For SALE

They just put up the sign in our front yard!!
This is a big moment!
We're selling our first house and yikes...we're moving home!
I still can't believe we're actually doing this right now.

Checking off the list

I'm sure a lot of you in your "middle age" with children...can appreciate the need for lists. It is rare that I can go to the grocery store without a list, or I will definitely forget at least 3 things that I needed to get. One day while at the store, my list flew off my cart and under a heavy shelf and I almost had them get someone out to move the darn shelf so I could carry on my way with list in hand.
Anyway...with the open house this Saturday, I've had an ongoing list of things to do around the place. You could say we haven't kept up the place very well, but I must explain that it is pretty hard to have the motivation to fix dents and scrub walls and windows when you know that two seconds later, a sticky hand and a flying car will soon be hitting them. So thus, everything has been left til the last week here, in hopes that no new dents and sticky fingers will land on the place. (Ya right)
I just finished the filling, sanding, priming and painting parts of the basement family room. The previous owners had painted it a bright cinnamon rose color, so you can imagine, seeing as its the toy room, that there were plenty of white marks showing through. So it looks great now, but now the poor boys are on complete restriction of the area.
Other things on the list that have been done...
scrub the shower
rake the yards
go to the dump with a ton of junk
clean the oven
wash the windows
get the blinds cleaned
sort the pantry
pack clutter from the closets away
hang up the new coat rack
etc.

The list is getting smaller, folks!! Talk about spring cleaning! and early nesting instincts being forced into action. The house has never looked better. And this will mean less work for us when it's time to actually move out.
I wish I had the time to be cooking extra meals to store away for when baby comes, but that'll have to wait. And it'll depend on if I have any energy left after this next week!
I know a lot of you have moved in the past and can appreciate all the work it involves. This is why I'm praying to find the right house in Salmon Arm so that we never have to move again. Ha ha. Well at least not for a few more years.

House tour

So this is it. Our first home... on Coventry Road.


The living room. I put up the pictures finally again since we painted.


The kitchen. If you saw the fridge, it would be entirely covered in clutter that I removed off the countertops...ha ha.


Liam's room. This room actually has 3 different paint colors in it. Not done by us, but ironically I had curtains that matched perfectly when we moved in.


The main bathroom upstairs...aka the "boys can".


Our room. This is the brightest bedroom at the front of the house with the 3 large windows. It faces the green space and playground across the street. I love this bedroom. It has the ensuite too, which I've shown you pictures of previously.


Do you like it?? It's for sale.
;)

The little pregnancy ticker at the bottom of the page says..."60 days to go". Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton.
In 30 days I'm sure I will be begging any doctor within earshot to help take him out, but right now I am happy this little guy is still baking and I don't have to deal with the little constant poopy diapers, breastfeeding, being up in the night, crying, etc. Just not yet. I will be. But not yet.
We had a crazy evening at Chuck E Cheese's tonight. It was the reward of Riley completing a reward chart for having a good "thumbs up" day at school. He isn't the class bully or anything, but has had trouble with communicating and solving problems with classmates, so to say. I went in to talk to the teacher about his report card today. How crazy is that!! to be the adult talking about my childs grades!!! Didn't I just graduate?? Anyway...he's doing well...excelling in his numbers, letter recognition and all. His biggest struggles are socially with keeping focused on instructions and letting others know what he wants. Part of this is due to his young age (he started at 4 1/2)...but the teacher is positive he'll catch up in that regard and isn't behind in the activities at all. So that is always good to hear, especially as a parent who was always a goody two shoes in school. To hear that anything is going wrong at all makes me feel just as bad as I did when I was disciplined in school. Anyway...we celebrated his successes in the classroom by going to Chuck E Cheese. We spent most of the time at the bowling part with Liam who spent almost every token so he could get more balls to roll up into the target holes. That kid loves any ball game. And Riley took me on a wild jet ski ride. Wasn't so gentle. Glad it wasn't the real thing.
So another weekend is upon us. We have so much to do, but have been tackling the house stuff pretty well. Our house will be on the market this coming week. Akk!! I took pics for the realtor, so I'll give you a tour.

...sugar and spice

Sweet lil man

-A little gift from heaven-
I got to take baby photos for a friend again today, and will again tomorrow for another friends new baby girl. It's so fun to work with such cute lil subjects. This guy is still smaller than mine were at birth and he's almost two months old (arrived a little early).
Awww...doesn't it make you want to have a baby??
Ok, well maybe not.
But at least you can appreciate the sweetness with me.

about the baby

With all that has been going on lately, the baby hasn't gotten much publicity. It's a good and a bad thing to be so preoccupied at this stage in the game! I think if this move wasn't coming up so fast, and I didn't have the busyness of the boys...I'd be whining about all the aches and pains of being almost 31 weeks along!!
It really is all going by so fast. The little guy has really gone quite easy on me for my third time around. I don't know if he's dropping today though, or just in a really weird spot, but he's hitting a nerve in my back somewhere at odd times during the day, which makes me wince and feel like I could almost collapse. It's as though I'm being chased by someone with a tazer gun that will hit at any given moment. I think if he changes position, the problem will be solved. I need to head back to my chiropractor. I'm praying that he will help in making sure this guy isn't posterior like Liam was. Ouch. Back labor sucks. I have heard that delivering a baby posterior is like adding 2 extra pounds on to a baby...so that would have meant it was like delivering a 12 pounder...so if this one is in the right position, it shouldn't be so bad...even if he's as big. (just a bit of my fear of delivery day coming out here).
I have actually lost weight this week...I think its just cuz I'm so busy. I have put on 10 pds. altogether. I don't worry that the baby isn't growing though...you should see the belly now!!
I am sleeping pretty good, as long as my brain isn't too busy. I have had the odd calf cramp, but nothing crazy. I am tired though, and am sad that Liam chooses to be done with naps now as I could almost fall asleep standing up in the afternoon.
Anyway...not long to go. I want the whole house thing to be over (selling ours and buying another) so that I can spend a little bit more time focusing on this new one who is about to arrive. We don't even have a name finalized. :( The boys are getting excited about when the baby is "gonna POP out". Should be crazy!!!

Two special guys

When I arrived on the scene in 1976, my brother Luke was there already. He quickly became my constant playmate and friend from day one on. We celebrated his birthday on March 16th every year.
Ironically, once my brother started fading away into his own life and was busy with his wife and work...I married Greg who is also born on March 16.
So now I say "hip hip hooray" on this day for two of the very special men in my life. Both to my brother and to my hubby. One who enhanced my childhood, and one who enhances every day since I met him, both of which I wouldn't want to live without.
HUGS and SQUEEzeS.

What it looks like to be 3

Happy birthday to my baby!!

He's 3!
We had his little Diego/Dora party for him tonight with about 10 kidlets (ages 6 and under) and 9 adults. We decided to go ahead and do it right after supper for a simple cake/present time. It worked out well and Liam was full of his usual enthusiasm until about 8pm when he had just plain worn out of being nice and sharing his new toys!! I knew it would be tricky as he didn't have a nap, but he did fine.
I had made a banana slushie drink and a chocolate cake and angel food cake with skor whipped cream/pudding icing. Yumm.
We are pretty tired, but all had a good time and we have new things around here to play with! Yay, as we got dumped with snow and northern winds again. I'll show you some more party pics later.

Liam and our living room

We had a very IKEA Saturday. We needed a few things to fill up our empty living room. It was going nowhere as the two sofa chairs I finally decided on were of course discontinued. So we almost left empty-handed and near tears. Then we realized that Liam is now tall enough and potty trained...so he can go in the playplace at Ikea!! YAY! So we had an hour child-free and decided to go with the Poang chairs and simple Lack tables. Not only cheap...but easy to move, and they work well. I'm really loving the green, so I had to share these pictures with you. Liams' eyes match the wall as well. Liam had such a great time in the playland with Riley, and Ikea made a lot more money because of their smart idea to have it there.

On Tuesday Liam is turning 3!! We're having a little party for him after dinner. You're all invited. The Diego cake should be a hit.

Baby and Me

I tried out my remote to pose with baby Davidson.
Here we are at 29 weeks!!!!

We're DONE painting!!

Our living room had all been a bright lime green. There was a divide line down the right side of the bay windows which had left the sub wall and entryway completely white. Now it's all Boston Fern green.

Pam carried the green on up part of the stairwell. It had been white too, as well as the wall that you see when you walk in the door.

This is our ensuite bathroom. It had been a boring yellowy mocha shade, with seeping orange underneath it, from a poor paint job before. We did it in (Lunenberg) blue as well as the bathroom off the kitchen. It's hard to tell that I have chocolate brown towels in there, but that's what they are and they look sweet.
We did our kitchen as well, but it looks pretty much the same as before in a tan shade (Sisal). I'll send some more pics after I clean up the paint cans in there!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO LUKE AND PAM! I'd still be cutting in if it weren't for them.
(They pulled out this morning.)
Love you.

Changes and paint fumes

If this post doesn't make any sense, I'll blame it on the paint fumes. While Greg made food for us and entertained the kids, Luke, Pam and I started painting around 12:30pm until 6:30pm and finished off the living room and 2 bathrooms. We only had to do 2 coats other than the entry-way which had been white and so needed another coat. It looks totally new in here. Oh, and I forgot to tell you. We had tried out the "Shy Blossom" shade and it was TERRIBLE! It wasn't the exact tint that was on the sample. It looked like minty green toothpaste. We made a few strokes and decided that we had to take it back. The Home Depot staff agreed that the shade was off. I was reluctant to try anything close to that shade again, so I went for something totally different. We picked out Boston Fern, by Behr Paints. It is quite dark green with more browns in it. Our living room looks quite grown up now. I don't think you would think of it as a "Sarah" color...but I am happy with it and think it'll look great when I get our beige/neutral colored chairs and pictures on the wall. And most importantly, I think it'll appeal to the general public a lot more than our old lime shade would. The bathroom blue has less grey in it than I envisioned, but it looks nice and bright. It needs some beige/brown towels to bring down the brightness a bit. Mostly I'm happy with how clean and new everything looks. I spent a lot of time sanding and washing walls. Luke and Pam cleaned up the paint that had got on the trim and ceiling from the previous painters. So all that is left to do is the kitchen, which will be difficult with all the corners and edges, but it should be a similar shade to what it had been.
I promise to take pictures soon.
I even got a chance to sit down and party it up last night as Pams' sister turned 30 yesterday and we took her out to Red Lobster with some other friends. Yumm. I love the Ultimate Feast. I also like eating out with girlfriends. Happy 30th birthday Marie!!
Anyway, back to work.