Cam I Am

It seems that I’ve pushed myself a little too far.

In August of 2005, I was doing some wiring on the outside of a house. I was on the ladder, and I guess that I didn’t have the cam properly hooked onto the rung of the ladder and it slipped down a full rung…. with me on it.. I didn’t realize at the time that I was injured from it. In fact, it took me two months to find it. About a week after the incident, I started feeling a pinched nerve in my leg. After 6 weeks of it getting worse, I went to the doctor to find out what was wrong, when he told me about my back. I went 2 months without knowing that I had hurt myself. I thought, at the time, that I had just scared myself..

Over the last couple of years I’ve gone to physio, on and off, and have been able to manage the injury and pain for a while.  Sometimes it gets worse, but for the most part, I’ve learned how to live with the injury. 

Once again, I’ve managed to hurt myself at work, but this time, I’ll be off for a few weeks.  I’ve gone to the doctor, he checked a few things like range of motion and checked if I had numbness in my foot. The bottom line is that he told me that I had to take time off work to get better.  So, now it’s physio 3 times a week, x-rays, and a CAT Scan.  Not exactly part of my original summer plans.

The positive side is that it’s been years since I’ve had some sort of summer vacation.  Unfortunately, I can’t do very much.  I can’t stand still at all without it hurting a lot, part of my left foot is numb.. 

I guess there is no skydiving for me this summer! 

I’m happy to announce that Handset 1 has made a miraculous return!   A rescue crew was sent, deep into the bowels of “The Couch” this morning.  It appears that Mark was right, the “Couch Cushion Monster” had clutched tightly to Handset 1.

“Handset 1″ is now resting comfortably in it’s cradle.  Handset 2 and 3 are relieved and happy to be reunited! 

Recently, I’ve been thinking about my daily activities.  It seems that I don’t do much to help around the house.  And I have to say, I’m not proud that I leave the majority of housework for my wife to do.  But where am I going wrong?

Here’s my typical day:

I get up in the morning, get ready for work, drive for up to 45-75 minutes to get to the office.  I spend the day going to various customers’ homes,  seemingly in a good mood, completing whatever the work order says.  During the day I’m thinking about things that I need to do once I get home.  Once I’m done work, I spend another 45-75 minutes to come home, have dinner, put the kids to bed and then relax.  And that’s it!  I have to be honest, despite my good intentions, I don’t help out around the house much at all.

I know that my wife is at home with our 3 kids all day, and it’s hard for her to watch them all, keep them out of trouble, and get a lot done around the house.  I try and give her a break on my days off, and I assure you, it isn’t easy.

But why don’t I make it more of a priority when I get home?  I always say that I’m tired, but so is Colleen.  Why do I “expect” that she’ll get everything done..

So, it’s time for me to re-evaluate how I do things.  I spend a lot of time, not doing anything.  How am I helping around the house if I “expect” Colleen to do it all?  Don’t get me wrong!  I don’t come home, and saying to her, “Why aren’t the dishes done?”  I have NEVER set some “list” of things I expect done.  The truth is, I’m very understanding that it’s hard with a 5 year old, 2 year old and 8 month old.  I don’t expect anything to be done, and yet, I don’t help much.

To be honest, I’m not proud that I leave so much for Colleen..

So, this is my public announcement.  I’m going to do my fair share around the house.  Maybe now that I am admitting it for everyone to see, I’ll help more..  Because my wife and kids deserve more.

MISSING:

 One cordless phone:  Silver in colour, answers to the name of “Handset 1″.  Handset 1 has been missing for 2 weeks, it is desparately missed by family members “Handset 2″ and “Handset 3″.

Please respond if you find it!

Here is a picture of the family member, Handset 3:

A friend of mine sent this to me a few days ago.. 

 That branch would have been sooooo hard to move! 

This past weekend, my wife, kids and I went camping at Cultus Lake.  Our friends Cathy and Gord, and their two boys drove down from Penticton to spend the weekend camping with us as well.

When I originally reserved the campsite in May, I was told that as long as I phoned back within 2 weeks of the reservation, I could arrange to have our campsites together with Cathy and Gords.  However, when I phoned back in early July, I was told that would not be possible to arrange, because this campsite “does not allow for special requests”.

We were a little choked at this, but I thought that I’d try again upon arrival.  When we drove up the the gatehouse of the campgrounds, the attendant informed me that they could have made those arrangements, if they had known in advance.

So, we dealt with the fact that we weren’t going to be side by side.   They were within a 5 minute walk from us, but the idea was that when we put the kids to bed, we would all sit around the campfire.   Instead, after the kids were attempting to sleep, Cathy would come to our site to chat with Colleen, and I would go over to Gord’s site to build a big campfire, and talk. 

The kids all seemed to have a great time, especially with us having Megan’s 2nd birthday party while camping.  I don’t know exactly what my problem was, but I was in a mood for most of the weekend.  I was miserable to be around; I freely admit that.  Maybe it was I was getting a little stressed out, because every time I turned around, the kids were:

• running into the road,
• getting too close to the campfire,
• beating each other up (Megan is the worst for that!),
• firing plastic balls up the tailpipe of our van,
• running into/climbing on the tent,

Or maybe I should just lighten up.  They are kids after all! 

I remember when I was a kid, or even in my early 20’s, I’d go camping.  Many times, Mark and I would hook up his trailer and go for a couple of days.  Now, camping just seems like I lot of work.. 

In the end, I suppose that the camping trip wasn’t so bad..  I did get to relax a little..  and as long as my 3 girls remember these carefree times that they have, and the fun they had camping, then it’s worth it..  I just need to relax a little….

For pictures of the camping trip, just click here!  (Sorry..  link is broken right now.  I’ll get it fixed sometime in the next week – Oct 11/07.)

Well, the last couple weeks have been busy…

First, my wife, kids and I all got sick with the flu on the weekend of July 1st.  I ended up missing out on a BBQ at work (which I’m told was very good!).   Once we recovered from being sick, we decided to start redecorating our dining room.   We haven’t finishit it yet, but these are some before and during pictures.

The following weekend, we went up to Penticton.  The kids had a blast visiting Grandma and going to the beach and water park.

This weekend, we are going camping.