cheer | Lessons from my daughter

Exactly a week ago, I sat down and wrote my first ever bucket list.

To celebrate my favorite season and my 40th year, I wrote down a lit of 40 items I want to do before end of day on December 21st.

You can find my post here: Autumn Bucket list

The last 2 items on my list are:

39. Document my bucket list with pictures

40. Blog about my progress weekly

So this is my first update… what could we have possibly done in 1 week!

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#35 – Drink a pumpkin spice latte – this was my first PSL and it will be my last. I couldn’t finish it… this is not my thing, I will keep drinking lattes…

#32 – Perform a random act of kindness – when I bought this Pumpkin Spice latte, I bought my colleagues their favorites too… Just because

#21 – Make binders for Emily’s cheer coaches – I believe I have mentioned before that Emily has joined a cheer club, they have a team for athletes of various abilities and I wanted to give our amazing coaches some tools to help them understands and work with their growing team.

#9. Buy our favorite Halloween candies and keep them for us… I believe I will have to buy more as the box is already open!

#5. Go to the drive-in one last time. Emily was so excited to see Hotel Transylvania 2. And the good thing this time of year? Movie started at 8:30pm instead of 10pm

#2. Visit a pumpkin patch and pick 3 pumpkins. This was interesting! It was family outing / physiotherapy appointment… Emily’s mobility is much better than anything the doctors thought she would achieve but a pumpkin patch… I never thought about how the ground would be uneven and covered in vines… We managed, I helped Emily and we found our way around a huge field of pumpkins to find our perfect “future minions”

#7. Hop on a hay ride – There was no hay on the ride but a wagon pulled by a tractor has to qualify!

So, here it is, week 1.

I’ve also picked my future hair color, saw the blood moon and tried to photographed it, Emily is almost ready for Halloween, we bought the paint to tackle our pumpkin art project and bought supplies for treat bags & cupcakes…

I am so ready to continue tackling this list!

What about you? Do you have a bucket list?

When Emily was little I worried about her future.

To put this in context, you need to remember that in October 1999…

Just days after the picture above was taken… Genetic counselors a at the Montreal Children Hospital told us that due to Emily having Cri Du Chat syndrome, her future meant…

No walking!

No talking!

No understanding us!

No showing emotions!

No eating solid food!

At no point did they say this was a worst case scenario.

There was no doubt in their mind that this was going to be Emily’s life and we could see them feeling sorry for us.

We decided to give Emily the best life possible and that we would adjust to her needs and limitations.

This past weekend, was busy…

We had a roofing company over, putting a new roof on our house…

Meanwhile, Emily was starting her Cheer fall sessions. It was time to talk goals and prepare a lesson plan She loved cheer this past summer so she’s ready for more. Remember this picture?

An hour after cheer was done, Emily was at her baseball’s team end of summer game and party.

Emily and all her team mates got team jackets! How cool is that?

We had 39 players this year, divided into 2 groups.
We concluded Saturday with attending a hockey game.

Sunday morning, Emily was volunteering at her riding club. When coaches are tested to move up in their certifications, they need riders and Emily wants to help.

Emily helped coaches from other clubs on Sunday and they loved her 🙂

We had a busy weekend!

None of these would be possible if it wasn’t for amazing people getting together and wanting to provide opportunities for kids with special needs.

Thank you Cheer Olympia

http://www.olympiacheerleading.com/mobile/en/

Thank you Field of Dreams

http://monctonfishercats.com/fishercats2015/index.php/field-of-dreams

And thank you Cavalier riding club

http://cavalierridingclub.weebly.com

You are amazing and although I was grateful for this busy weekend to be over, I am even more grateful for the opportunities you are giving Emily and many others.

Thank you to your board of directors or owners and thank you to the volunteers who give their time, energy and positivity.

All of you, are part of our family now!

In the coming weeks, I will share more about Emily’s riding club as she starts her fall session this week and I will let you know more about Emily’s baseball team and our fully accessible baseball field project…