Beyond Brave
Meet Kyla and Lyle Thomson, co-hosts of Beyond Brave. As parents to Bella Brave, who inspired the world with her courage, they spent over a decade navigating her rare medical challenges. Together, they've channeled their experiences into helping others find resilience and healing. On Beyond Brave, Kyla and Lyle share stories of hope, love, and the lessons they've learned—both through Bella's journey and in their everyday family life. Join them as they honor Bella’s legacy and inspire others to find light even in the darkest moments.
Beyond Brave
#02 - Family Adventures and Unexpected Connections
Imagine sharing the dance floor with John Legend at an opulent gala while simultaneously navigating the chaos of airport delays and social media hacking. Our latest episode of Beyond Brave is a rollercoaster of emotions and adventures, filled with heartwarming family moments, unexpected travel detours, and a touch of celebrity glitz. We begin with our memorable encounter with John Legend and recount our journey to the Ronald McDonald House Charities Global 50th Anniversary Gala in Chicago, an extravagant affair where $76 million was raised for families in need. The touching connections we forged with other RMHC families and the unforgettable performance by John Legend highlight the power of community and shared experiences.
Amidst the grandeur of the gala, we also share the laughter and chaos of family travel, including the unexpected delight of exploring the Mall of America after a missed flight. From overcoming flight anxiety to tackling the frustrations of airline customer service, our experiences offer both humor and practical tips for fellow travelers. We also touch on the lessons learned from a social media hacking incident, emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity awareness in this digital age.
As we celebrate the legacy of our beloved Bella, we announce the upcoming Bella's Ball, a heartwarming event organized by my friend Jen Draper. This celebration promises a day filled with joy, superheroes, and princesses, all while supporting worthy causes like RMHC and the Pattison Children's Hospital. Join us as we reflect on the significance of family, community, and the unbreakable bonds that continue to inspire hope and bravery in our lives.
Bella's Ball - Hosted by Ember Productions in Saskatoon, SK December 8th, 2024
https://www.emberproductions.ca/event-details/bellas-ball
The Invisible String - A book thats really helped us explain the loss of Bella to our son Waylon.
https://a.co/d/0hZZp9E
Thanks for listening! Check us out on our socials.
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Hello, welcome everybody to episode two. I'm excited for this episode. We discuss a lot, including meeting John Legend. What? Also? We discuss our trip to Chicago. Why?
Speaker 1:we went there, how to fly, how not to fly and, lastly, we discuss more on why I need the closure I do and what questions I need to ask my therapist this week. Let's get started. Welcome to Beyond Brave. I'm Kyla, and here's where we dive into stories of hope, bravery and laughter. Millions followed our journey with my daughter, Bella, but now it's time to go beyond the headlines and highlight reels to those raw, real moments I haven't shared anywhere else. So are you ready to go Beyond brave? Let's dive in.
Speaker 2:But if you want to be perfect. You can make it perfect.
Speaker 1:Hello bravelings, welcome to episode two on Beyond Brave, with Kyla CT, which is me, and my hubby. How long can I keep this rhyme going?
Speaker 2:I get Beyond Brave with the Kyla CT. What about me? Oh, what am I?
Speaker 1:It's a good rhyme too, beyond Brave with Kyla CT. But what about me? New series coming soon. We're already creating spinoff. All my guests will be like. But what about me? New series coming soon. We're already creating spinoff. All my guests will be like. What about me? What about me?
Speaker 2:with uh ed sheeran, did you manage to get waylon settled? What about ed yeah, uh right before we started him record, we heard uh mom, oh, what did you do, mom? Oh, you're mommy.
Speaker 1:No, I heard mom me love, okay, because it's after his bedtime. Yeah, he is way past his bedtime right now. He just wanted cuddles because he could hear me. He's just mama cuddles. It's uh always something with the bedtimes which a lot of people are probably pretty familiar with so maybe we'll have a guest appearance later on in the show no, don't say that, he could probably still hear us, but just flip the ipad at him.
Speaker 1:It's 9 pm, isn't it 8? 30? No, no, he's fine. He just wanted cuddles. So I gave him cuddles and then I said you know what I said? I told your puppy, his his little husky puppy I was. I told him earlier how to give really good cuddles, so I gave him lots of lessons. And he starts laughing. Why did you talk to him? How did you tell him how to cuddle me? I was like I'm just like I told him already.
Speaker 2:He's a professional. That's the same one that Bella has with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the same one that Bella has with her and I told him I was like. Bucky knows how to cuddle. He's a professional cuddler and I taught him what to do because mommy's got to go downstairs and do some work.
Speaker 2:Because Waylon is six and he's in grade one. If anyone didn't know, yeah, our son Waylon.
Speaker 1:And if you listen to our first pod, we just launched yesterday episode one in the books. Uh, we're very, very happy about that and I guess it's been 24 hours and we have hasn't been 20, it's been 24 hours, right, and we have over a thousand downloads. What does that have to do with Waylon? Sorry, I was going to mention no, I was going back to, I was I was going to try and I was trying to circle back make some sort of connection to Bucky, when you were like talking about, um, the same puppy, stuffy puppy that Bella has. Oh, yeah, waylon has.
Speaker 1:And I was going to say, like, in our first episode we talked about what Beyond Brave is all about and we're carrying on the legacy of our late daughter, daughter bella brave, and so she was. She passed away july 14th this year and we buried her with a special stuffy puppy that waylon has, this exact same one, and it was given to us by the, the picu team at sick kids hospital toronto and the care team there. I forget the exact they were like. They were like a team of two guys that came in. They were like a special, like um support system for the parents and siblings and they gave us the book uh strings what's the title right I remember this is a good book.
Speaker 2:It was about a string always being connected to you and your loved one that has passed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I talked with waylon and we talked about how, um, his puppy they're like husky puppy stuffies and how bella's puppy and his puppy have this string, invisible, invisible string. That's tyler, they have this invisible string connected to each other I think a medical mom wrote the book.
Speaker 2:I forget it's in the back pages.
Speaker 1:She might even be canadian really, yeah, we've read this book how many times with waylon. We should know this by now. I read the back of it, though, yeah where it explains it.
Speaker 2:It was good, it was very sweet. We should actually reach out to her. It'd be interesting we should.
Speaker 1:Waylon loves that book. He loves it so much and the connection he has now with his sister through it is, and its message is amazing. So he hugs his puppy every night and he, oh, we do have a special visitor, not waylon, our cat. Oh, shiny red ball. Sorry guys, this is fine, all right, all right, all right. Okay, we don't want to get too much on track. Bring it back. Scotty might come in for a visit.
Speaker 1:Um, denny can hop on and let me know she's causing too much noise, because my original idea you guys, with this background can I go off on this? Of course you can. Okay, remember when I was like denny's our producer by the way, he's an amazing friend and, uh, we'll get to who he is later. Right now he remains a mystery. However, we were talking with denny and lyle and me about how I wanted our studio to look, and my original idea was like a cat activity wall, because we have three cats and I was like, oh, we could have like the little slide and little, like you know, little hammocks and little ladders, little steps, and then our cats could just play in the background for like entertainment, right because you don't get distracted.
Speaker 1:Keep it real smooth, yeah, great and so you and denny, both guy watch that idea. I was looking at the entertainment side.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know what? You're probably wrong.
Speaker 1:No, I think you're right.
Speaker 2:Your gut usually is right.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it would be. I think it would keep people engaged. You'll see cats fly around in the background, but we can absolutely try like a trial episode. We could do a trial episode. I mean Scotty's trying to right now. She's coming around in the background over there by the cords, but Denny had said Okay, no, I had a side note.
Speaker 2:Remember National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Yeah, and the cat gets in the Christmas tree? Yeah, where the cat is right now, there might be a million wires. Yeah, yeah, she is. It'd be like, I mean, might have to cancel the recording.
Speaker 1:It's okay.
Speaker 2:I mean I'd have to cancel the recording, but apart from it being completely distracting, it was also, uh, a recommended no as to like there being too much noise in the background and right. So if you see a weird like flutter because we are doing video, yeah, we're gonna make that happen. Video yeah, if it uh, you might catch a glance of cats she's under me right now.
Speaker 1:I think she's under my chair. Okay, back on track. We have a lot to discuss in this episode, and where I wanted to start was with what we had mentioned in episode one. We were about to go on to our trip with waylon to chic for the Ronald McDonald House Charities Global 50th Anniversary Gala that we were invited to, and I wanted to start off with how we were invited to that, because that was really special. That was really special, and then go into lots more fun, exciting things like my, uh, my tourist luck, um, what we learned when you're packing for flights because I a lot of you might think I fly often as a malcolm mom and I I did, but it was ambulance flights, not your regular flights, right? So it's just pjs it's just private jets pjs yes they weren't like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're air ambulances, but they were old private jets. Yeah, you would usually be flying on with bella out of saskatoon, who was the one stars old jet, barbara streisand. Yeah, what's barbara? Streisand, they refurbished, refurbished I think they just make space for like, the like I don't know what you call it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, uh, okay. So we have lots to discuss with chicago, but how chicago came to be, how we, how we got to fly down there and take in this beautiful anniversary gala event uh, was of course, so. Um, ron mcdonough's charities has always been bella's number one, number one go-to when she's like advocating or when she advocated, and so we had worked with them many a time with rmhc canada and rmhc global, advocating for families like ours who are in hospital and need somewhere families stay close, need somewhere to stay. Long story short, the ceo, ceo, rmhc global, sent me a letter and a card in the mail after bella had passed, and she wrote a very personal, kind letter and gave me her contact information and basically, like I am here for you is what she said, and it just really touched my heart. This is, of course, kate Fitzgerald and she I. So I reached out to her and, like I do with, I guess you could say, celebrities or people that are well known and kind, of well, you have no real sensor of like.
Speaker 2:No, you reach out to every. You, yeah, you reach out to everybody. Actually, like anyone writes, you usually reach back and doesn't matter who they are. Yeah, yeah, you're not. You're not shy no, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm not shy like she said, hey, thanks for the message anyways reached out to her and like I, you know, I've texted other people on my phone like you know, like just thrown out a text to david foster or halsey or ashley, but that like that you name dropping I'm well, only because some people get kind of contacts where it's just like nuts that I have contact with these people and we have like a relationship and it's there's so many stories behind that. But to the average person, okay, the CEO of RMHC Global would be on that level right, like she's like, can you imagine?
Speaker 2:that she's not a celebrity To me. Yeah, oh yeah, can you imagine she's not a celebrity to me?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh yeah, you know I mean, like to me she is. I'm just like, wow, okay, this is who reached out to me, um, out of respect to my daughter, she knows who bella is, she understands our story and she wrote this letter and said reach out to me. That was huge to me, and so I did, and not only like it was personal, in a sense, that it was like when we connected, it was like we would really, really, really love to have you and Waylon and Lyle at this event and we and we'd love to make that possible for you guys, and just that's.
Speaker 1:That's how we got there and so it was their 50th right yeah, so it was RMHC Global's 50th anniversary, and they hadn't been able to celebrate since 2019 so they really went big.
Speaker 2:It was cool. Yeah, it wasn't. I wouldn't say it was like lavish. Well, it was, it was lavish, it was really they raised 76 million dollars.
Speaker 1:They they invited a lot of good people and raised 76 million bucks yeah that was nuts nuts, and we did not know who the surprise uh musical talent was going to be. They didn't tell us till we got there. There's two other rmhc families that were also able to take part and, oh my goodness, we just connected with the parents, number one but number two. The one family had three triplets that were just the sweetest and they were the same age as waylon, and it was just amazing it was funny, waylon vibing with the three of them.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're all so funny, they're so sweet.
Speaker 1:They all had our names and he couldn't he. I asked him after we were going back to the hotel room. I'm like, you danced, who did you dance with tonight? And he's like I don't know, mom, I couldn't keep them straight, but I danced with all of them. They're identical triplets.
Speaker 2:Reminds me of that Office episode where Michael and he marks the one of the girl that he likes with a sharpie on his hand, because they met two girls and they look very close together.
Speaker 1:He's like.
Speaker 2:He just had to mark one with a sharpie. So what do you like? He couldn't tell. Oh, oh poor guy.
Speaker 1:That was he had a stanceful, the highlight of my night.
Speaker 2:He, I don't I like john legend. That might have been the highlight okay, yes, we were.
Speaker 1:That's what I should probably got to that the entertainment there at it yeah, so we're a part of the vip group that got to go and meet. So john legend wasn't like a part of everything through the whole night. It was I'm not sure what he did, but he he came on like probably in his green room or whatever, and then came out on stage for his. He was the the show, like the musical talent at the end of the night. But prior to all that, prior before, like the awards and the shout outs and they did um, uh, like short eulogies of members of RMHC that had passed that year, including Bella. There's five of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And, uh, he was able to meet with the VIP group. So the he was able to meet with the VIP group, so the us, the families and then some other people that had got to meet him, and we got to meet him before the whole event actually happened and and so it was like a like a like a meet, and greet.
Speaker 2:There was a meet and greet with John Legend this is why this is gonna be.
Speaker 1:This is why denny called it. This is gonna be like a minute, an hour, 15 and oh, how long should be 45, 30, 45 the meet and greet was really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really awesome. But he also has a connection with ron mcdonald's, doesn't he, john legend?
Speaker 1:yes, he explained that during the show yeah yeah, and chrissy, okay, have and they've. I believe they have needed it or they, I can't remember. He mentioned it at the beginning. They have supported and they have that connection.
Speaker 2:And they Haven't. They had a sick child.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:There.
Speaker 1:I think that was it. I forget the details. I would have to Sorry. I put you on the spot. You put me on the spot. Now I feel dumb.
Speaker 2:I promise that will never, ever happen again. Anyone on, I'll never make you feel dumb.
Speaker 1:Anyone on here can Google it, Denny.
Speaker 2:Look it up, Denny look it up, we have the shout outs. But the event was really cool Really well. Done it um, but the event was really cool, really well done.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. John legend kicked ass. He was awesome. Yeah, he. We got to meet him, shake his hand and take a picture with him in the beginning and waylon was like I gotta tell him I was trying to talk a little bit about.
Speaker 1:I like his name's john or mr legend or you know whatever, and you can talk to him, tell him what you like about his music, tell him you like to play a piano too. And what does he tell him? I got a loose tooth. And he's like look at, so if you, if you see in my video that I took, where he's like shaking our hands, then we take a photo and then waylon's like talking to him and john's like oh, and he says he starts to kind of like this laugh like he said we should hook it up to the door.
Speaker 2:It's on the door. If I can get rid of it, I was like, yeah, yeah, pretty well that's what.
Speaker 1:That's what we were talking about with john.
Speaker 2:Legend is, uh, waylon's loose tooth and the fairy, or the tooth fairy yeah, tooth fairy, yeah, but we went up there, so the event was amazing. We stayed there till, like I don't pretty late. Waylon did well, I think midnight. We wrapped things up. Yeah, he did really good. Yeah, you went to the room. I stayed out a little later oh yeah katie and her husband you did the ceo and his husband was cool.
Speaker 1:He was into like science and stuff yeah, you guys like bonded over, like like uh, graham hancock, like oh yeah, stories and like soils and science-y stuff. It was so funny. I love that. I just like waylon and I crashed.
Speaker 2:A good way to get out of there.
Speaker 1:Get this guy out of here I wore the well, my boots weren't bad but my feet were a bit sore. But the, the dance party was awesome, the dj was so cool, yeah, and the kids like lit up the dance floor. Oh, that's what I was gonna say earlier. Is I watching him put his hand out like it's okay? No. So he went up to one of the girls, tapped on their shoulder, put his hand out to dance. So the first triplet was like no, I'm just eating pizza. I was just like get out of here.
Speaker 1:Nice thing, he's got three chances he's got three chances, yeah, and then the second one was a hit, oh, and the second one was a hit, and they twirled and they spun and then they all just kind of like danced on their own. But it was so cute the way he like politely asked to dance, like he reached out his hand like a little fairy book, like yeah, yeah, I can't remember, um, the, I guess the eulogy part that they did for bella too well.
Speaker 2:Do you remember much about it specifically? I can't, I'd have to re-watch it. Say that again, like when they talked about bella at the presentation, like of the.
Speaker 1:You know the memoriam part oh yes, I have, I have that all recorded. Um, we could even like we could play that no, we, it'll be fine. It was really short but it was really genuine and they, they talked about her and her advocacy for RMHC and as a medical kid and and the years, the 10 years she spent in a Ronald McDonald house, and they, just they made a really beautiful, sweet, short tribute to her.
Speaker 2:And talked about her making RMhc her priority and like her really being into philanthropy and like getting it yeah oh and um, I just got the news, okay.
Speaker 1:so, following up on john lennon, john lennon legends, connection legend, uh, okay, so according to people magazine, his six-year-old son, miles uh, that now remember, yes, had type 1 diabetes diagnosis and uh, of course, he is the dad and they have daughters, luna and esty, who is one, and son ren, one one With Chrissy. Thanks, denny, for that quick little.
Speaker 2:So the event was awesome. The event was Saturday night, but we flew up early. We went into Chicago. What was it?
Speaker 1:Thursday. We were smart. We were like, okay, the travel day is going to be long because we had two connecting flights and so it was like, let's go Thursday so we can have Friday to to, just ah, because, um, there was no moment.
Speaker 2:I don't know what. I think I had 25 000 steps that day thursday was a long travel day.
Speaker 1:We got up like we had to leave, fly to minneapolis, fly to chicago, and then like, yeah, get in and rest and then. So friday was nice to wake up I don't know what you're complaining about.
Speaker 2:Flying for no, you are, you have no. I don't know what are you doing in the airport. Here we go. Just one thing about kyla is she there we go? She just turns her brain off the second we enter the airport we have discovered this about me you check? Out to my you were to your defense when we were entering a hospital or something like that it was.
Speaker 1:You took over over, over, like switches are on, all engines go. This is this, this, this and this not the airport not the airport opposite my name is yeah, it was uh, yeah, so I don't know what you I mean, I just dragged you around everywhere it was a funny way that we discovered this, because it started with your lunch, your breakfast order and your lunch order, which one of them I got completely wrong, and the second one I just didn't get it all you're making it out like I was barking orders.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. It's just when you offer to get me lunch and then you show up with no lunch. Where's my coffee? You have your coffee and sandwich. Where's mine? Oh, thanks for offering Anyway.
Speaker 1:I literally walk up. I was like I'm like like, okay, what do you want for lunch? Okay, this and this. Okay, go up, order something for me. And waylon sit back down completely oblivious to the fact that I did not get his order. Where did my brain go?
Speaker 2:and this is all before or this is all after. Security, yeah, big security. You dragged in five gallons of liquids. Have you been on an airplane? Hold on, you've been on plenty of flights, but, granted, you didn't have to go through security on a bunch of I.
Speaker 1:I have not needed to go through security in an airport since.
Speaker 1:Well, sorry, I can't lie, I was gonna say like disneyland eight months ago however, no, however, no, this it still doesn't count, because I have the we we were with Bella and I have the medical letter, right. So I have all these medical like liquid medications, iv needles, like all these things that it's like oh, she has the medical letter from her team, take as much as you want, it's needed medication, right. So it's like oh, I have a medical letter. I don't have to abide by the one liter clear plastic bag with the 50 mil max or 100 mil max in the one liter bag so, so maybe that's okay.
Speaker 1:So you just haven't had to participate in the I have not had to participate in how to fly since probably 2010 so we got to go through twice.
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, okay. So this is what we learned, Okay.
Speaker 1:So I remembered, or I kind of knew I was. I was even looking up online. I'm like, all right, what am I allowed in my A hundred mil Carry on.
Speaker 2:Thanks.
Speaker 1:A hundred mil max.
Speaker 2:You had like 40, a hundred mil liquids in your bag. I didn't realize, lady. So we had to drag, waylon and I, because we'd already passed through security. We had to drag, we had to go circle back around, so you know, and then they had to load up their bag. But we had, you had to load up our bags with your liquids, and then I think we and you didn't have to dump any no, so what I did is I?
Speaker 1:I just it's liquids and creams, so I made sure they were all under 100 mils, but I didn't know that you had to separately. You could only put per person one liter clear bag is what you could stuff in there. So basically I had three of those in one bag. It wasn't five gallons, and she's like I was like she's like you can't take that. I was like do I have to dump this? I'm like they're all under 100 mils.
Speaker 1:I hold it up like this, like they're all under 100 mils, like I'm like desperate I go away and I just flew get out you guys are like on the other end of security, looking at me like I don't know what's going on and then she says to me she's like you're only allowed one one liter bag per so she's like you got to split all this into three and then we have to bring your husband and son back through and re-scan them because they have to claim each one of these one liter bags that were mine.
Speaker 2:It worked out okay, but it worked out okay lesson learned uh, and then we get to the gate. What do you? We can set it. We've set at the gate for an hour. Yeah, set at the gate for an hour. All right, boarding one and two? All right?
Speaker 1:well, we're not one we were like three yeah we're way back right all right.
Speaker 2:Zone four all right. Uh, lyle, do you think I?
Speaker 1:have time.
Speaker 2:What I was fast you we had. You had plenty of time I had plenty of time.
Speaker 1:Regardless of the time I went, came back we were good to go. Everyone's lined up, it was fun but yeah, I know that that timing of my question made you very anxious and I'm sorry about that and so in the past two weeks, how many flights have we had where we got to enjoy that? Oh my goodness okay one, two, three, four, eight, yeah, like eight flights, eight flights yeah, you're kind of an old pro now I'm pro now, yeah, now we just check our bags just to avoid security, can we?
Speaker 1:I'll pay it, I'll wait, I just I don't want to go through security we did the first round with just like carry-ons and then we did the second. We checked. We're like, yeah, let's just check, check them so can we?
Speaker 1:you had something there can we connect this to um, and I left my brain. Where did it go? I'm sorry. What were you talking about? Oh, it was really important. Oh, yes, okay, here it is. I wanted to connect this to my most, one of my most recent Instagram posts, where it's like can we take a minute to just appreciate that I can, I've, I can fly again without Ativan or tranquilizers, or gravel.
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't think we've established that you can fly. I've like managed to get you on a plane.
Speaker 1:But, but I'll be. That part alone used to take me like three different medications, can you?
Speaker 2:imagine on out of van navigating you through the airport.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had a friend have to do this. I've had a friend have to do this after I'd taken two out of van and a gravel and it was like, oh, this is, and uh, I'm like a drugged rhino, like, just like, because you were a nervous flyer yes, yeah, yeah now?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, it's after all the flights with bella to toronto and back, and it was like a therapy time sure it was and you got to talk, to like the pilot and see the cockpit. I think that really helped, you didn't yeah?
Speaker 1:you know it's funny that it helped me a huge amount, but I'm just still in shock that the fact that I can get on an airplane without out of van or gravel it blows my mind. And I did that through the last eight flights and I'm just like so proud of myself because I was thinking on those flights like, okay, I'm not gonna be nervous, I'm gonna breathe, I'm gonna be brave, I can do this. This is fun. I have my family with me, I have my friends with me, like when we went to vegas, which we'll get into. But it's like I thought about it.
Speaker 1:I was like, okay, if I do get nervous, what would help me feel better, what would help calm me down? And it was the fact of just either being able to talk to the flight attendant or, even better, being able to talk to the pilot, and it's. I don't know if I could drum up my own scenario and I know security would never allow this, but it's like if I was legit having a panic attack, I think all I would need is the captain to be like come here, like basically like a grandkid on a grandpa's knee, and be like sit down for a minute, it's going to be okay, take a look here. This is what this button does.
Speaker 1:And you know, like that's all.
Speaker 2:I would need.
Speaker 1:But of course that would probably never happen, cause like they only let like toddlers and children. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Not. This 40 old lady was having a panic attack. Yeah, but that's what I envisioned. Maybe you need, like, a therapy cat with you at all times. Oh, that wouldn't help at all.
Speaker 1:They're not going to explain how the plane flies, I guess well, like that one flight we took I forget where that was, it was, just, was it just you and me? I had to sit separately from you because you're not very nice and you just don't care where I sit on the plane. And you didn't. You were. I was like 20 rows behind you and you were. What flight was that?
Speaker 1:you didn't put us together or we couldn't I was late booking oh, anyways, the only thing that saved that trip was the fact I legit got to zip aside another pilot that was on that plane and, uh, he was kind enough to talk to me. Talk me down from being well.
Speaker 2:You're pretty chatty when you get on a plane, so he had no choice oh that's good, she's gonna but like silence with a nervous flyer. Oh no, I need distraction yeah, that was just like my flight uh to toronto, and I went with, uh, yeah, alan, oh my gosh, that was alan. Yeah, I was super stressed out, not about the flight, but about the condition of balance. This was, I'm like.
Speaker 2:This was in june yeah, wasn't it you were coming to toronto then and then alan was like this 16 year old kid from Saskatoon flying to, I think he was landing in Montreal, connecting in Toronto where I was landing, and he just sat down and he was the funniest 16 year old kid and he was going to. He was raw dog in the flight.
Speaker 2:He had no, he was not prepared, he had no he just had you he had no headphones and he says he looks over and he's like I not a very good flyer man. Oh yeah, he's like I'm not the best flyer. I was better than Alan's. I'm like all right, I think let's talk. Yeah, we talked the whole flight, two and a half hours. We just BS'd. It was so fun. He appreciated it. He took my mind, so I get the conversation part. It really helps. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wasn't nervous, yeah, about the flying, but I had other things in my head that I mean just this kid and that when we still snapchat, alan and I yeah, yeah, or he snaps me I never checked my snapchat, yeah, so, and he's basically the only one that snaps me. So funny, and I ruined his streaks, I guess I don't know how it's quite how it works, but he got after me, though. He and he reached out after bella passed. I think it was like a month later he reached out to me. Yeah, it was really sweet. I have so few connections like you up there. You're a million of those.
Speaker 1:I have a few connections I think there's a lot of people are listening right now. They're like wait, can we go back to you texting david foster and I'll see yeah no, you don't think so later, okay, yeah, that has nothing to do with chicago no, nothing no no, uh, completely separate. Okay, what have we missed?
Speaker 2:on. But we did some really cool things in chicago, like, uh, yes, I mean went to the children's museum, we went to, of course, we went to giordano's what? We didn't see any sports, and chicago was a really good sports town, but all the teams were out of town we did the touristy tour of chicago. Oh, yeah, and we did the museums, like we did the uh aquarium, aquarium and that was awesome.
Speaker 1:Within the first 10 minutes of getting into the aquarium, there's dolphin show. Dolphins are flying everywhere and they're just like it was so cool.
Speaker 2:We did, uh, fly over. There's lots of flyovers, you, there's like one in disneyland, there's one in las vegas, they're, they're quite, they're like everywhere. Now I know the ones where you sit in the seats, yeah, and you're basically an imax, but your seat is floating and it's kind of like so I did.
Speaker 1:I love that ride. When we did that ride in disneyland with the kids and it was amazing and magical and I loved it. And so I was thinking this is what flyover was going to be, and I don't know if it was the chair I was in or the position we were in or what. But you guys like, if you saw on my instagram when we got back from chicago, literally the one like the 30 seconds or the one minute that I videoed at the beginning when waylon's like, yeah, I couldn't like my eyes are closed it.
Speaker 1:I don't know if the motion was too fast or faster than the one in disneyland, but I was a little faster, I think yeah I don't know how long that ride was, but I spent the entire time trying not to barf money well spent and we definitely had three different experiences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were just trying not to barf. Yeah, whalen was and I was crying.
Speaker 1:You were crying because I just felt bad, because bell had to miss it and because the way that it was, the story it told flying over iceland, and the music that they used, it was endearing and it was like emotional, emotional, yeah, and I I would open my eyes a little bit when it would slow down because, like when the screen would go fast and you could the seat it like you felt like you were in a hang glider going super fast. So when it did slow down a little bit, I'd glance over at you and I'd see Waylon, just like eyes wide and having, and then you were like crying. I was like, oh, I can't even.
Speaker 2:And then I just it's been kind of like a common theme since we lost her. It's just, new experiences are so difficult for me. I don't know if they they probably hit the same with you, but it's just, it feels very, um, unfair. Yeah, I don't in one word, that would be the word like, and I don't spend my days that way. I don't, I, I haven't. I don't know if I'm I will get angry, but I I'm not. I mean, my faith in God helps with that and just knowing that there's a plan. But the new experiences are difficult because I just feel like she deserves to be at them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that is exactly how I feel and a good summary. I find like, specifically, like I'm really thankful we have our grieving therapy again this Thursday, because it's been a couple weeks and we mentioned this in in the last episode about how we're intentionally grieving but I feel like I'm going to have a lot more questions this week about how I I feel like it's getting harder and harder to not feel like I just want to stop everything and cry all day, like I feel like that's what's. My body is just like stop doing things and just lay down and cry, but the pain is preventing me from doing that. The pain in that, the pain and it. I want to remember so much, but the memories are still predominantly painful and I'm wanting and grasping at the happy ones and I think I want to ask our therapist this, but I think it's because we we don't have closure yet from her autopsy report right, you're her team, yeah and that is something that that's the way my brain has always worked.
Speaker 1:My brain is always medical. First, what and how to prevent, and it's been how I've just. You know, like every parent, keep your kid alive, right. And so, yeah, real one, keep your kid alive. And that's just been like it's taken over my mind in the sense that it's. I want to move that to the side so I can just see her smile, see the happiness, know that and feel that she had more happiness than she did pain in hospital. I've just found that really hard lately, but you know she has.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know she did.
Speaker 1:We always spoke about my heart does my brain is telling me she was never that bedridden no, for no months, kid no.
Speaker 2:And when she was for a week, she still got time to enjoy it like yeah, it wasn't that way with the hospital programs or child life programs. She was up and doing stuff that she loved I think when we do these trips like chicago and you were saying where we are busy, and the day we get home it's just we've been go, go, go, last like three days in chicago and then trip travel, and then when you get home it's just full shutdown mode, like yesterday, we couldn't, yeah, cry ourselves to sleep. Yeah, we had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess, probably because we haven't spent the time, yeah, and in three days, yeah I, we, when we were laying there in bed last night and just like, like you said, crying ourselves to sleep, if we're, if we're being real, we had a, you grabbed a towel from the bathroom because we were both just sobbing and we didn't have Kleenex in the room and we're just like. That's how we, our bodies, were like this is the time you're going to release this, because we've just been on go, go, go it's. You don't get a choice. I feel like my body tells me how to grieve and when to grieve. In my mind, I don't get the choice.
Speaker 2:No, well, but you do, because you can say, like you're, when we're out doing something, it's you can put on the poker face. You can put it. Yeah, you can put on the poker face, you can pull, you can kind of snap yourself out of it. I, I can't, I shouldn't speak for you, but I can like push her down that has I feel like I can't I feel like I wait I I. It always come up later.
Speaker 1:It depends.
Speaker 2:That's okay, Because you've got to operate somehow Right Like it depends on the level of distraction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like when I was at the dentist, did I tell the dentist story? I can't remember if I told the dentist story, but it was like I'm in the dentist about to get like my cleaning done. I was getting cavities fixed too, so there was like needles involved but I had freezing. Like it wasn't a pain thing, but it's like it just in that moment, like I had the freezing on, they were giving me the needles in the cheeks, didn't feel the needles at all. It was like okay, the freezing's gonna set in for the actual like cleaning and fixing and like so my dentist gives me the needles and then and and leaves.
Speaker 1:And that's when I just start bawling and I'm like it's just because that the action of getting that just threw me right back into like okay, all the needles that Bella had and all the pain she went through. And I just started like bawling and my poor like tech. She was like I, what do you call it? Assistant Dental assistant? I was like, are you okay? I was like this has nothing to do with the needles, I'm okay and I think she knew she just gave me some Kleenex and stuff. But it's like I just feel like the tears just come, like when we were walking on the pier in Chicago.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was really cool.
Speaker 1:Like lots of stuff to do out there. Yeah, and we were just walking check out the pier and the navy pier and I just the tears just came and it's like there's people walking by you and what did he just say to her oh no, it's like what a jerk that guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he must have done something like you never you never.
Speaker 1:you Waylon's run up and down laughing. I'm just like bawling, looking at like you know something that Bella would have enjoyed and it's like you just really never know. But we ended our Chicago trip with, I think, what was Waylon's favorite part Mall of America.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah. Unexpected little detour from courtesy of united oh okay, yes, so our.
Speaker 1:Is there a short way to explain the the united saga?
Speaker 2:yes, if I do okay, yeah you do it because I'll just go on. We got stuck in the tarmac in vegas for maintenance, not vegas chicago. In chicago we had stuck on star tarmac for an hour and a half. They had to check the break breaks okay, this is vegas for maintenance, not vegas chicago. In chicago we had stuff going to start tarmac for an hour and a half they had to check the break brakes.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is the funny part, though let me pause you for a minute. Our pilot explained that they had like basically the equivalent of a check engine light come on for their brakes. Yeah, and he's like so the crew's gonna come on, they're gonna do some checks and let us know when we can go. What do they need then? Like talk about like worst scenario for like nervous flyers. Okay, everything seems good to go there we go.
Speaker 2:Just go put it in reverse when we land.
Speaker 1:Let's wrap up reverse so we take off and me being like the actual, like ex nervous flyer was like, well, I guess we'll see if they work when it lasts. No confirmation, just like, oh, okay, we're gonna go love to throw down like something else and stop one of those nets that the navy uses for their jets that take off a plane. Oh, like the hook thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like yeah, could they use those for boeing 747s. I wouldn't want to be in one denny look into that all right. Yeah, they use them for fighter, so anyways, we got stuck on the tarmac. Yeah, uh, late for our can. So you know, I got us to minneapolis where our connection was, but we landed too late.
Speaker 2:Totally missed our west west jet flight yeah to regina saskatchewan, canada seemed probably a pretty common occurrence and I brought it to the lady at the desk and she is like she'd never heard of that situation happening before. Anyways, after them trying to reroute us through mumbai or something they were like, well, we could get you know to Toronto and then, 17 hours later, get you back to Rwanda.
Speaker 1:And we're like what? The same flight that we were supposed to be on is tomorrow at the same time. Put us on that flight.
Speaker 2:Well, there's nothing, it's full and so I looked it up on the app it wasn't full. Yeah, I'm like, here it is. I'm like, well, we can't book that one and then I'm like well, and so I'm like this is why I can't tell this.
Speaker 2:I said, okay, well, I'm not, I'm, I'm. You got to pay for this flight. Like it's a three thousand dollars for the, for the three seats for us to get there, because it was the last minute. Anyways, the guy I tell is your manager here. And so this guy shows up maybe he's the manager. He says no book, that will definitely give you your money back. Like man you are. Uh, this is exactly what a guy would say just to get rid of me. I know that's what you're doing right now. Like I, there's no way, yeah, and so of course, I book the flights. And then when we get home, I put in the little note like she tells me oh no, just submit through this online portal.
Speaker 1:We're recording it all. We'll let them know, yeah no idea, but.
Speaker 2:But so they're not going to reimburse us, but they're going to give us a 50 voucher I'm not done. We're not done with it. Oh, let's see where that goes this is what gets me, though.
Speaker 1:Okay, how advanced are we that like that they're? They have the. They're the united booking people, yet we're the ones that see it on our phone. Oh, we don't see that they.
Speaker 2:They just told me the flight was full. I'm like the flight isn't full. I'm looking at right there. Why are you lying to me?
Speaker 1:and the guy's like, yeah, I don't, it was he was like well, because you were originally booked in coach and the only ones available were, uh, first class but first class on the west shift flight.
Speaker 2:There's no, it's all the same seats it's all the same seats.
Speaker 1:It's not even. It's just the first five seats of the plane.
Speaker 2:That's all it is yeah, it's the front rows that are the exact same seats as the back. Yeah, oh well, that was annoying, but but we got to stay the night in minneapolis okay, so here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I I don't know hidden gem.
Speaker 2:That place kind of kicks ass, I don't know we had fun, we had fun mall of america. Mall of america, there's like four roller coasters in that room and we hit every one of them and the log flume.
Speaker 1:That way I got so long ride like it was so cool. I honestly didn't realize it was that big of a theme park in there. I was just like I knew mall of america was popular. So I'm telling waylon, I was just excited to go be like shopping, like a cool mall.
Speaker 2:You didn't do a single bit of shopping.
Speaker 1:No, it was just the park, sorry so I'm telling waylon. He's like, oh, the mall. And I was like, don't worry, honey, I'm sure there'll be like a play space, like at your like local mall. There's like a little slide swing area right we walk in and waylon and I are both just like he freaked out. He was like Whoa, whoa, like the slow, like mouth drop, head raise, like it was, like, like it was, it was the coolest.
Speaker 2:It was dead in there. So he got to Monday morning, run to every single ride and the nice part was, yeah, cause he's under four feet tall, he had to have somebody accompany him and had to have somebody accompany him and, regardless, he could go on the ride, but he needs someone, so I didn't have to pay, you didn't have to ride everything with him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as the, as his, uh, chaperone, chaperones, when he so he is like 44 inches tall so he could squeeze on he was really in the middle of so many and and they all were like, okay, chaperone, if you're this height, and he was like everyone, you got to go on your mall of america, free ride that was fun yeah, it was pretty awesome I think the flight home was uneventful oh, all of our flights, all of our eight flights in the last two weeks have been really good okay there was a little turbulence on one, but it's nothing I like I still like I'm I'm still a nervous flyer.
Speaker 1:But I felt like after those flights like I don't know if there's like a weird sweat that people get nervous sweat right, that's a thing I I felt like I just stunk after every flight because did you have to say it that way too?
Speaker 1:yes, because if a word could smell, it was that one because it like I envisioned, like I did my breathing, I did my calming, whatever I did to get through those flights, but it was like in a plane down. In a plane down it there's so many flights. But while I'm in the air, like I love taking off, I love landing because it's like we're close to the ground, whereas like lots of people off, I love landing Because it's like we're close to the ground whereas, like, lots of people are like, oh, that's when things happen and they get nervous. I'm like, no, that's easy when we're just sitting stagnant in the air. That's when I'm like, oh, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:It's too quiet, it's too still, it's too silent, right, you'd think that would be the opposite. You know that would be the calming time. It's not for me. So I feel like after a flight, whether it's like two hours or three hours, it to me it's like I've just been chased by a bear for two hours straight. So I just my body is like I'm not moving, but I'm just like the sweat is like oozing out of me, this nervous sweat oh like.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Your? Adrenaline okay is that? I was gonna say, like, is this a thing, like this gotta be a thing.
Speaker 2:This is what happens to me yeah, you're in like fight or flight mode I'm in for, like us, the whole time until I'm there.
Speaker 1:I just don't fight, or I am in flight mode, I don't know, but not the right way, yeah I mean, if I was, if my body start bust into the cabin, when you're like the, when you're in flight mode but you can't flight.
Speaker 1:You can't flight and you can't fight, or they land in another city and a lot of people get mad at you, like that guy who like kicked over. Did you see that on facebook today? Or like on socials today? It was that he was the united airlines too, I'm pretty sure, or delta. I might, I might have been, it might have been delta, but I thought it was united. This guy is, I don't know this plane. He's just like I don't I didn't read the whole story, but he's just like kicking down the seat, like backwards, like maybe someone kicked his seat like this, and then he's just like, and he's like it's like flat, it's like gurney, flat in the middle of the airplane sounds like united yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Uh, on to the next things. Okay, do we want to get into the facebook hacker suck of recent? We did mention we were going to talk about that story or, uh, other things that we don't want to forget to talk about. Oh, other things okay, uh, we had not mentioned facebook hacking is pretty common.
Speaker 2:It's annoying. We got it.
Speaker 1:We have a whole story.
Speaker 2:I found out. No, I don't do, okay, sorry.
Speaker 1:Well, we do, because I was sharing, like as it was going on, on my socials and so I kind of want to catch people up with like what exactly?
Speaker 2:Well, you got it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will. Okay, let's just go into that. So what did we learn? What to watch out for? And I did write down in here that this could segue into how our social started. Don't ask me why I did that, but I did write that down in our outline and how tiktok happened.
Speaker 1:We might go down that road. We'll see. I promised them in the last episode that we would, so there's a lot of people that might be tuning in. They're like kyla you said you're going to talk about this and you didn't. So don't let me forget. Don't blank stare at me, I'll be on with this, okay. Okay, if I miss something, jump in.
Speaker 2:We were supposed we were really excited, okay you were booked on a cool podcast, but it turned out that this guy's a scammer scammer and we fell hook line and sinker and he got into our facebook by because he booked a pre-meeting to set up the facebook live yes and so we brought him in and gave him a permission gave him permission to help stupid? Because, yes, because we thought, though, like the emails, they knocked out of the park, they looked flipping professional.
Speaker 1:I was mad that, like I've considered you like this is a compliment like a facebook hacker, like the whole time we've lived together, I'm just like you're such like that it guy they can do this and do that and do this and get in and out and all these things. So for you to be duped, I was like like what?
Speaker 2:like they didn't do anything, they just tried to like everything. Well, they tried to repost all of your videos, but then they turned on monetization. Yeah, for all of them, yeah, and then started resharing them again, and so it was really cringy because if you didn't know what was, you'd see like kyla posting an old video of bella. It was totally like cringy and untasteful.
Speaker 1:But they left their name. There was like roger something.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah maybe they couldn't get around that, but I mean regardless, if you were looking, you would see that. But I mean, no, people aren't looking at that. But really the only way we found because there was no way to fix it through facebook, but I found really there is you can get paid verification with the check mark and if you do that, you can then access like a higher level of customer service where you can actually chat to somebody and they're like oh, oh, so we finally figured that out when we realized this was happening, that our, that our page valabrave on facebook got hacked, we were like, oh no.
Speaker 1:And then so we start reaching out the facebook and they're not getting back, and they're not getting back yeah, there's no email that's going to come back.
Speaker 2:So the live chat was great. Yeah, it fixed it I think in 24 hours and everything went back to normal yeah, it was just super annoying, super frustrating and I was really excited about to.
Speaker 1:I was excited about being on this special pod yeah and then so they. So the reason why we found out is because I tagged them on my instagram. I'm like I get to be on so-and-so's podcast, yay, they dm'd me and they're like that's a scam, this has been happening to us. Sorry, we don't want you. And then I, yeah, and then I was like, oh so, then everything kind of sells down. I was like, well, they think I am. I would really like to still be on the pod, kind of would be.
Speaker 2:It was about like the focus was like mental health and it's like crickets.
Speaker 1:No, I'm sorry, we don't want you.
Speaker 2:well, they're not gonna get an invite on ours then Well, that was the weird thing.
Speaker 1:That was what really got me was in the email, where it was like the producer was reaching out and it was like we know your story and you'd be great. We want to be a guest on this pod because your connection to mental health and being a medical mom, and it was like the way they worded that email was like, oh, they know about me.
Speaker 2:Like oh, worded that email was like oh, they know about me. Like, oh, they put a lot of time into it and they didn't make a cent off of it.
Speaker 1:So that's true. They did not get anywhere with trying to make money off of their as far as we know, maybe there's still some back corner cranny anyways but it is all settled, we okay. You said the really the only way to get them to help us out was through verification, but we never ended up getting my page verified I got.
Speaker 2:No, I got mine because you got locked out through all of it, all and so. But like any personal person, like I'm not famous or anything but I just paid for like the 30 for a month to get verified. It worked, but you're verified right now for this. I canceled it already like I don't need to be, so I so I'm not paying 30 for it for a check mark. Well, no, but like I will again if I need, like, the assistance. Are you?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, no but like is there benefit to being verified though? Like should we be paying to get the facebook page verified so it has less chance of this happening again? That's what I was wondering. I'll look into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need to look into that yeah when we get back from uh, contact leslie uh sorry, like if you're a tiktok brain, tiktok brain it's really, it's so. My algorithm right now is like making fun of us TikTok brain people where we like do. If we do a famous TikTok sound, which I just did. One of those oh when we get back from New York. Contact Leslie.
Speaker 2:And it's like it's.
Speaker 1:If nobody gets it and they don't watch TikTok, then it's just like sad for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like an inside joke. Let me try it. Everyone's in on it Right, right.
Speaker 1:What about this one? I like my suitcase.
Speaker 2:No, I never go on TikTok.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry. That's painful. I like my suitcase. I go to school now. I'm a Reels guy.
Speaker 2:I, I go to school, I'm a real guy. I'll find out about it in like three months, darn it. Right, okay.
Speaker 1:All right. Okay, a couple more things before we end the show. Today I did forget to mention that, now that we are recording video with our audio, oh yeah, I'm going to have googly eyes and I want to tell her googly eye story. I'm going to have googly eyes and I want to tell her googly eye story. I'm going to change these I'm going to change these every time we record, so look for them in a different spot. I just have them here.
Speaker 1:Very simple, this is like a tiny screen I might put them on charlotte next time, you know, maybe I'll put them on the edge of your chair, maybe they'll be like on my leg, okay it's gonna be a fun little search and find.
Speaker 2:So our googly eye, if you know, bella, our dog kind of like what's that movie where in every scene the person's mole moves around?
Speaker 1:is that austin powers? Is that austin powers?
Speaker 2:I think it is yeah no, his is just really big but it moves does it right I don't know what movie that is, denny like that if it's, if it's something different, I'll put it in the show notes or something where you could just put it in like yeah a thing, yeah, I don't know, it doesn't matter, sorry so okay.
Speaker 1:So if you know our story, bell and I spent we had spent much of her life in hospital, and sometimes years at a time without coming home. And for some of those long stays there was plenty of stays where she couldn't even leave her hospital room or we couldn't leave the unit, so we'd be walking like down the hallways and that was as far as she could go. She couldn't even go outside. So I was always trying to think of things that would help, you know, make it fun for her. Oh, print, okay, wait, sorry, pause. Uh, prince of thieves. Danny said danny, oh my gosh, I just called, I have no, I, I have no idea what you're talking about. And then he said prince of themes, thieves. So sorry about that interruption there. Back to the googly eye story. You answered Eddie, I have to continue my googly eye story, so I would.
Speaker 1:I got this idea one day to place googly eye stickers around her hospital room and around the unit we were on, and I've done this at all the hospitals she's been at, so Alberta Children's and at SickKids, and at our local hospital and our Saskatchewan hospital, jim Pattison's.
Speaker 1:Oh, and our Saskatchewan hospital, jim Pattison's.
Speaker 1:So it started with us putting googly eyes in really funny places at sick kids and, like some of them were on the signs downstairs, like the exit signs, and like I wouldn't I would make sure to never put them on, like things that clearly should not have them on, like specialized science but I put them on, I hide them in little spots and she loved it and they would be like little treasure hunts every time we had to go back to the hospital or or whatnot, and we she took part and we'd find some more to hide and we've had many friends who visited the hospitals and tell us how much joy that brings them when they find them, and I was just happy that I could do that for her and happy that she found joy in it and happy that her friends are finding joy in it.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like an ongoing thing that we started and I, I, I love the. I love the memories of when bell and I would hide the googly eyes together and she would always be like mom, it's a security guard coming, or it would be like a security guard or would she call like a police officer and she's like they're gonna catch us, and so we'd always tried to be.
Speaker 1:She was a badass oh, she loved getting in trouble she was like we gotta do it, but we gotta be sneaky about it, mom, and so we'd go and we'd like hide them all and then we get really mad because in some places like sick kids I remember there's still some there but in in the common places they would get like taken down or removed and we're like come on, but alberta children's is awesome. They've littered the most we've. I mean, alberta children's is where we spent the most time in hospital.
Speaker 1:I think other people have like the what other people pitch in, but the ones that people have been sending me are the original ones. Abella and I put up, yeah, yeah, they're still there. They're not taking. It's so awesome, it's so awesome, so there's, there's tons there, and so, um, it's kind of our thing. And this blew me away. I have been. I still haven't had any prominent dreams with Bella.
Speaker 2:I haven't had I've only had one.
Speaker 1:You've had one I know I haven't had any big like flashing, like I don't know how to explain it without going off into a whole like sappy segue, but I just crave and I really want and I'm being patient. But I just crave and I really want and I'm being patient, but it's like you just want so bad to have those signs every day, all the time and I just don't think that that's, I don't. Maybe I shouldn't put so much want into that, right and realize that I'm already getting that with the people that have come up to me and talked to me and told me what bella meant to them and told me and thanked me for sharing our story.
Speaker 1:But I did have a couple incidents, incidents where, for example, when we got off the plane in vegas last week, immediately when we get off the plane we go to the washrooms and on the washroom sign, you know, a little like male figure sign googly eye just like this I was like I stood there in shock and then my friend who was leaving vegas because we were like texting on snapchat she's like, oh, I'm leaving the same time you're arriving, maybe we'll see each other at the airport she's like I'm staring at this googly eye like in shock, like bella's here, like she's here. This is the side, this is a googly eye that I haven't seen in the wild. And then she's like god and turn around, it's my friend christy.
Speaker 2:Anyways, um there was lots of bump-ins in chicago and vegas yes, not bump-ins, just people that came up to us yeah and said hey, yeah, we know you, I want. I wanted to mention that it's really awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we like that it means a lot to me because I feel like that that's a way of bella being like mom I got you, I'm here, and there was one uh girl who came up to us at the saskatoon airport and you saw her waving at me and I missed her the first time and then she came up to me and she had an ostomy, just like bella had an ostomy.
Speaker 2:Yeah I saw her above and she was like waving, trying to get her attention. I'm like hi and we didn't know her and then we bump into her later.
Speaker 1:But thankfully bump into her later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like yeah, I saw you, yeah yeah, because I didn't know her.
Speaker 1:And then so thankfully, she came up and she was like yes, I was, I was, I was the one waving, I had an ostomy and I and I she told me that she knew that Bella would absolutely love the ostomy camp, cause I, I, bella, had plans to go to the ostomy camp and this is a girl that had been there and she knew Bella would love it. And so we were talking about that for a little bit and it was just meant a lot. And and then there was the lady that worked at the airport. You guys were joking about her, you guys were joking together. She was meant there, she was explaining what her job was to us.
Speaker 2:She was like a stress relief staff.
Speaker 1:Stress relief staff.
Speaker 1:And it was really funny because she was like her job was to talk to us. And then she was just talking to us. It's like, don't you have a job to do? And you guys were kind of like making jokes. So it was really funny. But she was another person who reached out and was just like I know your story, I know who bella was, and this is what she meant to me. And then there was another lovely lady in vegas who saw me on the street the day we were leaving and she's like her daughter had followed our story for years and was like mom kyla's and kyla and lyle are in vegas right now, like, and she's like, well, if I bump into her, you know like I'll say hi, and her daughter's like, oh god, luck with that right. And then, lo and behold, she bumps into us and we got a picture and it's just really sweet did you explain at the start of this pod that we were in chicago two weekends ago?
Speaker 2:no, we didn't and then we were in vegas. So kyla's not about. She keeps saying vegas, but I think she means chicago. No, no, we were. We had quite a bit of scheduling things come up, but we'll probably talk about vegas next week and some fun things that happen there.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about vegas next week I think so stay tuned time yeah, I don't know what we're at for time did denny text you uh no, we're doing, we're doing okay.
Speaker 2:But I'm just, oh, the mole thing, oh, okay, so it's in the movie robin hood, prince of thieves, alan rickman remember, from harry potter. Yes, it was it. Rest in. Rest in peace. He had a continuity error where his mole moved from one place to a different place in different scene. It was an accident. So then in, uh, robin hood, men in tights, uh, richard lewis rest in peace played the same character, but they made fun of it and made a small moving around in like every scene that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I'm so happy we figured that out so your eyes could?
Speaker 2:the google eyes can be a continuity error. That's. It wasn't intentional. I don't know how they got over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so funny do you want to tell everyone about uh saskatoon yes, okay, I'm just getting on to, and denny said we're like an hour plus right now, so we're doing good, we're doing good, uh, okay, so we don't want you to. By the time this episode comes out, it's going to be the monday before bella's ball, and I have my friend, jen draper from embers productions, uh in saskatoon, who kindly and thoughtfully and generously created Bella's Ball in honor of Bella to celebrate her birthday. That's coming up. Her birthday is December 6. And so she will be 11 in heaven.
Speaker 1:Oh, so much of my heart loves that for her, like that's just, it's just beautiful. And jen, who is an event planner. She created bella's ball in honor of bella and to celebrate her birthday and this is going to be super fun. So we wanted to remind you all that it's coming up for december. It's sunday, december 8th, at tcu place in saskatoon. There's going to be princesses, there's going to be superheroes, bouncy castles, face painting and so much more. There's also going to be a brunch and if you go to her page on embersproductionsgen on Instagram, she's got tickets on there. Tickets I believe are on sale till December 1st on there. Uh, tickets I believe are on sale till december 1st. And all she's encouraging people to bring uh new gifts that are going to be delivered in bella's name to rmhc afterwards for for christmas, and all proceeds, or a portion of proceeds, from this event are going to go to rmhc and pattison children's Hospital in Saskatoon.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so that'll be December 8th and there is different ticket options, so you can either get a ticket for the ball with brunch or without brunch. And if you talk to Jen, if you message her Scotty's back, if you message my friend jen on her on her instagram page uh, she is making it. I want to word this right, but she has people offering to sponsor tickets for people that can't medical families or people that just don't have the money but really would like to be there. Uh, she, you can talk to her about, um, getting a sponsored ticket, and there's also giveaways too oh right on uh, yeah so.
Speaker 2:So how do we get tickets again? Sorry message go on her instagram or we can put it in the show notes. Probably too we can put in the show notes yeah or amberproductionsgen on instagram oh, perfect, I'm excited because I think I was a little bit nervous and like, oh, how do we, how do we do our first birthday? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, I don't like her birthday's on the friday.
Speaker 2:We still don't really be tough, but I just I'm happy that she's taking care of honoring her in a way, giving us, yeah, that that and we can take friday, her actual birthday, to just be like we. I don't, maybe we can go to go see her gravesite, but we don't. There's not an obligation, like we don't have to rack our brains like what are we doing this right or we're not? We just, yeah, we can just be. I really relax, yeah, I just don't know, yeah I am.
Speaker 1:When jen did this for me and she reached out to me with this, I instantly felt a weight lifted that to have a friend honor her for specifically her birthday in such a way that I just would.
Speaker 2:It's perfect, it's so perfect it's christmas time, it's about giving.
Speaker 1:It's about yeah, bell it's what bella would want it's come and have fun and give to the charities that matter the most to me in the hospital. That's helped me, that is everything. And for jen to be able to put that together for her and us and just to have it all done. We don't have to worry, we don't have to plan nothing, it's just all done and it's meaningful and I'm just so thankful for that. And, jen, I hope that when you hear this, lyle and Waylon and I give you a big thank you and we love you and this is amazing and we appreciate it Because I know it's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a lot of work. When you hear this, it'll be like four or five days, so if you can come, yeah, yeah, make it days.
Speaker 1:so, if you can come, yeah, yeah, make it happen. Lots of time for you guys to come, and uh, let me just get back to my outline here make sure there's anything else in front no, I think we can. Uh, should we, should we wrap her up? And wrap her up yeah, let's wrap her up make sure to uh, like and follow us.
Speaker 2:Hit that little bell on spotify so when we drop a new pod you get alerted. And make sure to hit the five stars, because that really helps too yes, the rating of the stars is is the rating of the stars?
Speaker 1:is the rating of the stars. Uh, really helps us new podcasters. Yeah, cool. And also, if you are new to this show or you want to catch up on any other of our socials at Kyla CTs, or you can find me on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:Thank you, guys, for tuning in all the way through episode two, and don't forget to stay kind and stay brave. Why do the neighbors always do it? The neighbors are all like what is happening over there.
