According to my camera, May and June were not terribly eventful. I can already see this method is going to be a problem. From what I can remember, May and June were actually a chaotic tornado of stress, driving all over the place, packing, moving, and unpacking. After 7 weeks on the market and almost 30 showings, our house finally sold. It was a ridiculous amount of work to keep the house perfect and to pack up three or four kids to get out every time someone wanted to come take a look. "MOVING" is a four-letter word in my dictionary now, and if anyone suggests it to me again anywhere in the near or not-so-near future, they risk...I don't know what, but they'll be in trouble. We also did a lot of driving to the Strathroy area on the weekends to look for a new home for ourselves. Again, we saw almost 30 houses before we found the one outside of Mt. Brydges that we now call home. I was beginning to wonder if the checklist of things we wanted in a new home was something that actually existed - our agent assured us that something would come up but it was disappointing to see so many "this isn't it"s. When the right house did come up, it was like we put our heads in the middle of a whirlwind. We got an offer on our house, accepted it, put an offer on the new house and it was accepted all within a weekend with a closing date of just a few short weeks away, and then there was all the paperwork aftermath to deal with.
And then all the packing. A lot of things had already been packed prior to the house going on the market, but there were so many more things to box up! I was surprised how much "stuff" there is in a house, which you don't really find out until you start trying to pack it up. We had arranged for a large U-Haul for moving day, and when the day arrived we became quite concerned that we didn't have nearly enough room. An amazing group of men volunteered their time to help us pack up the truck, and they were absolutely fantastic at their job. I don't know how they managed to "Tetris" all the stuff in that vehicle, but it was as full as a truck can get (and then three vans worth as well...good thing we didn't have to move the appliances!).
Mike and I drove in an exhausted fog to our new place, and another group of volunteers from the Strathroy community arrived in the morning to help us unload everything. We were overwhelmed by how much help we were offered, from moving things to cleaning to meals to watching children. My parents helped us paint the bedrooms before we moved in, which was amazing. The previous owner loved BRIGHT colours, and there were a few rooms here that almost required sunglasses to enter. With a change of paint and some new carpet the house was already starting to feel more like ours.
The kids all did quite well during this whole huge transition. They were patient with the upheaval at home, they became experts at cleaning up the toys in the basement in record time and they enjoyed their time with Grandma or Opa and Oma while we house-shopped. As I look back on these pictures, they have grown up quite a bit, especially Stephen of course. His first birthday was in June in the middle of all the craziness. One already! He's no longer a baby!
I can't figure out how to get the pictures off my phone. It's called a "smart phone" but I think it has its moments of moronity. Yes, that is a word. So I'll just post the ones from the camera now, and when I have restocked my patience I will try to get the May/June pictures off the phone for you. I know that I haven't even begun to capture everything that happened in those months but this will have to do for now!
Nate was more than thrilled to blow some leaves around at Grandma's house. It was a little too heavy for him but he was SO happy to have a "job"
Hmmm. Looks like Stephen's been participating in one of his favourite activities again - TROUBLE!
Good luck keeping your windows clean when you've got a sweetie like this around!
Look who figured out how to stand up! He loved standing here and looking outside
Apparently most of my photos of this time of year are of Stephen being a stinker.
And some late additions from Mike's digital photo albums - a blurry photo of a celebration of Aaron's 4 + 1 birthday at Grandma's house
One of our last walks/bike rides along the lakefront trails in St. Catharines.
A family photo on the playground
And the arrival of Smartphones in our home means there are many ridiculous selfies I could post, but I will refrain myself, haha
No comments:
Post a Comment