My Hockey Team!

We're trying very hard to make sure we spend family time every weekend, despite the amount of work we want to do on the house too. The weekends are the only time we have to do both.
So when the boys asked to go skating on Saturday, we squeezed it in between taping and the first coat of mud on the new drywall.
They chose Mitchell's outdoor rink, which was no surprise; we're all a little homesick for familiar right now.
I didn't skate, but I did take my new camera out onto the ice and snapped some shots of them having a good time. I am far happier behind a camera than on skates!
On the way home, we stopped at Tim Horton's for doughnuts to take home for snack, and I made us all hot chocolate to go with.
It was a really nice little break:)

Ensuite Progress

Ah, sweet progress! The ensuite is coming along nicely! The shower is in (and working!) and the jet tub just needs the faucet to also be usable. Dustin and I drywalled the room this weekend (as well as anything else in the house we've brought down to framing to redo), and I believe his plan is to start taping next weekend.

I know I dont use names often on here, but I really have to give 'props' to Dustin's friend Tim who helped him carry the jet tub up the stairs. These two are like He-man and the Hulk together (you two can fight over who's who later ...or maybe Edward and Emmett from Twilight. Those two are very strong too. Hmmmm, I like the vampire idea better.....;)
ANYWAY, I could not have done it - I tried!! I didn't get my end high enough to get it off the ground! It weighed a TONNE!-, and without Tim's help, the tub would still be sitting in the garage!
They actually had to lift it over the banister at the top of the stairs because it wouldn't work to go around the corner with it. Yup....he had to lift it over his head since he was at the bottom.
Thank God for friends!!



Carrying up the 3 pieces of the fiberglass shower was awkward enough - and it just fit up the stairwell. By just, I mean that the wall along the stairs looks like Freddy Krueger visited - the screw in the back of the unit dug in the whole way up! Good thing we aren't finished with the drywall yet!



Here's a shot of the drywalled room. The open space in the wall will be built in shelves...not a tv like it looks perfect for. The tv is going on the wall opposite the jet tub (no joke). There's a void in the wall that Dustin is considering putting in a mini fridge just below the shelf unit, because everyone needs a cold drink after they shower, right?

Lights and window treatment to be replaced yet, and the toilet will go on after the flooring is in.

A day-break

We decided to just do a day trip down to Grand Forks this winter, instead of staying overnight the way we usually do. Generally, we don't sleep well in hotels and we leave for home first thing in the morning. So we figured we'd leave early and come home late, but do it all in one day.

So, we left our house at 7:30am and went straight to the CanadInns water park for the morning. We got a good two hours in before our tummy's were growling for lunch.
After changing, we headed to our favorite fast food restaurant (Wendy's) and inhaled some lunch. I was super excited that my favorite wrap was still available there, as it's been taken off the menu at home. Little things like that make us love the States!
After lunch, we headed to Menards to look for house stuff we would need soon. Nothing was a better price than what Dustin could get through work, so we headed to Old Navy next.

I know we have Old Navy here at home, but we always find more stuff in the States, and their prices are generally better.
Brad got a bunch of tees that had funny sayings on them, some with guitars (which he loves!) and Zach found some dirt bike prints for himself.
Dustin and I both found lots too.

Next was Target... surprisingly, we didnt get anything but a few toys there. The boys had been working to earn money for the last while in anticipation of this day, so they came away with Lego Star Wars and a Remote Control Car.

Gordmans was the next store on the strip. Both boys got a bunch of things here. Zach was on cloud nine to find a Tom Brady jersey that he will probably wear 24/7 now. It was not cheap, but we couldn't pass up a find like that.
Brad would have done his Uncle Andrew proud - he scouted all the Sean John hoodies and held fast to those picks, despite us showing him other (cheaper) things.

We were slightly petering out now, so we went to the mall next and while Dustin or I ran into stores, the boys and one of us sat on benches with a water bottle and granola bars.

Supper was supposed to be at Texas Roadhouse, and we had been seated and even ordered drinks when I threw in the towel and said there was no way I could eat there. There was a smell, think sewer mixed with hog farm, that was making my stomach turn so badly I didn't dare look at a menu even. We asked to be moved but were informed the smell was all over and they didn't know what it was. After seeing some employees exit the washrooms with bleach containers, the thought of eating there was too repulsive and we told our server and left.
This was a big disappointed, I really love Texas Roadhouse and had been looking forward to it for a long time.
We tried out Buffalo Wild Wings instead. It's a sports bar theme, but also a family restaurant... and best of all, it smelt great in there! After a great supper, we headed to our final stop, the Walmart.
Here, we stocked up on our favorite sugary cereals we cant get here - Fruity Pembles, Cookie Crisp, and Cocoa Pebbles.

At this point we were exhausted and were ready to come home and sleep in our own beds! Not staying at a hotel was a good plan. We slept great at home!

Brad slept a good portion of the way home. Those bags of clothes made a good pillow!

Sweeties

Did you have a good Valentine's Day? We did! We don't make that big of a fuss over it usually, but I still tried to make it a special day.

Supper was a home cooked version of Chicken Fetticine Alfredo. I decorated the dining room table with heart shaped candles, and I put a goody box and card by each of the boys places. I put a chocolate heart in each of their wine glasses too (which we later filled with ice tea). And for dessert, we enjoyed a heart shaped cake I had made and decorated earlier in the day.



My day was made when I got a call from the Library telling me I won their little contest. I had entered a guess for how many candies were in a jug, and I was the closest guess! The correct answer was 993 and I guessed 996.
I asked Dustin to pick it up for me since he was already in town. I had a good laugh when he brought it home later, he was so unimpressed! Apparently the ladies at the library made a big fuss over him, even wanting to take a picture of all of them with him! He somehow managed to get out of posing and got out of there as quickly a possible! I can just imagine how awkward he felt! LOL! I may not be able to ask him to run errands for me as easily for the next while...

The candy jug had 3 little Valentine Stuffies attached to it too - which was a surprise to me that they were part of the prize. My boys quickly claimed their favorites and then told me I could have the leftover one because I was the winner. Gee, how generous of them!

The jug is sitting in my office. It's not even candy I like, and really, who needs nearly 1000 pieces of any candy?! But just winning something totally made my day:)

FIRST TOOTH GONE!

Zachary FINALLY lost his first tooth!

He has had a crooked tooth for weeks now, maybe even months. The adult tooth came in behind and pushed the baby tooth funny- it just went crooked without getting loose and stayed that way for weeks! I haven't posted about it because he's been a little sensitive about how it looked, but he let me take pictures of it a few days ago when it finally started to wiggle more, and today I convinced him to let me pull it. Anything beats letting Dad "wiggle" it nightly (Dad really works it loose!).
With the usual flair and drama Zach displays, I finally got that tooth out!! His response after putting up a fuss worthy of an Oscar, "Oh. That wasn't so bad."

Here are some pics of our experience with this particularly stubborn tooth....

Ah, the mess!

I am so excited about this particular mess! I know, it sounds sort of silly to be excited about a disaster area like this, but it's in our ensuite! What does that mean? It means that our bathroom is the next project!! YAY!
The plan is to pretty well gut the whole bathroom and move fixtures to where we want them. We're adding a shower stall, and a corner jet tub, as well as a new vanity, and then putting the new toilet (which we've been using already pretty well since we moved in, toilets were done asap - the old ones were nasty!) to it's new spot.
So you see, this mess is different - it's not in an open, main area like all our other messes have been in, and I can just close the door to it when I want it out of sight.

Dustin has taken the job of ripping things down and pulling things apart in the evenings, and then I get the lovely task of hauling the pieces of debris down the hall, down the stairs, and into the garage, often one at a time because the pieces are so heavy (who needs a gym membership??;) ... and then vacuuming my trail when I'm done. We both have tough messy jobs, but somehow, on this project, I dont mind.
Maybe because the end result seems like a better pay off. Rather than gaining a few inches of space in a hall (which is great, don't get me wrong!) we're going to get a relaxing "haven" when this project is finished.