The countdown is on until I start University!

He said

Well, after a couple of busy weeks where we didn’t really have a moment to just sit and be lazy, we’ve landed at our second week of vacation, happily. The last few weeks have been focused on using pretty much any spare second to work on getting Emelia’s basement suite finished. And, last weekend there was also her season-ending softball tournament. So the last few weeks have been a real blur, but the light at the end of the tunnel was this week off that came up ever so quick. And given the tedious nature of the reno finish work (trim, paint, caulk, paint again, etc) and how none of it is really fast work, this week couldn’t have come at a better time! But the pay off for all the work is how happy Emelia is with her space and how it really feels like she has a place of her own, as she starts university life.

As soon as I was done work yesterday Danielle & I loaded the Jeep and made our way up to the trailer. By 8:00pm I was building a fire and we were having our supper by the fire pit to begin our week of unwinding. We got to just sit and enjoy the maybe-too-big (and hot) fire and talk in what felt like the first moment in weeks where there wasn’t a thing we had to get done. The only call for this week is to just to spend time together, ride bikes and not have an agenda. But, the best news came in the form of a message from Emelia that she and her bestie Bri are coming up to spend a couple of days with us at the trailer. Both girls start King’s in a couple of weeks and are starting experience the realization of how it real it is feeling so this will be good for them. And us.

Today, in a shock to my system I was actually able to sleep past 10:00am this morning which is likely my body’s response to all the 5:00 am alarms for before-work bike rides the past few weeks. It felt great to have such a lazy start to the morning before Danielle & I got out for a bike ride on the G2G. It was my first ride on true gravel after getting my new Cannondale bike last week. While it was windier than we would have liked it certainly was still a great ride. They have finally finished the trail section over the culvert on Sandhill Line and it was a pleasure to have a nice flat section to ride over as opposed to the sketchy rickety (and temporary) scaffolding bridge they had there for years. They had condemned it last year and as a temporary measure the bypass was on a farmer’s lane to divert around the culvert. At, any rate the section is reopened, is safe, and most importantly, accessible!

So as I sit and type this the fire pit is in my peripheral, and the agenda is very much like today for the next five days. Friday we pick up and head to my last bike race of the season the Eager Beaver at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. There will be no alarm clocks this week. No renovation projects to focus every spare minute on. And, the only agenda items are to: 1) relax, and 2) enjoy. But, the thing I know both Danielle & I are looking forward to is spending time with Emelia and Brie. It will be her first time she has been up at the trailer with us in over a year. She’s a busy girl with lots of things to do, but we’re glad she finally has time to get up here and slow down too.

She said

This past week was a bit of quieter one for us, John and I did some minor last minute things on Emelia’s new bedroom so much that other than some small painting touch ups and getting some pictures hung her room is finally done. The whole process took longer than we thought it would have but it honestly turned out way better than we could have imagined. Emelia is loving it and we did get a bit of that dorm room shopping that university students get but with the comfort and cost staving of staying home. We did ask Emelia a few times if she has any regrets or wished she had opted to live in residence and she has firmly said no she has zero regrets. She found it to be a waste of money and knows she will make lots of friends at school and get the best of both worlds. We have promised her that we will let her live her life and be a true university student and she’s pretty happy about that. The funny thing is with Emelia is how chill she has been about starting university. I don’t know if things have really sunk in for her that she starts university in 2 weeks, or that her O-Week is just over a week and a half away. I don’t think it will really be real until she starts her O-week.

The next steps for John and I now that Emelia is done her room is to shift focus on dealing with the dumping ground that is Emelia’s old bedroom. We did a bit of the that on Friday. We have been very fortunate that we have been able to get a new double bed off our neighbourhood buy-nothing group, we brought that home and then quickly focused on purging things in Emelia’s room using the same group. Within a day we had managed to give away a bunch of tools and small furniture to new homes and clear out a bunch of space. We still have a lot to purge out of there and once that is done we can clear the space, do a deep clean, repaint and start converting the room to a guest room once and for all. The whole process of moving the rooms in the house and redecorating, along with some renovations has taken a lot longer than we thought but we are getting a lot closer to the end of this journey.

With all that work done John and I can relax and enjoy this week off together, and even better is that Emelia asked if she could come up for a couple days and bring her best friend Bri. We are of course so happy to have the girls up and spend a few nights under the stars with two of our favourite teenagers. Emelia and Bri are so close and even more excited that they are off to university together and have classes together in their first year. Bri’s mom and I chat often about how lucky our girls have each other in this new stage of their lives. And we could not agree more!

Going to sign off now to enjoy the campfire with John and start relaxing for the next week! Peace out – until next week…