I love shopping...in Watertown!

Curt and I went to Watertown to do some shopping on Sunday. I LOVE doing this, and I'm always so glad when Curt is up for it. I suggest it all the time, even when there is no need to go, so usually Curt just ignores me :) But, when I suggested it this time, and actually had a few items that I 'needed', Curt seemed excited too. And, by the time we left, he had a pretty good list of stuff he wanted to look for for himself.



Kohl's was our first stop, and I usually have great luck at this store. One of the main things I was looking for on this trip was a dress to wear to a wedding in two weeks, and although I tried a few on at Kohl's, I didn't find one that I really liked. I actually left empty handed, but Curt found a few fun things.



Our next stop, and right next door to Kohl's, was Target. This is always the best spot to get books, and this time was no exception! I picked up three books this time, and I'm sure I saved at least four or five dollars on each book. With all of our trips to the States, I hardly ever buy books in Canada anymore. I bought two cute tops, too!



Then it was on to TJ Maxx, a store that we didn't discover until one of our last trips to Watertown. We've been to them in Florida and Myrtle Beach, but didn't realize there was one in Watertown. It's a smaller store, but Curt and I both found something here. And, we came back to this store at the end of the day to pick up a wedding gift for the wedding in two weeks. They have a great kitchen section!



Next was lunch, and we went to the BEST restaurant - Ruby Tuesday! Mmmmm, unlimited salad bar and Ruby Minis, enough said! We were soooo full!

The mall in Watertown isn't the greatest, and if we go for a weekend, we prefer to go to Syracuse which has a much better mall. But, for day trips, Salmon Run Mall is good enough. Salmon Run does have two really good stores, Burlington Coat Factory and JC Penney.



Burlington Coat Factory is usually a good spot for both Curt and I, but we both left empty handed this time. I usually can't resist the purse section here, especially the Nine West purses that retail for $20 to $30! But, I was good this time, and admitted that I didn't need one!



JC Penney ended up being the best stop of the day, for me! I ended up finding two dresses that I love...so now I have a dress for the wedding on May 8th, and for the wedding we're going to in July...in California!



This is the one for May (picture from the JC Penney website). I can't find a picture of the other one, so I'll save that one for later.






We arrived back home exactly 12 hours after leaving! It's about 1.5 hours driving each way, plus about an hour for lunch, but other then that, the rest of the time we were shopping! I could never spend that much time shopping in Canada! And Curt, all I can say is that he is a real team player, and I love him for it! :)

Quiet Week

Well, last week marked the end of the skating season! Although Tweed wrapped up at the end of March, and Quinte Carnival was a few weeks ago, practice for my Quinte STARSkaters didn't finish until Friday night.

I said good-bye to one of my first private skaters, Elise, who will not be coming back to skating next year. She's been a great student, and always kept me on my toes. She was always very inquisitive about things, asking lots of questions about every new thing I taught her...which I find is very common when teaching adults, but usually not with kids. Elise is in grade nine, and has developed a lot of new interests over the last few years, so she has decided to focus on some of those (cheerleading, soccer, volleyball)...and, her mom tells me, she has quite a social life now, so skating on a Friday night was interfering with that!

And, I have to admit, I'm already missing skating! I've usually been ready for the summer break, and I felt like that a few weeks ago, but now that it's here, it seems like the break is going to be too long! I may have enough kids interested in summer skating to do that this year, so that means I will back on the ice in August. If that doesn't work out, I won't be on the ice until September. Either way, I hope it comes fast!

Weekend Fun & Excitement

Now that the golf course is open, I will probably have to work most Saturdays, and that was the case yesterday. While I was at work, Curt played in a Volleyball Tournament at the local Christian High School. They were the 'old' team in the tournament (his words), but they managed to finish second, so that was pretty good!

Last night, we got together with friends, Henk and Amy, and the four of us went bowling! We were all commenting that we hadn't been bowling in ages, so it was a lot of fun. It was 'Laser Bowl', so it was too dark for pictures, but I did get this one before we left the house.



Yup, Curt has his own bowling ball and bowling shoes. He bought them months ago at Value Village, and this is the first time he has used them. Notice his shirt too, he said he wore that because it looked like a bowling shirt :) Of course he went out and got a strike on his very first frame, so now I won't be able to convince him to re-donate the shoes and ball back to Value Village :)

This morning it was my turn to help in the Toddlers Nursery at church and it was BUSY, there was probably about 18 kids (all around three years old) in the room today. And in case that doesn't sound busy enough, about 20 minutes into the service, the fire alarm went off! It was loud, the poor little kids all looked terrified and covered their ears immediately. Luckily we had plenty of helpers, four adults and three youth helpers, and not all parents had left the room yet. As we were getting the kids organized to leave the building, many parents arrived to pick up their kids, so no adult had more than two children by the time we left the building. We weren't outside long before two fire trucks arrived, and after a quick inspection, the firemen allowed us to go back inside. I had a little girl with me who had been quite calm during the whole thing, never asking for her mom or anything...but, when we went to go back inside, she kept telling me she didn't want to go in because it was TOO LOUD! :) Curt told me after the service, that once everyone was back in the sanctuary it was announced that a child had pulled the alarm in one of the nurseries...hopefully it wasn't my room :)

I guess the fire department has asked the church to have a drill during a service, it's obviously important for the close six hundred people in attendance to know what to do if there really is a fire. I'm hoping they don't count this as a drill, it took us way too long to get the kids outside...but, I'm also hoping that if, or when, they do a drill, it's not my day in the nursery!

Open for Business...Finally!

Today was the day...OPENING DAY at Bay of Quinte Golf & Country Club!

(the new logo)

I've been back at work since early March, and it's been busy, but not the kind of busy I like. The golf course is under new ownership, so it's all new staff and management...so, the last few weeks have been all about getting organized. We had a few days of staff training; re-established the computer program we use; received, priced and displayed our clothing, equipment, etc.; discussed and organized our day-to-day routines; and lots of other detail things.

But today, we finally got to see members...and lots of them! It was great seeing all the familiar faces again, and I enjoyed having all the people around again! We had well over 100 people play golf today, so the time I was at work went so much faster then it has over the last few weeks :)

The first two hours this morning were totally chaotic - we discovered that in all the time spent getting ready for the season, we had overlooked a few key computer things. I'm supposed to be the 'expert' because I'm the only returning staff member, so I was all prepared to train the others this morning, but when things didn't go as planned, it was more than a little stressful. But, an emergency call to the customer service department of our software provider seems to have solved all of that. And, I can now say, aside from some computer issues this morning, it was a great day.

The weather was great for opening day - there was a brief frost delay this morning, as it still gets quite cool over night, but it was about 16 degrees by the time I left.

(the 'old' third fairway, this picture is from last summer, our trees don't look like that yet!)

So, if today is any indication about the rest of the season, I think it will be a pretty good year!

Quinte FSC Showcase

This year, Quinte FSC held a 'Showcase', rather then a 'Carnival'. We weren't able to get ice at the arena we normally use for the carnival (our local OHL hockey team didn't make the playoffs this year, so they took the ice out early), so we had to host it at the arena we use for practice...our normal arena is old and has a really poor layout, so it's hard to host a 'real' ice show. Not wanting the kids to completely miss out on the experience, we put something together on a much smaller scale.

I arrived at the arena at 11am, the show was supposed to start at 2pm...and, during every minute leading up to the show, I was afraid it was going to be a disaster. It was definitely not very organized, and even the people on the 'showcase committee' seemed to be making things up as we went along. It was CHAOS!

Of course, once the kids stepped on the ice, all the stress disappeared, and things fell into place. I had choreographed three numbers for the show, and although none of them were perfect, they all went pretty well (especially considering my CanSkate groups only had two practices each, and my third group, which was a group of Program Assistants, had learned their whole number in an hour the previous Friday!).

Most importantly, all the kids said they had fun, and their smiles were proof of that. And, a bonus, many parents had very positive things to say at the end of the day! So, by the time I left the arena, the chaos of the morning had (almost) been forgotten.


I got home from the showcase in time to watch the end of the Masters! Go Phil!

Tweed Year-End Banquet

Last week I attended the Tweed & District Figure Skating Club's Year-End Banquet (which is a pretty big name for a pretty minor event). It's just a chance for skaters and parents, and a few extended family members, to get together to recognize the achievements of our skaters. We had a casual dinner and then various awards were handed out.

Seven of my skaters won awards this year:

Alyssa for Pre. Jr. Achievement, Leah for Pre. Preliminary Achievement, Britteny for Sr. Achievement, Jillian for Sr. Proficiency, Shea for Spirit of Skating, Emma for Program Assistant, and Kate, an Award of Merit.

I gave my camera to two of my skaters, and ended up with some pretty interesting pictures! There were a number of random close-ups, that have been deleted, and some really poor shots of the awards being given out, that should be deleted. I've got one that I can post though:



This is a blog debut for these two girls :) These were also my photographers for the night, so this is one of many self-takes! I have coached these two, Shea and Emma, since my first year in Tweed! They didn't compete at all this year, so they didn't make any of my previous skating related posts. They're both in high school, and told me at the banquet that they won't be coming back next year :( As skaters, anyway, they may come back as Program Assistants, helping teach our little ones.

I purchased a copy of the carnival on DVD, and received it at the banquet. I was excited to try to post part of it on here, but, the DVD doesn't work...at all!?!? I'm waiting to hear back from the person who sold them, hopefully I just got a faulty copy, and I can get a replacement.

Easter Weekend

So, as I mentioned in my last post, Curt and I were able to spend Easter weekend with my family, in Acton. It was so nice to have a long weekend to spend there, with not much planned. We haven't been there for a visit since Christmas, so it had been too long.

We arrived on Thursday, which was the same day my parents came home from Florida. They had been away for two weeks, and the reunion between Grandma, Papa and Nolan was one to be remembered! Nolan stood on the front porch, hands in the air, his whole little body shaking in excitement, calling out 'my buddy Papa', until my dad got to him and picked him up for a hug! I really wish someone had been videotaping, but, everyone was either busy laughing, or busy crying!

The weather was amazing all weekend, and on Friday Nolan and I took advantage of the sun, and went for a nice long walk...well, I walked while he rode in a wagon! We stopped by the fire hall, and Nolan got to help one of the firefighters wash a police car! (this wasn't as random as it sounds...my brother is a firefighter, so Nolan is well known at the hall).



Later that day, Curt helped my brother assemble a new play set for Nolan. The set has a tunnel, which Nolan would go on top of, but not through, and two slides, which he loved going down. And, he still loved the slide after taking a fall off of one...from the top...while Curt and I were supervising :) Lucky for us, and Nolan, the ground is still really soft, so it cushioned his fall.



Saturday we took a trip to Ikea, I think Nolan is a big fan!



Curt and I also had a chance to spend some time visiting my Nana and Aunt Mary, which was great. And, I know they're probably reading this, so HELLO, it was great to see you, ladies!

We had our Easter dinner on Saturday, and this year, we had deep fried turkey. If you haven't had it, you should try it! It's a lot better then it sounds, it actually sounds kinda gross, but it's really good.

On Sunday, before church, Nolan had an Easter Egg Hunt around the house. He did really well, and found all TWENTY FIVE eggs that Krystle and Curt had 'hid' for him!



After church on Sunday, we spent lots of time outside, enjoying another beautiful day! Nolan was thrilled when his mom let him eat chips...right out of the bag!



Much to my delight, it seems that Nolan is a fan of golf! Now, he's a HUGE fan of anything trucks...and definitely spends the majority of his time playing trucks. But, he would often pick up a golf club from his little set and entertain himself with the club and a ball. Unfortunately, it didn't look much like golf...and often ended up becoming more like a game of 'Whack-a-Mole'. But, here he is with his little golf bag :)



It was a great weekend, and I can't wait until we can do it again. Next time, I'll have another little one to take pictures of!

Doing Double Duty

I know there aren't very many people reading this, but, for those of you who are...sorry I haven't posted in awhile.

I have stories and pictures to share from Easter weekend, which was spent with family in my hometown! And, last night was our year-end banquet and awards ceremony for Tweed & District FSC, so I want to post about that.

But, this double duty (golf course and coaching) has me pretty busy, so I haven't had time to sit down and get things organized for a post.

This weekend is the Quinte FSC Ice Show, so I'll have that to post about soon, too!

So, to my few faithful readers, please STAY TUNED. I don't want to lose you!