Invincible.....

I love these pictures!

So, who came up with the brilliant idea to do the 31 for 21 Challenge?? I need to write a blog every day for the next month. I am already starting to bore myself with my posts. My life isn't interesting enough to do this...I need some guest bloggers I think to help me out! :)

Today, we had plans to take the girls out but Adele has been pale for the past two days. I'm wondering if it was the shots. Sometimes she just gets pale. Adele has now started to smile. It has melted my heart. So far, she has hit a few milestones and all early. I think she might be a genius! Down syndrome is not a disability in our house, it's kind of cool! James and I decided to tackle the girl's closet. It took hours to weed out the clothes that are too small for Brinley. She grew a whole lot during the three months that we were living with mom and dad. It was a long day and kind of boring too. We still have more bins of clothes at James' parent's house....SO. MANY. CLOTHES. I can't wait for our basement to be ready. It is taking forever and it's extremely frustrating.

I can't wait to be able to walk downstairs and grab stuff instead of having to drive down the street. I want my home completed. Arg!

Love you!

Today as I was unloading and loading the closet, I was thinking about the Electric Ave. days. I was 18 and had a different bar to go to every night. My favourite bar was Coconut Joes! Usually it was the bar of choice Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. Sometimes when there was a special event, we would head down around 2:00pm and sit on the patio all day and all night. These were the days when we would gather at somebody's house, have a few drinks and head down to Electric! Once at the bar, it was vodka slime time, usually a triple, or a few triples. After a few bevies, it was speaker dancing time. Yes, speaker dancing time. There were always a handful of girls shakin it on the speaker on the look out for the hot guys. There were the token hotties who always got the chicks. I worry about their health now....it was a dirty bar. Dirty! Dirty!
It was truly such a carefree time. No worries. Still living at home. Not paying rent because I was attending university. Making money working at California Tan. Spending my money at the bar.
I remember when my BFF and I went to the bar for 14 days straight. No break. Just dancing and drinking and dancing and drinking and, you get it. We didn't drive drunk but we also didn't make the best choices. When you're 18 you think you're invincible. Nothing can happen. If I have a few, I'll make it home ok. If the driver has had a few, we will make it home ok. There was a lot of stupidity.
I remember attending 5 funerals in 6 months and only one wasn't alcohol related.
The worst accident was when we were 18 years old. A group of six guys crammed into a Prelude. It was a small car. Three in the back and three in the front. The driver had been drinking but from what I remember, he wasn't drunk, but he was still impaired. He took a corner too fast and smashed into a light post. The three boys in the back shot out the back window and the three in the front went forward and smashed into the window. There were two sets of brothers in the car. The two brothers in the back were seriously injured. One was face down in a pool of gasoline and the other in the ditch. The other boy in the back died. The boys in the front hit the windshield and one of them flew back and hit the passenger so hard that he broke his ribs and punctured his lung. The driver was not injured.
Imagine getting the phone call. Imagine being a parent and getting that call.
The funeral was a wake up call for many but for others it gave them reason to drink even more. It was such a difficult time. The physical and emotional pain still resonates with the boys today.
Another death was a close family friend. He was 18. He was such a great guy. He was loved and adored by his friends and family. It was Halloween. It was a reason to get drunk.
He was found at the bottom of the stairs with vomit in his mouth. His best friend gave him CPR. It didn't work. He died. Reports confirm that he died choking on his vomit.
Imagine getting that phone call. Imagine being his mom and dad and getting that phone call.
One last story was when I was 17 and Ange was 18. Ange loved to party and was a bar hopping kind of girl. She was very carefree. She needed a ride home and was offered a ride by one of her friends. Ange got distracted and went off to another bar with some friends. The driver of the vehicle asked another girl if she needed a ride. She accepted. They were on Elbow Drive, turning right onto Southhampton and smashed into the light post. She died on impact. The owner of the car was intoxicated so he asked his intoxicated friend to drive. Ange was supposed to be in that seat.
I was at a dinner with her family a few months later and it was sad. It was a very sad dinner. Mom was on medication that made her almost zombie like. There was no laughter and no smiles. The parents ended up divorced because of the stress of their daughter's death.

We are not invincible. It doesn't matter our age. We are not invincible.
I think about all the students that I have taught over the years and I worry about the choices that they will make. I wish I could tell them all that it isn't worth it. It isn't worth risking your life. It isn't worth risking the lives of others. Be responsible. Think.

Had enough!

 

 

Little girl....big soother!

 

 

Just giving me the finger!