2004
January
Our January was mostly spent packing up our shared belongings (many not having been unpacked yet) and getting ready to move to our new apartment. Moving into a new apartment in the winter is not a good idea as my brother, Stephen, reminded me regularly during the day. Not clearly determining when the new tenants are moving in is another issue. Many thanks to those that helped us move most of our stuff on that fateful January Friday night. Even after a few trips back, we think we only left behind a can caddy in the fridge and maybe a few Christmas lights ;)
February
After a frantic end to January, we set about the task of settling into 46 Henderson Drive, a basement apartment in the landlady's house. With the move we decided to upgrade the double-bed headboard to a proper queen-sized bedframe with matching dressers and night stands - especially since the ceiling in this apartment wasn't on a 45 degree angle.
The remainder of the month was spent going through some of the boxes that Krista didn't know I had and looking forward to our second honeymoon in March.March
The highlight of the month was our second honeymoon to Cuba. We spent March Break at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria on Cuba's north coast and had a nice relaxing time. The resort looked a little too new and the weather closed the beach for a few days but it was a nice break. We did, however, find a nice piece of artwork to inspire us later in the year...
April
As things started to warm up in Southern Ontario, we decided to cool ourselves off by flying to Winnipeg for Easter. We enjoyed a nice visit with Mom Zylstra, Shirley, Rob, Leeanne and Joseph and even had a change to visit Leeanne and Joseph's school on Monday before flying back.
May
June
With mortgage rates at an all-time low (or so we heard) we decided to take the plunge and buy a house. We spent a few days looking at houses but one of the first we looked at stayed at the top of the list and we were soon signing our financial future on the dotted line.
July
As our Aug 19th closing approached, Krista went to work packing up the apartment. We started planning to do things a bit better this time round (since we had only done it 5 months ago). We also planned for a moving van instead of relying on borrowed vehicles.
We took a week to travel to Niaraga Falls for our third honeymoon (cuz any trip to the Falls within 5 years of marriage has to be called a honeymoon) and enjoyed a performance at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We were almost rained out at Fort George but managed to see most of the sights before finding cover.
On our way back from Niagara we took the long route over Tobermory and enjoyed some leisure shopping and a boat tour to Flowerpot Island.August
After celebrating our first anniversary, with a trip to Bon Echo Provincial Park, we came back to civilization and prepared for the last few details before the big move. Moving day was considerably less stressful and much more enjoyable since we knew we wouldn't need to worry about doing it again for quite a few years. Our new home at 1268 Dartmoor St was very welcoming with the exception of one particularly pink room: in addition to pink carpet, the main livingroom/family room had pink and red paint and a beautiful floral border around the ceiling. The easiest part to deal with was the floral curtains which reportedly sold for $1 on ebay, shipping not included.
With summer slipping away and a new school year on the horizon, we didn't do too much to the house but decided to force ourselves to keep decorating on the agenda by keeping the livingroom as sparse as needed to be livable.September
The highlight of the month, and our lives to this point, was the discovery that Krista was pregnant. It was a little sooner than expected (hey, what can we say, we're a fertile couple) but still wonderful news. For those family that we told, the news was not unexpected since we had bought a 3-bedroom house and aren't ones to let space go to waste.
October
In October we were able to welcome our first overnight guest, brother-in-law Rob from Winnipeg. The only problem was that, although we had a bedroom, we didn't have a bed. We almost had the the full bed in time but Rob didn't complain about sleeping on the mattress on the floor.
We enjoyed Thanksgiving at the Posthumus homestead in Peterborough and a presentation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream at Stratford.November
With our paint purchased and our furniture moved, we proceeded to redecorate most of the pink room to our tastes. Our choices of Cosy Melon and Simmering Cider covered the walls nicely even though the floral border was more trouble to remove than it should have been.
We also decided to take in a musical in Toronto and selected Jesus Christ Superstar at the Canon Theatre. Let's just say it was loud.December
With a major decorating holiday on the way, we had the opportunity to dress up our house for the first time. Krista found some greenery for the banister and the mantle and I found some lights for the house. We were hoping to have some carpet on the floors in time to host our first big dinner but the installation was delayed until the next year.
Although delayed by a pesky ice storm, we hosted Christmas dinner with all the fixin's with the Posthumus Clan (Mom and Dad P, Selina, Tony, Theresa, Caleb and Noah). We also realized that the kitchen table doesn't really seat more that 4 comfortable so we've added a diningroom table to our 'to buy' list.
To end off the year we decided to head off to Winnipeg (mostly because things weren't very Christmasy in Oshawa) just in time for a big blizzard. We enjoyed watching the snow fall and ringing in the New Year with Mom Zylstra, Shirley, Rob, Leeanne and Joseph.