Just Keep Swimming

So an interesting weekend was had.

It all began just prior to this past weekend…

As you are all aware we are doing some renovating!! If you are not aware, you better back up a few blogs. So we were at the point last week when kitchen install had begun.

Unfortunately, there were a few glitches in the process.

Fortunately, Signature Décor has done a fabulous job of looking after us and other than waiting a little longer, all was looked after.

So let’s jump to Friday, the 2nd day that our kitchen installers were there. Over lunch I drove over to the house to let them know where the pulls/knobs went and it was looking great. Countertops were going in and looked fabulous!! So I left very excited and really didn’t want to drive back to work.

After work I drove back to house and it was empty – doesn’t happen too often that I have walked into this house without anyone there. There was my kitchen and it looked fantastic and… still unfinished. So a few more glitches that, again, were handled with speedy efficiency, but left the kitchen unfinished. Even though it wasn't finished, I was very excited to walk around and pretend to slam doors that don’t slam but close gracefully! I was thrilled to run my hands over the smooth countertops and door fronts. The knobs and handles looked great. I took some iPhone snaps and emailed a few people (I guess everyone was at work or away from phone so there was no one to share my joy with!) So when Bernie got home he got to hear my excitement and kindly obliged me and tried to slam doors and drawers!

After some oohing and aahing and seeing what we still needed in order to finish kitchen, this conversation started:

Bernie: “So, Tam, just thought I’d let you know that our car is broken.”

Tammy: “Yes. I know. We took the Elantra to the shop in order to get some bearings and some tire rod thing fixed. (Yeah, I know, a tie rod!) It was supposed to be picked up yesterday but the wrong part came in, right?”

Bernie: “Yes. But it is broken.”

Tammy: “Seriously? What now? How much will this one cost? What’s wrong with it?”

Bernie: “Well, it fell.”

Tammy: “It fell?”

Bernie: “Yeah, it fell. It fell off the hoist. The hoist broke and it fell off.”

Tammy: “Seriously? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course it did!”

So we laughed. What else are you supposed to do? What else can you do?

(This pic is just one of the pics we rec'd with just some of the damage. Damage was on both sides.)

A few minutes later, after we both chuckled and Bernie explained that the shop would look after the insurance issues and get us a loaner vehicle AND we knew that no one had been hurt in this incident, we started to relook at kitchen. I asked the question, “Will our fridge fit in this opening?” Bernie said, “Well, it should.” Then proceeded to measure the opening and – guess what? You got it!! No fitting of fridge would happen! At this point I didn’t think it was all so funny and I proceeded to go and sit outside for a while and just breathe.

(Sneak peak of kitchen with the fridge opening a little too small.)

After a few minutes and a few texts later, we had things taken care of, deep breaths were taken and we, just as our dear friend Dory the Blue Tang did in Finding Nemo, just kept swimming!

Saturday night was a good break as we enjoyed supper out with Happy Anniversary couple, Jake and Carolyn Rempel and other sibs, Doug & Nancy Rempel. It was nice to laugh and visit and eat some fantastic food at Bellisimo’s.

It was good we filled up because Sunday afternoon we made the decision to … MOVE! We packed up and headed to Winnipeg with clothes, sheets and finally our beds! We almost unloaded the whole POD and now it sits in our basement (not the pod, just the boxes).

Sunday night we slept, for the first time, in our new house – now a home (albeit a little unfinished and unorganized and bit chaotic). And we had a special guest, Bentley, my grandson spent the night on the floor by my bed. He was over so that he could go with me to VBS the next morning. There is good reason that people are usually much younger than me when they have children. Just saying.

(Sandwiches outside. A little bit too bright for someone. I'll let you figure out who! One of us insisted on a jam and tomato sandwich - again, I will let you figure out who!)

And so life goes… we keep swimming. Sometimes we feel like we are just sinking, sometimes we just stay afloat, and sometimes we buoy to the surface like a beach ball and enjoy the warmth of the sun. We still don’t know the final status of our car. We still don’t have our kitchen in place. We still live in boxes and some unknown spaces. But we keep swimming because … well, because if we didn’t, we’d sink. We don’t want to sink. So we swim!

In short order I hope to add some pictures of our ‘final’ renovations and do some before/after shots. We presently have no internet at our house so these updates will be a bit sporadic.

I ask for your continued prayers as dad goes for a chemo appointment tomorrow to see what lies ahead for him in regards to his chemo process.