TGIF

This week has been the longest week EVER...like seriously, every morning I would wake up, groggy and think....is it Friday?  Ugh, and now it's here.

I actually almost stayed home today....I have a wierd cough thing happening and pains in my stomach, not gallbladder but more my belly button this time.  My poor 36 year old body is falling apart.  Probably Coronavirus.

This week....

- no gallbladder attack...and no call from the doctor's office yet

- our building had an incident yesterday that saw a lot of paramedics, firefighters and HAZMAT teams...apparently 3 people starting puking and had burning eyes at the dentist office downstairs...probably stupid Coronavirus. 

- we were all in bed early every night...even Ricky...like 7:30 pm early.

- Mom made cabbage rolls and I had some in my lunch yesterday...they were good but I couldn't enjoy them really because when I took them out of the microwave I burned my finger....it was sooo sore.  Today it's bubbled and I keep hitting it on everything.

- our little town changed the name of a local hall back to its original name...and I think Nanny would be smiling up above.  This was her goal in life, to put it back to the Women's Institute.  It was close to her.  Too bad it happened after she passed.

- I had a massage this week that was much overdue.  It felt great.  Afterwards I spoke with another therapist about my gallbladder issues and I am going to see her next week for some sort of a massage on the guts that may help.

- Josee's mom had her surgery finally yesterday in Sherbrooke.  She was awake the whole time, and it wasn't long because the tumour was smaller than 3 cm so they removed it by laser.  They did an MRI beforehand and found another tumour, so they removed that too.  There were also signs that she experienced a stroke in the past couple of weeks.  They are on their way back home today.  Prayers to Cathy and family.

This weekend...

- I may be sick.

- Tonight Tanner is back to hockey practice, not sure if I will be going though.

- Hockey game tomorrow at 1:30 then we may head back to the camp to fire up the snowmobile.

- Sunday, weather permitting, I would like to go to Winterlude.

What are your plans this weekend?

#BellLetsTalk

Today is #BellLetsTalk Day...social media will be busting with tweets, shares and stories about mental health.

In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s mental health. At that time, most people were not talking about mental illness. But the numbers spoke volumes about the urgent need for action. Millions of Canadians, including leading personalities, engaged in an open discussion about mental illness, offering new ideas and hope for those who struggle, with numbers growing every year.
As a result, institutions and organizations large and small in every region received new funding for access, care and research from Bell Let’s Talk and from governments and corporations that have joined the cause. Bell’s total donation to mental health programs now stands at $100,695,763.75.

We all know someone that suffers from mental health.  Maybe someone in your own home.  It's scary.  Parents want to hide from it if their child is affected...but that's the worse thing.  If my kids suffered, I would want to be there for them.  

On November 13, 2010, Stephanie Richardson and her husband, Luke (from the Shawville area), experienced a parent’s worst nightmare: the death of their child. At the age of 14, their daughter Daron took her own life. Stephanie, Luke and Daron’s older sister Morgan, summoned their strength and courage and decided to share their story in order to raise public awareness about youth mental health. 

Daron’s friends and hockey teammates were also devastated, and they wanted to take action. Fast. They felt they needed to honour Daron, whom they loved for her smile, sunny disposition and positive outlook. And thus, Do it for Daron (DIFD) began to take shape. First, stickers were made, then bracelets and other objects that everyone could remember Daron by. The initiative quickly evolved into a youth mental health awareness campaign to help young people break their silence and seek the help and resources they needed to get better. 

A community of friendship fuelled this project, backed unconditionally by Stephanie and Luke. DIFD aims to encourage children and adolescents to talk and confide in others. The movement also aspires to educate parents, teachers, coaches and all other adult models to demonstrate their openness and availability to youth, by initiating conversation or simply lending an ear. The purple heart, inspired by Daron’s favourite colour, has come to symbolize this impressive youth mental health movement. 

To learn more about DIFD, whose hallmarks are optimism and hope, watch the TSN Original: Purple Hearts video.

Will you be sharing your story today??

{Weekend Rewind}

We didn't have hockey on Friday night again because of a local hockey tournament...and I AM OKAY with that.  Can't say I miss it, BUT we are back to  regular programming this week.

Saturday Josee, Landyn and Gray came over and spent the night.

Hollie and the kids joined us in the afternoon.

Boomer DROVE me nuts.  He loves food.  He loves little kids coming over and walking around with food.  He snatches it right from their little hands. I get mad.

We got talking about butterscotch pie and Josee had never heard of such a thing...so a quick text to Mom and a pie appeared.  Josee now likes butterscotch pie.

It snowed...and rained...and snowed.

Sunday Tanner had hockey in Masham but because Brault was coming to deliver the new mattress and dresser, I had to go solo.  Luckily we did not get stuck like some other parents.

We had to take the walk in closet all apart - walls removed to get the old dresser down and the new one up...and it was like a 5 hour process putting it back together.  NEVER AGAIN!

Maddy made us some chocolate chip oatmeal muffins for the week and I prepped lunches for the week.

Ricky and I watched Criminal Minds then Maddy and I watched the new season of Family Reunion before turning in for the night.

How was your weekend?

TGIF

It's been a full week back to work since coming back from our vacation....and we survived, haha.

Tuesday on the way home I had another attack.  Ricky was late leaving work and every car was driving too damn slow.  At one point we thought of pulling over and calling an ambulance, the pain was that bad.  By the time we got to Quyon it had passed of course, but we still headed to emergency.  After a couple of hours of no one going anywhere, we left because I had a scheduled ultrasound on Thursday already planned.

Yesterday's ultrasound however showed no kidney stones and no gallstones....so what the hell is going on?  Dr Google says I can still have stones, they just aren't showing up on the scans yet.  I will wait for Dr Mac to get the report and I am almost positive I will get a phone call...then I will request additional tests because the pain is obviously coming from somewhere.

In the meantime, trying to avoid eating bad things such as dairy and fried foods.  I am following diets that are for healthy gallbladders and avoiding foods that may trigger an attack.

Maddy had her first exams this week.  She wasn't nervous but she didn't know what to expect.  I am not expecting that great of marks (except for math) just because of the whole exam thing.  She does well in classes but exams are different.  The French teacher emailed me yesterday saying she got 59% on her reading comprehension and while I sorta freaked at first....she said she is on track with everyone else.

Josee has been at the hospital with her mom all week so her dad could go back to work so this weekend she is escaping and her and the kids are gonna spend the weekend at our place.

Her mom then is going next week to Sherbrooke to have emergency surgery to have a brain tumour removed...prayers for her and her family at this time!

 I plan on staying bunkered in the house Saturday.  Weather reports are saying 15-20 cm of snow.  

Sunday we have our last away hockey game in Masham.  Go Lions Go.

If you are a PC point collector - this weekend is a major points event!  I look forward to accumulating a lot of points today when I head to the store!

Happy Friday!

 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

- getting back into the routine of things since Christmas, vacation and death in the family.

- that it's supposed to warm up

- we are almost done the hockey season...while I like going, it will be nice to have weekends back

- the love we have for our dog - I never thought we would be a dog family but since Boomer came, it was instant love.  We missed him while we were gone and love being back home with him.

- he's pretty smart too - the other day he was off leash and was fine then decided he wanted to go visit Momma and Grampa.  My biggest fear is he full charges towards the road.  He does full charge down the driveway but he immediately turns and stays on the sidewalk...then yes, he ended up at Mom and Dad's - haha!

- before Christmas we bought Boomer a new Kong toy.  They are guaranteed apparently and dogs aren't suppose to chew through things.  Well while we were gone, he did.  I emailed Kong and within a day they sent me a coupon for $20 off a Kong toy.  Great customer service.

- Josee, Landyn and Gracynn are home.  They were just home around the holidays then they decided to cancel their cruise, so they didn't join us but then they ended up coming back because Josee's mom is not doing well.  After falling out of bed and essentially being paralyzed from the waist down, they found she had a tumour on her spine (and other areas).  She underwent an intense six hour surgery to remove the tumour and two of her vertebrae's.  She still has no feeling and is in a body brace.  Josee is here to help her dad out.  She is hospitalized and her dad went back to work this week.  Prayers for Cathy!

- haven't had a gallbladder or kidney stone attack *knock on wood*.  I have been googling what foods to avoid and what to do to prevent them.  I go for an ultrasound tomorrow so hoping for some answers after that.

- I have a much needed massage appointment this morning!

What are you loving today?

Belland Cruise Vacation

Sorry for the delay in posting our trip.  I had some trouble getting into Blogger and I finally sorted it out today.

Our trip recap:

Overall - it was a much better trip than two years ago

Kids First Time on a Plane
Dad dropped us off at the Ottawa airport on Friday Jan 3 late morning and there were no issues going through Security or baggage.  We had some time to hang around and then we got on our first plane for a short ride to Toronto.  Maddy was nervous.  She started to panic a little and honestly, she was a trooper considering the flight was really bad with turbulence.  Tanner...he loved it!
We arrived in Toronto and had about two hours before our final leg to Fort Lauderdale.

Night One in Fort Lauderdale
We got our bags, got our shuttle and checked in to our hotel for the night.  We ordered pizza and went to bed. 

Let's Get Cruising
We called Uber's in the morning to take us to the port.  It was well organized and before we knew it, we were through Security and walking around the cruise ship with lots of time to spare.  Our room wasn't ready so we ate lunch and looked around.

Sea Days
We had 4 Sea Days and 4 port days.  While we were on the ocean we:
- swam
- soaked in the hot tubs
- drank daiquiris
- danced and sang
- watched karaoke, comedy shows, and musical talent
- ate...lots

Port Days
Our first stop was St Maarten and we had an excursion planned so we got off early in the morning, took a quick tour of the port (was really hot) and then waited for our excursion.  We boarded a boat and they took us near the St Maarten airport where we anchored in the ocean and watched planes come in right over our heads.  Tanner and Ricky went snorkelling while Katie and Maddy swam. 

Next stop was St Kitts.  We had nothing planned and we just got off, looked around, picked up some souvenirs and headed back to take advantage of less people on the boat (which meant getting a chair in the sun at the pools).  The highlight here were the monkeys!

Next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico and it wasn't that great.  We got dropped off in the middle of a city.  We walked around, looked at some shops and headed back early to again, take advantage of less people on board.

Our final stop was Friday to Turks and Caicos but we couldn't dock because of high winds.  This was a big bummer cuz its the one place I really wanted to visit.  We received the news while standing in line for breakfast so the lounge chairs were quickly picked up by the time we found room at a pool.

Nightlife
Tanner and I hung out.  I had signed him up for the kids club for his age and he went a total of an hour on Day 1.  He preferred to hang out with us between the pools and waterpark and that was okay.  Maddy on the other hand, we never saw her.  She met so many kids her age and hung out till the wee hours with them playing dodgeball on the top deck and hiding and finding rubber ducks around the ship.  Tanner and I had a routine...we would all meet for supper at the same time and then Tanner and I would head to the theatre where there was always a show showing.  Tanner loved the music and dance.  Once that was over, we would typically take a tour around and then head to our rooms and bed early. Maddy and Ricky would come in around 1 am.

According to the kids
They loved it.  Tanner soaked every moment in but was excited to get home.  Maddy, she was already discussing the next trip and is still talking to friends she met. 

Last night in Fort Lauderdale
It was cheaper for us to come home on Monday than Sunday so we had all day in Fort Lauderdale.  We signed up for another excursion that took us to the home of the Gator Boys where we boarded an airboat with a guide who took us to look for gators (we saw three) and then we watched a show and headed back to another hotel for the night. 

 
Ricky and Butter went to a hockey game and the kids and I lounged by the pool and was in bed early.  Around midnight I woke up in excruciating pain and was contemplating calling 911 but I was scared of the costs.  Eventually the pain subsided and I was able to get some sleep (after googling in the morning, I think it was gallstones, find out Thursday when I have an ultrasound).  We got up Monday morning, finished packing and was heading home with heavy hearts as we received a call that morning saying my Nanny Brouse had passed away. 

Today feels like the first day that we are back to reality.  When we got home we prepared for the wake and funeral so it's been a busy week.

Happy New Year!

It's 2020.

It's a new decade.

It scary to think that I graduated from high school 20 years ago!

I am at work today but then I am gone to the sunny Caribbean for a glorious 11 days!

How was Christmas?

- I was sick most of the time...I was sick the week before Christmas and I honestly still haven't recovered.  I went from feeling okay, to sore throat again, to no energy to having diarrhea.  It was great!

- Christmas Eve we had Tracy, Butter, Kaitie and Butter's brother for the night.  We stayed in, had drinks and played cards.  Well they did...I went to Church, came home, got gifts ready and went to bed.

- Christmas morning Tracy woke us up way too early for our liking.  We were done opening gifts before 7 am then when my sister and her family arrived, we headed to Mom and Dad's to open their gifts.

- Christmas dinner was at our place and of course my stupid stove was being dumb and it took forever to cook the turkey...eventually we ate!

- We got to see Owen, the newest baby in the family and took advantage of all the kids and took a photo!

- Christmas guests stayed late enough, playing cards and darts and well me...went to bed!

- Josee, Evan, Landyn and Gracynn came to visit us not once but twice.  The boys were so happy to be together playing Nintendo Switch.

- We had an ice storm after Christmas was all over.

- Started packing for our trip

Like I said, today I am back to work to tie up some loose ends.  I may get a pedicure today (or a haircut) and then home, finish packing and heading to the airport tomorrow morning!

Fingers crossed that this is a smooth sailing trip, especially with the kids with us this time.  The weather is looking clear for tomorrow so that should be good.  I don't really care if we have delays on the way home, at least the cruise will have been done.

See you after our vacation!