A gully, some hills and a good bowl of soup

A Gully, some hills and a good bowl of soup, get cozy and grab a pillow and enjoy stories from the Carr’s in the week 10 blog.

The Gully
Of all the things I am good at, I am sure there is an equally long list of things I am not good at. That is just the way things are. There is also a list just as long of things I can do, but don’t like to do and near the top of that list is cutting the grass. Always looking to please, however, I jumped on my brother-in-law’s ridding lawn mower a couple of weeks ago to give it a shot and see if the bouncy seat makes it more fun. Normally he or my nephew will cut the acre sized lawn after putting in more then a full day of work themselves, so me pitching in when the hardest thing I have done over the last month or so is clean the pool before a dip is just the right thing to do.

I messed it up though. I was proud of the job I did, but after asking Guy what he thought, he pointed out the problem with using the riding mower in the gully. When you go from the bottom to the top of the incline, the cutter rubs against the crest of the hill, effectively cutting the grass off at the roots. Yes, now that I see what I am looking at, I understand my mistake and I feel horrible. Since then, every time I let it slip that I will try the grass again tomorrow, the strangest thing happens. Later that day, Guy for some reason cuts the lawn himself. Well until today anyway. I cut it and was very careful about the hill effect and think I was able to do a good job, but we will see when he gets home and let you know.

The Drive
When I am not rushing to get someplace, I sure do enjoy the long drive to and from the house we are staying at in Caledon. Today while driving home, my thoughts drifted and wondered up and down the rolling hills of the headwater, land part of the Oak Ridges Moraine that stretches from Caledon in the west to Rice Lake in the east formed more then 12,000 years ago by advancing and retreating glaciers. 12,000 years ago! Wow I was just thinking it’s crazy that when we moved up here, the farm fields on my route where barren and all shades of brown but just 7 weeks later they are so full of life and colour with some corn stocks more then a foot tall.

The countdown for the new house is at 20 days, so after a couple more weeks, we will move back to Mississauga, and no longer have a daydreaming drive in the hills and farmland, unless of course we come to visit and I think we will have to visit lots because it is a nice drive.

The Soup
The whole family has been a little sick off and on for the last week it would seem and one day this week, Nathalie even had to stay home to try and re-coupe. Ohh the conversations you have when you have kids and I laughed when Nathalie told me about one that she had with Julia this week. The conversation was about soup and its merits and after having a great bowl of Nathalie’s custom Lipton chicken noodle soup, the girls’ absolute favourite lunch meal, Julia said, “Mommy and Daddy you make the best noodle soup in the world”. Wow such a compliment from our little world traveler. Remember when all that was important in life was your best friend and a good bowl of soup?

In closing
The tooth fairy could be dipping into the house down payment this week, if we are not careful. To fully understand the problem we have, you need to go back 4 or 5 years to the morning after Jordyn’s first lost tooth fell out (or was it pulled?). You see the tooth fairy had a time and small change issue, after a forgotten exchange in the morning and as a result, left a crisp $20 for the beautiful little girl tooth. It was beautiful tooth, but certainly not nice enough to justify more than 400% market value. You can see that we started down a road that is a little hard to change now. There is an expectation, and the girls never forget. Like a family fable, passed from generation to generation as accurate as the first day it was told, they all know about the large gift under their pillow after a visit and have told all their friends.

Jump to today and on loose tooth watch in the Carr household we are currently monitoring 3 loose Julia teeth. Yep, if things work out in the little girls favour and my math is correct that’s $60. Wish us luck!

Have a great week,
Jim