September
In September we decided to start the process of purchasing a foreclosed half-duplex. We began by negotiating an initial bid with the bank. The process of buying a foreclosure was... a lot more difficult than I anticipated and this was partly due to our less-than-impressive real estate agent. I won't go into all the details about how she dropped the ball, but suffice to say I wasn't fond of her. The bank accepted our offer and a court date was set for the end of October.
We also made another trip the coast in September for a youth conference that we volunteered at. We had friends visit from up north and we enjoyed Erik's brief break from school. And I slowly packed up our house. Slowly.
We spent an extended weekend in Manning Park with Erik's brother and sister-in-law. We went on a couple hikes (one that nearly killed me), ate copious amounts of food, played countless games of Dominion, and laughed at Eliza.
October
Maelle and Elinor stayed over the first weekend in October and Eliza loved having older kids around -- she watched them play, followed them, and laughed at them. They kept her entertained the whole weekend.
My niece got married over Thanksgiving weekend so the whole family was in town again. She was married on the Friday, which was nice because we had the rest of the weekend to spend time together. I can't imagine how busy holidays will be in years to come when all the little ones have grown. I am thankful that Eliza has so many cousins near her age.
Our court date was October 29 and thankfully nobody else showed up so we got the half-duplex at our original bid! It was stressful having to have a second bid ready as we had to go in blind -- they don't tell you what other people put in as a bid so you just throw an offer in and hope that you aren't outbid and that you don't outbid someone else by something ridiculous like $15,000. We had a couple days to close and then we had possession and renovations to look forward to.
I was going to skip Halloween, but a friend invited us over so I ran out and got Eliza a costume and she was an adorable little ladybug. If you aren't picky about your kids costume (and don't mind squeezing them into something a little bit too small) Costco has them on sale for $5.00 the day of.
November
We moved in with my parents for November. We'd made the decision to do so before our court date because we had to be out of our place on October 31 and our court date was on the 29th. If we didn't get the duplex we were going to look for somewhere else to rent for December 1 and were going to stay with my parents anyway. If we got the house then we would live with them while we started renovating (floors, paint, furnace, windows).
I spent hours and hours painting the entire house. It was nice to be with my parents because they let me borrow their vehicle when Erik was at work so I could go to the house and because they would were home when Eliza went to bed at night so I could paint from 7pm-1am. My mom also helped me when she could which was much appreciated. Erik was busy working and finishing his quarter at school so he was a busy boy.
We made another trip to the coast for school at the beginning of the month. It was the last time I get to go with Erik as I will be working for the remainder of his academic career.
December
I continued painting our house in the beginning of December and we moved in on the tenth. Unpacking with an 11-month-old is not an easy task. It is especially difficult when your cupboard doors aren't on yet because you're painting them. Erik worked his last shift at his job on the eighteenth as he is going to be writing his thesis, doing his practicums, and taking care of Eliza while I'm at work in the new year.
We spent Christmas in Washington this year with Erik's family. We were able to stay for ten days because Erik had just quit his job and I wasn't back at work yet. It was fun to see Eliza interacting with that side of the family. She was a great age for such a gathering and she doesn't get stranger-danger or separation-anxiety so she was happy to be with whoever wanted to be with her. She was particularly fond of her grandma, which made me smile. It is fun having a baby who happily goes to others and I'm sure the "others" appreciate it too.
Eliza turned one! I know most parent says it, but woah, that year passed far too quickly. Eliza is such an easy going girl -- she makes being a mama easy. I know I am biased, but she really is the sweetest thing. We didn't have a party for her (I've always thought first birthday parties are a little silly) but she was surrounded by people who love her, as she will be every year on her birthday (a benefit of being born on Christmas Day).
We had a mini Christmas celebration with the Kelowna Jansens when we returned from Washington. We just had dinner and gave a few gifts to the kiddies. It was nice.
And that was a brief recap of 2015. I'm curious to see what 2016 brings...
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