WARNING: Contains images that may be disturbing to some audiences. Viewing discretion is advised.

This is related to my earlier post on the unfortunate discovery of a certain 4-legged creature

Firewire found – so here come the pictures:

Here is MS dad starting to take down the wall-oven. The door to the oven – it just came right out – no screws, nada, zilch.

You can’t see it clearly in this picture – but there’s a space all around the wall oven and the cabinetry. No seal. Hence, Mr. Mousey probably thought it would be a nice warm place to hide in.

And got stuck. Then got decapitated. And roasted.

OK. Fair warning. If you’re squeamish, you’ll want to skip the next 3 pictures. I’m having a hard enough time uploading them and posting them here. When I know I’m coming up to the objectionable photos, I’m squinting so I don’t have to look at it full-on and then doing a cut & paste with the images. Go ahead, laugh at me. I’m a wuss. You knew that already.

Last chance…

Want a closer look?

Here’s another angle

Alrighty.

Now, really. Can you blame a poor girl for screaming her head off when she is faced with this nightmare?

Here’s the rest of our mini demolition of the kitchen: The cabinets all around the fridge – all gone. Why?  Because Mr & Mrs Smarty Pants bought a bigger fridge that won’t fit in the existing space where the current fridge is housed.

I freecycled the old fridge – they were supposed to come pick it up today, but called to say they weren’t able to make it until tomorrow evening….AFTER the Mr & I huffed and puffed it out of the house. So now the fridge is sitting outside, and all my stuff is in coolers. grr.

And now, since I might have traumatized you with those awful photos, I feel obliged to end this on a pleasant note:

Our booger-encrusted Roste. She needs her bangs trimmed.

This next photo is blurry – but I just wanted to show you her going-to-sleep outfit…

You think maybe we should crank the heat up a little more???

You know, as I was looking at this picture, I’m wondering…that hole down on the left – where the wires are sticking out (for the wall oven)…do you think, maybe…?? hmm…. nah….

First things first – I’m not really into sports. As in participating in them.

I don’t mind watching sports, if I had to. I’m quite sure I went to all of MS dad’s badminton competitions back in high school (his personal cheerleader haha) But I don’t play any racquet sports, my swimming skills are limited to doggy paddles and a personalized version of the breast stroke, and maybe floating on my back , I get a stitch after running for 5 minutes….Suffice to say, the annual PE test they put us through back in Singapore was the bane of my schooling (well besides Mandarin classes)…anyway, you get the idea.

On the other hand, for my older brother, sports is second nature to him.

He plays soccer, swims, runs, does triathalons, etc. etc. I feel like a sloth next to him.

And to show you how dedicated he is to the sports culture, he started a website to showcase sports in Singapore. For free, no less. It began with a focus on sports at the school level a couple of years ago, but has since expanded to include so much more.

And I know you’re just dying to know what that website is…so I’ll just stop rambling and provide the link.
Here’s the website: Redsports – The Singapore Sports Story

Please go and visit it and tell your friends about it…especially if you’re in Singapore, or not.

And no, he didn’t twist my arm to put a plug in for him. I just thought it would be a nice thing for a little sister to do for her older brother.

Anyone care for some roast Apodemus sylvaticus? Or perhaps BBQ Microtus pennsylvanicus? Or could I interest you in some fried Mus musculus??

HUH? Read on…

This weekend started early for us. MS Dad took a day off work yesterday (Friday) to get some work done at home.

Yesterday I finished painting our master bedroom, while the children helped with (more) raking of the leaves. They managed to haul a decent amount to the fire pit and had a bonfire going. MS Dad risked life and limb getting up on the roof to clean the eavestroughs and install covers so that the leaves won’t clog them up again. 240 feet worth of eavestroughs!

Today we demo’d a portion of our kitchen – which was an unexpected project – as we had agreed that we would leave the kitchen intact until our other pressing projects were completed.

The reason for the mini demolition was the result of us finding a very good deal on some appliances.

Anyway, as MS Dad worked on getting the wall oven out of the cabinetry (it wasn’t even secured to the cabinetry!) – he called me to come and help him clean up the mess that was on top of the oven.

I went to the kitchen and he asked me to hold the bag opened while he cleared the top. As I looked at what I thought were just huge dust bunnies, I was trying to figure why it was brown and white, instead of the usual grey stuff. MS Dad was just standing there looking at me, the children all standing around. Then Megalos screamed – It’s a mouse!!! IT’S A MOUSE!!

I dropped the plastic bag, and hightailed it out of the kitchen SCREAMING, with the girls screaming along with me (although they all stayed in the kitchen)

That was not nice of MS Dad! He stands there laughing away while I’m freaking out.

Then I grabbed my camera to take a picture of it. But I couldn’t get myself to look through the lens to get a close up. So my dear Megalos offered to take the picture for me. In the end MS dad went right up to take the picture. (And I still have not found the fire wire – so I can’t post any pictures)

It was a decapitated mouse, with some fur on it still. Who knows how long it’s been in there.

UGH! GROSS!! EEWWW! The horrors!

To think I’ve been inches away from a decomposing mouse for the last 2 months….

So what kind of mouse was it?
Mus musculus – domesticated mouse
Apodemus sylvaticus – wood mouse
Microtus pennyslvanicus – vole

Does it matter??? It’s a mouse, a rodent.

Maybe when I upload the picture, you can take a guess.
Until then, perhaps I should put out the mouse traps again.

How we’re spending our 13th wedding anniversary weekend

(except we don’t have that handy dandy pneumatic nailer – we’re doing it the painful old-fashioned way: the good ‘ol hammer)

(my new best friend – it covers a multitude of imperfections)

As of Saturday 10:00pm, the boys’ room is completed. MS dad is now ripping out the girls’ room carpet so that we can start laying the floors down tomorrow morning.

The children have been most wonderful today – occupying themselves, fixing meals and taking care of the baby toddler. They’re all sleeping in sleeping bags in the living room as I type, and Roste is draped over my lap fast asleep.

And I’m going to pray that MS dad and I will be able to roll out of bed tomorrow and straighten out our backs.

It’s official. The brown/black spots on our kitchen floor are NOT mouse poop. It’s MS dad’s coffee grounds.

I know, I know, we’re pathetic – we can’t tell the difference.

I can take out the mouse traps. And talking about mouse traps, it looks like we might have more efficient ones – in the form of green slitherers (that’s probably not a word)…I’m told by the children that there’s a few (probably more) residing in the big rocks out back.

Rodents vs reptiles. I’m not sure which is worse. I’m a wimp.

We now have an awesome 8-foot oval table in our dining room, which is a big step up from our 6-foot rectangular table, as it sits WAY more people.

We’re also doing school on it right now, and the children play musical chairs, depending on whether they’re working independently, or with me.

Me (to Megalos): Here, move the kids’ chairs away so you can pull your chair up beside mine.
(the kids’ chairs refer to the 2 chairs that currently have child boosters strapped to them)

Megalos (as she’s doing what I asked her): Oh Mummy? I didn’t know I was sitting next to goats.

Me: HUH??? What’s that?

Megalos: I said – I didn’t know I was sitting next to goats. Where are they?

Me: Huh?? OHHH!! Bwahaha, you’re so smart, eh?

Because our previous home didn’t have much of a yard, front or back, we didn’t bother buying one of these electric or gas-powered lawn mowers.

We relied on muscle power and bought something like this – a more economical as well as environmentally friendly option:

A couple of years later, we ripped up the grass in the backyard, which left us only a strip in the front yard about 25′ x 4′ to cut. And after that strip got riddled with weeds during our 1-month RV vacation, we ripped it all out and put in pebbles, leaving us with no grass to cut.

Now we’re in this new place with a pretty large sized yard and the previous owner suggested to MS dad to get one of these:
, or at minimum a self-propelled lawn mower.

I, on the other hand, wanting to save $$, as well as encourage manual labour (by the children, not MS Dad – he’s got enough on his plate) suggested that we wouldn’t need to purchase any kind of mower, since we had our trusty push mower, that hadn’t seen any action for at least 3 years. The previous owner Mr. VH thought I was joking and looked quite sympathetic towards MS dad. haha. After Mr. VH realized I wasn’t backing down from my position, he patted MS dad on the back and told him that he would mow the lawn just before he moved out, that it would buy MS dad about 2 weeks.

But to show that I wasn’t an all-talk no-action kinda gal, I gamely assured MS dad that I would do the mowing. And that this was a good opportunity to get the children involved.

SO.

Last week, MS dad commented that we’d been in the house for about 2 weeks, and that the grass looked like it could do with some cutting. Hint, hint?

So, on Friday, I finally yanked out the push mower and got cracking. I realized quickly that I may possibly have made the wrong decision! The grass wasn’t being cut down to the right height on the first pass. I had to go over the same patches 3-4 times. So the yard quickly became more than 3 times larger than it already is. Ugh.

Looking towards the right of the window – patch about 42′x53′ with the pool gate as my point of stoppage (that’s not a real word, but you know what I mean) is where I started mowing

10 minutes into my mowing, the boys came outside and wanted to help. YAY!

To my delight the 3 year old was able to push it, with a little trouble over bumpy parts. BUT he still did it! And quite enthusiastically too.

The great thing about this no-power mower is I don’t have to worry about out-of-control blades spinning and so it’s a lot safer for the children.

Just yesterday while I was prepping for dinner, I heard the whirling of the blades, and looked out to find that the 5 year old had taken the mower out and was cutting the grass! And having fun.

ANYHOW, back to my story – the first patch took a little longer than I expected, partly because of the many passes required, and also because the boys were helping.

Then I moved on to the patch bordered by the pool gate & the big rocks (shown by the picture above).

The boys deserted me by this time, and I must admit I didn’t mind it because they were really slowing the job down, and the midday sun was getting to me. Yes, I know I’m not helping the “teach the children stick-to-it-ness”. I won’t do that next time.

I proceeded to work on the section below, and there’s a bit of an slope here, and my legs were getting tired. I was quite ready to call MS dad to pick up a gas lawn mower, I’ll tell ya.

Big Mac came out to get me to mark her Math test. So I took a break, and she took over the mowing. After my short little break, Big Mac & I worked together, doing a strip at a time – there’s a slope around here, so what goes down, must come up.

Then she deserted me, and I was left alone again, trying not to have bad thoughts about this never-ending lawn.

Now the last section is even more interesting – it slopes down a greater degree from the side of the pool down to the little wood shed. And at the bottom of that slope is where our septic bed lies. And let’s just say it is well fertilized and therefore the grass is really lush around here. Meaning even more passes required to cut it down. Megalos came out during this time for her Math to be marked, so she helped me mow while I marked.

And while I was writing this post, I decided to run out with my tape measure to actually measure the yard. Hence the measurements. And now I know I have totally under-estimated the size of this lawn. After doing some calculations, I’ve discovered that I’ll be mowing about 11,000 square feet of grass. That’s 1/4 acre. Multiply that by the number of passes I have to make over the same patch of grass….Yikes.

MS dad came home early that day and I was still mowing the grass. He laughed at me and asked if I wanted him to buy that lawnmower.

BUT, I’m still saying no. I figure if I break up the job into a few sections, and maybe get each child to be in charge of certain sections, I still think we could work with the pushmower. And I’m thinking maybe sharpening the blade might help. In total, taking out 3 breaks I took, The lawn probably took about 1.5 hours to mow.

And for those of you who are far away and not able to come & visit us in the near future, I’ve drawn a (very) rough not-to-scale sketch of the aerial view of the house & space around it. Click on it to see the small print.

I didn’t do it. MS dad has been too busy at work to have done it. The children didn’t do it.

Dig holes in the backyard that is. Many MANY holes. Some small, some large. But no tunnels…yet.

Off to google it – Could be squirrels, rabbits/hares (I can handle), moles, voles (ugh), snakes (EEKS!)

This just about has me wanting to flail my arms wildly and run screaming back to the city. WAAAHHH… BUT, as my dad has reminded me – I must not be like the Jews complaining in the wilderness, and wanting to go back to Egypt.

So, I will suck it up, and control myself Did I tell you I have mouse traps in the kitchen?….just in case.

We celebrated this year’s Labour Day with some hard labour.

And I use the word “we” loosely.

Made a more respectable mail box stand to replace the old one that was holding a bashed up metal mail box. I have pictures of the “After” but no “Before” & “During”. And I still haven’t found our fire wire so I can’t download any pictures. MS dad made it from scratch out of a 4×4 piece of lumber, with help from the 5 yr old. Then the girls & I painted it (and I punctured a hole at the bottom of the can – which precipitated another project, since I didn’t want to waste the paint that was pouring out of the can).

That project was to paint the pool shed.

We also got to pulling off the baseboards and ripping carpet out from the 3 carpeted rooms in the basement. Which revealed moisture and possible mold in 2 of the bedrooms. Now that’ll be another bigger project – looks like we’ll have to rip out the drywalls to see where the leak is originating from and plug it up. Sigh.

Our last project for the weekend was to put together the 10′ x 20′ carport that comes in a kit. It’s made up of steel posts and a canvas/poly material that goes over & around the steel frame. This netted me about 20 mosquito bites since it’s in a pretty shaded part of the front yard.

And in the midst of these projects, we managed to have some family & friends Saturday & Sunday, and of course enjoy the pool – for what might be the last pool season dip.

If we come to mind, please pray for MS dad that his back will hold up. It’s had to work pretty hard this past month, and showing signs of grumbling.

You mean I get to turn 1 again?!

Anyone watching me?

There’s a cake in front of me

This is too exciting!!

The cake is big enough for 2

Complete concentration

I can just taste the chocolate

WHAT? That big piece was not for me??

I’ve got my bowl ready.

Contentment

It is 16 degrees celsius in the house.  The furnace has not been turned on.  

And I can’t find the children’s warm clothing among the mountain of boxes.

Sorry for the long silence….we’ve been busy packing, moving, and unpacking.

The BIG move happened last Friday – we’re still recuperating.  I’ll post more in detail when time permits.

In the meantime, here are the top 10 things we city folk are experiencing (good & bad) in the country:

10.  Mosquitoes, moths, and all manners of bugs are everywhere….including the pool

9.  It gets pitch black in the night

8.  The air seems to be fresher up here.

7.  There is not a stitch of drapery in this home – mainly because there’s no need for privacy since our nearest neighbour is about 300 feet away – and there are trees all around us.  But it’s still disconcerting, especially in the night.

6.  There’s a resident chameleon frog hanging around the house.  We were watching him on our deck railing the other day – and I (much to my dismay) screamed horribly & ran away when it fell off the railing towards me.  So much for being brave. 

5.  We’re on well water now.  And some days it smells like rotten eggs.  Even though we’ve been told that it’s drinkable, we’ve been buying bottled water for drinking.  

4.  Showering in rotten egg water is….interesting.

3.  There’s no air conditioning in the house.  But the house has stayed cool even on the few hot days we’ve had. Natural AC. Cool.  It’ll be interesting to find out what happens in winter.

2.  Our flushables (to be polite) don’t go into a big sewer pipe – it goes into a big septic tank and into a portion of our backyard. Nice.  And in order not to over tax our septic system, we’ve instituted this rule – “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.  If it’s brown, flush it down.” Something we learnt from some friends who live out on a farm an hour north of us.

1.  Yesterday was my first foray into the pool with the children.  And the welcome mat was rolled out by who or what you ask?  A mouse rigor mortis floating in the pool. EEEEEEEEKKS!! My 5 year old matter-of-factly stated that since I was the biggest one around, I should have the priviledge of fishing it out.  Right.  I. don’t. think. so.  I wasn’t that desperate to go swimming.  Besides, the water is freezing.  In the end, Megalos offered to fish it out with the skimmer and toss it into the garbage bag.  And rightly so, since she’s most eager beaver to get into the pool anyway.  

And this is only day 6.  :)

We’ve had issues with the dryer in the past.

A load of laundry would take more than 1 cycle to get completely dry.

Sometimes it’s because we’ve overloaded it, other times it’s because the lint filter wasn’t cleaned out before the next load was put in, and yet other times for no apparent reason.

Well today, I found out another reason why…..

Big Mac (the 7.5 year old) has been wetting an article of clothing (on purpose), bringing it to me to ask if it needed another run through the dryer, (and of course I say yes, thinking it was still wet), and then she would turn the dryer back on…just so she didn’t have to fold the laundry.  Can you say “aarrggh” with me??

Obviously, we have some heart issues to deal with here. Sigh.

Oh where do I start? I know I promised in this post on the new house that I would share our house hunting saga with you.

And after the Lord convicted me about my discontentment, I knew I had to go back & reflect on God’s goodness to us.

Perhaps the easiest, least confusing way is to give you a timeline of events that at times seemed never ending. So here goes.

To many people, it would appear that the house sale & purchase both happened very quickly, as we completed both transactions in the course of 2 days. But really, how we got to those last 2 days was actually a journey of 3 years.

May 2006 (yes, the house saga begins here): After the birth of Moose, our 4th child, in January 2006, we were itching to do something exciting. In March, I got my Airmiles (a rewards program) statement, and noticed that they were having a special on airfares to Calgary (i.e. the # of points needed was quite reduced). So I browsed around the internet, trying to figure out how feasible it would be for a family of 6 to make a trip out to the West Coast (Alberta & B.C.). RV’ing (motorhomes/recreational vehicles) kept popping up. I researched it, thinking it would be quite exciting (and at the same time a tad intimidating!)

MS dad & I discussed it, we did some number crunching, compared RV’ing to the traditional rent-a-van & stay at hotels option, and came to the conclusion that with our size family, RV’ing would be more economical AND more exciting.

Moose trying out a hat in preparation for the trip

(How many times have I used the word “exciting”? Can you tell we were looking for excitement?? I think we were on a baby-high.)

Anyhoo, I gave him all the details he needed to make the final decision – and that he’d have to make a decision really quickly so that we would be able to coordinate the airmiles, flight details etc. etc.

He checked his work schedule, figured out how to work around month-ends, and called me from work one day and said “Book it!” He was going to play the “parental leave” card.

In the course of a week and a half, we’d made plans to go on a month-long RV trip with 4 children ranging from 6 years to 4 months old. How totally irresponsible and spontaneous is that?! Considering we’ve never done the RV thing before, let alone with 4 children in tow!

 The 30-foot RV (on the left!) that was our home & transportation for the month

The next few weeks were spent figuring out how to pack light for 6 people (since we had to fly to Calgary to pick up the RV) but for literally all seasons (driving through the mountains at that time, we knew that some areas would still be freezing). We needed to be ready for zero degree or 30 degree weather.

We considered driving the RV from Toronto, so we wouldn’t have to worry about packing luggages for the flight but decided against it as the drive is not known to be all that exciting (remember the “e” word), and driving across the flat prairies was not very appealing.

—to be continued….

One day in shorts & swimsuits….

…another day in sweats & jackets.
 On Athabasca Glacier. The trick to packing light – layering.

As we get closer to the date of our move, I’ve been busy packing (not so fun), browsing craigslist & kijiji for el cheapo furniture & knic knacs (a little more fun), mapping out where our existing furniture will go in the new home (fun), and coming up with all kinds of ideas to renovate the home as cost efficiently (i.e. DIY aka do-it-yourself) as possible (lots of fun).

It’s almost an obsession these days.  This is my daily conversation with MS dad in the evenings – after I (dutifully!) ask him how his day has gone – I’ll start like this:

Me: You know what I was thinking about today?

MS Dad: Uh oh? What now? What wall are we taking down this time? (He knows me so well )

I’d proceed to tell him my latest idea on how to make the house work a little better for our family. 

Yesterday was no different.  He chuckled at my idea and commented, as he took out the garbage, that this house was going to look a lot different from the one we’ve bought.

Today as I was reflecting on nothing in particular , this word popped into my head – contentment.

Uh oh.

The passage where Paul talks about being content in “whatsoever state I am” came to mind.  (Phil 4)  

I was being everything but.

Instead of being content with the house as is, (and it is perfectly live-able as is) which God has so graciously given to us, I was busy (making plans for) knocking this wall down to improve the flow of the room, knocking another one down for better placement of furniture, ripping this out, ripping that out, and the list goes on and on and on. 

I open my bible and find this passage in 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Ugh. Insert “the desire to have a beautiful magazine-pretty house” in place of “rich” & “money”.   Guilty on all counts.  :(  I sit here convicted and ashamed.  Lord, forgive me.

What’s worse, is the realization that I’ve passed this disease of discontentment to my children.  AND I’ve chided them for it.

Now, just to clarify – I’m not saying that renovating a house, and beautifying a home is wrong.  It was the exorbitant amount of time and energy I was expending on it, time that would have been better spent in His word, in praying, with my husband, with my children, that was wrong.

What will be my sentence? – I’ll ask MS dad what he thinks.  I have a pretty good idea what it should be.

Should the box that holds the Buddha Brand poh piah sweet sauce be labeled “FRAGILE” and put in the pile that goes in my van or should I just let the movers take care of it?

hmmm….

Tee chio is the sweet sauce that can’t be found here in Toronto, and we rely on family (& sometimes friends) to bring us some anytime they go back to Singapore.

I’m hoarding my 6 bottles.  It’s precious gold.  I limit the children to a drizzle for each poh piah.

hmmm….

They’ve (the movers) told me that all valuables should be brought in our own vehicle.

Sweet sauce = precious gold = valuables = in my van

Can’t risk the movers throwing the box around & busting the plastic bottles.

OK, back to packing.

BABIES

Babies are cute and sweet.
Babies grab or sometimes kick,
but they are funny.
Babies are playful and sometimes
cry when they are hungry,
but they are funny.
(Roste) was born in July
and she is so cute & sweet.
She will sometimes smile
in her sleep or go to sleep
while we rock her.
Babies are cute and sweet.

To Mommy & (Roste)
By Megalos
July 2008

Our little girl is 1 year old!  She has brought so much joy & laughter into our lives – She is the product of our decision to allow God to determine the size of our family.  

The poem above was written by our eldest daughter (then 8.5) after the birth of Miss Roste.  We loved it so much that we got it framed and put up on our wall.  It has touched our hearts to see & feel the love that our older children have expressed since Roste was born.  To God be the Glory!

 

Are you a child of the ’80s?

Here’s a trip down memory lane…

Remember Toto?
Here’s their famous song Africa. Click here to hear the original song…..

Now with that in mind, sit back, crank up the volume, and watch this!

The human percussionist reminds me of Britain’s Got Talent’s human saxophone, although there really is no comparision! If you want a good laugh, click on the link.

And with that, I wish you all a happy Friday! YAYYY, it’s the weekend!!! I’ve got more packing to do!!!