Sewer! Or! Death! (New house edition)

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 🤣

First days of school

 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

Camping

  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 ❤️

Slowly unpacking

 We are slowly unpacking, and working on making this house our home. We have been exploring the neighborhood a bit, and the kids have been enjoying the playground at the school that they will be attending soon.

And this afternoon and evening we had our first guests - my mom, sister, and niece - and the kids enjoyed some sweet cousin time in our new backyard. 

House

 Finally, finally, finally I get to say it: 

We bought a house! We moved into it! 

The house is a mid century 1966 one level in a very nice neighborhood. The kids will walk just over two blocks to school, Jeff and I will have a nice flat bike ride to work, and the neighbourhood is quiet, pretty, and just feels like where we want to be.  

We just moved on Monday, and moving is no fun (especially having done it last only about six weeks ago), but things are starting to come together. Unfortunately our most recent short term rental was a bit of a nightmare and we have had to get rid of some things, most notably our couch, because they smelled like mold. So we are waiting on new things to arrive before we can really see how the house is going to look, but it is still starting to feel like home. 

In the meantime we have been busy. One very pleasant but of busyness was a trip to Seattle, which happened in part because I had a conference to attend but was much better than just conferencing. Since we were close enough to drive, Jeff and the kids tagged along. We visited places we used to go often when we lived here, and spent much time with dear friends who we haven’t seen in far too long. 

It has been a good few weeks and I am also looking forward to things being much calmer soon!