Mother's Day, con't...

I forgot about something we did on Mother's Day!
On the way home from the appliance store, we (I) didn't want to make supper and we had just been given a gift cert. at Swiss Chalet (and related chains), so we decided to stop in for dinner.
At first thought, and sight, BIG MISTAKE.  People were lined up out the door.  But Marn was persistent and said, the lines go quickly here.  She's right, they do, but I still didn't feel like waiting 20 people deep.
Well, as luck would have it, most of the people in line were for 4 or more people.  They had ton's of 2 person tables, so the hostess yells out, is there anyone here with just 2?  We put out hand up and said, 2 1/2.  And she says, yep that'll work, come to the front of the line please!  Sweet!  So long suckers!  We were seated within 5 minutes of getting there.  Nice!

unfortunately, that's not going to happen for much longer once we become a family of 4.

Echo

PS: Echo turned 4 years old on Sunday.  Not one family member called to wish him a happy birthday.
;-)

Momma's Day!

We had a really nice low-key and relaxing Mother's Day this weekend.  Saturday morning, we went to the St. Jacob's market but stayed inside the whole time because it was a really crappy, cold and wet day, then drove to the old stomping grounds, Baden, to pick up some meat at Egli's Meat Market (Aunt Dagmar's store) and to purchase another car seat from an old neighbour for the new baby.  The one we had expired shortly after Violet outgrew it, so we couldn't use that one again.
After that, we were back home and started preparing for Mom to come over for dinner. Just before we were about to start the power went out!  We thought we were going to have to go out for dinner because it was out from about 3pm to 5pm and Mom was supposed to be coming for 5:30.  Luckily Mom lost track of time, and wouldn't be coming until 6 or 6:30, so we decided to start making dinner at 5.  It was a nice dinner and visit as we sat by the fire and had tea before Mom left at about 9:30pm.

Sunday morning was spent at Marn's mom's house for brunch.  Violet gave Marn (and me!) the best present by sleeping in until 9am!!  (I'll forgive her that she was up 3 times through the night).
After brunch, we sat and chatted by their fireplace and drank coffee/tea again, then headed home for naps (Marn and Vi) while I went outside with Echo and did yard work.  Nice!  After the naps, we decided that we wanted to go out and look for a new washer and dryer because ours aren't cutting it.  The washer is probably 30 years old, and we have a decent sized tax return coming, so we started looking....  We stopped in a store where I saw some good prices on a Whirlpool Duet Steam set.  They were last years model and this particular one was a floor model that had only been out for about 2 weeks, so basically new.  We liked it, but decided not to buy as we hadn't done much research on that particular model and hadn't price compared at all to see if it actually was a good deal (it was).  In my looking around, I noticed that Bad Boy Furniture had the same models on the same clearance as the other store for $100 less, and they were new in box - not floor models, so the plan was on Monday we were going to go and check that out.  I normally wouldn't buy from Bad Boy, but $100 is $100.  Especially for the exact same model.
Anyway, the day ended after dinner and when Violet went to sleep around the fireplace again, drinking tea, and watching the end of the movie Sherlock Holmes.  Which, if you haven't seen yet, you must. It's great!
That seemed to be the theme this weekend.  Fire and Tea.  I could get used to that!  I would have preferred Fire and Wine, but tea is good too...  :)

So on Monday evening we head out to look at appliances again with the thought of going to Bad Boy to check out the same set we saw on Sunday, and then going to the other place and seeing if they'll match the price - they have a price guarantee on their website, so why not?
On the way we stopped in another place, just to peak in because that's where Candace bought their set (which was close to the same as the one we're looking at) and they said they had the best prices.  Well, the sales guy comes across as a total sleaze and 2 minutes in we both know he's not getting our money....  They didn't have what we were looking for anyway.  But before we leave we told him what we found at Bad Boy, and right away his face says, don't buy from there and goes on to tell us to look into the BBB on them because they have a lot of complaints, and shady sales tactics, etc.  I've heard that before about Bad Boy.... Anyway, on to the next place, just down the road and before hitting Bad Boy.  The sales guy was nice, and they had a lot of sales on, but not the model we were looking at.  He gave his opinions on a few different brands and why one is better than the other.  We didn't tell him right away that we had a scoped a Whirlpool set at another store.  Before he knew, he compared LG as better than Whirlpool for a few reasons. (better warranty, stainless dryer drum, direct driven vs. belt, cheaper parts if something breaks, bigger capacity, better steam function, etc).  If you recall, we bought LG's at our old place, and LOVED them, so the push on LG didn't take much.  This store also had a big clearance sale on last years LG models, and in fact, the biggest sale was on the highest (priced) model from LG.  We ended up telling this guy what we were looking at and at what price, and he said they also had an opportunity to get that offer from Whirlpool, but passed on it and instead went with the LG offer.

Anyway, long story short, we never made it to Bad Boy, and spent $300 more than we planned on this awesome LG Steam pair.  The $300 was justified because we felt they were a better machine; warranty, stainless, bigger (4.4 vs. 4.0 cu ft.), etc.  And while the Whirlpool was $1100 "off" (MSRP), the LG's were $1600 off.  Which is just ridiculous.  I said that to the sales guy and he said, "well, it's MSRP.... they normally sell for less, but even on sale, never this low."  So either way, I think this is a great deal, even if we spent more than planning on.

These are the new additions to the dungeon.  And it doesn't feel so bad since we're still "ahead" with the tax return coming.  Although that amount would feel nice coming off the mortgage right about now...

Happy Mother's Day!

Pics

Somebody loved Blueberry Pancakes this morning!

Easter pictures that never came...

Helping Dad in the yard with her new Easter Present - a rake!

opps... missed the bag!

Favourite toy(s), Dolly and stroller.  She has two, and they get equal playing time.

Daddy and Vi having a snuggle with Echo.  She's taken to not liking him so much these days because he keeps whacking her in the head with his tail so this was an attempt to get him in the good books again.  Every time he comes around she turns away, covers her head, or screams at him to "go", or "back up!", or "out!"  It's pretty funny, but he HAS really whacked her hard right in the face...  I KNOW it's hurt a few times (he hurts US in the legs, never mind the face!)

...and sick Marn

and sleepless Andrew!

As Violet is getting better, Marn is getting worse.  Last Friday, back at the doctor, we were told that Vi had some fluid in her inner ear and to keep an eye on it.  We did, and didn't notice anything out of ordinary with her.  I guess on Thursday she was pulling on her ear and as a follow-up to the eye thing, which is gone now, the doc noticed fluid in the ear.  Today Marn's mom called and said that Vi freaked out on her and when asked what was wrong, she pointed at her ear and said something like "ear hurts".  I don't know if she said that because Nancy may have asked a leading question, and Vi is at the age where everything is repeated, or attempted to, but we'll have to check it out again.  Her nose is still running and stuffed up a lot, so she's still fighting something, but definitely getting better.

But now Marn has picked up the sickness from Vi.  Red itchy eyes, and now developing a cough that is keeping us both up at night.  I think I managed one solid hour of sleep last night, and not much the night before.  I think tonight I'm going to sleep on the couch.  Seriously.  Marn is taking eye drops now... hopefully the coughing will subside soon as she's not taking meds for that because of the pregnancy.  But we may need to find something, because this can't continue.

Last night was the last night of our co-ed Volleyball league.  It was semi's and finals, and we WON!  First time ever for our team.  Actually, it was the first time we've ever made the finals.  In past years we've choked every time in the semi's or quarters, so it was the long standing joke in the league - we were always good, but always came up short in playoffs.  Our team name is "Straight Down", and when we choke like that we have a "Straight Down Break Down".  Coined by me....  anyway, we beat both teams in 4 games in a best of 5 match, and to be honest, we smoked them both -- should have won in 3 for both matches.  In each game that we lost, we were leading towards the end of the set and kind of collapsed and lost it.  But in the next set, we pulled together and it wasn't even close.  So we won $300, and are going to have a team party/bonfire some time in the summer at someone's house with the winnings.

I still have Friday night men's league playoffs coming up, and we are currently in 2nd place in that league and should do well there as well.  Anything less than finals would be a disappointment.

Slo-pitch is also just around the corner, starting May 11 and looking forward to that again.  With the move, we're now about 3 minutes from the diamond which is nice because it'll make it easier for Marn and Vi to come out to a few more games.  They could even walk it.

As far as the house reno's go, nothing much has happened in the last 2 weeks.  I'm in the process of sanding down the mantel and then it needs to be stained and put in place.  I decided that I need to finish that and the slate surrounding it before starting anything else like the bathroom, for example.  :-)

Sick Vi

Vi has been sick for the last couple days.  Nothing TOO bad (I've seen kids looking/sounding much worse!), but bad enough that we didn't take her to Mom's house yesterday, so I stayed home with her.
Since about 2 weeks ago, she started getting stuffed up with runny nose, but that happens often with her so no big deal, but by Thursday last week she started producing lovely yellow eye goop all day. On Friday, she woke up eyes swollen and red, crusted over (could barely open them) and tons of snot. She was already scheduled for a Doctor appointment on Friday to complete her booster shots, which were postponed from the previous Friday due to the stuffy nose/small cold.  He suspected that it was pink eye and prescribed some eye drop meds.  We didn't start them right away because she seemed to be getting better.

Saturday was much the same - she seemed to be getting better still - without meds, but then Sunday she started getting goopy eyes again and developed a little cough, so we started the drops, but perhaps it was too late to be effective.  Monday morning she woke up multiple times during the night crying, coughing, eyes crusted over, snotty....  uggh.
We thought it best that we didn't go and expose the other kids at Moms to whatever she has.  The doc said that after 2 days of the drops, she won't be contagious, so Wednesday she'll go back to Mom's.

Although she was very cranky all Monday morning, by the end of the day, she was acting normal and happy again.  I was able to get a lot of things done around the house because she had a 3 HOUR nap from 12 noon to 3 pm.  So she must have needed it.  Maybe she was extra tired because she was up a lot through the night.

Tuesday, she didn't wake up with crusted eyes, but she was coughing a lot through the night so I'm sure she'll have a long nap again.  She never does sleep long with Nancy, though.  We think because Sadie wakes her up from playing too loudly then Vi hears that she's up and wants to go and play with her.

Hopefully, she'll get better soon!

This is the first time that she's had a real cold.  She's had minor sniffles and runny noses before, but nothing that needed meds.  Not bad for 19 months old, and I'm sure there'll be many more to come now that Mom's looking after a few different kids.