Hey, Mrs. Wilson!

Stress. Emotions. The feeling of failure.

These things consume me when I am in over my head. These things have consumed me the last couple days. Since the company Noah works for doesn’t really give a rip that he has a family, they make him work 10-7 five days a week. That shift sucks. Since he was at work when most of the events of the last week (ish) were going on, I was carrying the burden myself. I had many near-nervous-breakdowns. One was a full blown glass shattering break down. I’m good now though. Apparently break downs make me work really hard. Who knew.

I am quite lucky blessed though. I belong to a family that has helped me more than I ever thought possible. The family of God. Who is this family of God? Here in this community in which I live, it is my church family. The people in my church have been totally and completely amazing and I could not have survived this move without them. They have babysat, cleaned, lifted, comforted, and gave 110% the whole time.

Without them? I’d be a wreck. I know that is how God designed His church to be (His church being all who believe and put their faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, not individual churches).  “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” ~Galatians 6:10.  We are to help each other, serve each other, and be accountable to one another. How much better can it get?

My God is good and he knows me well. He knows that I can be a bit too independent at times and He sends people to help me when I’m in over my head. He knows me and He loves me. You can’t get better than that.

These next couple days will include intense organizing, intense packing, and then a trip! Woo hoo! The girls and I are driving to my Opa’s place for his birthday, to Maya’s place for her birthday, and then flying to the Braam house to celebrate the birth of Kaitlyn! It’ll be Liliana’s first road trip. It’ll be interesting. I’m more looking forward to the flying part of it. I hate flying, but it’s way faster than driving all the way to Vancouver!

I know you’re starved for pictures and you’re sick of reading, so look forward to tomorrow when I will have a plethora of them! I’m finally able to cram our computer with pictures, what a great night this will be.

These last couple days have been crazy, to say the least. Moving in, moving out, a marriage simulcast conference, a birthday, a girls night out, and two days of intense cleaning. The weekend was physically, mentally, and extremely emotionally draining for me. Let’s just say I’m excited to get away and see Chelsey and Teresa and their families.

We are 100% moved out of the old house. Today was the last day that we had possession. It’s always kind of a challenge when you’re going into a place literally 1/10th of the size of your old one. From 19 doors to 2. From 4 bathrooms to 1. From 4 bedrooms to 1 (ish). From 3000 square feet to 300.

I had amazing help today, and I could not have done it without some amazing people. Ann and Kevin babysat for the afternoon while I did a storage run and a Salvation Army run with Todd’s truck, and Marg and Brian helped me clean all the live long day and also did a couple loads with their truck.

We finally mopped the last bit of floor at 9:30 tonight and I’m happy to report that the people moving in tomorrow will be moving into a sparkling clean immaculate house. A huge burden has been lifted having that place done. The funnest part of the evening was driving the Corvette to it’s new home. Yup, highlight of my day right there. I had a big goofy grin plastered to my face the whole 10 minute drive. It was my first time driving it, unless you count moving it daily on to the lawn it hopes that it would sell, which it didn’t.

In new house news, one great thing three great things about living here are the three people who live upstairs. Ann, her daughter Michaela, and her nephew Kevin. Michaela is a couple years younger than Kaylie and the two of them get along great. Ann and Kevin just happen to have the same taste in TV as I do. They are also great fun to hang out with and I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time together over the next couple months.

Also, my little Liliana absolutely adores them. She cries when we leave them and hold her arms out for them when we see them.

I have taken a couple “before” pictures of the suite in disarray. Alas, you will have to wait until I find the driver disc for my camera to see any sort of recent picture. (Also, that will give me time to clean and organize for the “after” pictures.) Apparently I lost the disc sometime between Christmas (when I got the camera) and now. I installed it on my old computer at Christmas, and since we got the new computer have been uploading pictures onto that, uploading them to Flickr, then downloading them to my new computer, editing them, and uploading them back to Flickr and/or my blog. A process? Yes. That’s what happens when you lose things.

Why can I not do that still? We had hooked the old lap top up to a ginormous monitor and it will not fit in our suite. No way no how. Unless we feel like having any no space to walk. Operation: Find Camera Disc. Soon.

That is all I will leave you with for today. I know that reading blogs are way more fun with pictures, so I won’t bore you any longer and I’ll go hunt for the disc.

It should have a pager like my phone.

*Edit: I found it!  In the lap top case.  Where I already looked three times before.  Idiot.*

We’re about 90% moved in.

Hooray!

Thank you so SO much to those that helped us move. Many hands made light work. (Except for the fridge!) Thank you to Marg, Brian, Cath, Ryan, Jon, Jeny, Nita, Tanya, and especially Ann (for the delicious chili, making the beds, letting us live with you, and way too many things to mention), Kevin (for watching and changing Liliana), and Michaela (for keeping Kaylie occupied). Also thanks to Curt & Debbie for letting us use their truck (we were very careful) and Ken & Wendy for letting us store stuff in their basement!

We still have a couple odds and ends to move or put into storage and we have to clean the house, but most of it was done in only 2 hours last night. I’ll post pictures of the new place soon, but first I have to make it look like home instead of a big pile of stuff.

On Tuesday night, in the middle of the night, I woke up swallowing knives. It got worse and worse during the day yesterday (headache, sinus pressure, nose bright red and running, swallowing bigger knives) until I was sitting in Ann’s living room at about 8:30 last night and I started to shake. Apparently it’s not a good idea to move when you’re getting/have a cold/flu. Jeny (sweet friend that she is) went out and got me drugs and vitamin water. I went to bed at 9:00 and slept quite well. Well, as well as you can when you’re sleeping on a futon instead of your queen bed and waking up to blow green snot out your nostrils.

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Did you know that it’s my baby’s birthday tomorrow? Well now you do! We had a little celebration at our Widow’s Dinner on Tuesday. All three of us ladies have a child with a birthday within a week and a bit. Michaela turns 5 next week, Gavin turned 2 last week, and Liliana turns 1 tomorrow.

This is what we like to call Bum Cake. It tastes a lot better than it sounds.

Liliana and Michaela were there to blow out their candle, but Gavin had been taken home by his daddy so Michaela blew his candles out for him.

We let Liliana try out the icing. She wasn’t too sure what the stuff was and was quite dainty and gentle as she put her finger into it.

After a little taste, she dug right in and we took it away so that the rest of us could get a little icing.

Apparently she likes cake.

She liked it so much that she shared it with her hair, her clothes, and Ann’s floor. And probably some went to Buddy the dog.

I can’t believe a year has gone by already. I’m going to try to absorb as much of her babyness as I can.

It’s a lot harder to pack 3000 square feet than it is to pack 1000.

Apparently.

Kaylie has no bed.

I sold it.

She now sleeps on a futon mattress on Liliana’s floor.

Liliana now thinks that every night is a party.

Kaylie gets moved to our bed until we go to bed at which point she gets moved back to the floor.

Kaylie sleeps through Liliana’s crying.

I’m never going to be done packing.

You’re sick of hearing about moving.

The end.

It’s official. Six (seven maybe? What time is the carpet getting put in?) more sleeps until the small move.

I spent last night fooling around preventing others from working slaving away and painting our future 1/20th-the-size-of-our-current (according to Ann) place of residence.

Yes, it is going to be ORANGE! I love it. I’m not sure what I love more, the actual color or the fact that it is not white. I loathe white walls.

I’ve moved many times and therefore have had many landlords in the past. I’ve had good ones, I’ve had bad ones, I’ve had ones that had many rules, I’ve had ones that had no rules, I’ve rented from friends, I’ve rented from people I thought were friends only to find out that they came into my house without letting us know and made moving out … a bad word.

Meet Ann. (See? In the picture above of her and me? Oh, wait, no, her gorgeous face is all that I captured in that shot. That an my nostrils.) I have no doubt we are really going to enjoy renting from her. We might even spend more time upstairs at her place than ours. She’s quite a fun person to be around and a great friend. (And she makes really good pizza.)

Meet Debbie. The other third of our Widow’s Night clique. (Okay, not really a clique, but how do you pronounce that anyway? CLEEK? CLICK?)

Disclaimer: Apparently I shouldn’t forget my camera so that I don’t have to misuse Ann’s and take blurry pictures of ladies with unruly painted hair.

Did you know that if you get a little bit of paint on a closet, you have to paint the whole closet? No? That’s not the rule?

My bad.

Oh my friend. You got me through the whole evening without snacking until Tam shoved in my mouth the most delicious chocolately bar thing I’d ever tasted.

I might have had another when everybody nobody was looking. It’s a good think I pulled around 3 kids in a wagon all day.

We worked and worked and worked some more. Back breaking labor. (By the way Debbie, I cropped out your flab.)

And we made some mistakes. Ever heard of nervous laughter?

Apparently you’re not supposed to vacuum underlay. Who knew? We did what anyone in our situation would do. We dug the underlay from the vacuum canister, put it back where it belonged, and pretended that nothing happened.

Touché underlay.

This Week’s Menu:

Monday: Roast with smashed potatoes and steamed vegetables
Tuesday: Spaghetti and meatballs
Wednesday: Widow’s dinner*
Thursday: Bagel tuna melts with soup
Friday: Homemade pizza

See more menu plans here.

I know, I know, I’ve been really slacking on the menu planning thing. I’ve been a tad bit preoccupied lately with this whole moving and moving and moving again thing. I’m planning to move in exactly a week. I doubt we’ll actually do that, but I want to pretend that we are so that I’ll be ready with time to spare.

I spent the day in the garage. I know, fun hey? Well, the fun part was moving the Corvette in and out of the garage. That car is WAY too fun to drive, even if I only get to move it a couple hundred feet. (By the way, is anyone interested in a Canary Yellow 1976 Corvette? It’s for sale! And we have to sell it before April 30th …) I cleaned the garage literally from top to bottom. I swept, I organized, I made the SELL pile ginormous, I made our garbage cans overflow.

The last couple days have consisted of going into areas that are not frequented and putting the majority of the never-used-but-have-kept-for-some-stupid-reason items in the SELL pile. I want to move as little as possible. Obviously we’ll keep all the things that we need and/or are precious to us, but I’m trying to make life easier on my husband, the mover.

To make our lives easier and more peaceful, I am the packer, Noah is the mover. If you know me well, you know that I get easily irritated, mostly by the people I love the most. Ironic, I know. So, if I’m the only one packing, then I know where everything is and I don’t have to get annoyed that Noah didn’t “do something properly”, meaning that he didn’t do it how I wanted it to be done. (I might have a Type A personality.)

Noah thinks this is a grand plan. He plays with Liliana and watches baseball, and I pack. It’s a great arrangement if you ask me. At the moment, our TV room is packed with empty boxes, something like this. (That pink thing is a link. Click on it. Hi Debbie!!)

Somewhere in between all this organizing, never-ending packing, and cleaning, it will be Liliana’s first birthday. Can you believe she is ONE already?! Her birth seems so recent. I can remember bringing her home and waiting in anticipation for Chelsey (my cousin) to have Maya. The girls are six days apart, but were due 1 day apart. Apparently late babies run in our family.

It also seems like no time at all since this kid was one.

Stupid red eye that I forgot to edit out. Stupid old non-digital camera for inventing red eye.

I know, I know, the cake is awesome. It’s too bad that I don’t live closer to OMSH so I could get her amazingly talented daughter to do a cake for me. She rocks.

I’m afraid that my cake decorating skills have not improved in the last six years, and Liliana’s cake will not look much better than Kaylie’s. It’s a good thing we’re moving closer to Noah’s parents soon, his mom makes cakes that look and taste perfectly delicious.

Have I bored you to death yet? Well at least you’ll sleep well tonight.

I’ll end with one of my favorite pictures of the week. My crazy Kaylie.

*Widow’s dinner is something that a couple friends and I started because my husband works late, Debbie’s husband has been out of town training, and Ann’s husband is with our Lord in heaven. We get together and enjoy Ann’s AMAZING pizza and let our children beat eachother play nicely in the basement while we share our weekly struggles, joys, sorrows, and journeys.

“You won’t be able to kick me to the couch anymore because it’s all we’ll have to sleep on.”
~Noah Wilson

Note: I only actually did that once …

This week starts the Wilson Clean Sweep. I am going through each room, one at a time, and making KEEP, SELL, and TOSS piles. Oh yea, and also a STORAGE pile. Since the place we’re moving into for the transition time is 1/10th the size of the ginormous place we’re in now, we have to store most of our stuff.

I’m sure the whole TOSS and SELL piles will be a lot larger when Kaylie is not watching me saying “Hey! Where is that going? Are you throwing that in the garbage? Are you going to sell that? WHY can’t I keep it? I’ll play with that again! Noooooooooo.”

In all likelihood, our Saskatchewan house will only have 2 bedrooms. We’ll be supporting a university student, so we’re trying to keep living costs to a minimum. Kaylie will be quite stoked about this as she wants to be around Liliana 24/7. We’ll see how long the honeymoon lasts, but I’m sure we’ll make out just fine.

Since we’re giving away Liliana’s crib to a pregnant friend of mine (Kaylie started launching herself out of her crib at about 18 months, so we’re transitioning Liliana out of her crib a little early) and selling Kaylie’s bed in the garage sale, I’ve been bed shopping a bit lately. I always though bunk beds were fun, so we might go that route. I am a huge IKEA fan, and so far I’ve discovered the MYDAL

and the TROMSO.

I’m not sure that I’m a huge fan of chrome, but I kind of like the bunk. Maybe we’ll just have to check it out in person. Calgary will be only eight (EIGHT!) hours away (right now it is 16 or more) from where we will live, so I’m sure we’ll frequent the Calgary IKEA. We really really really really really (to name a few) like IKEA. If you hadn’t noticed.

***

Whilst I was writing part of this post, my baby was playing near the pellet stove, almost burned herself on the front of the stove, and was eating pellets. Mother of the Year over here. I’m watching her more careful now Big Papi and Miss Sue, don’t worry. She was also chewing on a bandaid that Kaylie left on the floor (eeeeeeeeeeeww), but she didn’t swallow it. It had also just gone through the wash so at least it was clean(ish). Again, Mother of the Year, right here.

***

Next week I am starting an “Ode to my Family” series. What’s that all about? Well you’ll have to tune in!

In six weeks, we shall leave this house. I do not desire to take a thousand pounds of food with us (the less we have to move the better), so I am trying to use up what we have before we go.

We are hoarders. We have way too much food. It’ll take us a year to go through it all.

Okay, maybe a couple weeks if we buy nothing else, but let’s just pretend, okay?

This week’s Menu:

Monday: Spaghetti with peach Jello for dessert
Tuesday: Canned soup & bagel tuna melts
Wednesday: Slow cooker roast with smashed potatoes
(Noah will be eating that while the girls and I go to our Widow’s Dinner)
Thursday: Leftover buffet with a Sidekick or two
Friday: Lean Cuisine Skillet Sensations in a wrap

I know this menu sounds super healthy, but at least we’re cleaning out the cupboards and deep freeze! I’m also going to make a lot of smoothies because for some reason we have a ton of frozen fruit in the freezer!

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More to come today … come back later this afternoon! 

That, my friends, is the question.

The possession date of the house is April 30th. Yes, if you do the math, that is in 6 weeks. Five days after Liliana turns one. Yikes. We have to stay here in this town until the end of June, which means that we have to find somewhere to live for 8 weeks. Yes, that means moving twice (TWICE!) in two months.

Yipee.

We are so thankful that my in-laws let us live in their ginormous house for as long as we were able to and we will miss it. (But will not miss the showings.) I doubt that we will live in another house this size for quite a while.

So where will we stay for those two months? We’re moving about two (three? five?) blocks. A friend of mine offered for us to live in her recently vacated basement suite, and we are so thankful for her offer!

*****

When I am working and Noah is home, I get a call pretty much every half hour. Sometimes every five minutes.

“Where are my other jeans?”

“Guess what Liliana just did …” (With this is it usually something that I am missing.)

“What’s for dinner?”

“Have you seen Liliana’s soother?”

“Just reminding you to do laundry later.”

“Should I stir that thing in the slow cooker?”

Hey! Just because I took a break once so Todd could teach me to play Rock Band doesn’t mean I don’t do anything the rest of the time!