This week I had my first cross country race and I got 5th in a race with over 10o kids!

He said

Where last week saw me work straight through the weekend, this weekend gave me today and tomorrow off which was welcome news as all of us around here were missing time with each other to connect and just be a family. There was nothing this week that I was looking forward to more than spending this morning in bed with Danielle and not having to get up for anything much less get out of bed. It has been a long time since Danielle and I have had that luxury together and I was definitely feeling it missing from my repertoire. Knowing that I had the ability to do that this morning was almost as recharging as the actual act of doing just that.

Tuesday at work this week, I got a text message from Danielle just ahead of my dinner break that Emelia had finished 5th in her first cross country meet of the year. Last year in the same race she finished 29th. This year the field she was up against was over 100 other kids and as far as we gather the next closest kid from her school was 15th. She was very proud of her better result this year but had immediately shifted her focus to the second meet of the year, on Thursday. She also was thinking about the bigger qualifier this upcoming week that if she finishes 14th or lower, she qualifies for the area finals like she did last year. Her ultimate goal is to finish better than last year, and her big goal is to crack the top ten. It’s so great to see her with the drive and confidence she has to make these goals. She definitely has her mother’s genes when it comes to running!

Having seen the forecast for the week, we weren’t confident that the meet on Thursday as we were projected to see as much as 20mm of rain! When Thursday morning arrived it was clear to us this would be the reality and pretty much after Emelia arrived at school, we got the email that the meet was cancelled.  After school she was going through a few of the stages of grief over the cancelled race—most notably blaming Danielle as though her warning of the weather was somehow the reason it was kiboshed. Clearly we had a disappointed girl who really wanted to run. The good news is, she’ll have the opportunity to run again this week with the big qualifier going on Tuesday.

The rest of the week was a bit of a blur of me at work and work being very busy and then a trip to our Conestoga store in Waterloo on Friday. I wrapped up the week with an 8-5 shift Saturday and then, right after work we were over to our friends’ Komal & Matt’s for dinner with them while our girls played together. Danielle met Komal in a Mommy & Me group when Emelia was first born and they’ve been great friends ever since. Her daughter Dhyia (and now Simyia) and Emelia are thick as thieves and we really like their parents too. We had a great dinner while the girls played and we got to visit and have more grown up conversations and even a grown up beverage or two.

The girls requested the Emelia stay over for a sleepover and Emelia was over the moon to have her second sleepover in as many nights! Friday night Danielle got a message from one of her old daycare families that their oldest daughter who’s very close to Emelia in age and thinks the world of her, wanted Emelia to come over for a sleepover. So, as soon as she was done gymnastics Friday night we dropped her off for an night of fun with Addison and Danielle and I had a nice quiet evening at home. Then Saturday after dinner, and a good long, laugh-filled visit with Matt and Komal we left Emelia for her second night of sleeping over at a friends. And Danielle and I got to enjoy another quiet night together.

That brought us to the glorious morning spent in bed, not getting up and out of bed until we damn-well wanted to this morning. I think we both managed sleeping in till almost 9:30am which is a record for us lately. We got up had our coffee and then after some coach potato time, eventually made some bacon and eggs and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the house and not having to entertain a 9 yr old who bores easily. The morning got even more milked when we got a message from Komal that the girls were having such fun together she wanted to know if Emelia could stay even longer. She didn’t have to ask us twice.

Eventually we were all reunited as a family and spent the rest of the day being lazy and doing only what we needed to. As I type this Danielle and Emelia are upstairs turning the home reno shows we’ve been watching all day into inspiration for some sort of mini makeover of Emelia’s room. And the house smells of the roast beef dinner that is about to be consumed. The windows are all open and the air has a definite flavour of fall in it. As far as Sundays go, this is a pretty damned fine example of how to do one. Tomorrow is another day off for me and then in the evening we’re down to Toronto to see one of my all-time bucket list bands Sigur Rós play an intimate show in Massey Hall. And then next week – on another Sunday off no less – the Teeter family should all be together to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. I can think of no things better to have in an upcoming week: music, family, food and time off to enjoy it. What a perfect way to end off a week—with another great one cued up!!

She said

This week was our first real week back in the full swing of fall activities. Not only had we returned to Emelia’s swim class, gymnastics, reading tutoring we added in art and volleyball through spectrum at her school on Tuesdays. She is loving all the new activities and we are loving how active she loves to be. As John mentioned Emelia had her big first cross country race of the season. She is loving running which of course I love. She is a much better distance runner than I was at her age since I was more of a sprinter through grade school and high school. As an adult I have started distance running so it is something I really love doing with her to keep us both active.

Emelia was so excited about her first race and even more excited that she placed so much higher than last year but even more so that she was the fastest runner from her school. She told me the next day it was quite a big deal around her grade that she placed so high. As happy as she was about Tuesdays race she was devastated that the Thursday race was cancelled because of the high amount of rain in the forecast. This week she has another race at a park only about a 15 minute walk from our house so I am hoping to make it to see her compete in the qualifier. The daycare kids are pretty excited that they get to cheer on their ‘Ya-Ya’.

Before we knew it Friday was here and we were settling into the idea that we would be having a relatively uneventful evening. We had Emelia’s gymnastics training and were going to get a couple errands done while she was there. Well just as I was about to wrap up my work day I got a text from my now former client asking if Emelia would like a sleepover that their oldest was begging for some time together. The girls grew up together and only a year apart were as close as sisters while Addison was in daycare. Emelia and Addison have stayed very close since and with Addison’s younger brother and sister also being in daycare after her we have had a great relationship with their whole family and we have stayed close. Emelia was over the moon at the invite and the evening plans got shifted to Emelia going to their place for a sleepover after her gymnastics training. John and I came home after and settled in for a movie night together and a couple grown up drinks and then to bed since John had to work bright and early the next day.

The next day I was up pretty early getting things done around the house before Emelia got home. Once she was home we got her things together to go to the gym for her swim class. The class went like planned, she had a great time and then we came out of the gym and went to leave. We drove out of the gym and went straight to my friend Komal’s place. It was there that I realized something was not right – someone while we were at the gym had hit our car mirror on the passenger side so hard that they had taken it clear off the truck. I was in shock, not only that someone could hit our car that hard but worse that they clearly left quickly not leaving a note to take ownership. We drove back to the gym immediately at this time with Komal and her daughters so see if we could find our mirror with the hope it could be repaired. No luck, whoever hit it took the mirror with them. I went into the gym to let them know and to see if they had cameras on the parking lot. They do have cameras but unfortunately the only person who can see the cameras was the branch manager who was unavailable until Monday. What is sadder is that no one had come in taking ownership of the damage to seek out payment for doing damage clearly to our truck. There is no way they didn’t know they hit our truck, not only because of the force they would have hit the truck at but also that the mirror was taken away. I will chat with the gym on Monday and see what resolve I can come to if any. I have ordered the replacement part and the truck will be repaired this week. Could have found a million different ways to spend that $300+ but we have no choice.

The day was not for a loss, I refuse to let someone that selfish ruin the fun we had planned for the day. Komal, her girls and Emelia and I had planned on going on our annual fall trip to Apple Land. We have been taking the girls each year since they were little and we love taking them each year. This year we could not have asked for better weather. They were forecasting rain so it meant that the orchard was not overly busy. The weather held off but was a perfect mildly crisp fall day. The sun peaked out often and it was just perfect enough for a light coat. In the past we have dealt with heat, rain, insane bees but not this year. The girls loved running around the sand mountain, the corn maze and running through the orchard picking a wide variety of apples. All in all we had an incredible time.

As the afternoon was wrapping up Komal invited our family over for dinner and a sleepover for Emelia. Before I even had a chance to respond the three girls were jumping and begging for me to say yes. How could I say no? So off we went to the Walmart on the way to Komal and Matt’s place to get Emelia some pjs, underwear and socks (all were on the list of things we needed to get her this month anyway). We made our way back to the Glavin’s and John joined us shortly after. The girls had a blast playing together and the adults had a great time catching up over a glass or two of wine. When we finally left for the night the girls were still giggling and still full of beans.

Today we had a great and relaxing morning. We don’t get these mornings often, so we took the morning at a very lazy pace and then moved into getting some cleaning done. We spent the day doing some work around the house until Emelia got home around noon. She wasn’t home even an hour and you could tell the two nights of sleepovers had really caught up with her. Without any real promoting she put herself down for an afternoon nap and slept for over an hour. She woke feeling a million times better. By the time Emelia was up and ready to go we were ready to get a few things done outside the house. We again took it at a lazy pace and then came home to start dinner, I put a roast in the pressure cooker and then Emelia wanted to take on doing a big purge and clean up of her room. We spent the next two hours going through every storage bin, every shelf and her closet and did a big purge. In the end we had a massive bag for garbage, two bags for donation and a happier girl because she has what she loves in her room and not all the mess and clutter.

We now have a tired girl in bed resting up for a busy week ahead, I am going to sign off so John and I can enjoy a glass of wine and the rest of our Sunday night together.