New Wheels!

Hubby picked me up from work today and we went to Bicyclitis where we each got a new (to us) bike! Yay! I got a very 80s mountain bike -- a Kuwahara Parkway -- and Hubby got an manly looking red number complete with shocks on the front forks.

It was short a pannier rack so I grabbed one of those too (and installed it this evening, despite having to scrounge for longer bolts than were supplied). Kiddo has a bike too -- we found one at Value Village last Friday -- so today Hubby also picked up (and added) training wheels and a big sproingy safety flag. We also went to Sports Traders to grab a rack for the van (to hold all three bikes) and new locks.

After adjusting things, I went for a quick loop around the block. Oh, how I missed that feeling! I hope to bike to work tomorrow; I expect it will take me about half an hour. I'll let you know.

Rewind and Fast Forward through 2008

[I decided to save some creative time and edited our Christmas letter just slightly for my blog readers. Don't worry, I didn't trim out any of the "good stuff" -- besides, regular readers will have already read more detail in posts through the year!]

As you may know, 2008 was a busy year for Those DeWolfes. January turned out to be very busy at work for me as digitization projects started to (finally) roll in, complete with deadlines but it was also the month that Hubby and I both got new digital SLR cameras. In February, we tackled renovations of the bathroom in the townhouse which turned out to be a bit tricker than we had hoped and coincided with Hubby coming down with pneumonia. In March, Kiddo celebrated her 7th birthday with an hour of bouncing, running, jumping and spinning at Victoria Gymnastics. One of her gifts was a Wii, something that turned out to be fun for the whole family. A few weeks later, Hubby rang in his 40th birthday with a pub crawl and the gift of LEGO robotics -- he immediately set about designing a SwifferBot to go after cat hair and random dust on the main floor. May found us all working on various creative things -- some we started, some we finished and some we shared (Kiddo and I made a batch of recycled crayons and wrote up a tutorial that we posted online).

June was very busy for Kiddo, especially. She went go-carting with Hubby, had major dental work (some extractions and 8 fillings!), dressed like a pirate and walked in the Buccaneer Days parade, rode a ferris wheel for the first time (the only midway ride I can tolerate), and finished grade one! At the end of the month, I celebrated my birthday (turning 39) with a family brunch and a night out.

In July Hubby and Kiddo made a little stop-motion animation film based on Crazy Frog (it's on YouTube if you have yet to see it). After that, we took a much needed family vacation. In a little over a week we drove all the way to the top of Vancouver Island and back, stopping here and there along the way. The goal was for Kiddo to see Port Alice -- and stand in front of the "welcome" sign there. We did that as well as seeing many other communities that were new to all of us -- prior to the trip, the furthest north on the Island either Hubby or I had been was to Courtenay and Comox. It was a great trip, overall, though we were all glad to get home. Unfortunately, that welcome home turned out to be pretty crummy as the Strata had authorized someone to climb into our property and pressure wash the fence, destroying a few hundred dollars in plants and property in the process. Needless to say, that sealed the deal for our wanting to move.

August started with hiring a Realtor and looking at houses but after getting close to putting in an offer, we realized we needed to sell our townhouse first and thus began an intense six weeks of preparation. We packed, and packed, and packed until our storage locker was full. Then we had a home stager come in (a service provided by the Realtor) who told us we still had too much stuff. GAH! So, we got a U-Pack and filled it, too. Meanwhile, Hubby finished his sculpture of Cthulhu and we moved it to a friend's backyard for safe-keeping (there are photos a-plenty online and a video too if you want to get a closer look).

September started with painting and having the carpets replaced then we put the finishing touches on the staging and listed the townhouse September 15th. Inside a week we had an offer which we accepted and were able to use that to put an offer in on a lovely older home that had plenty of quirks -- just about right for us. By the first week of October, everything was signed-off and by Thanksgiving we were living under a new roof just as the real estate market was collapsing across the country!

With the new address came a new school for Kiddo -- she is now attending a traditional school which means wearing a uniform (though it's not terribly strict). She has adapted well and seems to be thriving in the split grade 1/2 classroom; she is now reading at a grade 7 level and is also ahead in math and science.

Right away, we started renovations, replacing the interior stairs (they were narrow and lacked sufficient clearance) and arranging to have the old asbestos-laced insulation removed from the attic and replaced. By late November we were able to get the U-Pack delivered! I did two craft fairs back to back at the end of November and beginning of December which we followed with a trip to the mainland (IKEA!) and then we all settled in to getting things settled -- putting up shelving, unpacking, sorting, and decorating for Christmas.

And then the snow-dump of 2008 hit we got a rare white Christmas in Victoria (in fact it was the first time since 1971 that there was snow coast to coast across Canada).

As always, thanks for reading; I'd like to wish you all the best in 2009!

And so that was Christmas....

=Phew=

Down to three of us again. As Christmases go, this was a good one; it's so much easier without having to bundle up, load the van and drive to one house or another even if the trade off was cleaning, cooking and re-arranging furniture.

Hubby did all the cooking (thank you!!!) and I pitched in with clean-up and whatever else I could do (including shovelling a lot of snow and slushy ice off the road outside so that family had somewhere to safely park). We managed to (over) feed everyone and the gifts overflowed. I'm very thankful for everything I received -- including some Skull-candy headphones, an iPod touch, dvds, an LG Rumor cell phone, and a Fabricland membership that doesn't expire until the end of 2011. I am spoiled.

Kiddo put herself to bed not long after everyone left and is soundly sleeping while we watch some gifted DVDs and play with our toys.

I hope your Christmases were as pleasant as ours!

A nice mellow night

peg_girl
Originally uploaded by triviaqueen

After work, we went out for dinner. The plan was to go to Nautical Nellies.... but I had completely forgotten about the Victoria Dragonboat Festival starting tonight so the area was stupidly busy. Time for plan B! Hubby suggested Santiago's in James Bay instead -- success! We got one of the last available tables and had a lovely meal.... and dessert (they do a mean deep-fried cheesecake!)

Kiddo showed us her climbing skills after the meal, folding herself in around the pegs on this kiosk. After that it was off to Pic-A-Flic for some rental goodness. Four hours later and we are watching the finish of Superbad, following Death at a Funeral -- Kiddo watched The Game Plan upstairs before drifting off to a late bedtime.

There are boxes in the van and we'll get to them tomorrow. :)

The last couple of days in photos:

Has it been a whole week?

I did try to write something earlier in the week, but I have felt rather... drained this week, so blogging took a spot close to the bottom of the pile. Instead, I have been social, I have celebrated, I have photographed things, listed stuff on etsy, done some reading and some writing, tidied, completed lots of online jigsaw puzzles (through Puzzle Bee on Facebook), watched some movies -- including going out to see Sweeney Todd (which I liked but didn't love)-- and just hung out with family and friends.

I guess really it's been a typical Christmas break, after all.

Here's a few of my favourite photos from the last few days....

Tis the season...

It seems in our family, late June- late August is Birthday Season. We just spent Saturday inVancouver for my nephew's 5th birthday (thus missing a milestone birthday of a Victoria friend -- doh!); my own annual rollover is fast approaching and that is followed by my brother's a week later.

Through the summer there are celebrations for my mother-in-law, hubby's nephew, my mother, my aunt, and a whole lot of other friends. And don't get me started trying to list anniversaries.

Family Stuff..

1. My brother and his family are now closer to "home" again. They left Ontario on Friday evening (hopelessly delayed with two small children in tow) and by last night had put an offer on a home in a suburb of Vancouver. He'll be at work at his new job tomorrow; his wife starts her new job on Tuesday! I can't imagine all the chaos they've been through in the last month.. and of course it's not over. On the other hand, I will happily take the trek to the mainland from time to time so that kiddo can see her cousins more often (she considers them to be "kind of like a little brother and sister" which is soooooo cute).

2. Today was the memorial for hubby's former stepdad (this was the death we got news of last weekend); we did not attend, but by all accounts things went as well as expected.

3. After another week of fever and lethargy, kiddo seemed to be feeling better this weekend. The biggest challenge has been getting her to eat and drink... but I think we are making progress. We did get out and about yesterday, partly so that kiddo could buy some books with her birthday money.

She'll be hanging out with her Nana for most of Spring Break this week; she'll be going to Grossology at the public library one afternoon, and Empire Theatres are offering $2 matinees, so she'll probably see a movie or two, too. Friday, I get to hang out with her, though we will also have to try and get the cat in to see a vet and run a couple of other errands.