Time to Catch up

Wow does time ever get away on you when you don't pay attention to it. I have had a few people give me some 'gentle' nudges in suggesting I get going with an update, so here it is!

Week 1 of the new job is now in the books. I can't believe how much fun it was! For anyone who knows what I have been going through at my last place of work, they will know that I have been less than happy and even less than motivated. I have simply had a ball this week. This is my first kick at the can in HR and does it ever feel right to me! I am so happy to be learning new things and everyone has been wonderful to me so far. Of course that doesn't mean that I don't miss my friends at my former place of work, but they all know I will stay in touch!

So, let's see.... the last post was about Patricia's shower, so that was a couple of weeks ago now. I had a fabulous week off before starting the new job. Gord has been taking Erin in to daycare in Kanata for the past couple of weeks until she starts at the new daycare in Merrickville. I was so surprised when on the Sunday after Patricia's shower I received a phone call telling me that there was a space open for Erin to begin on July 4th! Man, when things are going your way, stay out of the road and let them keep on comin'!! This is a brand new daycare if I didn't mention it. It is opening up for the current kids this coming Tuesday June 27th. I have been watching the building of the new site and is it ever nice. I will put the link on the page in case anyone is interested in looking at it. It has been designed with the environment in mind and is full of beautiful windows and environmentally friendly amenities. I can't wait to see it! I felt bad having to let Emily know that I didn't have a summer job for her, but was I ever impressed with how well she took the news. Her parents have done something right with her (and her brother William by the way)!! Of course I will have a couple of weeks for Emily to spend with Erin so I think that will be fun for both of them! I didn't end up doing too much that week other than a couple of lunches with my pals Dee one day and Scott another. It was my Dads' birthday on June 16th and Father's Day on June 18th. Erin had quite the time creating masterpieces for her Daddy and her two grandpas (sorry Dad - this is supposed to be a surprise for you!!). I would have loved to have taken pictures of Picasso - Erin, but I ended up being a bit of a canvas for her so I really couldn't from a practical standpoint!! What else went on that week..... oh we went to see the George Strait concert in Ottawa. Gord is a big fan and I got tickets for him for Valentine's Day (awwwwwww - I can just hear you all now.....). The concert was actually pretty good, but it was by far the most unusual crowd I have ever seen at any of the piles of concerts I have been to. Very weird, very ecclectic for a country concert, especially for someone who has been around as long as George Strait has. Oh well, a good time seemed to be had by all. Erin had the pleasure of spending that evening with Aunt Elaine! By all accounts it was a great time featuring a pizza party and best of all Dairy Queen!!

We were lucky enough to be invited over for dinner at our neighbor Richinda and Jamie's place on the 17th of June. There were others from the neighborhood there too, including Dave and Bonnie and their daughter Amy, and Ron and Kristi and some other friends of Richinda's. The kids had a ball. The guys were in the process of putting up an above-ground pool at Richinda and Jamie's place. It looked like they got most of the hard work out of the way, but I think poor Richinda was expecting to be able to jump in that weekend!! My hunch is that it was finished off today because I saw the Merrickville Fire Department pumper truck go down the road this afternoon. Hope the swimming is just grand for them!!

So I have already mentioned my great first week at work so I guess that brings us up to today. Erin finished off her swimming lessons in grand style today. She graduates to full lessons all by herself as of today!! I am going to register her for the next round on Monday. Gord took Erin in today and they had a fun afternoon. To be quite honest, I think Gord has really enjoyed bringing Erin in to daycare for the past couple of weeks because she is really a fun little girl to be around, but I think she is going to go through Home Depot withdrawal. I kid you not, the girl is a Home Depot fanatic!! Especially those that feature Second Cup coffee shops - Gord let her have her very own chocolate chiller yesterday!!! So after swimming, they had a big adventure in Brockville, including lunch at 'old' McDonalds, a visit to Home Depot (no Second Cup at that one) and to Canadian Tire. Gord also went out today and picked up one of those Dolfino porable above-ground pools for Erin. It's filling up right now as we speak. It should be a good size for her - it holds about 4 people and has a pump, etc. Erin is having a WELL NEEDED NAP right now. Yes, capitals are required because she didn't agree with me, but the nap eventually won out!! So she will be excited when she wakes up, but the pool will be just a little chilly to jump into yet!!

Tomorrow should be fun. Aidan and Cole (Jo-Ann and Chris' boys) are coming out for the day. Jo and Chris bought a new house recently and are in packing mode, so I offered an unimpeded day to pack tomorrow. The kids should have a riot. Yes, I will take pictures and I won't take so long to post......

By the way, Minnie is getting big and is doing fine, other than a bit of a limp in her hind leg that we discovered today. It hasn't affected her appetite though as she helps Gord mow the lawn right now!

Kim

P.S. Erin loves using the whirlpool tub in our ensuite bathroom. Too many bubbles though, what do you think?!!!

Playstructure Pictures Featuring Minnie the Helper Goat

Finally, some pictures!!

There is a belated on from our recent trip to Montreal. We had a great view of the cathedral from our room at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth! We also took a trip to the Biodome and Erin loved it, especially the penguins and the puffins!!

The other pictures are of the playstructure!

Minnie, Helper Goat... Patricia's Baby Shower

It's bright and early Monday morning and I am in week 2 of my impromptu holiday before starting my new job. Gord just left with Erin about 20 minutes ago. I have a bunch of errands to run today, so being off has really been a savings grace for me!

Well there is a lot to update since this past Thursday when I last checked in. We managed to finally get our hands on the play structure. Gord started to do a bit of work on it Thursday after work and took Friday off to finish it. I have to download the pictures yet, but I will post the pictures of the help that Minnie gave to Gord. I guess it was pretty comical, but Minnie decided that supervising the proceedings would be a good job for her! Gord found humour in it all and is convinced that she will figure out how to climb the rock wall before long! At any rate, when I brought Erin home on Friday the playstructure was ready to go and she couldn't have been more giddy! She christened the playstructure by sliding down the wave slide in the drizzling rain giggling all the way. It really is great to have something right off the patio for her to play on whenever she likes.

Friday for me was running around picking up last minute stuff for the baby shower we were having for my very good friend Patricia and her husband Ashley on Saturday at our place. We hosted a pretty unique afternoon party for the parents-to-be. Strangely enough, the men outnumbered the women (yeah, why would we do a conventional baby shower!!) and there was gunplay as a feature! Gord took a couple of the boys out for some skeet shooting. Gord thinks Patricia is pretty lucky, because she will have a great story to tell for the ages - how many other people feature skeet shooting at their baby shower! Erin had a wonderful little girl to play with, the grandaughter of my good friends Patti and Gilles. Emma is going to be 3 in a couple of days and the two played all afternoon like they knew each other all their sweet little lives! My neice Emily was out to entertain the kids and as always the kids loved every minute with her! Despite the weather not cooperating I think Patricia enjoyed herself and it was nice to see everyone I so enjoyed working with over the past few years out for some good drink, food, and conversation. After everyone left, it reminded me how much I will miss them.

Sunday was a much quieter day, spent on the playstructure for the most part. Stay tuned for some pictures of Erin and Minnie enjoying the playstructure coming in the next day or so.

The Playstructure Fiasco

Well, it's Thursday today. I have actually had a great week off. I've gone to a couple of massage sessions and the weather has just been beautiful. I have also been doing some pretty hefty spring cleaning - it sucks, but once it's done one room at a time, there is some sort of strange pleasure in it all. I often wonder how rooms in my house get so cluttered all of a sudden. Oh yeah, I have an almost three-year old who has taken over the house!!!

Well, the title of this blog is about the now infamous playstructure. We all thought it would be up by now, but Gord is actually only picking it up this morning. After I had to track down the business owner about what was going on with the arrival of the system after 3 1/2 weeks of waiting to hear anything, we were all set to pick it up this past Sunday. The guy wanted us to be there by 3:00pm, and we were there at 2:50pm. The problem? He had left for the day. So two more days of trying to track him down through head offices in the US and in Canada, he finally returns my call Wednesday morning. Now anyone who knows me well enough knows that I don't have a very long fuse for really bad customer service. I'm pretty sure the guy is glad it's Gord going to pick up the playstructure and not me. So, anyone looking to buy a nice Rainbow Playsystem playstructure, do yourself a favour and buy it out of another sales centre. Avoid Ottawa's sale centre at all costs. I'm sure the playstructure itself will be great, but it was really quite a battle to actually get it into our hands.

Hmmmm, I think I better run now. It would appear that Minnie has barged her way into the house. So much for Spring cleaning!!

The Sunday After...

Well it's been a bit of a whirlwind week for us, so I haven't had a chance to catch this up. I was expecting to have to work one more week, but to my surprise (and delight!), they gave me the option of not coming in next week, so I will actually have two weeks before starting my new job. Sweet! It was still a bit of an emotional day for me this past Friday, especially near the end of the day. The company posted the news of my departure in the early afternoon, so I received some really wonderful and thoughtful messages and wishes from some of the many terrific people I have met during my five years with the company. That's what I will miss the most. But onwards and upwards is how that saying goes...

Erin's dance lessons are all through now, so I am on the search for another spot to bring her because she tells me she still wants to dance. The place I took her this spring offers them, but not at times I can bring her. Her swimming lessons are going really well though. She is in transitional lessons, which means she took half of the classes with a parent (dad in this case), and half with the instructor. She was a little apprehensive about going on her own this week, because it was her first with only the instructor, but as we expected, she did great. There was just Erin and one other little girl in the lesson this Saturday, and they both had a really good time. Because she was such a trooper and did so well by listening to everything her instructor told her, we are going to treat her to a visit at the wave pool in Kanata.

Yesterday we were at our nephew William's birthday party. I can hardly believe he is 17! I can still remember this happy-go-lucky 3-year old chatting me up about Thomas the Tank Engine when I first met him all those years back! Erin was her wild and entertaining self, which although can be both amusing and exhausting to watch, also means that she crashes quickly and soundly, both of which happened no more than five minutes after leaving William's party!

So today is Sunday and Erin is out playing with Minnie and helping Gord do some work around the house. We are going to pick up Erin's playstructure this afternoon and Gord is hoping the rain holds off long enough for him to assemble it. I am going to keep Erin at home with me tomorrow so hopefully it's a nice day and we can spend it together outside.

Well I guess that's it for now. I'm sure there will be some interesting stories that come out of the playstructure installation, so check back in early next week (I'll keep the profanaties out of it!!).
I have posted a couple of great pictures that my neigbor Richinda took from the girls all playing together last weekend plus a couple of good ones of Minnie. Richinda has her own photography business, so if anyone likes the pictures, let me know so I can hook you up with her contact information!

Awwwww, Erin just brought me a bunch of daisies and buttercups! She really is my sweet little angel!