My southern diaper bag

I love purses. No matter how fat you get, they always fit you. You can buy really cute ones for cheap and you can easily have many to suit your mood. I have many and I doubt I've paid more than $40 for any of them. Some wouldn't find that a point of pride, but I'm cheap. Purses are one of the things I missed most about living north. I never carried one up there because I never went anywhere. And if I did venture out, I'd have the diaper bag with me. When our stuff from storage arrived I didn't waste any time finding my purses and loading them up with the southern girls essentials.

I realised quickly that those essentials take up more room in my super cute purses now that I have to carry the southern MOM's essentials too. None of my purses are what I'd call small but add snacks, diapers, wipes and dinky cars and none of them are anywhere near big enough. I could continue to carry the diaper bag along with the purse but that's just too much for my scattered brain to keep track of. I'm forever leaving my purse or wallet behind places. Today I left my wallet at home and didn't realise it till I got to the checkout of the store I was shopping at. The other day I loaded Isaac into his car seat only to realise I left the store leaving my purchases in the cart. That same day, at another store, I left my purse in the cart and didn't notice that till I got to the next store. I'm shocked sometimes that I haven't left one of the kids behind...... Yet.

Anyway, I decided it was time to come up with a better system so I bought myself a huge bag. A satchel if you will... It's cute so I don't feel like I'm schlepping a duffel bag around but it's big enough to carry everything I need for a day out with the kids. I'm using zip locks to separate things so it all doesn't end up in a mess at the bottom of the bag. It also makes things easy to separate so I can leave behind what I don't need when I'm out on my own. And for those times that I forget to put it all back in? Cause you know that's going to happen -There is always McDonald's for snacks and diapers in the van.

I'm so loving the south.

It's a happy day for mommy.

Introducing..... The newest member of the toilet club!!

Notice the brand new big boy boxer briefs he's sporting!! They are so adorable, who knew underwear could be that tiny?

I'm so excited to be done with half the diapers in this house.

Space, The final frontier

As soon as we bought this house I knew Oliver's room would be the first room to get a makeover. I'm all about bright, fun kids rooms but these colors were just too much. As always Oliver wanted to help so I let him paint a little of the primer.

For Christmas my mom got O a clock for his room that projects planets and stars on the ceiling. Then I remembered that the room Oliver was going to be moving in to had a navy blue ceiling. One + one equals..... A space themed room.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out and I can't wait for him to see it tomorrow. He's been at my mom's so it's going to be a big surprise since all he's seen is the paint. The rest was all done in the last few days.

And of course I had to do the obligatory glow in the dark stars. 340 in all.... Notice the milky way.

Who knows, maybe it'll inspire him to be an astronaut when he grows up. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own dreams on him. For now I'll just hope he loves his room.

Potty Training- Take Two

In the beginning of December Oliver was really showing interest in potty training so we jumped in with both feet. I knew it was bad timing since our vacation was coming up but I didn't want to let the opportunity go by without at least giving it a try. We started with a few bare bum days and within 3 or 4 days he was using the potty like a pro. Not perfect mind you but well on his way to being diaper free.

Unfortunately, but as suspected the vacation threw everything off and within 2 days he was refusing to use the toilet and we were so busy we just let it happen. Then there was the move, and the settling in period. That brings us to now.

I started with him again on Friday and things are going... OK. Friday he was perfect. No accidents and he went several times on his own without prompting. The last two day have been much less successful. He clearly knows his body and understands what to do but he's just too lazy to bother going to the bathroom. I actually just watched him lay down on the floor and pee in his pants! I didn't realise that's what he was doing till he got up and said 'I just peed in my pants'. I find myself having much less tolerance than I would normally since I know it's being lazy and not that he doesn't get it. I've offered bribes and am praising and rewarding every successful attempt but true to Oliver's personality, his attitude is very 'Whatever' about the whole thing.

I described myself recently as an -I want it now- kind of girl. This isn't any different. Get on it kid! I'm done with changing your diapers. He rarely listens to anything else I tell him so why would he be any different on this subject? Gotta love the terrible 3's.

Pick a shade, any shade

Earlier this week I painted Oliver's room. It was the room most in need of a make-over since it was a hideous combination of blue and green. Think Buzz Lightyear. I still have to put up the wallpaper decals to finish the look and hope to get that done this week and then I'll post pictures. I think it's going to be a really great boys room. I hope it lives up to the picture in my mind.

The next room on the list is the living room. Right now I would describe the room as a deep shade of cornflower blue. It's actually a really lovely color but I find it's too dark for the space. The room is open concept kitchen/living/dining room so it's a big area which would normally be great for a darker color. Unfortunately (or very fortunately cause I love them) the kitchen cupboards are a dark walnut colored wood and our furniture is dark brown too. We've also discovered that the room tends to be dark when it's not sunny out. So... so starts the search for the perfect color.

All I can say is that god for sample sizes. I was set on having a green of some kind so I spent hours looking at those cards from Home Depot. I was sure I found just the right color... not too light, not too dark. I put the sample up on the wall.... too hospital. The process began again. I was sure once again that I found it.... to yellow, then too light. I decided to forgo the idea of green because I finally decided the look I was going for was going to be too dark after all. So on to blue and back to Home Depot. 3 more samples later, I think I've found it. I'll start painting on Nick's next days off and we'll see.

The samples are Behr paint/primer combo's and cost $4.99. Not cheap but much cheaper than several full size cans that you don't like. I'm calling it the best $30 I ever spent.

Another sad loss for music.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say how shocked and saddened I was to hear about the passing of Whitney Houston. So young, so talented, so beautiful. What a waste. Around Facebook the common theme seems to be, at least with friends my age, is all the memories people have of her songs. Or I guess how her songs have related to their lives. Kind of like a 'where were you when' for a singer's passing.

My favorite Whitney related memory is when I was a Mount Allison University, my third year, living at our house on Estabrooks. I lived with 4 other girls so Saturday night was a built in party. You would regularly hear The Bodyguard soundtrack blasting as we tried to get pumped for The Pub. We'd dance on every available surface that wasn't the floor, singing at full volume to I'm Every Woman. Our house had a big picture window with a large ledge that could fit at least 3 of us in full boogie. Then we'd bring it down a little and belt out I Will Always Love You in dramatic fashion. Yup, total cheese but I've never claimed to have good taste in music.

Good times. FANTASTIC TIMES.

Rest in peace Whitney. Thanks for the memories.

Boxes, toys and tanks.

We've been Oromocto-ites (I don't know if that's a word) for 8 days now and we're settling in. It's been a week of boxes, packing paper and mess but the house is coming together nicely. Our personal effects from storage arrived last Friday and as I've heard so many times before from other northerners, most of it is junk and destined for goodwill or the dump. After four years without it, you probably don't need it. We did however come across quite a few things I forgot we had which where nice surprises. Our Pangnirtung boxes got here on Saturday which has got to be a world record. And what's even more shocking? Nothing was damaged. Except the treadmill... but that was because it was dropped by the movers in our garage.

With everything that has to be done around here I've barely left the house in a week. That's the way I work best though- nose to the grindstone till I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw a glimmer yesterday and took the opportunity to get out and do a little shopping in the big city. It's exactly 12 minutes from my house to the mall in Fredericton which is such a big change. Even before I lived north any type of shopping establishment was over an hour away so 12 minutes is like next door. Dangerous though. Nick's got me on a tight leash till I get a job.

The kids are settling in to the house and our new lives as well. They are both eating and sleeping like normal and are loving seeing the grandma's more often. Oliver has commented many  times how he likes the new house more than our old one because it's so much bigger. While I agree with him, the extra square footage means more space for toys to accumulate and extra noise from their favorite pass time, dump truck races in the hallway. I'm not going to complain though. The beauty of this house is that there is enough room in their bedrooms that the toys live in there and I get a toy free living room. Or at least once I clean and put everything away I do. 


Erik came to visit us today and is our first overnight visitor. They spent the afternoon bouncing on Oliver's new queen size bed and making lots and lots of noise. When I was at Sobey's earlier I saw this in the front of the store and had to bring them to see it.

The tank is the centerpiece for a yet unfinished valentines day display that they were building. Apparently there is a contest between stores that 'Newfoundland always wins' as per the Sobey's employee. Their theme is Love is a Battlefield. Appropriate enough in a military town for sure. I saw them bring in the tank and it was being carried by six camo clad soldiers. I keep joking that it feels like we're in an occupied state. I think all of our neighbours are military families and at 5pm all you see is guys in fatigues. I don't mind though, I love a guy in uniform.

The mini tank went over so well that I thought they might enjoy seeing this too.

Sherman tank used by the Canadian Army in WW2 and Korea.

This tank is at the main gate of the CFB Gagetown. They were thrilled to get up close to it but were a little worried that it was going to drive away with them on it. We then took a drive around the base and they got to see a helicopter and all sorts of big guns and army trucks. It's like a little boys dream place.

On a side note: I've had a few requests for pictures of the house but you'll have to wait. I want to paint and get stuff up on the walls before I post any. It's not going to be a real before and after thing since the house is only 3 years old and is painted pretty nicely, we just want to make it our own.

Home

Today we are broke and in debt all over again. We are home owners.

I'm not going to go in to details but the closing was held up at the last minute. We were supposed to get the keys yesterday but it ended up being this morning instead. The whole thing turned out to be very frustrating and not the experience I was hoping for. HOWEVER... in the end, we have the house.

I'm thrilled. It feels like home already.

I think we're going to be very happy here.