Today, for Jeff’s 45th birthday, we did a sort of escape room experience that took us on a walking tour of Corvallis downtown. After a downpour of cold rain and technical problems (resolved by switching out our “holopad” for a different one) it ended up being fun. Here we are looking menacing to scare some trolls:
But after being out in the cold rain we never quite warmed up. So now Jeff and I are cuddled up by the fireplace, all cozy ❤️
We are having a lovely fall. Last weekend Jeff‘s siblings and their families came to Corvallis for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. We had a lovely time taking them to the farmers market, visiting a pumpkin patch, cooking and eating a full Thanksgiving meal, and having sibling (and sibling-in-law) conversations while cousins played. So much fun 🥰🍁
This weekend was last soccer games of the season, putting up Halloween decorations, and more pumpkins from my mom’s epic garden. We are still busy with all the stuff that comes with moving, but things are starting to settle.
We woke up yesterday morning and noticed a pungent odor coming from the bathroom. I tried to write it off as nothing but Jeff was sure that it was something. By 7:30 AM we were deep into a round of our favorite game, Sewer! Or! Death!
This time was different though. The sewer line was replaced just before we moved in, and last week we had a pest company come and do what they call “exclusion work” as a preventative measure to keep rodents out. As part of the exclusion work they set traps for rodents in the crawlspace. The issue is that when they do the work to keep rodents out, any rodent that is already in is trapped, so it is important that they catch them before they die somewhere very inconvenient (as happened last winter in our rental). No one exactly expected any rats to be trapped, but they put them there as a precaution.
So we decided that sewer problems were very unlikely and decided to check the rat traps that were set near the entrance to the crawlspace. Lo and behold, there was in fact a dead rotting rat in one of the traps. Jeff was able to pick it up with one garbage bag, put it into another garbage bag, and then put that garbage bag into another garbage bag and tie it up. So by about 8 AM we had solved our smell problem. Definitely an improvement over living for weeks surrounded by the smell of dead animal.
It was a good thing too, because later that day we celebrated Maren‘s birthday with her very first sleepover party! I would say it was generally a success but Maren did not sleep much last night and I was so tired today that she took a nap. She woke up from the nap feeling horrible, like she might throw up at any minute. So we will have to wait and see whether she wants to do that again 🤣
This week the kids had their first days at their new school. Maron started third grade:
And Linden started kindergarten:
It was all new for both of them. Since we moved, Maren had to move from her old school to a new one, so she doesn’t know anyone in her new class yet. Everything is a bit new for Linden. So far so good, and they are looking forward to meeting many new people and having many new adventures
Last week we went camping in a tent for the first time in about 6 years. While camping six years ago Maren didn’t go to bed until after dark and woke up before dawn (which is very little sleep in Saskatchewan), she tried to run off to unsafe places while we were putting up the tent and we ended up having to strap her into her car seat, screaming, until one of us could dedicate full attention to her, and we decided that we could not do tent camping with kids.
Fast forward to now, when our kids are perfectly reasonable tent campers. No fuss, no drama, and the expected amount of sleep (less than usual, but still reasonable). It helps that we were camping with family, and there was plenty going on to entertain the kiddos, but they are also just much better at all of this now. We stayed two nights at the coast and will definitely do it again.
Unfortunately I did not take a single photo, but Jeff took a few, including this lovely picture of Linden, their cousin, and Maren enjoying a sunset on the beach ❤️
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