I had my first week back at swim classes at the Y and I was very happy to be back! I also have my first Sparks meeting this week, and I get to have a sleepover at Poppa and Grandma’s!

He said

So we finally have the dates confirmed for when I am going away for Genius training. October 14th to November 1st has been confirmed. The location, however, is still up in the air. I am told I will find out as the itinerary documents start to arrive. So far I’ve gotten confirmation in the class, as well as the pre-travel arrangements email, but nothing that indicates where I am going. I am still crossing my fingers for Cupertino, but will be happy with any of the locations as in addition to Atlanta, apparently Austin, Texas is also an option.

It will be fun, but it will also be a long time away from Danielle and Emelia. My initial start with Apple had me in three weeks of training as well, but I was able to then, get home on weekends in between. FaceTime will definitely be a huge help in shortening the distance, but as with anything new and exciting, it doesn’t seem quite as real with Emelia and Danielle there to share in it. I am sure though, the three weeks will fly by with all the learning I will be doing.

As I mentioned last week, with that training starting on the Thanksgiving weekend we pretty much concluded that we were going to lose our last trip in Wolfie. However, since Danielle has still decided to shut the daycare down on the Friday, I have decided that we can and will still have a last campout in Wolfie that weekend – even if it has to take place in our driveway.

The roadwork that has been ongoing since July that quite frankly I am flabbergasted this is the first time it has been mentioned on the blog, looks to be finally getting close to completion. All the water lines are in the process of being replaced on the street, and that was the main reason for our road being torn up for the better part of two months. We’ve been living in a construction zone for that entire time and it couldn’t be done soon enough — Danielle the most immediately in that train of thought.

As much as Emelia and daycare kids get a real kick out of having a dirt bike track for a road, and having diggers, bulldozers and cranes run up and down it all day, we grownups have grown tired of having to find spots to park down the street and around the corner. It was a real pain on Friday morning when I had to call my brother Greg over to help me carry our television (which needed a repair) back from the side street where I had to park the car because our street had cranes blocking us from driving down.

I think we will have a bottle of wine to toast the night the construction finally wraps up!

As for Emelia, we are so very happy to see her just thriving and enjoying Grade 1. She has managed being in school all day, every day reasonably well. And she seems to be enjoying every aspect of the more structured learning she is doing. The only hiccup we’re dealing with right now is that by the end of her day, when Danielle picks her up with the other daycare kids, she can be more than a little rambunctious. It’s to be expected as she adjusts to the demands of learning all day long, but we’re also working curtailing it too.

This week is a very big week. Tuesday I am getting out on the ice for the first game of hockey for the fall. Thursday night as soon as I am done work, we’re sneaking down to Guelph to see our musician friends Jim Bryson and Jenn Grant (and her husband Dan Ledwell) play, while Emelia has her first meeting of Sparks and sleepover at Poppa & Grandma’s. Then my usual Friday morning fall/winter hockey starts the next day, as well as we launch a completely brand new line of iPhones at the store. And then, Saturday we see our old friend Monica and her boyfriend Patrick back from Ireland for a visit. So, it should be a pretty fantastic week.

With all that on the go, I am going to grab a glass of vino and sit down with Danielle to this week’s episode of Breaking Bad! Going to enjoy the slow, before it gets back to fast.

She said

As I type this John is getting Emelia settled in for the night after enjoying a very quiet and low key day. A rare event in this house with John’s weekends often opposite of ours.

This week was a long and interesting one. First was Monday with a sudden spike of the temperatures to what had to be record highs. We had started pulling out Emelia’s fall clothes because the weather had started turning cooler the week prior just to see the high temperatures so high that they had a heat advisory out for Monday and Tuesday. We had to keep our plays outside shorter and only in the morning to keep the kids cool. Not an easy task with high energy babies and toddlers. But the big distraction of the construction trucks make hiding on the porch for shade a bit easier for the bigger kids.

Once the heat finally broke on Wednesday we were back to seasonal temperatures, the AC could come off later in the week and back to windows opened. By Friday we had a colder snap come through and we thought within a week we were going to have to go from AC to heat. But the temps came up a bit in the day to keep the heat at bay.

The biggest headache the last few weeks has easily been the construction as John has mentioned. Getting back and forth to school with Emelia daily with 5 children ranging in age from 12 months to 3 years is well interesting. Each day the game is how are we going to dodge the trucks, massive holes everywhere from the pile replacement or the mounds of gravel or dirt piled everywhere. I know the construction is a first world problem complaint, considering the reason we have had our street torn apart since July is due to new pipes and sewer lines that needed to be replaced to replace the original pipes laid what seems like 100 years ago which were all lead. Not good. So in the end we will have healthier water coming into the house for our use. A headache to deal with but a worthwhile headache.

The biggest pain in the ass about the construction is honestly the asshats who are ignoring all the signed, pylons and construction trucks that are blocking areas around the construction to keep people off the newly laid concrete pad on the corner as well as the fact that our road is a mess. I have honestly lost count how many people have either run right over or gotten out of their cars, moved the pylons so they can drive down the road instead of going the whole one block west or east to move around our street. I know construction is a pain, but the people on the street are taking it in stride you would like the people who don’t even live on the street could do.

The big change this week in the construction front will be the plumber coming to the house to replace the lead lines from the property line to the house, yes another expense but needed considering what it would do to our property value if we ignored the last bit of lead connecting to the house. Considering how much we have paid to replace all the lead pipes in the house to safe options we need to get this last step done. Especially considering we not only have Emelia in this house but the needs of 5 other children.

I will be glad when this is done, glad when we have our street back, back to normal with a safe and quiet option to get out with the children. They have loved the constant activity but I will be happy when the only thing driving down our street is our neighbour’s cars.