We had a surprise mock meet at gymnastics today. I got lots of really good feedback.
He said
One thing I haven’t really talked about this month is #MOvember campaign. This year marks 10 whole years that I have participated in this charity. The Movember Foundation is the leading global organization committed to changing the face of men’s health. In the 10 years that I have participated, in addition to growing some ridiculous moustaches, I have – with the help of my friends of course – raised $5,310, and as of tonight, I am just $50 away from my target of $500 this year! There is still time to donate if you want to! Click here to go to my MO Space so you can help me reach my goal!
This week the thing we all were looking forward to the most was a special evening of music. Our very good friend Jim Bryson was in town to play a house show at our friend Tim’s house Friday night. Fortunately I had the Friday off work so in addition to the show, I was able to meet Jim and Tim for a wonderful lunch at The Bag Lady Variety and spend the afternoon catching up with Jim. The reality is I have been a fan of Jim’s music for some time, but that connection through music has translated into a pretty great friendship.
We often text well after bed time talking about the most mundane facets of our lives. Jim’s been a great sounding board for us in the right coffee makers and vintage sound systems and I have been able to share some of my computer knowledge as he built his own studio. In fact we text at odd hours enough that Jim’s wife and Danielle jokingly refer to us a couple. Jim the pal is a great friend – Jim the musician is even better. Any time he is in within reasonable distance from us we will make every effort we can to go see him play as we sincerely love his music.
After spending the afternoon trapped in our Mini in the shit-show that London traffic has become getting Jim to Long & McQuade so that Jim could get the right mic for the night, we went our separate ways to reconvene that evening at Tim’s house for the show. It was wonderfully intimate and the perfect mix of great music, hilarious between song banter, and then the people that become connected through a mutual love of moments like that. I am really becoming predisposed to house shows over going out to a venue. I think Jim is too.
Other than that, really the week was like any other. Both Tuesday and Thursday my work schedule allowed that I was able to take in Emelia’s dance classes and then gymnastics. Being off again today allowed me to see even more gymnastics. They are just 2 months away from their first competition and I am blown away where Emelia is right now compared to where she was a year ago at this time. She is so much more confident and the bond she has built with her Coach Alex this year as really given her a great foundation to be competition ready and focused on what will produce great results. It has been a delight to see her blossom this year.
She said
This week was a good but long one. There was one event this week that we needed to deal with but was not a highlight. As we have spoken about a fair bit in the last few weeks we are trying to get to the bottom of some medical problems Emelia has been dealing with, mainly some troubling stomach aches. The pains in her stomach are increasing in frequency and its getting more and more concerning. This week on Wednesday morning John and I had to take her in for the latest battery of medical tests. The results were to be sent from the lab to our family doctor and hopefully some insight into her problems.
That was the lower part of the week, the highlight was family time with friends and music. Our good friend Tim has been doing these house concerts for the last few years and we love going to them, it gives a casual and intimate environment to enjoy music and even better yet it allows us to bring Emelia along once in a while. Jim Bryson is not only one of our favourite musicians he is also a good friend of our family. Emelia was excited to come with us and hang out with everyone. The show was amazing and it was a great night all in all.
Yesterday John had to work the late shift so it gave us a quiet start of our day but once John was off to work Emelia was off to play with friends and then she and I spent the afternoon getting a start finally on some Christmas shopping. The toy outlet sale was in town and it was the perfect excuse to finally get a start on our shopping. Emelia loves picking out presents for her younger cousins and helps me with the daycare kids as well. By the time we got home we had checked a couple people off our to buy list and we even got Emelia her much loved annual Christmas pjs. We got a really good start and hope that this week with Black Friday sales that by this time next week we are on the other side of much of the Christmas shopping.
Today John had the day off so we got to spend the morning at a lazy pace and got to get some things caught up around the house. Once we finished up lunch we brought Emelia to training. Much to her surprise they were doing a mock meet to see what skills they needed to clean up with competition just over 2 months away. One of other moms from Emelia’s team was able to capture some video to share with us while John and I were getting some errands done. Emelia of course being the most critical of herself was focusing on what she needed to improve where John and I were so happy to see the insane improvement in her skills from even a month ago. Skills she was stressing about she was doing with relative ease. Is there room for clean-up for competition – absolutely but where she is now is really blowing us away. Alex has been beyond amazing for her, the focus to detail on form has really helped Emelia polish her skills. These critical moments and tight details is exactly what the girls need this far out from competition to make sure they are ready to blow things out of the water in January. We are proud of you kiddo!