And there goes another two weeks...

It is a wildly windy Sunday afternoon and Gord and Erin are outside for a play so here is my quiet moment in between loads of laundry to catch the past two weeks up!

Well Gord had a successful trip to Denver. Erin and I had a pretty uneventful week (week of October 16th). I had a business trip to Kingston on the morning of the 17th, which made it a bit of a hairy start to the day, as I had to do the whirlwind drop-off of Erin to daycare, then drive to Kingston for an 9:00 am meeting. I was there at about 8:40 am, so not too bad! Gord was home on the Thursday, so Erin was happy to see him! It was nice in that his flight was in fairly early in the afternoon and was actually on time to boot! How often does that happen anymore?!!!

We had our friends Elaine and Ray out for dinner on the evening of the 21st. Ray completed a black duck carving that I commissioned for Gord and it is amazing - I'll have some pics of it up soon - the battery on the camera quit on me, so it's charging up right now! All in all a good evening was had by all.

The next week brought a short business trip to Toronto for me. I was off on Tuesday afternoon by train for an HR Law conference on the 25th. What a fabulous conference! Believe it or not, but that was my first night away from Erin since she was born! Of course I have been out and not gotten home until after she was sleeping, but never a full night away. I have to admit (selfishfly of course!) that it was nice to have an evening all to myself. I stayed at the Royal York downtown, had fabulous room service and did a bit of shopping at the Eaton's Centre - for Erin of course!! As I said the conference was amazing! People laugh at me when I say that I had a ball listening to judges and lawyers talk about employment law all day, but it really was interesting! I took the train home that same night and met up with some great people and we chatted (and drank - gotta love Via 1) all the way back! I stopped drinking before Kingston though, because I did have to drive home! It was great to see Erin the next morning and she loved her little treats from Toronto.

So fast forward to Saturday (yesterday) and a big Halloween party that Erin hosted for some of her friends! We had 8 kids over (and their parents) and had a ball! Erin was Cinderella, and we had Varya as the little girl vampire, Rys as the friendly lion, Aidan as a monster, Cole as the dolphin, Shyra as a beautiful princess, and Emma and Erika as 'darn-tootin' cute cowgirls!! The house is all decorated with sensor-activated skeletons, spiders, and goblins, as well as a fog machine and a steaming skull, all of which helped make for a great evening! Gord gutted 8 pumpkins for all of the kids, and the highlight was the big carve-off - check out the pictures, the kids created masterpieces from the big orange gourds!! I also got a cookie decorating kit that brought out more creative genius in the kids - not to mention sticky fingers!! Another great night indeed!

Erin has a busy week ahead. There will be a Halloween party at her daycare on Tuesday. I will be picking her up early on Tuesday to bring her home to change - she is going to be a cat for the actual Halloween night - for the Halloween party at the community centre in Merrickville, followed by some trick-or-treating at select homes! Then if you can believe it, it will be November. Erin is already begging me to start decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over. Someone is a little anxious for Santa's arrival this year!!

Anyway, I will take some pics of Erin the cat and the black duck carving to post next time. Enjoy the party pics and have a great week!!

A quiet Sunday afternoon

It's 2:40 on Sunday afternoon. I just convinced Erin that she was in bad need of a nap and she bought it!! So before I got into anything else, I thought I better check in.

It was a pretty uneventful week. I guess I should backtrack a bit to Thanksgiving weekend. We went to Eleanor's for dinner and had a nice time. It's been getting a bit tougher at these holidays because everyone is really concerned about my father-in-law Lloyd. Most of you who read the blog are aware that age is really starting to catch up with Lloyd and he's starting to have a hard time remembering things. It's pretty sad, but he does manage to keep a smile on his face despite not always understanding what is going on around him. I find myself thinking back to something he told me years ago when he had his heart attack and that was he had no fear of passing on because he had lived a life he was proud and satisfied with. That statement does manage to bring some peace to myself and Gord during this tough time. Everyone is really trying to make things comfortable for him and that is to be commended. I can imagine a handful of you reading this are teary-eyed now, so I better leave the topic for now.

So, dinner was very nice, and my sister-in-law Allison from Toronto was down with her two kids and we got a chance to have a good visit. Monday brought the actual holiday and a beautiful day to boot! I have posted a few pics of the day. Gord, Erin and I spent a good chunk of the day outside before heading to Elaine's in Ottawa for dinner. That was a nice afternoon as well - I really didn't have to cook much that weekend!! Dinner was excellent and Erin always enjoys a visit with Aunt Elaine!

The start of the week brought a nice cold into my life, so I have been sick most of the week. I've still got a bit of a cough, but I am on the mend. I worked from home on Thursday so I could get a bit done while taking a rest as well. I was talked into a late lunch with Dee in town though! Liz came out for a visit, so we had good food, good conversation and a nice stroll through town. The weather is a bit more seasonal these days as it has been rainy and much cooler - typical fall days.

Gord was up bright, or should I say dark and early this morning. He had a 6:00am flight out to Denver this morning. Yuck! He called from Detroit (the first leg of the trip) to say hello and to let us know he made it half-way. His flight landed in Denver (flightarrivals.com is a great site to track flights!) a few hours ago. There is a shooting club near the airport that he made plans to visit, so he doesn't lose out on his Sunday skeet shooting!! His boss is in Australia for the week, so Gord went to Denver in his place - not sure if that was the better part of the deal!! So it will be just the girls until Thursday evening when he returns.

We went for a nice long walk this morning. Erin decided she needed to bring a number of teddy bears out for some fresh air!! Of course Minnie decided to join us on the walk. You know, I got thinking as I was walking along - in fact when one of our neighbours stopped to have a chat I mentioned it to her - that no one down our road would be surprised to see us 'walking the goat', but I wonder what looks we would get from people just taking a drive in the country! The 'hillbilly' and 'redneck' comments would be just hilarious!!!

So that brings us up to now. It is going to be a busy week ahead with being both the drop-off and pick-up person for Erin all week. I have to go to Kingston on Tuesday morning, so it will be a whirlwind drop-off that morning. Next weekend we are having some friends, Ray and Elaine, come out for dinner. Ray is an amazing wildlife carver and has recently finished a black duck that I commissioned for Gord. I can't wait to see it! I'll post some pics of it next week.

Until next time.....

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Gord is off shooting and Erin is playing with some of her little princess toys, so I thought I would take some time to post some of the pics from Maine.

The trip to Maine was just great. Even though Erin was sick, we all still managed to have a great time. The town of Freeport is just lovely and the shopping is great. The weather was amazing. It was in the 80's for the entire time and there wasn't a cloud in the sky for the whole trip. The pictures I have posted are outside the 24-hour LL Bean store and a couple of Erin with her prized moose (there are 3 in total she scored while we were there - why isn't the plural of moose 'meese' like it is for goose to geese?!!).

Well a few days have passed since I last checked in and as usual life continues to be busy. I was very happy to see the end of the week. By Friday afternoon I was pretty tired (that'll teach me for being up at 4:00am and posting to the blog!!!).

Erin has decided that she doesn't want to do the group swimming lessons. The place is just packed during her lesson and even I will admit it is absolute pandemonium. They have a new program running and it's just not very organized. So Erin and I will do some solo swims for a while until they get more organized. She is pretty freaked out by the crowds, so we thought it best not to force it.

I managed to get out of work around 2:30 on Friday afternoon, ran a couple of errands, then picked Erin up from daycare a little early. On Saturday I took Erin to see 'Open Season'. That movie was pretty good. I would give that one 8 out of 10.

So it's Sunday morning now and I should get at it. Erin and I have both been a little lazy to start the day. I am not sure what we are going to do today. My sister-in-law thought she might do something for dinner today, but we haven't heard from her, so maybe I'll revert to plan 2 just in case. I know she had a lot on the go this weekend, so it's really no big deal to us. Tomorrow we have plans to head into Ottawa for a visit with Erin's Aunt Elaine. Erin will get to go for a swim in the pool at her apartment. Then I guess the work week starts back up again. At least it's a short week. We don't have too much going on this week, so hopefully it will be uneventful and go quickly. Gord is off to Denver for a few days next Sunday, so it will just be the girls until the following Thursday. I am thinking of seeing if Jo and the kids want to meet us at Saunder's Farm for a Halloween outing. I will take Erin regardless, but it's always more fun to have friends along!!

Anyway, enjoy the pics and until next time...

Sigh... Where did a whole month go?!!!!

Well after several 'gentle' proddings to get the blog updated, here I find myself with some time at 4:25am on the Friday before Thanksgiving weekend. For anyone who knows me, you won't really be surprised I am awake at this time. I have been blessed with the ability to be awakened with the slightest noise. This morning was Erin waking me up to go for a pee and to have a drink. Quite often I can get back to sleep, but not so much luck in that area this morning, so I figured I would take advantage of the time and update the blog!

Well it's a good thing I haven't changed the calendar over to October in the computer room so it can serve as a reminder of everything that has gone on over the past month!!

Erin is now 3-years old! I can still hardly believe it. All of the festvities began on Thursday September 7th. The folks at Erin's daycare got the day mixed up so had a big day of celebration for her on the 7th. We had a chuckle about that, knowing it would go right to Erin's head! When I told her teachers that her birthday was actually on the 8th they felt awful. I explained that Erin would think this was wonderful because it simply means all of the celebrations would go on for days!! On September 8th, North Bay grandpa came down for a visit. We had a nice dinner and a special small birthday cake for Erin and she got to open all of her presents from us. The next day was the 'big' event! The whole gang was pretty much at our place between 2:30 and 3:00pm. The birthday girl was in the middle of a nap though, and slept right through the parade of people to see her new 'big girl' double bed and of course through all of the natural noise a large group of people makes!! She was a bit groggy at first but soon got into her groove and had a great time. I have posted a bunch of birthday pics for everyone to see.

The Sunday was a nice quiet day for us although I think Erin was quite prepared for more celebrations (and certainly more presents and cake!!!). We entertained honourary Aunt Dee for the afternoon as she couldn't make the big party. Dee and I shared a nice bottle of wine while Erin played with a great new bubble-maker in the cool late-summer afternoon.

The week began as normal, but on Wednesday September 13th, Erin came down with a fever. I stayed at home with her for the day and she seemed to be better the next. She had been fighting a cold (she still has a bit of a cough even today), and we kept an eye on her as we were planning a trip to Maine that Friday. Erin was pretty insistant we went to Maine, so we packed some extra cold medicine for her and set off on our big adventure early Friday September 15th to Freeport. What a great trip! The weather was amazing and all of the fall colours were just starting, so the drive was perfect. Freeport itself is a pretty neat spot. Gord got a chance to do some skeet shooting and archery as LL Bean had a big outdoor and hunting show on. We got to see a bunch of beautiful working dogs - poor Sammy would have had a ball there!! The outlet shopping was fantastic and how can you argue with the fact LL Bean is open 24 hours a day!! One morning I was up and showered before Gord and Erin (well, that's usually the case), so I whispered to Gord at about 6:30 am that I was going shopping. So I took the car downtown and went to LL Bean at 6:30am!! Very cool, but surprisingly busy at that time. Erin was pretty sick during the trip, but managed to have a great time anyway.

So back to work on the 19th, and back to daycare for Erin. I was in arbitration on the 20th, which wasn't too exciting and that weel closed out with very little fanfare. It was a pretty relaxing weekend, with a quick trip to Ottawa for some shopping.

The next week was pretty much business as usual as well. I did get a chance to see some of the wonderful folks I used to work with at Nordion and got to see Patricia's little boy Malcolm again! He is 2 1/2 months old now and I swear at least 4 - 6 inches longer than when I saw him last! What a sweetie!! On the 30th, we were at Jo and Chris' for dinner. Erin got a chance to play with the kids, including our friend Shelley's daughter Shyra, so all in all everyone had a great day.

So that brings me up to this week which has simply flown by. I have taken on some additional responsibilities at work so it's been a really busy juggling act for me lately, but it also means the time gets away on me. Erin has decided she doesn't want to do gymnastics this year, so we will take a break from it. She is also a bit freaked out by the sheer number of kids at swimming lessons, so we are looking at some smaller classes for her. It's sometimes hard for us to remember she is only 3. The week has been pretty uneventful and it's now Friday. It is also Thanksgiving weekend, which means a long one!! Allison is coming down this weekend and I think Eleanor is planning a dinner on Sunday. We are going to cook up a turkey on Monday just for the 3 of us to quietly celebrate.

Anyway, I am going to think about getting a shower and heading in to work early today. I have a pile of it to do today, so I might as well beat the crowds and get some stuff done before more comes my way!!

I'll do my best to check in soon with more pics from Maine. Until next time....