Getting Ready for Nick's Cheering Squad

Tomorrow is our families 3rd annual Spirit Wheel Walk Run.
The month has been very busy and I haven't done nearly enough fundraising or organizing that I wanted to do. I'd be surprised if we've raise more than a couple of hundred dollars.
But tomorrow is the day!

The kids are excited, sandwiches are made, bags are (almost) packed and our meeting place is set.
Nick's Cheering Squad is ready to go.
We are ready to show people that spina bifida isn't scary, and that this is what spina bifida looks like!

Anyone in the Oshawa area is welcome to join us at Lakeview Park - at the beach. 11am.
Our plan - simple as always. Walk 90 minutes, then turn around and walk back.
Followed by a picnic at the park.

Pictures will of course be posted this week.

If there is anyone out there wanting to donate to Nick's Cheering Squad - just follow the link
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s10136
and pick us from the pull down menu.
(Thanks in advance)

The weather is supposed to be beautiful!
So I'm off to pack the hats and sunscreen!

The end... change is good... righ?!

2 years of going to every SB mom and baby group. Seeing Nickolas going from being the youngest, the smallest to being one of the oldest. Following how other kids Nick's age (Natalie is a month older)

And it ended this week

We had a little party and spent some time just talking.
Talking about how we wanted to continue and what we could do.

And we eventually got our acts together and took some pictures.

It was a sad day for everyone
But Nick was just really happy that there was some watermelon!

This is some of the parents, kids, staff and volunteers.
Our last baby group.

I am going with the idea that this is a good change.

This will provide us parents with the opportunity to direct our group, to maybe reach people who were unable to attend group but were still interested in the support.

We have a couple of ideas and tricks up our sleeve, and hope we can start in September with some kind of plan about how we will be able to expand our changed group and have what we need.

A couple of us have our feelers our to the SBHAO to become a more official parent group, using the facilities and faculties of Holland Bloorview as a resource.

I also went home and great a facebook group to get us started as a place to 'meet' and plan hopefully together.

I was trying to come up with a name for the group.

What I came up with was Our Kids, with spina bifida - Toronto and area.

Because first and foremost they are our kids. And yes they have spina bifida, but they are kids first, and we are parents first.

I'm hoping that this will allow us all to connect with people that receive services at Holland Bloorview that we just didn't know was out there.

I am not sure how the link will work. But if you are reading this and you think hey! We go to Holland Bloorview for services! Then contact me on facebook and we'd love for you to join our group. I say it is for parents, but really we won't deny anyone who is interested. 

Retouch

I have recently found a great feature in my photo program.
The RETOUCH.
Have an annoying pimple - no problem RETOUCH and it's gone.
That dirty face but beautiful smile - RETOUCH!

Sometimes I photoshop a couple of pictures together - especially when I have 2 kids that like to look and smile at the camera at different times.
I generally use the old fashioned paint program, but this retouch lets me smooth out some of the edges.

Or to put some open eyes on my sister!

But then when I was going through some of my favorite pictures I was retouching other things.
First it was one of my favorite new years pictures - a New Years kiss!

Here is the original picture. I love this picture, but the marker (even 3 weeks later) at the scar just takes away from the picture.

I was going through over 600 pictures on the computer - and these are just my favorites! To run through as a background or screen saver, so I was fixing up the colours and rotating them ect. And of course using RETOUCH to take away those pesky distractions.

That's when things took a wrong turn.
I got to this picture.
It is from last summer, look how happy they are!
(Actually Nick's shirt says my mommy is totally going to blog about this)

And I brought that little RETOUCH arrow down.

Down to that distraction. It's not a pimple, or bits of food.
That ugly, ugly belly scar. I hate it, the back one, I'm good with, but I don't like that belly scar...

And there is his beautiful tummy sans scar.
It felt wrong right away. And I immediately changed it back.

Food and pimples yes, but scars. A definite, definite no!
Scars are permanent, scars are part of who we are (the same with mole and birth marks - I don't want to retouch those).

Because I love this picture. This is my son, he is strong, he is whole, he is perfect.

I don't feel that this retouched picture is more perfect. Where is the scar?! I really don't like this following picture at all. It is flawed. It is just wrong.

I never, ever would have RETOUCHed a back picture, except for the purposes of this blog.

Pictures are supposed to show who we are, they are supposed to show joy, sorrow, laughter, boredom or just plain life. I don't need a RETOUCH button for my life (just maybe for some pimples)

Ready for a Sunny Summer!

The weather has been simply summer-ish!

So out comes all of the outside toys and our backyard looks like it belongs to a couple of kids!

First comes out the art supplies. What better place to paint than outside in the natural light.

And now that Nickolas realizes that he can actually walk around in the play house, it is his favorite place to be. Nick has full freedom inside that house. The two of them can actually play together outside! And not just sitting in the sandbox.

There is playing baseball!
We have a gazebo, and Katheryn likes to run around the bases. That is actually how we spent Mothers Day!

STRIKE ONE!

I had to buy a t-ball stand when I found out I am a horrible pitcher - if I didn't hit Katheryn with the ball, I was too high/too low/too wide!

 Nickolas really happy to hit the ball, I'm still teaching him the right side of the bat!

Nick was actually just really happy to stand at the T-ball thing in his walker.

He was significantly less happy when he realized I wanted him to walk on the grass with his walker!

This is his 'ha ha I'm getting down' face... "NO WALK"

The slide is another great toy that is perfect for the kids this summer too!
Katheryn has loved the slide right from the beginning, Nickolas was never that sure about it.

Now he climbs up himself, slides down, then crawls around and climbs back up.
I'm counting this as physiotherapy.

And what better way to end a nice spring/summer day than to pass out halfway up the couch!

Paying Forward!

This month has been a pay-it-forward month for me.

It started in the beginning of May when a friend of mine was looking for people to help her win a wedding. It was a pay it forward contest and she wanted to get 25 people to donate blood.

What a great idea! I jumped on that band wagon.

Only thing, (ok a couple of things) I hate needles, I have never donated blood before and I really wanted to do it. (Yes I know it is silly to be afraid of needles when I stick people with them every day)

I have thought about donating blood for a number of years, but couldn't actually get myself to make the appointment.

Well this contest got me off my butt and into a blood-donating chair!

I even got a cool sticker - and a donor card in the mail. And Canadian Blood Services personally called me to thank me for my donation! How cool is that?!
I haven't actually made my next appointment, but I'm going to - the end of June. I'm hoping I can get some friends and family to join me.

May is also Cystic Fibrosis month.
One of my best friends lost her cousin to CF last year and I have a co-worker who has a son with CF. My friend wanted to walk in this years Great Strides walk for cystic fibrosis, and so my sister Laura and I walked with her. We even fundraised a bit.

Here is Team Julia

It was a fun day

 

There was facepainting and crafts and a couple of extra events.

Katheryn LOVED the tall man with the sticks

This is the kids at the end of the day - walked out!

My feet ached all night!

Sometimes I feel that I want to donate to everything that I feel is important. Just to name a few:

Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Ontario - SWWR/Calenders

Grandview Children's Centre

Holland Blooview Kids Rehab

March of Dimes

Sick Kids Hospital

Canadian Cancer Society - Relay for Life

Weekend to End Women's Cancer

World Vision - my little girl's name is Geeta, she is 10 and lives in Nepal

Shelter from the Storm - ending violence against women

Children's Wish Foundation

Hope for Children - Adopt a Family (Children's Aid Society)

Rouge Valley Health System - Buy a Bed Campaign

Local food banks

Diabetes Association - Clothesline

Heart and Stroke Foundation

Reece's Rainbow



These are some organizations/causes ect that have affected our lives or people that I love and so I want to try to make some kind of difference.

I wish I had enough money to donate to everything!

But maybe by reading this blog - some of my 'readers' will think of a foundation or society that could really use some pay-it-forward.

And of course June is Spina Bifida Awareness month as well as our annual Spirit Wheel Walk Run (June 16 - Oshawa Lakeview Park). Our team is Nick's Cheering Squad and online donations can be made through the CanadaHelps website (very safe).

Of course I'll post more about our walk in June.

For now, it is Pay it Forward month!

**Authors note** I wasn't sure how to end this post. I have actually thought alot since posting this a couple of days ago that I come off wrong with this post. I hope you don't take it that way. I try to donate something to a number of different causes that I feel are important (and it is not always a donation of money, sometimes time or clothes). Try to to get my point across that there are a lot of places that have touched our lives and make me want to pay it forward I wanted to list who I dontate to, with links of course.

I do not mean for it to come off as bragging or saying that I'm a better person because I donate to alot of things. I don't feel that way.

What I'm hoping is that someone who has thought about doing something like this but keep putting it off (like my donating blood) will use this as an excuse to sponsor something that is important to them.