J&M got Maui'd!

So we finished moving our furniture to the new house. The renovations have not even started yet so we had to make do and fill the basement with most of our stuff. The move itself went fairly well. We hired a company to do the move, although we had already transported a good chunk of our stuff over to save on time and money for the big move (although I spent many days carting around tubs and boxes over so it was not really an overall time saver). One of the movers when he saw the house said that he remembered moving a piano out from the house not too long ago. He described the location of the piano and what it looked like, which matched the pictures of the piano when we first noticed the house. (The piano had been moved out by the time we actually stepped foot in the house.) In any case, we're nearly out of the condo now. Just a few more boxes left to pack and it will be good bye to downtown life..

The folks who did the renovations in the basement did an excellent job. While they were making the changes downstairs, they found an army helmet in one of the ducts. The posted a picture on Facebook so I was able to link it here. An old army helmet. I found that curious but filed that away. When we got the house, someone had left a card to call them once we moved in. I gave the person a call and he explained that he had lived at that house when he was a child and was curious if we were planning on remodeling the kitchen if the stained glass window was to be removed. If so, if they could have it. A nice stained glass window. It was made by his dad before he passed so I think it would be nice to give it back to the original family if we decide to take it down. In addition, I passed along the information about the army helmet and he's now looking into the whereabouts of his dad's old WWII helmet..

So we've been really busy the past month. We finally closed on our house last week and had quite the scare when we were told that the bank was down and no closings could be done that day. That day being a Friday which would have pushed everything back a few days. I did get the call late in the afternoon telling me that everything would be good to go by 1630, which was a lot later than I had originally expected. (I took the whole day off.) Still it is better than not closing, so I'll take not bad news over bad news. This past weekend was spent checking out the house, and cleaning up the yard a bit. This past wind storm did a number to some of our flora and two smaller bushes seem to have died. We cut one down, but the other is a little out of the way. We'll figure out something before the snows come. Inside, I was able to get the internet up and running. We finally got the energy auditor in and got the asbestos out. The fireplace works again, and we'll be replacing...

Although we have told Elsy that we were moving, she does not understand the concept of moving. Our condo is "home" and she is very comfortable here. We have our routines, and our familiar haunts, and our usual nightly jaunts into the city. Moving out into the suburbs will be a big shift for her, despite having stayed at my parents' place many times. Will she get used to not seeing the night lights, the people, the daily noises that permeate our apartment and environment? She will not see as many people as she did when she was an infant. I do like living downtown if only to expose my children to the myriad types of people, places, things that this city can offer. This would also include the many transients and less fortunate people who are ever present in our part of the city. They are not people to be feared, or ignored, or even pitied. They need to be given the respect and dignity that any human being should be given despite their current circumstances. Moving out in...

I got woken up after midnight by Maggie who told me to help her with Elsy who had a nose bleed. I figured it was another one of those "clean up the sheets" sort of deals but when I saw her, it looked like a scene out of "Carrie". Her face and hands were covered with blood and her sleeves were soaked as well. The sheet had pools of blood the size of her head and Maggie quickly warned me, Don't react! Uh huh.. Hi kid.. uh.. how are you doing? The warning was well timed as I was just about to react. I honestly did not expect this much red from such a small creature, but there we have it. We decided to take her to the hospital, just in case. It was really close, and it was better to be safe than sorry. Long story short, she had a nose bleed and apparently losing this much blood is not out of the ordinary and likely is caused by trauma. We just need to make sure that we pinch her nose if this happens to promote clotting. We will also need to make sure that she...

Elsy has been watching me drive for a while now and has started to comment on my driving style. Well in particular, she has been pointing out times when I only have one hand on the wheel. This happens a lot when you drive stick, but I guess she is not impressed when I rest my hand on the gear shift or anywhere else for more time than necessary. This not only applies to driving the car. She also pointed out my one handed style when pushing her stroller. I do not know how she can tell that I am only using one hand, but she would turn around and tell me, "Two hands daddy! Two hands!" Right, two hands.

We, well I, got up early to get ready and pack any remaining stuff before heading out. We said our last goodbyes to the Kims before they left for work/school and made our way to the airport. It was fairly uneventful and this time we gave ourselves ample time to get through to the gate. After filling up on gas and dropping off the car, we were able to make it too the airport in under three hours, which was still an hour longer than I had expected. Getting through security was a chore, but because we had a toddler with us, we were able to join the priority line and get past the main group of travelers. We even had time to grab a bite before boarding the plane. Oh, and this time we were able to board first because we had a child under five. We definitely were able to take advantage of our advantages this time. The flight back was late, but fairly uneventful, until the last hour when Elsy started to get a bit stir crazy and did not want to stay in her car seat. She started kicking the ...