The Last 24 or so

It has been a wild ride........

I want to start by thanking all of you who sent message and notes and calls of encouragement and support for David and for us over the past few days.  In a week that seemed so full of loss - last day at a school that failed him, last day at an after school program that loved him - such a stark contrast of how they handled him and the goodbyes - another word of gratitude for South Arm OSC - Thank you.

The stress gave a foothold to a nasty little virus and I was feeling very unwell by Friday morning but I went to work in a brave but ultimately futile attempt to impersonate a well person......by midday I was D.O.N.E.  I don't know if you have ever fallen into bed and can actually feel the virus coursing through your body?  Anyone?  Well I gave it 4 hours to have its way and then I had to get up and be a Junior Youth Leader.

"My" Junior Youth group had our year end celebration at Cliffhangers rock climbing. They had such a great time and I am sure some of them had sore arms today.  Graham, my fearless co-leader, climbed a few walls himself and then injected the always necessary element of betting and chance to the event by betting the kids slurpees they couldn't beat his stopwatch climbing various walls.......... Graham owes alot of kids slurpees.  I am ever grateful for Graham and the role he plays with these kids......

We got home and headed to bed knowing there would be little sleep in our house.  In a week of loss David was offered the chance to go to Alaska for 3 weeks to hang out with his Aunt and Uncle and cousins.  Great redemption!!  He was SO excited, as were we, and grateful to my Sister Jill and BIL Russell who managed to get him on a fight at very short notice.  The downside was that it was a 4:30am check-in at SeaTac (a 2 hour drive south of us in the USA) so we were up at 1:50am and on the road at 2am.  I ended up waking up coughing at midnight so I headed out with 90 minutes of seep and was grateful not to be driving in the rain and the dark.  The border was a dream........ and we made SeaTac on the dot of 4:30am.

I checked my Unaccompanied Minor in and he got his badge and he and I headed through security.  As we were heading to the gate we were caught in some sort of security incident and were stopped between rapidly deployed barriers in the hallway and a sea of security and police personnel.  Fortunately it resolved within 15 mins and we booted it to the gate.  David and I were both a bit teary as he headed down the ramp - first passenger onto the plane... and off on a great adventure which included a 4 hour layover in Juneau Alaska.  He called me when he got into Anchorage and told of his great adventure which included sitting in the tower in Juneau watching the planes land and take off and "Mom they have been stuffing food into me since 5am this morning"...... thank you Alaska Airlines!!!  My sister Jillian "There is no barrier that I cannot overturn" Gates managed to defy all security measures and get her whole clan (6 kids) through to the gate to greet David!!  What a welcome.  She told me a random passenger came off the plane and asked if she was waiting for David.  She told random lady that she was and random lady said "Oh David will be along soon".  Thank you random lady.  I was a bit nervous that this meant David had talked to everyone on the plane but he assures me this was not the case......... Hmmm.   The crew handed him off with lots of nice things said about how well he did!!  YAY....Phew..

 My Mom, Allan, Lindsay and I found a 24 hour diner in Seattle called Beth's which was very ..... different!!  The walls are papered with drawings of customers.... and would be a psychologists dream..... Allan exorcised his Canucks/Vancouver riots angst with a rendering of "the week that was" in Vancouver.  It was funky and perfectly Seattle spot.  And we were done breakfast by 7am and nothing was open.  We drove to the Premium Outlets and Mom and Allan had a nap while Lindsay and I played Angry Birds until we could do a little retail therapy.

As energy was waning we headed to Bellingham and perked ourselves up with 3 big brown paper bags of Trader Joes goodness!!

Made it home and I had a delightful nap...... phew ..... WHAT A WEEK.