It has been a busy week, between work, school and hanging out with my friends – I feel like I am always on the go.
He said
Well, we have (well, truthfully Emelia has) survived the first two papers she had to submit in her university career! We are so proud of her—she’s doing far better than I ever did. But, she did that all high school too. On one paper in her English class she got a B+ and in the other was the writing course for her program (Child and Youth Studies) she got at an A. It was a great reference part for her as she wasn’t overly confident with all the newness of University and wondering how she might fair with grades. But she definitely walked away from this week feeling like she was exactly where she should be and excited about how university was starting off for her.
This week really was a heavy one for Emelia trying to manage her university class and work load, her job at Gymworld, her job at SilverCity, Cheer training and then trying to shoehorn whatever amount social life she could after all of that other stuff. She was feeling really overwhelmed and not a moment to herself. She really wants to keep it all going and its in her nature to not want to let anyone done so we had urged her to severely tighten up her availability to what she could reasonably work rather all the availability she might have only to see it all get booked. So, she did that and gave away a shift this week to help give herself some her time. We’ll see how the work schedule is over the next few weeks to see if things get any better.
This weekend with all of the Teeters involved in different family gatherings next weekend and us needing to get up to the trailer to start buttoning it up for the season, we decided to do our Teeter Thanksgiving, very lowkey and outdoors with the unseasonably warm weather supporting. The plan was we would all order our own meals, meet up at Springbank Park where the girls could play if they wanted to, and the adults could get time to visit together in the fresh air, outside. It was the perfect solution as no one had to cook, no one had to prep their house for our herd, and best of all there was no clean up after.
Today was the day and it was so good to be back together. For far too many gatherings for the last couple of years they have been for the reasons you never want. So it was very important to wrangle together whenever we can! Our non traditional (read: takeout food), non proper language (read:swear words), and often offside joke (read: very inappropriate humour), early Teeter Thanksgiving Gathering was exactly what all of us needed, Sure, there were some people we would have much rather were there, but I know for sure they were there for sure—especially in all the laughs!
She said
This week has proven to be another really busy one. Emelia is balancing far too much so much that we are trying to get her to scale back so she can have a real social life. She had found although she has been able to keep things all together she is honestly going from one thing to another with little time to really decompress. I am always blown away with what she balances. She has two jobs, training on a World’s cheer team, full time school schedule and an attempt at a social life. This week for the social side it was a bit more low key but she did manage to hang out with her girls, she was able to go out for dinner with her rugby girls and she and some of her besties went out last night to another frat party. She and the boy still continue to message back and forth but with the demands of work/school and impending midterms everyone is getting really busy. The reality of university life is really kicking and the first years are realizing that university is not one party after another they are there to get a degree.
Emelia has been managing to balance it all, her current course load isn’t really full of demanding mid-terms but rather she is starting to hit the papers and presentations are coming due. She was very nervous handing in her first English paper, but all in all she did amazing and managed a B+ for her very first paper. We were so proud, and she took away some of the feedback the professor gave and took that and put it all into the next paper that was due this past week. She also has her first writing for CYS paper and got an A on that. The only real tests she has had to deal with so far is weekly quizzes for psychology and she has had A+ on all of those. Needless to say the schedule she has made for herself and really being regimented she is balancing all these conflicting demands.
Once we were able to get through the week we finally made it to Sunday. And in true Teeter family fashion we celebrated as a family in our own very personal way. Anyone who has spent any time with our family knows that we are not formal or fussy. We are focused on low key events that celebrate time with each other over anything else. When we realized that everyone was going to be busy with Thanksgiving next weekend plus we need to get to the trailer to pack up for the season, we would need to shift our family celebration to this weekend. The weather this fall has been unseasonably warm so we decided to take any of the hosting duties off anyone and move it to Springbank Park. The girls were able to go and play at the playground and we were able to order or own food. The entire afternoon and evening was filled with lots of laughs and celebrating. This last 2 years has been so gut-wrenching that none of us take for granted these moments and realized that being together was far more important than a large stressful meal. We have so much to be grateful for even through all the pain of the last few years. Today was about those who were there but also those we have lost, today we are thankful for the living but thankful for Linda, Greg, Doug and Helen who was wished were there to celebrate with us.