End of March Spring post

Spring is officially here and the weather is getting warmer and it is AMAZING! We spent a good part of the weekend outside, and the kids love having their bikes and seeing friends and not being cold. We had a busy weekend - but most of it was sort of spontaneous and unplanned (which I love). Hendrik started outdoor ball hockey this week so had a game on Saturday morning; Alana had gymnastics and then went to a birthday party, and theeeeen we went to an open house in Delaware, a small town 10 minutes outside of London. The property was beautiful - there was a huge back yard and a pool (gated) but the house didn't have 4 bedrooms on the same floor and felt a bit small (I'm not sure what the square footage was). We walked down the street to the school, spent a good hour playing at the playground, and then checked out a skateboard park before stopping in at the local grocery store for some take-and-bake dinner (chicken pie and green beans). We' outgrew our house a while ago, and we need to do something about it soon; it'll either be a reno here (to add another bedroom and bathroom upstairs, a mudroom on the main floor, and extend the basement) or a move who-knows-where. And we're torn! We don't know what to do, but hope the answer will come to us (soon).

And then today we went out to Fort Rose Maple Company's sugar bush in Parkhill, and let me tell you the 45 minute wait for as many pancakes, sausages, ham slices, muffins, fruit, coffee, orange drink, and maple syrup as we could eat was well worth the wait. We explored the barn, ogled at the cows and pigs, and took a ride out to the woods to learn about how they "make" maple syrup. It was such a beautiful day, and everyone was happy (and no fighting!). We made it to the gas station with 0km left on our odometer and 2 1/2 litres of gas in the tank - man, do we live on the edge or what. I opted out of the planned Costco shop after seeing the swarming carts and cars and people (UGH)... I'll go tomorrow. We did check out a pretty fantastic toy store (Hobby & Toy) before heading back to our hood for a bike ride playdate for Alana and some new-toy-testing for Hendrik (he purchased a magnet and Alana picked up another Beanie Boo stuffy).

Gramma and Gramps were here for some of the weekend as they came down for the kids' Thursday performance of "How does your Garden Groove?" - a musical extravaganza full of garden and plant puns. Hendrik and one of his classmates has the lead roles of Freddie Farmer and Frannie Farmer, and he knocked it out of the park! Alana very happily sang all of her songs and executed some innncredible dance moves - check it out!

Up next - I have my pre-op tomorrow and then get back into my second week of practicum #2 at a local school with a grade 7 class. It's definitely different not having to operate in French all day every day, so that makes things a bit easier, plus it's only 5 blocks away (which is amazing). More on that later, but for now I'll join the kids and watch some before-bed Shaun the Sheep. Until next time!

It's March - !!

Is it spring where you live? It must have been a few years ago now, but I think I was in Vancouver in March and there were flowers everywhere and leaves on the trees - and then it's back to snowy, grey Ontario... bleh! Well, not bleh - it's just still winter here. We went skating this morning and it was SO nice! We are usually met with hurled complaints and whining when we announce that we are doing anything on a weekend before lunchtime ("but waaah mehhhhh I don't want to go!") but there was no pushback to our announcement (not suggestion) that we were going skating in Victoria Park. Was it because I made waffles for breakfast? (These waffles are THE BEST - made with yeast, "Goodnight waffles") Or because they had 45 minutes to get ready? Who knows, but it was even easy getting out of the house - everyone put their stuff on and got in the car - !!! This alone is a miracle. So we skated for at least an hour (Hendrik and Alana are fine on their own but Jordan is still reluctant to get on / stand up / move on the ice - which is fine!) The little spent most of the skate on the bench where we could see him while we skated around in laps, taking turns to check in on him.

I mentioned something about heart happenings in my last post, and I thought I'd offer an update and background info. I had a loop monitor for a few weeks last month, where I was required to push a button (to tell the machine to record my the electrical activity of my heart) whenever I felt symptoms. I submitted four recordings - some were obvious (I felt dizzy/light-headed, and once my vision was kind of weird), but others not really; sometimes I'd just have a bit of a weird feeling - but never once did I feel an abnormal heart rate. I returned the loop monitor in the morning, was called in the afternoon, and was in the cardiologist's office the next morning; one of the readings showed a heart rate of 220 for 30 seconds - ! The EKG waves showed that I was in atrial flutter when this happened, and I was told I needed an ablation (surgery - I like how the info is presented on this site) within a few weeks... yikes. I asked as many questions as I could, but went back in for a second appointment to have a few more answered, mostly centred around the fact that there is a history of arrhythmia in my family. And to the cardiologist's surprise I was in a different kind of irregular rhythm - this time atrial fibrillation. So instead of having surgery next Friday I'm booked in for early April to have the atrial flutter and atrial fib ablated at the same time. The procedure is 3-4 hours, and then they keep me for a few hours before sending me home. I'm hoping to find some peace and quiet when the kids are at school, but otherwise, it may be a bit challenging. No heavy lifting, so I'll have to pass on carting Jordan around. So that's the big news! From me at least. 

love this photo!

Jordan's big news is that he's in a big boy bed now (did I write about this already?); Hendrik has a central role in a play that is happening at school in a few weeks, and we are all excited for March break (coming up in a week or so). We'll spend some time here, some time in Bville - and Steve and I will hopefully some time with our respective teams, both of which have made it to the OUA Final Four (I coach part-time with Western and Steve does the same with McMaster). I'll leave you with some photos and hopefully it won't be too long before I'm posting again.

brothers :)

wearing red for spirit day

playing school - alana (in heels) is the principal, hendrik is working the intercom, E is driving his Lamborghini, and I'm not sure what the little is doing... chaos!