Relay For Life

On Friday night the girl's high school held their first ever Relay for Life. Relay for Life is a 12 hour relay used to raise money for cancer research. You get together teams of 10 - each team member is responsible for raising $100.
Huron's relay ran from Friday at 7pm until Saturday at 7am. Shawn and I went to the school for the opening ceremonies. It was so inspiring to see the survivors in their yellow shirts.

Katie's grade 4 teacher developed breast cancer the year Katie was in her class. Mrs. Lip was there on Friday to share her story and also to celebrate her official survivor status- she has been cancer free for 5 years now. She was a big influence in Katie's life and it was great to see her. Different classes in the school and in the community raised money for the walk. One of Mrs Lip's students donated her hair for wigs for cancer patients- she raised over $1700.00 herself.After some speech's and dance numbers we headed out to the track for the survivors lap. We stood on the sideline and cheered on as these courageous people walked around the track.

As the night progressed we were able to buy luminary bags to remember ways cancer has touched those in our lives. As it got darker the bags are lit up and placed around the track- it is a very emotional sight to see the bags all glowing, lighting the way for the walkers. You need to have at least one team member walking the track all night long- the school had all sorts of activities and entertainment for the people who were not walking, from games and movies in the gym, to bands in the cafe, all the tents set up in the field for kids to hang out in. What a wonderful experience to be involved in.

We are very lucky in the fact that cancer has not really been involved in our lives ( knock on wood for that). Both of my grandmothers died from cancer but they were older and in England so I wasn't involved in the care. Shawn's grandmother and Grandfather both died from cancer when Shawn was very young so he doesn't remember anything about it. I know we are blessed with good health in our families and I don't take that for granted.I was glad to be apart of an event that provides hope for the future- we can find a way to beat this disease!

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Animazing Pet Baths

I love my dog Tucker but at this time of the year he sheds so much all my clothes and furniture are now blond. My friend Kirsten also had a yellow lab. She told me about a place she found to take the dogs to get washed. It is called Animazing Pet Baths and it truly is amazing.

They use the same kind of technology as a steam carpet cleaner. They actually vacuum the dog with water.

After the washing process they blow dry the dog also with a vacuum type apparatus.

Then they brush the dog out with about 4 different types of brushes. The amount of fur that came off of Tucker was phenomenal.

He must weigh 10 pounds lighter now! They clipped his nails and cleaned his ears and we were done. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes. Tucker looks and smells terrific and there is no hair flying around the living room tonight.

I will definitely be visiting there again.

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Jon & Kate

So I watched the season 5 premire of Jon and Katie with the family tonight. It is Katie's favourite show. She went through withdrawl when she was in Luxembourg and couldn't get it on the TV. Katie's friends even made her a build-a-bear of little Aaden to take with her on her trip!

We had been reading about the struggles the family has been going through in the tabloids and we were interested in seeing what they would say on the show. I love seeing the kids. They crack me up. I can't imagine having that life. I know how overwhelmed I felt at points in my life when the girls were small and I only had the two of them! I do believe that when families sign up for these types of shows they set themselves up for scrutiny. You are always going to have detractors, you are going to lose your freedom and your family will pay.

It seems to me that Katie is thriving in this atmosphere and Jon is lost. I think he loves his family but has lost himself and his purpose. I think he is rebelling against his loss of freedom. I think he would be a much happier person if he could get a job outside of the home, have something that is his and does not belong to the public. Kate can still do all her appearances and trips- they have help- they love their kids- hopefully they can weather this storm. I will be watching to see what happens.

The bathroom

The bathroom is finished -yay!!!

Here is what it looked like before:

I am so impressed by the work Shawn did. He had never installed a sunken in tub before or tiled an entire floor and wall. I love the new colours, it looks so rich and warm. The tub is fantastic- I am covered with water and bubbles up to my neck now. We are all very happy to be back to 2 functioning washrooms.

Thank you Shawn for all your hard work.

Let's play ball!

I really like baseball. I used to play on a team when I was younger and Shawn and I played co-ed ball for a couple of tournaments. It was a lot of fun. My girls' played t-ball when they were small, then they moved on to soccer for their summer activity.








Nicole's BF Josh is a very good ball player. He plays for the Kitchener A's. It is fun to watch them play. They make it seem so effortless. I am sure I never made it look that easy when I was playing.







Josh had been encouraging Nicole to grab a glove and play some catch- well she got hooked. She tried out for the slo-pitch team at her school and made it! So now I get to watch her playing ball. For the past couple of years Nicole played rugby. It was fun to watch her team but I never really understood the rules or what was going on. At least now with ball I know the scoop. This week she had 2 tourney's- one for the girls team and one that is with a co-ed team so she gets to play with Josh. That certainly brings back memories for me.







The weather this week has been fantastic. It certainly feels like summer sitting out there at the ball diamond.

Campfires

I love to camp- have ever since I was little. One of my favourite things about camping is the campfire. We have spent many hours with family sitting around the fire, singing, sharing stories, roasting marshmallows.

I am so glad that now we can have fires in the backyard. When we expanded our deck last summer we added a concrete patio- specifically for a campfire pit. I wasn't sure how much we would use it but I wanted it just in case.

Well no fear- it got used- a lot. There is nothing better than sitting out around a fire on a summer evening. It just relaxes me. We have had 3 fires so far this spring. Nicole, Katie and the high school slo-pitch team are out there right now ( yes it's a school night but they have a tourney tomorrow so they are all staying here) they are making s'mores and sharing stories, creating new memories.

I am so glad we added the patio

Migraines

Do any of you out there get migraines?

I do. Not very often and I usually can control them if I catch them quickly enough. This weekend I had worst migraine I have ever had since my very first one. With my first migraine, about 12 years ago, I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was dying, I was throwing up, my vision was going and my head felt like it was going to explode. Luckily my mother-in-law was a nurse as well as a migraine sufferer so she knew what do to.

Since then I have been to see the doctor as well as the ophthalmologist to get some information. I suffer from ocular migraines, which is why my eyesight can be impacted. I don't have a trigger for my migraines except for the weather. Spring and Fall are when they happen for me- when there are wild fluctuations in the barometric pressure. I have read articles saying that there is no proof that barometric pressure causes migraines but I disagree strongly. I can usually tell when they are coming, I start to feel sick. I take Advil migraine and Gravol and head to bed. I usually can sleep it off. The one I had this weekend was bad- I was in bed for 24 hours straight. My mother -in -law had to come over with her magic little pills.

I am curious to hear from anyone else who has migraines- what triggers them? What do you do when you have one? I am interested to hear from you.