Sore Back

I find very little to be more frustrating than a sore back. On Sunday, I moved dirt, from a big pile into a flat area that we are going to call our garden next year. Everything went well. I had Michelle's help for the most of it and when I was done, I was tired but not to worst off for wear.
For supper that night we went out to Local Heroes on Bank to celebrate my brother-in-law's(Chris) birthday. With a large group you are usually there for a long time. With the low back wooden chair I found myself unable to get comfortable. After we had eaten, it had been 2 hours I go no longer stay there. So we went home. Popped back a couple of Advil, Michelle put A535 on my back and a hour or so later I felt loose enough to walk around again. Yesterday morning I was a bit stiff, but was alright to move around. After a day of work, by the time I got home, I could barely stand straight. I find it extremely frustrating to be in this place. I find myself unable to pick up my kids and play with them. They love to jump on me and rough around. When I am in this place I am unable to do that. I was very grateful that they understood and were compassionate, sometimes I needed to remind them, but they know that it is a time of being gentle with daddy.
Today is a new day, my back is getting looser, I am hopeful that I'll be able to play with the kids when I get home. I miss it.

Fun Week

This week looks like it will be a fun one.
I am going to make some progress at work with the stuff that I am working on. So that is exciting. I know that there is a lot to do here so I don't expect to be anywhere done in the next couple of weeks. But being able to carve out a chunk is exciting on it's own.

Halloween, is on Wednesday. Our kids are excited about partnering up with some friends kids to go trick or treating together. It should be a good time to hang out with friends and see the bunch of kids enjoying themselves together.

Thursday evening, I have a wine tasting event with a consulting company that I really want to work with. It will be an excellent time to network and connect with some old friends that I don't get to see very often. I look forward to connecting with people and possibly expanding my contracting network a little bit. Who knows, from this event my next contract may be launched.

All in all it is looking very good for this week.

Heading into the weekend

It seems like it has been a long week. Then again, it may just be because I've been particularly tired this week. We joined a gym last Thursday night. This week we started going. Our routine will be every Monday and Thursdays after the kids go to bed, we are going to go. It is an hour and a half twice a week that will hopefully help return to a more fit shape. Fridays we take the kids to the wavepool, all a part of our membership.
So Monday, after we got home and got showered, I was wired until 1:30 and I didn't get to sleep until about 2:00 AM. 6:00 came very quickly and mercilessly. Last night it wasn't as bad, I actually felt tired at 12:00. But now, I'm dragging myself.

This weekend is full to the rim. We have a lot a bunch of things that we need to finish around the yard. We have a messy garage, that I would like to clean up. We have to finish a bunch of miscellanous itmes in the pool area. Set ourselves up for winter.
We also have 2 birthday parties to go to. Combine that with the lousy forcast and it deson't fare too well to getting everything done. We will do what we can. Afterall, that is our mission, to do what we can ;-)

Crazy Times

It's been a while since I have blogged.
At the end of August I returned to normal work days. It has help with the home budget but I do miss spending the afternoon with the kids. It was easier for my father-in-law who car pools with me. That is until a few weeks ago when his hours got changed from 8-4 to 9-5. Generally, I like to work 7-3, but I accomodated my hours so that we could save gas and did more of a 7:45-3:45. I'd drop my father-in-law half an hour early and it was good all around. Picking him up at 4:00 meant we didn't get home until 5:00 (or slightly before) with the heavy traffic and having to drive through the core.
Now, I leave at 3:00 and I'm home at 3:30. Avoid the whole traffic thing, that is very nice.

Life has been busy...as usual. We found 1 free weekend in our schedule in the last 3 months and we used it to go visit my parents in New Liskeard and my sister in Timmins. So a free weekend became a busy weekend.
Last weekend we had a Fall Comedy Classic ( the first annual) at Mike and Louise. Given the time of year, they made it into a Halloween party at the same time. It was a great time.
On Sunday the only thing that Michelle and I did was work on our budget. It wasn't as painful as we thought it would be. It felt good to get that done. Then we spent the rest of the day vegging. Something that we hadn't done in a while. I watched a few movies with the kids. Michelle did a lot of reading. Truly a day of rest.
This coming weekend we have 2 b-day parties. Leigh-anne and Chris. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. That fills out the schedule quickly. Plus we want to do alot of work around the yard, the garage, finish in the pool area and look at the car. I'm going to petition to be given a third day on the weekend.

A nice treat

I've been getting up really early this week. My goal is to be at work at 6:00 AM. Work a short day and spend the afternoon with my kids. When it's nice we spend time in and around the pool, when it's not so nice we play games inside. So far I'm loving it.
Often when I wake up and get ready for work Samantha wakes up as well and she sees me off before I leave. She is an awesome presence in the morning and it is nice to see her in the morning. David is usually sound asleep and sometimes he'll sleep till 9:00 or later.
This morning as I was getting ready, he came down to see me off. It was a very nice change since I usually don't see him until I get home. He is very affectionate and likes to snuggle with me. This morning he sat on my lap giving me a big hug. It was a very nice treat, one that I know I will not get very often at 5:30 in the morning. He went back to bed after I left, hopefully he got enough sleep to be well rested.

Canada Day Weekend

We had a great time as a family this weekend. We started Saturday with some friends, Mike, Louise, Jolene and William. We drove down together to Morrisburg to visit Prehistoric World. The kids had a great time looking at all the life size dinosaur. They had their pictures taken with each of them. It was amazing to see the amount of work that has gone into the creation of these over the last many years. Mike was there over 20 years ago and he remembers many of the dinosaurs that were there then but he also noticed that there were many more. It was a great outing that really targetted the age group of our combined families (2-6 years old)
We drove back to Ottawa, stopping to pick up some cheese, honey butter and fresh pick strawberries. It was nice to be invited back to Mike and Louise's to let the kids play together. We very much enjoy Mike and Louise's company. They seem to be a good fit for us, we are at a similar place in our lives, so everything gels when we are together.

Sunday, Canada Day Pool Party!!! It was a good time. We had about 30 friends come and go. A little less than anticipated, but then again, the temperature wasn't what we were hoping for. A few degrees warmer would have been nice. A few people bravely went into the water. I found it a little chilly outside for my taste. We had a great time as a household. We got to hang out with friends and family.

Off on Monday, what a day it was to have very little to do. Spend the day entertaining the kids, again too bad the weather wasn't warm enough to jump in the pool, but we had fun nonetheless. I spent a good part of the afternoon playing Lego Star Wars on the Game Cube with Sam and David. Samantha is actually pretty good.
I had my sister and family come over for supper. They came down to camp in Cumberland to spend some time with us. It will be nice to visit with them for the next little while.

This morning reality came crashing, I had to get back to work...drag.

The move is done.

It's been over a week since we moved my in-laws in with us. It was a bit of a dsiaster area for a while. But room by room we are starting to win the battle of getting the house back to normal. Last weekend we had a yard sale to get rid of the surplus. It was amazing to see the stuff go. There was alot of nice stuff and it was nice to make a few dollars in the process. It atleast paid for the pizza Saturday evening and breakfast on Sunday morning. I figured that we deserved the break. It had been a hectic couple of months.

On the horizon,
Next weekend is our Canada Day Party on Sunday. That should be a blast. On Saturday we are going to a Dinosaur park with some friends of our. The kids are looking forward to that.
When things settle down a little, it will be time to start building my wall in the basement. When that is done, my office will be closed in and I will have a TV area. Now if I could only get rid of all my inventory that I have sitting around in the basement it would be all the better.

I look forward to spending lots of time with the kids this summer. I have a 4 day weekend every weekend starting in July ending at the end of August. It will be nice to spend extra time in the pool.

Finally, the move

Tomorrow is the day that we have been waiting for. For the last couple of months, we have been getting ready; finding a place for everything, painting, moving furniture. Tomorrow, is when it all happens. Michelle's parents are moving in, Caroline too. There will bealot of people in the house, but that's ok, there is still alot of space. It will be an intersting change to all of our lives, we will need to adjust and adapt to the new situation. We are all going to have our own little havens. My in-laws will have a sitting area in their room with a TV, so when they need to get away they'll be able to close their door and be left alone. Caroline will have her room, with her computer, she'll be able to retreat there when she needs to. She spends alot of time out. So she should be good. The main family room will be the kids tv area and where Michelle can record and watch her shows. We are also making a TV room in the basement where we can watch TV later at night and not disturb people that are trying to sleep. It has been an exciting and tiring time getting ready for this. Tomorrow, we get it done.

First Swim

I spent the better part of Saturday cleaning the pool. It was a hot day. Along with cleaning the pool I helped Michelle with a bit of yard work. I cleaned a bunch of things from the pool area.
All of this while I kept my eyes on the seemingly refreshing water so close to me. When we were done, we were hot, the kids had been bugging us about going swimming. We couldn't resist. Unfortunately, by this time the temperature had started dropping and it looked like rain was on the horizon.

That didn't matter, the kids and I were undeterred. We were going in that pool no matter what. I was the first to go in, then Samantha, then Michelle and finally David. The water felt cold, we had been working out side for a long time, it was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. David got out pretty much right away. Michelle stayed in for a few minutes but when her feet started getting cold she got out. I stayed with Sam, she was having a blast. splashing in there. Every time the water hit me, it was cold, but I knew she was having fun. After a while, seeing how much fun his sister was having, David came back in. He played for a while and then the time came for all of us to get out.
So Saturday June 2nd was the first day of swimming at our house. Hopefully, we will have a nice summer and we will be able to get some good use out of the pool.

To Vince, A big THANK YOU.

After a weekend of getting stuff done around the house. It was a treat to have Vince help us out. He was a bigger help than he could have imagined. With out him this weekend, not nearly as much would have gotten done. I just wanted to take this time and blog space to give him a sincere thank you. He's the best.

Senators are doing incredibly well

Now that they are playing in the third round, conference finals, stanley cup semi-finals. It is great to see them playing as well as they are. The Ottawa Senators looked amazing in Game 1 against the Buffalo Sabres. They were able to stop every advances that the Sabres were trying to make and they got away with a few short hand chances (BTW:Nice shot Mike Fisher)
In Game 1 it was hard to tell if it was Ottawa that looked so good or if it was Buffalo that look so bad.
Now to Game 2, Buffalo came out strong, it seemed like they had found a way to keep Ottawa against the rope as they proceed to deliver blow after blow and take the lead of 2-0 in the first period. I expected Buffalo to come out strong. Heck, I even expected them to WIN. but by the end of the second period, Buffalo didn't look so good anymore. They were being stopped by Ottawa and it got to the point where from that point on most of the game was played in the Buffalo end (Not a good thing when you want to win, but it was great for Ottawa Fans) With 5.8 seconds left in the third, Miller (goalie) on the bench, the sixth attacker out there, Buffalo tied the Game. All of us watching the game's heart stopped, we couldn't believe it.
An entire overtime period goes by, no score, but fantastic hockey. Less than 5 minutes into the next overtime period. It came to a quick end with a beautiful point shot by Joe Corvo.

Ottawa is up 2-0 in a series. That the first time in this franchise history. First time they win in overtime in a playoff. It is an exciting time to be a Sens fan
GO SENS GO

Busy Season

With my in-laws set to move in at the end of June. We have been pretty busy setting things up around our house. We have reorganized the garage, Build a platform for a shed and moved my father-in-laws shed into our backyard. Poor Wallace threw out his back in the process. We have many other projects that need to be accomplished in the near future. We need to move the Workshop out of my father-in-laws basement and into our garage, merge the one that we have in the basement (although it's a jungle in there) into the garage as well. Move the Freezers into the area that the Shop is occupying. Move Michelle's Craft and business supplies where the Freezers are now. Organize the low basement. Build wall in the high basement. Reorganize the office. Clear out Samantha's bedroom, move our room into Samantha's room. Paint our room. Clear our the guest room. All of that in the next 7 weeks.
The weekend that they "move" we want to have a pool party. Our second annual Canada Day Pool Party. I hope that things can move along faster than they have been lately.

We have all these things that have been added to our plate on top of the usual stuff that we need to do. Like keeping the house tidy, doing the yard work, maintaining the pool. It's going to be a crazy couple of months. On top of that, the Senators are having a very successful play off run. So my time gets interrupted by the games.

Now & Then

I find myself living in a tension. I love the advances in technology. The wonderful vehicles that are available out there. The great PCs, the TVs, and the myriads of toys that we can add to our collection.
At the same time I look at the state that our planet is in. We are setting ourselves on a self destruct path. Everything is manufactured for the landfill. Everything has such a short life. Nothing is built to last. That is only the only the beginning of the problem. We are so dependant on electricity, fossil fuel and other things that are ruining our planet.
We mine everywhere and everything, leaving the area desolate and useless. We as consumers have bought in to the idea that buying a cheap item to throw away when we are done with it is a good thing. We no longer value our possessions, since they are disposable.
200 years ago, we lived off the land. We needed the land, we took care of the land. The little farm that you had was all you needed to make a go at life. It's true that the treats of life were few, but what you had you appreciated, you took care of and you fixed.
In our day and age, even those living on limited budgets, have the luxuries of life. TV, computers, video games, radios. It's true that we have some people in our midst that do not benefit of these things, but as a society, we do not understand them, we blame them for their own misery.
The point being that when one of our toys break, we stick it at the curb and buy a new one. Who has ever gotten a microwave fixed? If it break, you throw it out. Why fix it when it is going to be cheaper to buy a new one.

You hear about global warming, water table being contaminated, huge mining areas that can no longer be used for anything, the ozone layer, nutritional value of food not being exactly what they used to be. Makes you wonder where everything is going.

This is where I find myself, between enjoying the toys, I know that it sounds shallow, and wanting to get back to our roots where we honored the planet and gave thanks to God for our bountiful crops, that we got by the sweat of our brow. It would take the entire infrastructure to collapse to save this planet. Nothing like facing certain doom.

Easter Sunday Brunch

My wife and I are hosting a Easter Sunday Brunch (potluck) this year. We thought it would be an interesting time to get together with friends and share our food as we remember what Christ has done for us. Since we meet on Wednesday night for our Kinship with Freedom Vineyard. We are always free on Sunday. Easter being a special Sunday, we decided to have a brunch.
Saturday, we'll be doing a bit of egg painting with the kids. Another great Easter tradition (not too sure where it started, but it is fun for the kids)
If you are going to be at home with nothing to do on Easter morning. Let me know, we'd love to have you. Just inform me off what you can bring and we'll go from there.

He is risen.

B-Day Weekend

It was nice to be surrounded by friends on Saturday in the celebrating of my birthday. We went to LoneStar which is always a good place to eat. After the meal and I was asked to stand on my chair and a special song was sung to me by the LoneStar crew. We went back to my place. It was great to see the kids enjoying themselves, 7 of them in total. It was a joyous sound. people hung around we all at a great time. We got to have some cake, man..Loblaws make good cakes. There were berries and whipcream. It was a great day. I really enjoy having people over and hanging out. That is truly me.
Sunday, we went over to Michelle's parents for dinner and an awesome Carot Cake for dessert. Talk about being spoiled.

My birthday isn't until tomorrow (3rd). I will be going to watch PPV hockey game at the Theatre. Senators vs Devils. Should be interesting to see it on the big screen.

Facebook

Michelle and I (and a bunch of other friends) discovered Facebook this week. We are really enjoying it. It puts us in touch with old friends and really promotes the development of communities. It is a very dynamic site. If you haven't been there, I encourage you to check it out. Visit me at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=527751170.

Wow. A little bit is alot

Since Michelle broke her arm it has been really busy. My personal time has been minimal. The little extra things have been building up. I have been tired, very tired since Thursday. An 8.5 hour wait at the hospital did not help get this thing to a good start. I'm still doing all the stuff that I am suppose to do, plus I have to help Michelle with all the things that she can't do with one hand.
It is very frustrating for her, plus there is the pain that she has to deal with. The pain is a lot more tolerable than it was a few days ago, she is now able to sleep through the night without having to take more painkillers.
Our lives have been turned around since Thursday. I go to work, although these days I really don't feel like looking at a computer screen and designing Crystal Report solutions. If I could be at home fulltime for the next week or so, it would go a long way in allowing me to rest proberly.

For this week this is my life. So if you see me and I look like a zombie. Don't be alarm, once I'm rested up, it will be all be good.

Michelle broke her arm.

Yesterday morning, while I was at work. I got a phone call from my wife. There was obviously something wrong, I could tell by the way she told me that I had to come home right away. She told me that she had slipped on ice and broke her arm, at least she thought it was broken. I rushed home, as much of a rush that you can do in 9:00 AM traffic going through downtown. Her mother got a ride from home and was able to get there quick and tend to her as well as she could. She managed to get David packed up and ready to go. I helped Michelle get ready for the trek to the hospital. David skipped school, instead he had a field trip to grandma's work. I dropped them off at grandma's work and brought Michelle to the Emergency at the General Hospital.
At the hospital we proceed to waiting..waiting. From room to room we waited. We were sent to the X-ray lab. We waited there. We return to the emergency, we waited there. We were given a room in the Emergency area. That is where we waited the longest. We saw a med student, then a doctor, then a nurse. The nurse brough pain killers for Michelle. After being in the room for 3 hours, I enquired about some progress. The girl told me that I have to wait in the room. I told her that we had been doing that for 3 hours. She then told me that she would send the nurse.
An hour and half went by an no nurse came by.
Then all of a sudden the plaster doctor came by and told us that no one told him that we were waiting. He was very apologetic. He quickly set the bone in it's place, put the cast on, then set us to have another X-ray. After the x-ray we were walking back to the Emergency room, we saw him in the hallway. He took the slip and told us he would meet us in out room. A few minutes later, he shows up with prescription for pain killers, a slip to book an appoinment a week from now and he told us that all was good and we could go home. We waited 8.5 hours for something that took half an hour.
never the less we were just glad to be leaving. We were quite hungry so we stopped at Local Heroes, had a quick bite and went to pick up the kids at Michelle's parents. The kids were glad to see that mommy was doing fine, they can't wait to write on her cast now.
A few weeks and Michelle should be back to normal. I am just glad that she is ok and that it was a "good break" as the doctors put it.

March Break Trip

Since the kids were off for March Break. I took a Thursday and Friday off, to give a long weekend, and we went up north to visit the family. We spent a few days at my parent's. Hung out with my baby sister and her guy. It was great to see Samantha using her French to communicate with my parents. David still has difficulties in that department. His most common responses are "What does that mean" or "I don't understand French". In due time he too will be fluent. It was a great time to relax with the family. I really like being up there. Every visit leaves me pondering ways to make a living in the quiet community.
Saturday, we had lunch back up the Jeep and drove to Timmins. The first time we'd been there as a family. It was interesting to trek into Shania Land. Everywhere you go there is a Shrine to the Country singer. They are very proud of her there. My sister, the oldest of the 2, moved her family there last September. I had been there with her to look at the house when they bought. But the rest of the family had not. It was a long drive. 2.5 hours north of New Liskeard. The furtest we had ever been with the family. I had worked in Timmins for a summer when I was 18. Being there brought back alot of memories.
My niece (14) is really not happy about being there. She just entered high school and feels that she is being plucked away from her friends. Time will play out and she will realize that it was a good move. My brother-in-law had been working there for over a year before the family moved as well. For a while he was travelling back every weekend, renting a little bachelor apartment. I was hard on everybody to be away so much of the time.
I think that my sister did the right thing by moving there. I just wish that it would have been somewhere closer to Ottawa. But you got go where the work is I guess. My sister sacrificed a satisfying job, a job she loved, to be with her husband and keep the family together.
The drive back on Sunday was long. We left Timmins at 11:00 am. Stopped for a quick lunch. They drove with the minimal potty breaks and got home at 8:00pm.
The family was good at that point. But I unload the Jeep, got back in and went to pick up Bernie (dog). That took up the better part of an hour.
Long and Tiring trip, but in the end worth it. It's good to see family.

Jeep Maintenance

I took my Jeep in for some maintenance last week. The usual oil change, tire rotation, plus I needed my serpentine belt replaced, get the passenger front window looked at (it doesn't work anymore) and get the new seat installed. I left the jeep with the mechanic for the day and went on to work.
I picked up the truck in the evening. Turns out I need a new window motor for the passenger front. That should be done soon. I was excited on getting a new seat installed. You know, one that doesn't rock back and forth.
The new seat is in. It doesn't rock. It looked like it was going to be more comfortable. But I'll let you know that it is not. I drove around a little with it and it kills my back. I was mad. Go through all this trouble to get a new seat, have it installed and now I wish I had my old broken rocking seat.
I'll see if I can get the back of my old seat onto the new seat. that should resolve any issues there. The status quo doesn't work. I guess I'm getting old and I have a bad back now. What can you do?