On Thursday I got to go with Mummy to see a grown-up play in Grand Bend! We saw Anne of Green Gables!

He said

Last week if you asked me what I would be posting about at this time I would have probably told you it would be all about how we love our new (albeit expensive) and equal parts fancy high efficiency washer and dryer. That however got derailed midweek when Danielle got a call from Sears letting us know there was a delay on our washer of all things.

That it was such a pain to find a gas dryer I would have assumed it would have been it that caused any delays. But, low and behold the sale price was so unbelievably low for this pair they sold a lot more than they anticipated. That meant that the Friday delivery we were quoted not got bounced into next week, on Tuesday. The biggest pain in the keister was I am away supporting our Sherway Gardens again this upcoming week. And of course the delivery day is while I am away! Even better, the delivery time is scheduled during the nap hours in the afternoon on Tuesday which makes it extra fun for Danielle!

The better news this week came from the fibreglass repair guy working on fixing Wolfie. Tuesday, Danielle got the call letting us know it was ready and the better part was the cost was on the low end of what was estimated, and it included the bumper spare wheel mount he had from an old Trillium trailer he had worked on. He was very happy with how it worked out, and we made arrangements to go pick up Wolfie next Friday, a full week ahead of when he initially thought he might be done. We’ll definitely use him again!

And if that wasn’t enough great news, our friend Paulette decided she was certain Wednesday afternoon that she could come over and lead us through getting the lilac tree out so that we could have the fence that desperately needs replacing, done. Paulette knew I was at work and the soonest I could get home would be some time after four in the afternoon, but she had the time and the drive to get started without me.

By the time I got home from work, she had – with the help of Danielle – had taken down the tree and was now working on the root ball that I am pretty certain was attached to continental China. With me helping out, and some frosty barley beverages we spent another three hours before we enlisted her husband (and our friend Michael—actually he’s how we met Paulette) and his V-8 Dodge Ram to yank the rootball from the earth with Hemi-assisted power.

So all that was left was gathering up the all the remains of the tree on the boulevard in the futile hopes that the City green collection might randomly show up. When that didn’t happen a simple trailer rental from U-Haul early on Saturday morning, and a little more heavy lifting and that problem was relocated to the city recycling centre along with some other large waste we’d been meaning to get rid of for a couple years.

With that out of the way early, that left us a significant portion of Saturday to be a family. Being that I was hungry to the point of considering eating the rear end of a cow fresh from the cow, I gathered up Danielle and Emelia as I was dropping off the trailer and we went to one of our longtime favourite breakfast/brunch hunts in The Bag Lady Variety. After that, clearly with not near enough caffeine in me, we topped up at Locomotive Espresson and then were about the rest of our day which was basically go at a slow pace as both Danielle and Emelia were feeling some effects of some sort of bug that left them both overwhelmingly worn out.

Danielle and I – earlier in the day – agreed that a homemade nacho night was in order so we spent a bit of the afternoon finding the right ingredients and then returned home in time to start making the feast. And is usually the case with nacho night, we made way too much and spent the rest of the night trying to ware off the bloat. We managed that on the couch catching up on some of the new season of Orange is the New Black.

Today, I was at work bright and early and breezed through the day. Danielle and Emelia on the other hand were at the house most of the day still trying to shake off the sluggish, tired, and cruddy feeling they were both knee deep in. But the time I was ready to go home, it was pretty evident that we were going to enjoy dinner, take it very easy and get to bed at a very reasonable hour.

That is perfectly fine by me as tomorrow I am back at work and then it’s three days back down in Toronto to our Sherway store to once again support that store so they can get some much-needed planning time together. With that said, and that I am actually just wrapping up my piece of our week, here at 7:35pm, that is more than enough from the likes of me. Time to turn the keyboard over to Danielle so she can be done early too and off to bed before her early curfew.

Here’s to hoping next week’s post is focused around fancy new laundry machines and how smooth and efficient the delivery guys and gas hookup was. And having Wolfie back so we can start to prep her for our one-week outing at Bon Echo Park!

Pretty great to think in thirteen sleeps we’ll be hitching up Wolfie and heading out for a week around campfires!

She said

This weekend ended up being both a busy and a productive week.

Our hope that this weekend we would have our washer and dryer in place. But, that didn’t happen as John mentioned. We were however, able to get a good start on some other much-needed bigger jobs in preparation for some other even bigger projects in the coming few weeks.

There are some bigger outside work we are getting done over the next few weeks that have been projects that have been put on the back burner far too long.

The front steps and front fence are long past the time they should have been replaced. But to prepare for the the fence we need to take out the lilac from the front garden.

To take the fence out we need to assure that the tree was out—this was not an easy task. We had started looking around to have someone take it out and our good friend Paulette contacted me and said that we could certainly take it out ourselves. The biggest waiting game we had to take the tree out was the robin’s nest that had taken home in our tree. By Monday the birds had flown away for the last time and we could move towards taking the tree out.

Wednesday Paulette and I had messaged back and forth and we were able to decide later in the day we could get together and start taking the tree out. Paulette arrived shortly after the children went down for nap so she and I could start tackling the tree. Paulette went at the tree like a champion and I hauled it away. Within an hour most of the tree was down and I had to move inside to take care of the children. The kids were ‘assisting’ us for a bit and I was able to help out a bit more.

Shortly later John said he was on his way home and he could take over helping Paulette while I went to the school to pick up Emelia and get the children out of harms way while they tackled the root of the tree. About 40 minutes later I returned and we knew that we would need the heavy duty help of Michael’s V8 truck to pull the massive root out. But in short order they pulled it out and we were able to tackle now moving everything to the curb. Needless to say it was an exhausting evening but we had the 15 foot tree out once and for all.

Thursday was a much quieter day on the home renovation front but it was an exciting night for Emelia and I. Last week a friend of mine had contacted me asking if I was interested in tickets to see Anne of Green Gables at the Huron Country Playhouse. A childhood favourite of my sister and mine growing up I could not wait to bring Emelia to see the show. And what a show. It was amazing and Emelia loved soooo much. It really was a great night for just Emelia and I. I know it will be a night she and I won’t forget any time soon.

Before we knew it the weekend was here and we got to enjoy one day together as a family. John took on the huge job of taking the chopped up tree to the green pick up as well as a trip with some overdue old construction material out. I got some extra sleep and we took the day at a pretty quiet pace. Emelia wasn’t feeling 100%, nothing big just not 100% but at the day went on she came around and we got a few things done together as a family.

Today Emelia woke to a slightly more wonky stomach and I was feeling pretty worn out so after bringing John to work and getting our groceries done Emelia and I happily came home, got in our comfy clothes and snuggled under blankets together to watch a few movies. By the early afternoon she was feeling better and we could finish out some our of other errands, a few we cannot mention as they are related to Father’s Day but in the end we had a quiet slow paced weekend which is what I think we both really needed.

The weekend is about to wrap up and it is going to be a very busy week ahead. But I am fully on the countdown. Our baby girl is done grade 2 in 9 school days but what that also means is that in less than 2 weeks we will be sitting around the campfire with our friends at Bon Echo and we cannot wait!