Eric Bailey's

I don't have any details. I can't say when or how. There is still a lot to be worked out, but we are moving to Kenora. Erica was offered a job in Kenora with the Catholic School board. I will be taking a course in Winnipeg at some point after this move. Ask questions if you want, as we know more we will post more.

I am on the bus again this week. I am driving bus for a summer day camp in town here. Liam went to this camp for a week and I bid on that week but it didn't work out and so I received this as my week of charter work on the bus. I should be ready for school then in two weeks. I also have the same bus run as I had last year, so some of the kids will be happy (others might not be).

Football started this past Sunday and we lost our first game. The season actually started a week ago but we had to post-pone our first game because the other team had some issues. Anyway, the game was okay, we could have done some things better, we could have done some things much better, but it wasn't too bad. I scored our two touchdowns, and caught some other passes. I did drop one, a hard catch, but one I thought I had made until the ball came out at the last second. It was the first time we played with our new Quarterback and the first time in a long while that he has thrown. There were a few kinks to work out but all in all it went okay.

Tomorrow we are expecting Bill and Wendy back from Africa and then the next day our guest speaker for Family Camp arrives in town. This is going to be a busy week. I have already done some work for Erica's company which earned me chineese food (yum). The car is in the shop getting the bearings fixed. Lots happening.

I seem to remember a jingle that had those words in it (to the tune of "Let's Go To The Hop"). We took the boys to the CLE for rides and all kinds of other events that they have at the fair. It is held at the Canadian Lakehead Exabition grounds, so it is called the CLE. For some odd reason I keep calling it the Ex.

We got there and met up with another family from our church. Haaken discovered that he is now too big for some of the kiddie rides. It didn't bother him (I felt bad) but to make sure that he was having fun I sent him with the other family's older child to find a few rides. They enjoyed that (I think that my son is more adventurous when it comes to rides so he may have liked it more).

Meanwhile, Liam and his "fiancee" were going on a number of the kiddie rides together. He enjoyed those but was also anxious to get to some of the bigger rides.

Erica, Erin and Kristian caught up with us (they came later than us) and we proceeded on towards some other rides that my boys would both like and Erica went with them on the rides. I really like seeing the sheer joy on Haaken's face as he spins past me on some insane ride.

I went off to cover the phones at Erica's work (an emergency came up) while Erica (who had the wrist band for rides) stayed with the kids. They ate at the fair and saw a few shows before heading back to the rides. Liam even got his face painted (you will never guess what kind of painting he had done!).

After I got back, there was a made scramble to get the last few rides in before the wristbands expired. Liam and Haaken were going on different big rides without their mom! They had fun.

I think everyone got a little bit red, Erica suffering the worst of it. I was protected by all those golf games I played earlier this year. Liam's face was very red, oh yeah, I mentioned the face painting already.

The boys also learned this year about the "easy come easy go" of money at the CLE games. Liam wanted to win a scooter and so he got his $5 and bought two throws (they gave a three extra ones). He got nothing for his money and was very sad. I helped Haaken at a game and he won two pencils, I think he liked his prize. Earlier in the day the friend who had taken Haaken on a couple of rides played a couple different games and gave the boys each a toy.

I remember losing so much money at the carnival and one time even losing my bus money and walking home. I still feel like playing those games and trying to win some of the big prizes but I don't. I don't like to even think about playing as I pass by the booths. It is almost like a gambling addiction. There have been a couple of times when someone else has asked me to play for them, and I have done it, but I resist the temptation to pay money for these games. It is hard, but I don't think I would like the results.

It is kind of funny, I took a week off golfing and I ended up not blogging last week either. My shoulder has been kind of sore and the couple of mornings I could have gone, I woke up and just didn't feel up to moving that arm. I did not play hockey this last week either. So on Sunday when I went to play football, I thought I should be feeling better, and I didn't notice my arm as much (if I catch the ball one direction I notice a little). Then on Monday when we were at the beach, I was playing catch with my little boy and I extended my arm to catch one of my son's throws. It hurt. I guess it is not as healed as I was hoping it would be. In the evening I had a couple of sneezing fits that left my arm tingling. This morning I had a couple of sneezes but my arm felt alright, no tingle. All that tells me I should go back to bed.

It is looking like we might have a couple day family trip to Kenora as our big summer trip. I'll tell more later. If we go, maybe we'll even get some pictures.

Our football season starts next week. We have mostly the same roster with a few interesting additions. We have changed quarterbacks from last year (unfortunately for me, the guy that we had before would throw me the ball a lot). Hopefully I can start catching well again and earn this qb's confidence. My biggest hope is that we can put together some wins and improve better than last year. The past couple of years we have been hovering around the 500 mark and we would like to become more of a contended with the big teams (especially since the league is smaller this year).

Family Camp is coming up fast and we have put plans in place for it. Hopefully it will all come together. We will have a lot of Whitfields at this, and hopefully many of our church who haven't been around during the summer. We will have the teenagers running some programs with the kids during our lessons times for the adults. The lessons will be more on the encouraging side than the strictly planning we did last year. Hope we get a good group and that we can all draw energy off of the togetherness so that the fall kicks off well.