Some car drama, a lovely wedding, and the end of the volleyball season!

It's the end of May, how on earth did that happen! A lot has happened since I last checked in, it's been a pretty eventful month for us! I had a nice Mother's Day with the family on the 10th, we went out for dinner at McMenamins which was lovely. I did not get to shower in my new shower on Mother's Day, sooo close but not quite. We did pull up all the plastic that had been on the carpet and stairs that allowed the workers to just come in with their shoes on. I insisted that I was done with it and the rest of the workers that still needed to come in could put those booty things on their feet. At least my house didn't feel like a construction zone anymore!

The plumber came on Monday to get the fixtures put in, yay! Tuesday the insulation guys came to blow new insulation into our attic (a while-we're-at-it add on) so I wasn't able to shower until after they left:-/. It was so nice to finally use the shower! I did discover that the pressure wasn't too great on my new shower head, but Brian came to the rescue a few days later and took out the low-flow valve (don't tell the city - it's better but it's not like it's coming out like a fire hose or anything so I think the environment will survive). 

Wednesday of that week was an eventful day - and not in a good way unfortunately. Lynsey got in a fender bender with the Civic on her way to work in the morning :-(. Thankfully everyone was okay, and the damage to the other car appeared to be minimal and she was able to drive away after a little while. The Civic, unfortunately, did not survive the incident. We had to have it towed to our place while we figured out what to do with it. The other lady involved did end up filing a claim since she went to the emergency room for her neck, so Lynsey will have a claim on her insurance. Not the greatest, but it's not the end of the world. We had liability only coverage so we don't get anything for the Civic (although insurance did cover the towing to our place which was a nice surprise) so we are going to donate it to Habitat for Humanity and see what they can get for it at auction and we get the tax receipt. I'm quite curious what someone will pay for a Civic that still runs but the front bumper and hood will need to be replaced, and I think Brian said the radiator is toast as well. They will come and get it next week so I guess we'll find out soon enough!

This brought us down to two cars, so my plan to drive and park at the airport for my Friday morning flight to Alberta for Gert's wedding was put into question. Lynsey actually drove me and picked me up so it worked out, they were able to have the two cars to use while I was gone and we saved parking costs:-). The wedding weekend was a lot of fun! I stayed at Mary's house and there was lots of visiting time with family and the wedding was beautiful. The Friday evening shower was a lot of fun as well, really happy I made the trip! The food at the wedding was top notch, all gluten and dairy free which is impressive for how good everything was. Monday morning Mary drove me into the city because she was picking up Dave and a bunch of students that were flying in from being on a missions trip. I originally was going to meet Larissa for lunch, but she ended up getting really sick so had to cancel so Mark picked me up and I hung out with Mark and Frances for the afternoon. Then I took a Lyft back to the airport and my journey home began! I had practice that night so Lynsey picked me up, I quickly went home and changed and off I went to practice. Thankfully Leli was leading it so I just had to show up. All in all a great trip!

Last week I was focused on getting another car for Lynsey (and eventually for Nathan) to use this summer. We all knew this day was coming, the Civic wasn't going to last forever, but I was not excited about going car shopping along with everything else we have going on right now with the bathroom and everything. Lynsey and I went to a few dealerships on Thursday and found a few promising cars, and the plan was that on Friday after work, Brian would join us and we would go back to the dealerships and see what he thought. Well, I was picking Lynsey up from work with Brian's car and we were almost home, like a block away, when Lynsey heard a popping sound and there were all kinds of lights on the dashboard about tire pressure:-l. We were so close to home that I slowed right down and we pulled onto the driveway. Sure enough, a completely flat back drivers side tire. Sure, why not! Brian's car does not have a spare tire, and when Brian found the problem he learned that it was like a tear - this would not be a patch job, but a new tire was needed:-(. Thankfully we have roadside assistance so for the second time in 10 days, a tow truck was needed for the Kroeker cars. I was half expecting something to happen to the van, I mean come on! They towed the car to the BMW dealership and they had that tire in stock so the car was going to be ready the next day, hurray!

Our plan to go car shopping that night was in peril, but we decided we could still do it. We got some McDonalds takeout and then the three of us went to the Subaru dealer where we had found a 2015 Mazda 6 that Lynsey really liked the day before. Brian drove it, thought it seemed fine (what do we know anyway!), looked at the carfax report which looked good . . . decided to go ahead and negotiate on it to buy it. We (and by we I mean me, I am the negotiator in this marriage lol) were able to get the car for a decent price and off we went home with our new car! We will see how it holds up for us!

The next morning we were able to pick up Brian's car after the gym and I was still able to drive myself to my last tournament of the year (we were down to one car the night before so I thought I might have to get my junior coach to pick me up!). The first tournament day was a bit rough, we had really good teams in our pool so we didn't get a win. Sunday was much better, we ended up going 2-1 which was a great result for us! Monday, my biggest goal was for us to win one game. We had not won a game in bracket play all year, and this time we were not in the bottom bracket either. It was a big task, but the girls did it! Super proud of them! Unfortunately our second game was against a good team that we had played on the first day, so we were not able to get that second win. Still a great result and I'm so happy we finished the season on a high note!

This past week I had my last practice with my team on Tuesday, bittersweet for sure. The parents played against the girls and it was a lot of fun - great way to end the year! It was a year of ups and downs and I'm definitely ready to be done, but I was a bit sad. It's always hard to say goodbye, I'll miss these girls even though they definitely drove me nuts sometimes! I'm not sure what age group I'll coach next year, it is possible I will coach this same group next year in 15s but we will see. It will be nice to have more free time now! Thursday we finally got our shower glass installed, the bathrooms as officially done! The only thing left now is to put shelves in the linen closet in the kids bathroom, not urgent. To say that I was ready to say close this chapter is an understatement! Today we put away all the extra tile and other materials, I'm calling it done:-D.

 

Sooo close to new bathrooms, and a disappointing end to the playoff run:-(

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. The Oilers will not be giving us an exciting post season this year, 2026 was not the year apparently. Injured McDavid = no chance for a cup run. Fingers crossed for next year! 

Our bathrooms are ALMOST done! The counter top guys are coming tomorrow to install the counter tops, and the plumbers will come on Monday to put all the fixtures in and then we can start using the bathrooms! Yay! The shower glass will be a bit yet but we are planning to put a shower curtain up for the kids in the meantime, and our shower is so big we don't really need a water guard and will just use it until the glass comes in. It's been such a long wait, this is seriously so exciting! Our closet is fully finished so we were able to move back into that which has reduced the chaos in our bedroom by a LOT. So very excited for my first shower! Next post will have the finished product pictures on it:-).

I went to Edmonton two weekends ago to help Lynsey get moved out of her dorm and back home. I stayed with Martin and Angie and had a nice time catching up with them, it had been a while! We got her stuff into storage and it's been good to have her home again. Adam seems happy to have her back, his stress level is subsiding a bit (I think the near completion of the bathroom has really helped with that as well). She is set to start working at Farine again this weekend, hopefully she makes more good connections with co workers and enjoys her job there this summer!

What else . . . volleyball season is coming to a close, only a few more weeks to go. It's been a long season and I am ready for it to be done. We had a tournament in Centralia this past weekend and it was a bit of a roller coaster. First few games were not so good, but then we had a big team talk and played really well for our third pool play game - beat a team we had lost to three times! Yay! Unfortunately this success did not spill over into bracket day and we lost both games on Sunday:-/. Didn't play terribly, just didn't do enough to win. I wish I knew how to motivate them. I did tell them at practice on Tuesday that they play their best volleyball right after being together as a team and having a team talk, we've had two big talks this season and both times they came out and played great games. I told them for our last tournament on Memorial Day weekend I would leave it up to them to decide how much team bonding time they should have during the weekend. I can't force them to be together, that's going to have the opposite effect. I think they need to choose it and be in control of it for it to be effective. Will see how it goes. 

Will try and remember to take more pictures in May! I feel like I never take pictures anymore, so sad! Here's pics of our bathrooms anyway haha.

 

The bathroom renovation drags on, and a fun trip to Edmonton!

Sadly, I am not writing to announce that our bathrooms are finished and we are fully enjoying them - yet. After the plumber and electrician came to finish up their parts this past week, inspections went off without a hitch and up next was drywall. Our contractor is doing the drywall work on his own and I am seeing the downside to this already:-/. It's a bit slower than I would like - we are ready to be done with this project! He is almost done putting up the boards so next week is all about mudding and taping and texture. I told him I was hoping to paint on the weekend, but he is not optimistic that it will be ready for paint by then, ugh. I am thinking about asking him if I can be his assistant for the week to speed things along but I don't want to offend him haha. So far we have been happy enough with the work he is doing so I suppose we should just let him plod along, but the date that Lynsey is coming home is fast approaching and it is looking less and less likely that even the closet will be ready enough for us to take all the shelves out of her room to put in there. I'm sure we will survive, things are moving forward. One day this will feel like nothing but a blip in time! It's exciting to see the drywall go up and the rooms taking shape, it will be a very nice improvement and worth all of this hassle!

Nathan and I took a trip to Edmonton last weekend! For Christmas I had bought the kids tickets to a game at Rogers Place (I was of course going as well:-D) so Nathan and I flew up early Saturday morning, got our rental car, and headed to the dorm to pick up Lynsey. We got some lunch and headed to the hotel to hang out for a bit, had a nice big hotel room which was lovely. We had a nice dinner at Sorrentinos and off we went to Rogers Place. Lynsey was the only one of the three of us that had seen a game there funny enough, it was a fun time! The Oilers didn't have it unfortunately and lost quite badly, but we were able to see some nice plays and thankfully at least one goal by Bouch. Always better to witness a win but it was still a great time:-). We were able to walk back to the hotel after, glad we had a close hotel! 

The next morning was Easter Sunday and I took the kids to the Sugarbowl for a delicious brunch. Nathan wanted to go shopping at West Edmonton Mall so we went there for several hours, it had been years since I had been there. Both kids found some clothes they liked which was nice, had some Yogen Fruz (blast from the past!), even saw the sea lions for a bit. Hung out at the hotel and then picked up Lynsey's friends August and Emerson to take them to Moxies for dinner. They seem like really nice girls! I'm happy Lynsey has found some good friends there, they seem to genuinely care about her and are a nice balance for her (they all have pretty different personalities!). 

We got breakfast at McDonalds the next morning before bringing Lynsey back to the dorm and heading to the airport. It was short and sweet, but well worth it! Nathan and I tried out the light rail to come home from the airport, it was a bit slow but not a bad option to come back to Redmond. I can't help but feel like it could be faster, it stopped at some stops for several minutes and I didn't understand why. Let's goooooo! Anyway, it was a lot cheaper than an Uber and we weren't in a huge rush to get home on a Monday afternoon so it was all fine.

Brian and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday! I can't believe it's been that long, soon we will have been together for more years of our lives than we haven't been. Marriage is definitely not the easiest path but worth it!

Adam has been struggling lately. Very repetitive again, which is unfortunate because he did go through such a long period of no repetition. I am hoping this next week off of school will help him settle his anxiety. He is also not a fan of the bathrooms not being done, so that's not helping things. Lynsey coming home will hopefully also help him, that is only 2 weeks away now. Hopefully he gets regulated soon!