Eric Bailey's

Sleep

2012-01-11T02:21:00.001-05:00

Something changed over Christmas. Sleep in not happening like it used to. I find it difficult. I am tired but I miss my waking free time. I was good before. I valued sleep. I need to find that discipline, that desire to stabilize again.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T01:15:00.001-05:00

It's Christmas Eve, we did our presents yesterday night in Kenora and the stocking this morning before we left. Liam expressed disappointment to me over the things he got (or didn't get). We have nothing else to give tomorrow as we save up for an amazing spring break. Oh and we are traveling this Christmas (which is why we did gifts early) and did not save up for it. Money is tight. Haaken got an electric guitar which was a big item (but it was severely on sale so I heard) and this has made things more difficult for the little brother. One is happy the other is not.

Arriving in Regina, Liam claims a spot to sleep and then I have to move him because of space. He is having a rough holiday. Hopefully I can do something that will make it a happy memory on this trip.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Psychopath?

2011-12-13T23:17:00.001-05:00

Ever been accused by someone close?

Crossing the Wasteland

2011-11-23T22:47:00.001-05:00

Covert depression is changed to overt depression by stripping away the addictions and other negative coping methods. Overt depression is transformed into grief over for what was lost. Grief leads to healing as the self hatred is released and empathy for the wounded part of self grows.

The healing process described by Terrence Real.

Invincible

2011-11-20T18:59:00.001-05:00

It's a trap. A lie. A myth that has been handed men when we are little boys. "Toughen up", "Don't cry", "Act like a man". We convinced ourselves that we are strong enough, that we are invulnerable. The great fear, the panic under the surface of the calm is that one day people will discover the truth. We can be hurt. We can falter. We do fail. No one is invincible.

Getting connected

2011-11-18T23:25:00.001-05:00

It appears that I can make posts from my phone now. I may start to blog more frequently again.

Looking a head

2011-11-16T22:12:00.002-05:00

This is complicated time. I am having a good time learning to be an MFT. I find I am good at some parts and learning other parts. However I do not get to do a lot of this counselling as I am busy doing other jobs and other opportunities. I find work, I try to problem solve to make the job work and I try to train people who help those working the jobs. It is a good job and I am treated fairly well but I really want to be doing more things, I want to be doing counselling. I have two more years of Practicum and I have three small classes to finish (they will not take much time). I was told of people looking for a Christian counsellor in town. I'd like to volunteer but I do not have the insurance to be a counsellor. From everything I have heard I could be doing this right now in Ontario except that I need to figure out and understand the insurance.

Last Saturday I was at an MFT conference in Toronto. It was a great experience. I really enjoy conferences. I'd like to see more of how this person works with people and I am studying the book (I Don't Want To Talk About It) right now to really get a grasp of the theory. The idea of being able to work specifically with men to help them in their lives and in the their marriages sounds like something I'd like to do. I am definitely believing the building blocks of his theory. Maybe I'll write some more about it as I figure out how to understand it better.

Tuesday's Class

2009-10-07T20:30:00.002-04:00

I hesitate to write things that I don't talk about and since I don't talk about much, there often is not much to write about. On Monday my class which could be best described as "The journey of Adulthood" looked at attachment theory. I missed the first bit of class because they had to start early but I did some reading (I'll get to the other reading in a moment) and in class at the point I was there we bashed some of the assumptions of attachment theory. One such bash was it has no place in it for my older son. Then on Tuesday (again readings relating to attachment) in my child and adolescent in therapy class we looked at attachment. The teacher talked some, but then shared some visual tools she uses, and gave us the website to find these tools. Then she showed us a video. I was doing well until at the end of class she shared her own reaction to one of the three families being treated through the lens of attachment theory. She delved a little into why she reacted so strongly to one aspect of the film. Then she asked us to consider what we reacted to and think about why. I went from comfortably cruising through another class to lost in thought. I got my stuff together and as I was helping take down the room I used the opportunity presented to share with the teacher only that her sharing made me think about what I reacted to and I realized it was my garbage, not the parents failings I was reacting too. I did not delve deeply into it. She inquired if I had someone to talk to about this, and I answered that I did, but it might take a couple days to get together with how hectic my schedule is.

I saw in this video parents dealing with 1-3 year olds who would not sleep for them. I saw moms and dads entering the babies room, laying the baby back down in it's crib and setting the stuffed animals around the baby. All I wanted the parents to do was the pick up the baby, if not that, hug it in the crib. Hug the baby, rub it's back, sooth it a little. They did not do this action. I wondered if they were so far past that, or if they had been coached by someone to not do that, but no explanation was given. Instead the treatment focused on the parents learning to enjoy this child in play activities and learn to read the child's actions to understand what the child is communicating. This led to less frustration and allowed both the parents and the children to be more settled at bed time and ready for sleep.

MY baggage related to holding and being held. I feel that babies need this more than then may even think but it is my baggage that I might not notice even when trying to teach others how to parent. I will meet with my friend tomorrow to talk about this and I will tell the family stories. Sadly the one I know is told in a funny way and makes light of what may have been very difficult for both a mother and a child. I wonder sometimes about what it was like in my younger years raising a child who was ill? Was I always the ill child or was that something that occurred only at a few stages in life? I am becoming convinced that my asthma and the results were a trauma that cannot be helped but has left me somethings to work out. I suspect that, no matter what Eric may say, he needs a hug, a comforting hand on the shoulder, or some other physical gesture that communicates love, comfort, or support. Sometimes these classes are not easy because they talk about me more than about others.

Visiting Toronto

2009-09-20T08:29:00.003-04:00

Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighbourhood.
Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood.
I'm taking a greyhound on the Hudson river line
I'm in a New York state of mind ...

Well, I gues this is just York (Toronto), but that is where we went for the weekend. Not well planned, not planned much ahead of time, but we threw together a get away. I took a day off work (I really appreciate that for some strange reason) and rushed to Winnipeg to catch a flight to meet up with Erica in the big city. It has been fun to not be on any kind of a schedule, but our own.

We saw two movies on Friday and had dinner with Neil and Darcy. Eamon in the morning was a disturbing little movie about a child who is in control of his family. It was interesting to examin the different behaviors of the mother and the father and the child. In the evening we went to a Gala showing of Max Manus, a World War II hero. I am not big on war movies, but this one was really good. The ending of it spoke to some of the things I have been studying in relation to post-traumatic stress syndrome. Dinner with Neil and Darcy was good as they told us about the different wedding plans that they were making. Keeping the wedding casual, but still a wedding.

Saturday we went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls. That was a great experience for me. We then talked about what other displays in the museum we would like to see and decided to head elsewhere. We found a line up for viewing another movie but we did not make it in to that showing so we had some lunch, did some shopping (did not buy much) and then headed back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

Tonight we will fly back to Winnipeg and then drive to Kenora. We will get in late and we both have to work in the morning. I also have to drive to Winnipeg on Monday and Tuesday night for my classes for this year. Back to back classes means I have to be on top of my homework and readings for these classes or I have trouble getting the assignments finished. One class has a weekly assignment based on the reading that I have to do. It is not done yet... I will try to get these things done but the teacher just email one of the readings today so I'm not sure that it will be done for Tuesday. I like vacations, but sometimes it is hard to catch up afterwards.

New Old Job

2009-09-11T17:47:00.003-04:00

So today I was finally offered a job. It turns out that this job (which I did apply for this time) was also a job that I had last year. I am doing 1-on-1 work with a child in a school. It is good work and it allows me to get to my classes in Winnipeg as well. In January there will be a problem if the job is still in existence but we will tackle that problem when the time comes.

I am going to start two classes next week. I ordered the texts for the books through the university bookstore over the internet but have not heard anything about my order since that day when I received an email letting me know that they received the order. It has now been two weeks and I do not have my books. I tried calling but just left a message that has not yet been returned. I guess I will be starting without my books. I cannot just go get them because I do not arrive in Winnipeg when the bookstore is open. Hopefully they will work with me again and help me get my books.

Those are some of the stresses that are slowly eating at me.

Motorcycle

2009-08-30T22:03:00.002-04:00

I have been getting small glimpses of a good ride here and there. I take my bike into town to run errands or I run to the store near by pick up a couple things and then take the long way home (on the highway). I would still like to do a read ride, but I think I'm running out of time this year.

My bike is very similar to the one in the picture but mine has white fairing and saddle bags and the bike itself is black.

Summer draws to an end

2009-08-26T10:22:00.003-04:00

Haaken told me this morning that the year is almost over. It is near the end of August and after that comes September, October, November and then December ... he seems to have a point. I had another job interview yesterday. I like the description of the job and I like the excitement of starting something new. The job itself is a new venture for the organization and so that too would be exciting. Unfortunately with all those positives I am definitely getting my hopes up about this job. I will know sometime near the end of the week.

I also have two leads on jobs in schools as an EA. One is the job I had last year (they are going through the whole application process right now) and another possibility that is at the high school. It would be fun to be at the same school as Haaken again even though he has now moved schools. That would also mean that Haaken, Liam, and I would be going to the same area in the mornings since Liam's school is right near the high school (high school starts in grade 7 for the separate school system here). Eventually Erica's office should be moving to that same campus and that would put everyone into that same area. We could all ride together (on the bus?!?!?).

I am registered for two classes this fall in Winnipeg and two classes in the Winter term as well. I am first on the wait list for another class in the winter term, one that I need for my certificate and for my degree. The two classes I take first are Health and Aging, and Children and Adolescence. Similar to classes I took in my undergrad degree. In the second term I take the course that is required to start the practicum courses. The other class I am registered for takes place on a couple of weekends so it does not interfere with any weekday jobs.

As the summer closes out and I get ready to go back to work of some kind, I'll continue to hope for work that I will enjoy and that I can plan around my classes.

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-07-02T13:04:00.002-04:00

Today is my mother's 75th birthday. We planned to have a surprise birthday for her by having all of us kids show up by the 2nd. As it turns out it will not be a surprise. I was hoping that at the least she would be surprised to see my older brother Neil. He arrived before me. We will arrive today after my wife attends a meeting in Vancouver.

I am contemplating different ideas for my own work for this fall. I might have a job available through the school board again. Pastor Allan is checking into what kind of coverage might be available through the church for me to start a counseling ministry. Then there is other available jobs as they come up. I need to decide soon though because I could get an interview with the school board when I return. I haven't heard from them yet so maybe I don't short list for their jobs yet. I still could receive a job offer to do the same job as last year but that would not be until closer to the fall. It is not a fun job but it is also not a terrible job. I am not sure how I would work some flexibility into that job come January because one of my classes in Jan would start at 4 instead of at 6.

I am registering for 2 classes for this fall (health and aging & child and adolescence). I have taken clases focused on these topics when I was taking my undergrad so I should have extra resources and should be good for these two. I do know that they require a lot of reading. In the winter term I plan to take Self in the Family Lab and Family Therapy Research Methods. The final term I know I will take Couple Therapy. With these courses I will be finished my Theory Certificate and only one or two courses short of the next certificate (one of which is the first practicum course). That leaves some practicum and three other credits to finish the Masters. Some days it feels so far away that I don't know if I can handle the wait.

NHL

2009-05-11T23:44:00.002-04:00

The NHL should hang their heads in disgust after Vancouver was eliminated tonight because this was one of the worst cases of refereeing I have seen. With the "new rules" that they have preacher for the past while being thrown out the window except for a couple of times (one interference call against Vancouver and one against Chicago). It was a mockery of hockey to see the cheap shots, the high sticks and yes a tonne of interference prevent Vancouver from chasing the puck in the attacking zone. It was horrible and I do not think that these refs should be paid by anyone except maybe Chicago. What a way to decide a series and deliver the knock-out punch to Canada's last team. At the end of the game with the Canucks pressing a Vancouver player gets in behind a defenceman and gets slashed at just as happened to Vancouver earlier in the game but suddenly no call! This game was decided before the puck was ever dropped. The worst of it all is that the Chicago team thinks they accomplished something, they think they deserve something for cheating and getting away with it. If the game was like the previous one I would have just glumly slipped into my little depression saying I had bad luck with players falling at the wrong time, but no this was a poorly ref-ed game. It's too bad that the NHL seems to want to go back to the clutch and grab hockey of the past ("put the whistle away and let them play" - is code for not calling penalties when players break the rules). I'm not sure yet if I will be able to watch much hockey after seeing this game and being broken again. Especially without something competitive to play and use up this anger that builds when I watch clutch and grab, hack and slash hockey.

The Day After

2009-04-29T08:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday. To make it special I got to drive to Winnipeg and sit in an intense class for 3 hours and then drive back. After getting back home I sat around unable to sleep for a couple more hours. Since I am on call for work, I got called in this morning to work. I was hoping to sleep, leave early buy my books for my Tuesday night class and perhaps do some house work before I leave as well. Not going to happen. Instead I hurriedly washed some dishes this morning, took care of the dishwasher and prepared lunches. Now I am typing this because if I don't do it in the morning I won't get to it. I'm still tired. I wonder what tonight's drive will be like?

Yesterday's class was "Abuse Theory" and today's class is "Spirituality and Family Therapy". Both interesting both seem to have a lot of work to do. I'm going to have to be on my game for this semester.

I had a job interview yesterday. It sounds like the kind of job that could be a career. We will see if I get it and how it works out for me. It could work with my MFT degree that I am working towards but that may depend on how the government sees my qualifications. First I have to get the job.

Classes Start This Week

2009-04-20T08:49:00.003-04:00

Only one more week until my birthday. I will almost be old this year. I have not had either good or bad feelings about this upcoming birthday. It doesn't seem like much of anything to me. I did get a birthday present already with my trip to Vancouver and the Canucks games we attended. I guess that means I'm not getting an iphone.

My hockey team is doing great so far. If they do not let up they could be done this series in 4 games. That would be wonderful.

I've had a couple of facebook chats with an old friend that I have not seen in a long time. It is kind of cool with technology lets you connect a little.

I am working today but there is no guarantee that I have work the rest of this week.

On Wednesday I have my first class for this third term. This is Spirituality and Family Therapy. I should do well at this course. It may challenge me in how to handle people of other religions while counseling but I suspect it is a course I could also teach.

Daily Grind

2009-04-16T08:55:00.003-04:00

I have work again this morning. Not my regular job but instead I am back to subbing for other EAs right now. I'm not sure what is happening with my regular job but I found another job to apply for so I guess I'd better buy some ink for the printer. I printed my resume and cover letter and see that I forgot I needed ink.

I watched my Canucks win last night. Overall they were the better team. There were moments that looked scary and they never pulled away from the Blues but they did seem to own most of the game.

The kids have left for the bus and I'd better brush my teeth and take my medicine before I go to work. My skin is bothering me a lot. I wish I was getting my allergy shots but I have not found a way to make that work in town here. The person who was giving us our shots was the public health nurse and then she left. We have gone a couple years without now and our allergies are starting to catch up with us again. I need to do something, but I am not sure what.

Home

2009-04-13T14:16:00.002-04:00

Well we are back in Kenora. We had a wild drive back. I don't remember the whole thing but that is probably because when I wasn't driving I was sleeping. I did drive from the mountains to Regina. Then I waited and let my wife drive the next morning. We arrived in Regina at 3 am and I did not sleep until another hour or so later. I got up just a little after 9 but even I would not have been ready by 10 for going to church. Erica got up sometime after 10 and then we left by about 10:30. This gave us a good jump on that part of the trip and we arrived before dark at our house.

We had a nice visit last night and then this morning again with my in-laws. They did a number of different things around the house, including a lot of the spring cleaning things that I don't think of.

I don't start work tomorrow like I would have expected. Tomorrow I will call my boss and get the story of what is happening.

I will start classes again at the end of the month. I wish I could start doing some work now for those classes but I do not even have the text books for reading. I am going to do 3 different classes only two of them will occur in any given week (except for one week in May where all three happen. This spring might be difficult for classes and studying but from what I understand next year could be worse if I take the two classes I have already applied for. I guess that is something to worry about next year though.

Leaving Vancouver

2009-04-11T09:22:00.002-04:00

Well it is early in the morning here and I am trying to get us going to hit the road back to Kenora. We had fun seeing different sights, attending events and spending time together. It is also Easter and time to get back to family.

We had a fun time at the Leela Gilday concert last night. The openner was not as polished but a very talented Cellist. When Leela got on stage it was easy to see that she was good at being on stage. She brought a certain energy and mood. I have a better appreciation for her music after hearing her live. My wife got to meet a couple of people from Yellowknife that she would not have seen in a long while. I think she had fun.

Hopefully the car ride back can be the same kind of adventure that the car ride out was. I am not looking forward to getting back to my world yet but maybe soon it will be a little less cloudy and a little less snow.

The Second Game

2009-04-10T18:32:00.002-04:00

We did a lot more walking in these past three days than our feet or bodies are used to. We are now quite sore and sometimes we decide not to go places because we do not want to use stairs.

We went to our second hockey game. The Canucks won again. I have discovered that every game I attend wearing my orange jersey, they win. I would think that they would be inviting me back for the playoffs at least, if not to travel with them on the road.

It has been good to get away. Tonight we are going to Erica's friend's concert. She is a Juno award winning singing so it should be good. We are recovering from our afternoon at Stanley Park before we have to out again.

Tomorrow we leave and drive like crazy to get home and visit Erica's parents before they head back to Tbay. It was nice of them to watch the kids for us so we could get away and try to find the energy to finish this term. I have to start getting ready for classes again by the end of June and I am still working fulltime (sort of). Next year could bejust as hectic if not worse. Hopefully though Greg will be done high school and we will have one less worry to deal with that way. He will then be working and saving for school in the future. Maybe later I will record all our summer plans, but not just now. I need to rest to get ready for tonight and then leave early in the morning (BC early, it will probably be late everywhere else).

Vancouver the day after

2009-04-09T13:53:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a down day, in between games. Not to say we did not do anything. We decided to go to Grenville Island and check out the market area there. It was a long walk but we got there. We then walked around and looked at some different things, different shops. We went out for fish and chips and enjoyed our lunch time. On the way back we did not walk but rather hopped on a bus which brought us quite close to our hotel. Neither of us wanted to walk across the big bridge again. I am not afraid of heights but I do have a natural fear of falling when I am up high.

For supper we walked around a long time until we wound up at the bar right beside our hotel. It was a good walk though and we stopped at some interesting stores. Our bodies are feeling rather sore, especially the feet right now and tonight we walk to another hockey game. Vancouver against L.A.. If we win tonight we are that much closer to taking first in the division and hosting playoff games. I think we are off to see the library and to hang around and read for a low key day.

Vancouver Full Day 1

2009-04-08T14:13:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a fun day. We walked around in the morning until we needed to sit and rest. We had ice tea at a little shop. Part of our morning walk took us to Gas Town but most of the shops were not open yet. We came back to the hotel to rest for a little bit. I went out later and picked up some pizza for lunch. The Apple store was near by and so I visited it. I saw some interesting things but did not buy those toys.

We then went to the hockey game last night. The goalie made some great saves and the other important factor was some good bounces (even though the referee called some questionable penalties). The Canucks killed off two 5 on 3 powerplays and scored some timely goals.

All in all we had a fun night and now we are about to head out to check out the granville market.

Blogger Was Worried

2009-04-01T08:50:00.002-04:00

Blogger sent me an email sounding a little worried about whether I was still using this or not. It seemed very ... automated. I will post something later today, I think. Right now I have to finish getting ready for work (I'm an EA now).

A New House

2008-06-30T21:12:00.003-04:00

Well we are going to be in Kenora for a little while. We have purchased a house and we get possession of it at the end of July. It is more house than we ever expected and we never would have even tried to buy a house like this but things just came together for a purchase. It is a wonderful opportunity and we are packing already just itching to move into the new place.

On the down side just in time for the new I house, I will be laid off come September. We are doing things to prepare for that but it is a little disappointing and worrisome. I have applied for a new job but it is hard to be searching while I know I have this job to finish first. It is also a hard job to replace.

I was accepted as an occasional student (which is an upgrade from last year) into the Masters program this year. I get to choose classes a lot sooner than I did last year so that is good. I hope to take a lot more classes this year and while it may be a hard year it will cut down on the amount of time it will take to complete the program. I am still looking at a couple more years after this and that seems like forever to me.

Whenever I stop to think, to dwell just a little on these thoughts I notice that I do get a little tense, and I don't normally react much to stress. I guess there is a lot going on and a lot I can't do anything about right now. Life continues and hopefully things will start to sort out soon.

Thunder Bay

2008-04-15T16:46:00.002-04:00

I don't blog a lot right now. Maybe I will pick it up again. I am currently waiting to find out if I can get in to my Masters program in regular studies as opposed to the occassional status I currently have. If this happens then I will have better opportunity to pick and choose my classes over the next few years and it may allow me to finish sooner. This past year I took two classes (a 4 credit and a 1 credit course).

My job has taken me to Thunder Bay for a conference. I will then use some holiday time to stay in Thunder Bay for the weekend. I flew here on Bearskin Airlines. I hate flying, I really hate flying on small airplanes. You feel everything as you bounce around. I survived and I don't have to fly back.

Hopefully I will see Erica here before she flies off to Toronto for rest of the week.

I have an opportunity to take the training course to become an Irlens tester. This sounds like fun to me but the training costs $750 so I am trying to decide how much I am willing to commit to this while I am going to school and working for Child Care Resources. I'll have to decide soon.

We are hoping to fix up the motorcycles for this summer and do a few small trips on them. I just know I want to ride again soon. I miss it.

Hockey

2008-01-13T01:49:00.000-05:00

I finally went out and played hockey again this year. No I did not score 5 goals or anything like that. My expectations were quite a bit lower. Last year when I played a few games with these guys I was extremely frustrated trying to do things on the ice that just didn't work. I think I might have played better, probably because I was not trying as hard.

As I was driving to hockey I was thinking about what worked for me in Thunder Bay with the hockey there and why that did not work here. What I realized was that in Thunder Bay there was a group of us who all seemed to realize that we play better when we play as a team than we do when we try to play like the skilled guys that we really can't compete with on their game. We would generally try to form a line of just us and we would sometimes find our line as the stronger line, instead of the skilled line that made up the other group. We would work together and it was our intention.

I do not have that here, I do not know where the others are going, I do not know what they expect. For now I just need to play and skate, and see what happens. The other positive thing from tonight that I was not expecting is that I did not have the same trouble skating that I had last year. When I was playing I did not think about or notice my knee. I hurts right now a little, and it has been swelling a little all week (actually longer), but it did not change my skating stride while I was playing. My knee did inhibit me last year, I know I thought about what my stride should be while I was playing last year. Today I even had a hard skate to beat someone to the puck and I did it. I could not corner in the direction I wanted, as sharply as I wanted, so I passed the puck and cornered. I am happy I can skate again. I have always loved to skate and especially to get an opportunity to skate fast. Now I just have to work on my leg strength and my conditioning since I quit working out by the start of last summer.

Happy New Year

2008-01-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

I kind of missed the new year stuff already. I went to Thunder Bay for my second week of holiday and spent it recovering from an infection. I was on antibiotics all week and sleeping a lot. I did not go out much (but we still got in a number of visits with people in Thunder Bay). I did not go to the New Years Eve Party with Erica and the boys.

Christmas we spent at home, with some friends of ours (one of whom spent that week sick in bed instead of visiting). It was a fun Christmas and the boys are still playing with their presents.

I just discovered today that I got into another class for my program in Winnipeg. In February I will be traveling to Winnipeg on Mondays instead of Tuesdays as has been my regular trip. This class will be Assessing Addictions in the Family. Hopefully I will be able to continue the kinds of grades I have been getting in my last class. Right now I work on Mondays till 3:00 pm and class will start at 6:00 pm so basically I have no time to spare on Mondays. I'm not sure if we will be adjusting the schedule or not to help deal with that issue. The course is only a month so I'm not sure it is worth the effort to change.

Christmas already?

2007-12-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

I will explain why I haven't posted for a while. Currently I have been working two jobs and I am taking a course in Winnipeg. I did not realize how much I would be working or how much that would take out of me. At times I have really felt it is too much, but most of the time I have felt like it is needed. Given the way Christmas bills have piled up I once again feel like it is needed.

The class is the first as I work (slowly I guess) towards my Masters in Family and Marriage Therapy. It is a survey of different theories or approaches to family therapy. This has been such an interesting class that I have not had much trouble motivating myself to work on it (although it helps that there are weekly assignments and the major assignments are not too big either). I was worried because of the kind of marks necessary to graduate at the end of the course is not the kind of marks I normally get, but I am doing really well in this class, really well.

My main job is working with two different autistic children, teaching different things to each. It is an interesting job although I am often left with the feeling of this being the bottom rung on a ladder that we are expected to move up or to burn out. This worries me a little, as I am not trying to start a career, but not opposed to doing different kinds of work with autistic children. I'm not sure ... something about this all doesn't sit right with me. I like the job, though, don't get me wrong.

My other job is driving bus in the afternoon for whatever run needs a substitute driver. This is not particularly stressful except that I don't know the area that well yet, so I can sometimes be very lost (without going off the route).

Before this gets too long I really wanted to tell about what Haaken said the other day to Liam when he was very frustrated with his little brother, "See this six months in the hospital. See this, sudden death. Pick one."

A quick update

2007-10-22T20:24:00.000-04:00

There is not a lot happening and yet there is stuff going on all the time. I am currently working for Child Care Resources and I am still doing some bu driving (mostly in the pm and not on Tuesdays). I go to Winnipeg every Tuesday night for my class and then I drive home that night because I have to be at work the next morning. This makes for a very busy schedule for me. Luckily Greg is taking care of most of the cooking. Erica is taking care of getting the boys to their events and activities. So I am able to go to my class and hopefully to get the studying done that I need to get done.

Haaken is in swimming lessons, he loves to swim. Liam is taking Karate. Greg is taking Driver's Ed through Young Drivers. Greg also has plans to be on the honor roll at school this year. Everyone seems to be growing up (except maybe me).

I guess I need to start working on my homework for tomorrow.

Another week done

2007-10-06T10:21:00.000-04:00

Well I survived my three days on my own while job shadowing. I think for the most part the final day went well, but not everything. The important thing I discovered is that I do need to spend time building up my relationship with the student still so that he will listen to me more. It will come over time.

I also drove bus on Thursday and Friday. They were very short-handed so they called me and asked if I could help. The funny thing is that the route I did in the afternoon (I cannot drive in the morning) was the route that I started with this year before I quit. Some of the kids recognized me so that I could notice, others did not react ('cause you gotta look cool) so I don't know how recognized I was. The only problem is that it hurts my knee to drive school bus. My knee is stiffer but hopefully it will work out before next week. I drive again next Thursday and Friday.

This Saturday is the start of hockey for me (we'll see if I go tonight, Erica is just getting home today). Sunday I am preaching along with another guy, we are each doing a small sermon (which is the normal length for me) touching on Thanksgiving while centering on the Lord's Supper. He does his sermon and then passes the bread, then I do my sermon and then the cup. We are meeting today to discuss what we have and how things will flow. Should be interesting.

My class is going well for now, but the only assignments I have had so far have been ones that needed to be turned in to get full marks. We are now starting on some assignments that content and style also matter. I am not sure how I am doing, I don't feel lost like some people are talking about, but I do feel like we haven't gone particularly deep yet. We studied Solution-Focused Therapy last week and pretty much everyone was opposed to it. It was seen as simplistic and does not pay enough attention to the client and where they are coming from, it does not delve deep into their lives and dissect their past to understand them better. I found some if it really interesting and true. We spend too much time sometimes focused on the problem and not enough time focused on ways that we have succeeded in life. The basic gist of Solution-Focused Therapy is that you choose to focus on the problem times and not look at the times you succeeded over the problems. You have the skills to overcome already, it is just a matter of looking at the times you have succeeded and learning from them. In one sense it is choosing to put together the strings of successes in your life instead of focusing on the strings of failure like we usually do. Getting to the right questions and leading the client successfully into owning the solution is why you need training and perhaps why people have reacted so negatively against it.

I'd better get back to cleaning and get the boys working before Erica gets back.

Pairing

2007-10-05T09:01:00.000-04:00

Pairing is the official term where you make the kid like you and want to hang out with you. I thought I had done well already, we had a fairly fun Wednesday but then come Thursday, he did not want to enter the room and was given a choice (I was the lesser of the two evils). We had fun and I remembered that he had food that I could give him, so I tried giving him food periodically. So we will see today if he is any better with me. Next week it will be back to his routine (which was missing because I do not have the credibility with him to do much teaching yet).

This week has been hectic in part because Erica is away so I have to do both our chores. I have to take the kids to school, as a matter of fact the time to do that is now.

Big Test

2007-09-21T07:17:00.000-04:00

Today is the day of the big test. I don't know if I was worked up over this or if it is because I finally get to go home today that caused me to not be able to sleep last night. Either way, I'm up early after little sleep to write my big exam so that I can be an Instructor Therapist. I will then be qualified to work with Autistic Children.

The journey over the last two weeks to today was interesting. I have been questionning this decision of quiting my jobs to come for training and all because if I do not get 80% on this test I cannot do this job. If I fail I am out 3 jobs because I quit two to come here. I also got a phone call from another prospective job while I was here and we both decided that I did not have thetime they wanted for that other job. So I guess that is 4 jobs that are on the line today. No pressure. The journey is that yesterday after the review and studying on my own I really started to feel like I could possibly do this. I also discovered I had the highest mark on the pretest (we write the test cold the first day with no training) - 33%. I am ready to do this test now but first I need some breakfast.

I can't wait until I get home though.

-----------------
Finished in 1/2 an hour. Oddly enough I feel like I understood every question and may have only lost a couple of points, perhaps.

Thinking about my son

2007-09-18T18:38:00.000-04:00

For the past week and a bit I have been studying Autism and intensive therapy to help kids with Autism achieve in some of the basic skills that can be challenging to learn. Many of the things I've seen and been trained to do relate more to helping with academic knowledge. Things like learning to ask for things, learning how to say words, sentences or even to describe things. The off shoot of much of this is a form of social interaction. It is this that is causing me concern, the socialization. I am wondering what he does in the classroom, how he interacts with others, if there is the encouragment for his classmates to interact with him? I remember even in Thunder Bay at recess he would be invited by the other children to play with them, but he would take the opportunity to do other things. He still does not play with the other children. The only time I have seen him really interact with another person, play and make up stories with another person is when he and Liam are playing together.

I am a social person. I value being around other people, I value interacting with others, I go a little stir crazy when I do not get out. Many of my concerns and my saddness about my sons diagnosis relate to his lacking the ability and desire to socialize with others. I do not understand this side of him and I impose my own feelings on him. So again I find myself waffling back and forth on this teeter-totter of emotion about my son. Do I need to roll up my sleeves and work intensively with him (or get someone to do it) so that he can be a social being, so that he can have the tools to develop social relationships, or do I need to be relaxed about this because he sees relationships differently, and not make him conform to my world view?

Plagued by questions I cannot answer I shall do like a good boy and go back to my room, suppress and study for my big final exam.

Family

2007-09-16T14:16:00.000-04:00

So I come to a strange city that I have never been to for training for my new job. Because of transportation issues and all that, I have to stay here over one weekend. I have never been to Sudbury and have just spent this week doing training and then going back to my room for studying. On Wednesday I make a call to the local Church of Christ, just to get the answering machine so I know times of service. I had a few different thoughts as to what I might do for the weekend, but when I hear the voice on the machine, I pretty much knew I would be staying here for worship. Ed Klym is a guy I met while I was in Thunder Bay. I'm pretty sure that we are also distantly related. It was a neat chance to meet up and catch up with someone that I run into here are there over the years. The final clincher for my Sunday plan was when I attended the house-warming party that Ed invited me to (at his house). There I met some of my great-uncle Llyod's children and some of my great-uncle Bethel's children. I don't have all the names or a great grasp of who is who, but it was a nice connection to make in a city where I was at first all alone.

Today I went to worship with the group here and my great-uncle Bethel was there. After the formal worship he came up and chatted with me briefly. I had been warned that he was suffering from some memory loss and he probably would not know who I was (which even if he did not have memory problems I could understand not knowing). Instead he knew I was Cecil's grandson. That was special for me. I was expecting him to look more like Grandpa, I could see some of it in his face, but he really looked a lot like JC, my grandpa's big brother. That part I found interesting.

It was good to hear Ed give a sermon, I think I would have heard him preach once before, unless that was one of the Sunday's I was away in Thunder Bay. He spoke of an image of what the book of Mark is doing as it opens up. It starts pretty quickly with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. The image was that you could see the cross from the Jordan. The book of Mark is all about looking ahead to the cross. A great word picture for me.

Today I went out for lunch with Ed and Elaine, and on Wednesday I go to supper with Roy and Ellen (Lloyd's daughter). I'm just bursting at the seams to tell people that I've got family. Boy it is great to have that sense of belonging. I think I'm going to have to dwell on this thought more. I wonder how to give that sense of belonging to other people. People who don't have family, people who are not at home, people who are looking for a family. It makes a big difference, even when you spend the day sitting in your hotel room just studying, to know you have family, that you still belong and that you are not on your own. You can reach out if you are lonely, if you need help, if you just want to talk. There are people who accept you, who value you because you belong. There's got to be a way to bottle that idea.

Whirlwind Jobs

2007-09-10T16:11:00.000-04:00

There are different things I have thought about posting eventually but they will all have to wait as I am immersed in training for my new job which all happened so fast. I have been job searching basically since we go to Kenora. I have been working for the school bus company since last June and then I go a job at Haaken's school as a lunch hour supervisor. Life was ordered, not easy but ordered. Then this week I got a phone call from a job I applied for, and they wanted to do the interview the next day. The job offer came a few hours later with the understanding that I would fly out on Sunday to Sudbury for two weeks of training. I took the job, though it cost me my other two jobs (I really liked being at Haaken's school). It also caused another crisis. Tomorrow, is the first Tuesday that I was going to start my trips to Winnipeg for my class. I had to get a hold of the teacher and negotiate a way to participate while I am away. I will miss two classes (one each week), which is the equivilant of missing a two full weeks of classes. All that for a job that I need to pass a test for at the end of the week or it will all be in vain. I am getting nervous about it now.

I am really looking forward to getting to my first class, but that is now two weeks away. I am very into systems theory and I want to explore more of it, but now I have to wait. I can't even get my text book yet. Maybe the University here will have it? I doubt it. I guess I'll just have to learn a little patience.

Last Weekend

2007-08-30T16:19:00.000-04:00

It has almost been a week since we went away to the Family Camp that the church in Thunder Bay has every year. We made plans to make sure that we would be there to support our friends and family who are still there and trying to serve in whatever ways they find themselves. It was then during our big trip this summer that we found something special to add to the Family Camp schedule. Haaken asked to be baptized. He has talked about this before, but this is the first time that he actually went further than just discussing what the purpose of baptism is. So we talked to the minister in Thunder Bay and we set out some time over the weekend to have a baptism.

Our guest speaker was Dave McMillan and I enjoyed the sessions I attended. I helped out with the children's programming for one of the sessions. While the numbers were low, and one activity was canceled because of an emergency, the weekend as a whole was very enjoyable. The kids programs were planned rather than just babysitting or thrown together. The space between activities was restful and allowed us to film Haaken's movie "The Camp of Horror". Uncle Travis is now putting that together.

It was a good weekend and we are again missing our friends and family in Thunder Bay.

Krogsgaard Reunion

2007-08-28T11:29:00.000-04:00

We attended the Krogsgaard reunion last week (17-19). It was fun and the highlight of any Krogsgaard reunion is the singing time. Besides the formal program, many would sit around and play guitar and sing. It is amazing the abilities that exist in that family. I think that they are hoarding the guitar playing abilities. Haaken, Liam and Kristian got to ride on a horse (each individually). We did a hayride and there were other things going on. I missed out on golfing because I had a nap. It was a fun time and we enjoyed meeting many of the new family members (a distant cousin of mine is now married into the Krogsgaard clan).

The whole group

2007-08-15T12:32:00.001-04:00

The whole group
Originally uploaded by ejb

This weekend was the Bailey family reunion. It is the first of it's kind because it was organized by our generation, not our parents. Actually it was organized by Sheena Koops. As things came about, Sheena kept discovering more things to take care of for the weekend.

Some of the fun stories. On Friday night some of the cousins were camping in the Koops' backyard. The wind and rain were so hard that they actually collapsed one of the tents. A group of tired wet cousins made their way into the house leaving most of their stuff in the tent to gather later. On Saturday, I spent most of the day on the ping-pong table playing Ian, Sheena, Andrea, Michael and Victoria. I really enjoyed that, but I was not the one who stayed because I was winning games, in fact the only one who played a game against me was Michael. Ian and Sheena (I'm not sure about Andrea) would have beaten me embarrassingly if they decided to play. It was all kinds of fun to play against them all. The kids went to the beach a couple of time for swimming, and I'm sure that they enjoyed themselves. Andrea supervised most of these visits, of which I am very thankful.

I did not know it at the time, but the rash I was fighting on my arm was a result of a sensitivity to the sunlight. In simple terms the doctor told me yesterday when I finally went to see a doctor about this, that I am in fact allergic to the sun. I need to wear sunscreen, long-sleeve shirts and those kind of tricks to protect myself from that evil, shining, vengeful orb. At least now I have some super-super steroids to try and get rid of it.

Happenings

2007-08-07T02:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I though I should update this thing again. I have been thinking of posting pictures here somehow but since I am posting them on facebook and on my flickr account, everyone who wants to see pics of the trip can look them up. If you click on the ejb in the post before this one it will take you to my flickr account where I keep all my photos. I have been making facebook albums for those who use facebook.

Big preamble. The real news is that I have been driving school bus a lot this past week. I have been getting called in regularly to drive a charter here or there. I thought I had the long weekend off when I received a call Friday morning looking for a driver for Friday night and Sunday. I turned down the Sunday but agreed to be one of the two needed drivers for Friday. Then I got called back later asking if I could be on call for Monday instead of Sunday for this group. I said sure and then I learned the route on Friday when we delivered the first batch of people to the fire camp (these are summer firefighters). When I was called on Sunday about Monday's trip the firefighters changed the direction I would be traveling. Instead of being a 2-3 hour job I got a job that took almost the whole day, taking three groups (at once) to Fort Francis for their time off. It was a long trip there and a long trip back. I'm now home and wired from driving that much.

When I got home we ordered pizza and I went out and picked it up. Coming back into the house with the pizza, I twisted my good knee. I'm sure this will go away in a day or two, but if I bend the knee too much it hurts like crazy and it doesn't feel totally stable. Not a good way to end the day.

On a much happier note, I realized that I have a couple days to get everything together for the much planned and hyped family reunion. I'm not sure what the plan is there yet, from the looks of Andrew's facebook work, we do not really have a plan for the kitchen. Maybe that is why Sheena is talking about sushi, because people aren't signed up to cook (I know sushi is not just raw fish, but the joke works).

Tomorrow (since it is past midnight) I have to go up to Winnipeg to see if I can register to take a course for this term. Hopefully I don't have any trouble sleeping tonight so I can make that drive. I know that if I had to drive today it would be much tougher. Maybe now I can get some sleep since I have done all my online work.

Camping

2007-07-23T13:12:00.001-04:00

Liam putting stuff in the tent
Originally uploaded by ejb

This was the last night that we camped. It was at a free site in South Dakota. It wasn't much worse than the pay sites we stayed at, but the ground was a fair bit harder and we actually wanted to peg the tents down because of the wind. We did not succeed at pegging the tent very well, but it did not blow away either. We all woke up stiff and sore (I'm not sure that the boys ever wake up stiff and sore) and decided that we would drive all the way through back home after we viewed a couple of places in South Dakota.

In South Dakota we went to the Mammoth dig site, but did not go in (I was feeling really cheap). We did take a picture of the model in the shop. Then we went to the Crazy Horse memorial and paid to go in and learn all about it. Go to my flickr site and I should soon have picture posted of the rock face that they are carving. We did a drive by shooting of the Mount Rushmore, again feeling too cheap and too rushed to spend more time there than just taking a picture. After that we drove to Sioux Falls ate, and drove like crazy back to Canada.

I'll post more pictures and tell more stories about the trip later, The other photos are on Erica's computer because we kept running out of memory (that makes a lot of pictures). These photos on flickr are only the last two days of our vacation.

This Is L A

2007-07-12T00:48:00.000-04:00

Well we have been here for a few days. The trip down was crazy, we camped one night and then we slept in the van the second night. After our first night of camping we drove up and saw Mount St. Helens. It was interesting to see and read all that they had made out of the mountain. Funny that such a tragic thing is now a tourist attraction.

We have been to Disneyland once already. We all went on the new Pirates of the Caribean ride. It has two drops instead of just one. I do not like either drop. Greg was not impressed with the drops either, but also he didn't care for the water part of the ride. We also all went on the Haunted Mansion ride. It was better for me.

Greg has seen the specialists and he now has coloured glasses that make the world look like it looks for the rest of us. His colour is blue. It is an interesting process and I might look into how to do that kind of work at least as a side job. It is neat to see people transform just by putting tinted lenses in front of them.

It was fun. We are going again Saturday. We have been to downtown LA and we saw some interesting things. We even saw some stars. Most of the stars were sports people that we didn't know. I suggested that they should wear their jerseys to these events so that they could be recognizable. Erica pointed out someone who look a lot like Sean Penn. He was just walking around in normal clothes, not dressed up like the people attending the awards show. We didn't stop and ask him if it was him or not, but we think it was. I also think that Martin Lawrence was attending these awards, all done up in a tux and all. He had an entourage with him. I guess we could find out, but I'm not into the ESPY's. Maybe sometimes I'll do some google searches from back home and find out or not.

We only have a couple days left but it has been fun. Haaken is enjoying his film camp and is going to make a movie at the end of the week. It will then be edited and put together and then mailed to us. His first short movie.

The Island

2007-07-03T01:59:00.000-04:00

I'm back home sort of. This is the place I think of first when I think of places that I grew up. I spent time in other cities, but Victoria is stuck deep in my heart. On Sunday I preached again. I have not done that for a while. I enjoyed it and since it was one that I have used before (reworked of course) it was well delivered (for me). The interesting thing is that the church we have met with here the last couple of times has some of the people I grew up wit, but not the location I'm used to seeing. This group doesn't agree with the things the other group is doing (I do agree with what I know about - there may be other stuff I don't know?). I was a nice group who are trying to do with they think is right, but according to what I hear they are sensitive about a couple of issues that I care about (but not in the same way). I still care about the people in this small group. I would like to sometime see the other group, but I don't know when that might happen since when I'm here I go to church with my parents and I like going with my parents.

Today we had a birthday celebration for my mom. Her birthday was always the easiest to remember, as long I can keep straight which comes first, her birthday or Canada Day. We had a nice meal out, we had cake at home and we sat and enjoyed Dr. Who together. A good night all around.

Tomorrow mom is planning to come with us up Island to go see the house with the goats on the roof and the huge trees. My brother sent us on the expedition and I think we will enjoy it. This will give us something to compare to the giant Redwoods of California. Our vacation so far has been fun, even though we did camp outside one night already.

Vacation

2007-06-29T01:11:00.000-04:00

Medicine Hat today, BC tomorrow, and Victoria the next day. I like driving and getting out on the road finally. A real trip. At some point here we will end up in California and my older son will be making movies. It should be fun and we get to see Disneyland and studio tours.

New Bus

2007-06-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

I am bus driving again. I got called earlier, but missed it and so I missed out on doing that run for a couple of days. Now I have this run for 3 days. The guy who guided me on it today told me it was a high paying run. Good for that, we could use the help. The only draw back (besides going to bed earlier and getting up too early) is that we cannot take Monday off and stay in Thunder Bay an extra day. Oh well, that would have been fun but I guess coffee house will be alright with out us, even though I was preparing a number of songs that I have written myself. Maybe I'll get another run for the last couple days of school. I remember liking driving those days, but maybe others don't feel the same way as I do. My biggest fear is that since I haven't driven in a while that I am going to clip something because of how big the bus is or how it handles. If I can survive the first day, I should be alright for the next couple.

Last Night

2007-06-07T11:40:00.000-04:00

Last night Erica and I and Greg went out to a banquet at Greg's school. Greg was on of the students nominated for an award. This was a fine arts awards banquet. We enjoyed ourselves sitting at the table visiting, cracking jokes. Greg even seemed to have some fun. It was also my first time hearing Steve Bell in concert. He comment that when he looked at the program and it said Guest Speaker: Steve Bell, he was unsure what to do. He sings and talks, but not speeches. I think that he gave the crowd what they wanted as he did a mini-concert. He told some stories and a couple of jokes. During this time, Liam went to a friends house and Haaken stayed home. When we arrived home, Haaken was in bed. He has always been real good at this - going to bed on time. Before he was in school, if he felt like it was bed time, he would go get his pj's on and go to bed. Anyway, it was a good evening, Greg did not win the award, but he was one of three finalists.

Miscellaneous thoughts

2007-05-31T10:32:00.000-04:00

I have been applying for jobs, I have applied for a research job (not that does not mean that I have been used for testing) and for a tow truck job. I have had an interview for the tow truck job already. Now I have found a government job that looks like fun as well, so I'm going to apply for that one. Fun, fun. It is kind of like my cousins who have just finished school, I get to look at all these different "options"! I finished University twelve years ago. I should already know what I'm doing shouldn't I? Hopefully whatever job I find (eventually) I will be able to work around taking a class each term in Winnipeg. If I got the government job, though, I could do that for thirty years and retire peacefully at the age of 67. I'm not too young anymore to be dreaming about retirement, and since I still have the use of my legs (although one is a little wonky still), which I was never sure that I would in my mid to late 30s, I can dream of travel whne I retire.

Speaking of wonky legs, for all you knee experts, how long should I expect to have that clicking sound in my knee?

My dad called the other day and was talking to me about some reading he was doing. He was reading the beattitudes and was thinking about poor in spirit. His thought on that, which I like right now, was that poor in spirit may be talking to those who are spent in spirit. In this idea, you are poor because you have been spending, giving, helping, and it leaves you tired, and burnt. Interesting idea.

I'm still missing hockey and football. There is not much in the way of activity, besides going to the gym. I get bored to easily at the gym. We were looking at properties the other day. Erica found a house by the lake, with 4 bedrooms for under $100, 000. It also has an amazing view of the railroad tracks (extremely close actually. I wonder why it's priced so cheap? The only problem with property here is that I don't know if I'm ready to settle down yet. I would hate to buy something and not be able to build before we go, or worse, buy, build and then leave. Part of me is interested in building a house, because I've never done that before. I have worked with plumber and electricians, but that was so long ago that I no longer remember much about either job. I suspect that we would have to get a lot of experts if we tried to build ourselves. Maybe after I retire, we can build a winnebago or something.

Jobs

2007-05-24T21:30:00.000-04:00

I'm struggling with "doing up" a resume. I have never particularly liked this process, trying to explain in simple concise words the work that each job entailed. One of the the interesting things I noticed as I looked over my resume is the different jobs that I have had. It is interesting the variety of jobs, especially as I consider applying for some very different jobs. Some of my jobs include: preacher, warehouse worker, clown, janitor, bus driver, supervising developmentally delayed workers, gas jockey, and cashier. If I can learn how to package it well, I may have a shot at some of the interesting jobs that I have sitting here in front of me. The difficulty I face in applying is that I have many plans in place, for the summer, for the fall, for my life, and somehow I have to figure out how I can work around these plans. Hopefully I can get a job for this next year at least. I suppose I should go down to Excel and see if they need any spare drivers for this month.

Good News and Bad News

2007-05-15T13:11:00.000-04:00

I'm still trying to figure out what the good news is, but the bad news is that I did not get into the program I was planning to take next year. I figured that I would mess it up somehow, forget something important in the application process or something. I did not, I got everything in and they did not have room for me. I was told that I could still take some classes this next year, I can sign up for those after the regular students have signed up. With Special student status, I can take one course (if I'm lucky two) each term. Next I am going to have to find work that I can work around taking a course or two. I could have already been teaching people how to drive, but I was planning on being in school this next year. Sigh. I'm not very happy about all this...

Another Trip

2007-05-03T15:21:00.000-04:00

I have been visiting blogs regularly over the last while but I have not been able to write very much. There is not a lot going on in my life to write about. I have also not been up to writing much. Well I am posting from Niagra Falls. Erica is at a conference and I have spent the day walking around the tourist area. I went into a motorcycle museum and that was cool. One floor was all Harley-Davidson, but the next floor was even cooler with some bikes from many different places in the world. There was a Russian motorcycle and an East German motorcycle and they were very different. There was even a little trike that the guy said you cannot licence for the road because of a problem in the design. A couple of the bikes in the museum were for sale. If I could just find the money ... maybe the lotto ticket I got for my birthday - no I guess that has to go into the summer trip - all $10 dollars of it (if I win that is).

I had a birthday last week. This trip is my birthday gift, a chance to get away from the regular routine of taking care of kids, cleaning the house and any of the other regular activities. The thing I have been looking forward to is at the end of the weekend I will be riding a bike to Kenora. I am looking forward to some of the riding I will be able to do in Kenora - it is a really scenic area to ride around. If you get the opportunity to visit, you should see this place.

To Estavan And Back

2007-04-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

This trip to Estavan was not as rushed as the one a couple weeks ago, but it was with a heavier heart. What I feared last trip had already happened this trip. I know that my Grandpa was ready to go, he often talked about how he was ready, but I wasn't really ready. I did not have any big plans to spend a lot of time with him, or to try to learn something specifically from him. It is just being in his presence. I like to just be, to just hang out around my family. To sit and listen to them talk, argue, debate, and especially to hear the stories that they tell. And Grandpa could tell stories. People talked about Grandpa reciting poetry, and I will miss that too.

The funeral was different from Grandma's but it was in a lot of ways similar. Tim Pippus officiated, Wendell Bailey led singing, Uncle Robert read the eulogy, Uncle Tom and I gave readings, and Angel Erikson gave a testimony of Grandpa's impact on her life. All the Grandchildren that where there sang in a couple of songs. The songs that we sang as a congregation we the same songs that Erica had sung with Grandpa and Auntie Mary a couple of weeks ago. Between that and the songs talking about faith that holds even in the stormyness of life and as life fades into eternity ... it was difficult to sing some of these simple songs. I was able to understand why one song really bothered me on Good Friday - it was one of the songs Grandpa had chosen for his funeral - My Jesus I Love Thee.

Verse 3:
I'll love Thee in life, I'll love Thee in death
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew llies cold on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus 'tis now.

Good Friday

2007-04-07T00:28:00.000-04:00

This has been a tough couple of weeks. We went and saw Grandpa, the next week some close friends had their lives completely shaken up, so much that we were afraid that one of them might not be alive. When we started breathing again, the phone rang to tell us Grandpa had passed away. It has been very turbulent.

Today as we sit in our Good Friday worship time, thinking about the death of Jesus and the suffering, I am thinking more about Grandpa. I am thinking about his faith, his life, and his death. One song in particular really got to me. The verse was talking about how even as I am dying, my faith rests in God. I think back to that evening of Erica and Aunt Mary singing with Grandpa and his faith was so much a part of him even as he was leaving this life.

Grandpa was one of my heroes. I didn't know him like my brothers did, but I wanted to be like him.

Good Friday doesn't feel too good to me, but then I suspect that it is not really meant to be uplifting. Good Friday is about death. Good Friday is despair. On Sunday everything changes, at the resurrection all the old rules are out the window, life is different, despair is gone, death is defeated and life reigns eternal in God. Today is Friday, but I'm trying to continue to look to Sunday.

The Time Has Come

2007-04-04T02:42:00.001-04:00

For those of you who have not been contacted, I'm sorry that this is the way that you will find out. I made sure I was not the first to blog (Roberta beat me to it). Grandpa has passed away. Today while I was working out, I was reading his translation of Galatians. Tonight I read it differently. Roberta has a picture of her last visit to Grandpa, check out that site.

Visiting Grandpa

2007-03-26T01:31:00.000-04:00

I witnessed a special moment. I managed to make a crazy trip to go see my grandpa. I knew my parents would be there so my family and raced to Midale on Saturday and raced home Sunday. The special moment was when my dad arrived and he went to Grandpa. Grandpa saw him and smiled a huge grin. This was someone he was waiting to see, someone he was hoping to see. Grandpa soon drifted back to sleep, but that moment I saw my Grandpa full there and joyful.

Later after supper we went back to visit Grandpa. He got out of bed the previous day, then he fell and hurt himself. So while we were there he was on pain medication and very drowsey. Tonight for our second visit, Erica sat next to him and she sang him some songs. Aunt Mary joined in and told Erica some songs Grandpa liked to hear. He was awake for the songs, mouthing the words, raising his hands, and holding Erica's hand. I'm not sure that there have been many moments lately that can top those two. The joy, the love, the purity of those moments are treasures for me.

New Van 1

2007-03-23T13:22:00.001-04:00

New Van 1
Originally uploaded by ejb.

Erica said that I would post a picture of our new van, so here it is. As you can see in the corner we still have our Mazda. We are now a two car family. We needed to do something for next year when I am in school and Erica and the boys would still need transportation here. The van has already been useful for our regular treks back to Thunder Bay.

Grandpa

2007-03-17T16:50:00.000-04:00

I received a call today from my parents. They weren't panicking, but last night Grandpa wasn't doing well. I know they are going out next weekend. I don't know yet when I'm going to see him. Because of Andrea's emai, I called Grandpa last week. I talked about seeing him this summer, but he sounded unsure about being around that long. I'm worried and sad right now. I'm ready to do something, but I'm not sure what.

Quick Update

2007-03-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

My wife told me that the little girl who went for surgery on Monday is not doing well. They were able to cut some of the cancer off but not all of it because of a major artory and it was attached to her lung. They are hoping to find out if the cancer is a kind that can be treated to make it shrink more without an operation. The family needs prayer.

Today I am going to meet with a fitness person to give me a routine for working out. This will give me a two days on, one day off routine. My wife then comments that I am really a kept man now. I clean the house, I look after the kids, and I go to the gym. As long as I don't start the traditional soap operas - Battlestar Galactica doesn't count.

Something is wrong with the toilet upstairs. Greg found a huge puddle on the floor and we found that the tank was leaking somewhere. Since we are tennants, I called the landlady today and she is going to get it looked at this weekend. Good thing we have another bathroom. I made a sign and taped it to the toilet with enough tape to "seal" the toilet seat down like in the hotels. I know it's the little things that amuse me. At least I didn't attack it with duct tape, like I'm supposed to do.

March Break

2007-03-12T01:06:00.000-04:00

Well we are on break here. The difference will be this week I will be at home with the boys instead of by myself. I'm probably supposed to plan out activities for us for this week, but I haven't done it. I am planning on taking the boys skating a couple of times this week since the arena will be open for public skating in the afternoons. We have taken up skating on Wednesday nights. Taken up as in we have gone twice now, me and the boys. Liam is trying hard to skate and is falling lots, but he is also moving around pretty good. It won't be long till he understands what he is doing. Haaken is moving around the ice slowly but he is moving around it on his own. He is not as confident as Liam but he has his balance and is getting around on the ice without hanging on to the boards or me. My theory right now is if I can get them out on the ice enough times they will learn enough about skating that they will be able to get around. We can worry about lessons later. Liam is interested in hockey next year. That would be a big step for me, move from playing to watching my own son play.

This week we have gotten to know more people in the church here and actually talk with them. We attended a small group on Friday and enjoyed it. They meet for a meal, singing and then their study. This could start to give us those much needed relationships we are missing here.

Monday morning there is a little girl from town here who is going in for surgery because of cancer. If you get the opportunity pray for her and her family.

2007-02-26T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well there have been a number of things that have happened in the last while. I have not been going to the gym and my knee has been bothering me. Last week I started going to the gym again because I don't like the pain and I would like to be able to play hockey. Without exercizing the knee regularly I don't seem to be able to play hockey without pain. I think I should ask the experts how long this pain is going to linger. I don't like it anymore.

We enjoyed visiting Thunder Bay last weekend (not this most recent one). We enjoyed that visit, there wasn't as many things that we had to do. We did have to take the new van into the dealership there to get our pst cheque so we could pay for licensing the van. We also had a piece inside the van to get repaired. It did not take much time. We had a long weekend that weekend because of a PA day for schools here. I don't have a picture of it to post yet, but that should be soon.

Erica headed to Toronto on Sunday, she comes back today. Then she goes again on Wednesday and comes back on Friday. That's a lot of travelling. Unfortunately she missed seeing her parents as they stop in here on their way back to Thunder Bay.

I better get Liam off to catch his bus and get Haaken up to get ready for school.

Doing Nothing

2007-02-15T09:16:00.000-05:00

I was originally going to have all my application stuff in to the University of Winnipeg by December, then I decided that January would be good enough. After talking to someone at the school about the program, I discovered that the application stuff is supposed to be done in March, not before. So here I am stuck, waiting, worrying, wondering ... great aliteration eh? I wonder if all my plans will fall apart, and either I won't get things in on time and not get accepted, or they will look at all my paperwork and decide that I do not belong in their program. I can't know till March, and so I am stuck with plans that I made to go back to school but unsure that I will be able.

I have surfed to a few hockey pages over the last couple of days looking for interesting rumours about my team (Vancouver Canucks). The more I thought about a possible trade with Philadelphia the more excited I was. I agree with not giving up our solid defensive prospect, but I wonder if there is a price that would be acceptable to the Canucks and interesting to Philly? The Canucks would almost be the Swedish national team (with a better goalie).

After playing hockey a couple of weeks ago (twice) I have not gone to the gym, I have not played hockey. Basically I have done nothing as far as physical activity is concerned. I am not coughing like my wife, but I have not been particularly well either. Hopefully that is over and I can get back to doing some activities and trying to be a little healthy.

At some point soon either Erica or I will post a pic of our new vehicle. Till then I will leave people wondering what it is.

Reading

2007-02-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

Since the move I have been reading again. I really was not able to read much the last while in Thnuder Bay. I read a few books, such as whenever the new Terry Goodkind book would appear. Other than that I didn't read much more than pieces of various books. Since the move There may have been a few weeks that I haven't read move than a couple of books, but not many. I re-read the Terry Brooks "Shannara" series. I've read a bunch of Robert Ludlum. Since Christmas I have read Tad Williams books (Sorrow, Memory, and Thorn series). My mom also started me on a new author, Kathy Reichs. She writes about a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennen. From this character the TV show Bones got their idea. Just like Ludlum's Bourne Supremacy, Kathy Reich's books are nothing like the show. The character in her book is closer to the author's age and presumably closer to the author's personality than the character from the show. The books have been interesting, and I am on my 5th book. There is some character development that happens through the books so there is a little bit of help gained by reading them in a specific order.

Over the Christmas holidays, I saw the movie, Eregon, and then I read the book. Erica then read the book as well. After that it took a lot of work to track down the next book, Eldest. I have not read it yet, I am trying to finish Cross Bones (Kathy Reichs) first since it is a library book due back next week.

I have expanded my reading out of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, but I'm not sure exaclty what other authors I should try reading, or even what other catagories I would enjoy. Any hints?

The life of a house husband

2007-01-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of new things start this week. First we got our family membership for the "Rec" centre here and so I started going to the gym now. I have gone everyday but Thursday. I'm not entirely sure what kind of routine I want to do, but the important thing to me is the bike and some form of walking (I am using the elliptical machine). The first day I decided to use a treadmill instead of the elliptical machine and after about 7 minutes I could feel a little something in my knee. The next day I tried the elliptical machine and did not feel the same sensation so I decided not to use the treadmill anymore. There is open hockey and public skating as part of the membership, but I haven't worked those into my routine yet. I have atried a little bit of weights, but again I have decided that doing weights with the legs (after trying it of course) does not quite feel right yet.

Another thing that has been different this week is that Haaken has been at home with me. His glands were swollen on Wednesday and we saw the doctor Thursday. He is on medication and should be back at school next week. I remember when he was younger, we almost had to hide his boots to keep him at home when he was sick. He is willing to stay home right now, probably because his throat reminds him of how sick he really is.

I have also added to my morning routine, making Erica's lunch as well. I have been making the kids lunches, trying to find foods that they will eat at school and make it healthy food, a real struggle sometimes. Erica's lunch is usually a little easier, she is a little less fussy than the kids and we do not have to worry about the peanut allergies at her work.

Life goes on in our little town.

Home

2007-01-10T09:05:00.000-05:00

We have been home a couple of days, but things haven't really slowed down yet. When we left Thunder Bay on Sunday, Liam was sick. Luckily we had a little pail with us in car as we travelled (Erica thought to grab it before we left). The pail was well used when we got here late Sunday night. Part of the trip was spent driving slower than normal because of road conditions. I have driven in worse but this was stressful because of a sick child and the strong desire we all had to just get home. We made it home, but Laim still missed the first two days of school. I did not intend on sending him on Monday, and he agreed with that decision. On Tuesday, he complained of a tummy ache, and so I kept him home one more day. He was his usual energetic self all day and so I knew he would be fine at school today. I took him to his bus this morning, but it is cold here and I kind of wanted to keep both boys home, just so I would not have to go out in the cold. Oh well, I took him and now I have to take Haaken.

My cousins are organizing a reunion for this summer. Erica's relatives have a reunion planned for this summer as well. I think that we are also supposed to take a trip to Los Angeles (Haaken's counting on it, he wants to set up some meetings and get some of his ideas for TV shows going so that they will be ready for the fall!). Being that far out there we will probably also make a stop at my parent's place to visit again.

We spent Christmas at my parents (at the house they share with my brother). It was good. Liam and Haaken enjoyed spending time with their cousin. We saw many of the familiar things, including the wax museum, the Victoria Museum, the beach, and even the house I lived in when I was little (we did not tour the house). We went to church with my parents to the little church that has started with some people who were not happy with the Shelbourne Street Church of Christ. The people who talked with me were not bitter about this, and were quite happy to have this second church. It sounded like they could co-exist differently which is a good healthy attitude. I thought I would miss out on seeing a lot of the familiar people, and there were many people I did not get to see, but I got to see a couple of families that I knew better than others and that I did really want to see. The parents of one of my friends growing up are at this church, and one of my Sunday School teachers is also at this church. It was good to see these people again.

We returned to Thunday Bay for the new year (for the complete story visit ekbailey.blogspot.com). We missed the party, but spent most of the evenings out at people's homes. We have more people to visit and so we have invitations pending our next visit. It is fun going places like Wal-Mart or Future Shop and knowing people. While I was doing some car shopping, I was talking with the Salesman when one of the guys who works in the back came in to talk with him. I was reading and when I looked up, it was a guy I played football with this year. As a matter of fact, he drove the truck and me home after the injury. No he did not get me a deal on a car, we are just shopping right now. We still have to make a trip to Winnipeg (or Steinbach) to get a good look at the options.

13Years

2006-12-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

It was a cold, cold morning in Saskatoon, 13 years ago. My friend had a little Firefly that could start in very cold weather. It did start but for a while I did not think it would. Some friends had so generously left me some shaving supplies, I forgot to pack my own. So many details that day, we prepared for most of them but so many more came up.

All those things that came up had to be taken care of by those family and friends who surrounded us at our wedding.

Happy Anniversary Erica

Cool Techie Travels

2006-12-23T00:47:00.000-05:00

I am posting from our hotel in Canmore as we make our way out to my parents' place for Christmas. We drove around Canmore unable to remember the name of the hotel we had book online. The solution was simple, Erica had a copy of the confirmation of our booking in her email in box on line. All we needed was some wifi bandwidth and my handy dandy new palm pilot. We drove around till we found a network that was not secure and that we could maintain a signal. I am currently typing from my palm. I like it. Tomorrow I will find out if my brother has a network at his house and if I can surf with my palm there as well.

Dr Says ...

2006-12-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Well I went and saw the Dr today about my knee. I have been waiting 3 weeks for this appointment. He promised to wrench my knee around. So today as he holds my leg he tells me to relax, don't worry. The reminds of the chiropractor just before he snaps my neck. It is hard to make yourself relax when you are anticipating pain. I got through the testing process fairly easily. There is still swelling in the knee (a little) and so the Dr says it takes about 6 weeks for that to go away. Odds are that I have dodgged a bullet, that my knee is going to be just fine after it finishes all the normal healing. The main ligaments seem to do well when he yanks on my leg. The only place that there was some pain was when he was poking the side of my knee. This is where that other cartiledge is. This is the padding between the bones in the knee. The thought is that I have likely torn a piece of this, but not enough to impede with anything that I do. So far my knee does not have any problems with locking, I have almost all of my movement, and when the rest of the swelling goes down I should have the rest of the movement back. After Christmas, if I'm careful, I should be able to try a little bit of light hockey (no contact) and other such sports. Hopefully somewhere in there we will get this Rec Centre membership and I will be able to start working out using my mornings differently than I currently am.

Right now I get up in the morning, get the lunches packed for the boys. I get Liam going, and have him eat. Sometime around the time I send Liam off to get dressed for the day, Haaken comes down and has his breakfast. I walk Liam to the bus stop and wait with him till he leaves on his bus. Greg has been walking Haaken to school, but these last couple days he has not been able to, so I have driven Haaken to school. And finally I take Erica to work. From there I can either stay in the main part of town or take the 10-15 drive back to our house and hang out for the day. Haaken walks home from school on his own. I meet Liam's bus at his stop, and I then drive to pick up Erica at the end of the day. Sometime in there I do cleaning, I read, play on the computer, and cook. The fun part is the currently I am teaching Greg my cooking tricks (which are all that tricky). I'm sure that Neil is dying to ask about that one.

Happenings

2006-12-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Not much is happening now. We have actually spent three weekends (two Sundays) in Kenora. We have checked out two churches so far, but it looks like we will not continue looking until we have finished the experience we have started with the little baptist church we found. Little, it is probably 80-100 or maybe even more. We went there this Sunday and the Sunday school for the kids was in the middle of working on their Christmas pagent. So our kids are now in the pagent so we are staying at least long enough to really see what the Sunday School will be like for the kids. This coming weekend, on Sunday they will practice again with the pagent being in the evening. The next weekend we will be in Thunder Bay and then we will be out in Victoria for the Sunday after that so we won't be around much more this year for church in Kenora.

The pastor at this church is new to town and lives in our area (which is quite a ways from the church as far as this town is concerned). I have barely talked to him, and yet I feel like dropping by his office to visit and to try to encourage him, maybe even hang out a little. Maybe it is more for me as I am looking for people to make friends with and am unable to play hockey yet.

As far as the knee is concerned, next week before we go the Tbay I find out how my knee is healing and perhaps then we will have a more definite idea of what the problem actually is and how long it will take to heal. I am hoping to get a gym membership here so I can do a bit of workout type stuff, but there is still lots I can't do (no weights the doctor said). Until then, Greg and I continue to watch a lot of DVDs while we clean the house and unpack.

Limping Around

2006-11-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

Here we are in Tbay again. I am currently walking around without the cane, but still limping. My knee still hurts but I am gaining more mobility. I saw a doctor yesterday and he told me about the knee and how it works and what might be wrong with mine. Since there is still too much swelling he could not yet detect what was actually wrong with the knee. The side ligaments are fine, but the problem is either a tear or partial tear of the ACL or else it is a tear in the cartilage between the bones in the knee. As the swelling goes down and whatever walking issues appear will tell us what the problem is and whether or not I have to get a scope done. So for right now, no hockey, no football. I can exercise, even skate a little he said, but no sports, and no weights.

Neither here nor there

2006-11-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

I keep finding myself in Thunder Bay. Erica was called in to do some wrap up work for her old job and it worked out that we could conveniently do that this weekend. But we won't be here for Sunday since Erica and I will be in Winnipeg for the big game. I am looking forward to the game even though my Riders lost badly last week.

It is interesting as we now have no TV signal. I've heard that we should be able to get at least CBC somehow, but so far we haven't figured any thing like that out. All we know is that we don't have satellite we don't have cable, and until we get rabbit ears we don't even have basic TV.

What we have been doing in the meantime is to watch movies. There are a bunch of movies that we missed that we have been renting. I have also rented the first season of the New Battlestar Galactica. It has some interesting twists on the old show and one of the actors from the old show has shown up as a different character. So far I like the show.

We are still working at getting set up there, but we probably won't be entirely set up until the new year. I have been unpacking stuff and putting things away, but we don't have places for everything yet so we will see what we can do. The most important thing is that everyone has beds, we have a place to eat, and I have a chair in the living room.

I am still hobbling around right now and I don't know when I'll be able to do things, like play hockey. I have a lead on church hockey (which can sometimes be a rather chippy game) but since I am not walking easily yet, I'm not so sure I should try to skate with others around me yet. I have been lifting some of the lighter things and moving them around the house, but after a 1/2 day of that I'm worn out. One day I walked my younger son to the bus and my older son to his school, and then had to wander all over the hospital for my check up to see how my leg was doing. Well I was done for the day after I got home at 1:00pm. Greg had to fill in again and pick up the boys. Next Friday I will see a specialist and perhaps have some kind of timelines to work with for getting better.

Live From Kenora

2006-11-07T09:38:00.000-05:00

Click on the above link and check out some songs by Richard Pepper. Two of his songs were tops on the ranking this week.

This is my first post from my disorganized place in Kenora. We arrived last night. This morning I plugged in the internet stuff and it seemed to work quite easily (imagine that!). I got the boys lunches made, and then I started trying to wake them up for school. I then called for Erica's help. I have a slight disability right now. I strained my knee and I can't walk on it.

The story goes, I was playing football - what else is new, huh, an injury from football, who would have guessed - and we were winning. I was not getting a lot of passes or a lot of looks. I did have their best player covering me, but the quarterback knows him and would like to beat him anyway. I worked hard to get to a couple of deep passes, but one I knocked out of a defenders hands, and the other one some how, I did not quite bring in, I should have though. Mostly I was catching some short passes, and not a lot of those this game (he wasn't throwing as much to me as usual). In the third quarter, he threw an out to me, and I ran hard to catch it, and I had only time for one step before going out of bounds, so I planted my right foot hard and tried to turn all my momentum up field. I immediately fell to the ground, because my knee did not hold. I felt the two separate pieces that join together in the knee move differently. As I am lying on the ground yelling people suddenly realize that something is wrong and come check it out. After a few minutes of yelling the pain seemed to subside enough to let our team paramedic look at things. As they were looking at my knee I finally managed to ask, "Did I score?" "Yes Eric" was the reply. I was finished for the game, but I scored the TD. At the time it put us up 2 TDs, but a few tries later they drove for a TD and we were then only up by one TD - mine. The score card did I saw didn't show it, but I thought we scored one more TD later in the game (one guy had 3 TD's then if I am right). It was one of our better games and we ended this my final season as champions. Unfortunately I am not yet celebrating. Instead I am dragging boxes around the house, and finding ways to move things while I am sitting or hobbling on crutches. Also I get help from Greg whenever I ask.

The boys have been helping me ice my knee, and getting me things when I ask. I sure hope that it becomes useable soon, I am getting tired of moving on crutches already, especially when there are things I want to get done.

If you get a chance, visit my cousin's blog for a tribute to her child who passed away. timeasthis.blogspot.com

Also pray for Kristian as he was still in the hospital last I heard (pics can be seen at reppepper.blogspot.com)

This Post Comes From

2006-11-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

My first post from Kenora ... will have to wait. We are back in Thunder Bay for a couple of days as we continue to move things. This week I drove a truck and trailer (a wee little one) to Kenora. The vehicles were full of stuff and people as I took the boys with me. When I arrived and unloaded, we ate, we slept, the boys went to school, Erica went to work and I drove back to Thunder Bay. I had more stuff to move. Then I took another full load with me. We still have more stuff to move, but we will do that over a number of visits (including this one) and hopefully it will be enough to get the move completed enough. I still have to move boxes and stuff back here from the church building. Then the office will be cleaned out and ready for the next occupant. Meanwhile we are in Thunder Bay for a couple of days. Tomorrow we will see those people who said goodbye to us already and then I will go play football. Erica flies off to a conference and then the boys and I head back to Kenora. Hopefully we will have filled the car so that there isn't anything that we are lacking in Kenora.

Thunder Bay Time Is Going Fast

2006-10-26T20:57:00.000-04:00

I have been quickly traveling through the regular blogs trying to catch up on people and thinking to myself, "I wish some of these people would update a little more frequently." Today while that thought passed through my head I thought about my blog and decided to set a good example today and update. Then I can criticize all I want.

I have one more day of bus driving (with lots of tearful goodbyes and a few hugs from the kids - even the high school kids have discovered and some of the them are saying goodbye - not with tears though.) I have already preached the final sermon of this portion of my ministry, last week. This Sunday is the baby dedication Sunday, complete with potluck (from which I will sneak out by 1:30 at the latest and rush off to the first of two playoff games, the second is the following week). On Saturday we have a big church celebration, a goodbye party for our family. On Friday (tomorrow) I will play hockey with my friends and then that is it for a long while. Maybe I will find a daytime hockey nearby in Kenora.

Seeing all the elections ads and signs just keeps reminding me that I was thinking about running this year for school board. I thought that as a bus driver I would bring something good to the table. Oh well.

I keep thinking about the song from My Fair Lady, "Get Me To The Church On Time". It starts out with a slow mournful sound "It just a few more hours, that's all the time I've got ..." Besides that it is a funny song. My motto has always been, you don't have to do well, just make sure it's funny.

Back From My Trip

2006-10-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

I am back from my quick little trip to Regina & Saskatoon. I had a good time visiting with people, I even managed to stop in and see a friend from S'toon who I don't see or hear from too often. Everyonce in a while he will find my phone number somewhere (when he is cleaning) and give me a call. This time I called him up and let him know I was coming to town. I had breakfast with him and his fiancee. It was nice to reconnect and hear about his life.

I also visited with family, some of whom I have not seen for many years. Some I didn't recognize (a couple that I have never known). It was good to see them, although the reason for the family gathering was a memorial service. My father's cousin passed away late this summer and it was planned to have a special memorial service for family in S'toon for Thanksgiving Monday. The service was not the traditional gather for 1/2 hour to an hour and say a few words, say some prayers and go. There were many different memories share by different people and I am sure it was longer than an hour. It was the kind of thing that captured my attention and had me sitting there listening to all these stories caught up in the whole thing, unaware of the passing of time until afterwards when I went out for coffee with my parents and had to think about leaving for home. I left later than aniticipated, but I would not have wanted to miss any of it.

I was also at Lectureships in Regina the previous two days (Saturday and Sunday). I had a good time seeing many people again and listening to some good talks. One problem is that I often have good sermon ideas or class ideas based on some of these things I hear at conferences, but I now only have my wife and kids for an audience (I wonder how long I can talk about these before they start walking out of the room).

Over the course of this weekend, some people knew I was going but others did not. One person turned to another and said, "How do you know their moving?" The reply was, "I read Eric's blog." Well, I know there are some people reading my blog.

It is now two weeks until I am done driving bus. Then I have one more Sunday employed with the church, and I will then be unemployed and moving. We will move after halloween, so that the boys can enjoy a last time trickertreating on our nice quiet little block. Then, just like we move to TBay, it is zoom, off to Kenora.

Deadlines set

2006-10-02T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well finally this week we have set our deadlines for moving. We won't all be going at the same time, which makes it a Bailey plan. By the begining of November we will be in Kenora. Hopefully it won't take long to get the internet up and running.

This week was the tournament for football. We played Saturday and Sunday. I did not play Sunday. I was expecting us to finish with winning the lowest level of final. I only expected to beat one team in the initial set of games. Things did not go as expected. We won our first game Saturday (without me... I had a meeting). Our second game was against a team that destroyed us in the league play. We won 20-14. Our third game we lost to another team that destroyed us in league play, losing 14-12. Then we had playoffs (on Sunday) for the tournament. We lost to the second team we played the day before, sending us to the "C" side finals. This left us playing a team to whom we have never lost this year. All this build up tells you that we lost to them. Disappointing finish.

Sunday after a nap Erica and went to the church hike. We went late, so we missed the hike part and had to enjoy hot chocolate with friends. Erica and Haaken went for a walk still.

This coming weekend I am planning to go away. I hope to attend Lectureships, but I am definitely planning to be at the memorial service in Saskatoon afterward for my dad's cousin. It will be nice to see family again. I am looking forward to the trip, but I have only booked off one day from the bus to get back from the trip. I guess I better talk to some people here about this trip too so that the church is ready for me not being here this weekend. I already have someone preaching. I then have two more sermons to preach plus we are planning to do a baby dedication service in the middle of it.

Life In Kenora

2006-09-14T17:49:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what life in Kenora is going to look like yet, but we are constantly shifting our plans for going there. We went there last Sunday evening (yes I skipped football for it...) and stayed over till Monday to look at houses to rent. We looked at a lot of three bedroom houses, and I was surprised at how none of them seemed like they would work for our family. We are a family of 5 moving there and so my little boys will have to share a room there like they do here (and I guess Erica & I will have to share a room too).

A house that has been constantly on our minds about renting is a house on Lake Winnipeg that is only available Oct-June (we would have to be out in July), but it does have 4 bedrooms. Part of me would like to rent it, but I think that it would not be as enjoyable for the time that we would have it as it would be during the time that we cannot rent it. So instead we will likely rent a little 3 bedroom in the area of town that lets us put our older little boy into the right school for him (the others can be bused).

Speaking of bussing, I have the names for the bosses of the bus company in Kenora and I was told to drop the name of the superintendent of education (she was the one who gave me the names and numbers) if I want to talk to them about driving school bus in Kenora. Interesting.

I am in a lot of pictures lately, but I have yet to see any of them. All these kids going to their first day of school and I am in the background - sometimes with my toothless grin. I don't want to turn my kids over to someone else, I don't think that anyone else will understand them or have the patience to learn to understand them. I have been problem solving about the two young kids who are having trouble on my bus. The one has been grounded at home and each the parents are asking me as I drop her off how she is doing on the bus, and since this has started, she has done well. I also try to give her a little attention right as soon as she gets on the bus so she get the attention without having to act up. The other one, a little boy, I have yet to figure out. He was tough last year, and he is still having trouble sitting still this year. I'm still thinking and I am going to solve this to pass on to my replacement.

Bus Driving Again

2006-09-07T13:58:00.000-04:00

I am back to the routine of bus driving again. I have the same route as last year, but a different bus. I have to get used to some of the differences in the controls. It was funny Tuesday as I picked up the kids, and watched their reactions. Most didn't say anything, but they seemed to be relaxed that I was back with them on their way to school. The funny part to me was on Wednesday, the first full day of school. The high school students recognized the route number and started coming towards the bus and then they suddenly noticed I was driving again and they too seemed comfortable again (I am pretty sure I saw an excited reaction from a couple of them).

At church we are having a number of different meetings this week to try and get things ready to be kicked off next week. Hopefully things will come together easily, in less than a week ...

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Football report:
My finger doesn't hurt like it did last week. I type the occasional wrong letter because of the splint I am wearing. They call this injury a mallet finger. It certainly slowed me down at football. I played in the first quarter where I caught two passes (one of which was a touchdown). The touchdown pass hurt and since we were winning, I decided to sit for a while and see if it would stop hurting. By the fourth quarter we stopped scoring and they came back to tie the game at 20. I went back in and instantly drew good coverage (he remembered me). The second play our quarterback sent me to the opposite side of the field. The guy who covered me last play ran across the field to line and cover me, while the guy on the other side of the field didn't switch. I had two guys and the other wide receiver had no one. We got big yards out of that play. The next play the quarterback dropped a perfect pass just over the defenders hands and into mine in the endzone for a touchdown. 3 catches 2 touchdowns, not bad for 2 quarters of work.

We're Moving

2006-08-29T15:16:00.000-04:00

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.

Practicing for the school year

2006-08-22T14:07:00.000-04:00

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.

Let's Go To The Ex

2006-08-12T01:31:00.000-04:00

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.

Still no Summer Holiday Plans

2006-08-08T15:56:00.000-04:00

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.

Kristian's Newest Teddy

2006-07-27T21:32:00.000-04:00

He loves the vacuum,
originally uploaded by ejb.

I thought I would share this since Erin said she would be a while getting these photos up and she wanted people to see them. Kristian had wandered down the hall while Erin was busy and when she noticed the quiet, she quickly got up and started searching for him. Since he was only a couple of steps away, the search was shorter than the search for the camera to take pictures of Kristian all cuddled up with the vacuum cleaner. I guess he must be missing his Gramma.

Misc News Break

2006-07-27T00:28:00.000-04:00

I was on the phone with my dad (and mom) today and I would like to ask for prayers on his behalf as he is undergoing tests to discover what kind of surgery he is going to have. If the test goes one way they will give him the treatment there and then, but if it is worse, then they will schedule him for a surgery at a later date. Pray that all goes well and that they will treat him and fix the problems ther

The golfing report is that I have been shooting a consistent 102-103. Yesterday I did well the first half, but struggled so bad on the back nine that I put the driver away and only used my 3 wood. It worked as well as any of my good driver hits. Today after a few of the holes on the drives I tried, I just put the drivers away and used my 3 wood. Again it worked for me, the only problem I had is that I would miss a few of my shots.

Football looks interesting this year because we got ourselves a quarterback. We are hoping that he will be out this week and maybe next week for our practices. We could be a good team this year. Should be an interesting year.

My longest bus run ever

2006-07-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I drove a school bus full of military people around for the big funeral. I was warned ahead of time that it would be a long day but I had no idea that it would be 9 hours. That did include some time sitting talking with the other drivers and watching for when they were finished both in the church and at the graveside. The last part of the job was being a shuttle between the Davinci Centre and the Armoury. I only did two runs before we were finished. Often during the shcool year my stomach is growling at 9:00 or just before so as soon as I arrive home, I have a snack. Yesterday around 4:30 I recognized I was hungry but I was not in a position to stop and get some food and I was not feeling off because of the lack of food either. I also only had one bottle of water with me and I finished that on the way to the grave side. After that I did not drink anything and didn't feel lacking in water either. The final thing, and the one that surprised the other drivers (they noticed it, not me) was that I did not have to go to the bathroom until after I got home. They want to give some kind of bladder award. I guess I was just in the zone that day, it happens on trips, where you can drive for hours without having to stop for anything.

Today after I took the boys to daycamp and got them settled in I went and played 9 holes of golf. I used my father-in-law's driver (he's in Zambia, he doesn't need it) and I actually managed to get some alright drives with it (one beautiful straight drive just past that mound on the second par 5 at chaples front 9). I also hit one draw with driver. My final score was 46 I had three pars in a row, and I did a lot of one-putts. The very first hole I just about put the ball in on the chip. Chris doesn't believe these scores because whenever I play with him I score around 53,54. Hopefully on Wednesday evening I can show him one of those scores.

Bill and Wendy are off in Africa, Erica is in Guelph, and the boys have day camp, Greg goes over to his brother's a lot (trying to get his computer working) so Erin has the house to herself a fair bit these days. At times it can seem quiet. The toughest part is at night, with the quiet I am ready to go to bed long before the boys are, and I have to wait to give them enough time to play and enjoy the evening.

Sports

2006-07-12T11:08:00.000-04:00

I enjoy playing sports. I generally pick things up well enough to get by at whatever sport fairly quickly. I also kind of pride myself on having cheap equipment and still doing well enough at the sport for my experience and training. In football I bought new cleats once, in 1988. I have worn those ever since, the last few years taping them together so that they would not slip off during a play. I like not really looking like a "dangerous" receiver but then delivering on the field (which I have done, but failed in the outdoor last year).

In tennis I picked up a cheap wooden racket and started figuring out the game pretty quickly. Since I rarely play I am not very good, but I know that I could pick it up again quickly (not that I could play with my cousin who excells at racket games).

Hockey, I have cheap equipment, I don't go buy the new fancy skate, but rather a Canadian Tire special. I buy $10 hockey sticks because I can't get them for $5 anymore. But I do alright most nights at hockey.

Now we get to golf. I gave up my cheap assortment of club ($5 a club at the various places I found them) and now I own a set that I paid $60 for (then I had to go buy a putter I think it cost $30 or $40). The strange thing is as summer has progressed and my golf game has improved, I have been wanting to get expensive clubs (use so they are significantly cheaper but still they cost more than my set). I don't understand why my attitude is different about golf than the other sports. I feel no desire at all to spend $100 on skates or a hockey stick, but $90-$130 on a Driver ... I'm crunching the numbers looking for a loophole in my budget! Something is different and I'm not sure what.

News & Notes

2006-07-07T11:24:00.000-04:00

A few happenings over this past week.

First of all we sent away the happy couple. On Sunday tulrich and sylveeah were at our house for brunch and present opening. It was a good time with the couple, with the best man and his wife and my wife's uncle and aunt.

Three of us left a little early and went golfing out at an expensive and quality golf course in the area. It was not a good enough course that I would want to give up the membership I have to play there. I also went golfing with my father-in-law after that at Chaples. My wife and father-in-law flew out of town on business so I had to go golfing by myself on Thurday. I scored 43 the first nine and 49 the second nine, for a final score of 92. I am still amazed at that score. In the early evening before I went to church, I went golfing with my friend and I scored 54 in the first half.

The boys have been home this week. My older son is anxious to get to camp next week.

I recieved a phone call and now I have to go make sure that the bus is ready and then I am driving. Extra work, extra pay. I guess I better run.

Anonymous I am anxiously waiting to hear more about my Canucks. I have not heard of any replacements for Jovo Bert. My friend tells me that we have replaced Bryan Allen with a prospect we recieved through the big trade.

Wedding

2006-07-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

Today tulrich.blogspot.com is marrying sylveeah.blogspot.com. It should be an exciting day. Many family and friends are traveling some distance to attend the event.

Big Days Gone By

2006-06-28T13:03:00.000-04:00

Well as I look back over the past month I realize I have forgotten to mention a few big days that have come. June 2 was Mike's birthday, happy birthday. Then I missed mentioning Father's day - Happy Father's Day, Dad. The biggest of them all though is that I missed blogging and phoning my brother on his 40th Birthday! I missed out on asking some of the important questions in life, like "Now that you are over the hill ...?" I can insert almost anything into that one. At least he and I need to discuss the Bertuzzi trade!

On Sunday I went golfing with a friend and with my father-in-law. I did alright on the first half (I usually only play 9 holes but this time we played 18) but on the second half I used 6 less hits to put the ball in the hole. I ended up with a score of 100 which for those of you who don't golf, that's not bad (not tour ready or anything like that, but not bad).It is especially good when you find out that I had 4 holes that I took three putts on to finish on the second half alone! The rule is that it should never take you more than two putts. Monday, well we won't go into how I did on those 9 holes.

This Saturday I am officiating at my brother-in-law's wedding. Sunday then is my Mother's birthday (happy birthday mom). I am also preaching on Sunday so I guess I have to do some work this week to have the different things ready.

A Sermon Idea

2006-06-14T12:38:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about the sermon I am preaching this coming week and an idea entered my mind.

4 ways to overcome arrogance according to Joseph:
1. Make those closest to you hate you so much that they plot to kill you
2. Your friends and family are willing to sell you to the lowest bidder.
3. Get blamed for doing something that both you and your boss know you didn't do.
4. Turn over a new leaf and help others who are in trouble, yet still be forgotten.

Is there more?

Full and Getting Fuller

2006-06-13T10:34:00.000-04:00

Everybodies back now. The house should be active from early morning to late at night. In a few weeks the house will be fuller and so we have some work to do to get the house ready to hold more people.

We had a leadership team meeting for church a week and a bit ago and now we are going to be finding the new ministry leaders we have chosen. It could be exciting if the people we are recruiting are willing to help.

Personally I was planning to do golf today, but I can't. It is raining too hard. I guess I'll have to let my wrist and shoulder heal more. I went to the driving range on Saturday to try to work on my game and the most interesting thing happened. The things I tried to do worked. It wasn't just line up the ball and hit it, I tried to hit the ball certain ways, and it worked.

We are looking at a trip to Sudbury in early July (my wife has work there and the rest of us can tag along, so the trip won't cost us very much). There is the possibility that one of the people that my wife has to meet with will want his motorcycle that he bought here in town, delivered for him. That would mean I would have the chore of riding a brand new motorcycle to Sudbury. I guess if I had I could do this ...

I thought I saw a motorcycle trailer at a used car lot. I haven't checked it out to see if it is in fact what I saw. I have become interested in these for some odd reason. I am not really a camping sort of person but the idea of camping on motorcycles I find interesting. I suppose if I did it once I would probably lose the interest, but I like the idea of towing something. The second goldwing is being safetied right now so that we can licence it soon. That's life for right now.

Interesting People You Meet

2006-06-02T16:59:00.000-04:00

I went for nine holes yesterday. It is the first time I have ever gone to the course by myself, not expecting to meet up with anyone I know. I was sent out with a man who could drive the ball straight and far, Robert and with an eighty-three year old woman, Pearl. As we watched Pearl tee-off Robert told me, "She doesn't hit the ball far, but she hits it straight. She usually shoots some where around a bogey." An intimidating group to be with golfing. After we had all hit, Pearl hopped into her cart and headed down towards her ball. Robert and I followed. Pearl stopped at the first ball and waved. As we got closer she said, "I usually hit the first ball but I recently started checking the ball to make sure it's mine. Good thing too. This ball is yours, Eric. Mine is just up a little." That was the only time she out drove me, but I also only had one other shot travel straight enough to stay in the farway.

While we walked, we talked. Pearl talked about how she would usually walk the course but this year she is waiting for surgery on her foot. Her doctor only recently let her back out to the course, unfortunately because of the problem with her foot she could not wear shoes that fit, so she wore sandals. This caused her feet to slide around and she topped a few of her shots (but they still rolled a ways down the fairway, never a waisted shot).

Robert was a bit more of a coach for me. Anyone who drives the ball like he does can coach me. He told me that he has spent years working on turning the club over (which is what you do to create a hook - a curve to the left for a right-handed shot). This has paid off for him because now instead of an uncontrolable slice, he knocks them long and straight down the fairway. Every once in a while, though, he really does hook the shot. He told me about his swing, and about his practices that he uses to continue to improve his game. He also said that different things work for different golfers. What he said about my slice is that I must be swinging too hard. I have heard that somewhere else before...

Three golfers show up alone at the course and enjoy 9 holes together. Pearl and Robert were fun to play with and I'd easily go another 9 holes with them. I look forward to seeing Robert again at Chapels, since he said he usually golfs there.

Another day missing

2006-05-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

Well I was going to post about the 40th Anniversary Celebration but I didn't do that before yesterday and then yesterday has left me in a fog still. Yesterday I was sick. It started late Tuesday, I had put Haaken to bed and was in bed myself when my stomache started to hurt. And then I spent the rest of the night either sitting on the toilet or sleeping, for the few minutes inbetween trips to the toilet. The bad thing about being sick on Wednesdays is that I have a lot scheduled for Wednesdays. After I get home from driving bus in the morning, I go to Sherbrooke School to lead the "For the Love of Books" seminars there. Then I go straight from that to the church to lead our Bible study group (11-12). Then it is time to get some food and rest before I go back on the bus (the rest may not happen if I have things on my agenda for the day to get done).

Instead of doing all those things, I phoned a number of people in the morning. I know this because the idea that I did is burned into my memory. The specific memory of the phone calls is not really there. It is kind of like the childhood stories you grew up hearing so much that you can remember them, although you don't remember the actual experience. The memory I have of the phone calls feel like that.

Today I am still a little in a fog. I missed one of the basic turns on my bus route. It was simply a counting error. I count 4 streets and turn at the 4th, but I think I missed counting the first street. I have missed counting it before, but I usually catch the error before I miss my turn. This time I did not. It surprised the kids.

I have less things to prepare for the upcoming Sunday, I'm not speaking, I don't have to teach, and once the program is set I can see if one of the kids will run the powerpoint. Then I can sit with my own kids during the worship. Maybe tomorrow or the day after I will be able to post about the 40th and even hear some other people's comments one what they thought of it.

Golf

2006-05-15T13:26:00.000-04:00

The is the second weekend in a row that I have gone golfing on Sunday and then Monday. Last week I went with my Father-in-law both days. This week, on Sunday I went with my wife and kids (we only did part of the par 3 not the whole 9 holes). Monday (today) we did the whole par 3. It was fun, and my shots are getting more consistent, but I still need to work at the game to get better. I am not sure that I will be able to get out golfing again this week because of all the activities going on.

The 40th Anniversary Celebration for our church is going to happen this weekend. I got the ad in the paper for Sunday in a free section, but I did not get some of the other things done to get the ad out there. I have more work to do, contacting people who are going to participate in our worship this week, I need to scan a bunch of photos and arrange them for a powerpoint presentation of the modern era (another person who has slides and a projector is going to do up to the mid 80's). Plus I need to try to find photos of all the previous preachers so that I can try to do up some kind of display. We still have class this week. I am teaching the "for the love of books" on Wedndesday as well. I have soccer on Tues and Thurs evenings (last Thurs was cancelled because of rain). Tomorrow I am helping people do some things over at the building. This week is going to be crazy.

Happy Birthday A

2006-05-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

Today is my big brother's birthday. Happy Birthday, eh. I always associate his birthday with Mothers' Day since every once in a while they share the same day. I also remember the birthday of a girl in our church because she shares the same birthday as my brother.

Tonight is supposed to be the second game in soccer, but since it is raining and threatening to do so for most of the day, I doubt that we will be playing today.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will be back at Sherbrook School (my oldest son used to go to that school) to help them with a program for parents called "For the love of reading." It is a fun program and I am looking forward to meeting parents and talking about reading.

There is much more to talk about, but I don't have the words yet, so I guess I leave this for now and maybe post again later.

It happened so fast

2006-05-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

Well for starters the game last night was quick. Our team beat up a team of smaller children. There good player worked hard at working with the team, but he had no support. Our players were not amazing but they all ran and they all had a little skill and understanding. I'm not sure of ages but the couple of kids who seen to be younger are a little more skilled. We did well and the kids were proud, but I think that it is only a matter of time until we play a big kid who has skill. When that happens I wonder if I can keep them running like they did last night.

Today I went out and spent a lot of money. I took out the money for the Grey Cup tickets, I bought a gift for mothers' day, I paid the baby sitter and bought some technology for my computer. Now my bank account is feeling a bit more of the strain. It was a fun day. Now to go play some hockey.

Soccer Begins

2006-05-04T17:01:00.000-04:00

Tonight is the first night for my son's soccer league. I am coaching again. This year at least one of the other children is already known to my son, she is in his school and he was even at her birthday party.

This changes my schedule now, I am no longer going to the Thursday night group so that I can be at soccer. Other years I squeezed both the small group and the soccer into the same evening but those days always felt rushed. I think that it is better to just do one, and I think this year it is better to do the soccer. This group can survive and perhaps even thrive without me, and I am already involved in the Wednesday night group anyway.

Unless it rains, I will be at soccer and then I will go with my son to Tim Hortons.

Copy Right Laws

2006-04-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

Today is the day each year that I like to say, Happy Birthday Scott. Now not only do I have a twin to say happy birthday to, but also another bus driver shares my big day.

Unfortunately I can't sing the song on my computer because of silly copyright laws. Actually I am impressed with this person who penned a simple song and yet makes money everytime his song is used in a movie or show or on the radio. Luckily we don't have webcams going for cake time or we might have to pay to sing or write our own songs.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for the card and for my movie. I hope to be watching it at some point this weekend (the wide screen version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Switching Sports

2006-04-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure that many people who read this blog really care about this, but as the NHL enters the playoffs and my own team is swinging the golf clubs, the CFL is starting to get real interesting.

Sask made a big trade to land a new Quarterback and his favorite receiver from the old team. Then to follow up they traded their previous Quarterback to Montreal for what sounds like a good defensive back in Almondo Curry. I find these moves interesting and a step up in the CFL which has not done much in the last few years by way of trades.

onesteamboatrush.blogspot.com used to share about the CFL, but it sounds like his life has gotten busy (humph, what about priorities? New child, new job can wait when the CFL is starting up!). Anyone wishing to talk CFL here is your big chance. What do you see happening that looks interesting?

Techno Easter

2006-04-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our special Easter worship. We had good turn out from our regular attenders, and we had some visitors to make a nice small crowd. It was a relief to see a number of people there in the pews during the worship. That said we had about 17 kids in total. We had 33 adults. That makes 50 people. I think that 80-100 is the auditorium max without going into the overflow area at that back of the room. The families that were there still each had their own row to use.

On Friday and on Sunday we used powerpoint instead of the overhead machines. People liked it and I think that it is much better than the overhead machine. I think that we ought to move to this kind of technology sooner rather than later. I also think that we need to add some other technologies to what we do. My wife and I were even discussing the possibility of using a computer, of some kind, that will take what is said and turn it into type on the screen. Whenever I start discussing these things I want to go spend money right away, I hate researching and waiting, instead of buying and moving ahead.

We are also discussing a live feed church. That would be weird and I am interested. I doubt that it would be particularly good yet, but it would be an experience. I wonder what other kinds of technologies there are that will catch my attention next.

Easter is coming

2006-04-11T10:29:00.000-04:00

Well I have avoided posting anything too quickly because I was enjoying the discussion we were having. I guess it was a little too serious for some people though, cause one person shared they had a nightmare about it (well maybe that wasn't the exact description).

This week (I think) is supposed to be the start for the reading program at the two schools with whom I am volunteering. I went to one today and nothing happened and no one who was there knew what was going on with the program. So I wait to hear about it. The second school I phoned and they told me that they thought it was going to be in May. Okay, not a good start.

Meanwhile the other thing on my plate is to prepare for Easter. I get to share a little just before Communion, one of three people sharing some thoughts on what Easter means to me. I am also hoping to have things ready so that I can prepare the power point and we will use a projector instead of the basic overhead machine.

If you can be in the area at Easter, come out to our church it should be fun - we are having a breakfast at 9:30 and worship at 11:00.

Overheard on the bus

2006-03-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

Oh the things a bus driver hears.

Okay so it's not that racy. Actually it was a discussion among students that I wanted to get involved in but because they were not sitting very close and because I am not sure that they would be ready for a real discussion I didn't.

One person said "Christians are so judgemental." There were a few things said that I couldn't quite here before another student said the same thing. It sounded like a theoretical discussion.

The first thought that went through my mind was, "Wow, what judgemental comment." Then I laughed (it was somewhat visible but not a loud laugh and they did not seem to notice or respond).

I thought about a discussion with them over this and directing them to Christian websites that would demonstrate that not all Christians are judgemental.

I came to the conclusion later that what was needed is to discover where this comment really came from. Could this person have trouble with some specific Christians in school? Maybe someone is poorly representing Christianity in a public forum at school or maybe even in the news? Maybe this person just plainly disagrees with someone else and the quickest way to dismiss them is to label them as judgemental making the labeller better than the labelled.

I might have enjoyed a discussion about this with the students who were talking about judgemental Christians, but mostly I think I would have enjoyed a conversation. I like discussion especially ones that I can really get into and ones that touch on my areas of specialty. Maybe tomorrow they will sit near the front and talk with me...

More Training

2006-03-27T13:07:00.001-05:00

This week I have started what will be a week long series of classes (I am taking them) on first aid. Today we learned about assessing the scene and about choking. I am not totally ready yet, but if you really want to I guess you can get injured around me now. I can't splint yet so don't break anything.

Yesterday our church went curling. The teams were just kind of thrown together at the area and so it was interesting. I played skip for the first time in my life (and curled for the 4th or 5th time). Unfortunately for Richard he was on my team and I had to teach him (it was his first time every curling - I think that's what he said). Liam and Haaken were my other two players - so it was up to me and Richard to sweep. The boys threw the stones and then they checked out everything else at the rink. The boys had a little bit different rules for their rocks, it didn't matter if they hit the sides. All the boys had to do was to get the rocks past the line. We actually tied our last game. We had fun (I hope Richard did, too).