Thursday, June 28, 2012

(posted by Greg)
Last Saturday was the 60th Anniversary of the South Burnaby Metro Club ( the sports/service club that Monica and I have participated in for years). Marley and I helped with the set-up and tear-down so we had quite a long day. Monica spent a couple of hours at the event. She enjoyed the ceremonies and entertainment  and had a chance to visit with a lot of old friends. It was a good day.

I often get up early for a morning walk. Last Sunday, Monica and I decided to go together and to walk on Main Street from about 37th Avenue to 12th Avenue. We  have driven along Main Street a lot over the past year on the way to the Cancer Agency and have begun to notice that there were a lot on interesting shops in this old neighbourhood. We were not disappointed. We got to window shop at a lot of interesting restaurants, antique stores, clothing stores etc. It was an easy walk downhill to 12th Avenue and harder, but not too bad, coming back uphill. We came back up Ontario Street and enjoyed seeing the gardens and how this older area is being restored. The homes were quite neat. It was fairly easy to push Monica's wheelchair but I got a fairly good workout. The walk was a real treat- we both enjoyed having the time to poke around this neighbourhood and generally enjoyed the time together. I think that we will try to make these exploratory trips part of our weekly routine.

Jesse returned from his one-month stint working in a family practice in Castlegar. It sounds like he learned a lot and enjoyed the country- doing lots of hiking and mountain biking. Jesse and his girlfriend, Sydney, joined Monica and Marley and I Sunday evening. We had a nice visit with Oma and took the fixings for a spaghetti dinner to Ingo's and had supper at his house enjoying the view of Semiahmoo Bay.

Daniel came home on Monday night for a one week visit. It was really great to see him. We are enjoying having him around a bit.

On Tuesday, Daniel, Jesse and Marley went bouldering together at a local climbing wall. We celebrated Jesse's birthday a few days early Tuesday night. Ingo brought Oma in to our house for a Greek dinner (souvlaki, rice, Greek salad and pita bread). So, for the first time in a long time all 3 kids (plus Sydney) were home and our house was full of family. Monica and Marley had put together a photo book with photos of the years 1983 to 2003. We all had a lot of fun looking at the book. As parents, Monica and I both enjoyed seeing the kids interact and listening to them remember (each differently) various childhood events. We had this dinner early because Jesse left for Kathmandu, Nepal on Wednesday morning. He will be there for 5 weeks on a volunteer mission to help with their medical program there.

On Tuesday, Monica had another visit to the lab (to make sure that her body is handling the medications properly) and a visit with the Dr.  Everything went well and she was given the go-ahead to carry on with the Bev treatments.  Monica seems to me,thankfully, to be about the same. We are monitoring her blood pressure which seems to be ok. She is coping well and, I think, for the most part enjoying our current routines.

Daniel took Monica to her Bev treatment of Wednesday. I am happy that he has a chance to participate a bit in Monica's care.