It has been an exciting last few months for the family and I. Elizabeth is currently working a 90 day casual for the Canadian Forest Service doing climate change models. It is a great opportunity for her, looks good on her resume, and will help as she applies for other research opportunities and university positions down the road. She also had an offer on a job interview in Saskatchewan, but we declined as we both felt the community simply was not where we wanted to raise our children-extremely high crime rates and an isolated community. And I got an offer out of the blue from a company-a large, very successful, well-respected consulting company-to come work for them as a wildlife biologist in Calgary. A permanent job. The first permanent job I have ever been offered since finishing my Masters degree in 2013. I could hardly believe it.
The offer came as a result of my name and resume being forwarded to their office from someone in a branch back east that I emailed in the fall. I received an email end of February asking me to interview for a 4 month intern position; there was no way I was going to pack up my family and move out west for 4 months, but I thought, "why not just do the interview and see what happens", and boy, was I glad I did! Right off the bat during the phone interview, they said "look, we know you are more than an intern, so we aren't hiring you for that. But we might have something coming up in the new few months. There is some shuffling going on in our office. A team lead position might be available, but it would have to advertised". Then, I find out a recruiter was chasing down my references only a day or two later, and I was being asked what I would need to have for salary and other expectations for a formal offer. Something was drafted up, and after talking with the company supervisors, and, after discussing with my wife, we decided to accept.
The girls were pretty upset when we told them the news, as was the rest of our family. We are taking the girls away from everyone and everything they know, upsetting their routines, changing their lives. But we are selling this, for them and for us, as an adventure.
So, that has resulted in some big changes happening. Originally, they wanted a start date of mid-April, which I told them was impossible. I had hoped for end of June so that we could all go out at once, but we worked out a compromise; I start May 5th, and they allow me to take 2 weeks of vacation off at the end of July to help move my family here.
Elizabeth and I had a lot to square away before I could head out. We decided to trade in our smaller car (a 2009 Hyundai Accent) for a larger, newer vehicle so that I was comfortable driving on the road and could bring everything I thought I would need for the 3 months I would be living alone. We wanted an SUV, but settled on a fully-loaded Ford Focus Titanium Hatchback, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the roominess and gas mileage.
We arranged for child care for Emeline and after school programs for Hannah and Lily. The biggest hurdle was finding a place to live in Calgary. The rental markets are so tight it is really hard to find a place on the budget Elizabeth and I set, so we came up with a compromise where I would live cheaply in the Polytechnical Institute residence for 3 months (they rent to non-students during the summer), giving us more time and flexibility to look for a place for all of us later on. |The bonus is that I get an actual bed to sleep in, a table to eat at, and a TV to watch. Score!
The weeks leading up to my leaving were rough. I had a lot of errands that I wanted to take care to make it as easy as possible on Elizabeth while I was gone. I had the month off with the ending of my contract with Environment and Local Government and the start of this new job, so it was nice to spend the time with the girls, knowing I wouldn't be seeing them for another 3 months. We spent a weekend in Bathurst and then the Easter Weekend in Pennfield visiting family and friends. I resigned from the Board of Directors at my church, something that I loved and enjoyed, something which I felt gave me a connection and better appreciation to the volunteer work and helping nature my father had. I visited a number of friends, having coffee, chatting, giving away some of my handcrafted hiking sticks I have been holding onto. No point in taking them out west with me. There was a lot of happiness and a lot of sadness mixed together this last week.
The girls wanted my last night home with them (Saturday April 27th) doing things I wanted to do. We went to the Farmers Market, did a bit of geocaching, then homemade pizza and cheesecake followed by an Avatar: the Last Airbender marathon.
Sunday was the hardest. It was my last service at the church Elizabeth and I have attended for over 12 years. The Pastor and other members prayed for us and gave us warm wishes on our new journey. My Mom came up from Pennfield to see me off and she was crying. I even managed to get my little sister weepy when I gave her a hug and said goodbye to her and her kids.
But the absolute worse was saying goodbye to Elizabeth and the girls. They have all been upset off and on in the days leading up to my leaving. It was incredibly tough driving out of the yard knowing I wouldn't be seeing them again until the end of July. I worry about them constantly. I worry about Elizabeth getting overwhelmed with work and home and getting burned out.
So, I am currently on the way to Calgary, missing my girls, feeling anxious, nervous, and excited. I hope things work out for me here.
I plan to provide an update on the drive out, some details of each day, the stops, locations, as well as some photos, once I get settled into the city.
Mark.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Another Year Has Come and Gone
I have been very neglectful of my blog
posts (I have 3 currently on the go). I
look at my personal blog as almost a release, allowing me to vent frustrations,
post ideas, comment on things, etc.
My wife commented to me tonight that this
was the first year since 2010 that we have not lost a close family member.
Here we are. A summary of what I felt were the highs and
lows of 2013:
Highs
My wife graduating with her PhD in Forestry
and Environmental Management in May. I
am very proud of her accomplishments, considering all of the personal and
professional strife we have gone through during the process.
The unexpected pregnancy of my younger
sister and birth of a new niece (on the same day as her son’s 6th
birthday). She is a cutie.
We also found out that my brother and his
wife expecting-a boy, no less. I told
them it takes the heat off me to keep the family name going. I very proud of him for how he has
straightened his life out-a steady and good job he enjoys, a wonderful wife,
and a baby on the way. I only wish Dad
could have been around to see it.
Elizabeth and I treated the girls to a family
vacation on Prince Edward Island. It was
short (4 days), but we really needed the time to relax, unwind, and recharge
our batteries.
I increased my volunteer activities in
order to fill the void an unfulfilling work situation was creating. A friend of mine who is the Executive Director
of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick needed help on a few projects this fall
and I stepped up. I had tried
volunteering in the past but I guess it wasn’t the right time or fit then. I have really enjoyed working on a multitude
of projects for her organization and I feel that I am really making a difference. I have also been offering some career advice
(not great at times) to a guy getting into this field of conservation. I enjoy discussing things with him, and I
feel he has a bright future in this field.
Lows
I was unable to attend the largest gathering
of geocachers, a Mega Event, in the Maritimes in July. The event was spearheaded by former “friends”
who have made me feel unwelcome at any event in the city for the past 2
years. When I spoke up about something
concerning the event, and my desire to have helped out, run a workshop, etc. I
was met with scorn and that you “asked to help, you weren’t asked”, and that it
was too late as “all things were planned out months in advance”. These were outright lies proven both on the
forums and on blog posts leading up to the event, yet no one called them out on
it. I then received a very condescending
email “inviting” me to attend from the lead organizer, a former “friend” who I
hung out with and cached with before all of the events, groups, etc. took over
caching in the area. I received no
response to my reply, which simply proved to me that it was a desperate attempt
to save face and say “well, I tried”.
So, with these attitudes working against me, how could I take my family
and attend? I am very disappointed, and
upset, that they have made me feel this way, and made me miss out on this fun event,
seeing old friends, and making new ones.
Geocaching is supposed to be a simple game,
but for some, it is much more than that.
I have seen some of the best and absolute worse in people because of
caching. Hypocrisy, lies, smugness,
two-faced individuals, snobby attitudes-you name it, I have seen it. A lot of the time, I think back and miss the
camaraderie I once had with these individuals.
But I have come to realize that the type of people they have become, or
already were to begin with, are not the type of people I want to be
around.
My work situation has continued to be a
roller coaster. My 6 month casual
position at the Park was not renewed at the end of May. That was not really a surprise. I was happy to leave that den of lies,
distrust, and mismanagement, but fearful without a paycheck. The manager couldn’t even be bothered to show
his face my last day of work, and no one asked me for my keys, uniforms, or
files when I left; I left the keys and uniforms on my desk and deleted almost
all of my files as there was no way I was letting them have my ideas that I was
working on for them to take credit off of.
I found out this fall that they hired someone less than a week after I
left, and some of the summer staff were pretty vocal that they wished I was
still there instead of this individual.
This guy worked there previous summers and volunteered on a constant
basis while I was working. He is who
they wanted there from the start; an annoying brownnoser who when asked to jump,
would pause mid-air and ask “how high?”.
Good riddance to that job.
One last comment before I leave this
subject. I have never seen people work
in a Park before who hated the outdoors as much as these individuals did. There was little to no support for any idea
or program I created or ran; not once did they attend event or even feign an
interest in anything I did. I never saw
them outside of their offices unless there was a PR opportunity for them to
take credit for something. It makes you
wonder how successful and wonderful the Park could be if it was properly
managed by a real manager, someone who actually cared about the Park; its
trees, waters, and trails; educational programs; and, the employees that worked
there.
The delay in getting back to work (3 and ½
months) meant that we burned through the rest of our savings, and increased our
debt load. Bye bye house in the near
future. That, to me, has been the most
heartbreaking thing to have happened this year.
It is hard to see everything my wife and I worked towards and saved go
up in smoke like that. And to know it
was because of me and my failures in providing for my family, and it is
difficult. But, I am also thankful that
we had that money, as our situation could have been much, much, worse without
it.
I was also a bit foolish in that I turned
down two short-term contract jobs in the summer that would have kept us going,
thinking that the new opportunity was going to start sooner than it was. It is, however, good to know that my
reputation and work is out there and looked on with good regard by others in my
field.
The
new job is….odd. I feel it is a bit
different than what I was initially led to believe, and the work is a bit
uncomfortable for my introvert style. I
also don’t feel that I have enough to fill out my day, so I read a lot of
reports, regulations, books, articles, etc. on subjects relating to my
work. I have made both my supervisor and
the program director aware of this but nothing has been done as of yet. Government is a funny thing; I can say I need
more work to do, and they know given my education and experience that I am more
than capable to do different projects, yet I just found out they will be hiring new employees on contract/casual with less education and experience than I have. But I am happy to have a paycheck, even with the knowledge of my contract ending in March. I have heard
from sources outside the department that my supervisor wants to keep me, and
thinks he can, so that is good news. It
makes me think he is working on something.
But it is also confusing, as he has asked me a few times in the past
month if anything has come up for Elizabeth or I.
I was contacted this year by three different job recruiters looking for biologists/ecologists (two of them worked for the same company, but different sides of the country). They spend the time chasing me, calling me, buttering me up by saying "we think you would be perfect for XX job and XX location", only to email me back a week later and say "I guess you aren't the right fit for us after all. Best of luck and we will keep you in mind". I guess I should be happy with the realization that they are seeing something in me, and think that I could come work for them, but it is very frustrating having my chain continually jerked like that.
It is frustrating because I am not doing
what I want to be doing and that my career has stalled while others around me
keep moving forward. I would love to get
back into the biology work that I did with the province and the federal government. That is what I love, and where my passion
is. And, I am very good at it. I am not sure how to get back to it. But I haven’t given up hope yet.
Elizabeth was offered a job with a
consulting company in North Carolina back in September. We turned it down, for two reasons: 1. The
pay was not enough given the difficulties in me finding work there, and 2. The
opportunities for work in my field didn’t seem to be materializing there. We have some regrets in turning it down, but
there is no going back. We can only move
forward.
The Promise of a New 2014
The last 4 years since Dad passed has been
difficult for one reason or another. I
truly believe that this is the year Elizabeth and are going to turn things
around.
Comparing my list of Highs and Lows, I’ve
realized that the number of Highs are certainly greater than the number of
Lows, but the Lows seemed to carry more weight and burden me down. Why is that?
My wants for the year 2014:
I want a satisfying, fulfilling career for
myself and my wife. Jobs where we are
both happy.
I want us to be financially stable. Not rich-no one gets into my field of work
thinking they are going to be rich-but enough to pay the bills, get a house,
and save for retirement.
I want to be a better father to my
kids. I want to be more patient with
them, more attentive, more loving, more kind.
I want to have less stress in my life.
I want to lose weight. I want to run a 5km by the time of my 40th
birthday.
Lastly, I want to be more at peace with
everything and every decision I’ve made or will make.
The new year comes in clean, clear, and
full of hope and promise for everyone. I
want to make the most of it this time around.
I pray the Lord will bless my family in the
year to come.
Yours in Christ,
Mark.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
A Week of Highs and Lows.
The past few weeks have been quite adventurous for our family.
We increased the size of our family by one. Elizabeth had been slowly wearing me down on getting a kitten for the girls for some time. We kept putting it off with all the uncertainty concerning where we would be, as our career paths are wide open at this point. But, at the end of the day, waiting doesn't matter, and doesn't change anything. I left the decision to her, as I did not want the responsibility of saying "yes" or "no" to the girls. I got a call at work from Lily saying they had a kitten at the house. We decided to name him George, a joke that stems from Elizabeth and I decided to refer to all the girls as George to make it easier on us instead of remembering individual names. He has quite a bit of a different personality than our first cat; George doesn't mind the girls picking him and carrying him everywhere (even the baby, who is sometimes not as gentle as she should be), and absolutely hates being alone, needing to be in the same room with one of us at all times. It should be interesting.
On May 30th, My wife officially received her doctorate at the 225th Ecaencia ceremony at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. I am very proud of her accomplishment. Very few PhD students would have gone through the personal difficulties she has had, and still complete her dissertation within a reasonable (4.5 years) timeframe. To recap: In March 2010 we lost my father after an 8 week battle with pancreatic cancer; in January 2011, Elizabeth's father passed away from complications relating to his diabetes; September 17, 2011, we welcomed daughter #3 into the world; June 25, 2012 we lost our 11 year old niece, Cynthia, to a rare form of cancer. On top of all of this, I have struggled with finding meaningful employment in my chosen field and haven't been employed year-round since mid-2011. She is an amazing woman to have dealt with all of these tragedies, difficulties, and responsibilities all while completing her PhD in a field that traditionally held very few women until recently. I don't know of any others who could have done what she has done. She has already had a few job interviews and has another coming up.
Both of our mother's were in attendance for the ceremony. My father was extremely proud of her, as was her own father, and I know there was a touch of sadness on my part that they were not able to see her graduate.
I am now officially off work, again. I was given less than 4 days notice. I have been miserable over the past 6 months. The job wore me down and likely aged me beyond my years. Never before have I been subjected to such outright lies, horrible management, and poor communication at a job. A near-constant belittlement of head office and of the individual who held the job prior to me (including gossip of a personal nature that had no business at a place of work) resulted in my having an unfair bias against these individuals for the majority of my employment tenure; only with time and discussions with current and former employees did I get the full and complete picture of what was going on. I am glad to be done but I wished I could have done it on my terms. I do miss the (meager) paycheck, and I absolutely hate not working. At times, I feel like a failure, as my university education, 8 years of strong work experience, and excellent work references have gained me diddly-squat up to this point. There is no logical reason for me to be off work, but it is what it is. I am not doing a very good job at being a provider for my family. I will likely be following Elizabeth's career and hoping I can find some meaningful and enjoyable work where ever we end up; her career is taking off while mine seems to be in a stalling pattern.
We increased the size of our family by one. Elizabeth had been slowly wearing me down on getting a kitten for the girls for some time. We kept putting it off with all the uncertainty concerning where we would be, as our career paths are wide open at this point. But, at the end of the day, waiting doesn't matter, and doesn't change anything. I left the decision to her, as I did not want the responsibility of saying "yes" or "no" to the girls. I got a call at work from Lily saying they had a kitten at the house. We decided to name him George, a joke that stems from Elizabeth and I decided to refer to all the girls as George to make it easier on us instead of remembering individual names. He has quite a bit of a different personality than our first cat; George doesn't mind the girls picking him and carrying him everywhere (even the baby, who is sometimes not as gentle as she should be), and absolutely hates being alone, needing to be in the same room with one of us at all times. It should be interesting.
On May 30th, My wife officially received her doctorate at the 225th Ecaencia ceremony at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. I am very proud of her accomplishment. Very few PhD students would have gone through the personal difficulties she has had, and still complete her dissertation within a reasonable (4.5 years) timeframe. To recap: In March 2010 we lost my father after an 8 week battle with pancreatic cancer; in January 2011, Elizabeth's father passed away from complications relating to his diabetes; September 17, 2011, we welcomed daughter #3 into the world; June 25, 2012 we lost our 11 year old niece, Cynthia, to a rare form of cancer. On top of all of this, I have struggled with finding meaningful employment in my chosen field and haven't been employed year-round since mid-2011. She is an amazing woman to have dealt with all of these tragedies, difficulties, and responsibilities all while completing her PhD in a field that traditionally held very few women until recently. I don't know of any others who could have done what she has done. She has already had a few job interviews and has another coming up.
Both of our mother's were in attendance for the ceremony. My father was extremely proud of her, as was her own father, and I know there was a touch of sadness on my part that they were not able to see her graduate.
I am now officially off work, again. I was given less than 4 days notice. I have been miserable over the past 6 months. The job wore me down and likely aged me beyond my years. Never before have I been subjected to such outright lies, horrible management, and poor communication at a job. A near-constant belittlement of head office and of the individual who held the job prior to me (including gossip of a personal nature that had no business at a place of work) resulted in my having an unfair bias against these individuals for the majority of my employment tenure; only with time and discussions with current and former employees did I get the full and complete picture of what was going on. I am glad to be done but I wished I could have done it on my terms. I do miss the (meager) paycheck, and I absolutely hate not working. At times, I feel like a failure, as my university education, 8 years of strong work experience, and excellent work references have gained me diddly-squat up to this point. There is no logical reason for me to be off work, but it is what it is. I am not doing a very good job at being a provider for my family. I will likely be following Elizabeth's career and hoping I can find some meaningful and enjoyable work where ever we end up; her career is taking off while mine seems to be in a stalling pattern.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
A New Year is Upon Us.
A new year is upon us. I have been very neglectful of my blog as of late, so I guess a good New Year’s resolution would be to update it a bit more regularly.
I was off work this year for the better part of 6 months. It is very frustrating looking for work in my field. I’ve had 4 interviews during the time I was off work. The last two jobs were ideal fits to my experience and education, and I was excited about the possibilities of working at either position. I was better prepared, more confident, and more relaxed through these interviews than I was for any interviews I have done in the past. So, I was pretty shocked when I got the dreaded phone call/email saying that someone else was offered the job and accepted. It was a major blow as I had all the confidence in the world that at least one of the jobs was mine. It is frustrating when the interviewers for both positions, before the interview even starts, asks “So, with all of your education and experience working in NB, why are you interested in coming to work here?”. Cripes, these were jobs in Nova Scotia and Maine, it wasn’t like I was applying for a job in Russia! Everything I have been taught in terms of biology, wildlife management, and ecology, as well as all the species that I know of or worked on, are certainly applicable to multiple regions. Sometimes, it really feels that there is a bias against me because of the choices I made in getting my education and experience in New Brunswick. I thought I was doing everything right in terms of getting my education (and at a graduate level), good experience, excellent work record, and stellar references. But that is still not good enough. I am truly at a loss as to what is going on.
There is some good news. I started a new job in December. After being off work for the past 6 months, I was very thankful for the work and the steady paycheque again, as well as being able to work close to home. It is a bit disappointing at the same time; of the three jobs I interviewed for in a one-week period, this is the one I wanted the least, and did not expect to get at all. It is not what I want to be doing in my career. The job is more of a wet-behind-the-ears job for someone fresh out of university, and certainly not what someone with my education (3 university degrees, one of which is a Masters) and experience (7 years as a wildlife biologist) should be doing. It is a definitely not a good fit for me long-term; it is a massive pay cut (>12,000/year), and a major step backwards in terms of my career goals. Government is also a very difficult place to work during this current economic climate; there is lots of uncertainty and feelings of unease. I’ve found the bureaucracy simply does not care how good of a job you do, and if you are not part of management, you can be cut at any time. As far as I know right now, I am on a 3 month probationary period, after which they “might” bring me on for a year-long contract, but even that is subject to the whims of a spring budget. They are a great group of people to work for/with, and the work atmosphere is great, but it simply is not where I want to be at this stage in my career. That being said, I am looking at finding ways where I can contribute positively, give my very best while I am on the job, and enjoy my time that I am there. I am determined to make this a positive experience for both myself and my employer while I am there.
It was rough being off work these last 6 months. Elizabeth and I burned through almost all of our saving for the down payment on our house, and increased our amount owing on our line of credit to stay afloat. It is very frustrating to struggle so much in my chosen career when others with less education and experience seem to succeed. Over the past 3 years, I have seen my pay steadily decrease to almost half of what I used to make, and my roles and responsibilities change drastically from what I wanted in terms of my career at this point. Very, very, frustrating to say the least. I am hopeful that this will be the year things finally turn around for us. There simply are no good career options for either my wife or I in Fredericton, or even New Brunswick at this point. So, we are simply waiting things out. I know that I have not been an easy person to live with during this time, so I am grateful for such a loving and forgiving family.
Emeline is growing by leaps and bounds. We celebrated her birthday with a family party on the 15th followed by her actual birthday on the 17th, so she got to be messy with 2 cakes instead of one. She has now started saying “Hi” and “Bye”, waving, and giving kisses. It is a big thrill when she comes running up saying “Hi Dah” and puts her hands out to be picked up. October ends up being a really busy month for us, as my birthday starts it off (the 5th), then Elizabeth’s mother (the 15th), then the girls (Lily’s on the 27th, Hannah’s the 29th). My Grandmother’s birthday (she has been gone since 1995) was on the 23rd, and my Dad’s (gone since 2010) the 25th- which means three generations of my family celebrate birthdays within a 6 day period. The girls ended up having two birthdays each: a fun party with a few close friends, followed by a party with the family (us plus my sister and her kids). My birthday this year turned out to be one of the worst I can remember. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong: gifts that didn’t fit; a birthday cake that didn’t want to cook right and ended being raw and doughy in the centre; and, a nephew who threw up all over the table at the restaurant so that we didn’t finish our meal. Combine that with my feeling low over my job/financial situation, and it made for a pretty poor day for myself and the girls.
Christmas has come and gone, and it was a mix of joy and sadness for the family, as is typical for us now. On top of missing both our fathers at this time of year, December 25th marked 6 months to the day where our 11 year old niece, Cynthia, passed away after her battle from cancer. Elizabeth’s sister, husband, and 3 kids travelled by train from Mississippi to Vermont, then on by car to Bathurst to spend the Christmas holidays with the family. They left on January 1st to catch the train back. It was great seeing them and hopefully they will be back up again soon. They are expecting the arrival of a new baby girl in early April. Someday, I hope our whole family will be able to make the long drive down to see them.
In terms of Christmas Day, as is typical, it was Elizabeth who seemed more excited than the kids; she was awake since 5:30AM, eagerly waiting for the girls and I to wake up. Hannah and Lily got what they asked Santa for (Journey Girls, along with accessories), plus some special gifts from Elizabeth and I: Hannah got a new camera (water, shock and cold resistant; it will really take a beating if need be); Lily got a Nintendo DSi. The baby got an assortment of toys and clothes. I gave Elizabeth, among other things, a pair of dangly earrings with leaves attached to them, in honor of her PhD in Forestry. Elizabeth and the girls got me a paint kit/easel, and Photoshop Elements; by what I can tell it should allow to me to edit out unwanted elements, make photos more crisp and clear, stitch together panoramas, you name it. The possibilities seem endless, and I am really looking forward to playing around with it.
This almost became the Christmas that never was. Because of our finances, Elizabeth and I were not buying for any adults in our families except for our Moms, and only buying for nieces and nephews. We were not planning to buy each other anything, and only buying for the girls. And then, with less than a week before Christmas, two things happened: first, a financial gift in the form of a research grant from a former professor of Elizabeth’s; then, a short-term contract offer for me to do some species at risk work with the federal government. God is truly great and I feel he blesses us at the time we have always needed it the most. So we were able to have a few gifts for each other under the tree after all. The money will also allow Elizabeth to enroll in one more semester to finish up her PhD, and allow us to offset my paycheque for a few more months so we can pay the bills without going further into debt.
During my last post in July (wow, I really neglected my personal blog), I mentioned Elizabeth being close to completing her PhD. The reality is that a PhD is difficult, especially at the end stages, and the unexpected is bound to happen. She was actually close to finishing in November, until her supervisor realized a major issue with the results she was generating; it turned out there was a bit of code in her statistical analysis program that shouldn’t have been there, throwing everything out of whack. She had to delay the final review and publication of one of her papers, redo virtually all of her runs and graphs, and resubmit her papers for review by her committee. She has persevered and will hopefully have it all buttoned up by next week, with an expectation of the oral defense scheduled sometime in February.
One thing I am guilty of is not taking the time to learn more about her research. I always make the joke that when she starts to talk about her data and statistical analyses, my eyes glaze over. I am not good with math, which makes it difficult for me to understand the details of her research, the analyses she uses, etc. My wife is absolutely brilliant and sees things, understands things, that I simply don’t when it comes to data; it almost seems to come to life for her. As soon as possible, I am going to ask her for a copy of her publications and thesis. I am going to make a conscious effort to better understand her world of forestry.
As for myself, I managed to hit a few personal goals this year. I finished my geocaching calendar by finding caches on September 2nd and November 24th, the last two dates I need to find a cache on. I also exceeded my goal of finding 1,000 caches in a single year; my current total sits at 1,074 finds for this year. Geocaching goal for next year: hit 4,000 total finds. I am hoping to ramp up my physical activity level more in the coming year, and bring my weight down.
We are hopeful that the new year will bring with it new and better things for our family. Elizabeth has said that we are likely at the lowest point we will ever be at in terms of our career and financial struggles, and we just need to get past this hump. She is right. I just need to keep reminding myself of it.
I close with one of my favourite photos of the Christmas season: a picture of my girls on Christmas Eve, in front of the tree in Bathurst, NB. Enjoy.
I was off work this year for the better part of 6 months. It is very frustrating looking for work in my field. I’ve had 4 interviews during the time I was off work. The last two jobs were ideal fits to my experience and education, and I was excited about the possibilities of working at either position. I was better prepared, more confident, and more relaxed through these interviews than I was for any interviews I have done in the past. So, I was pretty shocked when I got the dreaded phone call/email saying that someone else was offered the job and accepted. It was a major blow as I had all the confidence in the world that at least one of the jobs was mine. It is frustrating when the interviewers for both positions, before the interview even starts, asks “So, with all of your education and experience working in NB, why are you interested in coming to work here?”. Cripes, these were jobs in Nova Scotia and Maine, it wasn’t like I was applying for a job in Russia! Everything I have been taught in terms of biology, wildlife management, and ecology, as well as all the species that I know of or worked on, are certainly applicable to multiple regions. Sometimes, it really feels that there is a bias against me because of the choices I made in getting my education and experience in New Brunswick. I thought I was doing everything right in terms of getting my education (and at a graduate level), good experience, excellent work record, and stellar references. But that is still not good enough. I am truly at a loss as to what is going on.
There is some good news. I started a new job in December. After being off work for the past 6 months, I was very thankful for the work and the steady paycheque again, as well as being able to work close to home. It is a bit disappointing at the same time; of the three jobs I interviewed for in a one-week period, this is the one I wanted the least, and did not expect to get at all. It is not what I want to be doing in my career. The job is more of a wet-behind-the-ears job for someone fresh out of university, and certainly not what someone with my education (3 university degrees, one of which is a Masters) and experience (7 years as a wildlife biologist) should be doing. It is a definitely not a good fit for me long-term; it is a massive pay cut (>12,000/year), and a major step backwards in terms of my career goals. Government is also a very difficult place to work during this current economic climate; there is lots of uncertainty and feelings of unease. I’ve found the bureaucracy simply does not care how good of a job you do, and if you are not part of management, you can be cut at any time. As far as I know right now, I am on a 3 month probationary period, after which they “might” bring me on for a year-long contract, but even that is subject to the whims of a spring budget. They are a great group of people to work for/with, and the work atmosphere is great, but it simply is not where I want to be at this stage in my career. That being said, I am looking at finding ways where I can contribute positively, give my very best while I am on the job, and enjoy my time that I am there. I am determined to make this a positive experience for both myself and my employer while I am there.
It was rough being off work these last 6 months. Elizabeth and I burned through almost all of our saving for the down payment on our house, and increased our amount owing on our line of credit to stay afloat. It is very frustrating to struggle so much in my chosen career when others with less education and experience seem to succeed. Over the past 3 years, I have seen my pay steadily decrease to almost half of what I used to make, and my roles and responsibilities change drastically from what I wanted in terms of my career at this point. Very, very, frustrating to say the least. I am hopeful that this will be the year things finally turn around for us. There simply are no good career options for either my wife or I in Fredericton, or even New Brunswick at this point. So, we are simply waiting things out. I know that I have not been an easy person to live with during this time, so I am grateful for such a loving and forgiving family.
Emeline is growing by leaps and bounds. We celebrated her birthday with a family party on the 15th followed by her actual birthday on the 17th, so she got to be messy with 2 cakes instead of one. She has now started saying “Hi” and “Bye”, waving, and giving kisses. It is a big thrill when she comes running up saying “Hi Dah” and puts her hands out to be picked up. October ends up being a really busy month for us, as my birthday starts it off (the 5th), then Elizabeth’s mother (the 15th), then the girls (Lily’s on the 27th, Hannah’s the 29th). My Grandmother’s birthday (she has been gone since 1995) was on the 23rd, and my Dad’s (gone since 2010) the 25th- which means three generations of my family celebrate birthdays within a 6 day period. The girls ended up having two birthdays each: a fun party with a few close friends, followed by a party with the family (us plus my sister and her kids). My birthday this year turned out to be one of the worst I can remember. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong: gifts that didn’t fit; a birthday cake that didn’t want to cook right and ended being raw and doughy in the centre; and, a nephew who threw up all over the table at the restaurant so that we didn’t finish our meal. Combine that with my feeling low over my job/financial situation, and it made for a pretty poor day for myself and the girls.
Christmas has come and gone, and it was a mix of joy and sadness for the family, as is typical for us now. On top of missing both our fathers at this time of year, December 25th marked 6 months to the day where our 11 year old niece, Cynthia, passed away after her battle from cancer. Elizabeth’s sister, husband, and 3 kids travelled by train from Mississippi to Vermont, then on by car to Bathurst to spend the Christmas holidays with the family. They left on January 1st to catch the train back. It was great seeing them and hopefully they will be back up again soon. They are expecting the arrival of a new baby girl in early April. Someday, I hope our whole family will be able to make the long drive down to see them.
In terms of Christmas Day, as is typical, it was Elizabeth who seemed more excited than the kids; she was awake since 5:30AM, eagerly waiting for the girls and I to wake up. Hannah and Lily got what they asked Santa for (Journey Girls, along with accessories), plus some special gifts from Elizabeth and I: Hannah got a new camera (water, shock and cold resistant; it will really take a beating if need be); Lily got a Nintendo DSi. The baby got an assortment of toys and clothes. I gave Elizabeth, among other things, a pair of dangly earrings with leaves attached to them, in honor of her PhD in Forestry. Elizabeth and the girls got me a paint kit/easel, and Photoshop Elements; by what I can tell it should allow to me to edit out unwanted elements, make photos more crisp and clear, stitch together panoramas, you name it. The possibilities seem endless, and I am really looking forward to playing around with it.
This almost became the Christmas that never was. Because of our finances, Elizabeth and I were not buying for any adults in our families except for our Moms, and only buying for nieces and nephews. We were not planning to buy each other anything, and only buying for the girls. And then, with less than a week before Christmas, two things happened: first, a financial gift in the form of a research grant from a former professor of Elizabeth’s; then, a short-term contract offer for me to do some species at risk work with the federal government. God is truly great and I feel he blesses us at the time we have always needed it the most. So we were able to have a few gifts for each other under the tree after all. The money will also allow Elizabeth to enroll in one more semester to finish up her PhD, and allow us to offset my paycheque for a few more months so we can pay the bills without going further into debt.
During my last post in July (wow, I really neglected my personal blog), I mentioned Elizabeth being close to completing her PhD. The reality is that a PhD is difficult, especially at the end stages, and the unexpected is bound to happen. She was actually close to finishing in November, until her supervisor realized a major issue with the results she was generating; it turned out there was a bit of code in her statistical analysis program that shouldn’t have been there, throwing everything out of whack. She had to delay the final review and publication of one of her papers, redo virtually all of her runs and graphs, and resubmit her papers for review by her committee. She has persevered and will hopefully have it all buttoned up by next week, with an expectation of the oral defense scheduled sometime in February.
One thing I am guilty of is not taking the time to learn more about her research. I always make the joke that when she starts to talk about her data and statistical analyses, my eyes glaze over. I am not good with math, which makes it difficult for me to understand the details of her research, the analyses she uses, etc. My wife is absolutely brilliant and sees things, understands things, that I simply don’t when it comes to data; it almost seems to come to life for her. As soon as possible, I am going to ask her for a copy of her publications and thesis. I am going to make a conscious effort to better understand her world of forestry.
As for myself, I managed to hit a few personal goals this year. I finished my geocaching calendar by finding caches on September 2nd and November 24th, the last two dates I need to find a cache on. I also exceeded my goal of finding 1,000 caches in a single year; my current total sits at 1,074 finds for this year. Geocaching goal for next year: hit 4,000 total finds. I am hoping to ramp up my physical activity level more in the coming year, and bring my weight down.
We are hopeful that the new year will bring with it new and better things for our family. Elizabeth has said that we are likely at the lowest point we will ever be at in terms of our career and financial struggles, and we just need to get past this hump. She is right. I just need to keep reminding myself of it.
I close with one of my favourite photos of the Christmas season: a picture of my girls on Christmas Eve, in front of the tree in Bathurst, NB. Enjoy.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig.
It has now been a full week since I picked up my wife and baby girl at the airport in Bangor. We stayed a few extra days at my Mom's in Pennfield to help her with a few things post-surgery before heading back to Fredericton on Sunday. Elizabeth is now neck-deep once again in her PhD dissertation, trying to finish things up within the next few weeks.
Highlights of the last 11 days:
Monday, July 8. My Mom and I took the girls to the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews. The HMSC is part of the federal government Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Biological Station. The Centre had undergone a major refit where the old aquarium was torn down and a new one was built and opened to the public in September 2011 (http://www.huntsmanmarine.ca/).
Hannah, my oldest, loves the water and wants to become a marine biologist when she grows up. I told her she should become a nurse like her aunt if she ever hopes to have a career. :) We started off fairly early (10ish) in the morning, with the goal of grabbing a couple of geocaches along the way to the aquarium, and getting there in time to see the morning feeding of the seals. There was a new road to the aquarium that I was not aware of and I ended up missing the sign, going the old route which I only found out at the last minute was barricaded. We reached the aquarium with no time to spare. Then, my Mom pays for the girls and her entry fee with a $100 bill, which the cashier has trouble getting sufficient change for until I ended up paying for my entrance fee. During this fiasco, I could hear over the loudspeakers the announcement that they were going to be feeding the seals. Hannah and Lily were getting antsy, so we left my Mom in our dust and hustled outside. The girls loved watching the seals perform tricks and listening to the two biologists give a talk about seal biology (size, ages, feeding habits, etc.). We then headed back inside to explore the rest of the two-storey aquarium.
I have to say, even I was taken aback by how wonderful the HMSC looked compared to the last time I was there. They really took advantage of the two floors by having the two large outdoor tanks (one for sturgeons and the seal tank) stretch all the way down to the bottom floor, with two large glass windows for viewing, allowing everyone inside to see the seals and fish swimming around.
There was also a large set of tubes filled with salt water and fish to show the height of the Bay of Fundy tides.
My Mom even got in on the act when it came to the two large touch tanks.
To top if off, I ran into a married couple I had not seen in a very long time: two people who I graduated with from high school back in 1992. They were there with their three daughters enjoying the new aquarium. I don't have many good memories of high school, but it was nice to chat with the both of them.
After I let the girls pick out something from the HMSC gift shop (they both picked out a small stuffed seal, and containers of "goo"), we had a light lunch at Tim's and then headed to the downtown shops. The girls wanted to spend their money they earned doing errands for me, so we headed to the candy shop. After that, my Mom wanted to treat us again, so we headed to a place that sold great homemade fudge and picked out a pound of four flavours (old fashioned brown sugar, maple nut, orange creamsicle, and caramel vanilla). The girls and I then took a walk out on the pier while Mom had a break on a nearby bench. After that, it was one more quick stop to grab another geocache before heading back home.
We got back early enough that I was able to run up and repair my cache at Lake Utopia that I placed in memory of my Dad (GC2A7KQ). This was the third repair to this cache that I've made in two years. It was a poor choice of container on my part, a tackle box, which had personal meaning for me but also meant it was impossible to keep everything dry. I switched it out for an ammo can, with another loc 'n' loc inside to keep everything nice and dry. I ran into the St. George Home Hardware to pick up a part in order to secure the cache to a tree, and the cashier was another person I graduated with from high school, and once again, it was someone I haven't really seen at all since graduation. What are the odds, twice in one day.
Tuesday, July 9. We spent the day relaxing at the house. I spent some time in morning doing a few odd jobs for my Mom, including tilling the garden. The garden was my Dad's 5th child, and working in it always brings a mixture of good memories and sad feelings.
Hannah noticed a tooth was loose, and wiggled it a bit. It popped out not long after she mentioned it was bothering her. It ended up being her "pirate tooth", the silver-capped tooth from when she had dental surgery at age 3. I was a bit concerned that tooth had actually broken off since I did not see a root. Did you know that when a baby tooth is actually ready to come out, the root essential dissolves into the bone, never to be seen? Google is your friend. It has now been well over a week and she is not complaining of anything, so it looks like everything is okay.
The tooth fairy gave her $2 American in anticipation of her trip to Bangor, ME. The tooth fairy tends to be fairly generous as Hannah shares her haul equally with her sister. She is very considerate.
Wednesday, July 10. I managed to get a bit of "me" time. I wanted to go out for a geocache/hike, so Mom decided to take the girls to town to play on the playground and check out the dollar store.
At the last minute I shortened my caching trip, just going for a quick hike for only a few caches in order to get home earlier in the afternoon. Mom wasn't moving around very well this week, so I didn't want to over-burden her with looking after the girls for too long.
I decided to go hike the Barnaby Trail out at New River Beach, as I noticed there were a few new caches placed in the area. The last time I hiked that trail was when I was a Cub Scout, well over 25 years ago. It was a bit disappointing having to pay an $8 vehicle entry fee, but I wasn't going to let anything get me down on such a great day. The weather was fantastic, and I had the whole trail to myself, save for a couple hiking out as I was hiking in. I put in about 5km and found all 5 caches. I then found another 2 caches on the way home, including one I did not find on a search two years back. All in all, it was a great day.
Thursday, July 12. On the home stretch to seeing my wife and baby! Everyone was pretty excited, but her flight did not arrive until 5:22 PM, so we had a whole day to kill, shopping in Bangor. Mom had a small list of things she wanted to pick up for my sister. We stopped at the L.L. Bean outlet shop, which is nice, but also a bit of letdown once you have been to the big retail store in Freeport, ME. The girls were pestering me constantly to go to the Christian bookstore, as they wanted to spend the money my Mom had given each of them for the trip. I had planned our route so that it was the second-to-last store we stopped at, and I expected they would eat up a decent amount of time there. The girls walked in, saw some books they wanted, picked them out, and paid. We were in and out in less than 10min! Now, we had a good 2 hours to kill in Wal-Mart. My Mom was absolutely floored by the size of the store, as it was a good 3X larger than any we have on our side of the border. We ended up burning through a fair bit of time, grabbed a few cold drinks to beat the heat at the Dunking Donuts, and grabbed 2 nearby geocaches before heading the airport.
There was a bit of confusion at the airport as it wasn't clear from the arrival/departure monitors where the arrival gate for Elizabeth's flight was. We ended up waiting on the upper level with a number of others before some people realized they may be downstairs waiting, so we went downstairs, and there was Elizabeth and Emeline. I wished I had my camera with me, as Lily ran up and both her and Elizabeth started crying because they were so happy to see each other. Emeline was a bit shy with me after two weeks of not seeing me, but she quickly warmed back up and wanted me to hold her constantly.
After a stop for supper at Denny's, we made the long trip home. We were fortunate to get through the border without issue, and then dropped my Mom off at my aunt's place before heading back down to Pennfield; Mom was having surgery on her foot the next morning at the St. Stephen hospital, so she elected to stay at my aunt's and have her drive her home afterwards. By the time we got to Pennfield it was 11:30PM; after the girls tore through their gifts that Elizabeth brought back for them and everyone went to bed, it was well past 1AM.
One quick note about our supper stop at Denny's. As I was getting up to pay, a gentleman sitting with his wife at another table called me over. He gave me a printed off coupon for a "buy one, get one free burger" that he wasn't using, as he saw that we had a few platters on our table and thought we could use it. We did, and ended up saving about $5 that night. I thanked him for his generosity. There are some really nice people in this world!
What a great day!
Friday, July 13 and Saturday, July 14. We made the decision to wait until Sunday before heading back to Fredericton, in order to help my Mom out more around the house after her surgery. I think she appreciated it immensely. It allowed me the time to get a few more things done that she needed, like watering her tomato plants, watering the neighbour's flowers, and trimming the driveway of encroaching weeds. Elizabeth was pretty tired after her long day of travel.
One of the coolest things my wife brought back for me was this:
This is an almost exact replicate of the 1965 Massey Ferguson tractor that my Dad owned. I had been looking for a toy tractor to either place in his memorial cache or send off as a travel bug. Elizabeth brought home two from Mississippi, allowing me to keep one and send one off. It was probably the nicest gift she has ever given me. Besides my three girls, of course. :)
Sunday, July 15 to Thursday, July 19. It has been back to our normal summer routine here at our place. We've been to the outdoor pool a few times (although it now appears the baby has developed a reaction to the chlorine when it gets in her eyes), the library, I've been out geocaching a bit (removing some of my old caches and going out finding caches), grocery shopping, etc. Elizabeth has been pulling late nights (1-2AM) as she works on completing manuscripts for her PhD; the late nights are pretty odd for her, as I am the nighthawk of the family. But I think she is finding that, like I have, the late nights are a great time to get stuff done without the constant demands of the kids in our ears.
This was a very long post. I probably won't have another long one like this for quite a while.
Highlights of the last 11 days:
Monday, July 8. My Mom and I took the girls to the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews. The HMSC is part of the federal government Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Biological Station. The Centre had undergone a major refit where the old aquarium was torn down and a new one was built and opened to the public in September 2011 (http://www.huntsmanmarine.ca/).
Hannah, my oldest, loves the water and wants to become a marine biologist when she grows up. I told her she should become a nurse like her aunt if she ever hopes to have a career. :) We started off fairly early (10ish) in the morning, with the goal of grabbing a couple of geocaches along the way to the aquarium, and getting there in time to see the morning feeding of the seals. There was a new road to the aquarium that I was not aware of and I ended up missing the sign, going the old route which I only found out at the last minute was barricaded. We reached the aquarium with no time to spare. Then, my Mom pays for the girls and her entry fee with a $100 bill, which the cashier has trouble getting sufficient change for until I ended up paying for my entrance fee. During this fiasco, I could hear over the loudspeakers the announcement that they were going to be feeding the seals. Hannah and Lily were getting antsy, so we left my Mom in our dust and hustled outside. The girls loved watching the seals perform tricks and listening to the two biologists give a talk about seal biology (size, ages, feeding habits, etc.). We then headed back inside to explore the rest of the two-storey aquarium.
I have to say, even I was taken aback by how wonderful the HMSC looked compared to the last time I was there. They really took advantage of the two floors by having the two large outdoor tanks (one for sturgeons and the seal tank) stretch all the way down to the bottom floor, with two large glass windows for viewing, allowing everyone inside to see the seals and fish swimming around.
There was also a large set of tubes filled with salt water and fish to show the height of the Bay of Fundy tides.
My Mom even got in on the act when it came to the two large touch tanks.
To top if off, I ran into a married couple I had not seen in a very long time: two people who I graduated with from high school back in 1992. They were there with their three daughters enjoying the new aquarium. I don't have many good memories of high school, but it was nice to chat with the both of them.
After I let the girls pick out something from the HMSC gift shop (they both picked out a small stuffed seal, and containers of "goo"), we had a light lunch at Tim's and then headed to the downtown shops. The girls wanted to spend their money they earned doing errands for me, so we headed to the candy shop. After that, my Mom wanted to treat us again, so we headed to a place that sold great homemade fudge and picked out a pound of four flavours (old fashioned brown sugar, maple nut, orange creamsicle, and caramel vanilla). The girls and I then took a walk out on the pier while Mom had a break on a nearby bench. After that, it was one more quick stop to grab another geocache before heading back home.
We got back early enough that I was able to run up and repair my cache at Lake Utopia that I placed in memory of my Dad (GC2A7KQ). This was the third repair to this cache that I've made in two years. It was a poor choice of container on my part, a tackle box, which had personal meaning for me but also meant it was impossible to keep everything dry. I switched it out for an ammo can, with another loc 'n' loc inside to keep everything nice and dry. I ran into the St. George Home Hardware to pick up a part in order to secure the cache to a tree, and the cashier was another person I graduated with from high school, and once again, it was someone I haven't really seen at all since graduation. What are the odds, twice in one day.
Tuesday, July 9. We spent the day relaxing at the house. I spent some time in morning doing a few odd jobs for my Mom, including tilling the garden. The garden was my Dad's 5th child, and working in it always brings a mixture of good memories and sad feelings.
Hannah noticed a tooth was loose, and wiggled it a bit. It popped out not long after she mentioned it was bothering her. It ended up being her "pirate tooth", the silver-capped tooth from when she had dental surgery at age 3. I was a bit concerned that tooth had actually broken off since I did not see a root. Did you know that when a baby tooth is actually ready to come out, the root essential dissolves into the bone, never to be seen? Google is your friend. It has now been well over a week and she is not complaining of anything, so it looks like everything is okay.
The tooth fairy gave her $2 American in anticipation of her trip to Bangor, ME. The tooth fairy tends to be fairly generous as Hannah shares her haul equally with her sister. She is very considerate.
Wednesday, July 10. I managed to get a bit of "me" time. I wanted to go out for a geocache/hike, so Mom decided to take the girls to town to play on the playground and check out the dollar store.
At the last minute I shortened my caching trip, just going for a quick hike for only a few caches in order to get home earlier in the afternoon. Mom wasn't moving around very well this week, so I didn't want to over-burden her with looking after the girls for too long.
I decided to go hike the Barnaby Trail out at New River Beach, as I noticed there were a few new caches placed in the area. The last time I hiked that trail was when I was a Cub Scout, well over 25 years ago. It was a bit disappointing having to pay an $8 vehicle entry fee, but I wasn't going to let anything get me down on such a great day. The weather was fantastic, and I had the whole trail to myself, save for a couple hiking out as I was hiking in. I put in about 5km and found all 5 caches. I then found another 2 caches on the way home, including one I did not find on a search two years back. All in all, it was a great day.
Thursday, July 12. On the home stretch to seeing my wife and baby! Everyone was pretty excited, but her flight did not arrive until 5:22 PM, so we had a whole day to kill, shopping in Bangor. Mom had a small list of things she wanted to pick up for my sister. We stopped at the L.L. Bean outlet shop, which is nice, but also a bit of letdown once you have been to the big retail store in Freeport, ME. The girls were pestering me constantly to go to the Christian bookstore, as they wanted to spend the money my Mom had given each of them for the trip. I had planned our route so that it was the second-to-last store we stopped at, and I expected they would eat up a decent amount of time there. The girls walked in, saw some books they wanted, picked them out, and paid. We were in and out in less than 10min! Now, we had a good 2 hours to kill in Wal-Mart. My Mom was absolutely floored by the size of the store, as it was a good 3X larger than any we have on our side of the border. We ended up burning through a fair bit of time, grabbed a few cold drinks to beat the heat at the Dunking Donuts, and grabbed 2 nearby geocaches before heading the airport.
There was a bit of confusion at the airport as it wasn't clear from the arrival/departure monitors where the arrival gate for Elizabeth's flight was. We ended up waiting on the upper level with a number of others before some people realized they may be downstairs waiting, so we went downstairs, and there was Elizabeth and Emeline. I wished I had my camera with me, as Lily ran up and both her and Elizabeth started crying because they were so happy to see each other. Emeline was a bit shy with me after two weeks of not seeing me, but she quickly warmed back up and wanted me to hold her constantly.
After a stop for supper at Denny's, we made the long trip home. We were fortunate to get through the border without issue, and then dropped my Mom off at my aunt's place before heading back down to Pennfield; Mom was having surgery on her foot the next morning at the St. Stephen hospital, so she elected to stay at my aunt's and have her drive her home afterwards. By the time we got to Pennfield it was 11:30PM; after the girls tore through their gifts that Elizabeth brought back for them and everyone went to bed, it was well past 1AM.
One quick note about our supper stop at Denny's. As I was getting up to pay, a gentleman sitting with his wife at another table called me over. He gave me a printed off coupon for a "buy one, get one free burger" that he wasn't using, as he saw that we had a few platters on our table and thought we could use it. We did, and ended up saving about $5 that night. I thanked him for his generosity. There are some really nice people in this world!
What a great day!
Friday, July 13 and Saturday, July 14. We made the decision to wait until Sunday before heading back to Fredericton, in order to help my Mom out more around the house after her surgery. I think she appreciated it immensely. It allowed me the time to get a few more things done that she needed, like watering her tomato plants, watering the neighbour's flowers, and trimming the driveway of encroaching weeds. Elizabeth was pretty tired after her long day of travel.
One of the coolest things my wife brought back for me was this:
This is an almost exact replicate of the 1965 Massey Ferguson tractor that my Dad owned. I had been looking for a toy tractor to either place in his memorial cache or send off as a travel bug. Elizabeth brought home two from Mississippi, allowing me to keep one and send one off. It was probably the nicest gift she has ever given me. Besides my three girls, of course. :)
Sunday, July 15 to Thursday, July 19. It has been back to our normal summer routine here at our place. We've been to the outdoor pool a few times (although it now appears the baby has developed a reaction to the chlorine when it gets in her eyes), the library, I've been out geocaching a bit (removing some of my old caches and going out finding caches), grocery shopping, etc. Elizabeth has been pulling late nights (1-2AM) as she works on completing manuscripts for her PhD; the late nights are pretty odd for her, as I am the nighthawk of the family. But I think she is finding that, like I have, the late nights are a great time to get stuff done without the constant demands of the kids in our ears.
This was a very long post. I probably won't have another long one like this for quite a while.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
A Few Weeks of Fun.
Elizabeth and the baby have been away to Mississippi since June 27th, helping her sister through the loss of her daughter. Being off work has been a bit of blessing in that regard, as I've been able to handle things at home without my wife worrying.
Since that time, my older girls, Hannah (age 8) and Lily (age 5) and I have been getting through the days, keeping busy until her return. The girls seem to be having fun so I'm happy.
We are currently at my mother's house in Pennfield for the next 5 days. We pick up Elizabeth and Emeline from the airport on Thursday.
Highlights of the past 10 days:
Wednesday, June 27. After dropping Elizabeth and Emeline off at the Bangor International Airport I made the long drive home alone. The girls were at Vacation Bible School at our church, and a family friend volunteered to keep the overnight. Then I get the call. Lily was throwing up, so I went over to Vicki's and brought the girls home. Lily continued to throw up until about 10:30PM, after which she was sleeping soundly. As is typically with her, she woke up the next morning as if nothing had happened at all; just a little tired was all.
Thursday, June 28. I was glad Lily was feeling better as it was the closing ceremonies for the Vacation Bible School and I knew she didn't want to miss it. The church put on a huge barbeque for the kids and parents and I know there was in excess of 200 people there. Amazing! I got the opportunity to talk to the Pastor and provide an update on Elizabeth and everything that was going on.
Friday, June29. It was a busy day. We ran a few errands, picked up groceries, then headed home for lunch. We then met up with my sister Wendy and her kids and spent part of the hot afternoon at the local wading pool (until some kid took a pool dump and everyone evacuated). We had a barbeque supper with my sister and her clan. We then made the 15min drive out to Mactaquac Provincial Park to attend a workshop on birdwatching hosted by the New Brunswick Federation of Naturalists. There was only one other woman there with her grandson, so the turnout was disappointing for what was a great family-oriented workshop. A highlight for me was the walk along the trails after the presentation, where staff had strung in the trees full-size silhouettes of different bird species, such as wrens, sparrows, woodpeckers, and hawks. What a great teaching tool! I think I took away just as much from that experience as the kids did. I really got a boost to the pride I have in my girls when the head park ranger said to me: "I am really impressed. You've got some really keen girls there".
Sunday, July 1. After church services and a quick lunch, the girls and I headed downtown to check out the Canada Day celebrations at Officer's Square. It was really hot that day (28oC). There was a pretty big crowd and huge lineups for all of the food vendors, face painters, etc. It was also pretty disappointing to find out they were charging admission to play on the bouncy castles that were set up. We sat down and watched some of the stage performance put on by the local theatre troupe, the Calithumpians, but the heat was getting to us, so I walked the girls up to Tim's and got them a lemonade. On the way back to the van I snapped this photo:
At 10:15PM, my sister and her kids arrived at my house and we walked down (with a quick Tim's stop on the way) to watch the fireworks from a great spot close to the river that my wife and I discovered two years back. I thought it was pretty late (10:40PM) for the fireworks this year, which may have had something to do the headline act for the Canada Day festivities, Joel Plaskett. It seemed like a pretty big coupe for the city to snag this act, so I imagine they wanted to give him enough time on the stage to do a complete set. The kids loved the fireworks, except for my two year old niece Alexia, who seemed more interested in how bright the moon was.
Monday, July 2. The girls and I took a walk down the trail and up a side, completing a roughly 2km route back to the apartment. Along the way, we snagged 2 geocaches, which I needed in order to fill my calendar day. I only have 3 days left, and I will have found a cache on all 366 days of the year, including leap year. I set Hannah up with her own account last year, and I think it increases her enjoyment of the sport. In the afternoon we met up with my sister and her kids and went to the wading pool.
Wednesday, July 4 and Thursday, July 5. I finally got the flu bug that seemed to be circulating around and that every member of my family had. It hit me pretty hard the night of July 3rd through the early morning. I felt bad because the girls and I were really looking forward to going to Fundy National Park. Vicki called Wednesday afternoon and said she would look after the kids overnight if I needed the rest; I accepted the offer and was grateful for it. However, at 10:30PM I got a call saying Lily was crying and wanting me, so I said to bring them home. I didn't mind, as I know Hannah and Lily both miss their Mom terribly and that likely exacerbated the situation of being apart from me, as they have stayed at Vicki's before without an issue.
Friday, July 6. Poor weather prevented our last attempt that week to go to Fundy National Park. However, we were pretty excited about going to Officer's Square that night for a special performance by a Canadian icon in children's music: Fred Penner!
I loved listening/seeing this intro in the morning when growing up (jump to the 38sec mark):
The girls and I brought food (burgers and hot dogs) over to Wendy's for a barbeque, and then we headed downtown to the concert.
It was pretty amazing to see Fred Penner live. He looked the same as I remember as a kid, just more grey hair is all.
He had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand the entire time he was on stage, regaling us with songs and stories. It was pretty obvious by the number of people who were there without kids that it wasn't just me being nostalgic about my childhood.
The only downside to the event was the number of parents with out of control kids. At a certain point it seemed like chaos reigned, as they kids were running all over the stage; I am pretty sure that is the reason the sound from the speakers seemed to go to crap for the last half hour. For the life of me, I will never understand how parents can just let their kids run wild like that, without supervision, discipline, or consequence.
Every time I see that, I am grateful for the well-behaved, well-mannered kids that I have raised.
Fred Penner was extremely gracious. He stayed around to pose for pictures with a lot of people, given the number of friends who posted pictures on facebook of their kids with him. The line up just seem too long for us and the kids were worn out at that point and besides, Wendy and I were the ones who wanted our pictures with Fred, not the kids!
Wendy and I both remarked that were more excited about the concert than the kids were. Wendy totally marked out when he sang "The Cat Came Back".
Saturday, July 7. Lily had a birthday party to go to from 12PM-3PM. I took Hannah out to lunch at her favourite spot, the Pita Pit. The only vegetable she got on her chicken ceasar pita was cucumbers; I had no idea she loved cucumbers that much. I also had no idea how fast she could eat, as she wolfed down that pita before I had finished even half of mine. There was a freak torrential downpour that got us soaked while running an errand and prevented us from going geocaching. After picking up Lily from her party, we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and getting packed for our trip to Mom's.
Monday, June 25, 2012
A Journey's End.
We experienced a heartbreaking loss today.
Our niece Cynthia, the daughter of my wife's sister, succumbed to cancer today.
She was only 11 years old.
Cynthia was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma last August. The odds were against her from the outset, but she battled the disease with a determined spirit. She had already undergone an amputation of her right foot (the location of the original tumor), as well as chemo and radiation treatments. However, surgery to remove additional tumors was not completely successful, and in March of this year we found out the cancer had spread to the lining of her lungs.
Cynthia attended a week-long camp for kids with cancer a few weeks ago, and seemed in good spirits. Upon her arrival home, her condition worsened, and a doctor visit last Monday confirmed what we all feared: the cancer was spreading more rapidly than expected and her organs were shutting down. We were told she likely had 1-3 weeks left, shocking us all.
This is the 3rd significant loss for our family in the last 3 years: My father in 2010; Elizabeth's father in 2011; and now Cynthia.
My father's loss was devastating for me, but I had him in my life for almost 36 years, and I am grateful for that.
Cynthia never really got to live her life. Graduating school, choosing a career, finding love, having children. All gone.
I picked up my 5 year old, Lily, from Vacation Bible School tonight (Hannah, the oldest, was sick at home), and it was hard for me to sit through the evening's closing ceremonies. All of the children, singing and happy, some no older than Cynthia.
I am glad that I am a Christian. It is hard to understand the "whys" and "hows" of this world. We have no idea how long we have on Earth. But I have a comfort in knowing where I will go when I am finished. I know that I will see my father again because of my believe in Jesus Christ as the one true path to God and Heaven. I know that Cynthia is there now, and that she isn't suffering any longer.
My wife and baby girl are flying down to Mississippi to see her sister and the rest of the family, and hopefully provide some support and comfort during this difficult time.
We have been overwhelmed and at a loss for words because of the support and love shown by our Church, our family, and our friends, in providing for us and helping us as Elizabeth and Emeline get ready for their trip.
I am spending the next two weeks with my older girls, doing my daddy duties. In a way, it is a good thing I am off work, as it makes it much easier for my wife to drop everything and be there for her sister.
I would encourage everyone to hug their kids a little tighter tonight.
God Bless.
Our niece Cynthia, the daughter of my wife's sister, succumbed to cancer today.
She was only 11 years old.
Cynthia was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma last August. The odds were against her from the outset, but she battled the disease with a determined spirit. She had already undergone an amputation of her right foot (the location of the original tumor), as well as chemo and radiation treatments. However, surgery to remove additional tumors was not completely successful, and in March of this year we found out the cancer had spread to the lining of her lungs.
Cynthia attended a week-long camp for kids with cancer a few weeks ago, and seemed in good spirits. Upon her arrival home, her condition worsened, and a doctor visit last Monday confirmed what we all feared: the cancer was spreading more rapidly than expected and her organs were shutting down. We were told she likely had 1-3 weeks left, shocking us all.
This is the 3rd significant loss for our family in the last 3 years: My father in 2010; Elizabeth's father in 2011; and now Cynthia.
My father's loss was devastating for me, but I had him in my life for almost 36 years, and I am grateful for that.
Cynthia never really got to live her life. Graduating school, choosing a career, finding love, having children. All gone.
I picked up my 5 year old, Lily, from Vacation Bible School tonight (Hannah, the oldest, was sick at home), and it was hard for me to sit through the evening's closing ceremonies. All of the children, singing and happy, some no older than Cynthia.
I am glad that I am a Christian. It is hard to understand the "whys" and "hows" of this world. We have no idea how long we have on Earth. But I have a comfort in knowing where I will go when I am finished. I know that I will see my father again because of my believe in Jesus Christ as the one true path to God and Heaven. I know that Cynthia is there now, and that she isn't suffering any longer.
My wife and baby girl are flying down to Mississippi to see her sister and the rest of the family, and hopefully provide some support and comfort during this difficult time.
We have been overwhelmed and at a loss for words because of the support and love shown by our Church, our family, and our friends, in providing for us and helping us as Elizabeth and Emeline get ready for their trip.
I am spending the next two weeks with my older girls, doing my daddy duties. In a way, it is a good thing I am off work, as it makes it much easier for my wife to drop everything and be there for her sister.
I would encourage everyone to hug their kids a little tighter tonight.
God Bless.
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