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A lovely visit, a finished house and some laughing, the week 48 stories from the Carr family are now committed to the forever of the Internet.

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Visit
Because of the party weekend, we got to be on the receiving end of a cross border visit from our good friend Patricia and her two boys for the last 3 days. It was a short visit, but SO nice to see them, and it only reminds me that great friends are ones you don’t have to see or even talk to every day to be great, but when you do see them, you are right back where you once were. Often, the people in your life that contributed to making you who you are, are sometimes people who might not know how much they have made a difference in your life. And sometimes, you forget to say thank you to those people, so it seems like a good time to say thank you to Pat!

Laughing
There is an expression, or short form that is so popularly adapted by society today, that it makes me laugh when I think about it. When I first heard it, I hated it, and although I don’t often actually “laugh out loud”, I still use it everyday, and this week I did finally LOL! The back-story is that Nathalie’s car has been in and out of service for the last couple of weeks. Not necessarily a laughing matter, but each time it goes in, Nathalie gets a rental. We are getting closer to what is funny, so stick with me. ALL the repairs are under warranty, so that is funny, but not what made me laugh out loud.

You see, while driving with Nathalie in her little sleek black Pontiac G6, we witnessed one of those scary driving moments. A little old lady, who looked like she should have stopped driving a couple of years ago, reeking havoc right out there in the public. We counted 2 or 3 moving violations in just a couple of minutes, certainly scary enough from a distance but when she got directly behind us, Nathalie started screaming. I was trying to figure out what the problem was, and said, “what are you worried about, it’s a rental!” when Nathalie starts laughing and almost crying and says, “I waved the insurance!” Well that was enough, I started laughing, and we started watching in the mirrors, trying to get away from driving miss Daisy.

House
We had some crazy last minute spit and polish on the house, in preparation for the big party yesterday for Julia’s first communion, and by all accounts we did a good job. The truth is, that this last 2 or 3 days were a little more then spit and polish, with the backsplash in the kitchen now done, and we also finished so many other projects that had been at different stages of completion.

It would seem that there is a truth to the statement “where there is a will, there is a way”, because we certainly had the will to finish before the party, and now that the driveway is clear, and most of the dishes are done, as we look around at what we have been able to accomplish in just 8 months, I am so proud of US. Thanks to so many that have chipped in along the way, and thanks to Nathalie for sticking with me, sleeves up and on her knees all the way.

Communion
A little white dress, a hairpiece with beaded lace and shinny white dress shoes with the fancy high heels, helped our little girl reach another milestone in her journey as a good Catholic girl. Julia has now had her First Communion and she looked so grown up in her little white dress that both Nathalie and I had a hard time holding the tears back. We have been looking forward to this day for a while now, so the fact that it is now over, seems in a way a little odd, but I am sure happy that the day went off without a hitch and the little lady of the hour seemed to have a good day. She was not a big fan of all the attention, and often refused to smile for long periods of time, but when the dust was settled she said thank you to us for a wonderful day.

Tell two friends
The best marketing is the word of mouth kind, and in that light, I need to tell you about some great help we have had with the house over the last couple of weeks, and since my voice is my blog, I am writing about it now! The first is our carpet guy. It started with the old house, when we needed someone to fix some worn areas were Bentley had showed he was upset that he was not allowed in the bedrooms while we weren’t home. We did a search on Google for “Carpet repair Mississauga” and found Louie at A1 Carpet Repair. He did such a thorough job, inexpensively and well above our expectations, we said then and there if we ever needed to get carpet we have our guy.

Well, we needed to either repair or replace the carpet on the stairs in the new house, so we called our guy, and again he exceeded our expectations. Not only our expectations, but also expectations we did not even know we had. When we did not know how we where going to do with the seam left, where the edge of the laminated floor and the stair banisters meet, it was Louie that said, “why not just cover it with carpet”. So that’s what we did. The carpet looks so great and we are so happy to recommend A1 Carpet to anyone.

The second recommendation we need to make is the company we used to install the stacked stone as our backsplash. They did such a wonderful job, that I have to take a minute and recommend Wilkinson fireplace who sold us the stone, and did the installation and we are so happy with the outcome. If you need stacked stone, or beautiful fireplace, or millwork, this is the company you should use!

In closing
In true “confession” fashion, I need to confess that this week, I am lacking the brilliant conclusion to this weeks Carr family blog. There where a couple of excellent conversations with the girls, and because I was driving, I was unable to email or txt the info to myself so as a result, I can’t remember what it was that was said. I guess a true sign of age? I am sure it will pop back into my mind, and when id does, I will be witting it down, so that I may be able to commit it to the World Wide Web in future weeks, but for now I will just say…

As I continue to look for the missing stories, I thank you for reading and wish you a happy and safe week.
Jim

An Award, a little play, and a cool, cool ride, the week that was week 47 in the Carr’s world and that’s the truth.

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Virtue Award

We have often touted the accomplishments of our children and this being the end of the second term at their school, it’s time to brag a little again. The girls’ report cards would seem to indicate that they both have worked very hard this term on school and have improved on just about every level. We could not be more proud of our girls, and are so happy that above all, they try to work hard. As I have mentioned in the past, the school bestows certificates to those who are caught in the act of displaying a virtue, and this time it was Julia! Congratulations to our little Buglia on her award for RESPECT.

Cool
So riddle me this… at what point are you just NOT cool with your windows down on a sunny day, driving in your car, with the music blaring? This week, with the unusually warm couple of days I was able to truly enjoy the hot streaming rays in the way that I love, with the windows down and the radio loud. It started with “Brick House” by The Commodores, and the driving bass line, fully taxing my mini-van’s factory stereo seemed to work and make me feel, in a word “cool”. Following up with the next track, however catapulted me back to reality and the flight down hurt a little. There is nothing cool about a middle-aged guy, in a silver van with ARROW singing, “Hot! Hot! Hot!” blasting from the speakers! I refused to roll up the windows, but I did flip stations to see if I could find something to take me away again to no avail.

Play
We had the chance to see our little future star in action this week, at school during a moving “Stations of the Cross” service on Thursday. She has been practicing her lines for over a month, and although most times she did, she would put too long of a pause in the middle of the lines, changing the whole meaning of the statement. We were both so happy that she of course looked cute in her little costume, and that she hit her mark precisely, but the best part was that she delivered her lines perfectly, with NO long pause.

Easter
Easter is always a great time for family and friends to get together and quite often a great time for a renewed believe that there is an end in sight of the cold weather. This weekend we are planning our first Easter egg hunt in our backyard, and as a result we did a big spring clean today. Nathalie and her parents worked their fingers to the bone, and although I was busy in the garage, I did pull a couple of shrub stumps and helped with some other stuff in the backyard too. I think the kids will have a blast running around looking for all the chocolate eggs they can carry.

Truth is
With no school on Friday, this week we were able to make the kids happy by stopping on our way home from dance at the Shea house. Always some interesting conversations to be had when we all get together and one that is fit to print this week was one about truth. We brought up the fact that when two people are telling you almost the same thing, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I am not sure why it made me laugh, but I did say that I would write about it this week, so I am. WW then mentioned the song “stuck in the middle with you” and I guess I imagined truth as a person, stuck somewhere in the middle of one lying person and another disillusioned one. Somehow truth, when you paint it with a different brush, seems to take on a life of its own and its good if it can make you laugh at times. And that’s the truth!

In closing
There are a couple of sayings that crack me up, and over the last couple of weeks, I have, for some reason, heard them all. Last week, I mentioned one that Julia remained me of, “don’t want to tell you so, but…” and this week they did it again. Someone long ago must have told the girls, as long as you add “no offence” to your negative statement about someone or something, you are all good. They do it all the time, “No offence Jordyn, but your shoes look funny” or “No offence, but Julia you can’t say that”. What I find the funniest thing about it is, that sometimes the statements are so random, and they feel as long as they say it, it is ok to say just about anything.

This week it was just after hearing “fire burning” by Sean Kingston and specifically the lines “Shawty fire burning on the dance floor” and “She get it pop it lock it drop it that birthday cake”. Julia adds out of the blue, “Jordyn too bad it is not your friend “Kylie’s” birthday. This could be her song, because, no offence” she is short”. WHAT? “Not sure what that even means, Julia?” “Shorty, on the dance floor, and she is short. No offence Jordyn, but she is!” Ahh, now that is funny!

Getting set to hit my own dance floor so, have a great and safe week, and thanks again for reading!
Jim

House Work, some Customer Service and Putting Up Big Numbers, the week 46 blog is up, yes late but up just the same!

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T-shirt
Well it happened. I didn’t think it was going to happen this week, but it has happened. I now own my very first “I may be old, but…” T-shirt. Truth be told, I did not actually buy it for myself, but it is in my possession so as I understand, the way it goes, it is mine! Somehow, I have to come to grips with the idea that I, indeed “may be old”. I am sure happy it is not a “I may be TOO old, but…” T-shirt, because that would be really hard to take, but for now I just have to be cool about it. What makes the t-shirt that I got this week somewhat tolerable was the rest of the statement. You see I got the shirt from Nathalie and what it actually says is “I may be old, but my wife is a BABE” and that she is, so its all good!

Housework
Well the blog is up 3 days late because I had to focus on the house and some big time renovations. This weekend, we have new carpet on our stairs, we put up 7 doors, and completed a whole bunch of trim and molding and finished it all of with 1, 2 or 3 coats of paint. It is not all done, but the progress has been fantastic and so much closer to completion. The deadline, a noticeable glow of light coming from the upcoming First Communion for Julia is only a couple of weeks out, so we need to get it all done.

There is some incredible satisfaction in being able to accomplish as much as we have with the house since we moved in just 8 months ago and that is largely because we have done most of the work ourselves. Skinned knees, sore backs and arms & legs aching from muscle use they are unaccustomed to. Yes, very proud and glad that we have the skills, but also that we are willing to just try.

Customer Service
Ever have really good or really bad customer service? Ever have both in the same weekend? That was the Carr’s this weekend. Now we are big fans of very good service. When we get it, we are the ones who call the manager over and acknowledge it with kind words as well as a nice tip. We are also the ones who will throw the bad server under the preverbal bus, by spilling the beans to the manager.

Saturday, out with good friends, we ran into the bad customer service, and thanks to a complaint to the owner, we got moved to a new table, and as a result a much better server.

The second customer service story was from Sunday night. We arrived at least 10 minutes before the table beside us, and when their table with 2 more people then ours got their food first, you can imagine we were looking around for the person in charge to have a little conversation. But we didn’t have to because our server dropped by with the apology that came with 15% off the bill, before we could raise a hand. YES, Great service for us, but…

What went wrong was at the table beside us. We watched the incredible rudeness and attitude first hand, but it was not what you might think. The raised voice and sharp tongue was from the customer, who felt that the server had “rubbed him the wrong way” since they sat down. Apparently, the take out container that she brought, at his request, was not big enough to hold all the food left over. When she said that was the only size they had, he just lost it on her. His wife took their kids, and left the husband at the table during his tirade, I guess she thought he was over-reacting as well. The girls sat there looking at buddy with their mouth wide-open as he continued his barrage on the waitress. We found out later, that on the $90 bill, he left a grand total of $1.60 tip but that’s not all, he also left the server crying in the back room.

During the beratement, the server showed tremendous composure and was so apologetic, offering every solution she could to his problems. In the end, I think he was just an ass and was having a bad day, and wanted to take someone down with him. But what did feel good, was lodging our own complaint to the manager, on behalf of the server, to back the side of the server, she was very friendly, and helpful, and was nothing but kind to that table.

More readers then ever!
I have said a couple of times that I don’t blog on weekly bases for the notoriety, or fame of any kind, it’s only for my personal growth, and the hopeful enjoyment of my friends and family. But yet, I still anxiously check my site stats every week to see how many site viewers I get. Now before I start a mass panic, I can’t see who is actually reading, only where you are reading it from. For example, since February 28, 2010 I have had 6 visitors from California, 2 from Missouri and 1 from Illinois. I love it! Conquering the US, with the comings and goings of the little old Carr family. OK, I guess that is not a resounding conquer, but it feels good to know that some people are reading and because know one has said it is horrible I will always assume that what I do is somewhat OK. OK to the point that last week, I had more readers then I have ever had since I started writing the blog. Thanks again for reading!

In closing
Sometimes I can’t believe how great of a memory Jordyn has. Julia remembers odd things too, but Jordyn pulls the smallest things out of thin air and does it all the time. The craziest stuff! “Remember when you were wearing that white shirt and you spilled stuff on it when I was in grade 1, and you said that you would buy me something if I didn’t tell mommy” kind of stuff. This week during the car ride home from dance, Jordyn said, “I think I would like to be a bird”. Nathalie and I just exchange a glance and she continues, “remember birdie work daddy?” in reference to a blog story more then 8 months ago about a conversation we had in the car while passing some very busy birds working the side of the road. Amazed that she would remember that I ask, “Would you like to work as a bird?” smiling she says, “yes I would be the boss!” “So Jordyn, why else would you like to be a bird?” With an imaginary finger on her chin, she ponders her answer as if she is looking for the deep, Miss America, change the world type answer and she finally says, “I just think it would be cool to fly everywhere!”

I think you have a good point Jordyn that would be cool!

Flying into a short workweek, thanks for reading and have a safe and happy week.
Jim