Long awaited summer vacation - 4 days and counting

It feels like forever since we booked our summer vacation - WAAAYYY back in March. In the 10 + years that Mike and I have been together, with the exception of our wedding, we have NEVER taken vacation together!

We've had a crazy summer, here's the timeline....
June 8 - 17: we moved - packed up our little house at 172 Rennick Rd and moved accross the river to Riverview - 153 Callowhill Rd.
June 18 - July 01: we cleaned, and unpacked and cleaned some more
July 01 - 03: Mike hosted his brothers bachelor party - not much work for me but a fair bit of missed Z's
July 06 - 08: Mike's brother's wedding weekend - again not much work for me - a bit of running, a lot of fun and not much sleep
July 14 - 15: home to my cousin's wedding; nice to just be a guest :)
July 21 - 22: a relaxing weekend in Rexton with our friends Cathy & Tony
July 28 - 29: my sister, her beau and their two dogs came for a visit
August 04- 05: a surprise party in Waternish
August 10 - 12: River Party & Birthday Party!
August 13 - 17: VACATION!!

Needless to say we do not have one thing planned after the weekend of August 18th! I'm hoping that the nice weather stays around so we can finish unpacking and organizing and spent a little time enjoying out new house.

...although there is a house warming party to plan....stay tuned

my new niece - Baby Jane

So for those of you who know my family well you know this post has nothing to do with a human baby, but rather a new 4 legged addition.

Baby Jane, my sister has recently adopted another woe-be-gone stray, this time an English Bulldog, surrendered to the Atlantic Vetrinary College where she works.

I have gone home to my parents house twice and have met Baby Jane but this was the first weekend for DH to meet his new niece. She was a fairly well behaved house guest, aside from the trip to visit the neighbors and the 'presents' she seemed to like to leave, oh and yes the relentless tormet of poor nervous Fiona, who found a coping tactic - Jane can't jump on the bed. That being said we did enjoy their visit and are looking forward to many more.

lucky number 7

Lucky Number 7
This past weekend we were please to be included in Mike's brothers wedding. Bob and Jen, his new wife, have been together for about 3 years (I think...) and were engaged just before Christmas.

As it turns out their wedding date of 07/07/07 is the most sought after wedding date in history because of the luck tied to the numbers 7-7-7. Luck certainly shined on them this past Saturday (with the exception of the flower crisis). With a weather forcast of 70% chance of rain and thundershowers we were all pleasantly surprised to have a beautiful sunny day with a cool breeze. They had two extra photographers on hand to capture the day's moments and the Minister even remembered Jen's name - which is more than I can say for our ceremony :)

Mike is pleased to have another 'little sis' and I have a sister-in-law, always had a sister but never a sister-in-law. I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all, thanks to Bob & Jen for including us in their big day!

This coming weekend I'm off to another wedding in New Glasgow for my cousin Jill. Fingers crossed that she and her husband to be will still get a little of the '777' luck and July 14th will be another beautiful day.

Update - they had a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding, Congratulations Jill & Bud

a rolling stone gathers no moss......

.....but a lot of stuff

Packing, perging and more packing.....did I mention we're moving. Back in February Mike & I went to see a house in Riverview, it was priced right and when we went to see it, it sort of spoke to us. It didn't hurt that it's around the corner from our friends Cathy & Tony and closer to Mike's family.

We made an offer on 153 Callowhill on a Saturday, put our house on the market on Sunday and sold it on Wednesday. March & April were quite fun - appointments with the realtor, the bank, planning what will go where and what colors we'll paint. The whole thing has been quite a whirl wind but now reality has set in....we have to pack!

The house is in an utter state of pandemonium and we have 16 days left before moving day! Wish us luck...

mother nature's joke or is it friday the 13th?

so we waited, and we waited, and we waited - through bad weather, sick kids, weekend working overtime - for the PERFECT weekend to have our girls weekend and just look what Mother Nature had in store!!



grrrrrrrrrr is all I have to say
the nb girls will not be leaving today......fingers crossed for better weather in the morning - the forecast is not promising.....

Happy Easter !

home in the 'nish for Easter weekend.....enjoying the snow (?)..... family..... and some much needed quiet time......

<'Nona bunny pic to follow>

SOLD!

So from day 1 when we moved into 172 Rennick Rd Mike and I have been talking about moving. Why....we're not really sure - it's a nice house in a new area. Perhaps it's because we live on a street, not in a neighborhood.

Late in February I found a place in Riverview for us to take a peek at. So we went for a look and were drawn to this house, no not from the peach, lavender and Toronto Maple Leaf blue paint, it was more to the kitchen and the fact that the house felt like it was in a neighborhood. Mike went off to Texas the following week and we both kept thinking about ' the new house'. Everytime we talked 'the new house' came up. What we would do - what the yard would look like - how Mike could cook in that kitchen. So when he came back from Texas we talked about putting in an offer. A week or so later we made the offer. Four short hrs later we were the 'potential' new owners of 153 Callowhill Rd. Now to sell our house.....

Saturday, Sunday & Monday we cleaned - not that we live in a hovel or anything but having a clean house and having an open house clean house are two very different things (this we've learned during our various visits to houses). On Sunday our agent came by and we signed on the dotted line - our house was officially on the market.

Mike has decided to take Wednesday off to clean the dreaded basement and I was off at work. At about 4 my phone rang- it was Mike - he sounded stressed. "Can you come home right away?" I thought something had happened......sort of.......we had a showing for 7 that night.

We frantically cleaned from 4 - 6:45, at which point we shuffled off with Fiona in tow. We daydreamed as we drove.....maybe we'd only have to show the house once.....can you imagine? What was it going to be like to have to keep the house like we didn't live in it? How long was this going to take? So around 9 we arrived home - exhaused and settled in for the night.

Around 9:30 our agent phoned - I thought just to follow up, you know....how did it go? did they show up? But no she laughed - she had an offer for us! WOW, so now I can't sleep. In the morning we made a counter offer and by noon the house was SOLD.

That was March 8th, now it's March 27 and the sign on the lawn looks like this.....


Tomorrow is the home inspection on the 'new' place and then......PACKING......we move in June.