Monday, November 28, 2011

Christmas Time


It's that time of the year and I'm finished my shopping! I'll be with my nephew and my three nieces this holiday to finish up a great year. It's the first time where I have the chance to buy them whatever I want! My family drew names and I got my older sister so I bought her something really nice. I'm spending money this year and I love it! 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Swimming


I am going to the West Side Recreation Center near my house, not the YMCA anymore. I started swimming on Monday morning and working out at the gym on Wednesday mornings. But now I am going swimming on both days. I walk in the lazy river pool with Adria helping by holding one of my hands. I walk against the water. She helps to keep me in place in case I lose my footing and I'm swept away. Every time I am trying go around 6 times or more. I love going swimming it is a lot of fun! The best part about swimming is going into the hot tub when I'm done. When I was young, I was in Special Olympics for swimming and I miss it. I am thinking of getting back into Special Olympics but I will keep on swimming for now.

Monday, October 24, 2011

After Thanksgiving


My Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with my family! Hanging out and having a good time with good food. Being with my family is what I love most in the world. My older sister got me a circular mirror with a lovely saying etched around it for a much belated birthday gift. And then we picked names for our Christmas gift exchange, I am buying for my older sister! Don't worry, it's not a secret! I'll be asking her for suggestions.

I did up some business cards for myself to find more web design jobs. I went onto LinkedIn and updated my profile. My work wants me to manage the company's LinkedIn profile so I spent some time becoming familiar with it.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Thanksgiving


Good day to all my blog friends! I know it's been over a month since I've done a post. How are you guys doing on this fall day that we are having here in Calgary Canada! Here in Canada we are having Thanksgiving weekend does anyone have plans for Thanksgiving? I am going home to Lethbridge for a couple of days to hang with my parents and then back to Calgary to have Thanksgiving dinner with my whole family. I can't wait to see my family it's been a few months since we've all been together. Well I have to wheel off now but I will be back to do another post to tell you guys about my Thanksgiving and to share with you why I haven't blogged sooner. Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in Canada! Have a good week and weekend. Sign off for now. 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Life


 Hi everybody! How's it going? How are your summers going so far? I am fine, sorry that it's been a long time since I posted. But I'm back! I had a good time in B.C. with my room mate, it was a blast. We went para sailing, that was a lot of fun! I have some pictures from it on facebook.

I haven't been to work in weeks, hopefully tomorrow will be my first day back. I'm a little scared about it. They hired a new guy and I'll be working with to set up the company's new website. But he isn't settled in yet and the program they ordered hasn't arrived yet so I've been off! It's nice being off but I think I'm ready to go back.

I am doing a website for a lady and it's going good. She wants it by the middle of September so I'm working on that. She is my first client who I didn't know beforehand. Her sister's mother is a friend of my mom's and my mom told her friend that I did a website for my sister so she gave her my name and then I sent her my portfolio. It's an online portfolio that I can keep updating to show clients and friends what I've done. http://wheelsaboutdesign.comyr.com/WPD/home.html Look at if you have the time and are interested and as always, let me know what you think!

That's all from me now. I hope you have a good rest of the summer. Bye for now!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Vacation

Hi everybody,

This is a quick post for you guys. I'm off to B.C. for July to hang out with my good friend/room mate. We like to have fun and we laugh. I am going para-sailing so I can't wait! I will do more posts when I come back, I hope you have a great summer!  

Monday, June 13, 2011

Elevators

Two weeks ago, Adria and I started to go downtown to the YMCA Eau Claire. It's a change and I am getting used to it. I moved from the NW into the SW and the downtown YMCA is closer to me than the Crowfoot YMCA. In the future I hope to go to Westside Recreation Center but I had to apply for the fee assistance program. I already have it at the YMCA so it makes sense to keep going until I'm approved for Westside. So we're downtown for now!

No more Y-Bo for me and that 's a little sucky. I liked Y-Bo and it was fun. Last Wednesday and today I couldn't work out because the elevator was broken. Today we asked about it and they explained that it was fixed but three hours later it broke again. And hadn't been very reliable over the past few days. In my opinion, there should be an YMCA with everything on one floor. It would be so much easier and more convenient for people in wheelchairs who want to work out! Or people using walkers or moms with strollers. Why don't they have one like that? Does anyone know of one? Because not being able to work out when I want to? It sucks.  

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My Life

Okay I know what I want out of my life. I am ready to go ahead in my life, I can't sit around and wait for something to come to me any more. I want more out of my life, I know I have to go after what I want. Maybe I was a little scared to publish my book because I think it's not very good. It's only my whole life story written down on paper. But it is time to go ahead and see if I can publish my book and see what happens. I let things slide or I will let them go and that's my fault, no one else's. It is my life. So now I am taking charge of my life, this it what I want now. I am going to see if I can publish my book and if can't get it published I will find another way. I would love to go around to school, talking to kids about having a disability like mine Cerebral Palsy. I will start working on my magazine Wheels About again and get it up and running. I love working at E-Debit Global and I will stay there for now, I am there for three days a week. So on Monday and Wednesday I am working on my book and then on Wheels About. I already emailed some publishers to set up a meeting to talk about which way I should go with my book. I have a meeting with a publisher next Wednesday about if she can help to publish my book or can put me on the right track to publish it. If not I will keep on emailing publishers to find someone who wants to publish my book. But I know now I want to publish it, it's not about the money. It's all about getting my story out there. I always go after what I want from my life and nothing will stop me going after what I want. I want this for myself to show people that I want something more for my life.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Working


I have been working for 9 months now. That's scary for me because I thought they would let me go a couple of months after I started there. A couple of weeks ago they asked me if I wanted to do their website and do it on my own. And they said they will be there for me if I need help so I agreed to do the website. So now I am putting together a new layout for the website and I put together a couple of different mock-ups for the home page and sent them to my boss. She picked the one she liked. So I did a mock-up for the whole website and send it off to her today. Now I'm waiting to hear back. I am scared because this is a big job that I have not done before in my life. I hope I can do a good job. 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Summer


Now I can finally say it is summer out. Adria and I are sitting outside enjoying the nice weather. I am thinking about my next blog, what am I going to write about when it hit me! I am going to write about what I am going to do for my summer. I have a job now so I am working and also on May 28th I'm moving in with my best friend Laura. A couple of years ago Laura and I drove out to Vernon, BC for a couple of days. Then I went back next summer for two weeks. I've had other summer plans since then so this is the first summer I've had the chance to go again but I don't know if I really want to go to Vernon. I really don't know what I want to do for the summer but I know that I am working during it. If I take time off from work it will be a week but it's only a week and I don't know if I want do that. So I am staying here in Calgary for the summer and working. I'll go out with friends and get back in contact with old friends where we've fallen out of touch. I want to start attending CPA events, they have a group meet on every Tuesday night and they go everywhere, to a movie, supper, coffee. It sounds like a great way to meet some new friends. Also I need to get back with the Between Friends Club but I don't know if I want to start in the summer or wait until the fall. I hope you guys have a good summer and I will keep posting here! Does anyone have any recommendations of what I should check out in Calgary this summer?

Monday, May 9, 2011

Publishing

I wrote a book on my life with having CP. I've been working on my life story for 12 years now and I finished it two months ago. And now I don't know what I should do with my book: publish it or leave it alone for now? I don't care to get it published but I want to my story out there about living with a disability like Cerebral Palsy . People always ask how my book is coming along and now I can finally say it's finished! Should I get my web site Wheels About up and running and then put my book on Wheels About? Or is my best bet to go to a publisher and talk about my options and what way would be better for me? If anyone out there has any advice about publishing, let me know! Thank you!        

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wheels About Magazine

What is 'Wheels About' magazine? It's an online magazine for people who have a disability and want to share their stories. I want it to have the same features as a regular magazine but focus on people who have disabilities.

Where did you get the idea to start a magazine? I think I had the idea for a long time. I was working at a bookstore for several years but wasn't getting paid for my work. I decided to leave and do something for myself. I took a small business course and worked on the magazine for my course.

Why did you choose to make it an online magazine? It's cheaper! I don't have a lot of money and I thought this way would be cheaper than printing a paper copy. I also like that I can design it all myself and have the option to do have images in colour or black and white.

Where can I see the first issue? I have it on www.wheelsabout.tripod.com. That was my first issue in 2004 and I haven't done many revisions since then. After my small business course I got my diploma in web design and gained a lot more experience working on web sites. I'm planning to update the layout along with the content!

Why do you want to put out another issue? I think I wanted to move forward with it even though putting an issue together takes me a long time.

Are you going to change anything from the last issue? I want to get more people involved in it.

How can people contribute or help? By sending me in a personal story or article! Tell me about yourself or what you want to write about. I'll always try to feature personal stories, articles about travel, and reviews about movies or books. I'm looking for ideas about what readers want to see.  

Monday, March 28, 2011

Y-Bo

Earlier in this blog I wrote “Keeping Fit” about how I was going to try out a fitness class that already fit in my schedule and was included in my YMCA membership. I decided on Y-Bo.

Y-Bo is a fun mix of kicking and punching movements. Minimal choreography makes this accessible to all. Y-Bo Plus adds a variety of equipment designed to build muscular strength and endurance.”

Y-Bo for me is a lot of kicking and punching. After the 75-minute class, my body is killed. I use a lot of muscles that aren't normally worked. During the class, I take a lot of water breaks. I've only been three times so far because it's on Wednesday mornings. The second class had a different instructor and she chose to do Zumba with us that day. It was a lot of dancing using your arms and legs and moving around a lot! It felt like you had to be up on your feet, keeping your hands and feet active all the time. I find the kickboxing classes easier because the focus is usually on arms or legs and it's easier for me to personalize. I liked Zumba and am glad I had the chance to try it in class but it isn't for me.

I knew from the description that we were going to use equipment and I've watched parts of the class but was scared about how I was going to use the equipment and if I even could. It had been a long time since I did any fitness like this and I wondered if I could keep up. Using equipment in the class turned out to be fun and exciting! I tried something new and learned some new techniques. If you don't want to use the equipment, you don't have to do it as the instructor demonstrates. I'm not the only person who chooses not to use certain pieces of equipment, and it's everyone's choice how they want to work out. The instructors tell us to work out how you want to and I am trying more moves than I would have thought of. They also offer different options on how intense you want to be that day.

Before I tried this class I thought it wouldn't be as fun as working out on my own. When I work out on my own I can go as fast or as slow as I want. Working out in a group is difficult because I see everyone else doing the same thing and part of me wants to do it too. But I know what I'm doing is fine for me and we don't all have to do same thing. The class motivates me to keep going because I want to try new things and I really enjoy Y-Bo. When I'm in the class I keep active with the group even though most of us are probably dying a little.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hawaii

Hi everybody! Sorry that it's bee a while. I got back from Hawaii and week ago and I honestly can say that I loved it! I fell in love, it was wonderful not to have to wear coats or pants or shoes or socks! It was nice go around and see cultures around the island and how they live. I spent a lot of my time hanging around the pool and beach. It was divine! I went out on a fishing boat to watch my friend scuba dive, it was the morning that I had to wake up at 6am. On my holiday! How fun is that? Tell me if there's anyone who wakes up early on their holiday.

We went on a dinner cruise one night to watch the sunset and saw five whales. We also drove half an hour to a different town for another whale watching trip. I enjoyed this one more because we were on a banana boat and you could sit down and still see everything around you. The dinner cruise boat was a fishing boat and you could only see a little bit. We went back into the same town where we had our great whale watching trip to shop for souvenirs. I picked up things for my nieces, nephews, and myself.

I'm thinking of going back to Hawaii again in a couple of years. On my next trip I want to try zip lining and swimming with the dolphins. And stay for three weeks instead of two! Well, that's all. I'll be posting another entry in two weeks, maybe on my fitness class.    

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Writing

I wrote a book on my life with the ups and downs of having C.P. I want to publish my book to tell my story and inform people who don't know about cerebral palsy. But there is a little part of me that isn't sure if I'm comfortable enough with my writing to go ahead and publish it. I don't know if people will read or like it. I know my family and friends will read it and say they enjoy it. I want to get better at writing and be more comfortable writing to share my story.

There are a couple of things that would help me improve at my writing. This blog and writing out short stories would help, maybe I need to start doing that. I am trying to post a blog entry every two weeks so that's a good first step. I need to get back into doing web design again and learning it in Joomla so I can work on my magazine WHEELS ABOUT.

WHEELS ABOUT is a voice for those that up until now haven't had one, to present their stories, their struggles and accomplishments and to offer advice and encouragement through shared experiences. The main purpose of WHEELS ABOUT is to present what people are capable of in spite of living with barriers. It will include submissions from those with physical and developmental challenges along with book resources and helpful services. This magazine is for anyone who has struggled and come out on top. WHEELS ABOUT would like to feature articles on health, relationships, raising children, and careers.

I've had the idea for this publication for some time now. While working on my autobiography and researching the current types of publications available I saw a need for a magazine that took a lighter look at the every day life of a person with a disability as well as presenting their challenges and accomplishments, to take a humorous look at the stigmas surrounding people with disabilities and what they're capable of in spite of their physical or developmental limitation. Hopefully by being able to laugh at themselves society will also be able to learn more about people's abilities.

I want to have WHEELS ABOUT for people to share their life story or if they know someone else who want to tell their life story. They can email me and I will put it online to share to the world. And if they want to help out that would be great because it will be just me doing the online magazine.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Keeping Fit

I like working out to build up my muscles and to increase my physical ability. I want to challenge myself every Monday and Wednesday when I'm at the YMCA. How much farther can I bike than last time? How much can I lift and how many times can I do it?

I'm always happy and feel great after a work out, but I usually arrive feeling lazy and tired and not wanting to do anything. I show up because I have seen other people who are in wheelchairs and they can't do a lot; I don't want to be like that.

Exercise is nothing new to me, I had to work with a physiotherapist doing exercises for most of my life. Now I can do what I want and I'm not sure what would help the most so I need to get a work out plan. I want to exercise my arms but I don't know what what's best for me so I'll ask an expert to help me with my goals. I would like to start physio again. It frustrates me sometimes how my muscles don't move the way I want them or it takes a little more time. My muscles can stay tense and I think massage would help relax them.

When I was in school for web design, I wasn't working out. I kept feeling lazy and thinking how I needed to start being more active again. Right now I work out twice a week and have activities that I would like to try. But I'm bad because I'm waiting to try new activities until after I move out of the group home. I know I can start now but part of me doesn't want to in case the activities don't fit in my new independent life. One thing I can try is participating in a group class to see if I can handle it. There are drop-in classes at the YMCA when I'm usually there so it already fits in with my schedule. I may need to try more than one class to find the best fit. I think I might start out with less exercise than normal because my effort is being spent learning all the moves and switching between them. I hope it improves later on.

I don't like all of it. I stopped using one leg weight machine because it always hurt my upper legs. I've always wanted to try kick boxing because I think it would be fun. I've tried yoga, it was different. We moved fast and sometimes it was hard for me to keep up with the class. I would like to try one where we spend more time in the different poses so I have time to get into the pose and keep up. I was involved in swimming growing up and want to get back into it. I have a wider range of movement in the water and I feel better after it. I competed in the special Olympics. I love being in water because it makes me walk and helps my legs.  

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Getting Away!

I love going on holiday! It's so much fun to see all different cultures. I've been to Mexico with a friend of mine and we met up with family friends. They took us everywhere that was accessible. It wasn't very accessible, and if anyone goes in an electric chair, they can't even get around. I used my manual chair and found that the curbs were very steep and the sidewalks were crowded. However, it was my first trip without my parents!

Before my first niece was born we took a family trip to the Dominican Republic. It was different from Mazatlan because we stayed in a resort. Again, the nearby town wasn't very accessible but the resort was. There was a little bus that went into town every hour, I went once into town but it was hard to get around. I did find a nice dress for our last night at the resort. We went Boxing Day to News Years Day. Our flight home was at midnight and guess what happened? My suitcase was stolen! We had to check out of our rooms at 11am but weren't leaving for the airport until 8pm. They stowed our luggage in a room for us. It was raining all day so we sat around inside until it was time to go. When it was time to go, we went to get our luggage and my suitcase was not there! I enjoyed the trip but have realized that I would prefer to stay in a hotel in the city or town so I could get out and about every day.

In four weeks I am going to Hawaii, yay! It's with the same friend who was in Mexico with me. We're going for two weeks, with my parents coming to the same city in the second week. I can't wait to go because I told my friend that I will try more things on this trip. We're thinking about scuba diving and snorkeling. I really want to go swimming with the dolphins but my friend disagrees. I can't wait! And then I'll spend time with my parents. It'll be a nice holiday.  

Monday, January 17, 2011

Fun times!

I am a member of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta. On Saturday night I went to their new year party. It was fun to see old friends and remember with them. And seeing new faces. It was a lot of fun. All the members received gifts. I got a pillow, a blanket to cover my legs, and a snuggie. The blanket for my legs reminded me of a knitted baby blanket for a crib. I decided to give it to my sister who has a new baby. It opened my eyes that I need to become more connected with the C.P. community. Every Tuesday night they have a social outing for adults to connect with other people who have C.P. I will try to get involved with them. It was a great supper and a great evening.