What a week!!

Seven days ago, I was cuddling a 6 week old baby, who just happens to be my grand-daughter. Grant and I flew to Halifax to meet our little girl. She won our hearts absolutely! Kaeleigh is such a sweetheart, and her mommy and daddy are proving to be the best parents EVER! Or at least in the top ten. :-)



We spent three days there, mainly just holding our grandbaby and hanging with the new family. On Monday, the moving guys showed up to pack up the house, because the whole family: parents, baby and dogs, are moving to Victoria, BC. Grant and I held Kaeleigh while Erin and Matt supervised. Then we loaded stuff into the car and drove to the airport. The time was way too short, but we are seeing them today for about an hour, as they stop by on their way to BC. Yes, they are driving. Yes, they are taking that 7 week old child on the road in the middle of winter. (That's a shout out to Annika. Neither Grant or I have any objection to taking a tiny child out in winter. We're Canadians, after all!)

Being a new grandma is interesting. I am the only one of the grandparents that hasn't actually had children of my own. I have my nephews, and I did do some diaper changing and feeding, but I had my sister to supervise and tell me what to do. With Kaeleigh, I felt like I should be an expert instead of a novice, but the truth is, I am a novice. I wanted to offer to change her, but I worried that I would do something wrong and my grandchild would be warped for life!! Or at least, get diaper rash... Anyway, it wasn't until the last day that I finally changed her, with my husband at close hand. And wouldn't you know it, while on the changing table, little Miss Kaeleigh decided to projectile poop all over. I managed to catch most of it in the diaper, but there was poopy mess galore. Oh boy. Grant told me later that I was a champ, and I definitely feel more confident about being a grandma now. Trial by poop gives a girl her stripes.

The long and short of it is: we have a beautiful granddaughter. Now we will have to make regular trips to Victoria for visits. Tough life.



Just meeting Kaeleigh would have made this a very exciting week, but to top it all off, we also adopted a brand new Sheltie puppy. Kira is almost 6 months old, a bundle of fur and energy. So far, she never seems to stop. I have yet to see her sleep; when we put her in the crate, we will see her lying down, but the second we move, she is WIDE awake!!

I begin to appreciate the lives that moms with toddlers lead. I am getting up an hour earlier each morning to let her out and play with her before going to work, I am constantly having to keep tabs on her to make sure she isn't chewing or peeing, I wait patiently outside in the cold for her to pee and poop, and I am exhausted at the end of the day. Luckily, I have the option of putting her in her crate when I get too overwhelmed. I guess I couldn't do that with a kid. AT least not without getting into trouble with child services.

Babies and puppies. Life is good.

Finally

After nearly ten years in Canada, I bought a pair of snow boots.

Tuesday Tunes

Once upon a time, I thought I would use Tuesdays as a day to post music that I liked, or was relevant, or for whatever reason I wanted. Unfortunately, I pretty much stopped posting completely right after I started. Serves me right for trying something new in summertime. Anyway, I thought I might try again.

Let's start with a song that has summertime significance for me. My nephews came and visited this summer and I actually listened to some current top 40-ish music while they were here. This song was catchy, easy to sing along with even if you didn't know the words, and a perfect song for a summertime holiday. When we got together again for our Christmas holiday, we cued it up on the iPod and sang along again.

This one is for Adam and Alex.

I hereby resolve

I have a couple of resolutions this year. More specifically, I have some plans that I think will make me feel more satisfied with myself. I won't share all of them, because I have this minor phobia that if I say it, I will screw it up, but since we all know the food resolution only too well, I will share that one.

The last few months, I have been eating foods that just don't make me feel good. I don't mean guilty, I mean feelings ranging from upset stomachs, to irritability, to headaches, to tiredness. In other words: if the food you are eating makes you feel like crap, it really is bad for you!

Starting tomorrow, we will start our annual alcohol fast. No booze for at least a month, and we often go until Valentine's Day, just because that seems like a good day to celebrate with some wine or something bubbly.

I am also going to go back to healthy eating patterns. I have been consuming far too much white sugar, white flour-type foods and my body really feels it. I am also considering starting up a more consistent exercise program, although I make no guarantees.

I just need to purge all this junk out of my system. What I really need is a spa vacation, but time and money will not allow. So, starting tomorrow, I will create my own spa experience, with fresh veggies, lean meats, moderate exercise and lots of water (both for ingesting and for soaking).

I'm actually looking forward to it!

Remodels are fun!!

Right?

We decided a few months ago to finish remodelling the master bathroom. You may remember that we re-finished the cabinets ourselves and painted the walls purple. But, of course, that minor facelift just made the ratty old tiles, bathtub and toilet look even rattier. We were further inspired by the rebates available for installing low-flush toilets and a tax credit for remodelling costs. Last month, we started gathering the materials we needed. Tiles were ordered a combination of subway tiles and mosaic glass. Toilets and tub were bought on the (relative) cheap, and stored in the basement. Estimates for installation were obtained. We decided to have our contractor do the work while we were in Tucson, as it would mean being shower-less for the duration.

We got back very late Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning, if you are a stickler for that sort of thing). The house was full of dust, the hot water didn't work properly and I was not altogether thrilled with the grouting on the mosaic tile. *sigh* After Grant emailed our contractor, we went to bed: showerless and sneezing.

The contractor called first thing in the morning and brought over his plumber to fix the hot water. I stayed in bed while they worked, because I didn't want to have to answer if he asked me if I was happy with the work. Yeah, avoidance is so healthy... At any rate, the hot water fixed and the caulking finished (did I mention that the caulking wasn't done either?), he left, after telling us that we needed to wait 6 hours to shower.

Shortly after 2 pm, the kid took his shower. (Oh yeah, we have a kid back home, too. More on that later.) Then the husband took his. I was just about to go upstairs for mine, when I noticed water on the floor of the kitchen. Oops. Then I looked up and saw one of those bulges you just don't want to see in the ceiling. Sure enough, there was water cascading from a leak whenever anyone took a shower. You know, the thing I HADN'T HAD YET?

Also, it was New Year's Eve.

And our phones went out at the same time.

Luckily, both contractor and phone guy were able to come out on New Year's Day and fix stuff. I had my shower, and later on, a bath in the BEST BATHTUB EVER!! The shower works great and the toilets are efficiently flushing away. We put in a curved shower curtain rod, which makes the shower feel huge! I have largely gotten over the dissatisfaction with the grouting, because...well, short of tearing it all apart, there's not much to be done.

We still have to do something about the sink and countertop, but that will just have to wait until I am ready. For some more FUN.

Yeah, there are pictures:






Bonus pictures of our new basement, with NEW!! IMPROVED!! book (and wine) storage:



And cool shoji screens with shelves for more stuff:




That provide a nifty place to hide all the other junk we own: