Cam I Am

The last 3 weeks have been busy!

I’m back to work, and enjoying it!  Yes..  I actually I’m enjoying being back!  Okay, the commute sucked this morning with Lougheed Hwy being a ice rink, but other than that, it’s all good!

It’s been hard adjusting to a regular routine, but I think that Colleen and I are starting to get the hang of it.  The kids had no problems with being watched by our neighbour (who also has 3 daughters!).

Last week, I went to Lizzy’s school for a meeting to update the parents about this “possible cancer cluster”, but I’ll save that for another post..

That’s about it!  I thought that with me being back to work that I’d have more to say..  it just seems that I don’t have time to write much of anything now.. 

It’s been MAYBE a couple hours since my post about the concern of the number of cases of cancer at Riverside Elementary..

My daughter came home today with her newsletter from the school…

Here’s what it said..

“On Tuesday evening I know that many families were surprised to see that Riverside Elementary was the focus of not only our local paper but also to many news programs.”

“As outlined in the letter written by (the superintendent), “the Board is working with the BC Cancer Research Center to help develop an appropiate plan of investigation” and “the school has been tested extensively in the past using the most sophisticated methods available and in all cases no risk to the health of staff or students was ever found.”

There was more to this part of the newsletter, but those were the key things I am going to post here..

So.. to the parent who was suggesting that we pull our daughter from the school, why don’t you get out of this ”The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!” response, and actually WAIT for some actual facts.. If you over-reacted everytime that you heard or thought something was happening/going to happen you’d be hiding in a dark corner in the fetal position… Or maybe you do..

I have no intention of pulling my daughter from the school just because of speculation.  I am watching to see what happens here.. I will make an decision once I feel that I have enough facts..

A few months ago, we (the parents of children who attend Riverside Elementary) were fighting to keep our school open. 

Now, there is another concern about our school..

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After being off work for what seems to be like forever, I went back on Wednesday!   

For now, they have me doing disconnections.  This is fine with me..  Especially since I’ve now discovered how out of shape I am.  With all the walking and climbing stairs (and reaching over fences from neighbours yards, I’m a little sore.  And for once, it’s not my back that I’m complaining about.  Just sore muscles..   Over the next few weeks this should improve..

Not much has changed since I’ve left.  The office has been modified with walls in places they weren’t before, and some others missing..  But the work is the same..

That’s about it..   Oh yeah!  I better say hi to Heather B. from work!  My first day back she made a comment about reading something on my blog!  I didn’t think that anyone actually read this! 

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it appears that I am finally going to be returning to work on Wednesday, January 9th.. 

But it isn’t exactly on my terms..

A couple weeks ago, I went to see my doctor; one of the many follow up appointments regarding my back injury.  I explained to him that I needed to return to work because it won’t be long before we have no resources/options left.  (Yes, I know that “wii” went a little overboard on Christmas, but even without that, it wouldn’t be long anyways). Anyhow, at this appointment, I asked him for a note to return to work, but he said no.  He did give me a note for “work conditioning and strengthening”.  He wanted to have me do it for 3-4 weeks, but I convinced him to see how I was doing about 2 weeks into it. 

I’m sure some of you have been through this type of program.  It isn’t cheap.  I phoned around to a couple places, and the average price is $40-45 an hour.  That’s $160-180 per day..   and I’m supposed to do this 4 days a week.  Clearly, I’m not going to be able to pay for it one my own, but my doctor said that my long-term disability benefits should pay for it..

After a few days of trying to track down an answer, I got one today from BC Life/Pacific Blue Cross..  in short, they said that they “wouldn’t be likely to pay for it up front, unless it was part of a return to work strategy”.  I told the lady on the phone that I was attempting to return to work, and this was part of the plan.  Then, the lady said that “I could go now, and pay for it myself and TRY to get reimbursed later.”

I’m sorry?  I’m still waiting for the LTD Benefits to be approved.  I figured switching from Short-Term to Long-Term would have been fairly easy, but apparently not..  and where am I supposed to pull that kind of cash? 

At this point, I’ve called my doctor and arranged for a note to return to work next week.  I haven’t done anything for 5 1/2 months, and it’s going to take some time to get back into shape to properly do my job.  In the meanwhile, I’ll have a higher risk of re-injury because I haven’t gone through any sort of program to return to work..

So…  we’ll see..  I’ve wanted to return for a while now, and now that I am going to be, I am a little nervous about how I’ll do..  The last thing that I need is to hurt myself (even worse) and end up back off within a few days..  I’m going to do what I can to keep safe, but the risk is there..

Foolishly, I assumed that BC Life would have preferred to pay for a few weeks of therapy and then send me back.  Alternatively, I could stay on LTD for months still…

I’ve enjoyed staying home with my girls.  I’ve been able to spend time with them, play games with them, get Lizzy off to school, and put the younger two down for a nap..  The down side is that it doesn’t (financially) pay to stay home..  it’s too bad..  I could easily be a stay-at-home dad..

Oh well..  we’ll see how this returning to work goes..

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2008 will be a great year for you all.

I’ve been trying to find the time to write this post, but with all the activity over the holiday’s, it’s been hard to find the time just to write anything..

So I’ll put it all in one long post here! 

On Christmas Eve, we made plans to go over to my wife’s uncle (my uncle-in-law?), for brunch.  Around 9:30 in the morning, my neighbour came over and knocked on my door and asked what I was doing later that morning.  I told him of our plans, and then he said “that’s too bad.  I have an extra seat available on a one-hour flight over the Vancouver area”.  I looked at my wife, and she said that it was fine to skip out on brunch.  My friend Mark has been telling me for quite some time that if I came back to Oshawa again, he’d take me on a flight, but I haven’t been back to Ontario for years now..  This was a great opportunity for me! 

My neighbours Steve and Caroline and I drove out to the Pitt Meadows Airport (YPK)  and were introduced to the pilot.  He took us out to his Cessna 182, a little 4 seater plane.  Fortunately, it was a nice clear day, so I’d be able to see a lot! We took off and flew around the area including Pitt River, Pitt Lake,  and Stave Lake.  After that, we flew over Mission, Abbottsford, Langley, White Rock, Surrey and then back to Pitt Meadows.  I have to say I enjoyed it a lot.  The landing was a lot smoother than the commercial airlines that I have been on.    I’ve got a lot of photo’s on my Facebook Profile, but here’s a couple pictures from the trip!

This first picture is over Pitt Meadows or Maple Ridge.  I believe that those are cranberry fields below, but I’m not sure.

This next one is a picture over Stave Lake..  well..  the water level is low now.. 

The third picture is me! 

This shot is of Vancouver Island off in the distance, but I was impressed that I caught the propeller in this shot…

Next is a shot of us landing..

And last, this is a shot of my standing next to the plane.. I wish that my neighbour wasn’t talking to me as he was taking the picture!

So, that was a pretty good start to Christmas Eve..  The rest of the day was fairly typical of our family.  We had a good day together and after dinner we started a new tradition for us.

For years, I have never really liked the idea of opening a gift on Christmas Eve..  I have always thought that we should wait until Christmas morning.  But my wife had a really good idea.  She thought that every year, we should let our kids (and us) open a gift..  but they will always be new pyjamas!   This way, they would look nice for Christmas morning pictures.  So, the kids opened them up and were more excited about the PJ’s than I thought that they would be..  they put them on, and shortly after went to bed. 

Now, the part I have left out is that my in-laws had given us a gift to open on Christmas Eve as well.  For about a month, I was looking at this wrapped gift, wondering what it was.  The only clue I was given is that I would want it the night before Christmas; I would be disappointed if I opened it the next morning..

Well, I opened it after the kids went to bed..   It was a video camera!  I was very happy indeed. 

Christmas morning came and the girls opened their gift.  Considering the year that we’ve had, we did quite well!  Elisabeth was excited about the Wii that we bought her.  Another gift that seems to be a hit with all three of them was a toy vacuum cleaner.  Naturally, it doesn’t actually actually clean anything, but it makes cool noises and talks to you!

We had some friends over for dinner, and had a great day.. 

On Boxing Day, we celebrated my wife’s birthday.  Even though her birthday is on the 27th, we thought that we’d have a night where we went out with friends for dinner for her birthday, and leave the 27th for a family type of night. 

New Year’s Eve was not so exciting.  We celebrated with the kids at 9pm, watching the ball drop in New York..  after that, it was off to bed for the kids, and Colleen and I stayed up to watch TV..  Colleen was asleep by 11pm, but considering she was up since 4:30am for work, I’m impressed she made it that late.  I stayed awake (playing with the Wii!), woke her up at midnight to wish her a happy new year, and then we both went to bed..   Not very exciting, but was fun.

Yesterday, (Jan 1st!), we went to see our friend Sharie who just got home from the hospital from having a baby!  (Congratulations!)..   After a couple hours, we went to Richmond to go to a restaurant were we were invited to celebrate another friends (Socheary and Vince) baby girl.  I don’t know much about Chinese culture, but it seems that they have a big party for a baby (and parents), when they are one month old.  Either way, the 10 course meal was very good and I finally got to meet their baby girl.

So, in case I forgot to say it, congratulations to Sharie and Keith on the birth of your little girl, Taylor, and congrats to Soch and Vince on Ashley’s birth/one month celebration!

Well..  I think that is about it..