excitement

this week the public school board announced the names and principals of the six new schools being built. all of them will be opened in September 2010. we hope!!

the public school district has chosen to name new schools after people who have made an impact on the community. and some beyond.

our school is named after Johnny Bright. the pun being mentioned that all of the students in this school will be "bright". he was an educator and principal in Edmonton. prior to that he also was a football player with the CFL, appointed to the CFL hall of fame in 1970.

my kids were the only kids in attendance. i was disappointed that more communication had not been made within the community. i just happened to be lucky and read about it on the district website as i was looking for a school for this fall. i had hoped to meet other parents and for my kids to meet future classmates. they did get to meet their future principal. and the daughter of the man whom the school is named after. and the minister of education. and the media. they got their minute of fame! pretty easy to do when the competition is eliminated!!

it turns out that their new principal is presently the principal at the very same school that one of Aidans' cousins attends. and two of his very best friends. it is a small world after all. i was impressed that he introduced himself to Aidan first and then to myself. to me it was evidence that he valued the needs of his students as a priority. how nice to have a good first impression.

yes

disbelief. shock. awe.

this part of our moving has happened so quickly that we are still pinching ourselves with the reality.

today we are even happier. a week ago we viewed this house for the first time. we scheduled an inspection for this week and got to spend several hours becoming acquainted with it. we now view this home as a gift. there are so many features that we would have included had it been our choice during building. and there are other features that we would have been too cheap to include....but now can enjoy.

we're still sad to pack up and say goodbye to this house. our first home. our childrens' first home.

BUT we are very excited to make new memories in our new home too. especially when it feels like an incredible gift.

only 24 more days until we are given our "golden key". okay, it won't be gold. but it feels as valuable as gold to us.

disbelief

sooo Sunday was kind of blah for us. we thought that we'd be living in someone's basesment and still search for houses.... {thanks Serena!}

then on Monday we got an email of a new listing that totally caught our eye. it was too good to be true!

the housing market has picked up a lot, so today was the earliest our realtor could take us to see it. in the community we are looking at most houses are on the market for a few months, and some have been for sale for over a year. so a few days should not be a big deal all things considered. i felt very anxious about this one for some reason. i had a feeling that it would be an exception.

i could go on and list all the aspects that makes it special to us. i just knew that if this was not the one for us, we were in for a shock when we found the right one. there was a peace if it did not work out, and i knew we'd be thrilled if it did. how can i explain that one well?!

this is the first time i've been EXCITED since we decided to sell. this is great!



on the way home from the negotiations, we noticed a large plume of black smoke in the distance. as we got closer we noticed it was a brand new townhome complex on fire. we couldn't believe how large the flames were. i've never seen anything like it. that community was one area that we were also interested in...it is nearly complete in it's development. very sad.


okay. now to see if i can sleep....

house on the brain

i've always said that i wish we could just blow up our house like a balloon. the shape would still be the same...just bigger.

we have done house hunting all weekend. our brains are swimming with features, pros, cons...etc...of each house and neighborhood. yikers!

none of the houses have that "this is ours" feel about it. but we have definitely come across a lot that we could move into and make ours. a few that i think we would have loved have been taken off the market just before we sold ours. we'll just call it providence. God knows where "our house" is, we just have to keep looking.

there is definitely a bit of pressure to "find something" soon. the closing of the deal should occur this week....and then i think that pressure will increase a bit. i am feeling more confident that we at least know more specifically what we want now. it's great that there is so much choice out there too.

it is kind of like going to the corner store for a chocolate bar. you really want a Carmilk, but would settle for any yummy chocolate. they don't have the Carmilk, but they have KitKat, Arrow, Mars and Snickers....so tough to decide which one to get.

and if you know me....you know that i do have a tough time choosing my chocolate....

yes, making choices is not our forte!

AND, we are thrilled that more than one buyer is interested in our house!!! we like back up plans....a lot!

for now, as we wait, i am enjoying my spotless house. we are all thankful for decent weather that keeps the kids and the big messes outside. it is nice to be able to sit down with my coffee and not feel like i am procrastinating or wasting time. for the first time in months! years!! this part, i LOVE.

cheers!

{you can check out our house here}

house crisis

or crises?

we have been watching the house market for awhile. tracking our neighborhood. tracking neighborhoods that appeal to our needs.

unbelievable how much the internet has changed how you shop for homes!!

when we bought this house, we got printouts from our realtor. sometimes there was a photo of the front of the home. but it was mostly just type. neither of us remember photos from inside the house. i know they existed, but they were in the forms of brochures when you visited an open house. basically we learned what some of the terms meant....and could almost guess what kind of house we were going to see. such as newly renovated could have meant last year or 15 years ago. we still laugh over our 'tenant Bob' who even made the realtor sheet. but that is another story. good story. i'll share it one day. you'll be happy i did.

we spent so much time driving around communities that we started to get carsick from all the turning. and neither of us had ever experienced carsickness before!

the internet has been better for our use of time. and our stomachs!

but nothing can take the place of actually stepping inside a home and grasping the feel of it. or the smell.

yesterday we began our first round of in person visits. with our fun and efficient realtor. whom we have also dubbed our hero. read on.

our first house on our tour had incredible fancy schmancy draperies on every window. all identical. definitely not even close to our taste. and they come with the house. whoopee! this we knew from the pictures. and we could guess the smell. the smell of curry did make us a teeny bit hungry....but not something we wanted to live with 24/7.

next house.

not bad. did i mention we brought the kids with us? in car movie. popcorn. water. great until they had to pee. thank you for letting us use your toilet. it worked great! the layout did not.

moving along.

it was very nice to look at. i was getting excited. then, the smell of moth balls greeted us when we opened the door. do people really live like that? they also had a very interesting appliance in the kitchen...i have never seen anything like it before. i looked at our realtor and we decided to take a peek. we both got the whiff of the same horrid smell at the same time! note to self: do not open strange looking appliances or containers. but we did like this layout. and many of the interior choices caught our attention. backyard was quite nice. and the neighbors seemed normal and friendly. the kids had another tantrum and complained about being in the car. they also met the neighbors and then also had a few moments in the house, until they jumped on the sofa. can you sense our parental stress rising at this point? did i mention that we liked the neighbors? they had a child. we're already bonded with them.

last house. yeah we were breathing a sigh of relief at this point too. and not over house viewing, but rather over children watching. our movie and popcorn idea was not working out like we had hoped.

confession: back in early March we were driving around various communities, there was one house that was vacant. so i peeked in the windows. none of the neighbors came running to stop me and no men in blue showed up. believe it or not, that worried me a bit. that and the one home had a really noisy vacuum.

and this is the house we had next on our list. we got to see the inside. legally! because it was empty, we let the kids explore this one too. and then regretted it. they ran around the backyard. it backed on to a farm. and a slightly busy road. colours inside similar to ours. layout and elements not our style. at this point the kids were enjoying exploring the three levels of this home. since it was empty i wasn't concerned about them wrecking anything. but then it got very silent. i could hear Kris and our realtor chatting in the basement. i saw Kiara cruising down the steps to her Daddy. hmmm... Aidan's shoes are in the house, but he can't be seen or heard and he was not answering to his name. everything turned out well in the end. but a certain 4 1/2 year old boy went missing for an entire 10 minutes. in an empty and furniture-less house. Kris and i were distraught thinking that he had been kidnapped. relief and anger mingled together when our realtor discovered him crouched between the toilet and the half wall in the master en suite. behind the oddly placed bright red vacuum cleaner. where i thought i had looked carefully twice before.

lesson learned. no more children on house viewings!!!

as we discussed the homes later, many of our previous thoughts were forgotten when our emotions were tumbled over the near loss of our precious son. we did discuss with Aidan the dangers of hiding when no one else is playing the same game. he was quite baffled at our emotion. he was actually quite proud of finding the best hiding spot and couldn't understand why we were not feeling the same way.

one matter is settled. i'm not living anywhere that street. ever. that house plan is totally out of the running. and i never want to go back!

some time i should share some of my mother-stress dreams. aside from gripping me with terror in the middle of the night and not allowing me to sleep peacefully again, they are actually rather humorous. after the fact.

why is it that everything is funny after the fact?