YeeHaw!! Wheeling Fun.

Eric told a couple people at the boys school that our plans this weekend were to stay home and watch tv.  Uh?  Really? Since when?! Haha.  You all know I always have a long list of things to do.  

This morning I slept in.  Got up, took my meds, gave Rosie hers.  Cleaned dog messes. Cleaned and filled water bowls. Fed cats.  Ate breakfast. Sorted 4 laundry baskets of clean clothes.  Cleaned more animal messes.  Did Esmei's litter box, put away laundry, had a shower and did a blow out on my hair.  Ate lunch.  Eric fed the boys breakfast and lunch.  Vacumned, did some laundry. Changed our bedding, did the dishes and walked Joey.  We offered the kids an adventure afternoon, they all declined. Sigh.  So, we scored an afternoon to ourselves.  

We started at the Farmers Market where we found sugar free ice cream.  I choose cherry, so good.  She'll be in Parksville for their evening street markets and at the Red Rooster.  I'll be following her ;)  We met a lovely man selling fancy cupcakes.  He's 81 and diabetic.  He's been on an insulin pump for 40 years.  He was shocked I was still insulin free and controlling with food.  He thought I should go to a pump and then I could eat the cupcakes ;)  We also met a 14 week old Pyrenees puppy.  We went through some more shops before we left town.

I suggested going to Bright Angel to walk the path, or the Crofton walk or to Hill 60 to try Oscar out in the bush. Or to Costco to buy some Biscoff Cookie Butter. Have ya'll tried that stuff? Omg. 

Of course Eric immediately took us out to the bush.

We followed the Chemainus River.  We started out clean ;)  We found two other Jeeps out there and both of them stopped to talk to us.  How weird is that?!  I didn't know that was a thing.  One Jeep was a Tj and they were heavily mudded, they veered off after we talked up a wee hill that wasn't a road.  Haha.  The other one was a couple our age in a Grand Cherokee looking for waterfalls but we didn't know of any.  I ducked them a mini duck, their 1st ducking, he was thrilled. They thought they'd turn around and follow us but it didn't happen.  Likely a good idea, since we didn't really know where we were going. We do both have reasonable senses of direction and the cells were working out there.

We traversed a creek, or mini river.

I'll admit we stared at this lake for a good while and really discussed the possibility of a big sink hole or ditch or horrible use your imagination tragedy thing happening.  Then it got quiet and we both stared and he slammed it into gear and we yeehawed through it.  The water sprayed all the way up and over.  It was so exciting.

I mean, could he look any more thrilled?

I'm pretty sure Eric would have had more fun wheeling without me there fretting.  

I'm thinking we might be ready for the trail at Jeepapaloosa! A good chunk of today really couldn't even be called roads.

I had to use my stool to get in. The mud was pretty thick on the side step.

So gorgeous out there.  Learning to love our Cowichan Valley again. Eric is already planning the next outing.  It includes a picnic.

The mud would have been worse without all the rinse baths in the giant puddles. I'm grateful that it'll be Eric giving Oscar a bath.

Shelley "well, how did Oscar do?"

Eric "Phenomenal!"

Shelley "better than the other 4 bys we've had?"

Eric "oh ya, I'm impressed".

Hmmm.  I feel like I'm definitely sharing custody now.

On Thursday I needed to drop some paperwork in town.  Our plan was to take Jia to school and then go to town.  Jia opted to sleep instead.  Sigh.  So we were in town earlier.  There is so much online about the unhoused and addicted ruining our town. Messes and disruptions everywhere.  I avoid town in general.  However, we walked all of town.  Ate lunch, went in the antique and home shops, the thrift stores and bought bagels. Town was spotless.  Stores were fun.  People were happy.  It was a great afternoon.

So, Jeepapaloosa is coming up and I'm realizing that it's a bigger deal than I thought.  There are content creators coming and some pretty amazing Jeeps with all the additions.  I did say to Eric that it might be embarrassing to be there without a winch.  He did find this hitch shackle at the Restore for $10, so at least someone else can pull us out with their winch.  Because that wouldn't be embarrassing. 

Funny thing, the fellow working in the restore offered to sell us the shackle for $8 if he could have one of our bagels.  Deal.  Eric gave him the jalapeño one we didn't want.  Hillarious.

I thought Jeepapaloosa would be a bunch of hill billies like us out for a camping weekend.  Then I saw this poster the other day and realized we're definitely out of our depth with the Jeep and the entire weekend in general.  

We shared a dole whip.

When we came home with the boys it was such a gorgeous day.  Luk found the sun.  I ran inside to get a drink and rushed out to sit with him but the sun had gone  behind clouds and it was suddenly cold again.  Crazy weather.

May is competing in the BC Winter Games so Rosie and Joey are with us for a bit.  Joey has a devoted slave in Kai.  

Eric got the new springs installed.  It took him a couple afternoons.  He was so happy out there.  The new height is only an inch higher.  We haven't put the trailer on it yet to see if it rides straighter. The ride is cushier though.

Glimmers of Hope

Jia and I met with the principal of her current school today. Looking for options or a referral letter for alternate school.  

She was lovely.  Explaining options.  Asking Jia questions.  None of the options were particularly appealing.  She asked what Jia enjoyed doing and she said drawing.  Then Jia took her i-pad out and showed her some of her work.  The mood in the room changed dramatically.  She declared Jia gifted and started offering a tailored schedule for her with a total focus on her art.  Classroom four afternoons a week with paper projects versus online, with teacher support.  She also thought Jia needed a portfolio and could be applying for VIU classes now for dual credits.  

She told us some stories of other students focusing on their passions which were encouraging.  Jia wasn't quite understanding the magical gift that was being presented to her and she is just starting to grasp the enormity and is cautiously getting on board.

She also shared with Jia her own struggles with school and adhd in general.  For the very first time ever I felt Jia was being seen and understood.  For today I'm cautiously hopeful for our kid.  

Reading Break

Lili had offered us this week to take off.  We declined.  Today I'm at my desk.  Limited for time.  Jia has school today and I made an appointment with her principal for this afternoon so I have to get ready and function outside of the house today.  Yuk.  I'm regretting the decision to stay home already.

Family Day Weekend

The obligatory kid group photo.  

Lunar New Year dinner at Nicole and Steve's.  They did it all this year!  Such a great night.

Oscar's Valentine's gift arrived.  Giant springs.  I'm definitely nervous about how much higher he will get.  Eric is excited though.  Now to carve out time for another project.

Side bar.  We recently parked over a drain grate which made my step into the Jeep higher than usual.  I used my new step stool system.  A gentleman on the sidewalk watched and was very impressed with Eric's invention.

I got it in my head that seeing the lions in Chinatown would be fun.  Shannon agreed.  We were both nuts.  Haha.  This was a total fail.  

There was no way to move 9 of us around.  I read online this morning that the numbers were higher than normal.  

We had the joy of a woman pushing Kai out of her way to take his parade spot.  I bodychecked her immediately and she shoved me back.  But then she actuallt held her ground.  Like the psychopath with dementia she obviously was.  Next up was kids melting and wanting to leave for lunch (Dagen and Kai).  I wanted to stay.  I probably was the only one.  Sigh.  Then a big giant man came up behind our group and told his kid to push her way to the front.  Seriously.  Shannon told him maybe not in front of people who had been waiting a long time.  

Realizing we likely had to leave I sent Jia and Zoey to scoot up closer and see if they could get a photo.  When they came back Jia reported a man pushed up all against her back and ground up against her.  She was FREAKED.  So I said ok, I give, enough of these rude people, time to go.  Eric called the big guy an a-hole as we walked away.  Who then let out a long litany of names for Eric. Except the girls weren't keeping up so Shannon and I stopped to watch for them and see Ken trying to talk to the big goof.  So all four of us were in an altercation and Jia got humped in the crowd.  What the freaking hell?!  

Oh, ya, the goof told Ken he didn't care about anyone except his own kid.  In not so nice words. That pretty much sums up the problem with society now.

I can safely say we won't ever go back for that event and I will take the time to write to the planning peeps about how horribly thought out and planned their event was.

There was no chance of food anywhere nearby so we all hoofed it to the Spaghetti Factory for a lovely lunch.  Then to the BC Museum.  Shannon and I both got family memberships.  So we can go again and again.  My kids seriously love it there.  It's still minimal exhibits but thankfully old town is still there.  The train station was fun.  I look forward to seeing what they do next.  The photographer of the year exhibit is set to open Mar 1.  I love that one.

We stopped at Costco on the way home.  It was crowded again.  Arg.  We stocked up on food items only.  It's just not that fun when it's hard to move.

Then home for dinner before Fei had to leave for work.

Today for actual Family Day we're all tired and sticking close to home.  Except Fei who works at 7. Eric set up a make your own pizza station tonight.  Always fun.

Quamichan Visit

 

Luk got to tag along today.  Overall Luk will have the freedom to come and go out of the resource room or as they call it, 'room 102'.  He will be able to use the washroom in there.  That is honestly the very best equiped special needs bathroom I have ever seen.  Impressive.  Luk will be in all regular classes.

The resource teacher is lovely.  He was talking about all the options available to his kids.  Kai wouldn't utilize most of it but he will be allowed to redo other sections that are more to his liking.  I liked almost everything I heard.  I LOVE the level of special needs represented in the room.  Without question Kai will do better here than he has in a traditional classroom.  The environment is much more similar to his play group, that he loves.  Each kid is met at their level and focus can and will move more towards life skills.

They get movies on the last afternoon of the week.  And popcorn.  Kai is thinking this new place will be alright afterall.

We found Max in the hallways.  Yes, he really is that tall now.  Yikes.  

Kai was a little upset about the tour for a few minutes.  Too much attention on him.  He was pretty excited about bean bag chairs though.

I still have concerns and questions but overall we are cautiously pleased with this option for Kai.  The drop off and pick up situation is scary.  We were encouraged to consider having the mini special needs bus pick up Kai from home and drop him off.  This would alleviate most of my concerns but Eric would still be driving Luk down.  So we'll see what actually happens.  There are only two handicapped spots and they are across the driveway and I've been watching them for months and they are almost always full.  The next concern is the amount of food and snacks available in the resource kitchen.  Yikes.  That will be tricky.  Yesterday Kai helped himself to two cupcakes at school.  He happily told us about it even though he knows he's not supposed to eat treats at school.  

A part of the program is having the kids run a lunch time food store as a job.  Learning tons of valuable life skills for sure AND putting a lot of food in Kai's reach.  Apparently he won't be the only one there with these issues and they are prepared to deal.