All Hail Macbeth!

All summer, I've been dreading this moment!  The moment where all the stuff we write about in English can be happy and funny and have a moderate vocabulary  level, changes.  Now, it gets serious!  Now you have to go in there, write and explain  stuff like you just came back from Oxford University.Well, at least try! You always have to answer the question, Why!  Why, Why ,Why, all the time!   Its like no one in the class has any idea what your talking about, even though you all just learned about it.  As for the vocabulary, there is a list of words now that we can't use  because there over used, and these words are like beautiful and wonderful!  There big words!  The worst part is about English is that it makes you want to grow up.  Everyone mature in that class!   I love English and I love my teacher but its making me grow up way too fast! I don't want to grow up! I want to talk like Winne The Pooh.  You do some critical thinking in this class, and have mature thoughts!   I've ranted to you lots, but none of that stuff is the worst part.  This year, we've started Shakespeare!  In earlier years its been on the curriculum for the  English class , but my classes have  always run out of time, so we got out of doing it!  Not in grade eleven though!  It like the main idea of English the year!  No gettiin' away with nothin'!    This year were reading Macbeth!  I tell ya, its the hardest thing I've ever done in English!  The whole language of the 21st century gets whacked out of proportion.  If you understand the dialect, you should get a b. Who cares about what the story line is.  There is so much violence in Macbeth!  Good guys turn into bad guys within minutes.  I thought it would just be the romance that would bug me, but talk about violence and betrayal!  It's like "I love ya buddy but I think I wanna kill ya , because your getting in the way of my becoming popular and all"  Oh my goodness, it never ends with these guys.  Now we have to write an essay!  I guess I'll just have to grin and bare it and stick it out until the end.  Oh bother!( i miss Winnie the Pooh movies)  HELP ME!

Another great swim day!

Another busy, fun day up at Fairmont for the Special O group.  We had 5 swimmers, Lochlan,Brandon, Brion,Marlow and Kate.   The volunteers this week were Katrien,Willam, Evan, Andrea and Tom We played a few quick rounds of bocce before we swam.  tom lead the game  We had Marlow and Kate, with the help of her mom Judy  and Brion on one team.  On the other team we had Brandon and Lochlan. This game was a little less competitive.  Marlows mom got right into it, being loud and cheering everyone on.  Lochlan ha been away for a while, and today was his first day back!  Welcome back Lochlan!  Brandon seemed a little shy  today.  He stuck close by to his mom, whitchwas fine.  They looked like they had a great day.  Marlow had really powerful throws of the Bocce ball.  She did really well.  Brion only  played a little.  He stuck by his grandpa.   At the end of the day, he wrested his dad down.  Hes very strong!  Kate had help from her mom again and had lots of fun with everyone! Another great gam When the volunteers came, we headed to the pool.  Today we pratised  using our arms to make us go further in the water when we swim..  We had to cup our hands and push them through the water and do the flutter kick to make us go fast!  At the end of the day we played marco polo and jellyfish tag!  It was a good swim had by all!  Lochlan did pretty well for his first day back.  He really wanted to play jelly tag.  He got right back into things,.  He also swam with his mom a bit.  We dont even worry about Marlow anymore1  Shes got the whole swim strokes thing under control!  Shes great sswinmming on her own with supervision.  Brandon was with his mom also swimming!  Youd look over and they woukd be smiiling and laughing, having a good mother son day.  Brion was so excited to see Evan.  He was holding on to his grandpa and then once he saw Evan he ran to him and smiled and was ready to swim.  He got a little tired at the end of the day, so his swim was a little short today.  Kate was pratising swimming without a bar and without touching as much as she could.  She was with Andrea and Tom.  When she swims shes got to keep her back from curving in.  She has a goal!    A fantastic day for everyone!  Thanks again to all volunteers who came out to help!  A great, great swim day!

Another Swim Report!

Hi everybody!
I was not at the last swimming session with Special O, but I do write the reports for them.  I love doing this so I told the helpers if they gave me the notes, I would write up a report.  So, here it goes.

We only had two kids come up to Fairmont to swim and  and three  to play bocce, Steve and his sister, Amanda,  Brion,and Kate.  The helpers for bocci were |Andrea, Gee, and ,Tom and Steve's Dad Darcy. We practised for a few runs and for the last few minutes we had a game, where we broke into two teams and competed against each other.  Steve and Brion were with Andrea and Amanda and Kate were with Darcy. It went very well.  There was a bit of squabbling between the to teams.  Steve kept bragging that he was the champion at bocci, so he had to keep proving that.  Amanda kept defending herself with comebacks.  Brion did really well.  When he through the ball, he always had an excellent game face.  Kate had the help of her mom Judy throwing the ball.  Sometime she would stand and sometimes she would sit on a lawn chair.  Everyone had fun.  It was a fun game with lots of competition, which was good.  Congrats to the winning team, Steve and Brion!

Later the group went over the pool to swim.  Kate went home because she just had gotten over a cold and didn't feel like swimming!  There were only two swimmers, Steve and Brion!  There were three volunteers, Trish, Nicole, and Evan.  The boys practised kicking, and played Marco Polo.  Brion  was very involved with whatever the group was doing. He was doing excellent Kicking and swimming with Evan.  Steve tried swimming on his back again!  It was nice just having the two boys.  It was less to keep track of They both had lots of fun!  Great fun day with a small group in the pool I would still do the report if someone would send me the notes. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  I hope you all have plans to spend this holiday with lots of family and friends and lots of turkey!  Tonight I plan to go over to my aunts house for a big turkey dinner!  My aunt and uncle just moved to a town near by, Wilmer, so I've been spending the last two Thanksgivings over there.  My mom and aunt have  been preparing dinner all day, which I'm sure a lot of families are busy doing!  I'm excited for dinner.  I like thanksgiving!  Its a family holiday with good food and sitting around a dining room table and appreciating what we have!  I am thankful for a lot of things this year. I cant even count that high but I will only say the top ten things

1.  I love having such a supportive and loving family.  I love spending time with them and they're always encouraging me and making me smile.  They will do anything for me. 

2. Having my disability has made me open my eyes to the world around me a little bit in the past couple years.  For a while, I am sort of ashamed to admit, I had that "why me" fase.  Why am I like this?  Cerebral Palsy stinks. As I  got older I started to  have a different attitude towards being disabled.  I can walk and some kids are strictly confined to a wheelchair.  I am healthy, and some kids are stuck in hospital beds day and night, and I am in NO PAIN WHAT SO EVER!  I have an amazing life, and believe me that's never far from my mind.

3.  I've had some amazing adventures in the past few years!  I've blogged about some of them.  I think I did a whole section on going to the paralymics to be a torch bearer and a student reporter.   That was really an out of this world adventure.   I got to meet Rick Hansen.  Ive been talking about him a bit lately.  Hes really cool!  It was a great family experience. My whole family went and I got to do torch bearing and reporting with my best friend, Grace Brulotte.  She and I have been everywhere together.  We went to Ottawa together to speak at the Senate Chambers.  That was great!  We were there with a group called Cannasist, a group that makes cool contraptions to make disabled people more independent.  They are some of the nicest people.  It was like a big family.  Anothe great adventure  of course, the bugaboos!  I told you how great that was and I got to go up with my school, and wonderful guides, who, again, felt like a big family.  And, my friend Paige ukass, who is an incredibly sweet lady.  I am one busy girl.  I have loved all my adventures, and hope to try new thing all the time!

4.I think I've talked about SET B.C before.  They help disabled kids getting set up with the technology they need to make daily things in their life easier. SET B.C has set me up with a lot of things like computers and big trips, but the greatest gift they ever gave me was a best friend.  Ive mentioned my friend Grace Brulotte before.  She and I met over SET B.C.  There was a contest for SET B.C students to write about their dreams for the future.  Our SET B.C helper made it so Grace and I could do it together so we could meet.  We've been best friends ever since.  We relate to each other extremely well.  Its always easy to talk to her, even when I say dumb things(which she always calls me on,believe me)!  It's nice to be able to feel yourself with someone else.  Also, Grace is very inspiring!  She is one thing that makes me look back on life and realize how lucky I am. 

5   I really enjoy going to school!  I have the most amazing school system!  Everyone is so supportive.  I have  a lot people that  will do anything to make my school day more enjoyable.  When I say a lot, I mean A LOT!  I love who I get to work with at school.  The whole  school district in my town is great.   Also, I know that years ago, disabled kids were completely disintegrated!  They were thought less of and were not allowed in the school systems, unless they were in special school.  I am in a regular high school, and do a full coarse load.  I feel so fortunate, witch is why I work hard.   encourage all schools to accommodate handicapped kids.  They have the right to learn too.  Any physically or mentally disabled child can always learn new things.  They don't have to go to every class. I don't go to gym class.  I have my own exercises.   That are a better thing for me to do. For some kids, learning some things may be more useful to them than others.  Every child needs to learn, and should be integrated with non disabled children no matter what.  You cant live in a world with just disabled kids.  How would you learn to cope if you got into the real world after being coopped up in a disabled school K- 12.  That's why I love school!

6.  Another thing I used to have little pity parties about was having "no friends".  It took me a while to look around and see how many friends I have.  Its difficult for me to hook up with other children to go to the movies or something.  However, that  doesnt mean I don't have friends.  I have more friends than I can count.  Some are over 20, but that okay.  I'm working on that.  Everyone is so kind.  They're all looking out for me.  One of the greatest gifts in life is friendship

7.  I live in a beautiful valley.  I can look outside my window and probably paint a picture if I wanted to!    Everyone is friendly!  The whole of Canada is beautiful!  I've been to places like Ottawa,  and Victoria, and fell in love with both of them.  I could walk around those places forever, or not go anywhere, and go for a drive or walk around town  where I live with my mom and ust love all the things I see.  What a Wonderful World we live in!

8. Right before high school, I got an electric wheelchair.  I love to walk, but my wheelchair has opened up a whole new world for me.  I can go to and from school by myself, I can get to class on time, and I don't need to depend on others to hold my hand to help me walk. I love my chair.  Now, I can pretty much do anything and everything.

9. A couple years ago I started skiing up at Panorama Ski hill, where I live. I go in a sit ski.  I feel so free, skiing like everyone else, and I get to do it with a group of great instructors. Three years later, they now  have started a big program  for all disabled skiers.  They have three sit skis now.  Besides skiing , theres now swimming up at Fairmont pools.  I've never had swim lessons before.  Its great!  I'm learning so much, thanks to this fantastic group of people

10.And last, but not least, I am thankful for being me, disabled and all.  Being disabled is a struggle sometimes, but its also a gift.  I don't know who I would be without a disability. I see the world as a vastly different place than most do.  I do believe, disabled or not, the more a person struggles, the stronger they are!

So, there are the top ten things I give thanks for!  I am a lucky girl, with a great family, great friends, and a great life.  If you want, please comment and tell me what your favorite thing to be thankful for is?  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Swiim Report!

I think I will share with you another swim report because this week went so great! The swim program is a big success!  It was another busy swimming day.  The weather was overcast, but it ended  up being a great day.  We had Stephen, Aaligyah, Brandon, Cassidy,  Marlo, and Kate.  Our helpers were Katrien, Gee, Willam, Evan, Nicole, and newcomer Lainey.  Lainey is a great swimmer, so she led the group, teaching them different swim techniques.  Katrien had her kids, Jack and Tess with her and Laney had her on there.   They were having fun swimming two. 
This week we were really focusing on improving our swim moves, with the help of Lainey.  We were doing lots of laps,  back and forth.  We practised different strokes.  At the end, we did tag and Marco polo.  At the end of the day, we had cupcakes on the lawn to celebrate Brandon's birthday! 
Everyones day went well and they all were working hard swimming.  Stephen tried  swimming on his back for the first time.  He said he would never do that and today he finally did!  Nick work Stephen.  Aalighya really enjoyed herself.  She started giving input about  the different  activities the group should do, which was great.  Cassidy loves to swim, so she was doing pretty well on her own.   Marlo always lead the laps back from edge to edge of the pool.  She did amazing arm strokes!  Evan helped Kate swim back and forth from pool using a flutter board, and sometimes underwater!  It was fun celebrating Brandon's birthday on the lawn with treats.  Thanks for coming everyone.  You all did a great job swimming!  There is no swimming next Sunday because of thanksgiving1  Happy Turkey everybody!  See you in too weeks!