I got to try out Cheer with my friend Olivia this weekend, and I loved it!
He said
This week was really focused on Row and my Mo’! I haven’t as of yet done a full tally of how many kilometres I have rowed since we got the machine. Since the start of the month when I began my #Movember campaign I not only set a fundraising goal but I also set for myself a move goal too. That was 130 kms. And I am happy to say that as of tonight’s row I am just 10 km short of that goal with 6 days left in the month to make that goal up. I would have to wager that about 12 km of that was walking exercise, so that means I’ve rowed about 108 kms so far this month! I am pretty proud of that! I have kept to my goal of rowing every single day that I am not camping or playing hockey and I am damn proud of that!
On the topic of my #Movember moustache, I reached my funds raised goal of $500 a week ago so I am pretty happy about that. This year I decided to grow “The Trucker” and I am ready to shave this off and restart my lazy beard. Since 2009, I have raised $6,245. Once I get my donation from Danielle, this year will be my fourth highest campaign as of right now. But there is still time to donate if you want to push this year’s campaign to third highest all time, it takes your donations, here.
This weekend I had to work all weekend so knowing that Danielle – in looking for activities for Emelia – found out that there was open gym at Cheer Strike Royals on Saturday so Emelia could suss out whether that was going to be her new sport. We knew that her mind was 99.9% made up, but we wanted her to take the opportunity to see what it’s all about so she could be certain. The good news is, one of her besties Olivia that she met through gymnastics and we camp with their family, has also hit the same place of thinking about the next sport and it might be Cheer too. So they both went out this weekend to give it a whirl and by all accounts it was great and they loved it. She’s already talking about the next time she can go.
Next weekend we’re super excited to be going down to Toronto to see a special show. One of our all time favourite bands Stars are putting on a play/concert that will tell the story of their band. Originally we weren’t planning on going because this time of year is difficult to judge based on my work schedule. But, as luck would have it, I had Saturday off and and friends of ours that had tickets suddenly couldn’t go, So Emelia will spend the day with her friend Kathleen while Danielle & I sneak down to Toronto for the afternoon to see the matinee. It’s an intimate venue and they are easily one of my favourite bands so it will be an awesome afternoon that just kinda fell in our lap.
Today was day 6 of a 7 day stretch at work. Tomorrow I am off to Toronto for some training at one of our stores there. Then I have 2 days off back to back which will be really nice. We’re starting to get knee deep in festive planning and before we know it Christmas will be here. Work has been busy but a lot of fun as people are coming in excited to get gifts for loved ones. And this year we’ve seen the shift from Emelia the kid to preteen/teen. Her wish list has certainly shrunk and her understanding of the season has changed. While it’s a tad sad to see the magic of the season disappear, it’s remarkable to see her understand all the work and love that goes into this special time of year.
She said.
This week was a pretty quiet one for us, Emelia has been battling some knee pain from a fluke hyperextension of her knee at gymnastics. This kept her out of gymnastics and dance for a couple days. Thankfully she is back to herself and she is doing much better. As John mentioned for sports and Emelia, cheer is her big focus. It really balances out her favourite part of gymnastics plus her love of dance. After researching cheer gyms in London (there are three in town) Emelia has for the most part settled on Cheer Strike Royals as the gym she would like to try out at.
Based on conversations I have had with the gym it seems that this is the right place for Emelia. Emelia by nature is very shy so she was super excited when I found out that the cheer gym has open gym that is open to their athletes but also to prospective new members. But she was nervous going solo. I have been talking to my friend Stephanie about Emelia’s want to move to cheer and her daughter Olivia who is one of Emelia’s best friends is also very interested in making the move to cheer from gymnastics next year. So we decided that Saturday we would take the girls and try things out.
The girls were nervous at first but being together they quickly moved to the tumble track and started working some tricks. It didn’t take long before they were all over the gym trying new tricks and working on the tumbling they have been doing at gymnastics. The girls were instantly in love, they are both super excited to go back to open gym and for the upcoming training clinics we have signed them up for over Christmas break. I have a feeling we are going to see the girls move along together and move to cheer next year. Emelia is excited that some of her gymnastics friends are hopefully moving over with her next year. Between having friends plus having been at the gym before tryouts it certainly has taken the nervousness out of the whole change in sports.
Now we have to keep her focused on this year in gymnastics . She is starting to really pull her routines together, I have had a chance to see the choreography for her dance routine and it is coming together nicely. Today I was able to see a raw run through on her updated beam routine and it is all looking great. While Emelia was at gymnastics today I was able to shift gears and get my butt in gear and start picking away at Christmas.
With only a month until Christmas Eve I have started to realize how little I had done to prepare for Christmas. Normally by this time I am already pretty well started wrapping most of my shopping by Black Friday. With Black Friday this coming Friday I hadn’t purchased much. Today I was able to get a real dent in shopping. I was able to get the presents for Zoe and Marshall for Christmas and Marshall for his birthday as well as the daycare kids. So I feel pretty good, I am hoping by next weeks post I can say I am almost done. This week is going to be a busy one, we have a lot of appointments for Emelia, all her activities plus our trip to Toronto on Saturday. It’s going to be a busy week for sure.