I'm posting!!!

it's me, it's me! it's Sunday evening and we're listening to Gabby squeak herself to sleep :)

things are settling down, and even though I am still resident managing (until July 15th, and hopefully they pick the person that I want to replace me, so that we get another young couple in our ward!) we are *mostly* moved and things are *mostly* calmed down.

to be quite honest, and even though this is me complaining again, I still feel overwhelmed at this moment, because I've been going back and forth for RM stuff, and Paul has been gone back and forth for some of my showings and also spending a few hours at his parents' house each day as he has been house-sitting for them. Not big stuff, but things that take away from us getting organized and settled, and I'm finding myself more and more tired with being pregnant, and Gabby is more and more energetic and opinionated as a toddler. Definitely looking forward to being done with all of that and just being able to focus on the things that actually matter to me, and not dealing with stupid tenant/management/rental issues.

 

On the plus side, we are LOVING our new home and our new neighborhood. There are almost always kids playing outside and sometimes parents, and we've started making friends with our new neighbors. One of the little boys across the way is the same age as G and is always on his tricycle - now Gabby thinks she needs one, too, because it's so much fun. One of these weekends we'll hit up a few garage sales and see what we find :)

Here's a picture of Great-Grandpa Bohne when he and his girlfriend (we like to tease) came by with my MIL to check out our new place :) notice the boxes in the background... it's a little better now, but not by tons :) We managed to get about 2 pictures in before G was squirming away :) Can you believe Grandpa Bohne is 91? He's one of the most spry, healthy people I know, and it always startles me now to meet other elderly people and realize they're about 30 years his junior, and not nearly as healthy!

I'm still enjoying my calling as Primary Secretary (and I think they enjoy my hyper-anal-organization :)) and so I got to be involved in planning a big activity for the primary. It was a huge success - we are eagerly anticipating the building of a new temple here in Calgary! The groundbreaking happened a month or so ago, but no major construction yet. So the primary kids got to go and dig up their own vials of dirt (sorry, "soil"!! :)) for keepsakes and we took pictures of each kid on the temple site for posterity's sake. And there was lots of testimony-bearing and learning about the blessings of temples in other areas, as well as the best part: making our own personalized pizzas for lunch :)

Speaking of lunch, Gabby is learning to feed herself with her own utensils and her own plates/bowls. And even though we still strap her into her high chair (but no tray - she eats at the table now) and usually still give her a bib (that she may or may not get dirty), she often just sits on a big-person chair and she and I will eat together like big girls :) We made a special trip to Ikea (which is a ridiculous 45 minutes away from here :( ) and bought G her own big-girl dishes, along with drapes for our kitchen and living room windows (we LOVE all of the windows!!) and blackout blinds for the bedrooms upstairs, since the sun doesn't set until 11pm in the summertime here, and we like sleeping in the dark. And we like it when Gabby sleeps. And she sleeps in the dark. But yeah. Food. Lots of food. Gabby is QUITE the little eater, especially when there is fruit involved - she'll eat blueberries 'til she turns blue, oranges 'til she turns orange (see the pic above!), and just about any other fruit until her diapers are... well, I'll stop there. :)

more random cuteness :)




And yesterday was our ward Stampede Breakfast, so of course we had to get Gabby all gussied up in her jeans and bandanna :) She didn't like the getting-ready part of it, but she was certainly pleased with how cute she looked at the end.

Yup. Still a bunch of random things all over the place. but it's getting there :) Our room is mostly squared away, Gabby's room is mostly squared away, the living room is mostly done, the kitchen is mostly done, the bathrooms and linen closet are good... the baby's room is a giant collection of piles of stuff... same with the basement... there are still random items floating around needing to either be purged or given a home... but it's getting there :)

A few things that we are LOVING: all of the windows (did I say that already? :)) and having a backyard (even though the grass is mostly spotty-brown) and having 3 floors with lots of space, having a DYSON vacuum (I gotta say. as far as vacuums go, it's pretty sexy. The salesperson sold me off of canisters and off of the ball (carpal tunnel waiting to happen) and I'm sooooo glad!) having our own new washer/dryer, having a kitchen big enough to fit our dining set, and living walking distance from a huge park and river. It's all fallen into place, and it's feeling right. We're glad to be here.

Paul's right - I do want to clean a bit more and decorate a bit more before I post any pictures :) Stay tuned!