I got to go to the Ilderton Fair and see my friends Anna & Grace. I also got see my daycare friends too!

He said

As we mentioned last week, we wrapped up the post early in hopes to catch the Super Blood Moon that was coupled with the lunar eclipse. As luck would have it, the moment we got outside and headed over to the schoolyard which would give us the last tree-obscured view in time to see clouds totally block what little sight lines we had of the moon in its full orange colour. Thankfully friends from down the street were trying to do the same so their girls and Emelia got a rare post bed time play date on the front lawn of the school for a few minutes before collecting our little ladies and heading home for bed.

Now, about an hour after Emelia was in bed, we snuck back out to the street just in time to see the clouds part their ways and reveal the blood moon clear as day in all its red glory. Our next-door neighbours happened to be out then and shared in the wonder and awe with us as well as their binoculars which gave us a much closer view. It was pretty remarkable to see. And I even tried to wake up Emelia to get her to come out and see it but she was having nothing of that. So, Danielle and I spent a good twenty minutes outside staring up in awe of the view.

The rest of the week featured a lot of me at work but with more evenly dispersed closing shifts than I had seen more recently which afforded me a lot more time to connect and be with Danielle and Emelia which was not lost on me. And the best part was I had Friday and Saturday off, with Friday being a PD day for Emelia meaning more time for us to do stuff. I even slipped in a couple trips to the gym which was nice.

One of the things that has kind of come up, out of the blue for us is talk of, and potentially going ahead with buying a second car. Like completely out of no where… but probably about time. One of my soon-to-be Brother-in-law’s friends was looking to sell his not too old, economical and well maintained vehicle as he was moving to a job in Toronto and wasn’t going to be able to afford the insurance and parking for it. Knowing that we’re always trying to juggle getting all of our family everywhere we need to be, Shawn thoughtfully forwarded on to us the info about the vehicle. And given that we’ve held out this long as a one-car family it seems it’s probably finally time to relent and make things a little easier on our schedule juggling. With any luck and barring any more pain-in-the-ass hoops to jump through with the bank, by this time next week, our driveway should be a little more crammed.

With Friday off work, I got to enjoy much of the day with Danielle and the daycare kids as prying Emelia from Mummy’s side was evidently not an option. That wasn’t a huge deal for me as I enjoyed being able to spend time with Danielle too! We got over to the school park and let the kids play, and then I just got to be part of Danielle and Emelia’s daycare day which is something I don’t get to do very often. And I got to see a very determined Emelia work on crafts with the kids and then plan a very large and ornate showcase of the kids work after nap which much to Emelia’s chagrin turned out less than ideal as the attention span of three year olds derailed all her best made plans. As much as it was a great learning opportunity and – to some extent – a ‘we warned you so‘ moment, I can’t lie and say I wasn’t disappointed that little ones weren’t able to reciprocate all the love and thought she put into her craft program she dreamed up on her own.

And for the second Saturday in a row, I was off work and able to be part of the usually family going’s-on which meant seeing Emelia absolutely flourishing at her swim lessons (she’s a sea lion when it comes to her backstroke!) and then watch her come completely out of her shy element at gymnastics. She’s comfortable, fearless and actually quite entertaining to watch. And I amazed and impressed at the strength and muscles she is developing.

The big item on our docket for Saturday was going over to Poppa’s to borrow his HD projector. You see Emelia and I some time ago hashed plans to have a drive-in movie of sorts at our house. With the weather having turned so cold and rainy this weekend we decided rather on focusing on bringing friends over, we would test everything to make sure we had a workable rig. Being that it was super wet – even on the porch – we opted to test out our drive-in movie rig in the basement. And it all was a rousing success. We watched the new, live action version of Cinderella on a bed sheet and we had a happy girl off to bed having just had a drive-in movie experience in her very own house!

After Emelia was to bed and with the drive-in experience not lost on Danielle and I, we watched a few episodes of Friday Night Lights before heading off to bed ourselves. It was pretty fun I have to say and we haven’t yet returned Dad’s projector so I think there might even be more drive-in watching style for us tonight, too! But with all the kinks worked out of the movie-showing side, we’re all set to try and make the real thing happen this Friday with a few of Emelia’s close friends. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to create a pretty memorable and fun experience for our little girl.

Today was back to work with me and I know Emelia & Danielle got up to all sorts of fun on their own. By the time I was done work, I came home to a warm bowl of Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup and some records on the turntable. It was the perfect way to end a near perfect week. With a little bit of drive-in movie style boob tube watching tonight and a cider or two, I can’t think of a better way to close out this week… other than the bank to stop being so ridiculous with all this hoop-jumping we’re having to do just to get a simple loan for this second car. I’ll be happier when all that is resolved and off of our plates!

She said

This week was a busy one for me in daycare land. On Monday I had an unexpected notice from one of my daycare parents. I found out that one of my daycare moms had a change in where her company’s office was going to be located making her commute even more difficult. So as sadly on both sides they had to give a three week notice that their son would have to be leaving my care.

So what this meant was I needed to find a wonderful daycare family and fast. With the new laws now in effect daycare openings are even trickier to navigate. Not only do you want the perfect family that matches your parenting beliefs you now need to figure out what ages the children are now and in the near future to assure that you are still remaining financially viable as a business. The government has made a down right mess of daycare options for parents and have really punished legal businesses.

So I began to advertise, quickly I was contacted by one of our neighbours who had been wanting their little girl in care. But sadly strategy for future openings had to be taken into account. I had a very honest conversation with this family and they were wonderful about everything. They said they would take care when it worked for me. So I advertised but none of the families I spoke to were as wonderful as this family. So on Friday I filled my current opening with a little girl who lives very close to me and I will be living in a sea of girls for the next little while.

The daycare opening really occupied a good part of my week but with the space being filled by the end of the week I could really shift my attention to other things we are dealing with. The big one was trying  to navigate the purchase privately of a second car. After what seems like endless texts back and forth with the seller I am hoping we have everything in order. The pain now is the total nightmare of dealing with our bank. The last few times we have been dealing with anything with our bank it has been a test of our patience. Constant requests and more requests for information, above and beyond anything we have ever had to deal with. Nothing we provide to them is enough, there is more and more they want and it is bordering on insanity. We are still in the middle of the crap with the bank and are really hoping they can get their crap together so we can have everything finalized by the weekend. So who knows where we will be this time next week.

I have been very up front with the seller about the insane hassle we are dealing with, this should be a simple process, John and I have great credit, make a strong income and any debt we are carrying is more than manageable so this should be simple but with TD nothing seems simple.

The one shining liner in this week was that John had Saturday off. Saturdays are our busy days. Emelia has both gymnastics and swim lessons and that is our errand day. It makes the days fly by but it was so nice that John not only got to spend the day with me he also got to see Emelia in her element of gymnastics. The day was busy but great. We spent a ton of time as a family and even ended it with a drive in movie night. Perfect all around!

And then I come to today, today was originally supposed to be a play date with one of my best friends and her daughters but an early morning text changed that when Komal texted me that she was ill and had to reschedule. But within seconds of that text I had one from Susan asking if Emelia wanted a play date with the twins for the morning. Once we brought John to work in the morning I got breakfast made and then brought Emelia over to her best friends house for a couple hour long play date. I took that chance to put a small dent in the to-do list and then picked Emelia up. As we were leaving Susan and Anna mentioned that they were going to the Ilderton Fair. Cue the 10000000 questions asking if we could go.

On our way home Emelia continued to ask if we could go, we honestly had no real plans other than trying to continue to tackle my to do list so we decided to skip that and head to the fair. We had a great time, she went on a ton of rides with the girls. It really was a great afternoon. About an hour after we ended up banging into our friends Norma, Reece and Presley. After the Carter’s left the fair we spent the rest of the afternoon with Norma and her kids. They had an incredible time and it really was an amazing afternoon.

With all that I want to just want to veg for a bit with John so that is all from me this week. Hopefully next week we are posting pics of our newest ‘baby’ sitting in our driveway. If not then fully expect my I hate TD commenting to continue.