She found my popple stash.

Remember them? Maybe?

The box also contained many of my other childhood stuffed animals. Like this giant bear.

Liliana wasn’t paying any attention to the box, as she was busy playing with toys that Kaylie usually has hidden away.

I took off this afternoon to see if I could finally find a couple bedside tables for the bedroom and some sort of shelving for the closet.

Side note, I saw these lilies as I was pulling out of the garage. They’re right behind our fence. When I was growing up, my mom had a bunch of these in the flower garden that went along our back deck. I haven’t seen them since.

Anyway, we’d searched for hours and hours for the furniture items yesterday and this morning at every home store that we could find. I didn’t see anything that I even remotely liked. I happened to spot Value Village on my way to my first stop and figured I might as well venture in there.

I spent a lot of time in thrift stores when I was a kid and have stayed as far away from them as possible since I moved out of my parents’ place almost 10 years ago. But, I was pretty desperate by this point.

It paid off.

I found exactly what I was looking for. And I found two of them. That matched. For $10.

SCORE.

I had to vacuum out the drawers and used a bazillion Lysol wipes on the outside, but I love them.

I also finally found shelves for my closet at Jysk (why does Saskatoon not have an IKEA? SERIOUSLY?). I may or may not have sliced my hand open while putting them together. And then I may or may not have sworn at them while trying to get them in my closet.

Maybe. What? The kids didn’t hear me so it doesn’t count.

Yesterday evening, we went to check it out.

The mosquitos this year are INSANE. I’m not a huge fan of bug spray, but deemed it necessary.

These suckers are relentless.

There is a splash park right next to the regular park, but since it was hovering around 20/68 degrees, we thought it would be better to wait on the splash park until a hotter afternoon.

There was a little complaining, but within minutes of playing on the non-splash park, the girls didn’t mention it again.

There’s an amazing climbing tree in our front yard that my 10-year-old self would LOVE.

I promised the kids that we’d try to get to the splash park in the next couple days. This morning though, when we checked the weather, it called for thunder storms, not sun.

That’s okay though. I love thunder storms.

Noah took the girls out to the back yard in the morning, before it got all stormy and wet. I had a list of things I still wanted for the house, so we went and did that this afternoon. It started raining around 3:30 and only lasted about 15 minutes. Saskatchewan takes it’s rain very seriously though, as there was water everywhere.

When we were at Indigo, I went into Starbucks. As I was waiting in line, I saw something I’d never seen in a Starbucks before.

Stroopwafels!

Yum.

Liliana was sporting one of the pairs of shoes she got for her birthday. I’m kind of envious of her small shoe collection. Her awesome aunts have great taste. If I’m not mistaken, her skinny jeans are also a gift from an aunt of hers.

We were out for over four hours and the girls did amazing. I was quite impressed with them. Our last stop was the mall. The girls are seriously lacking in non-winter pajamas and The Children’s Place had a 50% off sale, so they each scored a couple pairs.

See the boxes and stuff in the background? The only room I’ve completely unpacked is the bathroom. Ugh.

I’m hoping for some hot sunny days soon so we can get to the splash park or try out our sprinkler, but if we don’t get them, at least I have an excuse to unpack, right?

You’d think.

We’re all moved in.

Noah and my in-laws arrived in Regina bright and early Saturday morning. Just 7 hours later, we finished unloading at the Saskatoon house. I was quite surprised at how quickly we did it. I had everything mostly packed, I just hadn’t touched the kitchen yet. I lost two night of packing to our power being out.

Thunderstorms = AWESOME. Power outages = NOT AWESOME.

I unpacked as much as I could at the new house on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, as my living room looked like this:

Liliana was quite confused with the whole moving thing – even more so when we explained to her that she now has her own room and no longer shares with Kaylie. Add to that, we took the bunk beds apart and, because of the size of the rooms and beds, gave Liliana Kaylie’s single top-bunk bed and Kaylie Liliana’s full-size bottom-bunk bed. I’m sure Lili will get used to it though. Since her bed has rails all around it, she’s calling it her “puppy bed”. (She’s been a “puppy” for the last month or so. Her knees and shins are covered in bruises from crawling around.)

The girls and I came back to Regina on Sunday night, as I had to work until the 30th and Kaylie had a couple more soccer games. We camped out in an empty apartment, using only what fit in our car when we returned to Saskatoon for good on Wednesday evening.

On our way back to Regina on Sunday night, we saw the most amazing rainbows.

Compared to the real thing, the photos are quite horrible and lame (add to that, they were taken with my phone).

Quite a few of my Saskatchewan friends think I’m insane for loving the prairies so much when they long for the mountains, but you cannot see an ENTIRE rainbow when you’re in the mountians. I didn’t get a shot of the entire rainbow, as when we could see it, I didn’t feel safe pulling over to take the shot because it was raining pretty good and I didn’t want to get hit. Saskatchewan people drive in rain about as well as Texans drive in snow. I don’t trust them.

(Side note: Liliana is TERRIFIED of rain. It reminds her of the car wash. During one of the storms last week, we ran from the car to our door as quickly as we could and Liliana screamed her terrified scream the entire 10 seconds – and a couple minutes afterward.)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow like it though.

We also saw a double/inverted rainbow. It almost looked like a mirror image.

Can you see the second part of it? It’s kind of faint.

You miss a lot when you’re surrounded by mountains. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of these beautiful prairies. I love the storms. I love the rainbows. I love the fact that I can see for miles and miles. I love the amount of SKY that I can see. I love that I can drive from Point A to Point B in a straight line.

The mountains are beautiful and majestic, yes, but I spent 25 years living in them. When I go back to my hometown, I feel claustrophobic.

This move is different than any other move I’ve done. Before this one, each move I’ve done has either been within a city, or to a new province. I’ve never done one within the same province. I much prefer it this way, as getting it all done in one day is pretty awesome.

Another thing that’s different is that here, I know nobody. (Besides my in-laws. They’re SO happy to have us living so close, right guys? Did we mention that we’re dropping the kids off later today and not picking them up for a week?) When we moved to Regina, there were a couple awesome bloggers I’d been in contact with. Each one of them turned into a real-life friend.

Here, I know no bloggers. Not one.

Blogger friends differ from non-blogger friends in one big way – photos. Non-blogger friends seem to think that their blogger friends are a bit nutso with all the photos they take and WHY WON’T YOU PUT YOUR CAMERA DOWN, YOU WEIRDO.

Bloggers like to take photos of their weirdo friends.

I’m sure we’ll meet people, I’m not too worried about it.

The day before we left Regina, I made sure to get the girls in the pool. We’re going to miss having a pool in our back yard.

Pool Time was cut a bit short by SOMEONE who decided that if everything didn’t go her way, she would SCREAM. I tried to keep that SOMEONE from ruining it for her big sister as long as I could before I had to take her inside to save everyone else from their ears bleeding.

Tantrums are fun.

I spent the majority of Tuesday night cleaning the mostly empty apartment. I lasted until 3am before I said FORGET IT and went to bed. We packed up the car on Wednesday morning with everything that was left, went to work/daycare, then hit the road to Saskatoon.

I’d been watching Friends from the beginning as I was packing these last couple weeks, and Tuesday night I watched the series finale. It was kind of surreal watching the last scene pan Monica’s empty apartment as I was sitting in my own empty apartment. (Hers was bigger.)

I’m kind of glad that we’re finally here. I’ve traveled Highway 11 between Regina and Saskatoon 7+ times in the last month and I’m about done with it.

I start my (AWESOME) new job next Thursday and am only working two days a week for now. I’m SO excited to be spending the majority of my time outside with the girls instead of inside an office. I’m looking forward to spending the summer in our back yard, the splash park down the street, and any other OUTSIDE place we discover.

Speaking of discovering places, I need to discover where the grocery store is. I’m hungry.

I think we’re going to like it here.

Last night it was cut short at about 8:30pm because our power went out and stayed out for the next 7 hours. The thunder storms we’ve been having this past week are INCREDIBLE and I’ve kept my bedroom window open because I love the sound of storms. I had candles out and ready during the last storm, and ended up using a bunch of them last night.

Lovely as these are,

they do not provide enough light to pack.

My laptop battery lasted long enough for me to watch one and a half episodes of Friends before it died and I went to bed.

We move on Saturday, so I won’t have time to write or read posts in the next couple days. If I ignore you, please forgive me.

xoxo

I thought you all should know that I took the camera to the pool this past week and DIDN’T FORGET IT THERE.

I know you’re all proud of me.

Prior to this trip to the pool, Liliana had been GLUED to me every time we went in there. I didn’t blame her, as she couldn’t touch the bottom.

This last trip, though, I bought her some little water wings. I also discovered that she COULD touch the bottom at the very beginning of the shallow end.

She was pretty proud of herself. She kept trying to go after Kaylie, but would find that she couldn’t get a grip on the bottom anymore, and she’d go back to where she could stand.

We’d bought a bunch of little water guns for Kaylie’s birthday party last weekend, and the girls had them in the pool as well. Liliana hasn’t yet discovered that hers can SQUIRT WATER because she refuses to let go of it for me to teach her.

Kaylie finally found her goggles and spent most of her pool time under water.

I haven’t had her in swim lessons since we moved here, as I don’t really see a point if she’s completely independent in the water anyway.

We’re going to miss our pool when we move.

Liliana and I went to Saskatoon yesterday so that I could have a job interview. It ended up being not so much an interview as a when can you start, what days would you like to work, what would you like to be paid kind of thing.

I’m pretty stoked about it.

I left Liliana in Saskatoon with Noah for the weekend. Kaylie was at a sleepover at her friend’s place. This meant that I had Friday night FREE.

After having it just us three girls for the last couple weeks, my free night was AWESOME.

I stayed up late and slept in until 10am.

WONDERFULNESS.

I was up before Kaylie was due to be home.

Kaylie got hit in the face with a book by her friend right before she was dropped off. I figured she’d develop a shiner as the day went on, but so far it’s just a bit swollen.

*

Kaylie’s soccer team is in a tournament this weekend. They lost their first game early this afternoon, but won their second game 8-O. Kaylie was in net for the second half, but got pretty bored as the ball was on the other end of the field the majority of the time.

Kaylie and I got to spend this evening just the two of us. After her game at 5, we made popcorn, and watched Flicka 2. It kind of took me back to the time in our lives, pre-Noah and pre-Liliana when it was just the two of us. It wasn’t so bad. (Don’t tell the other two.)

Her last game is at 8am tomorrow morning. Whomever scheduled that game is going to get a beating. I don’t think I’ve EVER had to be anywhere that early on a Sunday before. She and I are heading to Saskatoon to pick up Liliana and see Noah for Father’s Day right after her team photos at noon.

Apparently I like to fit as much into a weekend as I can.

First off, thanks for all the encouragement on my last post. It was a crummy morning, but the day definitely improved. Apparently there was no hot water because there was a problem with the heater in our building, which I would have known about had I checked the mail that day because there was a note in my mailbox about it. I have nothing but good things to say about the company that runs our apartment building but I, on the other hand, should check my mail more often. The hot water was back that evening and I have to say, the longer it’s been since your last shower, the better the shower you finally have feels. Also, two days of dishes is a LOT of dishes. It took me two episodes of Friends to do them all. (We don’t have a dish washer.) (And yes, I usually measure chores by TV.)

We’re in Saskatoon for the weekend and got Kaylie’s heel checked out this morning when we visited my MIL at work. She’s got Planter Fasciitis. I assume it stemmed from her over-activity in the last couple weeks with school and soccer and ballet. She’s got to keep off of it for at least a week to avoid worsening it, which will be a TREAT for my child who lives for being active and outside. Getting her to stay off her feet is like getting Liliana to stop screaming. Near impossible.

The best part about being in “Sakstakoon” this weekend? When Noah got back to his parents’ place after work, he took over parenting duties and I’ve been sitting in a recliner ever since.

I didn’t mean to keep that post about the potty stuff up so long. Whoops. It’s been a little crazy over here this past week what with the, well, potty stuff, work, two soccer games for Kaylie, one soccer practice for Liliana, four ballet rehearsals and a performance for Kaylie, packing, selling stuff I don’t want to move, finding a new house, new job, new school, new daycare … did I mention that we’re moving to Saskatoon at the end of June?

I’m exhausted. And burnt out. Again. Or still. I’m not sure which. And I’m annoyed because I haven’t had the time (or energy) to run in the last couple weeks. By the time I finish 1/3 of what I have to do in the evening, it’s already almost 10pm and I have a little panic attack because there are just not enough hours in a day to do everything I have to do AND sleep. (Or, like last night, Kaylie had a soccer game from 8-9pm and the kids weren’t in bed until almost 10. Don’t even get me STARTED on the most horribly unorganized soccer club EVER.) So, when the rental people came in to do the inspection today right as I walked in the door after work, I wasn’t prepared because I’d found out about it only an hour before (not their fault, SOMEONE forgot to tell me about it) and they had to climb over stacks of boxes and piles of laundry and a bazillion children to do what they needed to do.

Things for the move are going well though. Noah found a job already and is heading to Saskatoon with his parents on Saturday after Kaylie’s ballet performance to start his first day on Monday. He’s looking forward to his mother’s cooking and being an only child again after a 23.5-year hiatus. We found a house when Erica, Kaylie, and I were there last Friday, we found a school for Kaylie, we’re checking out a daycare for Liliana when we’re there next Friday, and I have a potential job offer. Everything’s kind of falling into place perfectly.

I’ve started going through everything that we own, sorting what’s going to be sold, what’s going to be kept, and what’s going to be thrown in the dumpster. I surprise myself with every move at how much of a pack-rat I am. I blame my dad. (Hi Dad!) But, since I’ve moved exactly 14 times (this will be the 15th) since Kaylie was born almost 9 (!) years ago, I’ve had a lot of practice at the keep/sell/toss thing. Also, I have to remember to do everything that I want to do before we leave Regina, like visit Laurie and her gorgeous newborn twin girls and throw Kaylie a birthday/pool/slumber party with her school friends.

I imagine that this next month of complete and total single parenting is going to be challenging, but I’m looking forward to all the stuff that the girls and I get to do that we’re usually not allowed to do when Noah’s around, like picnic dinners in the living room and ice cream for breakfast and staying up late on school nights and having bedtime snacks and leaving the dishes for days on end.

It’s going to be an adventure. I like adventures.