A Marshmallow Crazy Night

Hi....it's Joan! Long time no blog. Well, here I am - to post about tonight's Canuck Place night!

On the shift were Amanda, Marjan (new family volunteer), Kal (subbing for Tony), and I. All girls! We were pretty excited about it being an all-girls night during dinner because it seemed like all the kids who needed hanging out were girls too: Leanna, Leigh, and Monica (who is Gordon's sister). Leanna was a super fast eater, Leigh was looking forward to watching a movie, and Monica was excited about shopping for her elementary school graduation dress tomorrow with Mom!

Suddenly, a little boy named Stevy came sprinting into the kitchen and declared air hockey war (hence the almost all girls night). At first, chef Roberto played with him but he had work to do in the kitchen so Amanda accepted the challenge...and lost. I think. Stevy is a very good air hockey player.

After dinner, Leanna and Leigh were put in bed because they had a long day at Science World. Marjan, the techno guru, succeeded in wrestling with the DVD player and got a movie playing for them.

Kal, Amanda, and I went outside with Monica and Stevy to play Apples-to-Apples, and we brought with us lots of fruit, tea, and cookies. Stevy accidentally ate 5 cookies and therefore had tons of energy...that we needed to expend. He then decided that he didn't want to play the game, and ended up zooming around in the hand-bike, bicycle (with helmet, at my insistence), scooter, and merry-go-round. While Kal, Amanda, and I kept an eye on Stevy, we played Apples-to-Apples with Monica until it got rainy and Stevy wanted to go inside.
(If you don't know what Apples-to-Apples is...check it out at Wikipedia!)

We went in and struck a deal with Stevy: we would go to the Volcano room to have a "Marshmallow Fight" for a short time, and then finish our game. After a little discussion and a lot of help from Mom, it was settled. The marshmallow fight was a little too intense...I actually feared for my glasses. But clearly, it drained Stevy (finally!) and he was quite tired out.

We returned upstairs to play more Apples-to-Apples while I set Stevy up with some Rockband (it works now, Malcolm!) Very soon, Stevy's Mom took up him upstairs for bed, while Marjan came downstairs and joined us in our game. We played the amazing Apples-to-Apples until it was time to go.

It was a night of multitudes. Never a surprise at Canuck Place!

What can I say? ANother cool night!

Last night was the end of a long day and an even longer week, in spite of the fact it was only 4 days!

I was with Joan and Amanda, Santos having spirited himself away to the prairies for a family wedding.

At dinner we had the Island well represented. JJ and his mum, and Vanna (oh...she's going to hate that name...) and Breezy and her mum (who are from Chilliwack). Bob from Burnaby rounded out the group. I have known Bob for 6 years now and I am amazed at how much he has grown. He will always be the same little kid that I met 6 years ago...but he sure is getting big.

JJ is 13 and is a super cool, smart, and funny kid. If you have seen any of the Canuck PLace commercials he did one with Roberto Luongo: http://www.canuckplace.org/news_events/video_gallery/articles693.php

or this one: http://www.canuckplace.org/news_events/media_centre/psas/articles361.php

We had a chill night upstairs playing a game called Apples to Apples. We (joan, Vanna, JJ, and I) talked a lot...had a lot of laughs. Amanda was helping Bob figure out the ways to advance (uhm... cheat) in his video game that he plays all the time. I think he got a little further thanks to the internet!

I am never really amazed at what happens at the house. Everything just happens--it is all so normal. From the respite care to the end of life care the house works to achieve absolute normalcy for all of the families and volunteers involved.

Thank you, Canuck Place.

Where you from? Who do you be?

I get to see on occasion visits from far flung places to the site. Who are you? Leave a comment. Who lives in Beverley Hills? You come back often, Thank you!

As I write the blog posts I realise that I am not doing it for anything other than sharing. If one day a blog post that I write does something incredible for the person reading it. Cool. Come back and say hi.

fragile place

Grounding. A word I used the other day.

Nothing more grounding than learning that a little boy you saw on Friday night had to leave his Mum, Dad, and Big Sister on Sunday morning.

Another example of how Canuck Place works. Little Kyler quietly died, with his family around him, surrounded by a big , wonderful, old house.

What a cool night. Just what the doctor ordered. Having been told my job has been cut to .875 full time for next year I found myself chomping at the bit to get to the house. As I have said before hanging out at the house can be rejuvenating and also very grounding.

Tonight Steve, Amanda and Joan were all in to volunteer and we had Willa, who is a new addition to the house, Denise with her mum and grandma, Carter in with his mum dad, brother and sister, and a little boy named Kyler who had his mum, dad, and big sister with him and last but not least, Sadie who was there with her mum A full house.

Canuck Place is way more than a children's hospice. It is a family home.

I got to sit beside Denise and Willa at dinner. I helped Willa to get food on her spoon when she needed the help. Nurse Marg was helping Sadie.

After dinner we mosied up to the art room to hangout, colour, toss a ball around (something that Sadie loves to play).

Both Sadie and Willa are nonverbal. Sometimes communication is such a challenge. Eyes and facial expressions make up a lot of the communication process. Willa could speak a little but it is a struggle for her to form the words and it is especially difficult to decipher what is being said. I took a shine to Willa right away. She is an absolutely beautiful 13 year old with long dark hair and stunning eyes. I kept having to apooligise for not understanding the words she was trying to form. We did ok together, but I could tell how frustrating it is for her to try and speak without being understood. She reminded me of K-Dogg (who has left the program now that he is 19). Willa would grin at all of my stupid jokes like K-Dogg did.

At one point Sadie had a seizure...something she is prone to do. The seizures range from just zoning out to full muscular contractions of her body. I noticed the seizure and got mums attention. I held Sadie's hands and mum was at her head talking quietly to her. The seizure lasted about 90 seconds and then Sadie came back.

A little later we met Axel. He had just come in from the Island to stay for the weekend. He is over to play power soccer with a Vancouver team. We had a quick chat and then it was time to go.

After saying goodnight to everyone I realised what a good night it was.

I left the house happy.

Brothers J--another set -- go squirrel Hunting

Today when I appeared on the Kids floor I sat down on the couch. M-girl was being held by a volunteer. It was about 10 minutes to five and I could sense I was in the perfect position to take over. To hell with dinner! I quickly got to move in and had my chance to cuddle Baby M. Hockey was on, I was in a comfy chair, things were perfect. For the next 45 minutes or so I just hung doing the cuddle thing along with the B-man and K-man (who came up from the main floor)! After a while the crew came up--Janelle with the Brothers J crew2. Oldest brother has been called Jeffrey in previous posts.

The M-girl was nice and happy so the nurse put her in her bed. The boys and I went downstairs so I could catch up in the food department and we discussed the night strategy: squirrel hunting was in the plans.

I had no idea! In the end we went outside, leaving K and B - Men on the Kids Floor and went to catch us a squirrel.

The boys were hi - larious. We found a bucket, some string from jeffrey's bag, some bird seed, and whole lot of patience. The plan was for the unsuspecting squirrel to get the seeds placed under the propped up bucket, and pull the string and catch the squirrel. Simple. So we hung by the bird feeder and waited. Squirrels in the trees staying a minimum of 30m away. Lots of chickadees around, a few song sparrows, and one junko. So me being the bird loving fool that I am start whistling to the birds: MAGIC! The chickadee call "cheese burger" is (i believe) a territorial call. After a few minutes of cheesburgering I had the whole group of local chickadees cheeseburgering back!

We never caught a squirrel so we went inside for bathroom breaks. We collected the B and K Men and went upstairs. Even found a plan to catch a squirrel.

We eventually came across some pinecones and string and decided to to make bird traps (aka bird feeders). string...peanut butter...sunflower seeds. Done. Hung them out on a tree and a birdfeeder. It was dark and the birds were in bed. I bet the squirrels destroy them in the night!

It was a cool night. I like to hunt squirrels.

A Quiet House

This Friday was such a contrast from last Friday.

3 kids in the house, plus a mum and a sister who hung out on their own, plus a dad and a brother who went to a hockey tournament.

That was it. Santos, Joan, Jenelle and I were on hand along with the nurses and PCAs.

It always seems like there is a lot of people on any one shift and it is on nights like these that I sometimes watch what the nurses are doing when they are not in contact with the kids. They are busy! They are always doing something. Writing in reports, in the med room preparing stuff, checking other stuff. The PCAs are are also busy as hell too. This is what they need to get done every shift (I am supposing) whether they have a kid in front of them or not. Unless a kid is in their room sleeping (and being monitored by video!) they are ALWAYS with a family volunteer, PCA, or nurse. As volunteers we are to be there for the kids in the house, but I realise that we are also there for the nurses. The nurses do a hell of a job. I am happy that as a volunteer we can help them do even better!

Our job tonight consisted of serious hanging in the Sunroom. We were perilously close to repeating nap time, but managed to stay awake while G-Dog and C-Girl (I have become ever so taxed on creating new names) watched a variety of shows on TV. I hung a bit with the S-Man while he demolished a video game.

This was S-Man's second stay at the house. I ate supper with his family and had a little chat with his mum and dad. I found myself telling them how awesome this place is because of how NORMAL it is.

Canuck Place takes a uniquely special kid with uniquely special needs who receives uniquely special care and makes every aspect their care and visit normal.

That is what this place is about.

A full House!

What a great hangout day.

After a fairly miserable day at work and a rushed drive to Delta and back it was nice to slide into the house and sit down for dinner amongst a bunch of familiar and some new faces.

One of the first things I heard was, "here comes trouble". Little did she know that I was called Trouble when I was 3 or 4.

At the table there were the Brothers J, Single J, AJ, and StepJ. Volunteers Santos, Amanda, and Joan, all onsite for the night.

Let it be known that I ate too many servings of potatoes and chicken and fish.

As usual we tend to meet up in the schoolroom to hang and to figure out what we can do for the night. This works for AJ because she gets to listen to and watch Shania Twain on the comp! We always end up having cool discussions finding out how things have been with everyone since the last time they were here for respite, or getting to know those who we haven't met before.

After a while we split up: me, Joan, and the Brothers J move outside. Last August the Brothers J were in the house. Read about it: http://canuckplaceadventurechallenge.blogspot.com/2009/08/week-after.html

We played some bball, we played some hockey. We played for a long time!

After a while we went back upstairs. Walk into the classroom and I get a great surprise! There is a teenage girl (KJ) at the house who I have known for 5 years. She doesn't talk, but she sure knows how to smile...especially with her eyes. Every time I see KJ I break out into "I'm walking on Sushine" by Katrina and the waves, take her hand and do a little dance. It is worth it to see the smiles on her face!

A little bit of Wii with the Brothers J, a little bit of hangout and the night is done.

Some of the most rejuvenating 4 hours I get to spend anywhere.

Messages from the house

On occasion we (volunteers) receive an email notice about our kids passing. More often than not the notice contains the words "in his parents arms", or "surrounded by family". I am always saddened by these emails. Most often they are about the kids that I don't know and the news will always makes me sad. I am not sure how I will react when it is someone I have come to know better than others.

For the first time in 5 years I replied to the email from our volunteer coordinator. I just replied without much thought. In it I expressed how proud I am to be a part of Canuck Place

In fact I am proud of every doctor, nurse, volunteer, parent, sibling, and Canuck Place Kid I have been fortunate enough to meet there. Even Santos.

When you are sick...just stay clear,

One of the things I notice when I look at the blog is how much stuff gets missed. I was sick on Friday and had to call in to the house to cancel for the night. Miss a shift and all of a sudden my time there is reduced to once in the month. I HATE calling in sick. I realise that it is my time at the house that creates awesome moments with awesome people for me to write about!

Even if you are just 'a little' sick your bug could be devastating to the kids in the house. So we steer clear.

The start to another 6 months of fundraising is underway as I officially signed up for the 5th Annual Canuck Place Adventure Challenge! www.adventurechallenge.ca

Take a visit to the site. Take your time to go to the house as well: www.canuckplace.org

Men's Pairs Roller Chair Dance - 2010 Olympics

Whoa! A new event is on the horizon at the Canuck Place Olympic Classroom Plaza. Men's Pairs Roller Chair Dance. Santos and I are still trying to sort out Compulsary Elements for the event.
I believe we are destined for Gold as we are the only men's pair in the house.

Amanda and Joan are not men and therefore unable to compete.

A second event: Olympic Face taping. Pictures to follow? Not sure!

A third event: Pokemon Counterfitting by Aldo.

It is nice to be back at the house after a long while (one shift forgotten...one shift sick).

Running report tonight maybe......!

News Flash - Abbotsford to create its own Canuck Place

November 24, 2009
Abbotsford to create its own Canuck Place
Council in the Fraser Valley city approves lease of land for buildings to house seriously ill patients
By Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver Sun

Abbotsford council approved a plan Monday night for a Canuck Place children's hospice in Abbotsford that would eliminate the long trip to Vancouver's facility for hundreds of sick children and their families.

The city agreed to lease .6 hectares (1.5 acres) of land on Marshall Road to Canuck Place, Matthew's House and the Abbotsford Hospice Society, all of which will offer support services for patients with terminal or life-threatening illnesses.

One of the reasons for the new Canuck Place is that more than 40 per cent of the children staying at the Vancouver location, a heritage house in the tony Shaughnessy area, are from the Fraser Valley, said Filomena Nalewajek, CEO of Canuck Place Children's Hospice....(click here to read more...)

What I Learned...

Hey everyone,

heehee. So neither Malcolm nor I have posted for over a month, but it's justified! Malcolm is very busy with school, and so am I with Pharmacy.

However, even during this crunch time before my final exams, I feel the need to post even a very short entry on this blog to document what I learned last shift on Friday, November 20th.

When I walked into the hospice that afternoon, I immediately noticed that the green lamp was sitting on the receptionist's desk, and turned off. Making a note to myself to be more sensitive to my surroundings, I went into the volunteer room and met up with Tony, Jen, and Amanda, the other volunteers during my shift.

We checked in upstairs with the nurses and realized that there were literally no kids who needed volunteer attention. We decided to stick around for dinner, and then figure out if we were still needed.

Half-way through our lonely volunteer-only dinner, an elderly asian lady sat down to join us. I noticed that her eyes were red and puffy. Tony, being the kind soul that he is, tried to engage her into conversation. We soon realized that she could not speak English very well, but she told us that she was from Hong Kong, so I offered that I could speak Cantonese, and Tony that he could speak Toi-San dialect. Turns out that she knows a bit of Toi-San, but speaks primarily Cantonese.

After a few more bites of dinner, she started to talk to us. The nurses told us later that she had not talked to anyone outside of the family all day because of the language barrier, so knowing that Tony and I could understand her, she opened up to us and spoke the feelings she had harboured in her heart from an event that occurred earlier in the day : the passing of her granddaughter.

We listened to her talk, and we did our best to speak comforting words in the hopes of making her feel even the teensiest bit better.
I hope that through her sharing of the story with us, a bit of the burden was taken off her shoulders.

From that night, I learned yet another important role of the Canuck Place volunteer. Shift after shift, each filled with kids and games and relaxation, I often forget why I am really there. But on a night like last shift, I recalled a phrase that I once read in the family volunteer description : we are there to be that "missing friend". Even when the kids don't need us, the families need us.

I'm so glad we decided to stay for dinner.

The return of Dave

SilentFury said...

sorry malcolm/joan, I never got around to finishing he blog entry.

18 October 2009 05:40

Malcolm said...

sphen.....what now?
don't worry buddy. we'll get to it!
tell you what...if the spirit moves you...do it on the comment thingy!
malcolm

19 October 2009 09:59

SilentFury said...

all right, here goes,

" ’DAAAAAAAAAVVVVE’ is back! As soon as Malcolm and Joan showed up, the first thing Kenny said was, ‘Nooooooooo maaaaaaaan, iiiiiiiiii’m Daaaaaaaaaaave!’ It took a while, but Malcolm managed to find a video of ‘Daaaaaaaaaaavvvvve’ on Youtube. I (Sphen) went down stairs for a bath, and thought the ‘Daaaaaaaaaaaavvvvve’ thing would pass, but sure enough when I got back Kenny and his brother Kam, were still shouting ‘Nooooooooooo maaaaaaaaan, iiiiiiii’m Daaaaaaavvvve!’ and we still were laughing hysterically! For the rest of the night Kenny, Kam, Pavel, Joan, Malcolm and I were trying to come up with a new saying, or catchphrase, or whatever it was. Malcolm and Pavel were doing a bit off of Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. Malcolm would do the ‘BAH BAH…’ and Pavel would carry it on with the ‘ChikaChika.’ That was funny too." You guys can add whatever you want

Nehal

NormieNehal is a charmer. It is an absolute joy to be around him and I look forward to watching him grow up. If ever there was a twinkle to be put into your eye it can be done by Nehal.

Chubby Girl Babies + Normie

Hey everyone, it's Joan!
Tonight's shift was very quiet, enjoyable, and low key.
Volunteers on shift were : me, Martin (subbing for Malcolm and Steve), Chris and Janelle (both subbing for Amanda).

After dinner of huge, delicious ravioli and turkey meat loaf (aka bird loaf), Jeffrey went back into bed. He is still recovering from his surgery from the summer, but he is doing much better!
Chris, Janelle, Martin, and I all went to the school room with Collin and Kay. Chris watched videos with Collin, Martin started chatting it up with Collin's dad, and Janelle and I sang songs to Kay. Kay has trouble hearing and has an implant in his ear to help him, but his earpiece keeps falling off! Still, when we sang songs that were familiar to him such as "Happy Birthday," he would all of a sudden give a huge grin in recognition and get excited! Tonight, however, he was not having his best day so the nurses put him to bed early.

Afterwards, I went downstairs to see if the nurses needed any help, and I got to hold and cuddle baby Kary. She is so cute!! She has smooth black hair, soft cheeks, tiny hands and feet...and she's so adorably chubby! I kept having to sit her up more because she has laboured breathing, and she fell asleep in my arms a couple of times. She loved the attention! Around me were 3 other baby girls : Jenna, whose parents were there for a bit, Maggie, and Josie.

The thing that will make me remember this shift most, however, is my discovery of an article taped onto the white board at the nurse's station. And who was this article about? Little Normie, real name : Nehal! (Since his real name is in the article, I suppose it won't do any harm to mention it here.) He's the little 4-year-old boy we've talked about many times who absolutely loves rockband. Nehal has a heart condition for which he has had 3 successful surgeries in the past, but because of the complexity of his condition, he is going to Stanford in November to receive another surgery. His mum, Shalini, is such a wonderful person, and Nehal is such a lovable little boy; I really hope they will find what they are looking for in California.
If you would like to read this article, please click HERE.

It appears I was a happy camper

Or maybe I just like to have my picture taken. I promise you that where you see me running, and smiling on the out side...my insides are crying. Can't wait for next year! Adventure Cam to come soon...and a race report.

Last Friday - night of extremes

Hey everyone!

Joan is back! I've been a bit MIA with posting here - my excuse is that I've been busy with back to school and now, school. I am starting my first year in UBC Pharmacy, and it is a bit overwhelming now, but it is all very interesting and I'm sure I will adapt to it all very soon. Tonight I finally have a bit of down time, and seeing that Malcolm hasn't posted about last shift, I will do the honours!

On volunteer shift that night were me, Malcolm, Santos, and new peer volunteer, Amanda! Jen, the receptionist-family hybrid volunteer was also back at reception after a long break to take care of her dog and summer holidays. Welcome back, Jen! Kids in the house included Nina, Nina's brother Doug (I forgot what name he wanted!), Isaac, Elvis, Patrick, and Christina.

The entire night can be effectively described by one word : extreme.

After dinner, we all gravitated towards the Sun room. We turned on Barney to keep Nina happy, plugged Elvis into his celtic and campfire songs on his CD player, and the rest of us sat on our bums and just talked. With Barney's and the singing children's soothing voices, as well as the room's dim lighting, all of us started getting sleepy. We seriously could have just lay our heads down on the sofa and taken a nap - but no! That's not what good volunteers do!

After awhile, a burst of energy came by and Santos, Malcolm, and Doug started having an intense matches of air hockey. And I mean INTENSE. Play was accompanied by frequent yells of joy and frustration, so loud that we had to turn Barney on to almost full volume to keep Nina satisfied. Anyways, the boys finished their matches all tired and sweaty, and I believe Santos was the ultimate winner. =)

And of course...I had my friday-nightly toast and half-a-toasted-bagel with nothing on it.

psych!

I woke up to a $9000 donation today! my mind raced!
long story short: do you own donations online...and make sure you check what you have submitted!!!
$9000 has been refunded. $900 coming our way!

$220 000

thats a big number. that is what 120 of us adventurers have collected for saturday's race. wow!
congratulations everyone. good luck on saturday!

www.adventurechallenge.ca

Training

Here are a couple of training videos I put a lot of thought into in preparation for the big race on Saturday:
The first:


And the Second:

to be here soon!


I will leave you to decide which is best. I can tell you how I felt after the pancakes.

Looking forward to the race next weekend. As out of conditioning as I feel it will still be a fantastic day. Have you seen the totals for funds raised? I am over $2600 (thanks to Justin) and the Challenge is at $201 000! Hot Dawg! Thank you everyone!

Short term vs long term planning...

well....the race with the trailrider may be on hold as a result of this short term, getting too excited planning philosophy i ascribe to, but that is ok! I understand the limitations that short term planning has to offer and what this leads to is planned, organised, all areas covered, long term planning....which is good.....right?

Some of our ideas might come to fruition this year. I believe that ALL of our ideas (and more) will make it for next years race.

Sweet news in the DONATIONS box this week. Remember my student Justin? He emailed me with some news on a donation that was to be made by his family with thanks to his Aunt. Unfortunately his Aunt is ill. She made available some money to be donated in Justin's sisters name (Tamryn) to a charity. Justin's family has been a part of the Canuck Place family for a number of years. Tamryn passed away at the house after living her short life with Tay-Sachs.

Thank you to the Fishman family for the $900 donation.

trailrider

ok...check this out. it could really happen.
Nicole (another house family volunteer) and I (and mike) have suggested and hope to run the 10km trail run of the Canuck Place Adventure Challenge with Luke. Why the challenge? Luke is young kid who spends his time in a pretty skookum wheelchair. The wheelchair, although pretty hefty and solid, is not built for the rocks, boulders, creeks and bridges that the trail offers.
go here: www.bcmos.org
and check out the trailrider. A chair that was the brainchild of former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and friends.

Now we just need to make it happen!

something is brewing for the race....

..so Leanne says, "Malcolm can you PLEASE help us on Friday for the Trailrider session at Jericho?!?!"

little did she know what thoughts might run through my brain (and similar thoughts through Nicole's brain) as we wheelbarrowed around jericho park and along the beach (past topless woman I might add) that day.

I look to Nicole at the end of our little walk about and say, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

fast forward 3 weeks later and Nicole goes for a run on the course and reports that it is (with some help) something that we can do....with somebody light!

I have been toying with the idea of somebody doing the kayak with me...but nothing ever came to fruition.

"hello Mrs Galvani. My name is Malcolm Chrystal. I am a volunteer at Canuck Place. We met at the Adventure Challenge last year....."

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we have an epic sherpa event happening on the run in this year's adventure challenge!

Gill...are you able to help Nicole, Luke and I set up a visit with BCMOS sometime before the race so we can see how the chair and luke fit together?

I am away (selling seashells to hawaiians) until the 7th.

Yea!

Go team go!

malcolm

$20 to Canuck Place from Lip Balm Sales

ok....it is not $1000's, but I am proud to donate $20 to Canuck Place for some sales of our Organic Island Shell Lip Balm. Five dollars from peer volunteer extaordinaire Joan and $15 from the Jericho Oceanman event a couple of weeks ago.

A week after...

I am still recovering a little from friday night! Actually I am recovering from a week of camping...the last night complete with 18 hours of full on RAIN. Packing up early in the morning in full rain storm at 0700.

Back to Friday. Great night all 'round. Dinner was awesome. Right off the bat after dinner I was targeted by a couple of brothers who were looking for a bit of rough action. I was their man!

Martin was in for Santos and he brought his wife in so she could help sign with one of the girls in the house. She has a vocabulary of over a 1000 words and it is awesome that Liz was in to hang out with her. Joan and Holl-y (or is that Holl-y?) were in and we were all ready for the night.

The brothers: a couple of rambunctious boys (one in Grage 8 and the other in Grade 12) that I will call J1 and J2, wanted to wrestle. Problem was wrestling in their minds is the WWF variety. All good and fun to watch on TV...but not the best for everyday folk. I set my mind to teach them how to wrestle the good old fashion amateur/collegiate style! We had tons of fun and J1 the elder was the eventual winner for the night! I think I broke my nose. It still hurts. J2, in some stupendous escape rolled up over my chest and face...smashing the cartilage. OW!

We wrestled for about 75 minutes! Inside for a break. After a little bit Holl-y (or -i) came down with the rest of the crew who wanted to go outside again. Out we go and just hung for a while until we started a game of hide and seek.

J2 eventually had the accident I was warning of him all night.

J2 laughs. Like K-Don laughs...full belly laughs that are exhausting and hard on your bladder. I kept warning him, "you are going to pee your pants if you keep laughing like that!".
J2 and I were hiding in the garden in a little cement nook. He is under the table...laughing (not good hiding strategy as that was how we were found in the bushes by his brother. All of a sudden somebody (not me) lets one rip and it reverberates against the concrete. Guess what? THAT IS FUNNY! J2 laughs even more....and then he squeals, "I peed my pants!!!!", which causes us to lose it completely! (it wasn't a gamestopper...just a little bit!)

Words of wisdom for the night:
When possible everybody should laugh so hard that you pee your pants. SOmetimes there is a good reason for everything!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=1190187032567&ref=mf

Public service announcement from global TV. Little Normie is in this video!

Pokemon...

Hi, it's Joan!

Last night was pretty quiet. All the kids were pretty tired from all the sailing and fun at Jericho beach for the Summer in the City event! Malcolm was there helping out - too bad I couldn't go because I had lab volunteering!

Anyways, so there was me, Holly, Tony, and an on-call peer Sumeda. Kids in the house included Kelly, Mitch, Trent, Bradley, Reg, and baby Kate.

After dinner, Kelly went right to bed as she was exhausted from the long and exciting day.

Bradley kept on playing Pokemon Platinum on his Nintendo DS. This was when Holly and I launched into a nerdy nostalgic conversation about the oldest pokemon games on the old game boy colour we used to play. We talked about how Pikachu was useless wherease Squirtle was clearly superior...how Metapod was so annoying because all it could do was "harden"...oh it was delightful! But hey, we're not too old to play these games...I got a new DS lite recently, and I've been playing Pokemon Platinum on it too...=)

Afterwards, most of us went upstairs to the school room, except for Sumedha, who spent her night downstairs with baby Kate. Kate is soooo cute! She's only 11 months old, but she's pretty big, and her arms are so chubby. I was quite envious of Sumedha for getting to cuddle her.

For us in the school room, Trent and Mitch spent the night playing PS3 and watching videos on the computer, Bradley played computer games, and Tony brought Reg to the Snoezelen room and the piano to have some musical entertainment. While watching some Ghost Hunters with Trent, I was also catching up on some Harry Potter...

then it came to bath time! Trent and Mitch both had to take a bath...but neither of them wanted to go first. In the end, Trent got to go after Mitch because he won the polite contest (Mitch was getting quite angry and started being a bit rude).

And...that was it! Malcolm, I can't wait to see the lip balm samples!

BCMOS and the TrailRider

http://www.bcmos.org/index.php

yesterday we had the opportunity to go bushwhacking with some kids from the house with a very cool stroller/wheelchair/all terrain vehicle. it is called the TrailRider.
BCMOS is a group that makes the outsdoors accessible to people stuck in chairs.
They offer opportunities to go in gliders and work with these guys: DSA
They are the Disabled Sailing Association of BC. The kids got to go out in specialised Martin 16 sailboats.
Former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan (himself chair bound) appears to be the driving force/inspiration behind both of these organisations.

Nicole (who did the Challenge last year) and I had a thought: Could we haul a kid on our run portion of the challenge? hhmmmmmmmm!!!!

Return of the K-Dog and the Adventure Cam

What a blast last night (Friday)!
In the House we had K-Don, K-Dog, K-Rod, K-Dahl, K-Dahl's big sister K-Sian, and K-Lux. K-Santos, K-Joan, and K-Mal, and new peer volunteer K-Hol (who remembers me from subbing at West Van High!)

K-dog...aka keith...aka c'mon daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvvvve. i love this guy. he gets everything. he is one of those guys when you say something to the room...he is the one who gets the humour attached to it. I am a wee bit upset that he is on his way out of the house. The bugger is getting too old.
With respect to being too old...a great guy...and a dirty minded SOB is on his way out of the house is going to be missed. Robert has been part of the house for a long time. When I first met him I nearly kicked him in the face with my feet while one of us was on the swing...it was caught on video!
I know this is not the last I will see of him. We can visit by proxy with his little, albeit tougher and sassier, sister.

We had fun tonight. Highlight? Adventure Cam II!

It is a 5 minute video. I thought it was funny! Make sure the volume is up. The K-Don is funny.

K-Dog is going to be tired this week...he did not stop laughing all night...pure, unadulterated, deep and meaningful belly laughs. He laughed so much he was sweating. I was sending zingers his way all night...but he mostly laughed when I wasn't saying anything at all!

Sponsorship - Tongue in Cheek

I understand that amateur athletes and professional athletes are always on the hunt for sponsorship. It is like sales: you have to knock on every door and give your sales pitch.

The difference between me and people who do athletics full time is the 'time' part. Nonetheless I believe I want a sponsorship...two of them!

The first would be a new ride. For those new to the blog I didn't own a bike 4 years ago and borrowed my big brother's bike: a skookum Brodie Enduro. The second year I borrowed it it was unceremoniously stolen from the back of my car the day of the race. Long story short: I ended up buying an old, too small, and scary condition bike on the corner of Hastings and Carroll (the Mecca of stolen goods in Vancouver...I was looking to see if my brother's had made it down yet) at 8am and began the race at 9am. (Long story long--click here!)

The second sponsorship would be a kilt. I own a Utilikilt (from Seattle) and as a joke told them of my intention to do the race in my kilt...but didn't want to ruin the one I own. They didn't respond to my joke.
I also sent a message to BiltKilt.com with same request. They are a canadian company so I am hoping for some homegrown hospitality!

I just though of a third sposorship I need: an Adventure Cam. Last year I mounted my camera on the bars of my bike and took pictures like this:

This year I am looking for a helmet mounted video camera that will take longer shots than one minute!

So there you have it. My three simple sponsorship dreams!

Somebody: Make it so.

Back to the House tonight. It has been a long time since I have been up there. Looking forward to it.

Oceanman 2009 - August 8

Mark the date. This is the one and only time I get to train for the paddle section of the Adventure Challenge each year: www.oceanman.ca
This takes place at Jericho Beach and is a 1k swim, 6k paddle, and a 10k run. My friends Blair and Carol will make up a team for the 3rd year in a row.
We are the volunteers extraordinaire team: in between set up and tear down of the event we do the race. Blair and I share the swim (500m each), tandem kayak (i need better songs to sing this year), and since the run is two parts Carol and I split the run.

It has the best athletic interludes ever. after the swim there was a tire carry, after the paddle there is a stand up paddle, somewhere on the first run is a croquet challenge. Who knows what will happen this year??

A great run

Well, a great run/walk! It was a smoking 29C (my favourite running weather) so I took my sore hamstring and gave it a little wake up.

Adventure Challenge Looms

So the countdown is on. Less than 2 months to go and I can tell by the way my body feels that I am woefully unprepared. I am hamstrung by a hamstring and I refuse to go for a run so I can take the time to stretch it out. School is out and my bike riding distances have dropped from 75k per week to zero. Despite being off for the summer my business quotient has risen through the roof.

My alternative "exercise for pay" options have slowed (this is the program where I do hard labour for you at $25 per hour. I love working hard in the sun hauling dirt, chopping wood, cutting lawns, cleaning roofs. you name it and I will do it!)

What is an adventure racer to do?

I need to be inspired. What would inspire me is if I can pass the $2000 mark in fundraising.
That, and geting on track with my alternative "exercise for pay", would be inspiring.
N'est ce pa?

Back to the house on the 24th. It has been ages since I was there. When you miss a shift...you miss a month. That sucks.

Friday July 3rd

Hey everyone, it's Joan!

Last night's shift was very quiet indeed.

When I stepped into the house, I noticed that the green lamp was on. Leanne later filled me in that a teenager, new to the hospice, had come in for end-of-life care. She warned me that it might be a bit chaotic as extended family members would be coming in later that night. All this meant that us volunteers had to be extra sensitive and quiet with the kids.

Interestingly, there was no-one that we needed to keep quiet that night - no little people! In the house, there were only teens : Kirsten (new to the hospice), good-natured Alan, Stan, and Christina. Kirsten, Alan, and Stan spent time with their family and caretakers, so we only had to look after Christina.

Volunteers that night were me, Martin (subbing for Tony) and Hilary - a new peer volunteer and also my highschool/university buddy! So there were three volunteers, and all our attention was to Christina. What a lucky girl! (her hair is getting ever so long, and her nails were painted yellow with white flowers!)

The first part of the night, us three went outside with Christina for a walk around the house and to enjoy the last few rays of sunshine. Later, we let Martin go home, and Hilary, Christina, and I sat in the alcove to watch "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." So entertaining to see the actors all young and cute!

And..that was it! Til next time...

I'm here!

Hey everyone, it's Joan. I'm back! Surprised?
I've finished summer school, passed my road test, done my pharmacy interview...now I'm just waiting...and beginning to enjoy summer! Hooray!

Tonight's shift was pretty cool - me, Steve, and Joanna, who is a new peer volunteer! (Martin came in for dinner, but went home soon after because there weren't many kids in the house that needed 4 volunteers!)

After dinner, Steve, Joanna, and I brought Eliza, Nina, Stan, and baby Maria (Lucas and Gloria's baby sister!) outside to take a stroll around the house. Then we just hung out by the swings in the warm sunshine. Maria quite stole the whole show there - she is the cutest baby ever, and what's cool about her is : she has 6 fingers on each hand, and 6 toes on her left foot! And she has so much baby fat her arms look like they have 3 sections. She seemed to enjoy all the attention and was thoroughly content in her stroller and white hat.
When we didn't do something for a long period of time, Nina would start making crying noises; that indicated to us to go around the hospice again.
Finally we went inside!
Steve took Stan, and little Normie (who just finished dinner) downstairs for Rockband.
Joanna and I stayed with the girls on the 2nd floor and watch Cinderella! Eliza loves princess movies, and she was engrossed in the film completely.
Then Normie came upstairs to get his meds while sitting on my lap. He is the cutest thing ever! He pretends to be shy with a new nurse, but really he's so quirky and has such an energetic and fun personality - no wonder her mum is always so tired out by him!
Then little Katy (who is baby Shanna's sister) came back from what she called "Jang-jang", which I still do not understand, and watched some TV with us.
I think the highlight of the night was...when Normie bid us good night, and he went over to Katy and gave her a hug and kissed her shoulder, then her forehead. It was the cutest thing everrrrr! Joanna and I were like " awwwwww" SO CUTE. Malcolm too bad you missed it!!!!
After Normie went to bed, we finished Cinderella, and even watched a bit of Beauty and the Beast before we had to go.
Overall, it was a very relaxing and calm night. =)

No Man, I'm Dave

This is what happens when you get a bunch of boys together: nonsense.
In the house were Keith, brothers Kenny and Kam, Kaleb (all known only as Dave), and a couple of other young ones who were hanging on the kid's floor, and a new girl to the program (and her Mum). Dinner started of with a bang. Somehow Kenny (the older brother) managed to spill on himself and the floor a full pitcher of apple juice. The dining room was full tonight and there was a lot of chatter. I met Kam for the first time and he was asking Joan and I "how do you spell it?". Not knowing what word he was talking about we kind of left it hanging! Kenny and Kam both speak in a very slow and drawn out manner which makes for great 'No Maaaaaannnnnnnn, I'mmmmmmm Daaaaavvvvvve' s. Keith is 17 or 18 and when he speaks it is a real challenge to understand. He also speaks very slow and it is a real neuromuscular challenge for him to get words out. With Keith if you can get the 'yes or no' questions handy he communicates well. Kam is Kam. He has a new name for this post. Kam is a kid who is often at the house on my shifts. Sometimes he is a bit grumpy but tonight he is in a great frame of mind.

Tonight was game 7 of the stanley cup playoffs. For some reason we all agreed that the game started at 7pm local time. Some of us are not very smart (and I had been in playoff denial since the Canucks were out). So we had a good hour and a half to play outside. Keith only had eyes on the computer. After a bit of stalling and miscommunicating, and having to go pee I brokered a deal with him to go outside until hockey. I often imagine what it is like being in a chair your whole waking day and think of the number of times you think you have to go pee. For most of us sometimes you actually do and sometimes you really don't need to, but we can run to the can and figure that out. It is really different if you need somebody to help you go pee if you can't get out of your chair and you don't use a bag. Anyways...Keith didn't actually need to go pee.

When we got outside the boys (and Santos and Joan) were playing hide and seek. Keith and I jumped into the game. Found a great spot: I drove Keith into a big rhodoendrun bush. It took a while to be found. When we came out we were covered in tons of dead flower stuff. As Santos said, "hey, you are all covered with stamen". Interpreted as a highly innappropriate comment by someone (me). Now we are ready to watch the game!
We get inside and get up to the school room to find the game 5 minutes into the third. What a great third period!!

Keith and I are surfing, going to his facebook and other sites. He wants to show us a video that he and his classmates had made on homelessness in the city. There is a link for a local website and when we click on it it takes us to www.dave.ca . Who's Dave? I kept asking. Kam is a bit of a parrot and he started saying Dave in his long drawn out voice. Then I started the 'No man....I'm Dave' routine. Soon enough everybody in the room is yelling "No maaaaannnnn, Iiiiiii'mmmmm Daaaaaave", and then laughing hysterically at ourselves. That is what boys do.

At 2000 it is time for Kenny to go have his bath. A little later the PCA who gave him his bath comes back upstairs and makes directly for me (the nurses and PCA's always think it is me):

"Who is Dave and why is Kenny repeating over and over and over (throughout his whole bath), "no maaaannnn, I'mmmmmmm Daaaavvvvve", and then laugh hysterically at himself?

I like nights like that. If I see Keith, Kenny, Kam, or Kaleb in the future I hope to hear them yell out "Noooo mannnnn....I'mmmmmmmm Daaaaavvvve"

No Man....I'mmm Daaaaaave

Ah yes, a throwback to the old Cheech and Chong skit. Well at one point on Friday there were 6 of us yelling in the classic voices, "no man!....I'M DAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaave".

It kind of tells of the whole night. This is just the teaser. The 'rest of the story' to follow.

Dave

joan gets all the fun

I wasn't able to make it last week as something came up that needed to be attended to. I missed another teen night. they are probably thinking I am avoiding them!
don't know what they did...but it was probably fun!
i was planning on reading to them...something like moby dick....

still here!

I have not disappeared. I am still here.
As Joan pointed out how busy she was with exams...I am busy with the school year ending as well!
Back to the house on Friday and hopefully Joan and I can get back into the swing of things.

On the 12th my school came down to do a little gardening for their annual 'Mitzvah Day' (day of doing good things in Hebrew).

Last year I was keen on getting a Canuck Place entry into the Red Bull Cart Race, but failed in my attempt. This year I have my entry all planned out. I need to build a replica of the house and put it on wheels that can steer down a windy course.

That is as far as my idea has got.

Hello to runner dude! thanks for following us. we usually do have more stuff. Summer's second wind is on its way.

Malcolm

A few week's worth of blogging...

Hello everyone,

so tonight I am going to be blogging about last week (May 1 + 2) and this week (May 8), because I have been a wuss and have neglected to blog for a while...I'm blaming it on my final exams and the beginning of summer school. :P

Friday May 1: TEEN BOYS MOVIE NIGHT!!!
Man it was awesome. Alan, Mitch, Jeffrey, Dante, Josh were all super excited when Steve and I arrived. So we quickly had some delicious dinner and had to get going fast because we had to make the 6:30 showing of WOLVERINE at richmond SILVERCITY! (Too bad you were sick Malcolm!!) Transport was directed by Will, who served as our bus driver, and with all the boys buckled into place, we set off. We arrived well ahead of time and got great seats in the theatre. Dante took the longest getting settled because he went and bought some popcorn and pop with Steve first. The movie was soo good! I hadn't watched any of the other X-men movies before...so I guess it was a good place to start because it talked about the beginning of Wolverine. I must watch the other ones! The boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves, so much that on the bus back to CP they were noticeably more hyper than before and made funny noises and talked about really silly things (mostly Alan and Mitch, ahha)

Saturday May 2: TEEN BOYS EDUCATIONAL MINGLE!
So on Friday May 1 a very worried Leanne came to me and asked me to attend the mingle that the teen boys were organizing on Saturday. Leanne was so worried because she had no idea if anybody RSVPed to come, and she couldn't check because the list was on Sara's account and Sara was on sick leave! So I did go, and it was amazing! All 5 teen boys presented something special to us; Jeffrey addressed the issue of age appropriate activities, Josh lead a song guessing game, Dante presented a list of all fun walkable places around Canuck Place, Mitch showed us how to work his camera, wheelchair, and the bus-wheelchair hook, and Alan taught us how to go onto the internet on the PS3. It was really interesting learning about the things that each boy valued, and many things that they talked about will really help us volunteers in improving ourselves to be better volunteers. Jeffrey and Dante even printed handouts for us! It was so great.

Friday May 8: Quiet Night
Last night was a pretty calm night. I went a bit early and found Allon and Mike(PCA) with Kenneth in the school room. Then I found two little girls in Grandma's Attic playing Barbie! I got really excited and asked if I could join them - I hadn't played with Barbies in ages! So these two little girls are siblings of a baby patient, and their names are Cassy(8yrs) and Ava(5yrs). Then we went downstairs for dinner, where we saw Tony, Jen, and nurses, parents, and more kids : Corrine and Madeleine. After dinner Cassy, Ava, and I went back upstairs to play with more Barbie while Jen hung out with Corrine on the computer. Later, Cassy, Ava, and I went outside for a bit and bumped into their Dad and older brother, Evan. Us girls played a bit of house, swung on the swings, spun on the red-blue-merry-go-round, and even biked around the house a few times! Ava still needed training wheels, but when I asked Cassy if she needed them, she replied very matter-of-factedly "I'm waaayy past that stage!" Afterwards the girls had to go in for a bath and they said thank you to me (so sweet!) and I went to look for Jen. It turns out that Corrine was tired and already went to bed, so we went upstairs to relieve Tony of Kenneth so that he could go home to sleep (work at 5am!!)Kenneth was content just to play with a few video games, and around 8:15 it was time for him to go shower. With no more kids in need of entertainment, Jen and I were free to go home. =)

Quiet rockband night. oxymoron?

Hello everyone,

so last shift (April 10) it was Jen, Martin, and I who were the volunteers (Tony called Martin in because he was spending time with his family.) The green light was turned on. We went in and saw this HUGE feast laid out in front of us, especially prepared by the kitchen, because the hospice was expecting lots of people that night. Unfortunately, only half the expected people showed up in time for dinner, so there was lots of left over. There was even an easter bunny chocolate cake and tiramisu! I couldn't resist but have a bit of cake.

Kids in the house who we got to see - Kameron, Shawn, Christina, and little Gordon.
Christina's hair is getting so long now! That night she had it in a very looong pretty braid. And her nails are never without colour - she had pink nail polish on. =D

Little Gordon is so cute; he has a pacifier that hangs down from his bib with lots of wooden beads on it. If the pacifier drops out of his mouth, he will start to nibble on his own fingers instead!

So anyways, the main highlight of the night was rockband! (Malcolm you missed out. :P)It was Shawn on bass, and me or Jen on the guitar, voice, or drums (yes drums! they got new ones!)Even Martin joined in on the guitar and drums a few times. All throughout it, little Gordon was moving back and forth in his chair to the beat of the music with his hands sticking up in the air. Kameron was content with just listening to his iPod at a volume that I was a bit worried about. While it was still bright, we also took the boys for a little stroll around the hospice.

So you might be wondering why I haven't talked about who Kameron and Shawn are, but it's because I'm saving it until now. Throughout the night, us volunteers chatted with them in between songs, and we discovered that both boys are 18 years old. To Jen and Martin, this might not mean so much ;), but to me, it was quite something. One thing is that, them being 18, they are nearing the end of their visits to Canuck Place. The biggest thing is that they are the same age as me. Throughout the night, I couldn't help but imagine what they would be like if they don't have their illnesses and disabilities, and I also came to really admire the way they acted. Especially Shawn, he is so much more mature than most 18 year-old boys that I know. And Kameron, bless his heart, never gets tired of repeating his words until we understand and perseveres to control his own power chair even while he has some difficulty. Hanging out with these two boys was a reality check for me to be grateful for what I have and not take things for granted.

And the night ended quietly, with the boys staying downstairs with the nurses to keep the 2nd floor quiet for the very sick baby and his family.
The green light was turned off by the time us volunteers left for home.

They call me Santos...,

or Saul, or Jeffrey, or Dante. In fact we need to call him Santos Santorini de la Escabara.
Let me hearken to a previous post: "Santos broke it".

Saul, Dante, Jeffrey, and Mitch were in for a Boys Night Out weekend and we were discussing the blog and the names Joan and I create. Santos, formerly known as Steve (who broke it) made it known he wanted a new name....but I think I forgot the one he suggested....!

The boys were in for dinner and then out the door to go to a movie--Fasterer and More Furiouser--or something like that with Santos, formerly known as Steve. It was nice to visit with Jeffrey after dinner. I haven't seen him for a while.
After the boys left Joan and I remained with the little ones--Little Normie, Liander, and a later intake Enid.

When I got to the house little Normie was walking to dinner...yes...walking (he is usually in a chair) and he walked right into my arms for a big hug. Mum is always behind him lugging his O2 AND tube feeder tanks. Normie is a demanding little boy...not in a bad way...just a demanding way. He doesn't like to be away from his Mum and really gets upset when he can't have her right near by. Mum had a bit of a day off today and spent the day at a temple for prayers (and super good food).
Joan and I spent most of our night with Normie. First, as always, we did a little rock band without the drums (because Santos Broke them). Normie did a little guitar, then a litttle singing, then he got Joan and I to perform for him!
Baby Liander's Dad was down a few times playing Guitar Hero. Liander's mum and dad are in for a first intake and are learning a lot about their littlest boy (they also have a 2 year old) and what they need to do to look after him.
Normie had to be weighed at some point during the night and his nurse wheels in this skookum electronic scale. It had a platform big enough to take a wheel chair! In this corner Little Stormin' Norman weighs in at 11.3kg, and in the other corner...the big guy came in a 93kg. We all were weighed (Mum and Joan) but privacy issues forbid me from telling everything.

After weigh in we played a little ball, had all our meds taken care of and then it was time for bed.
Another good night!

Chrystal $50 Fishman $740

somebody...help me out here....

Chrystal : $50 Fishman: $640

Canuck Place: $690

I am astounded! I haven't even started fundraising for this event and our total is at $690 thanks to Justin's contacts. This rocks.
Thank you to my colleagues, my students parents, and friends who have already donated or in the process of donating!

Justin helps even more

Justin asked me if he could help me raise money the other day. " Of course!" says I.
We are in a study block and he sends me this email. It is rather difficult not tear up while I am reading this:

Hi everybody,

My teacher, Malcolm Chrystal, has been volunteering at Canuck Place for almost five years. He works there as a family volunteer, his job entailing spending time with the children and making their stay enjoyable.

For those of you who don't know, Canuck Place is a children's hospice. It basically is a form of palliative care for young children…yet it is so much more than that. When I was five years old, my late sister Tamryn was in the program at Canuck Place, having been diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease. The hospice did everything they could to make her comfortable…and more. I remember the grief therapy groups my parents attended at Canuck Place, who understood the importance of helping the families as well. There were even groups for siblings, where we would learn how to handle the grief and also try to keep us happy during very sad times.

This year, Mr. Chrystal is participating in Canuck Place's Adventure Challenge, covering a distance of 46 kilometres by kayak, bike, and foot. He is collecting pledges for the challenge, with a goal of $2000 in mind. All the money goes directly to Canuck Place, as good a cause as any. Please support Malcolm by following these links and donating. Then, pass the email along to friends and family.

Malcolm's blog:
http://canuckplaceadventurechallenge.blogspot.com/

Pledge for Malcolm:
https://payment.csfm.com/events/canuck_place/event_pledge/index.php?action=inputinfo&participant_id=161030891177650194

Canuck Place Adventure Challenge Site:
http://www.adventurechallenge.ca/

Canuck Place Children's Hospice:
http://www.canuckplace.org/

Thank you Justin.

Justin is in AGAIN!

One of my students, Justin, has put his two-bits in again this year. Ok...make that 960-bits.
Justin has a vested interest in Canuck Place as his family was a part of the house several years ago with his little sister Tamryn.

Thank you Justin.

Another night!

It is quite amazing how you can be associated with a place for four years and yet spend so little time there! I checked my hours of service tonight and found that I have logged about 300 hrs. That doesn't seem like much! Some people work 300 hrs in 3 weeks! My point is that you can volunteer with an organisation without breaking the 'personal time' bank account.

If it is time for you...then do something. It won't break the bank.

There were a ton of people in the house tonight! One of my students who has become a peer volunteer was on her first shift at the house. Great...she must be thinking...Chrystal again?

We had young ones, elementary aged kids, and teenagers in the house tonight. A pretty broad spectrum. Little Nelson is still hanging at the house with Mum. As there were a lot of kids, Mum decided to spirit him away and kept things quiet for him.
Steve (who broke the drumset) went upstairs with Keith, Aviva went upstairs to the Kids floor with Suzie and her friend Asha, and Joan and I hung out in the Sun Room with Jason, Ivan, and later Martin and Keith.

Everybody kept moving around and it was all as smooth as could be!

As I write this I am thinking "what a boring night". Nobody (Steve) broke anything, nobody (Malcolm) made anyone mad by being really annoying, and nobody was overly upset about anything. It was just kind of a chill night.

I think that is the way things are supposed to be!

Friday March 13

OoooOoo, Friday the 13th...how queer. Even queerer is that there was also a Friday the 13th in February...oh the queer things in this world.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day at the hospice. As I walked in I was greeted by Karen the receptionist and one of the nurses holding a very cute baby Hannah. I peered into the kitchen and there I saw Jen, Tony, some nurses and a family. So Jen and Tony finally meet! For three months they have missed each other - either Jen was sick, or Tony was sick, but finally yesterday they were both not sick. yay!
As I said before, the house was pretty quiet - a lot of kids left earlier today, like Kenneth, who was at CP last Friday too! Too bad I missed him.
A family I had met before were there too, and I saw the mom and the sister, Stella, at the dinner table. Stella is 9-years-old and she was very eager for us to finish eating our dinner!
After we finished off the delicious meal, Stella led us up to the Art room via the elevator, which she insisted was our taxi and she was our driver, and we started playing School. We had a "field trip" down to the Volcano room, where we had a competition in building castles. I won (according to Stella) the "fastest" award, and Jen won the "most effort" award. haha!
Then we went back upstairs, and while Stella ran to her room to get some candy, I sneaked out of the schoolroom to go downstairs to meet someone I have been hoping to see for awhile - Normie! As I went into his room, grandma and aunts were also there, entertaining him with a stuffed monkey that plays a guitar. I was a little worried when I saw how tired Normie looked, and his mom said that all he wants to do is stay in bed and sleep. Too bad the rockband drums are broken now and can't help lift his spirits.
I returned upstairs to find Jen, Tony, Stella and her mom all in the art room. Stella suggested that we play a game with play-do : one person sculpts something and the other people have to guess what it is. Whoever guesses it correctly gets to make the next thing! Stella went first with a bouncy ball, then her mom with a duck, then me with a pod of peas, then Stella again with a stamp, then Jen with a canoe, and finally Tony with a pepperoni and onion pizza!
The final event of the night was..dun dun dun duuunnnn...rock band!!! Tony had to take off early, so it was just Jen, Stella, and I rockin' it out. It was pretty fun, and I got to sing a few songs too. teehee
When it was time for us to go, Stella didn't want us to leave, but her mom bribed here away with a promise for movie and popcorn. =D

Friday March 6, 2009

Greetings, readers of this blog!

Last Friday was pretty exciting, but it would have been way better if Malcolm were there! Hope you feel better soon!
Anyways, so I walked into Canuck Place and I see some of the volunteers from the previous shift helping out with dinner in the vestibule, and I spy some little kids: one with short, blonde hair, and another with longer brownish hair, a bit taller. Before I had a chance to recognize them, I am greeted by "Bomb-it Girl!! You're here!!" Low and behold, here are little Lucas and sister Gloria! So apparently after I introduced him to bomb-it, a super cool game, he's never stopped talking about it or playing it. Even his parents know I'm the "Bomb-it Girl"! I thought that was pretty cool, and I was really touched that I had made an impression on the little boy. XD
So anyways, we had take-out pizza for dinner that night because the kitchen was under some construction and cooks could not perform their magic. Regardless, pizza was good, and through out my whole meal, Lucas kept coming over and pestering me to finish eating fast so we could play Bomb-it. Then Gloria kept stealing my name tag to make funny noises with the magnet.
I forgot to mention, in my awesome rant about Lucas and Gloria that Jeffrey was also here today! He was really let down when he found out that neither Malcolm nor Tony would be there that night. I would have to do.
A new kid, Kenneth was also there on Friday. Maybe not new kid, but it was the first time I'd seen him. He was very friendly and very talkative.
Steve came in later on, and the first thing Lucas yelled out when Steve was in sight was "He's the guy who broke the drums!" Then Lucas kept on chanting and chanting until he got distracted by Jen, the receptionist that night, who was feeding the fat fish.
So the rest of the night, I played some Risk with Jeffrey, with Gloria tagging along a bit. Lucas kept playing some funny penguin game on the computer.
Then Jeffrey and I played some Texas Hold'em! I kept on winning because Jeffrey kept bluffing for no reason. Afterwards, Jeffrey showed me this cool card game that he designed called "the Stanley Cup" which is basically what the name says. We shuffled the cards, then dealt out two sets of 5 cards facing each other. Then we flipped opposite card pairs; whichever side had the higher card won that game. We flipped all the other cards and the side winning at least 3 games won the set and moved on to take on the next team! It was pretty cool.
After I wrestled with Lucas a bit and picked him up, I brought him and Gloria back to their room where Mum and Dad were waiting.
Then, Jeffrey, Steve and I tried to make some sense out of an origami book...but had no success.
So anyways, that is it! Stay tuned for this week's shift post...

Twas a Quiet Night

First off, some of the kids I'm talking about in this post have been previously mentioned by Malcolm, except do not recall what names Malcolm assigned them, so I guess I will make up my own. =D

So today I got to Canuck Place a bit late because of my Chemistry lab at UBC, and as I walked through the door, I just couldn't wait to see who was in the house today. The other volunteer there tonight was Martin, who turned out to be subbing for both Tony and Lindsay. At first I thought Tony was just being a wuss again, but he was actually unable to come because his daughter, FINALLY, voluntarily asked to go to a hockey game with him! How wonderful - that is a valid excuse. Lindsay, who was supposed to sub for Jen, couldn't make it because she is sick. Get well soon!

Kids and siblings in the house that I saw: Robin, Janine, Peter, Kay, Sofee...

Teenagers Robin and Janine, who are siblings a few years apart, soon left after dinner to watch a hockey game (i'm guessing the Canucks?) So I went into the sun room and played some Rockband with Peter, who is their younger brother. I have become quite proficient in playing Medium Guitar for Blitzkrieg Bop, Say it Ain't So, Creep, Learning to Fly...Martin watched for awhile but finally gave into playing a few songs on the guitar.

Then Kay, who was listening to us on rockband kind of fell asleep, so I ran upstairs to get his nurse and he was taken upstairs to get ready for bed. I went upstairs as well, and hung out with Kay a bit longer before bedtime, and I read a few Dr. Seuss books to him - Horton Hears a Who, Mr. Brown can go moo moo, Green Eggs and Ham, ABC something...He really liked the Mr. Brown book when I made all the animal and miscellaneous sounds from it. Then Kay started making funny noises,and I had a funny noise competition with him. It is so wonderful to see him smile.

Then Margaret, one of the nurses, said that Martin and I could leave early tonight since it was pretty quiet around the house. We left at around 8:30, and Martin kindly gave me a ride home.

So yeah! That's what happened tonight. Fun and quite relaxing, to say the least. =)

todays bike ride

All i can say about the bike ride to work is FTS

steve broke it

it wasn't me. steve did it. i think it was foreshadowed at dinner when steve said: " i have been waiting all day for this..." steve was, of course, making reference to Rockband.

i got in first. Little Normie was back in the house. Normie greets us in classic rocker fashion by sticking out his tongue and raising his right arm. Steve and I taught it to him. After dinner we played a little air hockey but his eyes quickly rested on the X-box. He was heading home soon so we played for about 5 minutes. He is such a happy little boy!

The 'incident' occurred much later.

I wasn't there when it took place but I know that Steve was drumming and Lucas was singing. Before Jackie and I went upstairs the four of us were doing our darnedest to nail Weezer's song 'Say it ain't so'. Jackie and I were on guitar. He strummed and I did the fingers, Lucas sang, and Steve drummed. First we got 25%, than 27%...32%. We hit a magic 49%. Even though Lucas was the singer Steve and I both enjoy singing more so we were all singing at the top of our voices and when the program ended the song...it was all about the high fives. We were yelling and cheering and than we did it again. We did it about 7 or 8 times! Classic boy behaviour.

Jackie wanted to go upstairs. His gum was hurting him. We got upstairs and hung out on the kids floor. One of the doc's was around and he peeked in his mouth. There was not much to be seen. I think he had maybe a little sore on his gum and those really hurt. They sting. This was stinging him and he was getting really frustrated. Jackie kept saying how frustrated he was and all the things he wanted to do to this cut on his gum. He was not happy.
Then it got worse! He had to take meds before bed. He had to have a little snack. He had to have his glucose levels checked and he had to do his insulin shots. A lot to do when you are feeling frustrated about a sore gum and 50% of what you had to do involved passing stuff into your mouth and over the thing that is causing you frustration! We were at an impasse. He had to do these things but was so agitated that he could not wrap his head around getting them done.

His nurse sent us away to problem solve.

It took a while but Jackie came up with a solution: he would take his meds crushed up in chocolate milk and inject with a syrynge PAST his owie gums. When it came time...he bailed.
Back to the drawing board. We talked alot; about his gum, about how frustrated he felt, how good he was at always taking his meds, how the nurses couldn't put him to bed without giving him his meds, how bad it would be for his body if he didn't take them, back to how good he was at taking his own meds. Then he had a light go off: "what about this? If I take my meds can I show you how I do my insulin shots?". Sounded like a good plan to me. Back up to the nurses station and we get the choclate milk, a cup of yogurt, his crushed meds and mix the meds with the yogurt. Big spoonful followed by a chaser of choclate milk. More yogurt/med combo and another chaser. Finally we got it all in and down.

Next on the agenda were his insulin shots. He handled his injections like a pro going over each step telling me what he was doing and how he was being safe. He had 2 injections to do. I could tell he was pretty happy about getting himself through all of this.

So we got Jackie fixed and it was time to go home.

Steve broke the rockband.

Time to go home.

Steve. Rockband. Broke.

TV and Zoo-reka! Friday Feb 13 2009

Whoa sorry, I did not post last friday...
now that it's so long ago I need to think deeply to recall what happened. Give me a few moments.
...
So I had a shift with Tony and Kim (Kim was subbing for Jen), and it was pretty cool. After dinner I spent most of my time with Stan on floor 2, where we just sat in his room and watched TV while ridiculing various american commercials and laughed watching the simpsons. One particular news that struck both of us was that a young British boy of 13 became a father with his girlfriend of 15. That was extremely shocking, and they boy looked like he hadn't hit puberty yet and was still a kid himself...I wonder how his family is going to work this out.
So anyways, after some choco milk and more TV, Stan was ready for his shower, and I went upstairs to join Kim and Sarah and Jimmy in a game of Zoo-reka! Jimmy was the best at it - he already got part of his Zoo while us girls still didnt have anything yet. That game was brand new! It was fun learning how to play it, and Sarah was so happy.
At the end of the night, as we boarded the elevator to head downstairs, Sarah told Kim and I, "I had so much fun with you guys today. Thanks!!" It was so sweet of her and it made me realize that there are few people in this world who rejoice in the smallest things that most others miss. Sarah is one of those few, and it reminded me of how our time spent with these kids can mean so much and be so meaningful.

Aldo revisited

Aldo and I were sitting at the computer and I told him I had the blog. He goes "No way!". I then told him that he was in it, and he says "no way". I searched for a Star Wars reference in the blog and was directed to this one: Aldo House. Scroll down a paragraph and I start with the sentence 'Aldo is a favorite of mine'. Couldn't have asked for a better sentence to start with when the kid reading it is 'the Aldo'.
He laughed about his new name.

Friday with Aldo (aka Noodle)

Here I am with Aldo himself. We are up in the school room looking at the blog. Aldo would like to tell you all the story about him crashing in to a truck!
"Well, I was playing tag outside when I was looking back my nurse yelled 'STOP!!', and I wouldn't stop. Before I knew it I crashed into a truck. Luckily it was parked. I almost broke my leg, got a bruise about the size of a ruler, and I cried for about 10 to 15 minutes. My nose got bashed and bled like crazy, filling up my mum's hand in less than a second. The truck was dented by my chair pretty good. From that day forward I have never seen the owner of the truck. He must have felt really bad. I would like to end my story by saying, There is more than meets the eye...as the Autobots leader always says.

Bomb It and Sesame Street - Friday Jan 30 2009

Hello,
I'm sorry this post is coming so late, but I've been so busy with schoolwork all weekend that I haven't had a chance to sit down and take a break until now! (First-year is way intense.)
So anyways, on Friday (Malcolm's anti-shift), other volunteers there were Tony, Mike, and Lindsey! Tony I haven't seen for a whole month because two weeks ago he felt wimpy and called in sick (:P). Mike and Lindsey used to be bi-weekly friday night volunteers, but because they live in Pitt Meadows (so far away!), they are currently on-call volunteers. It was great to see them again!
So we checked in upstairs with the nurses and went downstairs to have a delicious dinner with family, kids, and nurses. I sat beside Kaitlyn, who has this awesome set After dinner, I spent some computer time with 5-year-old Lucas, who is one of the most animated and humorous little boys I have ever met. He wanted to play some shooting game on miniclip.com, but I decided to expand his online game repertoire and introduced him to "Bomb It" on agame.com. This game involves moving a character using arrow keys in a 2-D area and setting bombs to blow up blocks and other players using another key. At first, Lucas had a bit of trouble coordinating his hands with what he wanted to do, but he got the hang of it very quickly and started to really enjoy it!
Then it was 7pm and his mum wanted him downstairs for a snack before bedtime, so I pried him off the computer and we met his mum in the kitchen. Have you ever tried eating apples with peanut butter? I've never tried it before, but Lucas and mum were gobbling it up and apparently is very delicious. I must try sometime.
Tony took off early because he was dead beat from waking up at 4:00am, and I went to find Mike and little 2.5 year old Matthew in the art room. The little boy has a heart defect and it was important that we kept him unagitated. Regardless, he was very hyper and full of energy, and later in the Snoezelen room he was crawling all over the place. We played a game(very repetitive) where we would cover Matthew with a blanket and exclaim, "Oh my gosh! Where has Matthew gone?" and Matthew would reply excitedly whilst quickly uncovering himself, "He's here!"
Soon enough it was time for Matthew take a bath, and then Mike and I spent some time with Eliza, who was watching "All Dogs go to Heaven." Quite an awesome movie.
After Matthew was clean and in his Canucks PJ's, I sat with him on his bed and we watched Sesame Street. His attention quickly got diverted to an interesting fleece blanket on the bed though, which had clocks and flags printed all over it. He took the blanket and covered me with it, and smacked various printed clocks to make the fleece wrinkle up and said "I broke it!" Then he stretched the fabric back to smoothness and exclaimed "I fixed it!" So so so cute. I loved spending time with him.
Sooo that's it for this week! I believe Malcolm will be posting next week. =)

PS Malcolm - I noticed that you changed the colour scheme of the blog, and it looks awesome! Some words don't show up though, because they're the same colour as the background (such as the description inside the box, underneath "canuck place adventure challenge", as well as other things and headers like the dates, "posted by", or "# comments" that sort of stuff. Maybe change the colour of those words to lighter or darker?

Blogging Group

If you look to the right margin you will notice that I have established a 'blogging group' which is representing the different areas of expertise within the house. Joan is a peer volunteer and she works every Friday night. The other bloggers are not real people...yet. It is my hope that we can get regular contributions that will share different perspectives from the people who work at the house. I have thought about it before but it was an email from Meyrick Jones (http://meyrickjones.blogspot.com/ ) that provided the impetus to actually do something about it. Thank you Meyrick!

I am hopeful that we will get a good response to the idea!

Hello!

Hey everyone,

I'm Joan and I'm a peer volunteer at Canuck Place every Friday night; I get to spend every other shift with Malcolm, who has invited me to become a contributor to this blog! I am honoured.

Look forward to awesome posts by me - I will try to post after every shift. Actually, it might be a good plan that Malcolm and I post on alternate fridays - Malcolm after his shifts, and I after the shifts that Malcolm wasn't there for. yay!

Jen and Stel's Blog

Sebastian's mum Jen has been blogging for a while about their triumphs and setbacks as a growing family. Please find her blog here http://jenandstel.blogspot.com/

It is another perspective that puts faces to the lives, and deaths, of Canuck Place.
Thank you Jen.

Friday night at the House

After 6 weeks of not being the house it was nice to be back! Met my new Friday night partner Steve and Joan was, as always, here on Friday night. Joan has become the new Kyle the only difference being that she can't eat as much as Kyle could.
Dinner was awesome tonight!
There was a ton of people at dinner. One little boy, who I'll call Normie, had his whole family: aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, and Grannie! The neat thing about this is that after dinner I went into the Playroom/tv room and they were ALL in there talking, playing table hockey...and there was tons of room. Little Normie was waiting patiently for the X-box to be set up...yes...even 3 year olds like to rock it out at times.

Normie is in a little makeshift comfy rolling chair. It is an old lounging chair that has been adapted into a wheel chair! Normie was so happy playing the drums...ok...holding the drum sticks! His mum and I tapped the right drums for him! Joan rocked on lead guitar.

All this time Steve was up on the Kid's floor snuggling with Mira. That was his job that tonight. He also had a bit of a nap. One of the perks you get when you are sitting in a comfy chair with a sleeping toddler. Mira's mum and dad (and little sister) are also in the house. Mum and Dad used Steve's high cuddle proficiency to get some time to watch a show on TV.

Corrine is a young teen with not much verbal communication. She is pretty good at one word missives and grunts and shakes of the head. I don't think she likes me!!! Joan was hanging with her in the school room and she was grooving (and singing) to videos. I started to talk to Corrine (in between videos) and she was getting upset. "no!", "bed!", "No!"...finally, "Do you want me to go away?"..."Yes!"

She and Joan continued to watch and sing with music videos....I scooted back to the other side of the room!

There were a couple other girls in the house. They were with their families too.
I think tonight, more than any other night, it struck me that the house is really a family house. Nobody in the house was without their family tonight. When kids are without their blood relatives there are awesome alternatives who get to step in.
I like being a part of this whole business!

Sebastian

After this mornings post we received a note about Sebastian:

Dear Volunteers:
It's with great sadness that I share the news of Sebastian G. passing away
at 11:35 am this morning. It was very peaceful and Mom and Dad were there
with him.
Please take care of yourselves and each other.
Leanne

Friday

Looking forward to getting to the house this Friday. It has been over a month! The morning of my last shift I woke up with my uvula hanging like a swollen speedbag that had been punched at all night. Called in sick. There are enough bugs out there that the kids don't need me bringing them directly to them.
I am looking forward to seeing Sebastian and his parents. They have been at the house for 6 weeks straight. Sebastian hasn't been feeling well since the last time I was there. He is a tough kid (aren't they all?) and the family even more so. They had the big old house all to themselves over christmas.

Boyz to Men

It has been a while since I was at the house. I have been switched from one Friday to another. I have been doing Friday nights with Tony for 4 years now and will now be working with another family volunteer.
I ended the night with the neatest conversation with a couple of the boys in the house. There is Jason who turned 19 in May and Brent who is seventeen. This was Jason's last weekend of respite care and then he officially graduates from the program. So what is next? That's when the talk got really neat. There is nothing like Canuck Place once you are an adult. There are few options...long term care (aka old folks home), full time nurse, or maintain status quo with your family. These guys would truly love a little independence and one of the ideas they had was to buy a house or large apartment and hire full time care. Of course they were pretty aware of the fact that it could cost as much as 2 -3 million to start a venture like this...but in their minds they had already formed a non-profit society (aligned with Canuck Place) and felt they could get the funds in place! They envision a place with 5 rooms, fully modified for chairs, hygiene and basic care. There would be 24hr care on hand. This would be their legacy to Canuck Place graduates and as a bed opens up in the house because somebody has moved onto bigger and better things...bang...the spot is filled!
When you have been in the care of your family for your whole life and you reach the age of majority a little independence is warranted. I also get the feeling that these guys realise how much effort their families have put into caring for them. Maybe their ideas tonight will never come to fruition. Perhaps the funds are too out of reach.
What I learnt tonight was that Jason and Brent will live their lives way beyond most people's expectations. Like all of us they make plans for their future. Being part of a hospice program doesn't phase them.
I said to Brent I can imagine the first purchase they would make is a case of beer. Not that they would drink it...just that it would seem the right thing to do. Brent replies that it wouldn't take much him being all of 20kg!

Guess what we did for the first 3 hours of the shift?
Rock Band! Jason had the best line of the night. He feels that X-Box 360 and RockBand should be covered under medical therapy. Jason has a reduced lung capacity because of muscular dystrophy. Part of his therapy has been to blow bubbles into a device; exercises to keep his diaphragm and intercostal muscles as active as possible. Singing does the same thing! Jason rocked out a few songs. Until you get out there and sing you don't realise how tiring it can be!

gift of time

wow...the numbers for gift of time were astounding....over $750 000 . wow and thank you!

Radiohead + Creep + Me + Jeffrey = 97%

I tell you. This Rockband game is da bomb! Cut to the chase: Jeffrey and I had the game to ourselves for a few songs and we nailed Creep by Radiohead. I was on 'expert' in case you were wondering.
Jeffery has become one of my followers along with Joan. That sounds a bit creepy. No Kool-Aid to be served.

Meat and potatoes for dinner. I managed to put a rather tough piece of meat into Jeffrey's mouth. He was taking forever to get it down. I told him he had NO CHOICE but to swallow it because I wasn't going to deal with the 'spit it out into a napkin' plan. So I just kept giving him some of the creamy potatoes and juice to help it slide on down. He eventually got through the piece!

Quiet night tonight: Jeffrey was in, a girl I have not met before was in with her family. Sandy got us going with the Rockband and we played a number of songs. This game is absolutely addictive. Every other thursday I run a 'meeting'in my classroom. Very fun.
Jeffrey played guitar, Sandy played drums, Joan played base and I sang my heart out.

When we finally go a bit tired we made our way upstairs and explored on the computers. Sandy was with her family for most of the time after that.
Turns out that Jeffrey can barely read the screen of a computer. This boy needs his eyes checked. Next time I see him I hope that he is wearing some new eye candy.

sitemeter

http://www.sitemeter.com/

holy crap! I thought that the google application that keeps track of the number of visits to your site was cool. not so!
Sitemeter tells you things like who referred the visit...so if you 'google search' something about canuck place and you happen to see the link to my page and click on it...sitemeter will show me that. cool!

of course it is all about vanity...but that is ok.

ps...click on the thing that says 'followers'. then i know who you are (of the 13 that have the rss feed)!!

Raffi and Me

I have a penchant for singing Raffi songs. My kids grew up on Raffi and I remember singing Raffi songs for a number of years. I think I sing in the key of Raffi. Raffi has a wonderful website:

http://www.raffinews.com/

As remarkable as it seems he has been doing this for over 40 years. His focus now is one of sustainablity and of honouring the child. He is still teaching fortysomethings to be good stewards of our earth and to each other, so that they can teach their children.

Last night all I did was sing. Sing and colour. Colour and sing. Raffi tapes were lined up in the art room, Jesse (a 6 year old girl whose baby brother is in the house), Chancy (who is also about 5 or 6) was beside me playing floppy head, Tony, Joan, and me were all doing what we do best: hanging out. No TV, no rockband, no computer....just me and Raffi (and everyone else).
I think we did this for about 2.5 hours. Tony had no idea I knew so many Raffi songs.

Go to Raffi's site. I was not at all surprised to see the direction he has taken with his work. He always sounded like a real nice guy when he sang for me and my kids. Turns out he is!