Jan
2015

Health & family… they matter to me!

IMG_0963I had the flu this week and I didn’t like that! It kept me home from school and I couldn’t go skating with Daddy on Friday.

IMG_0582He said

The biggest event on the TeeterPod radar happened Tuesday this week, and not in London. My oldest brother David who has had some challenges with his heart was going in for bypass surgery. He is the second person in our family to undergo this surgery—having their rib cage broken open, their ticker stopped, and the plumbing rerouted. It’s not something I want to get used to – having loved ones go through substantially serious operations – but necessary to giving us many more years together.

The thinking prior to the surgery was it would be potentially a triple bypass, but primarily there were two ventricles with substantial blockages that they were focused on. The good news is the surgery by all counts was a success. David only needed a double bypass and the third ventricle didn’t need tending to. David is already, at the time of typing this, back home recuperating with family.

IMG_0583Being that this is the second person in our family with heart trouble, I am hoping this becomes more of a warning note, rather than something we get used to. I am going to take it as a personal challenge to get myself into a better diet again, and drop the excess Christmas luggage. Danielle has done a great job with inspiring this family to be healthy and active and I want to get even more passionate and engaged in our health. I think it is important for that mindset to be part of our and Emelia’s reality so that we’re all engaged in proactivity rather than wishing we had done more after the fact.

My only day off this week was Friday which Emelia and I were scheduled to go skating at Storybook Gardens on their ice paths, however Emelia came down with a pretty nasty flu bug midweek and by Thursday it was obvious she couldn’t go. Even Emelia wasn’t hard to convince she couldn’t go skating which told us she was sick.

IMG_0579So, after I returned from my usual Friday morning hockey, Emelia and I had a rest day in our bedroom watching her beloved American Girl movies she has. And the best part was, every time my attention waned to my iPhone and what was happening on social media, I had a little tap on my shoulder and a “Daddy you’re not paying attention”. Eventually, I put it down and just snuggled with her. And maybe even caught a 15 minute nap that slipped under Emelia’s radar. (when you’re reading this years later, Emelia, sorry, Daddy was tired)

This weekend had me in at the store both Saturday and Sunday. And Sunday after work our entire management team were headed down to Toronto for a year-end dinner that brings all the managers together from all the stores in our market. There were a lot of friendly faces from my journey at Apple and a lot of faces that I got to put names to. The gathering was at the lovely Waterside Inn in Mississauga and the meal was nothing short of amazing. And I got to reconnect with the two (of the three) managers that I went to training in San Francisco with last May. It was a great evening all around, despite being too short. The people I work alongside are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known, after my family of course.

IMG_0568Typical of my modus operandi, and even though I knew that I was going to this dinner for a couple weeks now, at 7:10pm Saturday night, I decided maybe I should get a suit for this shindig. I know, brilliant planning and foresight on my part, but you know when you have Danielle as your sidekick, you tend to know/rely that things somehow amazingly always get pulled off—much to her wanting to have time to plan and organize more reasonably, chagrin… But I am happy to say that in about 3 hours (total) of work we managed to pull together a brand new suit, complete with hemmed pants that were all ready to go by the time I wrapped up work.

I have three, glorious days off in-a-row this week starting Tuesday. And then this weekend I have Saturday off where we celebrate a certain someone’s passage into her eighth year! I predict a lot of two things this week: family and fun. And I have zero problem with either.

 

IMG_0574She said

This week was filled with ups and downs…

The week started with concern and worry over David’s heart surgery, We are beyond happy to say that the surgery was a complete success and now he is on the slow road to recovery. Also beyond happy for the entire family that he was released from the hospital and is back home with his family. I know that Linda is beyond relieved to have him home and not making the long 160KM commute to the hospital in Hamilton in uncertain weather. All in all we are so relieved to hear that he is in good spirits and feeling as good as anyone can be after having such major surgery.

IMG_1014The other down for us was the up and down in Emelia’s health this week. She had a revolving high fever off and on for a couple days. After finally hitting a very high temperature on Thursday we brought her into the clinic. She has a viral bug so we basically had to do what we could to keep her fever in check, keep her hydrated and get her rest. Thankfully by Friday she was on the mend and finally by the weekend she was over the virus and now we are only dealing with a minor cold. So all in all our healthy as a horse kid was over a virus pretty quickly and we had our feisty little girl back.

She was back to herself thankfully in time for the weekend. And what a busy weekend it turned out to be. Once again the theme of Saturday was her birthday party planning. Thanks to incredibly generous friends and family we have everything we need for her party and then some. So we had to shift our focus on activity and craft planning for the party. She and I after getting all our groceries done focused on finding all the supplies for the crafts for the party. It was a bit of back and forth with her to see what I was trying to plan but she realized that mommy might just might know what she is talking about and we came to a plan that works for doing 2 crafts with 10 little girls in an hour. All in all it has been a ton of work but she is beyond excited for this party so I know it will all be worth it.

IMG_1023Today was again about Miss E. First we had to put some final touches on some shopping for John and then we had to get Emelia to her beloved gymnastics and swim classes. After that she and I did some window shopping. First for ideas for her birthday party, I never thought it would be a challenge to get a list from a child for gift ideas but she is really not sure what to ask for. She has a couple things in mind but with 9 children invited to her party and family to shop as well we are running thin on ideas! The other shopping adventure was trying to shop for clothes for Emelia for spring.We are in a real transition period with her, she is no longer a little girl and she is not a pre-teen. She wants to dress a bit older but not like a teenager (thank goodness). But she doesn’t know what she likes, she knows certainly what she doesn’t like but not what she likes. I have a feeling clothing shopping is going to be a painful process all around.

All in all it was a long week and a very busy weekend. Next week is the start of the big week, Emelia’s big present from John and I is on Thursday and her birthday parties are on Saturday. It will be a busy 7 days for sure!

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