My First CWW

What is a CWW you ask; well, it would be my pleasure to tell you all about it!

CWW stands for Condensed Work Week, and it is something that I get to enjoy now that I'm a permanent employee (although I became permanent in January, I haven't been able to take part in CWW's because of skating).  So, full-time staff are required to work 7.25 hours a day, five days a week (in our office, that would be 8:45am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch) - permanent staff can choose to work an extra half an hour a day (8:30am to 5pm, with 45 minutes for lunch), earning one day off every three weeks.  I've been told that's an extra 13 days a year, but I just looked at a calendar, and I think it's actually an extra 17 days?!?!  Either way, I'll take it! 

When I became permanent, I was coaching, so I was leaving early every Thursday - in order to make that work, I was already working extra time every day....that's why I couldn't do CWW 's until skating was over.  Yes, skating ended almost two months ago, it just took this long for my managers to approve my request :(

People can choose any day of the week for their day off, I went with Friday because Curt does something similar at his job, and he gets every second Friday off!  Due to the nature of my job (the customer service aspect of it), my day off won't be very flexible; however, Curt's day off is easy to change, and he did just that in order to have today off too!

So, it's another three days weekend for us!  And, with a forecast of 28 degrees today, it was easy to decide what to do with our day off - we went golfing!

We played at Bay of Quinte; Curt got a membership there this year, and I enjoy going back to my old stomping grounds (that's the course I worked at for five years).  We teed off somewhat early, so I only got to see a few members before playing, but it was still good to see some familiar faces!

Unfortunately, Curt didn't have a great game - he usually has good luck on the course, and will get good bounces and end up with great lies, that was NOT the case today!  I, on the other hand, played really well.  I shot a 47 on the front, that may be a personal best for me at BQ!  I struggled with a few holes on the back nine though, and ended up with a 55.  But, a total of 102 is pretty good for me...especially since it's the first time I've played 18 holes this year.

Some pictures from our day...

I have to include one more picture of Curt...when he saw this picture, he said 'oh, I look good there'

My family refers to me as the paparazzi because I always have my camera with me when I'm around them....but, that's because when I'm with them, we're usually doing something special that I know I will blog about (vacations, birthday parties, etc.)....so, I want to mention that I didn't take my camera to the golf course today, I just used my phone ;)

It wasn't long after we got home that I decided to take a nap, another great thing to do with a day off!  It was tiring walking 18 holes in that heat (although it was 28 degrees, it felt like 35 degrees!). 

Three weeks until my next CWW (June 15th), and hopefully it will be as enjoyable as today!

I've Said it Before...

...and I'll say it again, every weekend should be THREE DAYS LONG!

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have a three day weekend, and it was fabulous!  Monday was a holiday, Victoria Day, better known as May 24 (that's not May 24th, but May two four!).  The weather can be a little sketchy on May 24, but this year it was AMAZING!  It was in the high 20's all three days, and it was great to have all that heat and sunshine.

Saturday we got an early start to the day - we went to Kingston to do some shopping and run some errands.  We made two stops to do some shopping, Golf Town and Costco!  Curt and I each got ourselves a little gift - he got a new putter and I got the Anne of Green Gables 5 Disc DVD Collection.  I've picked the box up at least two other times when in Costco, but both times decided to put it back...but not this time!

I haven't taken the time to sit down and watch any of it yet, but I love knowing that I can now, whenever I want to! 

And, from Costco it was on to a former co-workers house to pick-up some furniture and stuff.  One day at lunch, she was mentioning that she was going to list some stuff on Kijiji...she went on to say that she was getting rid of a desk and an elliptical...so, I told her that Curt and I would be interested in taking them off her hands!  Well, when we got to her place, we ended up with not only those two items, but also a storage cabinet and a wooden box.  The wooden box isn't much right now, but we have big plans for it.  A few months ago I saw this on Pinterest, showed it to Curt and asked him if he could make it for the basement...he said he could, but that was the end of it....

Luckily, when he saw the wooden box in Kelly's garage, he saw the potential of turning it into this! 

Once we got home, the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent working around the house - Curt was doing yard work, and I put our new storage cabinet to work in the mudroom.  It has become a place to store sports equipment - mostly golf related, actually, mostly golf balls!

Sunday we had plans to meet some friends who were camping at Sandbanks, so, we got up early and went to church in the county, that way we were closer to the beach when church was over.  It worked out well, and we ended up having almost four hours of beach time.  I didn't actually go for a swim, but did spend some time in knee deep water throwing a frisbee around with Curt, and the water was surprisingly warm.  

We had to cut the time short because we wanted to be home for the annual neighbourhood bbq and fireworks.  This year, Dave and Sarah and the boys, and Kevin, Susannah and Stella came for the fireworks. 

One of our neighbours is a volunteer firefighter, and he always takes the lead on the fireworks display.  This year, some of the other volunteers came early and brought a truck with them.  All the kids had a great time climbing in, and on, the truck.

Luke, Isaac and Noah taking in the view from the front seat.  Just after this picture, Noah got to play with the horn...by the time he hopped down from the drivers seat, he was grinning from ear to ear!

We enjoyed another great fireworks show, although little Stella wasn't too sure about them...she thought they were too loud...quote of the night, Stella in a serious voice told her dad that she thought she should go home because it was 'almost past her bedtime'. 

 Stella did enjoy the sparklers though!

And Monday, after sleeping in, we had a pretty low key day.  Curt played golf in the afternoon, and I spent the majority of the day reading on the back deck! 

After proof reading this post, I feel like it sounds like a rather boring weekend, but it was actually perfect in my books! 

A Birthday Celebration

This past weekend, Curt and I went to Acton the CELEBRATE - Princess Abby turned two!

We left on Friday, but had to drive separately...Curt didn't come home on Sunday evening, he had a course to attend in Toronto, so he was there until Tuesday evening.  I, of course, had to be home for work Monday morning.

Things got off to an early start on Saturday morning - the boys went to Nolan's lacrosse game, and had to be there for pictures at 8am.  The girls got to leave a little later, we went to Abby's gymnastics class and had to be there at 9am.  For those of us with no kids, that's early for a Saturday morning!  But, it was totally worth it - Nolan got his first assist at lacrosse, and watching Abby 'do gymnastics' was hilarious!

At this point in her life, Abby's not too sure about gymnastics :).  Krystle mentioned that she seemed a little off that day, and is usually at least a little more interested.  The class lasts 45 minutes - it starts with a warm-up and stretching and then the group gets to use various gymnastics equipment (a small beam, parallel bars and a trampoline)...at the end, the kids get stamps on their feet and hands.

Here is Abby after about half an hour....sitting in the spot the kids go for their stamps :)

 and looking for her coach (she's probably thinking "get over here, give me my stamps, I'M OUTTA HERE!) 

Poor little thing was all tuckered out after her strenuous workout!  She really tried to stay awake on the drive home, but her eyelids were just TOO heavy!

Unfortunately, the short ride home was the only nap Abby took the whole day!  That made everyone a little nervous because that afternoon was her birthday party...but, she did really well and wasn't too grumpy.

It was a beautiful day, so we were able to be outside - Nolan and Abby were the only little ones, but it was still good for them to have lots of room to run around while the adults visited.

The birthday girl, all dressed up...sitting at a picnic table and playing with a truck of some sort :)

 And later, opening presents.....

Abby really liked her princess towel...the face my mom is making is the mirror image of Abby's face...

The birthday girl LOVED her cake...well, she LOVED the icing!

I didn't get a picture of Abby as she opened this gift, but I took one on Sunday - this is the Pinterest inspired gift that I made for her...and, that is chocolate on her face :)...

Abby was recently moved into a new room, her 'big girl room'...I thought this might be a nice addition.


And, one last picture...another birthday gift, a bikini that Abby was super excited to wear in the hot tub on Sunday afternoon!

We were so glad to be able to go to Acton to celebrate the little princess' 2nd birthday! 

Household Changes

Another change around our house happened in our living room, but, it's a result of plans we have for the basement.  As soon as we started talking about using the basement for ourselves, we agreed that we wanted to move our upstairs furniture down there, and get new stuff for upstairs.  We got our living room set when we got married; we bought a couch,a  loveseat, and a chair, and The Brick was having a promo that included a TV; and although it's still in great shape and we LOVE it, we wanted to change the look upstairs.  Our original set was....BIG.  And, the TV was...BIG (it was great having a large screen, but the whole thing is big!).

So, way back on Easter weekend, we went furniture shopping!  Our first stop was The Brick - they were having another great promotion.  We found a couch and chairs that we really liked, but it was a big investment, so we didn't feel right buying from the first store....so, we checked out a few other stores and did a little comparison shopping.  But, in the end, we went with our first instinct.

And, here is what we ended up with...

An ivory couch and two red recliners, all leather!  Curt and I were both surprised with ourselves when we went with these colours...and leather :)  Curt has always wanted a reclining chair though, so that part was no surprise.

And, another look.....oh, and notice a small section of the rug, that's new too!

And, one last picture so you can see the new TV!

That last picture makes me want new curtains!  And, it makes me realize I probably should have turned the TV off when taking pictures ;)  Oh well, just keepin' it real.

Our 'old' furniture is set up downstairs and we've enjoyed having separate TV's on a number of occasions, namely, during hockey games!  There is still a lot of work to do in the rec room though, so there are no pictures of that room. 

So, there you have it, another change that took place around here while I was taking my unplanned blogging break. 

I'm Back!

I don't know where to start!  It's been soooo long, I really don't know how three weeks went by without a single blog post?!?  There have been things to blog about, and I've definitely thought about, I just never actually got around to writing a post.  April got off to such a good start too - I had written six posts by the 11th!  I must have overdone it, because ever since then, I just haven't felt like writing.

But, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things here, and I have a lot to catch up on!

One of the noteworthy events around here (and this is old news, but I haven't talked about it on here) is that our tenant moved out at the end of January, and we're starting to make use of the basement!

A little history here - when we built this house, we put a two bedroom apartment in the basement, and we've had tenants living down there for the past four years.  We have been very lucky in terms of the tenants we've had down there, and that extra income was a great help, but we're ready to make use of the space ourselves.

So, after sitting on it for almost two months, making sure we weren't going to change out minds and get a tenant, we've started doing some work down there.

Last weekend I took on the project of painting the bathroom - we had to go into town on Friday night, so we went to Home Depot to pick up the paint, and I spent most of Saturday painting, and a good part of Sunday too.  When we were at Home Depot looking at paint chips, Curt made the comment that we have 'officially lived in this house for too long, we're repainting'!  ha! 

So the bathroom, let me say, I'm glad I got that room out of the way first!  It's the smallest area, but it had the most 'stuff' to edge and paint around - the vanity, toilet, shower and two doors!  I LOVE the colour though, and am really happy with the results.

Here are some before pictures....

Standing at the main door, looking in at the vanity and the second door.  The second door was locked off when we had tenants; we put it in though so that if/when we used the space ourselves, we would have quick access to the bathroom from the garage and outside.

 Still standing at the main door, turned slightly to see the toilet and stand-up shower.

Now standing near the toilet, looking at the main door and the vanity.

And the after pictures...I still don't have the towels and decorations yet...but, that may take awhile, so I'll go ahead and post pictures...

Ahhhh, doesn't that look so much better!  I am still trying to convince Curt to get a new shower unit - it looks OK in the pictures because the doors are in decent shape, but the walls and base are a little discoloured, and I really think the paint colour makes the white 'pop'...so, the shower should be WHITE, right?!?! :)

So, I'll keep working on that, but in the meantime, it's on to Bedroom #1, which we'll be turning into an office for Curt and Three Hills Engineering!