We’ve tumbled and fought our way through the rest of June…
Some lovely interludes intermingled with the difficult, the aggravating, and the complicating!
Mom got an MRI on her elbow (requested back in March when it was super sore). Almost cancelled it because it was an inconvenient time and location and her elbow is not exactly fully healed but very liveable - was it worth it? She went, fully expecting clear results. Lo and behold, within a few days she has a results call with a doctor telling her that there is nerve thickening and tendon tears! So it is back to light physio and bracing until she can get into the sports injury/arthritis clinic.
Jasmin turned 19! We managed to have a tea party with games and a movie birthday on the day with a friend and then Mom and Jasmin squeezed in her Puffin tour present the following week. It was rather foggy, but they did see lots of birds, seals, and even a sun fish! They didn’t come back with too many bird pictures as they were mostly occupied with watching them through Imma’s binoculars! Jasmin did take a lot of rock photos though - for drawing references…Both Dad and Aiden also had blood work done for our new family doctor and had follow up calls, though nothing serious or previously unknown.
We attempted to help Imma with her needed chicken coop improvements. Between rain and schedule complications, we only managed two mornings and one of those was muted by rain. Still, the new and improved coop only needs one more thing before it is ready for the chicks currently living in her closet.
We’ve enjoyed our neighbour’s generous offer to use her BBQ no less than 3 times: two birthdays and one just because the day before we left. For Aiden’s party, for the adults on Jasmin’s birthday while the kids had the tea party and games, and on our last day to use up as much of the food we had left as possible. It’s been a great experience - and Dad has turned out to be a pretty good BBQ chef :)
We’ve fought with our bank for access to our own money and lost almost a whole week of time, thought, and energy wading through hours of hold music, automated systems, and customer service agents who don’t have access to fix anything out of the box… But, on the last possible day - even though it is a Sunday - after much contingency scramble planning, our account is back online and useable! Thank you God!
Aiden took a challenge exam at Dal for one of his first year courses. He was so chill about it! Great that he wasn’t anxious or uptight, but we’d have liked to have heard a little bit more about it than we did!
We’re quite near Hemlock Ravine Park, so we’ve all explored (and gotten lost/turned around in there) it. Mom went for a walk with a friend there and ended up tracking at least 5km! Lovely walking, but then she had to spend the following weeks being careful and treating her feet nicely so the hints of returning plantar fasciitis pain didn’t become a summer-long problem again. Mom got a bit jealous of Dad being able to do all the summer exercises and right now she can’t - again.
Grace got a long-awaited physio appointment and came away with a regimen of joint strengthening exercises that take her nearly an hour a day… but although she does feel the difference, it is still a difficult task to keep motivation for that many stretches!
Grace also set to putting in motion the necessary Chinese exam she needs to apply for her master’s degree at Payap next summer. And discovered that all her research and planning of last year no longer holds true and she has a fair bit of study to accomplish between now and January to pass the updated required level of proficiency… not much of a problem except the rest of the summer won’t be very conducive to language study…
Jasmin’s fully finished her course work and client calls and can finally take a break - only now we’re off to Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, and Calgary! Let’s hope we can find rest and peace time for her. We’re off tomorrow…
