Homeless

Things have been rapidly moving along here even if you have not heard much about it. Another catch up post and I’m afraid it’s going to be picture heavy!

We got back on Sunday after a week in Newfoundland trying to find ourselves a new house. Here is what Checkers thought of us leaving.

Checkers and Tobi stayed at a cattery while we were away. The house is still for sale and we felt it was too much to ask a friend to cat sit for us and ensure the house was kept up to spec for showings. I was lucky enough to find The Valley Cat Hotel online and was very pleased with the lovely owner and the facilities. Unfortunately, Checkers and Tobi did not want to come home with us… Para stayed at her usual kennel and seemed to fare alright. We requested that she be groomed while we were away and she came back to us more gorgeous than ever! That reminds me – I must get a picture of her gorgeousness.

Before we left, I had been trying to get Iain to repeat the word ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’ for several weeks to no avail. The minute we drove up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Iain said,

“Grandma!” just like that! He says ‘Grandpa’ too. Well, he says an Iain rendition of ‘Grandpa’ which is ‘Grumpa’. Grumpa doesn’t seem to mind.

Iain and Mudder had such fun this past week. Iain has started to parrot everything and will point at things so we will say what they are and he can repeat the word(s) (as an aside, DH was reading him a book on Kwanzaa last night and he kept hearing Iain saying ‘Kwanzaa’ over and over on the monitor after he put him to bed – too cute!). They visited the ‘osheay’ daily and even went to a sandy beach and to visit ducks on some days. We also beat Grandma out and left her with a cold that we brought (sorry, Mudder!) that I thought was allergies before we left Nova Scotia. Despite all of that, she is still coming to help us out on June 16th until we move.

Unfortunately, you will not be seeing any new house pictures in this post. We did not find our dream house. Prices in the St. John’s area have gone through the roof and we were not comfortable spending a lot of money on something that made us go ‘Meh.’ It looks as though we will be staying at my parents for at least the first few weeks and, perhaps, renting for awhile. Our material possessions will be moved into storage and, likely, we will start looking for a piece of land to build on. We had two criteria on our trip 1) to live right in the heart of the city with all its amenities and, hopefully, a gorgeous historic house or 2) to live just outside the city with a gorgeous view. Here is a sample of why we know there are gorgeous views out there – the view from my parents kitchen and dining room.

Apparently we are too picky so will keep looking.

I have booked our trip from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland on Marine Atlantic. We will be sailing back to Newfoundland for good on July 24, 2009 with three adults (Mudder will be with us), a toddler, a newborn, two cats and a dog.

Our other news is the latest addition to the automotive side of our family – our new 2009 Volkswagen Routan.

Here is a picture of DH driving it off the lot

(I will be driving it most of the time so I thought he would enjoy the thrill of driving one of the few brand new vehicles we will likely ever own off a lot.

He did enjoy himself too and has spent the last two nights in the driveway worshiping it! Mind you, he would likely say that he is not worshiping it but is going through the users manuels ;)). We are taking both vans on our trip home. Without moving into our own house as soon as we arrive, DH and I are anticipating having the vans loaded with excess to make settling in wherever we end up as smooth as possible.

Now that we are home and over the stress of trying to find a house in a week and flying with a toddler (the Canadian Forces, bless them, paid for Iain to have his own seat.

It made things SO much easier. Mommy doesn’t have much in the way of a lap these days), I am settling down to the joy of anticipating a new baby. Not that that means I’m not busy. We have planned Iain’s second birthday party well in advance and that will occur on the 13th. On the 14th, friends are hosting a new baby shower for us. Mudder arrives on the 16th and Iain, my belly and I are having a photo shoot on the 18th. Baby number two has really suffered from a lack of appropriate attention with everything else going on and I thought a partial family portrait would be a nice touch. S/he is already low on the ultrasound pictures (one compared to five or so for Iain) so I wanted to do something extra special for this particular child. I really hope they turn out and have every confidence in the photographer.

Apart from that, I have one more cooking show scheduled for Sunday afternoon. I also have two catalogue shows running currently but they are so easy as I simply accept the orders, punch them into my little ordering program and send them off. The orders are couriered to the hosts and I just get on the telephone after the deliveries are made to see if everyone is pleased/not pleased with their products. Even a nine month pregnant woman can handle that.

Yes, nine months. I have just crossed the threshold to a larger belly (believe it) and weekly OBY appointments. Here is a shot from last Saturday evening.

Mudder cannot believe I still have a little over a month to go still.