Cam I Am

So.. This year has been an exciting and tumultuous year so far.

The year started off with promise. I got to go on a trip back home to Ontario — something that hasn’t happened for 9 nine years. I visited my family and a few friends on my quick trip back.. It started off well!

Then the 2010 Winter Games were here! An exciting event that I brought the kids to see the sights downtown. We even took the kids to see a Sledge Hockey game for the Paralympics..

Sadly, this was also a turning point. The same day as the hockey game was the same day that my wife and I let our children know that we were separating. It wasn’t an easy decision, but after being together for over 12 years, it wasn’t working for us..

Shortly after I moved out. And since then, things have been a very different. I left nearly everything in the house, so I had to quickly furnish a place as inexpensively as possible. (Well.. the inexpensively part didn’t work out so well). I’ve also had to learn how to operate a household on my own. This is the first time in my life that I’ve had to be on my own. And yes.. I do suck at housekeeping! My ex and I are also still working on how to schedule the kids around our needs, and parent as a cohesive unit that live separate lives now. A challenge indeed..

I’ve met someone as well. This happened much quicker than I thought and she’s had to put up with me. I’ve been all over the map in terms of how I feel about where I am in life, dating and family. It’s been over four months since I’ve moved out and this new lady in my life has been supportive (she’s clearly a sucker for punishment!). I’ve made mistakes and I still keep trying to improve myself.

I’ve had a lot more time for myself. When I don’t have the kids and when I’m not working, I spend time with this new woman in my life (Meghan). I go geocaching, have gone camping a couple times (with another trip planned in a couple weeks), and still am full of good intentions..

So, here it is on a beautiful, sunny holiday Monday. I’m planning to take the kids to the beach today, play in the water and find seashells and some crabs.. I have no idea where life is taking me at the moment, but I’m still moving forward. Who knows where this journey will take me.

Hopefully, I’ll be blogging a lot more regularly now..

Our day started out with even better weather than the day before. We had breakfast and then headed into Brakendale to go to the area where you can view bald eagles.

It was only when we arrived that we discovered that eagles can be found there during the winter, and usually leave the area in February. We walked along the trail on the dike until we saw a bear about 300 feet ahead of us. Fortunately, there was a fence between it and us, and we started to walk the other way, but it seems that the bear knew the way around the fence, crossed the street (in front of a pedestrian), and went into the wooded area by the Easter Seals Camp. Now, the Squamish area has plenty of signs and information warning you that you are in bear country and to be aware, but we expected to see them in the campground or provincial park that we were staying in— not a busy street!

So, after bearly containing our excitement/nervousness about running into a bear (yes, I couldn’t resist the pun), we decided to go looking for an estuary that we read about. Well, either we took a wrong turn, or didn’t go far enough, we never found it. At this point, it was getting close to lunch time, so it was back to camp.

After lunch, my youngest daughter, Ainsley, and my wife wanted to have a nap, so me and two other daughters went for a walk along the Four Lakes Trail to find the other two geocaches in the park. Three hours, we completed our 7.5 kilometre walk, including going up and down a hill of about 300 feet in height. My 7-year old and 4-year old were real troopers, not complaining at all. I was truly amazed at how well they did!

The rest of the evening went well. A family had arrived at the campsite across from ours who had a couple young kids, so Megan was happy to have “friends” to play with. It was unfortunate that they arrived the night before we left, especially since they seemed nice and the kids all played well together. After we got our kids to bed, my wife and I sat by the campfire talking well into the evening.

That pretty much sums up our trip. Today was spent packing everything up this morning, heading home, and then the fantastic job of unpacking, putting things away, and 78 loads of laundry!

Today started off much better!

For once, our kids let us sleep in until 7:30! After getting up and making coffee, we made something that my daughter learned in Brownies… Barf-in-a-Bag! As gross as it sounds, it’s just eggs and mushrooms, peppers and onions in a ziploc bag. You seal the bag up (with no sir), smoosh it up, and cook it in boiling water. Very good! Afterwards, Megan and Elisabeth did the dishes. It’s nice that they are old enough to help!

After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk and search for one of the three geocaches in the park. After a short walk, we found it and I finally was able to leave a Las Vegas geocoin that I had picked up in Manning Park a couple weeks ago. We then went to have a quick look at the beach at Alice Lake (which barely qualifies as a lake — more like a big pond), and then it was time to head back to our campsite for lunch.

Within a minute of arriving at the site, one of the park operators notified us that the campfire ban that head been in place since we had arrived was now lifted. As we cheered, we prepared to make our lunch: hot dogs cooked over a fire.

After lunch, we drove into town to Walmart to pick up a couple supplies, and then drove down to Shannon Falls. We spent about an hour there taking everything in, including some ice cream, then took a drive to Brackendale.

Brackendale is the location where the annual bald eagle count is done, so we found where a viewing area is, and plan to check it out tomorrow.

Following our drive, we came back to make a spaghetti dinner, then had a campfire and made delicious, hot smores.

It was the perfect way to end the day..

It’s around 10pm of the first night of our camping trip to Alice Lake Provincial Park. It’s been two years since my family has been able to go camping, so this trip feels extra special for all of us. It’s a little bit different this time.. It’s raining today..

We haven’t done much today. We got here around 2pm, and by the time we were set up, it was 4pm.. After a quick trip into Squamish to pick up a few things we needed, we came back, cooked dinner, and then the kids (and my wife) were pretty much ready for bed. Of course, shortly after going to bed, Megan decided that she wanted up, and then Lizzy wanted to go to bed.

Hopefully, the weather improves a little for tomorrow and we’ll get a chance to do a little more exploring!

Today was the best Father’s Day I’ve had yet…

The day started off with me getting to sleep in; an amazing way to start off the day. After getting up, my wife immediately poured me a coffee with Bailey’s. Score!!!!

Once I had fully woken up, the kids and my wife gave me their cards and gifts. Afterwards, we went out for breakfast at IHOP and then on to the highly anticipated activity of the day. We were all going fishing.

Now, it’s important to understand one fact: I have never gone fishing before in my life. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that at the age of 34, that I have never been. The only time I have done something remotely like fishing was for about 5 minutes, back when I was in Boy Scouts at a camp in the Haliburton area, and that was with a fishing rod that had no bait, and I’m fairly certain the lake had nothing but minnows.

So, we drove out to Mission to Sun Valley Trout Park where they have a small pond stocked with… well, trout of course! My wife had heard of this place on the TV show “The 100 Mile Diet“, and she thought that this would be something that would be fun to do for Father’s Day. With our brand new fishing rods in hand (that we had purchased earlier this week), we started setting the kids up. Fortunately, my wife used to go fishing a fair bit when she was a kid, so she showed me and the kids what to do. We set up our middle daughters’ rod first and let her get started. She cast out once, and within about 3 minutes, she had caught one! We still hadn’t finished setting up the other two kids rods and she had caught one! We helped her out, and then got our youngest daughter set up. Five minutes later, she caught one! Once we had helped her, we got my oldest daughter ready and then me.

After about a half hour, I caught my very first fish!

I have to admit, I was very happy! My oldest daughter was determined to catch one. Sadly, after another two hours, she still hadn’t caught one and was ready to call it quits.

After we left the park, we came home. Thanks to the power of the Internet and YouTube, I learned how to clean and cook trout. I’m happy to say that dinner turned out very well, considering it was swimming around less than 6 hours prior.

That was how I spent my Father’s Day! It’s always nice to spend time with my family and this day always makes me think on how I can be an even better dad.

…that keeps on calling me.
Down the road, that’s where I’ll always be.
Every stop I make, I make a new friend,
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Back in the early 80’s, I remember watching “The Littlest Hobo” on TV.  I would look forward to it every week, wondering what Hobo would do.  It was one of those shows that my brothers and I loved watching.

A few months ago, I was watching an episode of Corner Gas where Hank thinks that Hobo came to town (yes, apparently he beleived that a 30-year old dog could exist!).  After watching this episode, I did a search on the channel guide and found the “The Littlest Hobo” is still on TV.   That’s right!  If you are up at 3:30AM (PDT) on Monday mornings, it’s on CTV-Ontario!

I decided to start recording the episodes on the PVR for my kids to watch..

And they love it!   They ask to watch the same episode over and over all week until there is a “new” one to watch.  

I’m glad that I can share something with my kids that I enjoyed as a child myself..  

Hell..  I still like watching it now…

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.. 

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’m just going to cover a bunch of things in this post..  Little things that don’t warrant a post of there own.

1)  It snowed today..  In parts of Vancouver..  In April…   What that hell is with that?  Snow and cherry blossoms don’t usually go together..

2)  It seems that Global TV has finally gotten with the program (pun intended!), and is finally going HD.  The channel line-up change on Shaw is happening this coming week, and it will be a nice addition to the line-up.  It’s very unfortunate that this is happening at the expense of several jobs that were cut a few months ago.

3)  How the hell can three kids make such a big mess in so little time.  Every time that we clean up the house, our three daughters find a way to destroy it in less than 5 minutes.

4)  I’ve noticed over the last few days since I severely reinjured my back, that I don’t seem to care about some things so much.  I usually am a fairly avid coffee drinker, but this morning is my second cup in about a week an a half.  Also, I play Scrabble on Facebook a lot, but again, today is finally the day I’ve decided to catch up on them..

That’s about it..  I’m sure that everything will correct itself within our household.  I’ve decided to try to return to work sometime next week (if my doctor allows) and I’ll do work in the office until after my surgery: I’m pretty sure that’s the only way I’ll be allowed to return to work by all parties involved.