New Pool

I can't believe it....we 'finally' have a pool - something I have wanted since I was 'like' 8 years old. My sister reminded me that my quest to have a pool began when we used to go swimming at our 'great' Aunt Doris & Uncle Don's pool, when we were kids!! I remember one time (as much as Jacques wanted a pool too, but the accountant coming out in him) and only once, he asked me 'are you sure we should get a pool?' I compared it to when he "really" wanted his GPS and then how excited was he when he finally got one!!! I told him that I've dreamed of a pool before GPS's even existed!!! LOL - no further discussion was ever had about whether or not we'd get a pool! God love my MAN because he is the BEST!!!

So - the pool is up, the deck is built, the ladder is in and we're ready to swim. Well....not me!!! It needs to be slightly warmer for me to jump in. Not NOAH, though! He was in swimming yesterday - water temp was only 19 and air temp was 23.. ....Brrrrr. Just a little too chilly for me!

Anyways....I just wanted to write how thankful and fortunate that we finally have a pool! Thanks honey!

Deck building 101

My dad came this weekend to build a deck for our pool. He designed the (initial) deck by photos and drawings provided by me. Since this original plan, we doubled the size, added some safety gates, moved the stairs, added an extra set of stairs and removed a platform to the trampoline.

The initial forecast was thunderstorms and lightening - but the weather ended up to be weird, but perfect. The sun would be shining then it would be a few drops (at times heavy) of rain then the sun would shine. Just enough to cool us down from working!

Below are the photos of the progress between June 20-21.

Getting the deck posts in place and level

Attaching the beams.

"Dad, look up"


How many men does it take to put screws in?
One to watch, and one to work!!!(didn't get any photos of the joists - this happened during one of my extra trips to Kent)
Then comes the the decking - and lots of it!

And more decking - this was Jacques and my project while Dad did the stairs

As complete as the deck got with Dad here - which is farther than anyone of us thought we'd get. (We realized we didn't have any screws to attaching the railing - this is Sunday's project for Jacques and me)

The colour is washed out because I had the wrong setting on my camera - didn't think to change the settings after a L-O-N-G hard day of work!!

So that's, THAT! The final deck is 8' X 32' and we're calling it our "Peer to the water" or "the runway"!!!

We're thrilled that we were fortunate enough to have Dad come from PEI to help us!

THANK YOU so much DAD for your help!

So much stuff...to get caught up on

I don't even know where to begin....so much has been going on with our move, unpacking, being TOGETHER with my family again, painting, putting pictures up......all WONDERFUL stuff but it's left me behind on my 'blog'ing'!!!

Everything is unpacked, all the photos are hung, the spare and master bedroom is painted (Noah's room is next - we are just on our way out the door to go get the paint for his newly decorated room)! A nice change from the Montreal Canadians theme that he has had for 5 years now! I am SO excited to see the final results. A few details are still up for decision but I just received his new quilt today from Pottery Barn Kids. It's called Junior Varsity and is perfect considering he wanted an 'all sports' theme! It is AMAZING quality - I am SO pleasantly surprised (my first order at Pottery Barn Kids)!! I told Noah he could choose the paint colour (as long as it is a colour in the quilt). Check out the quilt below....feel free to send me any ideas for decor in his room.


We went shopping in the states last weekend (as the US-Canada border crossing is in Grand Falls), mostly just to browse and buy a few groceries. We ended up going to a Walmart 'Supercenter' in Presque Isle, Maine. It had a FULL grocery store inside the Walmart store - it was HUGE and extremely cool! Well....we ended up coming home with our pool. A much larger one than we had intended to buy and for MUCH less moola!!! We got a 24' x 52" Intex Metal Framed Pool - so now we can't wait to get the fence up so we can get the pool up (the fence is this weekend's project - and so far the weather looks like it'll be perfect for building a fence)!! NOAH - has been adjusting very well, other than he has been missing having friends on the street to play with. He started soccer Tuesday night. He already knew 5 kids on his team (3 from his class and 2 from his school) - which was a really nice treat for him! We've also enrolled him in baseball that starts at the end of June as well as a daily summer program (from 1-3:30pm, Monday - Friday) for the summer called Frolic. This program is run by the Recreation Department in Grand Falls. There are activities every day - like swimming, hikes, crafts, library outings, games, etc. I am also going to host an end of school party for his new classmates (and their parents) in hopes to meet some children for play dates in the summer.

Jun 11-12 - we went back to Moncton (Dieppe) to close our old house. Noah was invited to join in his old class for the morning. He really enjoyed this. All the children were hugging him and questioning him as soon as we got there - it was really touching to see how much his classmates like him. Madame Small had an activity where Noah sat on a chair in the front of the class and the students got to take turn asking him questions about his move, house, new school - IN FRENCH and Noah had to respond IN FRENCH! Madame Small said it was an excellent activity. We picked him up before lunch and I got to sneak a few photos.


The weekend we found our new house - I took these photos (and never uploaded them - oops). The FALLS are the highest I had EVER seen since the first time seeing them in 1998 - due to all the flooding on the St. John River in New Brunswick this year.

So much to tell you about -

The first weekend we were in our house (last weekend - June 7) was the annual Relay for Life event to raise money for Cancer. To our benefit, it was held 'directly' across the road from our new house. After a long, hard day of work we took a stroll over to check out the sights and sounds. BEAUTIFUL - there were white 'sand bags' lining the outside of the track with an "In Memory Of..." on the front of each bag. At dusk, candles were lit in each bag and the the soft glow of candles in each bag lined the track - (unfortunately, I did not get a photo of this). It was fun - great entertainment as well as Noah had the chance to play soccer with some kids.

The top left photo is the view from the track - looking back at our new house.


Okay - I am all over the place with this post (basically to get caught up)!!! Here are some photos (pathetic at that, too) of our moving day. It had been such a l-o-n-g time coming - I had to document on photo!!!
So this should get us all caught up with where we're at today!!

Bless his soul.

My little man was such a brave soul today. Today was his first day at his new school. His first day 'ever' with a different teacher since his schooling began. As we walked into the school, he told us he was 'freaking out'. He was obviously very nervous and was not shy to share this information with his new teacher 'Madame Jennifer'. He also met his new vice principal (who happened to discipline some other students while we were talking to her - GREAT for Noah to see - to put the fear of the VP into him).

We walked him to his class and had the opportunity to meet many of his class mates. Madame Jennifer walked him around the class, explaining all the in's & out's with his new routine and also showed him his new desk.

As the students (only 13 students in total) entered, we got introduced (to a very friendly bunch, I might add) and chatted with many of the students ( Adam, Zoey, Emily, Caleb, Jackson, Abbey, Zack and others). Noah was rather quiet for most of the time we were in his class. He just sat at his new desk observing everyone's personality and everything happening around him.

After the bell rang, all the students came in to sit down....then Noah realized he was sitting with all girls (Gabriella, Abby & Zoey) and looked to each of the girls and said "Do you know what the problem is here?". The poor girls, didn't really get it right away!

All in all, at the end of the day Madame Jennifer said he had a VERY good day. She said that he is definitely not shy and is very friendly.

Noah's report is that he made 3 new friends; Lee, Zack & Caleb. What a relief for all of us!

A brief update...

I haven't posted in a while because our move is underway.... for a brief look at the our time line of events, check out the link to my post called 'A long time...' on our family blog.

See you soon!


Life is RESUMING as we speak - hooray!

I CAN'T SLEEP....

AHHHHHHH - what's wrong with me!!! EVERY morning between 4:00 am and 5:00 am - I'm wide awake and unable to fall back asleep. 4:43 am this morning.....

I mean, I DO know what it is.....I'M beyond EXCITED about our move, very excited to have my family back together.

BUT honestly folks, the lack of sleep is crippling me! I am someone who NEEDS their sleep!!! Just yesterday, I took Noah to day care (no school here yesterday). I advised them I would pick Noah up early AT SCHOOL. The teacher looked at me like I had 2 heads.... I couldn't figure out why until I realized what I had said....DAAAHHHH!!! OH and this was after I forgot to give my child breakfast (you know, that most important meal of the day) so we stopped at the corner IRVING gas station and bought an egg salad sandwich and a chocolate milk!!! Noah had fun telling EVERYONE that his mom forgot to feed him breakfast!

I NEED SLEEP!!!! LOL

:0)

12 days to go until my family is back together (and lots to do until then)

Look what I bought (again)...

...as well as some donated items from our going away party yesterday - click to read more

The top 2 photos and the bottom left - are from a little shopping spree at our local 2nd hand store (that I am going to MISS when we move) and the bottom right photo is the items donated at our going away party. I have a 60L Rubbermaid almost half full now of clothes and shoes (and a few toys) to donate to the orphanage we are going to visit. At this rate of collection, I will have to ship items as well as take some! It feels great!

You CAN'T even begin to imagine how much I love shopping for 2nd hand clothes for children who REALLY need them. They are beautiful clothes (mostly name brands - Osh Kosh, The Gap, The Children's Place - not that it matters, though) for mostly $1-$2 per piece. It's ridiculous to try to understand why children have to go without clothes when there is so much excess even just in my family. It baffles me.