Making A House A Home Part 1

Friday morning, we took the girls bright and early to Community Park so they could spend some energy outside before their nap. We were hoping the would nap a little longer since we were going to a wedding that evening. The ceremony and reception were being held at the Tigh-Na-Mara. I won’t post any pictures of the newlyweds as I didn’t ask if it was ok to post some on here so you’ll just have to trust me that they were both gorgeous and dashing!  We cleaned up very nice too, if I do say so myself!

I had bought a simple navy dress from Bryan’s  just before leaving and had forgotten all my jewelry and Ben had no pants to wear that fit him. We made a quick dash to the mall on our way to Parksville and I got myself a nice necklace and earrings from Aldo Accessories while Ben bought a nice pair of pants from Banana Republic. Rina was originally wearing a prettier dress, but she took a tumble and blood ran from her knee onto the dress, so we changed her into a different dress between the ceremony and the reception. Still a pretty cute family IMHO!

One day, BeZU will smile when prompted!

I love that dress despite my nasty CF bruise on my leg!

Yesterday morning, we decided to pack up early and hit the road during the girls nap. That meant we had to clean up the condo, do some laundry and we had also promised Rina we would take the girls “golfing” (playing mini-golf). She was so excited about it all and we didn’t really play for points. It was more an obstacle course for us as we were trying to hit our balls around little legs and feet that kept walking on the putting green. Rina and I both managed a hole-in-one on the 18th hole which meant we won 2 free plays. Seeing as we didn’t plan on using them, I went down the line-up of people waiting to purchase their entrances, picked a family of four and told them we would give them our free plays. I figured, we might as well pay-it-forward. The parents seemed very pleased with our offer and I just said they should pay-it-forward somehow to someone else! 🙂

Upon returning home, yesterday, we dove right into Home DIY projects. There were weeds to be pulled out (still lots of thistles, but we’ll get there eventually), bushes to be uprooted and plants to be watered. We had also received a call from the Home Depot saying that the blinds for our skylights were ready to be picked up. I’m pretty happy about those as it has been hard to sleep in the bedroom with the sun shining straight on my body and temperature of around 28ºC (82F). I’m sure these will make a huge difference in the heat that seems to get stuck upstairs:

See those nice sun squares shining right on my side of the bed? They are all gone on the right pic!

While we were waiting to pick up our blinds, we also decided to get 2 more shovels (one to uproot the thistles and another to do some grass trimming along our walkway) as well as a trowel for gardening. Once we dropped everything off at home, I took off on my own for a trip to HomeSense where I bought drawer organizers for the bathroom upstairs and a rug for the front entrance (I still want one for the patio door, but couldn’t find one I liked).

New rug

I also bought a towel holder that hangs from the cupboard and a make-up mirror for when I put my face on in the morning. Miracle of miracles, I also found a duvet cover for Béatrice. I was starting to re-think my idea of having her curtains and duvet cover in the shade of bubble gum pink, but I found her curtains last week at Home Outfitters and I scored her duvet cover today at home depot for $30!

Things we are still missing are a full-length mirror for upstairs, a new mirror for the bathroom downstairs (there is currently one there, I just hate it!)new furniture for the girls’ bedrooms as well as for our bedroom, and new duvet cover for us as well.

We have also booked an appointment for someone from Home Depot to come and give us a quote to change the 2 windows upstairs (they are the original ones, from 1918, wood and single pane. Definitely not safe for what will be Rina’s room) and we will be making some phone calls today to get quotes on the painting of all 3 bedrooms. Things are moving along and I’m excited about making this house a home!

Ben also put all the doors back up in our rental suite and has re-connected the washer and dryer. Lots of little projects being crossed off our list!

Feeling sick, grinding teeth and home sweet home

Sweet Rina,

Yesterday, we managed a very small hike (probably around 7.5km) and although it was the easiest of all the hikes we have done in a long while, to me, it was the worst. We wanted to go on the Forbidden Plateau of Strathcona Park  and go from Paradise Meadows Trailhead to Lake Helen McKenzie. From there, we wanted to go to Kooso Lake and maybe attempt to go to Lady Lake and then come back around Battleship Lake. Our plans were cut short because of me. As we got to Lake Helen McKenzie, I started having pretty bad abdominal cramps. We then went around the lake up to the campground on the other side of the lake and I was not feeling any better, getting nauseous. We decided not to go to Kooso Lake and go back to the parking lot through the Battleship Lake Loop and thank goodness we did so. I pretty much spent the rest of the hike dry-heaving my way back to the car. Not a fun walk at all, for me anyway! You, on the other hand, were all smile or sleeping 😉

All smiles while Daddy ties his boots

I’m really sad that I wasn’t feeling well as the day turned out to be gorgeous (we had started the walk under a cloudy sky) and the views were really nice. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to save it for another hiking trip! When you are a bit bigger, we would like to make our way up to the icefield (we would need to camp overnight to do so, though).

First glance of Lake Helen McKenzie. I love the effect of the reflection in the water!

Mt Washington in the background, from Battleship Lake

A close-up of Mt Washington, still from Battleship Lake

After we got to the car, the dry-heaving let off a little and I only had to deal with the cramps. We went into town in Courtenay to run some errands and as I was feeling better, we also stopped to get lunch. That was a big mistake as I started getting nauseous as soon as we got back to the car. I ended up being sick once we came back to the B&B and felt better instantly afterwards. We took it easy for the rest of the day/evening and today, I was back to normal.

In other news, yesterday, you started grinding your teeth. I don’t know how you manage to do so as you only have 3 teeth that are fully out and one more on the way, but they are not aligned! You just twist your jaw and get grinding. It is quite maddening as it sounds like a low-pitched, nails-on-a-a-blackboard sound according to your Dad. Please don’t destroy your brand new pearly whites! Hopefully, this will pass once you grow more teeth!

We are now back home and although I am happy to be back home, I’m sad that our little vacation is over. I really did enjoy all the quality family time we spent over the past week and am not really looking forward to the madness of our everyday routine. Oh well, I have set up some goals for myself for the upcoming months (nutrition-wise, exercise-wise, yoga-wise and I also want to start training for the Run for the Cure coming up in October and I’d really like to be able to run it (if my shins allow me to do so, therefore, I need to start training THIS WEEK! Hopefully, you’ll be collaborating and be a good partner in your stroller!

Love,

Mom & Dad Xxo