To celebrate my start of summer, I got a bad cold!

He said

The final steps of Mom (& Dad’s) life and residence at Oakcrossing came to an end this week. As, in the past few weeks a lot of the brunt of that work fell on Danielle, Matthew & Shawn. But, in order to get everything out of the residence, and out of the way for the stuff the movers were bringing down to Welland to David and his family on Friday. It meant pretty much every night after work (and this week that was after the closing shift at the store), we were over at Oakcrossing clearing it out. While it was tiring and a lot of work, I am happy to say that as of Friday, Danielle had handed over all the keys, fobs and we said our goodbyes to Oakcrossing. The only thing that is left, is really just getting Mom settled at Glendale, and after today’s tag team with Shawn, Matthew, Danielle & I, we are like 95% there!

This week was Emelia’s first official week of summer. Last week she finally wrapped up her Co-op class and this week that meant she was suddenly a lot more free to have a summer! And what does one do to properly celebrate their summer break? Why, catch a nasty summer cold of course! She spent the better part of two days in her bed, coughing and filling Kleenexes. It was so bad, that she had to call out for her shifts at work through the start of the week. She started feeling slightly better as the week went on and made it back to work and was able to do some stuff with friends after seeing Dr. and taking Covid tests to make sure she was okay to. It was hard to see her get submarined so quickly after finally being free of way too much obligation, but I guess that was her body’s way of saying maybe you took on too much in July?

This weekend was a recurring theme for me of my summer… Last weekend I was in the MS Ride to the tune of riding 150km over two days. So what did I do this weekend? Another race. Like most of my races this runner, most have fallen a week from the previous. Happened between Paris 2 Ancaster and Scrappy Badger. Happened between Forest City Cycling Challenge and Screaming Squirrel. And now, it has happened between MS Bike and Bluewater International Granfondo this weekend. But, thankfully the schedule has all worked out in my favour. This was my first time doing the BIG, as last year by the time that it hit my radar, it was already sold out. I am so glad I didn’t miss out this year as it is now a must-do event for me. 10 outta 10 can recommend. It is run very well, the course is beautiful and it was a ton of fun. I finished the 50km course in an hour and forty-three minutes and did very well to hold on to some very fast riders and I think finished maybe in the top 20 for my distance. But the most important thing is I had a blast, got a new cycling kit which I love and was home in time for Danielle & I to beeline to the trailer yesterday.

So yes, by 3:30pm yesterday afternoon, I was on the deck at the trailer enjoying a cider and sandwich. Both Danielle had today off work, so the plan all along was as soon as I was done the race and back from Sarnia we would spend the night and today at the trailer. After the week we had of constantly working at clearing out Oakcrossing, it was welcome R&R and time for just Danielle & I to be together. We had an amazing steak dinner and spent the evening relaxing by the fire pit. Today there were no alarm clocks and we enjoyed a slow coffee once we were both awake. After that we got out on the bikes together and took in the G2G for our usual ride together to Blyth & back. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was about taking life at trailer pace before making our way back to London. We popped over to visit Mom and with Matthew & Shawn’s help get her photos up on the wall to make her new home more her home. To hear how happy she is there and how much she is already enjoying it the perfect remedy for all the hard work that it took to get her there. It’s all we needed to hear, and we’ve heard it a lot already!

She said

I am hoping that next week’s blog does not start with this sentence – holy crap that was another busy week. But wow what a week this past week has been. For the last month we have been over getting Helen packed up, purging a ton—it meant a crazy amount of trips to goodwill, the dump, and bags and bags and bags to the garbage. I am sure that Oakcrossing was happy to have us out, it seemed every time were there we were filling the garbage in the laundry room. To say it was a crazy amount of work would be an understatement. After a solid month of packing and moving we are happy to say Helen is finally fully moved in and set up in her new home. What has made this entire process worth it has been seeing Helen so happy and thriving in her new home. We already see a huge difference in how she is feeling and socializing. We are so happy with the care she is receiving and to know she is being cared for in a way that keeps her safe and healthy.

Once we were done on Friday I was able to shift gears and start putting our lives back together here. Everything around our house had been put on hold and our house certainly looked like it. I spent a bit of Saturday over at Helen’s getting her room organized and then started working around our house to get things in order. I took Saturday and part of Sunday doing just that. I was able to get things mostly in order and it feels like we are all settling in.

This week has been a doozy for Emelia. After burning it at both ends for weeks in July Emelia was gifted a horrible chest cold as her parting gift from the kids at the Boys and Girls club. It laid her up for a few days, she missed work, cheer training and time with friends for at least the first half of the week. By later in the week and a visit to the doctors she was starting to get on the mend. With John and I off at the trailer last night she was able to have a bunch of her friends over here for the night and she got to have a real gathering with her favourite friends. I am happy to say that as the week progressed Emelia has started to pack her August to make up for lost time, this has included tonight after work with friends and a trip to Grand Bend for a week soon with some of her closest friends to spend the whole week at her friends cottage. We promised Emelia that after everything she gave up in July we would make up for it in August and ensure this was the best month ever. Happy to say she is starting to plan and is so excited for a month with her friends living her best life