Rosalind the Squeemish - Carolina the Brave

Well it is Rosalind who wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Truly she does. She loves all manner of animals and critteres . However when the great snail roundup began, it was her sister Carolina who was pressed into actually picking up the little slimy things and putting them into their cages. And so it is with worms, spiders and other buggy type things Rosalind encounters.





So on Sunday when we decided to go to Waterloo Park with the dual purpose of letting Chris show the girls the construction work at the Perimeter Institute and also see the animals, we encountered a toad on the path. Rosalind wouldnt go very close and didn't even want to poke it with a stick to see if it was alive , dead or terrified. Carolina on the other hand didn't hesitate - picked it up and examined it closely before finally freeing it back towards the woods. Rosalind does have a love of and a tender heart for all creatures but I suspect her career as a veterinarian may be somewhat restricted unless she can coax her little sister Carolina to be her professional assistant !!!

SOLD

SOLD .... well its a done deal.... they are moving .... mid July. House has been found and negotiations finalized in Hamilton. Really nice house in very nice neighbourhood ......in Hamilton ( sigh ). There is some work that Erik will be getting done asap but its a most charming house and its to be their new home mid July. I suspect there will be a lot of traffic back and forth between Kitchener and Hamilton as certain little girls miss each other and require play dates and sleep overs.

Moving Away, A New Stage for All of Us ....

Sigh ..................Well , eldest son Erik has a job in Hamilton that has been going well and he and Lisa are now committed to the move to that town and to ending the commute , important especially considering the lengths and times of the shifts he works. The house was listed last week and we've had the past weekend, open houses, both Saturday and Sunday ( while we were up north having our romantic weekend and all that previously talked about non- romantic stuff, one of my colleques at Coldwell Banker was handling the open houses for me) and with an agents open house Tuesday and a couple of agent showings, last night brought us an offer !!! Conditions to be waived this coming Friday May 28th so hopefully all will go well and they can start to focus on the other end of the transaction - the buying of the new home in Hamilton. I am excited for them !! We will miss them terribly - its funny , how used you get to the little things people do for you .... and its been like that with Erik and Lisa . We've been so fortunate in being able to see them and ( ok, lets face it, ESPECIALLY) Jillian virtually every day , they've been there for us doing favours , and so have we returned favours ...I think both thinking the other is doing more in that regard.

Hamilton is not the end of the earth but it makes for a more deliberate and scheduled get-together - less spur of the moment - kind of relationship. If this deal does go through and we hope it does for them , then the close date is July 16th ...not very far off and a whole new chapter for us all !!! Seems like they just got here - its been almost exactly 4 years - hard to believe.

Great New Friends - Great Old Friends

When Rosalind was 4 and in JK one of her first good friends was Emilyn. They were in the JK, SK and Grade 1 at Suddaby PS together and loved spending time with each other. For a bit of that time the before and after school care was at the same place as well which just enhanced the bond. When we moved Rosalind and Carolina ( who was to start in JK ) the year Rosalind was going into Grade 2 , it became hard to keep the connection. We have tried with occasional ( very occasional ) playdates and birthdays to keep Emilyn and Rosalind connected and to help keep that friendship alive .

Carolina, now in SK, rolled into the new school with Jillian at her side and the two have pretty much stuck it out together either the best of friends or worst of enemies. Over the past month, we have heard a new name over and over - Maya. Apparently a brand new student at school, in Grade 1, as she comes from England where there is no JK/SK split and so is the same age as Carolina. Maya is a very sweet, darling little child and seems to be a great match for Carolina.


There is great hugging and kissing and just general cozying up at the beginning of the day as they greet each other and sighs and hugs at the end of the day when its time to go home. Maya is really Carolina's first best friend. She has gotten along well with all the kids in her class but there has been no deep close friendship bloom. A high point for Carolina was being invited to Maya's parents house- warming party. The parents allowed each of their kids a friend to the party and Maya asked Carolina. The two played very well and Carolina still talks about it. For Carolina's birthday I kept trying to get to the essence of what she wanted for her birthday and finally she told me she wanted Maya over for a playdate. This from the girl with the big party last year who just glowed as all her class sang Happy Birthday to her !!! So Saturday, we collect Maya and go to Build A Bear where they can each pick a stuffie and make it , give it a heart, a name , an outfit and come back to our place to have a tea party with their new stuffies.


Rosalind will have her play date with Emilyn Saturday including any part of the tea party they want to join in with the 'little girls' ( as Rosalind is so fond of calling Carolina, Jillian and their friends ).


Its so neat to see your childrens friendships grow and develop. Its also hard to see those friendships tested by individual personalities and charactor traits of the players !! It is part of growing up but hard to watch and offer advice from the sidelines, letting your children make their choices handling these new situations. We seem to have seen a bit of both the thrill of the new friendship and the challenge of the other in the past few weeks .....

Oh NO !! Not MORE Wiggly Teeth !!

I think this tooth thing is getting out of hand. We have two little girls Rosalind and Carolina, each with one wiggly tooth. I feel for the tooth fairy ...

Oh OH Oh ... Rosalind's tooth just came out ...poor Tooth Fairy ...and rumour has it Jillian also has a loose tooth and Carolina's other front tooth is starting to blow in the wind making eating apples and other firm things even tougher !! . I haven't quite figured out how the tooth fairy stays afloat financially as it were ... Boy, those teeny tiny teeth must be worth some serious coin on the fairy tooth market !!

I know I don't understand the delicate balances of the financial world but I suspect the fairy world must be even more complicated - you don't suppose there's a course I could take, do you ...say evenings at Conestoga College ???

My Mazda Tribute - The Phoenix Rises Again

Well it looks as if I'll be getting my baby SUV back !!! After a long conversation between the claims adjuster and Chris , it seems as if the adjuster will get a garage that they use and like in Bancroft ( the other choice was Pembroke ) and give us a call to ok it. It will get towed to Bancroft from Combermere . Then it's a matter of just how long it will take to get the work done and of course hope that the mechanic finds nothing more that is required to get it going again - that could be a showstopper !!! I am soooo relieved and happy. So once it is repaired , we will journey up to get the car, zip across to Huntsville, drop off the rental and come on back home with the Tribute !!!

And Now ...Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program !!!

OK , so we had the disasterous trip up here and yes we've been unkind to our car and murdered a dear little deer, had no success getting a car, have left our kids with Michael and Frances much longer than anticipated, had a terrific little weekend despite all that and now it is time to get back to our real day to day lives.

Monday, and suddenly the world is back at work, on line, connected and happy to conduct business - we talk to our claims adjuster and the lady at the car rental , all anxious to help and not suggesting as was the not so helpful individual on the call centre line for our insurer who suggested Saturday that we should perhaps just take a cab to the car rental place ( there are so many cabs in Algonquin Park looking for tourists needing rides ). Our friends at Bear Trail Couples Resort have offered a ride to Huntsville this morning, Enterprise will have a car ready at noon, the sun is shining, yes we are on our way home!!!

We are on our way to pick up our little darlings who have had an absolutely awesome time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Frances. We have a Ford Focus to toodle around in until we get an opinion on the Mazda - to repair or not to repair - I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can get it fixed !!!!

The girls in the meantime have had a terrific time - preview of the new Shrek movie complete with finger nail painting in Shrek colours, dim sum, the Science Centre and that was just Saturday !!! Ok Mike and Frances - you have raised the bar rather high !!! Thank you thank you thank you - the girls had such a great time with you !!!

We are all tired and getting home feels good . Time to mellow out a bit before beginning the mountain of laundry............... and so our week truly beings...............