brown of our ceiling and trim…thinking this one is too dark)
• ashley grey (color in the girls rooms and bathrooms)
• gable green (my feature wall color)
• hemp seed (main wall color throughout the house)

Do you see my problem? How do you choose. I’m kind of going between the ashley grey and the gable green. Mostly because I have a whole pail left of the ashley grey and I love the green, but I’d probably have to buy more of it. What do you think? Give me your opinions. I’ve updated the pictures on my sidebar if anyone cares to see some.

You know, as sick and twisted as it may seem, I think I’m going to really miss painting. I’m going to miss going to my house and being alone with my music and my thoughts. I’m really enjoying painting and I probably could have been done a week or two ago if I really wanted to and pushed myself really hard (and found childcare every single day), but I’m kind of dragging it out a little now. I think when we build another house, I’ll do the painting myself again. So yeah, I’m crazy : )

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Sorry about the lack of anything going on around here.  All it’s really been about is house, house, house.  You all are probably as ready for me to be in my house as I am so that I stop yammering on about it…yammering…that’s a great word.

The countdown is on.  February 29.  That’s my deadline.  If it’s not done, it’s going to be close enough that I’m moving in (as long as it has a toilet).  I told Jer he could feel free to continue living at mom and dad’s if he has issues about living in the house if it’s not 100% done, but for me…I’m outta there!  Which is funny because originally it was ME who said “under no circumstances are we moving in if the house is unfinished”.  Well, time changes everything.  And I’m not ashamed to say I was wrong and I changed my mind.  I need my own kitchen and my own t.v. and my high speed internet and my kids need their rooms and space to live.  It’s just all starting to get a little tense around here.  I think 3 months is the max.  Not that I haven’t appreciated it immensely that my parents have opened up their home for us, because I truly have.  I’m just sayin’!

Jer took another day off today to hopefully finish the hardwood flooring (which looks fabulous).  We went to pick out our stone this morning for our fireplace.  Our carpet is supposed to be installed on Saturday if everything goes well (fingers crossed).  Cabinets are being built as we speak and will be installed next week.  Furnace got hooked up today…WE HAVE HEAT!!!  It’s been a cold 2 months to be heating a 1500 sq ft bungalow with 1 construction heater.  We are consistently having -35 to -40 degree temperatures with the windchill (For all you Fahrenheit people out there, when it reaches -40 degrees celsius it’s the same in Fahrenheit…yup, slightly frigid).  Although when it’s that cold outside it usually means the sun is out, and if that’s the case then the house heats up nice and toasty in the afternoon with all the windows facing South.  Lovely.  I’m going to have to get some blinds for the hot summer sun (YES, it does get hot up here in Canada…very, very hot…mmm…heat…).

I’ve had a 2 week hiatus from painting (other than 1 full day and 2 four hour afternoons) and that’s why it isn’t done yet.  During that 2 weeks I’ve done some shopping and found curtains, bedding, cushions, pictures, mirrors, shelves…pretty much all the fun stuff for the house.  I have to get a few curtain rods, some blinds for the bedrooms and a kitchen faucet yet.  Not bad.

Jer’s going to start working on the tile this weekend.  That should be an adventure : )  One nice bright spot in the week is that we are getting taken out for supper on Saturday by our friends as a thank you for taking care of their pets while they were on holidays (or maybe it’s a thank you for not killing the cat, I’m not sure…see previous post about that one).  Whatever the case, I’m sure it will be a nice break from all the hard work of the last few weeks.  We always have a ton of fun with them, so I’m really looking forward to Saturday.  Oh and the other bright spot is watching “The Lipstick Jungle” on Thursday night with Tara.  LOVE that show.  I know, I know, just another evening soap opera, but it’s so great.  Don’t judge me too harshly for my indulgence : )

Wow, I really don’t have anything all that interesting to say today.  Or at all this year so far.  Can you believe February is half over?  And I’ve only posted 7 times this year.  That’s truly pathetic!  My brain feels like mush right now.  When I’m not painting I’m in lala land!  Or so it feels.

Okay, I’ll stop writing just for the sake of saying something and put you all out of your misery.  Hope you are all well.

I had such a good day. Not a very productive one, but very good. Sometimes I think trading productive for good is alright : )

Let’s see…I started off by getting to sleep in until about 8:45. Always a treat. Then we headed to town at about 10:30, making what was supposed to be a quick stop to feed our friends pets and check the litter box. We’ve been taking care of these animals for a week. In that week, contrary to my instructions, I’ve been cleaning the litter box EVERY day. I was told to change it every other day. But early in the week I noticed one of the ornery critters was taking a real liking to the plant in the corner of the dining room and using IT as a litter box. Ew, ew, ew!!! So on that very maddening day, there I was, on my hands and knees, sweeping up dirt, picking up clumps of kitty doo doo with paper towel and muttering under my breath the whole time. “I swear, kitty, if this happens again you are going to be so out in the snowbank. And don’t think I’m kidding either!!” I thought maybe she was rebelling because I hadn’t cleaned the litter box the day before, but when I went to check, it wasn’t even that dirty. So I cleaned it again and today she pulled the same nasty little job. This time I cleaned up the mess and moved the plant into a bedroom. Then I texted our friends “I apologize if your cat and your plant are dead when you get home : )” He texted me back, “Just having lunch at Planet Hollywood. Good about the cats!” Hee, hee. I know he would probably be up for the kitty going bye, bye, but try explaining that to his 2 daughters.

Anyway, back to the good part of the day. I brought Aidan to Becky’s for the day (sending you a shout out, dear friend!!) and Ella came with me to the house. She has been begging to paint. So I intentionally had left her closet unpainted in her bedroom and today was the day. She put on some painting clothes and went to town.

She was sooo proud of herself. She did a pretty good job too.

Then she went to Kathy’s for the afternoon (hey, hey, hey Hottie! Holla!…I’m such a dork) and I was free to paint. So I thought. In the following 4 hours I received a very unexpected phone call from my dear friend Rachelle who lives in Calgary, Alberta (she was also one of my bridesmaids) saying that there is a seat sale with WestJet, can she come visit in April? Yes, yes, yes!!!

And now I have one thing to say…

I AM SO EXCITED!!

She has never been to visit just for the sake of visiting me in all the years she’s been out there. Yes, she was here for our wedding, but that was a different kind of visit, obviously.

Let me give you some background. Rachelle moved to my town when we were in grade 5. She moved just a couple miles from my house (which is practically like being neighbors when you live in the country). We went on the same bus and everything. We hit it off big time. She was very quickly one of my BFF’s. Literally. Her family lived here for 2 years and then her dad got transferred back to Calgary. That was in 1992. Sixteen years ago. I’ve been to visit her about half a dozen times and of course like I said, she was here for our wedding. We made a pact a number of years back that we would keep up mailing letters…gasp…yes, snail mail. Real letters. We don’t email each other ever and that’s the best promise I ever made. I so enjoy getting letters from her. We try and correspond monthly and we have kept our friendship as real as if she were here.

So when she called me today and asked when and how long she could come for, I replied whenever and for as long as she liked. I can’t wait. Yippee!!

• ^{UPDATE: I got an email this morning (Friday) letting me know that her flight would be arriving on Friday, April 18 at 9:21 a.m. and she staying until Monday the 21st.  She’s really coming.  Yay!!}

The second thing that made my day so great was that my hubby took the day off today to spend time installing our hardwoods. It was so nice to be in the house with someone else (especially him). Although I constantly stopped what I was doing to go chat with him or flap my hands and exclaim “I’m so excited!” (in reference to Rachelle coming).

Then a third thing happened to make me smile. Pam, whom I met first from her comments on my blog and then later I met her in person when I went to her new house that she and her husband are building down the road from us to do a decorating consultation with her, showed up at my house today with a large vanilla steamer (drool) to say hi and see our house. I was so blessed. Thank you so much, Pam. It was so thoughtful and such a nice interlude in my day.

Here’s some pictures from my day…

A peek at my colors and the nifty new hardwoods that my very talented husband is installing.

Here’s what EVERY wall looked like after I sprayed the casings. This is our bedroom which I have yet to paint. That brown spray is shiny and glossy, meaning that it has to be sanded really well and then primed over so that my light (white in this case) paint will cover it. LOTS of work. I’m not just blowing smoke here, people. It really is quite a bit of elbow grease. But I’m loving it and I’m so proud of all my hard work. I know, I’m very modest.

So now I’m off to Tara’s for a little R&R to watch the new tv show The Lipstick Jungle or something. I was going to go paint some more, but I’ve decided to let my good day just wind to a close. Tomorrow is another day after all. And I think it’s going to be one filled with shopping. Happy sigh!

Sandy over at 4 Reluctant Entertainers is having a contest and I really, really want to win.  So I’m telling you all about it so that I can have 2 entries, but to tell you the truth, I don’t want you all to go enter because then I have a better chance of winning, right?  But if you really want to then feel free.  There I did my part of the bargain.  Now I have my fingers crossed and my hopes high : )

Is rather nuts! I’ve been painting every waking hour that I have someone to watch my kids in the last few weeks. I’m kind of stalled for a few days now because my mom is working and I’m really, really hesitant to ask people anymore. I HATE asking people to watch my kids. It’s very very hard to ask for favors. Anyone else feel that way?

Anyway, yes I am STILL painting. I’ve had that comment so many times in the last couple of weeks that I’m ready to lose it on someone. I am only one person. I’m painting 1500 square feet (1 coat primer, 2 coats paint, plus spraying all the casings and doors and sanding and priming over the spray that landed on the walls) BY MYSELF!!! Normally when a painting crew comes in and paints a house they have 3 or 4 people (who do this for a living) and they can knock out a house in a few days. I unfortunately cannot. Not to mention I’m painting on an interesting schedule. I finally had one person who came in the other day and said “Wow, you are going really fast and it looks amazing!” Thank you! That was the encouragement I needed to hear.

In other news, we went to see William Joseph in concert on Wednesday and I was blown away. He is incredible. I’ve seen him before, but that was just when he opened for Il Divo. This time it was all about him. I can’t believe how fantastic he is. He has a new cd coming out soon and one of his songs is in the top 5 picks for the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. How cool is that?

This weekend I was blessed to spend 2 nights away with 20 girlfriends. We ate, chatted, laughed, ate, watched a movie, did I mention that we ate? A lot? I haven’t been that full since…well last February I guess (it’s an annual thing). I was so excited when my prayer sister Leesh gave me a lovely pajama set and some lotion from La Senza/Victoria Secret. It was such an enjoyable, relaxing weekend that was SOOO needed by moi! My body just crashed by Saturday afternoon. After non-stop painting for weeks on end, it was exactly what I needed.

Jer is starting to put the hardwoods in today. This is a very exciting and much anticipated event. I LOVE my hardwoods. They are exactly what I wanted. Our lighting is also going in tomorrow (if I can manage to finish painting the ceilings tonight…looks like I might be pulling and all nighter!). I can’t wait to share more pictures with you. I’ve been trying to keep my link on my sidebar updated. I have a few more to add.

Here’s something fun…

I bought this very large canvas painting to go in our bedroom. Isn’t is grand? Well, I think so. I made Ella stand beside it so you could see how big it really is. I’ve decided to do my whole bedroom in layers of white textures and then have this painting as my focal point. I can’t wait to see the final result.

Another interesting thing…the very nice people who bought our house…she’s a blogger! Isn’t that neat? I found her today and I’m so excited. Her name is Jenn and her blog is Loving Every Minute. Go check it out if you have a chance.

I’ve also been tagged to do a 5 Randoms meme by Grandmother Goddess of the Garden from Barely Controlled Chaos-Life as I know it. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a meme, so we’ll see if I have anything random…

THE 5 RANDOMS

THE MISSION:
Share five random/weird things about myself.

Share five places that I “want to see or want to see again.”

Tag five random people and link to them…and let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay, here it goes!

Five random/weird things about myself

1. I LOVE ketchup chips. Love them. Heart them. Will eat a whole bag by myself. And then of course regret it…but only momentarily

2. I was Savage Garden’s biggest fan of all time. I’m sure of it. They didn’t come to my province so I flew to another province to see them and then when I got home I found out they were going to be in the U.S. about 7 hours from my hometown and I bought tickets again and dragged Jer down there. This time we met them and I was in heaven. I got my picture taken with Darren and I was ecstatic.

3. I’ve always wanted 4 kids. Right now I’m perfectly content with my 2 girls and I’m having a very hard time deciding if and when I would like more. I guess time will tell.

4. Both of my labors were pain free (and that was with no drugs). The first one was tiring as I pushed for 3 hours, but neither of them had any pain. I guess I went through enough pain when I was sick with my Crohn’s that God gave me a break. For which I’m very thankful.

5. I had very blond hair until I was 15. I had just had my surgery and my hair had literally died from my body not getting enough nutrients while I was sick for 2 years and so I cut it all off to let it grow out healthy. But when it grew out it was very dark brown. How weird is that?

Five Places I Want to See or See again.

1. I want to go back to Italy. I went there with a school group in grade 12 and it went far too quickly. I’d like to go there on a leisurely vacation with my husband and explore.

2. I’ve been to London, England and I would love to see more of England. I LOVED London and I love history and I would really like to explore more of the countryside.

3. I’d like to go to Australia. It’s always been one of my top 5 places to visit in my lifetime.

4. Hawaii. Mmmm…

5. I’d like to go back to visit my Val. : )

Five people I’m tagging to do this meme…

1. Becky from Mills’ Memoirs

2. Robin from A Day in the Life…

3. Mel from Creative Peeps

4. Nicole from July 30, 2006

5. Jen from My 3 boys and I

Now I’m sitting and impatiently patiently waiting for my dear, sweet 24 year old brother who doesn’t have his own car (so he constantly borrows my mom’s car) to bring said car back to their house so that we can leave to go do the shopping that had been planned for the day (I was going to leave 2 1/2 hours ago), but he has yet to call me back to tell me he’s coming and it appears he’s turned off his phone. Deep breath…So in the meantime I think my husband will be tearing himself away from work and using his lunch hour to come and get us. What a guy.