It has been a crazy and stressful few weeks but I finally got a chance to go out with my girls this weekend!

He said

Well, the results are in. After all the stress and worry last week writing her first ever midterm exam at university, Emelia got her mark back this week. After being absolutely certain that she had failed the exam and would have to come up with a plan B and maybe drop the course and take a different one, she found that was not the case. Not only did she pass but she actually passed with buffer and better than some of her peers in the class. Her mark was 67% and was far better than she had initially thought and we were so very proud of her. She found a way to work through the anxiety, and take this stressful moment head on, despite not having gotten her exam accommodations set up by the deadline. And, as Danielle pointed out to her, many of her work colleagues, now professors, took that class and did the same or worse with the first midterm, one even failed this course when she took it.

But to add to her success this week, she also got one of her papers back this week from her CYS Writing class with 84% mark! But not only that, when it was handed back in class her professor used it an example with the whole class of how the paper should have been done! She was so beaming proud and we couldn’t be prouder of her. The first couple of months had been pretty comfortable for Emelia and she has really fallen into the fold with university, but this first round of midterms really rattled her and challenged her comfort making her doubt whether she should even be there. But, these marks and results are really reassuring her and reminding her that se absolutely should be

This week was also Danielle’s birthday which Emelia was really excited about. Some time ago knowing that she and Danielle were going to get tattoos together to commemorate the importance of Danielle’s mother and Emelia’s Angel Grandma, Emelia told me she had the perfect idea for Danielle for her birthday this year. She had found a mother and daughter pair charm for each of them to wear on the Pandora bracelets. Each charm was heart shaped and engraved with Daughter and Mother respectively. She was worried that it was gold as Danielle’s bracelet was silver, but she did the research and found at that Mummy already had a gold charm. Plus I told her that regardless of the colour that I knew her Mother would absolutely love the charm.

So, on Monday this week Emelia met me at the mall after her school while I was at work and we picked up the charms. Emelia was so excited about giving  it to her she couldn’t wait to give it to her on her actual birthday on Wednesday, she gave it to her a full, day early. And, as expected, Danielle loved the present and the thought (and panning behind it). She is so proud of the young woman that Emelia is becoming but I know deep down loves this deep connection she and her have that is very much like the one that had with her mother—it is her meaning, and fuels her to her core.

So, Happy Birthday to Danielle, we hope you know to your heart, how much you mean to both of us. But, especially to Emelia!

She said

For Emelia the last few weeks has been a lot of stress, she is in the thick of mid-terms, lots of papers and keeping up with all her classes. There have been a lot of stressful days and nights but somehow she is still keeping on top of everything. This coming week will be another stressful one, she has a big presentation for her CYS class, two papers and another paper all this week. She came out of last week once some grades started coming back she was starting to feel a bit better about everything. At first she was relieved and still disappointed in her grade for her first exam but then when she started hearing the grades of her classmates she is started to realize how hard this exam was for everyone. I had spoke to a few colleagues, including professors about how hard this exam was and they who had taken that class at different times all said the first exam was brutal, one of the professors even said she had failed the class the first time around. Hearing all of this Emelia and Bri were pretty happy about how they did. The adjustment for the girls to university has been steep but they are both doing really well.

With such a busy week before we knew it we were half way though our week. It was my birthday and Emelia and John surprised me with a beautiful charm for my pandora bracelet. I loved that I was able to get a charm that Emelia and I could have on each of our bracelets. It was the perfect match to go along with what I thought was my birthday present, our matching tattoos. The day was a quiet one and like true sport mom fashion I spent my birthday evening at the cheer gym watching Emelia train. The girls are only 2 weeks out from their first competition of the season and they are working so hard to be in the best shape they can for this first competition. The girls are so nervous, this is the first time most of these athletes have been on a world’s team and for all of them first time they have been on a level 6. The learning curve has been huge, they are training so hard and are never giving up.

For me my work week was a really busy one, my new role I am involved in so many projects that I really get to be involved in so many levels in the university. It is everything I missed from the changes in my old role. This week was another one where I was deeply involved in areas all over at King’s. This week was fall Convocation, I am the co-champion for the Convocation committee so it was a lot of work but also meant this time I was downtown at the actual ceremony seeing a lot of our grads receive their degree. The added bonus for me was the fact that I was able to see a few of my former colleagues from Western. It was great to see so many people I missed working with. The day was long but really fulfilling.

The week was a long one, the last few weekends Emelia hasn’t really had a chance to really let loose and get our much honestly since Homecoming. Between lots of exams, papers and Thanksgiving weekend this is the first real break the girls have had together to try and get out. Since Bri and Emelia still have so much to get done for this coming week they only went out last night. This was their first of the halloween week celebration. The girls have a few coordinating costumes, this past weekend was their coordianating costumes, superheroes. Emelia went out as Harley Quinn, the girls went to a couple of parties, the last one was with a bunch of their friends from high school. It was great for them to reconnect with some people they do not see as much as they once did. I know it has been a huge adjustment for them being the small fish in big sea so being back in their comfort zone with friends was a blast for them all.

We are going into another packed week for Emelia, but the goal at the end of this week is Halloween weekend, Emelia’s favourite party weekend of the year. She loves Halloween so much, added bonus for both she and Bri is that their reading week is after this so they can have a solid break from school and catch up on sleep and maybe get a bit ahead for school work in the coming weeks.