Great Long Weekend and Clinic Day

The Canada Day long weekend was a very busy one around our house.  Canada Day started out a little rough.  We went down to the bank and were heading over to Chapters when the car just stopped.  I thought I might have stalled the car, but looked down and the clutch was still in.  I tried to restart the car, but nothing happened.  We pushed the car over to the side of the road and called Grandma to ask her to come pick us up.  We had a few people stop and offer their advice and then a great guy in a truck stopped.  He offered to hook up a tow rope and pull us over to Canadian Tire.  We hooked up the car and dropped it off.  Thankfully they could take a look at it that day.  We headed home to wait for a phone call.

Around 2 we headed over to Grandma’s for her block’s annual Canada Day party.  Their block puts on an incredible potluck party.  They got 2 huge (the biggest I had ever seen) bouncers and provide all the burgers, hot dogs and Spolumbo’s sausages you can eat. The kids had a great time spending almost 5 solid hours in the bouncers!  We had a good time sitting around on the green visiting, drinking a few beers (and wine and coolers) and enjoying the food and great weather. During the middle of this party Canadian Tire called a couple of times to let me know both the battery and the alternator needed to be replaced.  Thankfully they got everything done and the car up and running on Canada Day!  Ryley was very upset when we left at 7pm.  Last year they had fireworks and Grandma told him about them so he wanted to stay and watch them.  Unfortunately the kids were too tired and would have never made it.  Thankfully we didn’t stay as they didn’t let off any fireworks this year.
 
Saturday we went to a pool party at Willie’s house.  It was a party for Ryley’s hockey team (The Lightening Bolts).  The kids had a wonderful time playing in the pool, throwing water balloons, shooting water guns and eating food.  There were only a few kids from the team there, but everyone had a good time.  Thank you to the Rennie’s for hosting all of us.

 
Saturday evening we went to a BBQ and potluck at Steve and Shelly’s place.  The kids had fun playing with the other kids and jumping on the trampoline.  Travis brought his guitar and played for all of us and there was even a poker game going on, which Jennifer was eliminated from and I had the sense not to join.

Sunday afternoon was Cousin Oliver’s 3rd birthday party.  It was a great celebration with lots of family there to ensure his birthday was a special day.  It was nice to have all of us there as Karlee and Jennifer have missed a couple of get togethers at Randy and Catherine’s due to Karlee being sick or in hospital.

Tuesday was Karlee’s monthly clinic day at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.  It was a fairly routine clinic day with a procedure.  She is down to having procedure days every 3 months now, which is a nice change.  One thing of potential concern is her liver enzyme levels.  They are currently 8% above normal.  If they reach 20% above normal we will have to pause treatment and determine if the treatment is doing more harm than good.  Karlee has been complaining a little more about stomach pain lately so we are hoping this is what is causing it and that the levels return to normal next month.

Wednesday night was our first night of church at the new location.  Our church has rented space from another Church to save some money to allow us to realize the dream of building a community centre (and Church space).  It is a nice cozy location that will hopefully fit New Hope’s needs for the next few years.  The one downfall is the lack of air conditioning.  During the summer we meet on Wednesday nights as most people want their weekends to do family events or go camping.  Meeting in the evening after a warm day makes for a very, very warm service.  Once winter rolls around and we start meeting on Saturday evenings it should get a lot better.
 
Thursday was Ryley’s first day at Skillz.  We had a year membership donated to Ryley at the Skate-A-Thon last year.  He had a great time working his butt off.  It is great to see him coming home dripping in sweat and enjoying it.

Media Everywhere and Summer Finally Arrives

Wow!  It has only been a week since I last posted, but it sure feels like a lot has happened.

Karlee had her last 2 days of preschool on Tuesday June 21st and Wednesday June 22nd.  Last week on Thursday The Herald was at Gymnastics to do a story on Mrs. Mackie.  That story ran on the front page of The Herald on Tuesday June 21st.  Karlee wasn’t on the front page, but was in the online version of that story.  You can still find the story here: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Preschool+serves+kids+with+cancer/4979173/story.html.  They reran the picture with Karlee and a little description on Thursday.  It was pretty exciting seeing Karlee’s picture and her teacher in the paper.  Wednesday was the last day of school and they did a big party for Mrs. Mackie.  Everyone brought in food and there was a lot of alumni there including one of Mrs. Mackie’s first students who is now 23 and married.  Global TV was there to capture her last day.  The story is available here: http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/index.html?releasePID=B4PHo60RhtZ_LWOU_j4u_u__wKOgJz9Y.  The story starts just after the 11:30 minute commercial.

Thursday afternoon was Sports Day at Ryley’s school and I was volunteering to help.  The weather was beautiful all morning, but as we rode back after lunch there were a few dark clouds giving chase.  We set everything up for the kids and then it started spitting a little.  Mr. Gibb came out to see how the weather was and almost as soon as he stepped out there was a flash of lightening and that put everything on hold pretty quick.  We waited about 20 minutes and the rain stopped and the clouds looked a little better so they decided to go ahead.  I helped run the soccer games and had a great time.  Ryley really enjoyed everything about sports day and I was glad to volunteer at it!

Earlier in the week we had been asked if the kids would be starters for the Kids Cancer Care Ride for a Lifetime.  We quickly agreed to help out and started looking for a leather or denim jacket for Ryley to wear.  We had several offers and finally found a great leather jacket that fit.  Friday morning we were up very early and headed to Bearspaw (the other end of the city) to see the riders off.  Mom had to work so Grandma came with us.  As always the KCCFA staff was great to us, but this time there were a bunch of great bikers to look after us.  We had a quick breakfast and the kids helped Christine with a draw and helped with the safety demonstration.  We were then off to take a bunch of pictures with Mike from Phoenix Photography and Mike Drew from The Calgary Sun.  Both Ryley and Karlee loved the bikes and the bikers.  Several of the riders made a special effort to chat with the kids.  Very quickly the ride was off and the kids were waving the flags to start each group and send the bikers off.  Both Global and City TV were there and interview me and the kids.  Global TV’s story is available here: http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/index.html?releasePID=BkuB3MDzqH7E1zgV9KaXVbixpvfJpJ4S. The story starts at just after the 16:00 minute mark.  If you want to see more pictures you can see them on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.221669601198562.59315.171729949525861.  You may have to become friends with the Kida Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.

Saturday was another crazy day for us.  Karlee had her final soccer game of the year in the morning and I was coaching again.  Herding cats is exactly like teaching 3 and 4 year olds to play soccer.  At least all the kids had a great time  and enjoyed the year.  They all got their medals at the end of the game and that made it worth while.  Right after that game we had to run to get lunch and get over the Ryley’s year end tournament.  Ryley’s team had 2 games with teams from all over the city (and outside the city) to wrap up his year.  After the first game Mom and Karlee took off to go to Donnie’s finance Eva’s bridal shower with cousin Michelle and Jenna.  The year ended for Ryley with a bit of a fizzle as they didn’t play their best and lost the final game.  After the game and the bridle shower Michelle and Jenna came over for supper and smores around the fire.

Sunday morning despite the weather not being great we went to Calaway park with Grandma, Uncle Randy, Aunt Catherine and cousins Everett and Oliver.  We all had a great time and went on a bunch of rides.  Ryley was very excited because he was finally tall enough to go on Cosmic Spin; I wasn’t so excited about having to go on that ride with him, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Thankfully Uncle Randy didn’t have to go on the one as some of the kids rides that went in a circle made him feel a little nauseous. 

Tuesday was Ryley’s last day of school and they had a big party in the afternoon.  Ryley had a great year and was very fortunate to have Miss Foster as a teacher.  She was excellent and he really enjoyed his time with her.  Finally summer appeared to arrive after the school year and we now have better weather.