Cool Yule and more tests

This weekend was a little crazy, but overall a great time for everyone.

Friday after work we headed down to Turner Valley for the Diamond Valley Christmas Market.  We were set up and ready to go in time for the start of the market at 4:30.  Dad and the kids headed to the Turner Valley Inn and had a nice supper while Mom stayed and manned the table.  Later Ryley and Dad went for a nice walk around town until the wind became a little much.  We finished off the night selling one pair of slippers in 4 hours.


Saturday morning was another total crazy day.  Ryley had hockey at 8:30, but we had to be there early as they brought in a skate sharpening machine and were doing all the kids, siblings and families skates.  Dad dropped everyone off at the arena and went over to Grandma's to drop off everything for the Willowridge Craft Fair.  Grandma was going to set up and spend some time running the show in the morning.  Dad then headed down to Turner Valley for the second day out there.  Between Grandma and Mom Willowridge went pretty good with a few sales, but Turner Valley was a bust again.



Sunday night was Cool Yule at Theatre Calgary with the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.  We started out with some kid friendly appetizers; jelly, tuna, egg sandwiches, slider burgers and corn dogs.  We then headed upstairs so the kids could spend a little time with Santa.  They had a wonderful visit with the big guy and got a stuffed meerkat.  We then went down to get a family picture taken and then the kids wanted to get their faces painted.  While they were waiting for the face painter Dad went and grabbed us seats for A Christmas Carol.  We were in the first row of the balcony so we had a great view.


The performance of A Christmas Carol was incredible.  The show was well done, but also very exciting with lots of effects and fun.  Ryley loves live shows and can't wait for the next one.  This was Karlee's first live performance and she behaved very well.  There were many kids a lot older than her who were a lot more disruptive (including some adults).


This week is one of Karlee's off weeks but that doesn't mean she gets off without a trip to the hospital.  Today was a couple of test to get a baseline for her heart.  The next round of chemotherapy can damage her heart so they want to have something to look back on to allow them to determine if there has been any damage.  She had an ECG, an Echo Cardiogram and her weekly CBC (Complete Blood Count).  The ECG involved hooking up a bunch of electrodes and monitoring her heart.  The Echo is basically an ultrasound on her heart.  They are hoping that with the low dose that Karlee is getting that there will not be any damage, but it is important to have a baseline to compare future tests to.


Ryley was a little concerned that Karlee had to get a poke in her arm today instead of having her port accessed.  We had to explain to him that having her port accessed is more traumatic than just getting a poke in her arm.  It is tough for someone who hates needles to understand that Karlee doesn't mind getting poked in the arm or in her port.