I am finally done with my co-op and ended up with an A! Now let my real summer begin!
He said
The big day this week was Thursday with Mom’s move from Oakcrossing over to a more assisted and better suited to her, living at Glendale Crossing on the south end. We have been working with her for weeks getting together the stuff she wanted to pare down to what she wanted to come with her given that she was going down to a third of the square footage/floor space that she and Dad had. Thursday was finally the day that we would help her move over and we were as ready as we could be. It was a lot of work, but if I am being honest, it went a lot better than we anticipated. It was a long, hard day but by 7pm that evening we had her settled and she was ready for the next place in her journey. By all counts on the days since the food and staff have been amazing. So, that is a huge relief for all of us.
Friday was another milestone in that Emelia had her last day of four weeks in her Co-op experience at Boys & Girls Club work five days a week, for forty hours. She’s had an amazing time and really valued this experience as it has really solidified her decision to take the Childhood and Youth Studies program at King’s College. And even though there were some challenges both with the kids she had, and the way that the curriculum was delivered by her teacher, the end result is she is now more certain than ever that she wants to work in this field. But, the best thing about Co-op coming to an end is it is one less very big commitment off her weekly to-do list. She will finally get some time to enjoy summer break!
This weekend for me was the MS Bike (Ride) raising funds for in support of Canadians affected by MS. I was riding again (for the third year) with Team Cowbell. Last year, with the help of friends & family I was able to hit the 1000 club, getting $1,253 in funds raised. This year, I was doubtful that I would get there as I got a late start to fundraising, but friends came through and in big way! I managed to hit that 1000 club yet again for the second straight year at $1,135. In the first two years I did the ride we lost one day each year with some extreme weather. This year looked to be the first year that I was actually going to get in both days as the forecast was stellar for the whole weekend.
Day one (yesterday) was an 82km ride starting in Grand Bend and riding all the way back to London. And, day two (today) was riding 69km from London back to Grand Bend. Both days would give me 150km in the saddle with a bunch of friends and people wanting to make a positive impact on such a debilitating disease. Both days I could not have asked for better weather and rides. In the past two years, I have got out in front of the start line herd in order get out of the logjam only to end up in pretty much a solo break-away for the rest of the ride. This year however, I made friends and was able to make some version of a chain gang in order to share the efforts and ease the workload. And both days I ended up riding faster than I had done those sections in previous yers. All told, I rode 15okms on the weekend and had an amazing time. I am
She said
The last month has been having us run at burn out level as a family. Let’s start with Emelia who is finally done a very time intensive summer course. Between her co-op placement, homework from the course as well as her part-time job she was working 65 hours for the last 4 weeks and had not had a single day off since June. Thankfully she is finally done the placement and was also able to get Saturday off so she and her friends could spend the day in Grand Bend and let her finally start her summer. As her parents we could not be prouder of her, she balanced all this insane work level with so much work ethic and professionalism. She balanced so much and did not let anything fall behind. In the course she got an A and glowing words from her supervisor on how well she did. She has balanced sooooo much and somehow kept it all together. We promised her that we will ensure August is the most epic month for her. And her and her besties have already started planning out their August.
To add to Emelia’s demanding schedule has been the burning it at both ends work to get Helen’s very packed apartment packed up, purged and organized. She is going from a very packed 2 bedroom apartment to a tiny studio in her new place. So it took hours an hours of work over the last few weeks to purge so much and prepare for the move. John, Matthew, Shawn and I were there really late the night before the move still organizing everything to prepare for the big day and the move. Thursday bright and early Matthew and Shawn arrived and shortly after we arrived. By the time John and I were there the movers were already packing everything up. In very short order the truck was loaded and we were navigating getting Helen over to her new home. Thankfully Helen’s brother Jim and his wife Betty-Anne came over and were able to spend time with Helen while the boys and I started the rush unpacking of her new space. After a number of hours we were about 80% unpacked and we were all exhausted, especially Helen. We decided that we would call it a night and let all of us get some much needed sleep.
For John and I the weekend was packed. John was participating in the MS ride again this year and I was heading to the trailer to spend the weekend with one of my closest friends. My friend Lauren and I met at Western. Last fall Lauren left Western and is now working and living in Toronto. With all of her life changes and the chaos of our lives we have not been able to spend much time together since she left Western. Our schedules matched up and with John in the race I had Lauren up at the trailer for the weekend. Lauren and I were instantly close friends when we met at Western, there was an instant connection and were quick close friends. Lauren had come up to the trailer a few times last summer and I was over the moon that she was able to make the trip from Toronto to spend the weekend with me.
We headed up on Friday and picked up right were we left off, talked around the fire until the wee hours and as always it was a night filled with stories and lots of laughs. After a great sleep we both decided to head into Goderich for the market in the square after breakfast. I had not been to the market since it had fully re-opened post Covid and did not disappoint. For the next few hours Lauren and I played tourist before heading back to the trailer for a later lunch and some drinks. Again we spent the day catching up, built a fire and were up talking last night until 1:00 in the morning.
Today we sadly had to say good-bye and have her head back home. Once I got home it was another trip over to Helen’s place to do more packing and purging. This stage of the move is deciding what is going down to David, what other family members want, arranging for a few more things to be moved to Helen’s place now that she is settled in and the rest will go off to donation. We still have a fair bit of work to do but we are getting close. We have a deadline of Friday to get things packed for David and we are using that date to be our deadline to clear the apartment and hand over the keys. As a group we need this done as it has been all consuming for weeks. We still have to plan Doug’s celebration of life so we would love to be done with the move side and get our lives back.