2 MORE SLEEPS!

Is there anything more dejected-looking than empty nail holes in a wall?

Chit n' chat, This n' that

The other day Hugh brought me home an N-64 with Mario64 and Diddy Kong Racing for games. I was ridiculously excited about this. I am not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination but I love Mario and would love to re-own the original NES system and the original Mario games. Duck Hunt anyone? I think Hugh bought this for me partly to foster my own love of gaming and therefore cut him some slack and partly so he can slum it without looking bad to the xbox game snobs, ("I know, I know, but it's my wife's.") As much as I have been loving playing Mario again it's (confession. gulp.) getting old fast. That feels sacriligious even to say but shhhh...I'm kind of bored of it. (Tristan loves it though, "Mom, the boy is jumping!")

I could be packing. In fact I probably should be packing as we are moving in 1 week and 1 day but there's just not enough pressure yet for me to get it into gear. I've done my daily email/blog/facebook ritual and there was nothing to divert me for more than a few minutes (thank you DJ for your Schnai Day blog). All my stuff for the Twins Garage Sale is done, I've overdone Mario and I have absolutely nothing to read so I'm at loose ends right now. I should be enjoying this time but actually I'm kind of bored. I don't even have The O.C. to relieve my boredom. I finished the third season (spoiler alert) where they kill off Mischa Barton in the finale and let me tell you they could not have done it in any less dramatic or anti-climactic way! It sort of killed my obesession actually. I'm not sure how it's possible to have a main character die and it be boring but they managed it. I will rent the fourth season because I'm a bit OCD that way, like when assorted candies are before me and I either have to have one of every colour/flavour or none at all, and since I've seen some of The O.C., I now have to see them all - but it won't be until after we've moved. So.....

What's new with you?

Foiled!

We ran our garage sale yesterday (Friday) from 12-6 at my friend Dawn's house. She, my friend Heidi and I all put our stuff together for one enormous sale. Heidi has a set of twin boys and Dawn has a set of twin girls and all our kids were born within 8 weeks of each other. Crazy hey? The sheer volume of clothes to be sold was unbelievable. At one point someone walking around the 6 racks and 3 tables of clothes said, "Wow kids are sure spoiled these days aren't they?" Then we told her there are 9 kids and 3 sets of twins between the three of us and her mouth literally dropped open.

Other items I was selling: a patio bistro set, 3 shinto bar stools, stroller, high chair, 3 years worth of girls clothes, and random household/decor items. It was 14 degrees above, the sun was shining, sales were good and it was crazy busy right up until we shut the doors at 6:00pm. Congratulating ourselves on a job well done, I took Starbucks orders for the next morning and went home to dream of sugar plum fairies and money trees.

This morning I woke up to A BLIZZARD! Blowing snow and a temperature in the minuses. Bloody Canadian weather. They say standard fare for Canadian conversation is the weather and I think it's because here in Canada Mother Nature is bipolar and our days depend on whether or not she's taken her medication.

After a flurry of phonecalls we've decided to raincheck it and try again next Friday. Next Saturday is our Twins N' More Club Garage Sale so anything that doesn't sell by 6:00 on Friday will just get packed up and taken to the school. We move in 1 week and 6 days. With all this garage sale-ing when am I supposed to find time to pack?

My first time

Garage Sales (ger-ahge? ger-age?) are seriously a lot of work.

This had better be worth it...

Conversations in the back seat

"Tristan, you're my bestest, bestest friend."

"Oh Ava....I know I'm you're best friend."

The grown up version of the big kid bike

As I mentioned before we have been looking at a lot to build on. We actually put an offer on a house that was up to the drywall stage and cabinets and lighting had already been ordered, they countered and all we had to do was accept it and sign the papers and it would be ours. But I hated the cabinets and really did not like the lighting and figured if we're going to build I should really be able to get what I want, and in the end we didn't sign. So then we looked at another lot in the same area that ground was just being broken on. This meant we would get in early enough to pick everything - siding, cabinets, lighting, flooring, tile, casings...everything. But it did not feel right so we took some time to think about it before making an offer. And in the midst of taking some time to think about it a crazy thing happened. We sold our house. Which was not even listed.

Our realtor (J) has a father who is also a realtor (G). G said that he had a client who was looking to downsize from a 2-storey house and wanted a duplex unit like ours and did J think we would want to show ours and take a look at theirs? He called and we did. So last Tuesday night G showed our place and J showed theirs. They loved ours and we quite liked theirs and in fact thought it would be perfect were it not for it being completely on the other side of town which would mean changing preschools for the kids and I LOVE the preschool they are in. So we thought about it and basically decided it's a great house but too bad it's in Crescent Heights we'll pass. But then they wanted a second showing of our house on Thursday night and did we want to view theirs again at the same time? I actually didn't want to because we had decided against it but figured since we had to be out of the house anyway, why not?

On a second viewing I loved the house even more. Very charming to look at, double detached garage at the back, wide lot, paved back lane, rv parking for our camper, big deck, great layout, 200 extra sq. ft than we currently have (and when we're used to a living space of 18 ft x 19 1/2 ft it feels enormous!), big kitchen, window over the kitchen sink looking into the backyard so I can see the kids while they're playing and not have to leap over a balconey an entire storey above them to get to them if there's a problem (I have a love/hate relationship with our walk-out basement in our duplex), 2nd floor laundry, huge master bedroom, room for a fourth bedroom in the basement and a really good price...So why don't I want it again? We're driving home from the viewing and J gets a call from G. The other people have put an offer on our house and it's an incredible offer in a very saturated market but it's subject to us buying their house. So do we or don't we?

We did! And we're swapping houses May 16th! Isn't that so crazy?! Welcome to our new house and the first time we will be fully detached.