We got a new truck that has a DVD player and I love it! We also got a new couch but I wasn’t as happy about getting rid of our old one as Mommy & Daddy were.
He said
This was a huge week for us for new things around the house. Tuesday night, just ahead of the snow we picked up our brand new 2015 Honda Pilot complete with freshly mounted snow tires—a first for this household to have such a forward-thinking winter safety amenity. In the five short days that we’ve had the Pilot I absolutely love it. It is a much more comfortable ride and some very nice features that feel kind of extravagant for us.
I am sure there will be a cardiac event when we refill the tank the first time, as well as we have no hope to get the same sort of fuel economy from it’s 6 cylinders that we did from the 4 cylinder CRV, but I am resigned to the fact that the power we have in this engine outweighs that. I am excited at the notion of getting out on some sort of road trip in it, and while the CRV was good in the winter, in the Pilot with those snow tires, gone is the worry about driving in bad weather. It definitely feels like a safe vehicle. We’ll get to test that out in the next month when Charlie & Todd have their baby and we head down to meet him.
Friday night, Danielle and I fit in a date night out to see our friends Jenn Grant and her husband Daniel Ledwell play the Aeolian Hall here in London. We’ve become very good friends through music and never miss a chance to see them play and just hang out and talk. She’s played our house and Emelia and her have become buds too. The show was her second time playing the hall and it was great to see the audience grow every single time she comes to London. But even better was the chance we got to visit with them backstage before they went on, and then again after the show too.
The sucky part about that was Danielle was knee deep in a cold that she has inherited from any one of the daycare kids that were sporting coughs and runny noses this week. While she didn’t feel the greatest, she was certain than unless she had ebola, she wasn’t going to miss seeing Jenn & Danny. And good thing she didn’t because the show was just fantastic. Her latest album Compostela just might be my favourite album she has made and she played a lot from it.
The other piece of new, news this week is that the new couch that we ordered slightly over a decade ago finally arrived on Saturday. (to be totally honest it was a month, but it has felt like ever) About an hour Danielle had dropped me off at work, I had photos in my iMessage of our new couch and chair in the house in their places. It was surprising that Dad (who was kind enough to stay at the house while Danielle brought Emelia to swim class) didn’t have to sit around the house an entire day only to have it show up in the last 30 minutes of the time window they give you. I think we must have been the first delivery.
At any rate, with the new couch and chair in place, and a sale at Target, the big goal today was to go get some half price throw pillows for the couch. We managed to come home with three cushions we liked, and a knit throw blanket as well as an ottoman that fit wonderful into the look we were going for. The pillows took much consternation in the store, and ultimately when we got them home we decided we’d need two more in a much bolder accent pattern which meant another trip out to the other Target.
I am happy to report we’re that much closer to declaring the room done. The missing pieces as of right now are the coffee and side table as well as the material we ordered, turned into the café style curtains we have planned. If all goes well, it should be all together in time for Christmas. Including our bedroom remodel last year, and Emelia’s rooms withstanding, this is the only time we have ever completely redone a whole room with all the pieces considered. Usually, it is a piece here, another there… and ends up being this 5 year remodel that ultimately spans 4 styles and generally looks modge-podgey. We’re both really happy with how this is turning out.
And having said that, it is time for me to wrap up and go try out the new chair and ottoman and navigate another Sunday evening closeout of the week with Danielle on our new furniture.
She said
This was certainly another busy week but a great one. First big thing was trading our aging CRV for the newer and larger Pilot. After some work back and forth with the dealership we were able to negotiate a price with the extra warranties and added accessories we wanted for the budget we were comfortable taking on. Yes, the monthly payments are more but considering how much more of a vehicle we got we are happy with the new payments.
The new truck drives like a dream, I was concerned with the size of it that it would be hard to get used to but like all of our other Hondas it turns like a dream and is super easy to drive and park. Add in the extra features like the third row of seats if we want to take extra passengers as well as the DVD player for Emelia we have a happy group all around. And as much as we fought the idea of the DVD player I have to say it has been amazing already. John and I can actually have conversations in the car without constant interruption from the back seat. It will be a feature we love with the trips back and forth to Toronto once our nephew is born.
And we got the truck just in time. This week we got our first test of winter and with icy and snowy roads and the truck handled perfectly. It certainly puts my mind at ease if John has driving to do for work down the highway at times.
As the week went on we had our usual weekly activities, gym workouts, ballet for Emelia and one extra special thing for Emelia. Friday was a PD day, this year John and I decided as a treat for Emelia on her PD days instead of being trapped in the house with mommy and the babies we would send her to camps so she could enjoy her day off from school in activities that followed her interests. And this camp of course was gymnastics. This is the second PD camp we have sent Emelia to at her gymnastics club and it is worth every single penny. She absolutely adores it. With little hesitation when daddy dropped her off Emelia met up with a friend she made at the last camp and was off for the day of pure gymnast happiness.
And honestly the timing could not have been better, Thursday evening I started feeling a little crappy. A sore throat, aches and stuffy. By Friday morning the cold the kids had brought in had hit me. I had a terrible headache and felt worse and worse throughout the day. I rarely get sick, I think being around the children all the time has built some sort of super human immune system. As the day went on the worse I felt. We already had plans for the evening so this meant that Emelia was staying with Poppa and Grandma and Doug was picking her up from camp, so the second the last daycare child left I went straight to bed to sleep. Around an hour and half later John was home from work and I was feeling slightly more human. I took some cold medication, a couple aspirins and off we went.
As John said it would have had to been ebola for me not to go out Friday night. I was not missing Jenn perform. Once we got to the Aeolian I pumped in some tea with lots of honey and we enjoyed the show. And what a show! Jenn was incredible. We got a chance to visit with her and Danny before and after the show. All in all it was a great night. Once we got home I took some more medication and went to bed for the night.
The next day came too early but we did have a chance to take it a bit easy as Emelia had her sleepover and John did not have to be at work first thing in the morning. But Saturday was our big delivery so we were up pretty early in anticipation of a delivery time that ranged from 8-1 that day. Shortly after 10 Doug and Emelia arrived and Doug so wonderfully agreed to watch the house in case the furniture arrived when I had to take John to work and Emelia to swim. Shortly after I got Emelia out of the pool after her class I got a text from Doug that the furniture arrived safely.
After 20+ years of living with hand me down, mix match, beaten up furniture we finally have a real grown up pulled together space. Well, almost. We have carefully planned this whole room, we have enjoyed that it is an effort of searching for just the right accent, furniture, accessory, colour combination to make it the room what we picture in our head. It won’t be something you will find in a magazine but it will be perfect to us. It is a room that we have to use for many purposes but for the first time in over 7 years we are putting the room and our family’s needs in consideration first and not the daycare. We still have tons for the daycare children in the room but it is perfectly hidden so our home does not scream daycare as you walk in the front door. It is our home that we share with the daycare children and not the other way around.
So we have to find some finishing touches, we still have not found a coffee table and side table. We still need the perfect mirror to replace the one we have and to change the artwork around. Once the curtains are made and we find these last pieces it will be the room we love and will have for years to come. I have to say I am loving how it is looking so far.
That is it for now, off to enjoy the last hour of our weekend before crashing for the night and taking on another work week.