SOMETIMES BLOGGER LAND IS CRAZY

If you want to know why I ended up posting the last thing twice, here's the story: Last night I wrote the blog, but when I went to post it the page kept coming up that it was 0% published. So, I left it and then published it this morning only to find out that it had actually published before. Aaarrrggghhh! Oh well, you get to learn about me twice.

On a brighter note, we are finally officially moved out of the old house. We finished moving all of our stuff over last night. We had been waiting for Mike to finish cleaning out the shed. Brian talked to him on Monday night and told him that we needed it all cleaned out because we had to get our stuff out of the old place. He said he would take care of it right away. He brought a truck up to the shed and I suppose he took everything he wanted. So, on Wednesday the kids and I took everything out, put it in boxes and left it outside for him. I hate to do that, but I have to leave for Whitehorse today, so last night was the last opportunity to get everything moved. Needless to say, his stuff is still sitting there. I wonder how long I should leave it before I haul it to the dump. We hate having junk around our yard, something will have to be done! Apart from that we have got all our firewood sitting in our yard waiting to be cut up, and we have all the lumber to make the woodshed. Hhhmmmmm. I guess that means more building projects to get done. Speaking of building projects - here is Brian with the garbage bin he built (before he put the lid on).

And...here are the porch rails I built. Fancy eh? Unfortunately they won't be painted until spring due to cold weather.

So, now you know why I haven't been posting too often - I've just been too busy. Have a great weekend. Maybe I will post again after my trip to Whitehorse.

TAGGED

Since Sonya tagged me - here are 8 wonderful (or maybe not so wonderful) things about me:

1. I talk to myself all the time when I am shopping.

2. I love to read almost anything.

3. I am addicted to doing sudoko puzzles. (Thanks Mom!)

4. I teach music at school.

5. I detest cleaning house.

6. I love to work with my hands - building, quilting, etc.

7. I really suck at math (the kids never come to me with math homework).

8. I tend to be way too cranky.

Good thing there were only 8, I could barely think of those.

GETTING SETTLED IN

Well, the move went quite well. We still have to move some things into the shed, but we will do that during the week. While we were moving I kept thinking of great things that I could enter on my blog - but, of course, I can't remember any of them now. Anyways, we are really enjoying being in our new house. Our wood stove is awesome - we are so glad we spent the extra money to get one with a catalyst. It has a temperature control, so we have control over how hot our house is. The kids were a great help this weekend. They moved all of their stuff themselves - I didn't have to pack a box or carry a box for them. What a difference from when they were younger and we had to do everything for them.

Naomi is working now. She babysits for the school tutor after school. They have 3 kids, and one more on the way. She really seems to enjoy it. She doesn't work everyday, just a two to three times a week. She gets paid very well too - $18/hour. Not bad for a 15 year old.

That's about all for today. Maybe one of these days I will put up some more pictures. However, we are using our new computer now, so it will take me a while to figure out how everything works.

INCOMMUNICADO

Just thought I would let you know that as of tonight I will be unavailable by email, blog or phone until sometime on Monday. We are rebooting our computer tonight and donating it to our other daughter, Jedine. Our new computer should be up and running some time this weekend, and we will have internet again on Monday if all goes as planned.
Have a great weekend!

FUN TIMES WITH BRIAN

Sometimes working on the house is such a blast. Take this picture for instance:

Brian needed to get between the house and the porch to put some spray insulation in the space where the corner meets. Although he may be skinny, it doesn't mean he doesn't get stuck. And after all the work building those steps, I wasn't prepared to take anything apart to free him. Of course I was no help at all because I was laughing so hard. Lucky for him he finally got out.

Today was the first of our Wednesday afternoons when we get to work together. The grade 1/2 teacher teaches quilting on Wednesdays, so since Brians students are all in other classes, he teaches the grade 1/2 class. Let's just say he was very worn out by the end of the day. There are 15 kids in the class and they keep you hopping. He did journals with the grade 2's while I took the grade 1's. Then we joined together to do art. This was a very, very busy time. Who knew that kids cannot colour independently, or that their Mom's don't want them to press too hard with their crayons. Apparently "Mom doesn't want me to use my crayons." Anyways, when we were all finished we had a stunning display of flying geese and bulrushes and we were still standing.

LUNCHTIME ENTERTAINMENT

This afternoon when we picked up the mail, there was a parcel for the girls of some back to school clothes they had ordered. So, of course a fashion show had to take place. I tried to get them to do some model stances, but no luck - teenagers you know!!

Hannah is modelling the lastest in fashion shirts for teens.

Hannah shows off a crop jean jacket - it has embroidery on the back. Very chic!

Naomi is showing off a fitted jean jacket. A must have for every wardrobe???

Naomi is wearing the latest in jogging suits - black with pink accents.

Are these actually designed for jogging?

Every girl needs a black hoodie in her closet.

Modelling camoflauge evening wear - your choice of green or pink.

Naomi is very stylish in this black sequinned top.

One of my personal favourites - can be worn everyday by some people.

Josh has the typical male reaction to all of this - "will this never end???"

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

1. The Case of the Evil Hand

I have been having a lot of trouble with my right hand lately. I think it is from all the hammering, etc at the house. Anyways, I think it is carpal tunnel syndrome, but the doctor will not give me a firm diagnosis either way at this point. In the meantime he has given me a splint that I wear at night. This is kind of like a childhood dream come true. I remember playing with my friend, Adrienne, and we would often pretend that we had broken limbs and would wrap them up in cast-like things. I've never had any broken bones, so this is as close as I've come. Anyways, it holds my wrist in the right position so that I don't have the problem of my entire arm going painfully numb at night. It has made a big difference - actually allowing me to get some much needed sleep. The only problem now is stiffness in my wrist in the morning after a night of no movement. Hopefully I won't be needing it for too long. Fortunately for Brian, I haven't yet clobbered him over the head with it.

2. Our New Pet

This little guy has adopted us. Little does he know Brian is currently planning his demise because we need to seal up the bottom of our house and he keeps making tunnels through the dirt.

This is the fattest gopher I have ever seen. He is obviously fattening himself up for winter - he has been getting fatter everyday (kind of like Oscar). He is actually pretty cute, but he can't stay. Sorry.

3. Garbage

We have made innumerable trips to the garbage dump in the past 2 months. Hopefully this will be close to the last. It's a very good thing that we do not have to pay to dump garbage - or we would be seriously broke.

4. Furniture

Here are the long awaited picture. Unfortunately when I took the camera to the house to take these I didn't realize that the kids had been camera happy and the batteries were almost dead. I only managed to get this one picture before they died completely.

"WE'VE GOT THE POWER"

Exciting news!!! When we arrived at the house after work yesterday - with our new hot water tank - we found out that they had hooked up the power. We were ecstatic. Now all we need are some light bulbs!

Pictures soon, I promise!

PEOPLE "IN THE KNOW"

For those of you who want to be "in the know", but aren't, I will rectify the situation for you: our septic tank has now been installed, we are just waiting for the power and phone to be hooked up, then we will be all set to move in. Our furniture just arrived today - maybe tomorrow I will take some pictures - I was too tired today to bother. Lame, aren't I. Here's my excuse: I took the girls in to Whitehorse this weekend. I took a personal day on Friday and we left in the morning. I spent Friday afternoon running around to appointments and going to Walmart. Saturday morning Hannah went to the orthodontist at 8:00, then the girls had their hair done, then it was shop, shop, shop. I spent some stressful moments trying to secure things to the roof racks on the truck and bungee cord the back of the canopy closed over things that were too big to fit in with the door closed. On the way home Naomi drove for over half the trip. Normally it is great to have an extra driver, but we haven't yet hit the stage where I can just sit back and relax. Let me tell you - it's hard being the "co-driver". But she is turning out to be a very good driver. Although I did have to remind her to keep her speed down a few times. Needless to say when we arrived home at 5:30 I was already exhausted and we still had to unload the truck. I put away as much stuff as I could, then just collapsed. I have since noticed that some other kind soul in this household has put things away. Thank you from the bottom of my poor, tired, aching feet!
As is this was not enough for an aging mother of three - these three all decided to have friends sleep over. We ended up with 7 kids here for the night including ours. I just looked at them, said "lights out by 1:30. Please don't be too loud", and went to bed. Today was another day of working on the house. Brian was working on the septic drain pipes - he had to join everything together and bring it out to meet up with the pipes going into the tank. I spent the day working in the kitchen - the cupboards used to have linoleum on the bottoms????? When we took it off we had a terrible time trying to get rid of the glue. Sanding was taking way too long. So, I bought some birch veneer and I am putting that on the bottom of all the cupboards. It is looking very good. But my hand is so bad right now that I can only do a bit and then have to rest my hand because it has gone numb again. Oh well, more on that another time, or not. So, now you are among the people who are "in the know." Hope you are satisfied.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

So, today we all went back to school. It was a great day. I always love the first day - the kids are so excited to be there. The grade 1 and 2's are especially fun. They are a little nervous, but so cute! My kids are not so excited to be going - school is not cool when you're a teenager. Brian is happy about his class this year. It looks as though he will only have 7 kids in his class - a welcome relief after the last 3 years. He has some fun things planned for the year - he has an ant farm and they are going to have a greenhouse. It will be a great year for them. Naomi is in grade 10 this year. She will be working really hard, preparing for provincial exams at the end of the year. They have made some changes to the high school this year and they will have the opportunity to do some neat science experiments. Hannah is in grade 9 and Josh, grade 8. They are hoping to just coast through the year - little do they know that I have other things planned (such as homework!!!). LOL. Actually I am sure we will all have a great year. It's great to be paid to go to school.

ANOTHER TASK ACCOMPLISHED

Brian and I spent the last couple of days working on building a front and back porch. We were going to build both porches the same, but I woke up in the middle of the night with a brainwave, so we ended up changing the back porch plans so they will look better with the deck we are putting on next year. How come these ideas always come at night???

Here is the platform, just waiting for stairs.

Brian hard at work, cutting out the stair risers.

I had to do all the hard work.LOL. As always the ground isn't exactly level, so the foundation has to be set first. I hate this part of the work - it is too finicky and never looks like much has been accomplished.

Step one has been completed. And it even holds my weight! Whew!!!

Filling in the knot holes with wood filler. The kids get to do the painting tomorrow.

The finished product.

The front porch still needs rails, but they won't be added until we've moved our big pieces of furniture in. I would hate things to get all bashed up before we even move in.

Not bad for a couple of amateurs. Actually we are pretty proud of our accomplishment.