Our vacation

Clay, Makayla and I were on vacation last week. The weather was rainy and cold all week. We tried not to let that bring our moods down, although I admit that I struggled with that a lot. The week started off with me taking Makayla for her 3-year old pictures.

My mother sewed Makayla's outfit for these pictures.

On our way home from getting the pictures done, I had to stop at the office. I left Makayla strapped in her car seat while I went in for a few minutes. As a side note, my office is in a rural area and it is essentially a small minihome with lots of windows (can walk through the entire office in less than 15 seconds) where I parked right next to the door. I didn't even think about whether she might have to pee since she hadn't said anything, but when I got back in the car, she was crying and saying that she tried to tell me that she had to pee but I wasn't there. And unfortunately, there was a wet car seat. I changed her pants and put a plastic grocery bag down and got her home within 5 minutes since we live that close to my office. I took the car seat out and brought it into the house. Makayla looked at the car seat in the basement and then a few minutes later, when we were all upstairs in the living room, she says "You guys, we have a big problem. My car seat won't fit in the washing machine." She was so serious and we just had to laugh. I showed her how the seat pad came off and how we could wash it.

At the campground, where we stayed during our vacation, Makayla loved to point out all the "spider nets" that were around. As much as I correct her and say that they are spider webs, she still insists on calling them spider nets.

I took Makayla to her first movie at the theatre. We went with Clay's cousin and her two kids to the movie "Wall-E". I didn't particularly enjoy the movie, but Makayla sat still through the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed the popcorn we shared.

We took the 2-hour trip to Magic Mountain which is a water park with lots of waterslides. Unfortunately the day was really cool to be in the water so we didn't stay long. Instead, we went across the road to a place called the "Boardwalk" where they had a park, go-karts and bumper boats. We had a blast over there.

During the week, we had some nice campfires and roasted a ton of marshmallows. Makayla has built sandcastles, played some mini-golf and enjoyed riding her bike around the campground.


Now we're back to the usual schedule and we're adjusting just fine. Now last night, Makayla fell out of her bed for the first time. Clay and I were just getting into bed around 11pm when we heard a thump. I knew that the dog was laying down so we both figured it had to be Makayla. We went into her room and she was climbing back up into bed, but she wasn't even awake. She snuggled back in under the blankets and we never heard from her until 6:30 this morning when she had no knowledge of falling out of bed.

Our summer is quickly coming to an end and with the weather being so awful, it feels like we only had about 3 weeks of summer. I am signing Makayla up for preschool in the fall. It is for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am also planning to get her into a dance class since she seems to enjoy that.

August 2008 renovation update

The reno checklist:
New roof - Complete
New insulation/siding - Complete
Removal of the wood/electric forced air furnace - Complete
Installation of heat pump - Complete
New air exchanger in our new utility room in the basement - Complete
Taking our wood furnace and installing it in the garage - I'm not sure when the furnace guy is coming to do that, but hopefully soon since our garage now looks like a tornado blew through it.
Painting and putting laminate flooring in family room - To be completed this fall
Painting living room, hallway and master bedroom - To be completed this fall
Putting a second bathroom in the basement - On hold
Finishing our backdoor entryway (build closet/shelves, hide washer/dryer in a closet) - On hold


The reason that we are putting the second bathroom addition and finished entryway on hold for the time being is because we have spent quite a bit of money so far and want to try to sell one of our building lots to help pay the credit line down before we continue. We put a "for sale by owner" sign up on the 2-acre lot we were originally planning to build on since it is all levelled and ready for a house (which we did when we thought we were going to be building there). Not to mention that there is a lot of house construction activity in the area and we thought it would be the best time to put it on the market. Since putting the sign up last week, we have gotten 5 calls on the property. We have a pretty big price on the land since there is no work for somebody to build on the property. We're not desperate to sell it, but the money will help with the rest of the renovations.


The heat pump is now installed and operational. I love it!! There is so much more room in our basement and we won't have to be storing wood down there either. The dog is going to need some time to get used to all the new noises that the system makes. She is a pretty anxious dog to begin with and any changes are really hard for her to adjust to. She will get used to it just like she had to get used to the hardwood floors.