Cam I Am

In a few days, I’ll be going back to Ontario to visit my family and friends. It’s been over nine years since I’ve been back to Oshawa, and I’ve heard that it’s changed a lot… Some for the better, some for the worse.

I’m looking forward to seeing my brothers and parents. I last saw my youngest brother, Andrew, about 18 months ago. But I haven’t seen my other brother and mother for over 5 years, and my father since 2001.

There are a couple of friends I’m looking forward to catching up with too. Also, it’ll be nice to do a little geocaching on my trip.

I’m ready for a short break from work, the kids, and life… Even for only a few days. Hopefully, I’ll feel a little refreshed and able to focus on my goals for 2010…

Happy New Year, everyone…

Well, here it is..   the end of September..

The last couple of months have really gone by fast.  Tomorrow is my last day working in Abbotsford, then it’s back to Vancouver.  I’ve got mixed feelings about returning to my usual routine at VTOC..  I’ve enjoyed working out in the valley (not to mention the easier commute and the cheaper gas!)..  But all good things must come to an end..

A couple weeks ago, I hosted a “thank-you” BBQ for all our friends that helped us out over the last year or so..  I’m glad to say that everyone made it, and we all had a good time.   We made chicken and steak shish-kabobs, grilled salmon, and grilled caesar salad.

Grilled caesar salad?  Yup..  When I throw a BBQ, I throw everything on the grill..  even the lettuce for the salad! 

The Thanksgiving weekend is coming up in a couple weeks, and we’ll be making our annual trip up to the in-laws place for the weekend.   It’ll be nice to go away for a weekend with the kids and my wife, especially since we didn’t get a chance to this past summer.. 

That’s about all!  Well..  aside from the Sasquatch Research that is!   On my way home from work today, I passed by a green jeep in Mission, with a sign on the side that simply read “Sasquatch Research” and a local phone number..  I found this amusing (which I’m sure that Mark is the only other person who will also see the humour in me pointing it out!).  Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get a shot of it..  Oh well..  I’ll be on the lookout for it again..    It’s not as amusing as “Ho-mart”, but still funny.. 

The last couple of weeks have been going well for me..

I’ve been feeling pretty good.  The physio sessions that I’ve been going to seem to be helping me improve on my flexibility.  I am very impressed with how much better I feel than before the surgery. With any luck, I’m hoping that I will return to work by the end of the month. 

My friends Mark and Christie and their two kids continued on with their RV trip, but not before having dinner at out place one evening.  It’s always nice to catch up with old friends, and this was no exception!  Mark and I went out for a little while so that I could show him around Maple Ridge, and we entertained the idea of checking out the campground that is directly across the river from our place (in Langley), but we didn’t like the wait for the Albion Ferry.  It seems that they may take another RV trip across the country again. 

Canada Day was low key..  All the kids got sick with the flu, but I did manage to go to a very small party at my friend Syd’s place.  BBQ salmon and “red and white” cake..  A very good dinner, and a really nice evening.  Since I am not working right now, getting out and having adult conversation is nice, and I’ll take it when I can get it!

That’s about it.   Just a bunch of little things to say; none of them worth a post of their own!  The kids are over their flu, but my wife has it now.  I haven’t caught it..  yet..

The last few days have been eventful!

First, Colleen went on a business trip to Chicago.  She had a great time!  She went to the House of Blues (twice!), a White Sox Game, and countless other attractions!  I got to see a good portion of her trip in the 276  pictures that she took! 

On Monday, my friends Mark and Christie finally arrived in town on their 30 day cross-country RV trip.  They’ll be staying in Vancouver for 6-7 days before going down through the states, so it will be a short visit with them.  We haven’t seen Mark since my wedding, but we talk frequently.  (Gotta love text messaging!).  We went to visit them at the campground that they are staying at in North Vancouver and had dinner and took the kids for a swim.  We’re planning to see them a couple times before they move on!

Yesterday I had my first follow-up appointment, since my surgery, with the neurosurgeon.  He tested my range of motion, checked the scar from the incision, and then said that I seemed to be healing well.  I asked him a few questions about some discomfort that I’ve felt in my back and leg and was relieved to hear that it is very normal to have that.

Today I started physio.  Just starting off with stretches and a some basic core muscle exercises, but I’m hoping to progress quickly..   Ideally, I should be able to return to work within 4-6 weeks! 

That’s about all for now.. 

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.. 

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..

The last few days have been busy..

First of all, my wife threw me a surprise birthday party..  I had figured out that she had been planning a party for me, but I was wrong about the day she planned it for..  and the 80’s theme was certainly a surprise.  It was a lot of fun, even with the costume she had picked out for me..    It was definately a nice surprise.

On my actual birthday (Monday), the day was fairly low-key.  My wife went to work, and I was home with the kids.  That night, we had a nice dinner, a birthday cake, and a nice quiet family night.  With one expection..

Colleen had scheduled an appointment for me to see a doctor about the potential of getting laser treatment for my back.  I went and talked to the doctor, but I was still unconvinced that this is a realistic avenue to take for me to get better.  I’ve decided to hold off until Wednesday to see how my consult for the cortisone shot goes.  We’ll see from there.. 

The title of the post is by no means an understatement..

Things are not going well at all..  It seems that I have to wait for appointments to do anything with my back.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t see a neurosurgeon until April 2008…  But there was still hope!  I was supposed to be getting a Cortisone shot sometime by the end of October!

Apparently not….  I got the call for the appointment today.  I was informed that it will be just for a consult about the shot.  Guess what!? The consult appointment isn’t until December 5th of this year..

So, what’s my problem??

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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.)