I had a very busy but super fun weekend with my friends!

He said

The real hero of this weekend was Danielle, who despite have what one might call a “weekend“, I don’t think she really got one! Not only was she Mom Taxi™ for Emelia, somehow I managed to rope her into my weekend and scoop any (what she thought might be) free time. Emelia’s itinerary this weekend could be best described as the algebra equation that Will solves in the movie Good Will Hunting. And then when you add in that I was in the MS Bike Ride this weekend with a very last minute curveball thrown into the weekend last minute, it was at best a working weekend for Danielle in a way. Friday night after Emelia was done work, she was off to see a mutual friend’s band play an All Ages Show. As soon as she got home from that, she came with me for a rush trip to MEC to pick up a couple of spare Quick Links for my chain for a chain emergency I had created but deciding that last minute bike servicing, yet again.

And while my weekend in the MS Bike Ride was supposed to be self-sufficient, but the severe storm that rolled through the area early Saturday morning a serious wrinkle was thrown into our whole weekend. I was up at 5:00am and off to Grand Bend for the day one depart to London. The plan was the truck would stay there and be there for me when I got back to Grand Bend this afternoon after the day two ride from London back to Grand Bend. However upon arriving in Grand Bend, a serious storm rolled in and fairly quickly an email was sent out that the start was delayed from 7:30am to 9:00am. And, if I am being honest I was doubtful that was going to be enough, given the intensity and length of the weather. And sure enough, by 8:45am the email came in that day one was cancelled thus throwing all of our best laid plans into the wringer.

Quickly we revamped to me driving home Saturday, doing a ride at home and then sorting out the next day’s ride back to Grand Bend as best we could. Yesterday, Emelia’s dance card was very full! She worked at the theatre from 9-5 and then came home, and had to switch over to get ready for a party/sleepover at her friend Carys’ house. Danielle was actually able to join me for he Team Cowbell (the team I ride with in MS Bike) hospitality gathering. Finally, at 7pm on Saturday Danielle probably had her first moment of just sitting down and relaxing. We actually spent a short-but-sweet night watching some boob tube before retiring somewhat early as day two of MS Bike which was sure to go had a 7:30am start line on campus at Western.

My day obviously had an early start, but thankfully that didn’t impact Danielle as she could sleep in (though, did she? No!). But me arriving in Grand Bend some time in the early morning and needing a ride home got super complicated real fast. Part one of the problem was that Emelia needed to be in Grand Bend by 2:00pm for a beach day at one of her Cheer teammate’s family cottage for a fun day with her team. Part two of the problem was that I was making really good time and would be arriving in Grand Bend way ahead of when we originally thought. When I pulled up to the finish line at 10:0am after 72km of riding, it called for an immediate change of plans. Danielle was going to come to Grand Bend, get me and then we’d head back to London, get Emelia and bring her back to Grand Bend for her gathering. By the time that we sit down to reflect on our week and share it here, there have been no less than three London and back trips to Grand Bend! And that doesn’t even count all the other shuttle time that Danielle spent in her car this weekend.

But. This weekend was a blast, and while I don’t want to speak on Danielle’s behalf, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I ended up raising $1,100 for MS Research and for Team Cowbell who have raised $960,000 in the ten years they’ve been involved. Emelia, was all over yes, but she was doing things with friends, working and generally just having fun which makes us so happy. We’ll only have so many of these kinds of days, so while it is a lot, it is certainly something that we feel lucky to have. This girl has gone from being shy and introverted to putting herself out there and getting out of her comfort zone to have new experiences. We’d never say no to that, even if it makes us more busy.

See, I wasn’t kidding when I said Danielle was the true hero of this weekend!

She said

The funny thing about this week is that the weekend was only part of the craziness that was this week. I will start out briefly with me, on the weekend I started to feel like crap and realized from unfortunate experience that I had developed an infection. I was able to get on meds fast but this time was put on much stronger meds than I had been on the past and it kicked my ass! I was feeling dizzy, nauseous and exhausted. Thankfully I have an incredible boss that was good with me working from home so I could take things at a bit of a different pace on Monday. What this also allowed was for me to get Emelia, Anna and Grace to day one of their driver’s ed in class training. The girls were there for 4 days in a row and are happy to come out the other end all ready for the next step which is there in car training by an instructor. Emelia came out Thursday on her last day proud to tell me she got 100% on her test!

The rest of the week was insane—work has been so busy. I remember someone saying when they found out that I worked at the University that I must have my summers off or at least quieter. Well nope! Not when you work in our division. We have been so busy and add in that I work partly in Human Resources and that means a tone of short term hires are rolling through for the next school year. I love what I do but it has been so busy. So outside work every night it seems we had something on the go, mainly for Emelia.

Monday Emelia had a softball game, I am still blown away are far she has come in this sport. Her throwing arm has become so strong, gone is the insecure girl who wanted to just be there to socialize and she is a developed into a full legit softball player. She is sad that the season is almost over and we hope that with all she wants to do next year she can play again next summer but we aren’t sure that will be possible. The next day was cheer training night, I was able to come watch for the last half of the practice, this team has really gelled fast, they work so insanely hard and I can already see how much further they are from last season because of changes the gym made in training this year. In the past they always had the big training weekends in August and opted this year to move them to July. That difference you can already see, they are already working on their stunts and timing on tumbling, something that didn’t happen in the past until at least September. They are so much further ahead this season that I hope will translate in better results at competition. It is so incredible for us as parents to see Emelia not only thrive but to be so happy. She is loving her new team and most importantly in cheer world she adores her current stunt group, they are strong and are already hitting clean stunts! So proud of this whole group.

The rest of the week was mainly running Emelia back and forth to work after driver’s ed classes and then any other night off with her friends. By the time the weekend rolled around I figured things would somewhat slow down for me. As John has mentioned none of that happened. It was a crazy busy weekend from start to finish but honestly we wouldn’t have it any other way. One day we will not have to run Emelia places, one day there won’t be sports to watch and cheer on, and honestly I am dreading that day. For now I am happy to be mom taxi and to be her biggest champion. Because one day way too soon she will be off living her own life on her own and we will miss these crazy weeks and weekends!

Next week will be another busy one for Emelia but we are on the verge of a long weekend so we hope that time up at the trailer with family (my sister and Marshall are coming up) and a gaggle of teenage girls (Emelia has a her friends up next weekend for an overnight) we will build even more memories!