After months of planning and excitement I went to my prom! I had the best time with my friends, it was a magical night.

He said

With Mom in declining health over the last few weeks and that getting sped up in the last week, that meant a lot of time spent going over to Mom’s at Glendale to check in on her, to meet with her Doctor and to just spend time with her. Pretty much every day this week, between Matthew & Shawn, Testza and Danielle & I, we were with—some days even doubling up. Her health has been declining to rapidly we’re all being taken right back to how we were feeling a little over a year ago with Dad, and a year and a half ago with Greg. With Emelia being so close to my family this is really weighing on her. Hell, it’s weighing on us all. But, for now, we’re just focused on getting as much time as we can to be there for her.

With that said, this week was also a lot of other things too. First off, I have upped the ante with trying to get Emelia’s basement suite finished and this week that was focusing on getting the wall that will separate her space, built. It is the one stage that will really make her feel like her space is taking shape (and that she will have her privacy). Monday after work, I got to setting the top and the base plate for the stud wall and framing out the door, as well as picking up the hardware and door for the sliding barn-style door at Home Depot with Danielle. By the time that Emelia was done work she got to see the progress and was very happy.

Wednesday, I was able to get back at it again and get a fair amount of the studs and framing in, again much to Emelia’s delight. She’s really starting to feel like there’s progress at a better velocity which is something that since Christmas she hasn’t felt has been moving fast enough for her. Tonight after I get this done, I will get the nailers in the wall which then means we can start mounting some drywall and have something that really resembles a wall and gives Emelia her separation and privacy. The next step from there will be cutting the door down to size and mounting the sliding barn-style door hardware.

Today was the next race on this summer’s event calendar for me in the Forest City Cycling Challenge. I was doing the 50km—same as I have done the last two years prior. It is a road course with a little bit of elevation but nothing too crazy. But the best part is it is right here in London so for a 9:30am start, I could get up as late as I wanted as there wasn’t a 3 hour drive to the event like Scrappy Badger. Of the two events I have already done this year, I have managed better results riding both faster than the year before so that has been the focus of this season: can I do each event faster than I did the year before. With the weather on my side this year (last year was rainy and cold), I knew I stood a good chance.

After starting in wave 2 and very quickly catching up to wave 1 a kilometre from the start I knew this was going to be a good one. At about 4 kilometres in, I had caught and passed everyone in the 50km start and began my 50 kilometre solo time trial. Only a couple of times could I see someone behind me off in the distance, but I just kept pushing. I rolled back into Boler Mountain to the start finish and was told I was the first 50km rider in and looked down at the ride data to see that I had finished a full ten minutes faster than last year! I am really happy with how my fitness is showing up this year, and how it has been lading me in improved results.

The last thing from this week – as if there wasn’t already enough – was Emelia’s prom but I will let Danielle tell you about that in her week…

She said

It seems that every week I start the blog off saying what a busy week but here we are another week of oh my god what a busy week. Right now around Emelia’s very busy schedule we are trying to balance everything. With Helen’s health failing fast we are going over most nights to be with her, keeping on top of all the information that the doctor and medical team are sharing with us. Sadly things are moving fast and in the wrong direction. It has been another gutwrenching few weeks in a family that has been through hell and back in the last two years. Today John and I went over and met with Matthew and Shawn to spend the afternoon with Helen. There are good and bad moments and we try and take in the good as much as we can.

To add to all of this with the renovation in Emelia’s room. Emelia has been so busy, she is down to 2 sports right now but those plus school, prom prep, her two jobs and social life have had us busy every single night. The biggest event for Emelia this week was prom. This is the day she has been planning and dreaming of for so many years. She found the perfect dress, she was going to prom with her best friends and even her date was her best friend Carter. The girls spent much of the week planning out the prep party, post party, hair, nails and filming all their TikTok transitions. After everything Emelia has been through to see her this happy was exactly what we could have dreamed about.

Wednesday Emelia and her best friends were off to get their nails done and to figure out all their last minute plans. Early on Thursday morning, the day of prom Emelia was on her way to Belle’s house so the girls could all have a special brunch together, all the girls together. Some of the girls wanted to get ready at their own homes but Emelia and Belle wanted to get ready together. By the time I arrived the girls were already well on their way and have their hair done perfectly and the make up was well under way. Quickly the girls were all dressed up and looking so beautiful and then we were off to pick up Carter to meet everyone at Springbank Park to do the big group photos with all their friends. The park was packed, it is the place where all proms go to get their photos done and with three big high schools all there it was a packed place. Emelia bounced from one friend group to the other and we got to see these beautiful girls we have seen grow up become young women. It was so sweet to be honest and to see Emelia so comfortable in her own world is everything we could have hoped for. Add in that she went as a date with her best friend Carter it made the night even more perfect. The two of them are so funny together and they just seemed to have so much fun.

After about an hour at the park the kids all started to pack up and were off to prom. Emelia had a great time although she did say the pre and post prom was the better time. The prom itself was a blast but was as she said a very expensive fancy dance. The kids were all ready to get back to London, get out of their formal wear and get off to the post prom party and Emelia’s friend Lucy’s house. It was a packed party not only all of Emelia’s extended friends from Lucas it was also added in the kids from MTS which is the Catholic sister school for Lucas. All the kids know each other as so many grew up together. All in all Emelia came home talking my ear off and about how much fun she had. It was exactly what she hoped for and dreamed of all these years.

Post prom the next morning started again early. Before the post prom party was even done there was a lot of planning to head to Grand Bend to continue the post prom celebrations. A lot of the kids have family cottages that way, add in the MTS post prom trip to Grand Bend and lots of cottages rented by the kids from that school meant that Grand Bend is where the girls wanted to be. The girls looped in their friend Liv who goes to a different high school and they quickly planned a trip up and to spend the night at Liv’s grandparents cottage. Carter, another friend Rylan and Alejandro also joined them and the girls had another night of memory making. I went up to Grand Bend to pick up 4 very tired teenagers who came home to crash out until the next round of hanging out last night. All in all it was a very successful weekend and week for Emelia and her friends.

Now she has to re-shift her focus and drive to get through the last of high school, she is for sure ready to be done and keeping the motivation to keep things going is hard for sure. She is more than ready for the summer to get here and make a summer full of memories. The last month of high school will fly by so fast, I hope she takes in all the memories. There are still so many last milestones that she is getting through, she had graduation very soon, she still has some big school events like Relay for Life and PowerPuff that will make this last month one to remember for her.