39 Belleview

It was a week before our partially-planned move, and a friend said "Hey, let's move you tomorrow." He spoke of the holiday Monday. To our amazement, things kind of took off from there, and the next day we were moved! Not bad results for a holiday, and for not having to rent a truck, and for not having been prepared packing-wise.

A few days before, we'd taken possession. Time to try the key and take a picture.

That wasn't so bad. Then we stepped inside. BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Uh-oh.

Well, good to know the alarm works. I hustled the girls outside before the blaring began and then set about trying to disable the dumb thing. A code would have been helpful at this point. Instead all it took was a few calls and emails to the realtor, the former owner, the lawyer, the security firm, and anyone else I wanted to make aware that our moment was being ruined by a noisy alarm. In the end, a callback from the security company walked me through disabling the alarm without a code. Hopefully I can rig it so the next thief who breaks in isn't able to use the same simple techniques...

Back to being moved in. Home ownership... what a glorious feeling! We love the space and have no regrets (yet... check back after our first mortgage payment), although we miss our old appliances, which were much nicer.

Our entrance is very spacious. We'll have to get a rug and some furniture to liven it up at some point.

The staircase to upstairs is kind of front and centre, but it's not a bad looking one.

Our sunken living room adjoins a dining room, and both are carpeted. I'm not sure who decides that carpet in an eating area is a good idea, but I imagine we won't be eating there much. And the living room, well, Lily has the place to herself (and her toys). The family room is plenty big for us adults to hang out, and we don't have enough furniture to go around besides.

The family room has two skylights at the end, providing much light. The wood floor is nice but not too forgiving in terms of seeing scratches. Between trying to keep carpets white and hardwood unscratched, I will go grey in no time at all. Stupid home ownership!

There is a weird bar counter between the family room and the eating area. We very much disliked it at first, but it does have its merits: it's easy to reach whilst sitting at the table. And beyond that is a nice roomy kitchen, albeit with appliances we're not thrilled with. Something to save up for, I guess.

The combined length of the family room / eating area / kitchen is 44 feet, and we love how open it feels.

Lily enjoyed her "pool" in the ensuite while we got around to buying a plug for her own tub...

And then there's the garage. We've been quite happy with having a carport for a number of years, but a two-car garage? We certainly spoiled ourselves on that count. May we curb our junk collecting enough to always fit the car in it. I didn't have a tennis ball handy to mark where to stop when we pull in, so currently a roll of masking tape at windshield level is doing the trick. We'll see if it's there in 10 years.

The back yard isn't huge, but it will suffice once we clear it up a bit. With the patio, some trees, a massive rock slab, randomly placed flower gardens, and a swing bench, we'll have to do some figuring on a new layout. The patio is old but big and in decent shape. There's an in-ground sprinkler system I have yet to try out. And the fountain pool (pictured below) got ripped out shortly after Lily fell in; no need for such hazards in my lovable-yet-clumsy-child's yard thankyouverymuch.

I've bought a mower and various other homeowner stuff, but we're going to need so much more. I just finished putting a trailer hitch on the gutless car, so at least we can borrow a trailer when we buy big stuff on Kijiji. Like a bed for Lily. Until now she's slept in her crib; in the new place we purposely didn't set it up, to force us to buy her a new bed.

Birthday

Lily got to celebrate her third birthday at the new house. She had four friends over. She's older than two of them, but I think they're all bigger than she is. Notice the lovely fruit bouquet on the table behind them; her mom is quite the artist!

Cupcakes are easier than cake!

Time to kill the piñata. A couple of girly swings...

A few more, with mom's help...

Skip a few rounds that included the other kids and perhaps a hockey stick... Success! I think. Not sure if this is before or after it rained candy. No pictures were possible during that stampede.

Lily loves puzzles and fairy or princess (or fairy princess) outfits, and she was spoiled with both on this occasion. Happy birthday, honeybunch!

Alex Vanderveen, 2015

After a very difficult couple of weeks, today we laid our tiny son to rest. Alex Vanderveen lived, unborn, to 25 weeks. We wish desperately that things could have been different, but who are we to question the ways of the Lord?

We are so blessed to be surrounded with family and friends who have helped us through it all. We thank everyone for their prayers and support.

And Lily... where would we be without our Lily? She has been our true ray of sunshine during all of this.

Rest in peace, little Alex. We'll see you in due time.

Home sweet house

Well, we took the plunge. Every year for five years we've been saying "we'll probably buy a house next spring". We even said that this spring. And then, suddenly, we own a house! These things just creep on you.

Carrie has always kept an eye out on MLS, keeping up on what's worth what in what neighbourhood. One day, she said "what about this one?" It happened to be a house I'd checked out online the previous day. The house wasn't super, but the 0.3-acre lot was the biggest we'd ever seen available in the suburbs. Three days later we had a realtor and mortgage pre-approval and went to see the place. Prior to this, we'd never even gone for mortgage pre-approval, and we'd never been to see a house.

I was in love with the yard, but Carrie didn't love the 70-minute commute to work. Some offers and counteroffers later, we lost the place to another buyer. I was, of course, heart-broken.

We were in buying mode, so we saw ten other places with our realtor. One was a nice house that was a little too big for our needs, and I decided that if I couldn't have a massive yard, I might as well have a massive house.

Then the sale on the first place fell through, so that was back in play. We decided on a halfhearted attempt, so we re-offered our previous final offer. And promptly lost it again.

Back to the other house. After some offers and counteroffers, we decided to pull the trigger. I'm ashamed to admit that I spent less time buying our single largest purchase ever than I would buying a TV or camera. But, as with buying a car, sometimes one just wants to get it over with.

So after 13 years of glorious worry-free renting, we get our new place at the end of July. We'll have triple the space we have now (the new basement is as big as our entire current place), so methinks it will be very sparsely furnished for some time to come. But that's okay, since we expect to be in it for 50 years, plenty of time to fill it.

Our house:


Okay, that was 30 years ago. Here's a fresh one:


The previous owner had it custom-built. (Kind of a rare thing in these parts, sadly; I hate that so many houses have a make and model... seriously!) He gave us construction and other early photos and even some blueprints!

So, um, come on over. I guarantee we'll have space to accommodate you.

May/June

One day I took Lily to go buy some beer. We pulled into the parking lot.
Lily: Are we at the sucker store?
Me: The what? We're not at the candy store, if that's what you mean.
Lily: No, the sucker store.
Me: No, we're at the liquor store. Oh HAHAHA, I get it. We're at the "licker" store, not the sucker store.

And one day Lily was being lazy and didn't feel like walking all the way up the stairs.
Lily: Can you carry me, mom?
Mom: You have two legs.
Lily: But you have two legs too!
Touché, little girl. Touché.

Well, where does the time go?

Stuff has happened. Let me try to run through things in order. (Nothing exciting, so don't get too comfy.)

Going waaay back, we found time to head south to see some family for the Easter weekend. It's a shame we don't see more of the family, but that's life.

Fortunately, family decided to come our way for Victoria Day weekend. B&M decided to come over without the kids for a relaxing weekend, which it was! Good times.

 Good food, great company.

 The different Uncle Brian. (The only real one, but whatever.)

 Awww. Sis and bro-in-law. If it looks like he has smoke coming out of his

ears, it's because the cannons on Parliament Hill behind them were booming.

 Crossing the canal.

 Thumbs up for nut-encrusted bacon!

The day after they left, Carrie was to find out whether she had to go to Guam for business on very short notice. I know, where is that even? Very far away, apparently. It turned out she didn't have to go, which suited us both fine as it would have been nearly two weeks away from home. On a muggy tropical island. In a conference room tantalizingly close to the beach.

So life went on. I can't remember too much of importance, so cue photo dump...

Can't believe our little girl is almost 3!

 

No swimming pool, but we make do.

 This kid looooves everything princess.

 It's bike riding season again.

Her very own bike. Look ma, no pedals!

 What a croc! We were at the shoe store and she wanted to try it on.

 Fun grumpy face. Her boots are half full of water from puddle splashing.

(I didn't know this until it poured out all over the floor shortly after.)

 At the playground.

 If only we had a lawn.

 At the local doggie park.

 I wish her car seat reclined a little more. For the sake of her poor little neck.

One day we decided to see what the Great Glebe Garage Sale was all about. We'd never been but heard not-so-great things about parking woes and generally crowded conditions in this neighbourhood called the Glebe. We found parking about 10 minutes' walk away from the action and waded in. It was a little hard to manoeuvre the stroller down the sidewalks, but the streets were clear enough to use. (The odd car that tried to drive through the neighbourhood had a horrible time of it.) What was really convenient was that every two or three houses you came upon another yard sale!

We practiced some restraint and didn't buy all the useless old crap people tend to have for sale. The only thing we came home with was a nice wooden train set. Choo choo!

 Garage sale loot. Um, yeah, for Lily.

Later that day, I headed out for a little run. That's right, it was the annual Ottawa Race Weekend. I had signed up for the 10km race with my almost-semi-pro running buddy Peter. We had a pretty good run. Oh, and then I ran home, which was another 2km. That last brilliant move mangled my knee, so I hobbled around for a number of days afterward.

Thousand people in front of me.

 Many thousands behind me. Odds are good that I will beat some of them.

A week later I woke up. That was my first mistake. Then I tried to get out of bed. Second mistake. I have no idea what I did, but my lower back was extremely sore. So for two weeks I hobbled around like an old man. Refusing to seek medical help... like an old man. It's all better now, so yay.

A few weeks ago some guys disconnected our air conditioning in preparation for some work to be done in the back yard. We were not impressed to hear that it might be two months before we'd have it working again. Not cool. Literally. Oh, and I now have to walk the dog since she can't just do her thing in the yard. And by walk the dog I mean take her to the nearest patch of public grass and tell her to squat already. We've developed a good system.

They're digging out 7 years worth of Daisy's poop!

We went to Westfest on Saturday. There were buskers and balloon animal makers and sidewalk sales and face painting and live music and sundries. Still not sure what Westfest is, but maybe it was just that: a bunch of stuff going on.

 Lily's first cotton candy. It was a hit!

The balloon man made her a slightly oversize magic wand. Yikes!

they grow up so fast

After a well-behaved hearty lunch of pasta, soup and yogurt, Lily and I recited the Lord's Prayer together. Impressed with her overall effort, I hugged her and said, "Wow, what a good girl!"

Responds she, "But I'm not a good girl."

"Why not?"

"Cuz the Lord's Prayer said lead us not into temptation."

Um. Okay. First of all, stop growing up so quickly! Also, I should probably quit while I'm ahead; as a parent I can't possibly make things any better. * Drops mic and walks off stage *

Seriously though, what two-year-old should be bothered with such heady thoughts? Go colour on some walls or something. It did lead to a good discussion, only a few years ahead of my anticipated schedule.

But just to remind me of her age, she still says kid stuff, like "My breffixt is too soggy!" and "Broccoli starts wif bra!" And her first poopy pants incident yesterday left me unamused. Guess I'll keep at it a bit, then.

Oh, and last week at the grocery store. She's singing "Jesus loves me" as I peruse the aisles. The she gets to the chorus and gets stuck in a loop: "Yes Jesus loves me, YES JESUS LOVES ME, YES JESUS LOVES ME..." And it just keeps going, louder and louder. Last thing I want to do I discourage her; abandoning her and hiding behind the mid-aisle toilet paper tower is looking mighty inviting. (I promise I didn't.)

Another month, another lame post

What's new with y'all?

A few weeks ago, we went with some friends to Mont Tremblant for some ski hill goodness. Kids were left behind and good times were had. We hadn't been since 2009, and we were hoping for a better experience than the slushy conditions we had then. We weren't disappointed... as long as you bundled up. Temps were mostly between -20 and -10, not including wind chill. Not warm by any standard I'm familiar with, but I for one was pretty comfily dressed.

 

  

  

We left Lily with friends of ours. I authorized the nice lady to administer Lily's very first haircut! She no longer has the craziest static hair on earth. It's down to a little bit crazy... with bangs.

Two weeks ago I sent the girls off to BC for a holiday (for them or me?). This was in retribution for Carrie gallivanting off to Switzerland and leaving me with Lily for a week. It was a nice time for all.

What else? Oh right.

Siblings

We're not expecting twins... anymore. We were, but that's been downgraded to singlets. Well, singlet. Sad for sure, but a relief, in a way. Anyway, he or she is due in October, so we best get on the adult train and buy a house and a nicer car. It's about time we incurred a few hundred thou in debt, right?

Happenings

An eighth of a century ago, a wonderful young lady got married to some dude. Around the same time, I married a wonderful young lady. Happy 12.5! (That's totally a thing, okay?)

Carrie left us a couple of weeks ago... for Switzerland. She had a training course in Bern, so I got to be Dad for a whole week. It made me better appreciate when Carrie's here and I can hand Lily over for the evening. Carrie came back with plenty of chocolate, so she was quickly forgiven.

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It's been a fairly cold winter, with quite a bit of snow sneaking up on us lately. I splurged and bought a $5 sled for Lily, but we've used it very rarely, since it's not too fun to head outside when it's -20 and windy outside.

We went skating on the canal once and, as usual, we picked a pretty cold day to do so. (There weren't any warm days to choose from, so there's that.) I pushed Lily in the stroller, and that worked very well, after she was appropriately bundled up.

I even went snowboarding this past weekend, something I rarely get around to. I think I went once last year, and maybe not at all the year before. We'll be going next weekend to Mont Tremblant ski resort with some friends. Kid-free! So if you want to entertain a two-year-old for two days/nights, get in line and let us know. (Sorry, but you have to live near Ottawa.)

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We went to an 80s-themed birthday party a couple weeks ago. It was probably the first dress-up party I've ever attended (or dressed up for anyway), since I used to be too cool for such frivolities. We dug out the Walkman and shopped for neon, uncool denim and fancy hairdos (hairdon'ts?). Even Lily showed up with a velvet tracksuit, sneakers and a side ponytail. Our hosts threw a totally rad party!

Stoked for the party.

We gave my wig a haircut; literally mangled it.

Way cool hosts.

The gals.

The guys.

Their youngest son fascinates Lily, but she's not entirely sure about him. (I think the boy wants to marry Carrie but he sees me as an obstacle/threat.) My first boys-related heart-to-heart with my daughter:

Lily: And I saw Nayfan.
Papa: Do you like Nathan?
Lily: Not really.
Papa: Why not?
Lily: Well, he talks to me.

Well. I'm going to have to talk with that lad. And methinks she's gonna grow up to be a wonderfully choosy young lady.

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We'd bought a KitchenAid mixer from Costco five years ago, and recently it decided to act up. I opened it up and found a stripped gear (and lots of shavings). Some Youtubing and Googling later, found the right part to order. New gear $7, shipping $9. Costco members might think returning it is easier, but since we're not members (we just use our member friends) it's not convenient; besides, repairs can feel so rewarding!

Speaking of repairs... the other day, our car that won't die sounded and felt like it was about to die. It was running very rough, and pretty much stalled if I slowed to a halt. Got my handy little code reader out, which rewarded me with a "cylinder misfire" error. I needed an oil change anyway so I called the garage to see if they could take my car the next day. Fortunately for me, nobody answered. The next day I grabbed some tools and limped the jalopy to the parts store for some DIY fun. I bought some spark plugs at $4 apiece and replaced a couple in the parking lot while Lily ransacked the store. The friendly guys at Napa even lent me a magnet off the shelf when my spark plug played hard-to-get. And wouldn't you know it, that fixed the problem! Yay for cheap maintenance.

The car did decide to rear-end another vehicle last week. I was driving along, minding my own business, when the person in front of me decided to brake hard. My non-ABS wheels locked up too soon and... THUD! I waited for the driver to pull over, but that didn't happen. Followed a ways, still nothing, so whatever. Turns out my license plate was just as tough as his hitch, so no damage. Still, who doesn't stop when run into, unless you have something to hide? Weird.

I've been teaching Lily how to drive, which may have been a misstep on my part. Come within half a mile of a red light and she'll yell "DAD YOU HAVE TO STAWWWWWWP!" Sigh. In our next vehicle, she'll be at least twice as far away from my ear, so that should mitigate the hearing damage--if it's not too late.

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While shopping for 80s junk, we happened to acquire a princess dress for Lily. She likes nothing better than to be a princess, whether with just a blanket over the shoulders or with a bonafide tattered second-hand dress!