Rick Hansen Update

A few days ago our Ace organization had another meeting about our Rick Hansen celebration were going to have on April 13th. I hope that some of you guys got a chance to nominate someone to be a diffrence maker or sign up to be a medal barer. That is now closed. ACE has chosen 3 of them. This next meeting was more about stuff we wanted to do during the celebration. We talked about havinng colouring contest and doing wheelchair games and having a few of our local groups come out to perform. We really want to get everyone involed, especially school children. My job this week for ACE was to ask if the Leadership group in our school wanted to help out with face painting or something, because part of leadership is helping out around the valley and getting some work experience. I also talked to the art teacher to ask if that classs wanted to do drawings or something to represent wheelchair, inclusion, or Rick Hansen himmelf. It was great! Both the teachers were really supportive and wanted to help. The art teacher wanted to make a banner for us and the leadership teacher wanted me to give her class a little tak about what was happening.Thankyou both for your support! We didnt talk about too too much at this meeting, just what we wanted to do for activities until the racers came! I like going to ACE meetings. Im very much involved in the conversations. I was able to get my opinon out there. I felt older than my years. That doesn't happen often. ha ha. Anyway, just a short blog today but if you are interested in helping out or have any cool ideas please comment below. Thankyou!

Awesome Birthday Ski Weekend!

So, its happpend! I am 17! I've been dreading this moment all year! I dont like to grow up and I thought that turning 17 was just way too big, your practically an adult! But then my birthday rolls around, and i think to myself, "oh this isn't that bad!" I feel the same way I felt yesterday! Anyway, this birthday was exra special. My best friend Grace came up from Fernie to spend two night with me and my family up at our condo in panorama, to go sking. My grandparents own the condo. They love panorama and the love watching my sister and I have fun swimming and skiing when there. Anway, Grace and I had planned a birthday ski weekend a long time ago. We had done it once before and loved it so we thought it would be extra special to do it on my birthday. Last year we went up for only one night, but it was a lot of work for my mom to get everything ready that we just didnt think one night was quite worth it. So this time we went up for two. We mainly relaxed and hung out and got to know eachother again. Grace is my absoulute best friend of my age! There is no other 16 or 17 year old in school that I can feel more myself wth than her. Its hard to get a conversation going with other kids for me because I feel a little awkward, but with Grace it's easy. We talk a lot and we tease eachother contantly. It's great feeling so comfortable with your friend that you can tease eachother and no get offended by it. It was great to see Grace and her mom, and what was even better was to be able to ski together on my birthday! Now that is pretty magical. Grace was nervous at first to ski. She hasn't done it in a year. However , everyone welcomed her with big hearts and made sure she ghad everything she needed. By the time she was going down the hill she was screaming with joy. It was so amazing to have too best friends in sitskis skiing right beside eachother on the mountaibn. We would have races to see whitch sitski woud get down the hill first. One of our instuructors set up an obstacle course for us. That was fun! I got to practise skiing with two hands! My left hand doesnt cooperate that well and you can hold outriggers to help you steer and I usually use one for my good right hand. But on sunday I wanted to try to ski with two outriggers. I tried it before when I first went sitskiing but it didn't go well. My left hand just dragged the outrigger. This time it worked! I was even turing it a bit! That was really neat to see how I could do that now! i was very excited! After shredding up the hill, the ski group always goes in for hot chocolate! Grace made chocolate cupcakes for my birthday so we had those and hot chocolate! Everyone sang happy birthday! It was awesome. I dont think I could have asked for a better birthday! Even my sister came up for one night and she helped out another sit skier. It was wonderful! Grace and I have done so many things together, and it is out of this world that we can ski together, especially to make it happen on my birthday! Thankyou to all the sitski volunteers for organizinng this and for helping us out! You really made this birthday a special one!

Happy Newyears!

Happy Newyears everyone! Did anyone make it up untill midnight last night. I did... barely. My mom and I stayed up together last night and watched the newyears special on tv. There was one in Newyork, and that was really exciting to watch. It was so busy there, and everyone was so happy and energetic. I'd like to go to Newyork one day. It feels refreshing on Newyears day. Its like you can start all over again with a new year of things to look forward to and new challenges to come over. I have quite a few newyears resoulutions. I always want to be better and stronger than i was before. So, I will do what I did on Thanksgiving. I will write my top ten new years resoulutions. Here we go! 1. Learn how to be more independent- It's a scary thought but soon I will be finished school, and off to university or whatever path life has set out for me. I want to live all by myself, and to do that, I've got to learn to do a bit more life skills. I'm getting better, but I still have quite a ways to go . I want to be as independent as possible. 2. Work Experience- This term coming up in the fall I get to do some work experience. In our school, once kids get to Grade 11, part of their circulum is they have to complete so many hours of Work Experience. They get to go out int o town and kind of get a feel of what type of job they might do after school. My learning Assistance teacher layed out some options for me. One is at the valley echo, our local paper publishig place. I have done some reporting before with the Paralympics and some other things as well, and I have hung out with someone from from the paper, and got to do some reporting with him. I liked it, so it might be a good option for me to go check out. The other option is going to our Primary school, Elieen Madson Primary and do the 1 to 1 reading program. There are kids that struggle with reading and this lady goes once a week or something to help them get better. I have always loved the idea of working with other kids. Ive been inspired by what aides at school do, and think I might want to do it too. And I love to read, so for me helping a little kid to learn to read would be awesomee!! We wil see what happens. I love knowing that I will one day be in the work industry. Having a job and maybe getting paid for it would make me feel proud of myself, knowing I have actually worked to earn money for hard work. We'll see what happens! Exciting times ahead! 3. Do more things with friends- I have been around adults all my life, with hospitals and aides at school and teacher. I dont get a lot of time for other kids. I not very good at it ither. I get a little nervous talking to other kids, afraid I'll say something dumb or they won't understand me because of my speech. All the kids at my school are super nice, and always helping me and always saying hi to me. I just have trouble getting it to the next level, but im going to really try hard. This one girl in Cook Training goes to the park a lot. I might go with her. That might be a good start. 4. Be Happy- I love to be as happy as much possible. Im a very lucky girl. True, I have diffuculties and those kind of get me down sometimes, but I have to remember that there are children who have it a lot worse than me. Some kids are stuck in hospitalds and are very sick, or some kids that are confined to wheelchairs. I'm very happy I can walk. Sometimes when I get upset about the struggles that come with Cerebral Palsy, I have to remember that there very minor and I should be lucky for what I have. Plus, C.P is a part of me now. I couldn't imagine life without it I know it sounds crazy, but I have met so many amazing people and had so many amazing adventures. Like i said, I am a very lucky girl! 5. Watch some new movies- Ha ha! This is a funny one. I'm the type of person that likes to watch the same movie over and over again. Its funny because you know how some people can read the same book over and over. That would drive me crazy! Unless I'm reading it to a little kid or and elder to show them how great the book is. However reading the same book over and over to myself would drive me nuts! Where movies, I could watch certain ones over and over. But, now that I have netfix , a TV program where you can get new movies off the intenet, I have a variety of choices. So, new movies, here I come! :) If you have any suggestions, let me know. 6. Read More- I am a big reader! I have loved to read ever since I was little. I'm in grade 11 english this year and I love it! The only thing is all the kids in my class are the really mature ones. I admire them. I want to be just like them, hopefully by university. I love being a kid. Im very childlike. I enjoy being a child but I want to keep up with all my classmates. I've heard that if you read a lot, you intellingence and vocabulary enhances. I like to be on the same level as everyone else in class. A lot of kids read in that class quite a bit. I got a book for christmas that you record all the books you read, so with that and my kindle, I'm sure I will be reading loads of books in no time. 7. Keeping my strength up- I have come a long way in my excercisesI have to do and getting my muscles stronger. I can feel it! I have been going to physio ever since I can remember. I currently go to physio sessions once a week and I have a new tharapist and shes really good. Shes making me balance on one foot and all sorts of crazy stuff. ha ha. Also, my aide helps me get sronger too. She comes up with new stuff for me to do every day. Shes away for a while, so she wants me to do lots of walking. The funny thing is that my tharapist wants me to walk more than do excercises. I was thrilled. I love walking and never want to lose that ability! I also walk a lot in Chef Training. I get most of my utensils and ingredents by myself. I have a walker with a seat on it so I can get stuff from all over and bring it back. I love it and can see exactly where I am getting stronger. Its awesome. Also, I have started doing some of my excercises at home by myself. Im going to get stronger and stronger everyday. 8. Look in to my future- When I get out of school, I want to go to the University of Victoria. My cousin went there and she has inspired me to go. I love victoria. Its so beautiful there and and there is almost no snow so it will be easy for me to get around in my wheelchair. On Spring break my family is going to Victoria for a vacation to visit my cousin and my dad's friends. My cousin might be still living in Victoria when we go on our trip so,with her help we will see if U of Vic is going to work out for me. There is as group there, Cannisist, that have offered me a job there, so I might give that a try. I'm nervous about my future but also excited for a new jourey. Also, I have to look into stuff that will help make the future easier for me, like assisted living once in a while, and some tools to help me get along. I'm sure everything will go great! Lots of adventures! 9. Stay Healthy- I think this ones on everyones Newyears list. I hate being sick. Especially juring school. In high school, everyone is so busy, and when I miss school, I get kind of overwhelmed. But I do need to take a break once in a while, and not get upset about it. I am going to be a busy girl, so I have to stay health and ready for anything! 10. Never Give up- I hate giving up on something. Especially when someone advises me to. Whatever goals I manage to complete I will never give up because I am disabled. Whether you are in a wheelchair or not, you should always try your best, and do things wuth a smile on your face because there will always be someone that has it harder than you. Never never give up because if you do you could miss out on something amazing! So, as you can see, I have a lot to work on this year, and I hope to get better and bettter at things all the time. I hope you all have a proporous New year, and if you have any resoulution I would love to hear them. Happpy Newyear everyone! All the best for 2012!