I qualified for the Cross County finals! I finished 4th!

He said

The week began in such an amazing way, it was hard to imagine it getting any better, and yet it did! Monday I was off work (by request) as Danielle and I had tickets to see Sigur Rós at Massey Hall. They are a band I have loved for quite some time and yet had never had the opportunity to see. They’re from Iceland and their shows are so legendary as an experience that tickets are often hard to find. When their intimate gig at Massey was announced, I knew this was my opportunity to cross them off the bucket list. And while we paid more than I like to for a concert, sitting 4 rows from the stage, I didn’t have a single regret leading up to the show.

As soon as the last kid left daycare and Emelia off with Poppa for gymnastics and then a sleepover at their house, Danielle and I were off to Toronto for the concert. We made such good time getting down, that we were able to slip in supper at one of our favourite places, Salad King before heading over to Massey Hall for the show. To say the concert was an experience would be putting it lightly for certain. Danielle and I didn’t know what to expect with their music being so atmospheric and unique we were hoping that the live version of it would live up to the sound. In addition to the rich texture they create in sound there was a multi media display that incorporated multiple video screens, lights, LED lighted frames in sync with the music. In short there was easily as much thought put into what you were seeing as what you were hearing. The band played for three hours with an intermission and hit almost all of my favourite songs. We both walked away from that show flummoxed by such a unique and not soon to be forgotten experience.

After such a great way to start the week, it was hard to believe that the week could get any better, but Tuesday was the big day for Emelia. In the afternoon she was running in her qualifier for the cross country finals. She needed to finish 14th or higher in order to be guaranteed a spot in the final. Last year, she finished 9th and we were so surprised and delighted by that. I was bummed that I had to work and couldn’t see her run, but Danielle was able to tweak her daycare day in order to be able to bring the kids to cheer on “Ya-Ya” so I was happy that she had that support. Just about the moment I was starting to wonder how she did, the message came through from Danielle. Not only had she qualified for the finals, she managed to place fourth and was neck-in-neck with the girl who placed third! The finals go on the 18th and I am going to swap my day off that week so that I can go cheer her on. We’re already so proud of how she has done this year, but I am sure I will be a bundle of nerves that day!

And, as if the week couldn’t get even better yet, when the weekend rolled around we had Thanksgiving which meant that we got time to be with the whole family. And the best part is our sister-in-law Linda (and the whole family, too) were able to make it down. It’s the first time we’ve seen her since she’s started her chemotherapy and we’re really happy we could put the time together as a whole family. As much as the disease is a challenge and it sucks, it has been a true reminder to us all what really matters. And at Thanksgiving that becomes even more meaningful for us all. First we all met up at Mom & Dad’s while the family collected, and then for ease on us all, Mom & Dad treated us to dinner at Practical Henry’s who puts on a special Thanksgiving meal that we’ve taken part in now two years. The meal was great and there was as many smiles and laughs as there were full tummies.

After dinner we reconvened at Mom & Dad’s and got more time to visit. We also – since we were all together – we had an early birthday party for Andrew who is turning 18! We had cake (which none of us probably needed) and sung our traditional too long and too off key version of Happy Birthday. We all got our turns with the newest member to this herd, Zoe and probably later than they should Linda, David and family got headed out. Minutes after they left Emelia – in tears – remembered she didn’t give Linda the special gift she made for her—a heart that she made from modelling clay and had painted purple (Linda’s favourite colour) to let her know we’re thinking about her in her fight. Thankfully they weren’t too far from the house and were able to double back and Emelia gave it to Linda. As if I wasn’t already proud enough this week of Emelia there was another reason.

Today being a day off for everyone we vowed to get some nagging yard work done and then finally (and begrudgingly) get Wolfie ready for winter storage. And we decided even though we had such a great meal yesterday, we still wanted to do our own little home cooked Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings together, just the three of us. While I type this the turkey is roasting away in the oven, a Sigur Rós record is playing and Danielle is waiting for me to help get Wolfie ready for hibernation. Which means I should probably wrap my part up. As I said it was a truly great week, I was literally reminded in every moment how much I have to be thankful and proud of which is probably the best week to have that overwhelming sense of, so Happy Thanksgiving—hope yours is as great as ours!

She said

This week was packed from start to finish. Monday was a normal work day for me and back in the swing of things. I had a little boy start officially in daycare and he did amazing. He is a sweet and very talkative 3 year old little boy. He and my other almost 3 year old get along amazing and they are thick as thieves from almost the moment they started. Monday was a blur and before I knew it the last little one was home with their parents and I was in mad rush to get out of my daycare grubby clothes and into something more presentable for the concert in Toronto. All the little ones for once we actually picked up a bit early so we were out the door and on our way to Toronto by 5:00. We had expected some traffic once we got to Toronto but we made incredible time and were there with time to spare. We parked the car and got supper at one of our favourite Toronto places to eat. We had a great dinner and then made our way back to Massey Hall to get in line to get into the show. With only moments to spare we were in our seats and the show began. Sigur Rós has long been on John’s bucket list of bands to see. Their music is atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show. Honestly I was expecting to be much more mellow but man it was a night that was incredible energetic music from start to finish. They are one of the best shows I have ever seen. I have always been a fan but Monday night put that at a whole other level. The show was incredible and they played until 11:00, this left us heading back home when we are normally heading to bed. We made our way home in great time and were asleep as quickly as our heads hit the pillows.

The next day started out still dealing with the vandalism on our truck. John thankfully had Tuesday morning off so he could take care of getting the truck into the body shop to get a quote so we could hopefully start on the repair as soon as possible. At the same time I was dealing with the insurance company to figure out coverage and how quickly get the truck in and repaired. John got the quote back and found out that the body shop could take the truck in that day to start on the repairs. What seemed like a relatively smaller repair quickly escalated into over $1700 worth of damage and would be in the shop until Friday. Thank goodness for insurance! John was able to get the truck in for the repair and get the rental for the week. With the truck in the shop we could shift focus and move on with the week ahead. The rest of my day was a mad rush to tweak the day to get the little ones to bed early so we could all be up and out the door in the very early afternoon to see Emelia race at the regional qualifiers for cross country. As luck would have it for me all the little ones coming to daycare were up a bit earlier at home than normal so it was not at all a struggle to get them to bed before their normal nap time. They all had a solid nap and I got everyone up, had snack packed for the walk down and we headed quickly down to Gibbon’s Park to see Emelia race.

After the mad dash down I got the little ones set on a blanket near the end of the race so they could eat their snack and happily cheer on Emelia from the sidelines. I was a runner as a child and seeing Emelia have as much joy as I did at her age running makes me so happy. And man is she a natural. She was off like a flash and was holding in the top 3-4 the entire race. She was in neck and neck between her and the girl that placed 3rd that it was almost a photo finish. Emelia placed 4th and lead her team in the finishings. Her strong finish along with her friend Anna and Hayden gave Ryerson the team win for their age division. This placement allowed her school to take 4 runners to the finals that will be run on the 18th. Seeing Emelia run I knew right then that there was no way I could miss her running in the finals. She has worked so hard and built so much confidence from sports that I could not imagine not being there. So by the end of the day I had messaged all the parents that I would be closing the daycare at noon and going to her race. John has also been able switch things around at work as well so we will both be there cheering her on. We are all so excited, now I need everyone to cross everything that there is no rain that day bumping the race to a different day.

The rest of the week was a shift to more training for Emelia, her activities and holding in our excitement that we were so close to a 3 day weekend that gave us 2 days off together as a family. As luck would have it John had Sunday off this weekend giving us some much needed family time. Sunday we took things at a lazier pace enjoying the sunshine and beautiful fall weather. Emelia and I were able to get out for a run/bike ride in the later morning and then came home in time to get things ready for the afternoon. After getting a couple errands done we headed over to Helen and Doug’s to celebrate Thanksgiving. This year we have so much to thankful for. We have had a wonderful year our little family of three, we have had amazing vacations and lots of time with family, we have welcomed into our family the sweetest little addition in Zoe, we got to spend time yesterday with our entire family. This year has been a joy and a struggle, our sister-in-law Linda has been bravely fighting cancer this year and we were so happy yesterday to see her for the first time since she started chemo. She looks amazing, her attitude and outlook is nothing short of inspirational, she is fighting this horrible disease with everything she has and always with a positive attitude. So yesterday seeing her and seeing her snuggle with our new niece gave me  more joy and happiness than I could ever express. We are truly a lucky, lucky, lucky family!

Today we shifted to our one little family. We had a great and slow pace to the morning. Today we did have to deal with a daunting fall to do list. This meant 3+ hours of work in the yard getting the yard ready for its winter hibernation. We bagged up 5 bags of green yard waste clearing out all our gardens. For a small yard we have so much garden space and taking it all out is not a small job. Thankfully it is all done but my body is not happy with me for it. Once we had the yard work done we came in and started getting things prepped for the turkey dinner. The turkey went into the oven and back to the ‘to do’ list we went. The last of the big fall chores is putting the trailer to bed for the winter. This meant taking everything out of the trailer, cleaning it, airing it all out and repacking everything to a cleaned and organized trailer. It is a pretty big job re-jigging a small trailer but Wolfie is now ready to be put into storage for the season. I am not going to lie this whole process of taking the summer flowers and plants out of the garden and winterizing the trailer always makes me sad. I love the fall but this process always feels like the last stage accepting that summer is over and we are heading into winter. But as I was packing everything up I was going over in my head all the memories we had in Wolfie this year. We had trips to The Pinery, Bon Echo, Sandbanks and Presqu’ille all incredible parks in this beautiful province of ours. It really was a great year.

Once the trailer was packed and winterized it was almost perfectly timed to coming in to put the fixings on dinner and sit down as a family of three to our one little Thanksgiving. We talked about everything we were grateful for, family, love and time together. That is what life is all about! Happy Thanksgiving everyone from the Teeter family!