Week 11 Day 3 - Sunday, July 26th - Clean up

Sunday
We were up early again on Sunday. I would guess around 7:30am or so. We flipped the last load of laundry and had some breakfast! Dad made a good one.

We finished packing up the car and got on the road early. I wanted to see the damage done and hopefully get things sort of cleaned up in a good time. We left Kyler with Nana and Papa for his week and he could have cared less. He didn’t care if we said good bye or not. He was playing with Amber!

We were on the road by 10:30am and got home shortly after noon.
We took a load over to the garage (since we had shoved the van full of everything we could). Once we unloaded we headed out to the campsite to see how it looked. Here are the photos from the campsite:























































































It was so bad guys. We managed to get one of the guys at the top of the hill to come down with the Kubota and help Arnold with the fridge. The only thing we did with the fridge was open it up and take out Kristina’s Friends containers and then ziptied it closed because we didn’t want to deal with anything in there. When Arnold flipped it to get it out of the tent water came POURING out of it. It was so bad.

The ground was SO bad to be walking on in shoes so we all took off our shoes. Then you kept slipping so Arnold put down some sand and said not only did I get a mud pack on my feet BUT I could exfoliate at the same time. I told him this did NOT mean he was getting out of giving me a pedicure.
Once things were clean we tossed them into the van and brought them right to the garage again. Less things to bring later. We stopped at the pizza place and ordered some pizza for supper. Then after unloading the van we picked up the pizza and headed to Kristina and Tim’s house. We had supper there and hung out for a bit. Q and I braved the campsite and Arnold went to work via transit and we went back to sleep.

Week 10 Day 6 - Wednesday, July 22nd - Cleaning Day

Today was a “clean up” day. It was sunny out so we enjoyed the nice weather and I kicked the boys out of the trailer. We had to put it “back together” as Kyler calls it. The boys played outside while I moved the beds around and made things a bit more livable for someone else, and packed the van up.
I caught these photos of the boys before I started working:



I moved Arnold and my bed from the table area back to where it belongs (along with getting some new sheets on there) and got it all set up. Then I moved all the things that were on there outside to the car (for storage in the garage) or back in other containers (for things we might need during our family reunion) or threw away. That part was nice. Some of the things I had I knew we wouldn’t use again!

Work in progress:



I managed to clean out all the bench seats and have some serious fun with that. It’s all clean (and a bit lighter) and then I started to repack it. Not that I wanted to but some of the things we need for the family reunion so I figured I might as well repack it while I can.

I cleaned off the boys bed and got it set up again for them. I did need to get a few things clean out from there (ie cereal they didn’t eat and left) but aside from that it was pretty good. Arnold and I were both shocked with how little ants there were. I honestly expected a lot more since you see them crawling on everything but nope! Not here.

I put the boys down for an early nap, since Monday’s soccer practice had gone so bad, and made them sleep. Arnold did call once and I told him how upset I was about the boys not napping and that there would be NO soccer at all and by the time I got off the phone with him they were out like a light!

While they napped I did some more ‘house stuff’ by calling all the numbers and getting bills set up for the house. It’s exciting but scary at the same time.

Once the boys got up we headed out early to do some fun things. We did get stopped at the front driveway, again, but this time the guy was nice. He explained who they were and about their reasons for going on strike and gave an example. I must say that is easier to understand/take then just being told to wait 5 to 10 minutes.
We headed off to Wal-Mart and looked for something for the boys room. I was excited to check it out but when I got there… there was NOTHING! It sucked. We are going to check out home depot and Rona later and see if they have anything (for those of you in TO or in Canada for that matter, we are looking for animal stuff for their room (Land animals and water ones, not like what they actually look like but ones that are a bit kiddish, if that makes sense).
We picked up our groceries there and headed out to the car. The boys did great. We then went to the Library and brought back our old books and checked out some new ones. Kyler picked a lot of books and I told him we would have to do a lot of reading since he was leaving soon for Nana and Papa’s house. We had to go over our countdown to their house again… it’s getting old.
After the Library we went to Price Choppers since we realized we forgot the powder doughnuts to get the kids to play soccer. We quickly went in and paid for them and back in the car. We went to a ‘new park’ with the kids today. This strike is getting old! I mean it doesn’t do much for us here (aside from being stopped sometimes) but the parks are GROSS. We ended up going to the slide and swings on the other side of the field from where we play soccer. We got there around 5pm and brought everything over there (the grass is bad, I can’t stand walking through the jungle but hey there isn’t any garbage there). We had our sub supper and then went to soccer.
Quinton and Arnold took the van and went to the garage and dropped off a load of things then back to the storage unit and packed up again. Kyler and I went to the soccer game! We tied, 3-3. K played in net and did a great job with kicking and such. I have some great photos I’ll post up here, sorry for the large amount.

When the game was over I called Arnold to see where he was and he said he was at the storage unit so we waited in the parking lot. Auntie Kristina and Uncle Tim waited with us (they used the time to clean their car) and we hung out beside them. It was nice to not wait by ourselves. That parking lot clears out as fast as possible. By the time 8:15 rolled around there was NO ONE there but us.

Kyler and I got in the van and headed out to the new house and unloaded everything into the garage and off we went home. We did stop at Dairy Queen to get some milkshakes (as we were too late for Reid’s and K played SO well). We got what we wanted and headed back to camp. No getting stopped. In fact no one was there but the security guards. It was kind of funny.

We put the boys to bed and went to bed ourselves shortly after. Soccer days are hard on everyone!

Random Thoughts - June 26th

I thought it was time for another Random Thoughts post! It has been a month since my last one. This one will include things we haven't posted in here yet:

*we started 'house hunting' for us. We aren't buying anymore because things have been so crazy with our money and the downpayment we are going to rent again. I have been checking around and a friend of mine is going to come with me to check them out (no dragging the kids all over). Hopefully we can find something. I'm aiming for a house by August 15th. Sept 1st is the latest I will go. We are looking for something for at least a year and 3/4. We would like to do this again but want to wait a summer. We need 1 summer in a house so we can keep up with the saving aspect and hopefully do this (but at a different campground) and then move into our own house! *fingers crossed*

*I'm so glad we started up Bible Study for the girls and I again. I have missed it so much, I have totally missed being in on whats going on in everyones lives!

*Yesterday the boys were very 'artistic' I guess you could say. Before we went to the zoo I found lipstick on my car. I had to use a tissue to get it off. Then before we went to Auntie Kristina's and Uncle Tim's the kids got ahold of some markers that were in the van and coloured all over the dash. I later found out it wasn't just the dash but the stearing wheel and the seats.

*oh and to add to everything else Quinton put about 13.00 of loonies and toonies into the tape deck. This kid will be the death of me.

*Our friendly 'coon has come to visit us a few time in the past month. Generally there are enough campers around to make things 'interesting' for them and not worth getting into our RT

*Kyler is now calling the trailer his 'home'. I think it's cute.

*we still get funny looks with living here but hey, its fun!

*I think Arnold and I might take a walk around the park tonight. There are some cool tents out. I'll see if we can get a couple shots for everyone.

*I'm beginning to think it might actually be time to put away some of the 'winter blankets' that we have in the trailer. It's getting so warm at night that it's hard to sleep with all that heat around us. Hopefully we can figure out just what we are going to do and get it done.

*There is still a bit of organizing to be done in the trailer to make things liveable after the water damage from yesterday. I'm hoping to get most of it cleaned up and back to normal soon

*We are making progress, or at least continuing with potty training. The last few warm days we have had 'tiggers' on him and it seems to be going ok. Sometimes, at least once a day, he forgets that he has to take the OFF then pee. But that's ok.

I guess that's it for now!

Week 3 Day 6 - Wednesday, June 3rd - Bath day!

Last Nights’ Score: Raccoons 0 Arnold 1 Yah!!

Last night Arnold locked up so well! The Raccoons came in and check things out (and knocked over my Kanteen) but did nothing else! I’m so proud of my husband. The other night when they got into some containers he was just about ready to leave. I told him a few more nights and we could do it again (role reversal hey?)

This morning was a bit different than normal. Arnold was off like a bullet this morning because he had a breakfast with the company. They went out somewhere for a big huge breakfast and had a blast I guess. They all got to the office around 10:30am or so. Nice for them!

The boys were outside by 8am while I was on the phone and they just went wild! I called them back after I got off and saw them… I grabbed the camera. Can you guess where they were?



Then the boys brought me their soccer balls to have their names written on them. Every player got a ball at the first practice and we figured we should get our names on them ASAP so we don’t have any issues. So Kyler’s’ name is on the new one and Quinton’s’ name is on his from Christmas:




After a bit more time of them being too quite I called them back and found out K had found a bag of chocolate. I’m not 100% sure how because I locked the fridge today (or I think I did) and I’m pretty sure it was in the fridge. Anyway it was taken out and the boys found some good chocolate. This is Q enjoying his chocolate:


*Look Mom Chocolate!


*It looks really good, even on my fingers.


*I wonder what it would be like if I liked my fingers


*hum… that was good


*Do you think every finger tastes that good?


*wow


*yummy!


*more! I want more!


*hehe… she is still watching me

The chocolate mess was my cue for bath time. Last night I had Arnold fill up the shower with water and this morning it was lukewarm. I got the kids to get naked and sit on the table. Each got a bucket with water and soap and a washcloth. Off they went! I’m glad to say that it worked! Each washed up really well. I got this just after the screaming stopped:



I made them sit there while I got them some lunch. I explained to them that Daddy is Dutch… and they like to eat ‘special’ things on their sandwiches. Like Daddy likes to have sugar and strawberries (forgive me if it’s not a Dutch thing but I needed an example, darn 4 year olds who want to know everything!). I then showed Kyler the fine art of making peanut butter sandwiches with chocolate sprinkles! The real thing, I promise! We got them at the Dutch store in Sarnia!



Once lunch was over I got them inside the trailer and dressed, one at a time then off to bed. Today I was smart! I left the curtain open and they are out! I think maybe a half hour or so since I started this and they are now totally asleep! Let’s hope it lasts a little longer than yesterday!

Tonight we have soccer. Before it starts I’m going to switch my lens over to the zoom one and see if I can get some better shots!

Week 2 Day 3 - Sunday, May 24th - Water Play!

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Ours was nice and relaxing. Actually, that’s why I didn’t get to post on here at nap time. Arnold and I were busy getting some things done. Here’s how our day went:

We woke up around 1am to Quinton. He fell out of bed. The poor guy! He came and snuggled with us for a bit then Arnold brought him back to bed.

When we finally woke up for good it was around 7:30 or so. We got up and went for our morning walk to the washrooms and then came back to make breakfast. We had a whole bunch of food! We had bacon, eggs, and pancakes.





While Arnold was making breakfast Quinton went for an adventure! He went climbing on the van. Kyler finally warmed up to being awake.



We sat down at the table for an incredible breakfast! I loved it! Both boys were ready to pray and eat when I pulled out the camera.








As soon as breakfast was over we booked it over to the house. Everyone jumped in the shower and we started a new load of laundry. We got a few more things cleaned up it was nice. After the campfire last night Arnold and I decided that Saturday nights should be bath nights instead of campfire night. That way we can all be clean for church on Sunday. Here are my clean boys!







On the way home from church we stopped and got some subs from Mr. Sub.



We wanted to wait to eat until we got to the campsite so the boys got some chips instead!





Quinton fell asleep on the way home from the house from getting a few things. Arnold tucked him right into bed for nap time but Kyler stayed awake and ate his lunch. Then he went to ‘bed’ but he never fell asleep. Here’s what I found while peeking in the window:



Arnold took a few minutes to clean off the windows of our van. Last night it rained for about 2 hours or so and there was more issues with the pollen coming off the trees and such so he wanted to get it off, that and work on his farmers tan



Arnold and I spent a lot of the afternoon working on the RT. We wanted to reorganize it a bit more. Here’s mid process:



And the end looking:



After nap time we had some adventures in a pool and in the sprinkler. The one at the top of the stairs was broken so we used our own. Even Daddy got involved. IT was great fun. Arnold commented at one point that he was surprised how much fun the kids can have with about 2 inches of water in the bottom of the pool and a sprinkler!

Oh wait… I guess I should explain the first photo. This is Quinton right after a nap. I told him we could go in the pool if we were all dressed for it and ready to go so we got him down to a diaper and I told him he had to go pee (since everyone knows… getting wet for kids = peeing in the water ). He freaked! Enjoy the photos!











While we were playing the neighbours dogs came to visit. The boys were so excited!



Kyler is getting so good on his bike! Here he is flying by us on a walk around the park:



Arnold and Kyler went for a bike ride up to go potty while I got Quinton changed for the night time. Since we were re-doing the RT all the bikes were out. Q loves checking out his Daddy’s bike. I started to get things ready for dinner and sure enough he hurts himself. Here’s a picture of what I found when I rounded the corner:


After supper the kids just played around. We didn’t do much else all day. Here are a few random photos of the kids playing around:




(Quinton having a temper tantrum)



Right now the boys are enjoying a movie with Daddy in the trailer. I just finished folding all the clothes in the trailer and helping Daddy get ready for his ride tomorrow. I think he is finally ready to go! I’m happy for that. The best part is the meals. I’m not sure if you know but I made up about 2 weeks worth of meals. I brought them into work one day and put them in the freezer with Arnold’s name on them. Sarah, the receptionist, helped me find a spot for them and he is good to go for 2 weeks of food! I’m so happy about that. 2 weeks later when he is done, or almost done, my girlfriend said I can go to her house and cook some meals. I’m going to pick up some oven meals and a CP meal or two and do that and make him some more food. I’m hoping that will keep him going for the summer. Every 2 weeks I’ll go in and see him or the boys and I will take Daddy out for lunch one day when we come by to visit!

Well we are off to bed soon. Please say a prayer for Arnold tomorrow with his 24.9km ride to work!

And one last photo of the boys watching Toy Story.