Worms, Ski Day, Gala and KCC 2012 Video

Monday February 27th was an interesting day around here.  Just as Jennifer got home from her bus run the cat vomited behind/beside the couch.  Thankfully Jennifer was there to clean it up instead of me.  As she is cleaning it up she says, “The cat has been eating elastics,” and picks one up to show us.  As gross as it was showing us the “elastic” it was a lot worse when the elastic moved.  So… the cat has worms and has probably had worms since it came home from the farm.  Of course this means the kids probably also have worms.  Tuesday we went to see Dr. Kurt to get the low down on what was happening.  The cat has round worms and that means the dog probably has round worms and the kids should both be dewormed.  After a few e-mails to the hospital we had a prescription for Karlee and after a few phone calls we had an appointment for Ryley.

Karlee started the dewormer on Wednesday and Thursday morning (really early) the very rare side effects started.  She was vomiting and had diarrhea.  It took 3 days for her belly to calm down and start to feel better.  Of course Thursday morning I was supposed to volunteer in Ryley’s class at 8:30 in the morning to help with some science experiments.  I was a little late getting there, but we had fun learning about sounds and pitch and music.

Saturday was Kids Cancer Care’s Ski Day 2012.  Unfortunately with Karlee still not feeling good it was just Ryley and I again.  Kalree was sick last year for this event too so Jennifer had to miss out then too.  Ryley again took the lesson and had a good time snowboarding.  I got in a few runs before Ryley’s lesson was done and proved that I can still ski.  Once Ryley was done his lesson we took a short break and then headed up the chair lift to the top.  Ryley enjoyed going up to the top and getting a longer run down.  The only issue with the entire day was the lack of a second chair lift.  They took out the top turn around for the slower chair so this year there was only one.  The lines were a little longer and a lot slower than last year, but we still had a great time.

The next Saturday, March 10th, was the Cub Car Rally.  Ryley went and raced his cub car and Jennifer helped keep everyone in order.  Ryley’s car was a middle of the road car, which is pretty good for his first cub car.  They both had a good day, but were happy to come home and have a little rest before getting ready for the Gala.  Karlee and I had a great time and spent a day having lots of fun.

That evening was the 2012 Kids Cancer Care Parents Quest for the Cure Gala.  The KCC had given us tickets this year due to the work we did on the video that they were going to preview at the Gala this year.  Both kids were volunteering at the Gala to greet guests and carry in the sponsor’s banners.  We arrived early at 5pm so the kids could be there on time.  We found Blair and Amber and the kids were gone.  We went and sat around and waited for the start of the event to start.  Jennifer had a nice new dress and looked great!  The theme of the night was A Night With the Tzars.  They had a vodka, caviar and chocolate room.  The caviar was a very interesting experience; it was actually pretty good.  The chocolate was created by Papa Chocolat specifically for this event.  It was chocolate with a raspberry vodka infusion and it was incredible.  After we looked around at the silent auction items we went back out to see the kids.  They were wearing Russian hats and having a good time. 

When we got to our table we found out we were sitting with one of my old hockey coaches, Bob Keith, and the mother of the other survivor featured in the video.  The dinner was excellent (Beef Tenderloin) and the MC was very funny and entertaining.  Dave Kelly (formerly from Breakfast Television and Suessical the Musical) kept everyone laughing all night.  They showed the video during the meal and everyone loved it.  They did such a good job cutting down 7 or 8 hours of video to 2 or 3 minutes.  We loved the way they told our story and told about our experiences with Kids Cancer Care.  You can check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFNrTOTRrUA&feature=g-all-u&context=G2538196FAAAAAAAAAAA  Let’s see how many views we can get and send this video viral!  The kids all came out carrying the banners or the sponsors and then posed for a few pictures and were on their was home with Grandma and Uncle Randy.  They also had a family come up and tell their story.  It was a wonderful and moving story.  We enjoyed going out and getting all dressed up and seeing a bunch of wonderful people.
 
Sunday was the last day of Ryley’s hockey tournament.  We went up to Cardel Place for a 9:30am game.  The kids played well and we won the game.  The final was at 12:30 so we went out for a quick sub and were back to play again.  In a very, very close game our team managed to pull out a 5-4 win playing the last 90 seconds down 2 players due to penalties.  The kids all loved winning the tournament and it was a nice way to wrap up the weekend.

Long Weekend and Eye Infection

Last week was a write off for Karlee.  She didn’t make it to school Monday or Tuesday due to hospital trips or Wednesday due to her continued fever.  Thursday and Friday were teacher’s convention so she didn’t have school those days either.

Karlee had a fever on and off Thursday and Friday so we didn’t do a whole lot.  Thursday morning she hadn’t had a fever since the night before so she went to gymnastics with Jamie’s Preschool.  It was the first time she had managed to get there since the school started in September.  Jennifer was hoping to take her most weeks, but between sickness and other commitments they have not made it.  This was an exciting week since siblings are invited when they are off school.  Both kids enjoyed themselves and got to do some gymnastics.

Saturday afternoon we all went down to Fish Creek with the dog to look for a couple of geocaches.  We went for a nice walk and found a couple of caches fairly easily.  We then headed the wrong way to find the bridge and by the time we realized it we were better off heading back to the car as Karlee was starting to get tired.  Sunday we went to check out the penguins at the Calgary zoo.  The new exhibit is incredible and well worth the wait.  We were there just after 9am and the wait was only about 45 minutes to get in.  There are 4 breeds of penguins there and they are very entertaining to watch.  We spent a little time wandering around the zoo, but again Karlee wasn’t up to too much.  Monday, after hockey, I took the kids down to Fish Creek to find the other 2 caches we were looking for.  We found the first one fairly quickly, but the 2nd on was a little more challenging.  We looped around the long way and got within about 30 yards and the GPS batteries died.  Of course I went to the pack to find the extra batteries and found that Jennifer had put them in the drawer… so we will have to go back to find that one another day.

Karlee made it to school on Tuesday and Wednesday, but we noticed her eye was a little bloodshot both days.  Wednesday I took her to the eye doctor and we found out she had a viral eye infection.  Of course this resulted in a steroid eye drop and another day off of school.  Karlee is having a hard time getting to school this month.  Hopefully the rest of the year will be al little better.  Friday Jennifer took Karlee back to the eye doctor as her eye wasn’t clearing up as fast as they would have liked.  Once they looked closely at her eye with their fancy tools they were sure the drops were working, just a little slower.  Monday she went back to the eye doctor again and they were happy with the progress her eye had made and said we could go down to once a day for the drops.

Just to make everything a little more miserable, the hard drive in the new computer has crashed and we have lost 2 months worth of pictures and a bunch of Jennifer’s scrapbooking.  I have started to play with it to see if I can recover any of the data, but it looks like it might be a tough, long process.