The Quiet White House On Court Street...

The boys having a snack at their big boy table

So it's sort of official - we're now the proud owners of the house on Court Street! We signed back on the offer yesterday and sent the offer back along with our deposit cheque to our real estate agent Bruce.  It took just under two weeks and 2 counter offers, but we finally got the house at the price we wanted on the 3rd counter offer!

Of course even though we've signed the deal on Court Street, the offer is still conditional upon financing and inspection and of course right now we're just stressed and hoping that we will get the financing for the mortgage as that will seal the deal on us being the official owners of the house. Michael spoke with the mortgage broker yesterday, and he said that we would most likely be approved for the mortgage since we're putting a fair down payment on the house, but you never know! Cross your fingers for us everyone!

Our next worry is if the house will pass the inspection, with the obvious understanding that the house is almost 200 years old and that there will obviously be issues with the home, but we're hoping that they will be issues that we can afford to deal with right away, and that they will not to run us into more debt.

However, we completely trust our real estate agent Bruce as so far he's been nothing but completely straight forward and honest with us, and has just been an outstanding real estate agent by helping us get the right home to fit our budget and our family's needs, and we know that he wouldn't have found us a home that was a total wreck and wasn't move in ready.

Kicking back with Mommy's hats on...

We're completely aware though, that we still have A LOT to do between now and the move the Bridgetown and of course neither of us are happy that we're going to be homeless in approximately 2 weeks,for about a month before the offer officially closes on May 1st. We're ever so grateful to Michael's mom and step dad to offer us their home for the month,and we know they will do everything to make us feel comfortable and happy, but it's not the same when you don't have your own home. We're hoping that we can push the closing date up sooner, but then again Michael doesn't want to get stuck in an April snow storm while driving down to Bridgetown in a moving truck! It's a double ended sword...

Benjamin's idea of independent feeding

As our lives are changing and developing on this new course, so are Benjamin and Oliver. They've developed and grown so much in the last month that I've been home and I can see how much they needed both parents at home with them all the time and I've learned so much more about my children and their individual personalities which money just can't buy. It makes me feel so much better knowing that we're making this decision to move to Bridgetown to have more quality time with them.

Oliver loves his toy cars, while Bennie loves to draw and he loves to collect and stack things in groups. I find  the great difference in the personalities quite amazing, I guess especially since they're identical twins and share 98% the same DNA.

Ollie has learned more words now, and he can say our dog's name 'Maya' and 'Bye, bye' very clearly, and he's been trying to say 'Car', and his latest new word is 'BOOM!'which he learned from me after a lid for a pot crashed and landed on the kitchen floor while I was cooking in the kitchen.

Oliver having fun in the tub

He watches every movement of our mouths when we talk and tries to mimic everything we're saying. The last thing he did which I found incredible was when he copied me waving my index finger at me and saying 'NO' in a firm voice and he also copied me going 'Shhhh...' and placing his index finger to his mouth to be quiet. I tried not to laugh as he was doing this, but it was so incredibly cute and amazing at the same time. He also knows all of the parts of his face now when you call them out and points to them - 'Nose, Ears, Mouth, & Chin', we're still working on the eyes as he was poking his eyes everytime he'd try. He loves the fish in the fish tank and says 'Night, night' to them every night before I turn the fish tank light off. I think that the most fascinating development for Oliver this last month is his associaion with words, things and actions. Whenever he accidently drops something on the ground he says 'Oh, Oh!' and then Bennie will join in and say 'Oh, Oh! too.

Benjamin's words are 'Fish', 'Door', 'Spoon', and obviously 'Mama & Dadda', and of course Oliver can say 'Mama, & Dada' too, but I find I hear Benjamin saying these words the most as he seems to always coming to one of us to complain about something his brother did to him.
I think that he will be the definite problem solver when he grows up I believe, as he's always calculating and trying to figure things out.

He grabs our keys whenever he can and tries to open up the door with them from the inside, but never-the-less he makes the association, which I find ever so impressive for his age, but then again I'm a first time parent, so everything new that they do at this age I find impressive. Benjamin also loves the fish, and likes to go say hello to them every now and then as well.

He loves to draw, which we discovered recently and he has made his artisitic impressions all over the front of the freezer, and the carpet, and the table! Good thing the crayons are washable!

They both seem to really want to be independent now, which for twins is not a bad thing as when you have multiples you want them to become independent as quickly as possible! Oliver especially just really wants to try eating on his own, and he did a good job eating all his sphagetti by himself with a fork!

Oliver on the left, Benjamin on the right - almost two years ago!

They're both just growing so fast! And I just can't believe that they will be turning 2 years old in less than 3 months time! Where did the time go? Obviously time has passed as I feel so old already! But it just seems like yesterday both Michael and I were these fresh faced and enthusiastically in love couple with no responssibilities in life and full of naive hope for the future, and here we are today, buying a house in Bridgetown and can't wait to move into quiet small town life! How things change when you have your children.

Home Is Where The Heart Is...

A drawing Michael made for the boys on the front of our freezer with the washable crayons Vicky brought over for the boys. Bennie really liked this drawing...

So I finally have my own computer! Which is why I can finally update my blog!
A lot has happened in these the last two weeks since my last post update, including another visit from Vicky, whom I've fondly nicknamed the Fairy Godmother as she always seems to bring gifts for the boys when she comes over and is always willing to help us out, and I also got a visit from my old school friend Jon last week. I had not seen him in several years, and he is now married and has a son named Oliver as well who is only one day younger than our twins!

My friend Jon sitting behind the couch with his son Oliver on his lap...

I finally got a chance to meet his lovely wife and their adorable son, and our children got a long so well together. It was a rather tender moment to see our children play together knowing how long I've known Jon and we both reflected on the good old college days when we had no responsibilities and how much our lives have changed now that we have our own families...

Oliver and Oliver playing together, how adorable!

However, there is still nothing happening with the court street house listing, so we decided that we would wait until the listing is actually legally listed before we make another offer.
Our real estate agent Bruce has promised us in the meantime that he would keep an eye out for anything within our budget and let us know right away as soon as something comes up.

However, finding a house is the last thing on my mind right now, as we haven't even started packing and we will be homeless in a month's time!
Our leasing agent contacted us last week to let us know that our apartment had been successfully sublet and that we have to be out of here by March 31st. There's no turning back now as we've already signed the papers to release our apartment!
I don't even know where I'm going to find the time to start packing, as it seems that I can't even turn my back on the boys for 5 seconds without one of them pushing or shoving the other, or some kind of fight breaking out over a toy (Argh!). Not the mention all the house work that piles up on a daily basis from the Laundry, to the cooking cleaning, and just taking care of and running after the boys!

Michael has his head planted mostly to the computer everyday now just selling like crazy to come up with the down payment on the apartment, so it's not like he can offer me much help as he obviously has to hussle and sell, sell, sell to make sure we have enough money for the down payment of the house and to move as well! We're both staying positive over all though, because at least we're working towards our dream, and not just sitting on it...

Benjamin 'reading' a flyer last week...

However on a good note, our real estate agent Bruce contacted us last week to let us know that a freelance reporter named Rachel Brighton was looking to publish a story on portable businesses and if he could help her resource any people she could interview, and he thought of us, the Toronto couple in Ontario looking for a home in Bridgetown. So Rachel contacted us and interviewed us and published our story in The Chronicle Herald local Newspaper!
Here's the link if you would all like to check it out:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/67253-toronto-record-dealer-brings-his-tunes-bridgetown

Rachel did a fantastic job with our story, and she even featured one of Michael's Cape Breton 78's in her article -The fiddler was A.A. Gillis, and the song is tittled Johnnie Cope. The next day, Rachel emailed us to let us know that some gentleman by the name of Brian read her article about us and wanted to get in touch with Michael to talk to him more about his featured Cape Breton record in the article. Michael contacted him back by email right away, and it turns out that Brian is married to one of the daughter of the late A.A. Gillis the popular folk artist fiddler featured in Michael's 78 record in the article!

Apparently A.A. Gillis had 6 daughters as we discovered from Brian, and none of the daughters have any of their father's recordings of his beloved folk music, so they were excited to get in touch with Michael so that they can hear their father's music again! What an amazing story!

Check out the featured 78 record on Michael's YouTube link!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Gamelan78s?feature=mhee

Rachel was kind enough to follow up with us by email to let us know that people in Bridgetown were approaching her in church telling her that they had read her article and were quite happy that 'The Record Man' and his family were coming to Bridgetown!
Michael also spoke with Bruce recently to inquire about the house situation and Bruce told Michael that ever since Rachel's article came out with our story that he's been overwhelmed with phone calls from people who are selling their houses and telling him that they read this story in the newspaper about a couple from Toronto looking to buy a house in Bridgetown and that they have their houses up for sale! Unfortunately none of them are within our budget though, but it's the thought that counts! People in Bridgetown are so helpful that they're willing to even sell us our homes so we can move there!
It appears as though our story is definitely making it's own little ripple effect in Bridgetown and in Nova Scotia as we're finding out!

So although we haven't secured a house yet in Bridgetown, it looks we've already made an imprint on Bridgetown and all signs are pointing us in the right direction. So thank you Rachel for publishing our story! We're so touched and humbled by the positive response we've had so far, and the people we've gotten connected with.

So far no there is nothing to report on the housing situation, but wow, what a start! I'm just excited to get to Bridgetown, and can't wait to settle in and meet our new community! So I guess that old saying is true - Home is where the heart is!

An Angel Beamed Down From Heaven!

So it snowed Saturday morning here in the GTA, and I thought that it was going to be a winter wonderland day as I looked outside and saw that everything looked like a holiday Christmas card and wonderful visions of taking the boys down the street to the park to do some tobogganing got me excited and looking forward to the day... 

Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed my camera to take a picture of the picturesque winter wonderland for my blog, most of the snow had already began to melt away, and all my hopes for a nice day of gentle tobogganing with the boys also melted away with the snow, and of course, WE STILL HAD ABSOLUTELY NO NEWS REGARDING THE HOUSE ON COURT STREET!!!! IT'S NOW MONDAY MORNING AND THE BLOODY HOUSE IS STILL NOT LISTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Is my frustration coming across clearly?)

On a good note however, the boys discovered during their apartment adventures that if they stand in the corner and shout against the wall that their voice echos back at them and this has now become one of their favorite pass times. Here's Oliver giving it a go...

Followed by Benjamin doing the same thing....

They did this for several minutes and got quite a kick out of it...

As it was getting close to bedtime I decided to make cupcakes to cheer us all up a bit - Michael especially likes baked goods, so cupcakes it was as the boys looked on as I placed on the final touches....

Oliver looking on as I made cupcakes...

A close up of the cupcakes (just to make everyone drool!)

Benjamin having fun with the oven mitts he stole from the kitchen when my back was turned...

On Sunday, Michael's family friend Vicky came over to visit us and to see the boys for the first time, and to our advantage, she also happened to be a professional hair dresser! So she brought over her scissors and she cut everyone's hair for free!!! Awesome!! I'm sure other parents of multiples probably understand just how much of an exciting event this was for me - IT SAVED US SO MUCH TIME AND HASSLE - WE LOVE YOU VICKY!!!!

Vicky is an amazing friend and hairdresser - she started with Michael's hair first so the boys could see their Daddy getting his hair cut and wouldn't be so afraid to cut theirs...

Oliver looking on as his father had his hair cut...

Couldn't help but take a close up...

The boys helped me sweep up Daddy's hair...

Then it was Benjamin's turn to get his hair cut, and to my amazement, he sat through his hair cut like a perfect angel! He was so relaxed and calm...

Awww....He looks like such a grown up little boy with his hair cut!

Finally it was Oliver's turn, and again, I was amazed at how calm Oliver was as well during his hair cut. Vicky did such an amazing job...

It was my first time meeting Vicky, and I was so impressed by her kindness and patience with us. After she had cut all Mike's and the boys' hair, she drove Michael to the grocery store and helped us do our grocery shopping! Michael felt as if an angel was dropped down on us with Vicky's visit. She listened to our desperation as being isolated parents of multiples with very limited help from family (God knows they are doing they're very best to help us though, but they just can't give us the help we need as we all live so far apart from each other), and she offered to come over again and help us watch the boys and take us to do more grocery shopping! I can't say enough what an amazing help she was. 

We figured the least we could do to thank Vicky for all of her hard work and kindness was to invite her to stay and have dinner with us, and you'd think that she would be done for the day after all she did for us, but to put the icing on top of the cake, this amazing woman offered to give me a trim after dinner! 

Thanks Vicky for taking care of my family and for cutting off all my split ends!

Rest and Recover!

Ok, so this is I think attempt # 20, to try and get this post posted....Between screaming teething toddlers and a bout of whatever kind of cold virus I got, it hasn't been easy keeping this blog going so far - not to mention that I still don't have my own computer and can only really work on my blog when the boys are sleeping or Michael is not using his computer...

...Well, it's still been a slow week, and we're still waiting to hear news regarding the offer we put in on the offer on Court Street, because the listing for the house still isn't legally listed!

We don't even know if we can get this house still, but it would be nice just to hear back something - ANYTHING. It's been 2 weeks now and still no news, and all due the the listing agent placing her sign on the property prematurely before the house was even listed.

Hopefully everything will eventually work out for the best in the end, it's just hard to maintain patience right now when we will be technically homeless in about a month, and will be moving to another province without a house in line for us at the moment.

On a good note, we finally started to get some things done on Wednesday. I finally got the Mount Everest of overdue laundry done, and Michael started cleaning the balcony.


Oliver decided he wanted to help me with the laundry and was quite content pushing the laundry cart until Benjamin took over as usual and made Oliver cry....

Everything was going peacefully with laundry until I heard a loud cry, and ran out to investigate and found a huge bite mark on Oliver's forehead, placed there strategically by Benjamin who was just sitting quietly on the floor as if nothing happened, of course when I showed him the bite mark he placed on his brother's forehead, the look of guilt couldn't have been more obvious and he was give a 1 minute timeout in his crib...

I tried to put the boys down for a nap at their usual nap time, but they just didn't want to nap. They were practically leaping out of their chairs, so I figured I'd let them out and let them burn it off...

And burn it off they did! First they wrestled with their father...and then they went nuts and started running up and down the living room playing with the curtains!

Benjamin giving the curtains a really hard pull, probably trying to figure out how much more force it would take to pull them down entirely...

Oliver running around still completely unaffected by the bite on his forehead...

Benjamin playing hide and seek in between the curtains...

The downside I learned of just 'letting the kids burn it off' is that when they have a late nap they get really grumpy, and grumpy they got! And then of course they slept horribly at night time!

Oliver woke up once during the night screaming, so I checked up on him and he was fine, so I tucked him in a bit more with his blanket, and he eventually went to sleep (after about 15 minutes of crying). 

Then Ben woke up twice throughout the night. The first time he was wet, so I changed him and placed him back in his crib, thinking that he would sleep, but he didn't. He just kept on screaming. So I got up and gave him a bottle (after an hour of him not soothing himself back to sleep), and then once I got him to bed, Oliver woke up wet...So the conclusion was that we got no sleep on Wednesday night!

So all the work we had done on Wednesday, was about all we got done this week, as the next day we were  both exhausted and sleep deprived and I woke up with a slightly sore throat and sniffling and was pretty much sick all Thursday...

Well, Friday it is! And still no news from our Realtor about the house on Court Street, all we can do now is cross our fingers and toes and pray, pray, pray, that it all works out!

Funny thing is, that Michael and I have so much to do, and we intended to get to all of it right away, as soon as I finished work, and we've practically done nothing... It's really hitting us now, that we've had a chance to just stop and slow down, just how EXHAUSTED we really were from just trying to take care of the boys and balance life. 

It's almost as if our bodies were just telling us - rest first, recover and then get started! We're indeed slowing recovering and healing, but of course we still have a lot to do! So I'm hoping next week, we will have recovered enough to start moving things along...we're running out of time, and time as we all know moves all too quickly...

Farewells and beginnings...

I'm finally getting a chance to update my blog after more than 4 days of rest and after an emotional farewell at my work. So bare with me all if this blog is extra long as I have to catch up for almost a week's worth!

It's been a bit of a hassle to get this blog going, only because I don't have my own computer right now (had one, but then the boys sort of destroyed it when they learned how to walk), and I have to take all my pictures with my iphone (another long story which I won't get into), and the only way I can get them on to my Michael's computer is to email them to myself and then download them from my email. So please forgive the fuzzy and rough pictures...

I'll start with my farewell at work last Friday. My coworker Maria went out of her way to arrange a farewell for me at her desk, with delicious chocolate cake, and with wonderful food and of course some KPMG swag and gift cards for gifts.

My co-worker Ian, whom I worked with from way back in the good old days of Chartwell, made a lovely introduction speach for me, which I didn't expect him to do, and I certainly didn't expect him to elaborate on his speech and place me on a pedastal, which brought me to tears. It didn't help my emotional state much to look over at Maree, another one of my old Chartwell friends and to see her in tears. 

I was so busy running around my last week of work trying to get both personal and work related things done before I left and saying goodbye to so many wonderful people, that it never really truly hit me that I would have to make a speech for such a large group of people until I was standing in front of a large group of people! I really didn't think that little old me would even attract such a goodbye crowd, but apparently I did make an impact on people and I was truly appreciated and loved, and of course I felt the same way about everyone at work who I've worked with. 

One of the reasons on keeping this blog going is not only to document our big decision to move to Nova Scotia, but also to keep in touch with the many wonderful people I've met at KPMG as I promised I would do before I left. 

It was a rather calm weekend, and Michael and I had many plans to do several things, such as buy groceries, and go pick up my glasses, (you know normal stuff, which with twins, normal stuff becomes a luxury if you can even get it done) but of course, it snowed like hell and it was cold as hell, and so we just got lazy and stayed in.

Bennie and Ollie were happy just to put their shoes on and prance around the house. Here they are in their highchairs with their shoes on. It's one of their favorite things to do.

Here are the boys again getting goofy with their shoes on and running around the house on Saturday...

Oliver striking a pose...

On to Sunday, it was a lazy day, and we found ourselves suddenly dying for a sugar rush and we were paying the price for not going grocery shopping because our cupboards were bare! We had cake mix though, so as tired as I was after I put the boys to bed, I decided to make cake.

Oliver with his daddy Sunday evening just before bed ...

The sugar rush cake!

By Monday, we had devoured half the cake, and I still had not done laundry, and it really needs to be done! As you can see

Ikes!!!!!!!! How am I going to get this all done!!!

So Monday came and went and we still hadn't heard anything back from our Real Estate agent regarding the house on Court street on which we had put an offer in on last week. We were starting to get impatient and anxious, and just kept on playing around with numbers in our heads to see if we could still afford to buy this house. 

The house is a repo, it is going relatively cheaper then the listing price, almost half the price of what it was listed for originally, but we still don't know if we can make this work. 

We heard back from one of the Bridgetown locals on the weekend who had told us that she was also thinking of originally purchasing the house on Queen street when she was moving to Bridgetown with her family and that it was a dump, and that Court Street was a nice street to live on as she lives on Court street herself with her family and loves it.

Finally Tuesday is here, and in between chasing busy toddlers around the house climbing up on everything, we finally heard back from our real estate agent. Turns our the real estate agent who has the listing on Court street hasn't listed it yet, but placed her sign up on the yard, so it created a bit of a hassle for everyone. The Vendors won't get back to us on our offer, or any offers until the listing is legally listed. So we still have to wait! Arghhhh!! But anyways, that's ok. We know that during this whole process that we have to patient. Buying a house is not an easy task, especially when you're 2000 miles away from where you want to buy the house! Our Real Estate agent told us however, that we should expect a counter offer once our offer goes through, but that the house should come back at a really reasonable price, however, the price of the house would still be slightly over the budget of what we can afford, but we remain positive.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to come up with another $10,000.00 dollars for a home in the next couple of weeks? 

Bennie and Ollie climbing up on the chair and playing the piano, cute, but not safe! A quick click with my iphone and off they went...

If people ever wonder why I'm so busy, here's toddler #2, our Big Ben as we affectionately call him, who climbed up on the couch we strategically placed against the wall so he wouldn't climb on it!

Benjamin playing with his toy car...

 The boys spent most of their day today just riding their cars and climbing, what a shocker - who knew boys did that?! LOL!

From riding cars to playing with cars, here Bennie playing with his car under the highchairs...

One door closes, another one opens...

Well there definitely isn't any turning back now. I handed in my two weeks notice this Monday, and we finally signed the paperwork to sublet our apartment within 90 days.

Next week is my last week at work, so hopefully I will make it in for my last week as I have not been feeling well these last couple of days and already missed a couple of days of work last week.

I'm sad to be leaving the many wonderful people whom I work with, but at the same time I'm so excited for this amazing new adventure and new opportunity to start out new with my family.

So far our house search has hit a dead end in Bridgetown. It's been more of a challenge for us I suppose than for most people, as we haven't been able to find a suitable home that fits our small budget. I guess the good part of it all is that we have made a connection with a good real estate agent in Bridgetown who is keeping an eye out for us, but so far there is no luck. It's just a waiting game now to see what will turn up in the market.

Right now, the only option which seems affordable is a house located right in the downtown core with a small lot (only big enough for a garden area), which is not our preferred choice, but seems like it's the only thing we can afford.

It's a nice house, and it would need a lot of work, but because of it's location it's actually dirt cheap and affordable, and if we were buying that house in Toronto, it would cost us a fortune.

Michael made a good point in mentioning that the downtown house would be better than anything we could ever dream of owning here in our entire lifetime in the city, and that it is a good house for what we can afford right now if we want to live in the town we want.

I'm hoping that our real estate agent in Bridgetown will come up with something suitable for us before the April and May deadline we've set for ourselves.

It's a quiet day today. Mike's dad came by to visit the Grand Kids and played a bit of guitar for them. The boys seemed quite happy to see him and to hear him play guitar.

Right now the hardest part is just waiting for the right house to turn up. I guess I wouldn't feel so anxious if we already had something already lined up for us there on the other end....

Well that's it for now, still no snow on this end...it's been such an unusually mild winter this year...but I guess that's a good thing for now...