Claudia and Angela are doing good, Claudia finished her antibiotics and is back to her usual hijinks. Angela is a lot better and was able to play in the snow Sunday, considering she couldn't breath after walking from the car to the doctor's office on Friday, she is doing well. Knock on wood, the rest of us have avoided it.

I'm off again for the rest of the week, this time to the Eastern Townships and a place called Frelighsburg.

Angela ended up getting strep throat, again she was having trouble breathing, I took her to the doctor and she is on antibiotics.

I got Shanna and Jesse off to the airport early this morning. Coming from the parking garage to the terminal, Jesse insisted he take the moving sidewalk. He got on at one end and stood the entire way. The lady at the counter commented that one of the bags was heavy and went to put a "heavy tag" on the handle. I told her to try it without Jesse leaning on the scale, he was adding about 15 lbs to weight of the suitcase. Shanna was quite surprised at the weight, especially after she went to the trouble of ensuring each bag weighed no more than 50 lbs. I managed to get a hug from Jesse, but only after I pulled out the box of Smarties.

Drove up to Manitoulin Island afterwards, made for a long day. You can see some photos on the work blog From Here to There.

Claudia and Susan spent half a day in emergency at Credit Valley today. Claudia was complaining of having trouble breathing, so off they went to emerg. They couldn't figure out why her heart rate was racing and was she had pain in her chest. They put her on an IV and her fever came down, they did a couple of ECG's and in the end it turned out to be strep throat.

Back from Saturna Island, spent a week out on the island and one night in Sidney BC. You can see what I was up to on the work blog From Here to There. Went out to Scarborough when I got home to visit with Shanna and Jesse before they left on Tuesday.

Claudia hoarding her dominoes.

Claudia trying to look like Jesse in the first picture.

Jesse showing off some dance moves.

Gillian and Angela singing a song.

Angela and Emi.

Pile on!

It was good to see Shanna and Jesse again. The girls really enjoyed having him over.

A photo of the 401.

This morning we went to the Crohn's and Colitis "Just Gotta Skate", it is an annual skating fundraiser. It is in memory of the mother of two girls who use to go to the same care giver when the girls were younger. It was held at Iceland in Mississauga.

Gillian and Angela

The girls at the end, just prior to stepping off the ice.

Angela giving Claudia a boost to see the Zamboni.

It's not often all the cousins get together and this is the first time since little Emi joined the family. She is still cute as a button.

Jesse and Mickey

A group photo of Grandma and Grandpa and the grandkids. Lori & Dale need a bigger couch.

Alex and Jesse play together well, it starts out as playing.

Then it gets a little more serious.

Followed by a few Karate Kid moves by Jesse.

Then a size advantage move by Alex.

After this it got ugly and both combatants ended in tears.

On Saturday we all headed out to Lori and Dale's in Hamilton. They live less than a kilometre from where the Level 1 tornado touched down last week. Lori took me on a tour of the destruction path, not something you get to see everyday, you could see which houses were affected by the blue tarps covering the roofs. Here is a picture of the school.

A closer look of the roof missing from the gym.

Since my building was closed for the holiday I was able to go to the Remembrance Day assembly at the school. Gillian's grade had organized the assembly and they did a great job. Shanna and Jesse are staying with us a few days. They are visiting from BC for a couple of weeks. They were able to come and watch Gillian as well.

After the assembly we picked up Claudia and went skating. It was Claudia's first time out this year and she did good.

Jesse getting laced up.

Here is Jesse still on his feet.

Claudia

Jesse getting tired.

Two tired skaters.

Back at home they played outside.

Jesse

It's that time of year again. The Girl Guide, Brownie and Spark pictured below are selling chocolatey mint cookies. They are free with your $4 donation to support their respective groups.

The Girl Guide cookies are produced by Dare Foods Ltd. from peanut-free/tree nut-free ingredients in a peanut-free/tree nut-free bakery. This means that all ingredient suppliers are surveyed to ensure that the ingredients they provide are peanut- and tree nut-free, and further, only ingredients from these suppliers enter the baking facility.

I received this newspaper clipping from Aunt Gert via Mom Swan. Thanks to Aunt Gert for bringing this article back. The girls can actually relate to who he is now, after they were able to visit his studio this summer. I checked the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria hours and unfortunately, the night I'm in Victoria, the gallery closes at 5:00pm. Click on the newspaper clipping to see a readable version. This was from the Victoria News.

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Not so famed painter shows on refrigerator. Another of Claudia's drawings. This is Claudia picking acorns.

What was to be a busy month of travel for work, just got busier. I'm off to Westport, Ontario this week for a couple of days and then next week I'll be up on Manitoulin Island for a few days.