Cam I Am

Well, it seems that this was inevitable..

After next school year, Riverside Elementary in Maple Ridge will no longer have a French immersion program starting September 2009…

In the last year, we (the parents of students at the school) have fought the school board (and had a temporary reprieve) on the total closure of the school..

Then there was the whole “is Riverside causing cancer in teachers and students” — something that was ultimately shown to not be the case..

But with all the bad publicity about the school only six kindergarten students registered for the French immersion program there next year..

I’m sure that this is the beginning of the end for the school entirely.. 

Our oldest daughter goes there for the FI program..  We have two other children that we, ideally, would like to put into the same program when they start school..  So what do we do?  All English?  Or start the mad search, along with every other family that we be looking for a spot for their children to continue in the program we chose for our kids..

Some people may not see any benefit to the French Immersion program..  but I don’t see any problem with providing every opportunity for my kids..

I got great news yesterday morning.   The kind of news that was so amazing, I didn’t need my morning coffee!

I now have a surgery date for my herniated disc..  May 30th!  (Yes…. it’s this year!)  As long as my date doesn’t get bumped, I will be finally getting my long-awaited back surgery in less than 4 weeks!  I have been waiting so long for a permanent solution, I simply am happy that a fix is on the way!  Yaay!

Aside from that..

My youngest brother, Andrew, is going to fly out from Winnipeg on Monday and visit for a week.  He came out less than a year ago to visit, but this time he is bringing his girlfriend, Martha.  We’ve heard all about Martha, so it will be nice to meet her.   Oh yeah..  it’ll be nice to see Andrew too! 

In the last couple days, I’ve received some news that I’ve been expecting and dreading.

First, I finally had my appointment with the neurosurgeon (that I’ve waited for 7 months) to determine that I do need back surgery, and that it should happen within the next couple months.  This is welcome news and not.  I need my back to heal, and clearly other methods have not worked.  There are risks involved, but the outcome could be very good.  I don’t have an exact date yet, but I should have that within a few days.

Second, I saw my doctor..   I’m off work again, probably for another 4-5 months.  This poses all sorts of problems such as money and plans that my wife and I have made.  I had only been back to work for 3 months after being off for six months because of my back.  The other problem is that my wife and I were planning to go on a vacation (without the kids) to Chicago.  We haven’t been on a vacation in over 10 years, so anyone could imagine our disappointment.

Other than that, I’m managing.  I’m glad that I’m off of the serious painkillers, but I haven’t found a reasonable substitute.  I’m hoping to see my doctor next week again to find something.

Please accept my apologies in advance for any poor typing or things that just don’t make sense!

I’ve had an interesting weekend, starting early Thursday morning.  I drove into Vancouver for my afternoon shift, in extreme pain because of my back.  I believe that I was swearing out loud to myself to try to relieve some of the pain I was experiencing.

When I got to work, it was very clear to everyone that I was in no shape to attempt a regular route of work, so  I was offered the easiest field task I could have possibly been offered, but after 5 minutes of driving there, I was in so much pain, I returned to the office in tears.  A couple of the supervisors lay me down and offered to call an ambulance for me, but I told them that my wife was coming.  At this point, I could barely walk, sit or stand.  I had to be helped info lying down face first.

After my wife arrived and loaded me into the car, we drove off to Burnaby General Hospital, because we were familiar with it.  After waiting 2 hours, I got a morphine shot and some tablets and was sent home.

They did virtually nothing for the pain.

So, the next morning, we went to our local hospital.  We were taken in right away, the doctor accessed me and figured that since I’m seeing the neurosurgeon for my back on Tuesday (today), that he’d prescribe my stronger pain killers, and introduce them to my through IV.

So..  now that I’m on Percocet, the pain is gone, and to a degree, my preception of time is too..

The next 3 months seem to be holding a lot of promise.

In about 2 weeks, I finally get to see the neurosurgeon about my back.  At this point, I’m fairly sure that surgery is going to be in the future for me.  It’s not exactly what I want, but in a way, I’m looking forward to whatever it takes to make the pain go away..

In early May, my youngest brother, Andrew, is coming out from New Brunswick for a visit.  He’s bringing along his girlfriend of three years now, so it will be nice to finally meet her.  Last summer, Andrew came out to visit for about a week, we did a few tourist-type things and he got to spend some time getting to know our daughters some more.   This year, he’s going to take Martha around Vancouver and visit with us only a couple of the days that he’s here.

In mid-June, Colleen and I will be going to Chicago!  That weekend, she has a conference to attend for work, but I’m tagging along for the fun of it.  We’ll probably spend a couple extra days so that we have some time together on a vacation.  I was there about 10-12 years ago with my friend Mark (the memories of conversations of sporks and alarm clocks!), but I was on the outskirts, not the downtown core.

Around the same time that we return from our trip, Mark and his family will be in town with his family.  They are going to be RV’ing across Canada and staying in town for 6-7 days.  I’ve known him for almost 20 years, so I’m sure that they’ll be plenty of stories we’ll be recounting (and our wives will probably not want to hear them again), but I’m looking forward to having our families spend some time together.  I remember Mark and I having a conversation many years ago about how we would never own a mini-van.  Now, I have two, and I believe Mark still has one.  

I think that’s all that is in the works between now and the end of June.  I really like it when family and friends visit.  I also am excited that Colleen and I get to go on a vacation without the kids.   The last vacation that we took was in 1998.. 

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..

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..

I’m a Facebook addict..  I freely admit that..  While I’ve been off work, I’ve spent more time logged into Facebook than I care to admit..

So, while I was on today, and one of my friends, John Giles,  posted an interesting link about Mac users vs. PC users.  At the end of this rant, was an interesting quote.  The author was commenting on the iTunes End User Agreement; specifically about how we are not to use iTunes to create biological or nuclear missiles..

After I laughed my ass off, I decided to check it out..  and sure enough, it does state that!  In fact, here is the actual wording:

“By using the Apple Software, you … agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture, or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.”

There it is..  I’m not allowed to make a nuclear weapon using iTunes..  That’s too bad!  I mean, that “Launch Missile” icon in it is just going to waste!   What are they thinking? I know that they are covering all the bases with endless possibilities, but still..

Something else that is bothering me is this political correctness crap.  “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holiday’s”..    We live in Canada, where we predominantly celebrate Christmas..  So say Merry Christmas!  What’s the big deal?  Are we REALLY offending anyone with wishing them a Merry Christmas?   I’m not knocking on their doors like JW’s trying to get them to convert to my beliefs!  (I’ll save my opinion on THAT issue!)..

It’s a holiday..  Yes, there is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but it’s about being with family..  it’s about giving gifts to those who you love..  it’s generally a happy time of year..  If  you don’t celebrate Christmas, that’s fine!  When someone says Merry Christmas to you, just say thanks and move on!

The political correctness pendulum has swung too far…

It’s December 10th already…  and I think that I am pretty much ready for Christmas..

On the weekend, my wife and I went to Shaw’s Annual Christmas Party.  This year it was held at Canada Place, in downtown Vancouver, with over 1900 people attending. It’s one of those events that I always look forward to.

The food was good, the live band was very good, and the wine?  Well..  let’s just say that I had my fair share…  (Okay..  I had way too much..  but I wasn’t aware that a couple people were adding more into my glass when I wasn’t looking)..    Fortunately, my wife was driving..   

The weekend before, we went to Shaw’s Annual Kids Christmas Party.  This was at Crash Crawley’s in Coquitlam (an indoor playground, for those of you who don’t know).  Breakfast was served, kids played for hours, and they even got a picture with Santa! 

At home, it appears that everything is nearly in order.  We still need a few things, but I think that will be easily handled.   We won’t be making a mad rush to the store on the 24th to buy gifts and a turkey. We’ve done most of the shopping (for gifts anyways), our Christmas cards ready to be mailed, and our tree, lights, and decorations are up..  

For a change this year, I will be cooking dinner.  Hopefully, I will not have a repeat of the last turkey dinner that I cooked a few years ago.  Dinner wasn’t ready until midnight, and our friends kids had fallen asleep waiting.. 

All things considered, this should be a great Christmas.  Ever since our first daughter was born, Christmas has been a very happy, exciting, even magical time of year.  When I was a kid, I remember how much I couldn’t wait to go see Santa at the Oshawa Centre, just to tell him what I wanted for Christmas.  I laugh about how my younger brothers and I would rountinely get busted trying to sneak down the stairs at 3AM on Christmas morning to see if Santa came..

It should be a great Christmas for us..