"A day without Laughter is a day wasted". - Charlie Chaplin

June 29, 2014

I think Dave became the "cool" parent Friday night. All the kids had been working on a fort in the woods since they got here. They decided it would be awesome to sleep in it. For once I was glad to have kids too young to want to willingly sleep outside, on the ground with only a small tarp and a few pieces of wood to keep you dry. And did I mention the bears that were here earlier in the week?? One of the mom's, Laurie, told them "if you can convince an adult to camp with you, you can" thinking "that solved that". Except the kids asked Dave and he said "sure I"ll camp with you". 

So he spent the night in the woods. The WHOLE night. With 9 kids! In a fort they built themselves...including moss they brought for cushioning lol. He's a trooper! (we were in our warm, dry 27 foot trailer snug as bugs in rugs lol) No one got eaten by bears. Or trampled by moose. Although they did get woken up by a heard of cattle going by...I didn't see that coming...

Yesterday Phil took all the kids down a ravine to the creek. Daisy thought all her Christmases came at once cause she was off leash and in heaven. So Saturday I joined them and we went to check it out. Daisy - who's a 9 1/2 year old 80lb Rotti cross was running and bounding like a puppy. It was awesome. The kids got to be kids and play in the creek and pick their way alongside it. It made me so happy to see them enjoying it so much. Hell even I felt like a kid again. 

We just got back as the skies opened up and the rain poured down. A while later Daisy was out cold and the kids had some "quiet time". Although after an hour they were itching to get back outside.

When I was packing for this trip I got a bit overwhelmed trying to decide what to take, I guess either with canser or cause of the chemo (can't remember) you can have trouble multi-tasking and making decisions. So it's normal but when Phil got home from work I was in tears. The suitcases couldn't zip cause I just packed everything. He helped me close them and we just brought it all. So we have enough clothes for like 12 kids for two weeks.

He looked at me and said "I hate to see what you'll bring to Old Macdonald" (5 day camping trip in July). I broke into fits of giggles. Sometimes you just gotta laugh

Mandi is someone we just recently met who's a friend of Dave's. She is a really cool chick and she is vegan so I have a fellow "weird eater" on this trip. She gave me an idea for future camping - she cooked a bunch of her food before coming out. When we go to Old Macdonald this summer we have an unserviced site so I"ll have to get creative to make sure I'm eating well. Prepping meals beforehand will help immensely.

Although I brought enough clothes for an army, I forgot my runners so I made a trip back to get em on Friday. Saturday afternoon before supper I decided to go for a run. It was spitting rain a bit and you could hear distant rumbles but I figured since my run is only half an hour I'd be Ok...Wrong.

So I run up our circle towards the highway (decked out in my bright running gear...) and I can see the patches of dark clouds kinda moving in my direction. But all weekend it's just been quick showers that move along so I really wasn't too worried. I decided to run down the huge hill (ya that wasn't well thought out...) toward the day use area. That's when the rain started to come down harder. And the thunder was getting pretty loud. I started wondering if it was safe or if I was a walking lightning rod...I saw Dave and Mandi at the garbage disposal and asked if they thought it was safe. 

Dave: "Oh ya, by the time you get back you'll be fine"

Did I mention they were in a car??

So I continued for a bit but then decided to head back in case it got worse. Which it did. It's good in a way that the thunder was so loud that it was vibrating my insides or I never would have made it back up the hill. If I was looking for "cattle prod" type of motivation the thunder and fork lightning were it! I could hardly breathe when I got to the top but I made it up lol. The thunder was so loud at this point that I was getting a bit freaked out. So I ran right past our turn (into our loop) and made it all the way to the highway...Then I was all confused!! And as Garth says "the Thunder rolled". It was directly above me at this point. I turned back and starting walking towards our turn off, just as a deafaning crack of thunder ripped through the sky. I jumped a couple feet and took off running!! A car was coming up behind me just as that happened so I"m pretty sure they had a good laugh at my expense...Then the rain poured down!! I think I ran all the way back to the trailer. I was soaked to the bone by the time I got back. But I was warm from running so no chill (so don't worry Mom!). If you ever want to get your blood pumping, go for a run in the Kananaskis just as a storm is about to hit.

After drinking a full water bottle full of lemon water, and changing into dry clothes I figured after all I'd been through that I deserved some Guinness. Nigel - from the One Aim team - told a funny story the other night at the pub about Guinness and his blood counts getting set right so I ended up having 3 Guinness. Every time I felt guilty opening a can, I thought of Nigel's story. I don't think this was Nigel's intent, but I sure did enjoy those Guinness (relatively) guilt free - Thanks Nigel :)

So after a great weekend with great people I feel better going into the unknown for my next chemo. This weekend topped up my courage (as I had hoped) and when I do start to worry about it, I think of what my friend Matt went through with his treatment and it helps me to "suck it up" cause it could be so very much worse. 

So round 4 - let's go.