I started all my new activities this week except Gymnastics. Tuesday I had Ballet. Thursday I had Kids Adventure. And Saturday I had Swim Class!
He said
After the refreshing weekend away last weekend we fell right back into the regular high-paced world of life around the TeeterPod. I was back at work Monday morning bright and early at 7:00am for a split shift so that we could have a manager meeting in the morning, and then I was back in from 4:00 to 7:00pm to finish out the day. That was the start of a seven-day stint at work that ended this morning with another short shift for our big team meeting.
The week was a blur that included me down at our store in Burlington on Wednesday to support their team for the day so that their leadership team could have their team meeting. The seven day stretch was over before I could even recognize—mostly because we announced a bunch of very exciting stuff. On Tuesday we announced the brand new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as introduced a completely new product line for us in the Apple Watch. The former products will be launched this coming Friday (19th) and the latter will be available some time in the Spring of next year.
There was a lot of excitement about both products and it should make both launches very busy days for us going forward. I have never been part of the launch of a completely new product line and I am beyond ecstatic to have that opportunity now. I was at the Grand Opening of the first Canadian Apple Store at Yorkdale Mall as a fan. Now, it’s come full circle and I get to be part of the launch of something brand new for Apple. I am beyond excited for this!
Amidst all that Danielle has been working on with renegotiating our mortgage to consolidate our reno LOC and current debt load into one easy payment, it’s become apparent that we need to get the house value reassessed as the last time it was done was before we purchased it, and since then we have replaced the kitchen, the upstairs bathroom, added a bathroom in the basement and finished the basement as well. We came close to doubling our finished living space in the time we have been in the house. It is definitely time to have the property revalued.
This means we have now be refocused on finishing up the little projects we have had nagging away at us. One of them—the office where I am sitting, typing away this post—is a project I have gotten back on the wagon with finishing. A couple of weeks ago I made the executive decision to finish out the end wall in tongue & groove pine board like I had done on the roofline and side after we had a friend Vince come do some plaster repair. And today I finally (with the help of Danielle) got the coats of whitewash stain I got from Ikea on the wood.
The only thing left to do now is to figure out a way to creatively hide the wiring from the under-mount lighting I have on the shelves above my desk. I think I am going to use some galvanized conduit to give it a bit of an industrial look. After that, we will only need to paint the ceiling. Finally this room will be finished—a project that started 8 years ago when we were working on the bathroom and managed to crack and knock off big chunks of plaster on the adjoining wall. It will feel good to finally done something… completely!
As for Emelia this week… We had a couple monumental tantrums this weekend but the good news is, we seemed to have made a bit of a breakthrough in navigating them. Danielle had been recommended a book called The Whole Brained Child as a great resource in dealing with the emotions and development. We managed to track down the audio book version of it at the library and dove into last weekend on our way back from camping. There was definitely some illuminating theories and methods to help us deal with her rationale as well as help us to speak and connect with her in a way more conducive to coming to a common ground. It’s been a huge help and we’re only a couple of chapters in.
This week will be another busy one at work, as well as for Emelia & Danielle. We’re obviously getting ready to introduce the new phones, but Emelia also has activities two of the week nights this week. Plus, next Saturday is the start of her much beloved gymnastics class. This time next week we’ll be over the hurdle of the launch and Emelia will be into chapter one of her life as a gymnast. Exciting times indeed!
She said
This week was beyond busy. John had a 7 day stretch and I was navigating some post mommy and daddy being away emotions with Emelia. She was having a hard time emotionally this week, first day back at school we got a call from the school around noon hour that Emelia was complaining about a stomach ache. John was half way through a split shift so he was able to quickly go across the street to pick Emelia up. Emelia quickly changed into her pjs and went to our room to relax and watch cartoons. Within about an hour after resting for a bit she was all better. We knew this was a tell tale sign that she was an overtired little girl. That evening I did my best to get her to bed a bit earlier and gave her lot of extra snuggles as she finally admitted she had a hard time at school because she was really missing mommy and daddy.
That was the theme for much of the week. Her patience for the daycare children needing my attention when she was around was wearing thin, she was much more emotionally needy than normal and again on Wednesday she had a hard time going into her class. Thanks to her amazing social science teacher she was able to guide Emelia gently to class and I promised her that I would come to give her a special treat of a lunch at home with me and the kids. It was a bit of a gong show with having a bunch of toddlers and babies off their nap schedule and Emelia quickly realized that the reason she did not come home for lunch had nothing to do with mommy not wanting her home but that the babies needed their sleep. She agreed to go back earlier so I could get the little ones to sleep and she and I made a point of spending some quiet time together that night.
In the midst of this week she started 3 of the 4 activities we have her signed up for fall. Now before it sounds like we are becoming those insane over scheduling parents there is a method to this madness. Emelia comes with me to the gym a couple evenings a week so I can keep myself healthy and work out. In the past we had brought her to the drop in activity program. Well this year our YMCA had added a ton of new activities as part of our membership and we thought what a better way to give Emelia some more fun structure in some of the areas she was very interested in, while at the same time I could still get in my workouts a few days a week.
So Tuesday she started her ballet at the Y and she just loved it, Thursday was her Kids Adventure program which is a program that has rock climbing, rope climbing, beam work and generally a climbing obsessed child’s dream. The program is amazing because it not only builds her confidence they need to work as a team with other children to give guidance in things like the rock wall climbing so they build their team building skills as well. Saturday she was back in the pool for her level 5 swim instruction and then we made the mad dash to get John to work and rush off to gymnastics. Well the rush was for nothing as there was a change in the scheduling I was not aware of and her classes start next Saturday instead. Needless to say she was less than happy with this and made me well aware how unhappy she was.
So with that disappointment we had to take on the much needed seasonal switch over in clothes. A mountainous task all on its own. Assessing what does or doesn’t fit for this year, packing the summer clothes away (close by just in case we have a freak warm up) and unpacking her fall/winter clothes. She is in great shape for clothes, it is just shoes and boots we are going to have to figure out pretty soon as she grew every which way this year.
In the middle of all this, I had the financial world to navigate. We have been working with our mortgage company to hopefully fold in some debt from renovations into the mortgage to make our day to day life a bit easier financially. Well with that is collecting an insane amount of paperwork, add in being self employed you must also add in even that much more. I hope I have all that they need to get the last of things moving. The last big hurdle is the home assessment for value to assure we have the equity we require. That alone has been stressful, nothing like having to rush through all the projects you have not had time to finish with a family schedule as wonky as ours can be at times. Needless to say not everything on our ‘honey do list’ will get done before the assessment will be done but we will do our best. Hopefully by this time next week we have the final answers and we can finally have that financial cushion everyone likes to have in their life.
On that note, this week has done me in, I am going to grab a tea and watch some TV with John. Until next week.