Chris Cairns Weekly Update

Weekly Update 02-05-2012

2012-02-05T23:17:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- Painting
- Mentalist
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Groceries
- Guarding Josh / Leafs Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Guarding Josh
THURSDAY
- Work
- Games Night
FRIDAY
- Work
- Hockey & Mentalist
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Meeting / Breakfast
- Helping Ed
- Nap
- HNIC
SUNDAY
- Church
- Chili
- Superbowl
Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Josh, Zach, & Moira were still sleeping, so Maverick and I slipped out the door, and left for the warehouse. I made some coffee, and began doing some work things. We had a large shipment from the US that arrived late Friday afternoon that I had to receive, and Iain and Al put away. We did a bunch of orders for the morning, and paperwork. Dan Lee had the day off and came over to paint the final coat on the sitting room / entrance area. We are attempting to figure out how to ship using the US Postal Service these days, and are having a difficult time of getting through the hoops. Basically they only that US based payments on any of their labeling systems, and we are trying to figure out how to do it properly. At lunch I slipped out and got some McDonalds and came back to the warehouse and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon doing orders, and eventually closed up the warehouse for the day and came home. Moira and I tag-teamed on supper and looking after Zach We had some delicious burritos for supper. Harold came over to paint our master bedroom again. It is beginning to look really good. We are now just waiting on Ed to finish trimming the rooms, and then we’ll do the final coats on the trim and doors and move in. Harold left, and Moira and I watched a couple episodes of “The Mentalist”, and are about half way through season 3. Around 11:00 we went to bed.

TUESDAY
I woke up when I heard Josh rustling about. I got him on the potty and put a show on for him. I had a shower, and got ready for the day. I left and went to work and made some coffee and began doing some work things. I had to run an errand in the morning and took the opportunity to hit the local butcher to buy six different version of various meat for my Superbowl Chili. I went back to work and worked with James trying to get USPS shipping working, and also did some end of the year inventory reports. At lunch we went for Tie Pink Tuesday. Bill Duncan joined us which was nice. I had a delicious dish. I worked for the afternoon. I finished up my inventory reports, and then shipped a bunch of orders. Eventually I left and went to the grocery store. I picked up some more Superbowl Party food, and some general household groceries. I got home and played with Josh for a while. Moira made some supper, chicken and sweet potato fries. Moira had a Pampered Chef party to go to, so I looked after Zach for the evening. I got him ready for bed, and played some with Josh, and read him a bunch of books. I put him to bed around 7:30. I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Leafs at one point in the 3^rd period had a 4-1 lead, and blew it, and lost after overtime in the shoot-out. That is frustrating. Eventually I went to bed.

WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. Moira, Zach and Josh were already up, so I had minimal parental responsibilities to start the day. I left for the warehouse, made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and began doing work things. Iain took the day off GFP Work, to spend a day helping Ed work on his house. Iain is thinking of getting a trade, so spending time on building a house might help him get a focus on what he likes doing. So Al and I worked for the morning. It was a pretty busy morning. The night before, Faye sent out the e-mail blast advertising the Believer’s Hymnbook with Music, so we got some action on that. So, Al and I did a bunch of orders for the morning. At lunch I got a cheap $5.00 pizza from Little Caesars, and ate at my desk. I helped Dad on something, and ended up having an hour and a half strategy meeting for GFP. After the meeting I had a bunch of orders to do. I did a bunch of orders, and closed up the warehouse for the afternoon. I took the mail to the post office and came home. I had a pretty stressful couple of Dad shifts where Moira ran an errand, and Zach woke up shortly after she left. Zach is programmed to eat immediately after waking up, so I had a stretch of him screaming for his supper. She got home and rescued me from that plight. Josh and I had a frozen pizza for supper, and then after supper I started my Superbowl Chili. I cut up some onions and scallions and garlic, and put in a bunch of chili powder and various spices. Then I added the stewing beef, whole pork tenderloin, ground pork, beef, and veal, and a Mexican sausage, all to marinate in some diced tomatoes, Coke, and Ale for four days. I sealed up that Chili Joy, and put it in the fridge. Moira went out with her sister Beth for a Birthday Supper. Again, Zach woke up after about half an hour, and screamed for another half an hour until Moira got home again. Somehow in that stretch I got Josh down for the night. Moira got home, and took Zach and made him happy. I watched a bit of the Leafs game. Moira and Beth decided to watch a dirty chick-flick, so I cleaned my garage. Then I buzzed my head, shaved and had a shower. I decided to stream the 3^rd period of the Leafs game on my laptop in my bedroom. At 10:31 I was tucked into bed going to sleep. (Love this onesie)

THURSDAY

I got out of bed and got ready for the day. Moira was already up with Josh, so once again I avoided some parental potty duties. I left for the warehouse, and made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and began doing some work things. Al and Iain arrived, and shortly afterwards, Al realized there was not enough work to go around, and went home. I kept Iain busy with various tasks such as cleaning and tidying the warehouse, packing up unsold Christmas merchandise, etc. I did paperwork for the morning. I had to order some books from New Zealand, and the amount of paperwork and documentation for it was incredible. At lunch I ran a couple of errands, and ended up back at my desk with a Big B’s Buffalo Chicken Sub from Archie’s. I worked for the afternoon doing some purchasing, and paperwork. Eventually Iain and I closed up and went to the post office. I came home, and got the family. We took Josh to meet the Kindergarten Teacher at the school Moira used to work at. He is going into Jr. Kindergarten in September. So we got him signed up for that, and he played for a while in the classroom. Eventually we left, picked up a pre-cooked chicken and came home to have supper. After supper I did the dishes, and Moira bathed Zach. Around 7:30 I left and went to Noel’s House. We were playing a game “A Game of Thrones” with Jon, Nathan, Alicia, Scott, Noel, and I. Apparently there is a book about it, but I am still trying to figure out who Frodo is, and by the end I figured out it was the wrong book. It is a battle/war game where you try to capture castles. For most of the game I was in the lead somehow, but the last turn it ended up a tie with Nathan. (Jon brought Nathan, Alicia and Scott with him, and I think they were from the Hall in Niagara Falls). It was a pretty fun game, and the next time I think I can dominate. I came home after the game, and folded some laundry, and went to bed

FRIDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for work. I left for the warehouse, and made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I was alone in the warehouse for the day, and it was kind of slow. I did some orders and some paperwork for the morning. I ran a couple of errands, collecting some groceries, and a few things for our renovation project. I put the groceries in the fridge in the garage, and had lunch at home. I met Dad at the car dealership to drop off his van for an oil change. I ran another errand in the afternoon buying some tables for book tables. I did a few orders, then took Dad back to pick up his van. I finished up the afternoon at work, took the mail to the post office. I picked up some more groceries, and came home. I played with Josh for a bit, and then we had supper. Moira had a pork tenderloin in the oven for supper, and it was delicious. After supper I had Zach take a wee nap on my chest while Moira gave Josh a bath. Moira went out with Zach to pick up Beth, and I read Josh some books, and put him to bed for the night. I settled in to watch some hockey. I got the Super Sports Pack for the evening which was wonderful. I watched the LA Kings vs the St Louis Blues game. Beth Paul came over, and we ended up watching a bunch of Mentalist episodes…
SATURDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for the day. I made myself a nice cup of coffee, and left for the Saturday Morning Men’s Prayer Time at the Chapel. I picked up Iain on the way, and we had a good time of prayer at the chapel. We went to Melinda’s for breakfast. There was about nine of us there which was nice. After breakfast I helped Ed. He took the kitchen cupboards from our basement for his Garage, so I helped him load and unload those. I ran a couple errands for Moira, and eventually spent a couple hours installing the cupboards, and having some good conversation with Ed. We then began moving some stuff from his Garage. We moved a bunch of big lumber to his new garage, some shelving, a pallet full of ceramic tile. It was funny, I didn’t realize how much weight I had on my van until I scraped my trailer hitch on the sidewalk backing into his flat driveway… We did two loads in his truck and my van, and called it a day. Moira was out with the boys when I got home. I put a frozen lasagna in the oven for supper for Josh and I, did a load of laundry, and went for a 75 minute nap. I had a good nap, and got up to take the cover off the lasagna. I did the dishes, and swapped the laundry. Moira and the boys got home. I rearranged some furniture for the Superbowl party, and hooked up a digital projector to a cable box, and will be able to have a giant screen above the food for the game. We had supper, and then I held Zach so he could have a nap.

Josh was tired, so he went to bed early and I read his little devotional to him in his bed, and put him down for the night. I settled in for the opening face-off of the Battle of Ontario, the Leafs vs the dirty Ottawa Senators. The Leafs dominated the game, and their goalie Reimer played a great game, earning the shut-out in a 5-0 win. It was great. I had Zach sleeping with me for most of the game, and he had a great sleep. Around 11:00 I went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. I made some coffee, and breakfast for Moira, Josh and I. We got ready, and left for the chapel. Josh did a good job behaving in the Lord’s Supper which was nice. For the second meeting we had William Yuille and he spoke on the Sabbath / Lord’s Day. I am unsure if he was advocating that Sunday is the Sabbath, or what the actual conclusion was. Nevertheless William Yuille is a great speaker and I enjoyed his ministry. As soon as meeting was done, I got Zach in his car seat, and drove around the neighborhood waiting for Moira and Josh to come out. We went home and I immediately got to work on getting the chili on the stove and simmering away. I made two chili’s. One that Moira could eat, and one for the “rest of us”. I set up the area, and got everything laid out for people to begin arriving. Zach and Rachel arrived, and he installed a light for me in the basement, and I kicked the Superbowl Party into high gear. Dan arrived, and a couple minutes later Bill arrived. We enjoyed the evening with a bowl of chili, lots of snacks and beverages for the evening… The Superbowl is all about having something Super in your Bowl,

(Zach holding Zach)

and the Chili marinating the six variations of meat for four days, and lots of spices, and it was great… add in some jalapeno poppers, a bunch of wings with blue cheese, chips and dip… a great evening. And some guys played football on the tv too… and some old lady sang for a while as well… I was actually pleased that the game was a close one, and found the end of the game fascinating with the one guy trying not to get a touchdown to run the clock down… The game ended, and the guys left. I cleaned up from the event, finished up this blog, and went to bed.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

(ps: I had pictures of Josh this week, but synced my phone to my work computer, and didn’t have any at home when I wrote this blog… next week)

Weekly Update 01-29-2012

2012-01-29T21:50:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- Painting
- Guarding Zach / Painting
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Church
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Painting
THURSDAY
- Work
- Family Photos
- Painting
FRIDAY
-Work
- Painting
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Time
- Working with Ed
- Happy Birthday Moira
SUNDAY
- Church
- Happy Birthday Moira
- Skills Comp
- Church
- All Star Game

Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed when I heard Josh coming upstairs, and got him on the potty. I got ready for work, and went to the warehouse. I made myself some coffee, and began doing some work things. The first order of business was put away the last 8 boxes from the 2011 Rise Up Conference. That experience is done and behind us. We worked for the morning. At lunch we had a going away dinner for Lisa, who got a really cool job, closer to home. She is working for a premier Ice Sculpting company, which ships its art all over the world. She is going to be one of their sketch artists, and also be trained using the chisels and chain-saws to do the art. That is pretty cool. We worked for the afternoon, doing orders, and I did some paperwork. I had a quick errand getting a bunch of painting stuff for Moira. After work, Iain and I went to help Ed Plett move in some tubs to the house he is building. Then Iain and I went back to the warehouse bay beside GFP, and painted a bunch of trim. We got the first coat of paint on the trim, so, now it can be put in, and then we’ll put a second coat on once it is installed.

Once we were done, Iain and I went home to have some chili. Moira made an Indian Chili, which was delicious. After supper Iain and Josh played a spirited game of Hide & Seek, Josh’s favorite game these days. We had the usual flurry of activity while we tried to get Josh to bed. Moira had Emily and Dwana come over to prime our new walls, and I looked after Zach for the evening. It was a rough 20 minutes with Moira in the basement, and I was trying to get Josh off to bed, and Zach was crying. But Josh went down, and I then got Zach asleep on my chest, and I watched the Leafs beat the NY Islanders. Moira got the basement primed with her helpers, which was great. Eventually we got to bed.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Moira, Josh and Zach were still asleep when I left for work. I got to the warehouse, made some coffee, and got to work.

Al wasn’t in today, so I spent most of the day helping Iain with orders. Lunch was Happy Chinese New Year at Tie Pink for Tie Pink Tuesday. I had a delicious Spicy Peanut Chicken Dish over Cantonese Noodles. We had an awkward moment when the tv news came on, and there was a news piece on all the First Nations Chiefs in Ottawa looking for a “new deal”, and there was a First Nations person having lunch at a table near us. We actually hadn’t gotten to discuss the issue at all, but she vented on us about all the issues First Nations people face. She assumed we were going to stereotype all the First Nations people, and pre-empted the moment, and vented on us. Now, we did have Sam and Lester at the table, and I could see it easily becoming an uncomfortable conversation for a First Nations person to sit in on, but we hadn’t gotten there in the conversation. So it was interesting. Notice I told that whole story without giving any personal “feelings or opinions”… People sometimes jump all over me when I give my opinion on things with this blog… And there was interesting debate in the warehouse between Iain and I when we got back. We worked for the afternoon, and eventually closed up, and left for the post office. I went to the bank, and got some toiletries from the pharmacy. I came home, and Moira left to get her hair cut, and left me with Josh and Zach. I let Josh watch shows, and I tried to keep Zach napping. Eventually I had to wake him up, and get supper for Josh and I. When Zach wakes up, he wants to eat, and is vocal about it. And it was going to be a while until Moira got home. So, there was a bit of stress happening. And then Josh had a potty training mishap. I will admit, I was greatly relieved when Mom got home. Beth came over to hang out with Moira for the evening. I went to evening meeting, and Brett Ellis was the speaker. I came home after meeting, and Mike gave me an adjustment. I watched the end of the Leafs vs NY Islanders (a home and home series). The Leafs won in overtime. I watched a couple shows, and went to bed around 11:00.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I left for the warehouse, and made myself some coffee, and began doing some work things. We worked for the morning doing orders, and I did some paperwork. January is always a weird work month, with it transitioning from a really busy couple of months, to slow one day, to busy the next with no predictability to it. At lunch Iain and I went to KFC for some chicken. I was spoiled in Grand Rapids by a little place called Cousin's Tasty Chicken, and nothing compares to it. Our local KFC is particularly brutal, but the classic KFC gravy makes a killer poutine. Iain and I worked for the afternoon, doing some orders, and eventually coming home. I had a sweet little break from life as Moira and the boys were out, so I bounded to my recliner with a Coke and sat down for 45 wonderful minutes. They got home, and got busy making supper. After supper Harold and Iain came over, with Dwana and Mike coming later. Iain and I emptied out the former living room / future Master bedroom of all that we could, and then Iain left. We painted for the evening, and got quite a bit done. Moira called me from the living room and asked me to come help her, and it turns out she had food poisoning with a 1000 daggers in her stomach. So I held Zach for a while. Dr Mike came up and diagnosed her. He slipped out and bought some stuff, and made a tea for her and she felt much better after having that. It was kind of late once she was feeling better, and we went to bed. Thanks Mike. Thanks Painters.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I left for the warehouse, and made some coffee, and got to work. I worked for the morning doing various work things. We had a pretty busy morning with some larger orders. When a place orders a bunch of Believer's Hymn Books with Music, it really up's the shipping pile for the day. At lunch James, Iain, and I went to Little Caesars for some cheap pizza, and ended up having a great chat. After lunch we worked for the afternoon, and I arranged an import from the US. I came home after work and played with Josh for a while. I had a shave and a shower and got changed for family pictures. I helped with supper a little. Danielle came over and we had a quick supper, then took some family photos.

Once the photos were done, it was back downstairs to paint for the evening. Harold and Dwana came over. Harold finished up Josh's room, and we got the middle room primed, and first coat over the prime, and the closet done. Then we started on the master bedroom, which is going to be a "brilliant red", and the paint was going on like olive oil. If you went over it too many times with the roller, I would begin to come back off, and it was leaving lines, needing to be rolled over multiple times. It was a real pain to paint. So, it looks like we got first coat of four on last night. I came upstairs and read the newspaper to settle down for a while before bed, and soon enough was asleep.
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to work, and made my beloved coffee, and began doing some work things. I went to Staples and bought a bunch of office supplies. We needed a lot of little things like post-it notes, paper clips, pens, etc, and I got a 10% off coupon e-mailed to me, so, I stocked up. I got back to work, and we did some orders. Around 11:00, Iain got on his painting clothes, and went to paint my doors for the basement. I worked for the morning, and at lunch I ordered some Fish & Chips for my painter. I worked for the afternoon, and did some orders with Al, and ran a couple of errands. My shipment from the US arrived, and we unloaded that. Iain took the mail to the post office, and I changed into my painting clothes, and joined Iain in the painting bay, and slathered some paint on the doors. I came home and decided I was not up to painting the basement for the evening. I had some supper and held Zach while Moira got Josh ready for bed. Dan came over, and Beth Paul arrived. With the NHL All-Star weekend, there was no hockey on Friday night. So we watched a couple episodes of The Mentalist. Eventually it was late, and we went to bed.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I got Josh up and on the potty and some cartoons on for him. I left for Saturday Morning Men’s Prayer Meeting. I picked up Iain on the way. It was a nice time. After the prayer time, we went to breakfast. After breakfast, Ed and I got working on the doors for our basement. We collected up a bunch of tools, and then did some work on them at the warehouse bay before moving in to the basement to begin hanging doors. We worked all afternoon, and got most of the doors hung, but they still need the casing put on. I helped Ed load up his truck, and around 5:45 we were done working for the day. We had 6:15 reservations at a local Port Colborne restaurant “San Marcos”. I took Moira out for her 29^th Birthday. We had Thirza looking after Josh and Zach for a couple hours. We had a nice time out just the two of us. We had some nice appetizers, Moira had Muscles, and I had a spicy Lobster bisque. For the main courses, Moira had this awesome Beef Tenderloin with goats cheese, and I had some ribs. For dessert Moira had a gluten free Chocolate Cake, and I had Crab Cakes. (Figured Cake is a dessert eh’) It was a delicious experience, and it was a great time just catching up after a hectic couple of months. We came home, and I took Thirza home. We watched a couple Mentalist episodes for the evening.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for church. I made some breakfast for Josh. After breakfast we sang Happy Birthday to Moira. I shoveled some snow and cleared off the car, and got the car loaded for the day. We went to church, and remembered the Lord. Then Mark Beach was the speaker for the morning. After meeting, I went home to let Maverick out, and get a few things. We then went over to Mom & Dad’s (aka Nanny & Grampy) for Moira’s Birthday Lunch. We had a delicious Roast Beef dinner, and a cheesecake for dessert. Then Grampy held Zach for a while, Moira had tea with Mom, and I watched some shows with Josh on Mom & Dad’s bed. I actually fell asleep.

Eventually we came home. Josh had a nap, and I watched the NHL All Star Skills Competition I had recorded on Saturday night. Zedeno Chara blasted the hardest shot at 108.8 MPH. That is wild. Eventually we left for evening meeting. Mike Lewis was the speaker, and did a great job. After the message was the end of the month hymn sing and fellowship time. That was nice. We got home around 8:15, and got Josh ready for bed, and read him some books, and put him down for the night. Moira watched a Mentalist episode she fell asleep for last night, and I watched the NHL All Star Game, and finished up this blog.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 01-22-2012

2012-01-22T21:14:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone
Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Basement Work
- Family Time
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Chapel / Leafs Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Lasagna
THURSDAY
- Work
- Snowstorm
- Evening with James
FRIDAY
- Work
- Evening of Mentalist
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Time
- Working with Ed
- Dirty Movie Night
SUNDAY
- Church
- Lunch at the Lee’s
- Church

Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I have been waking up these days before anyone else, despite the inner desire to sleep in. I got ready for work, and slipped out the door. I am out of breakfast stuff at work, so I went through the McDonalds drive thru, and picked up some Sausage McMuffins and went to the warehouse. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and began doing work things. Our Christmas Rush is pretty much over, and we are puttering away at putting the Rise Up Conference away, but there isn’t the “urgency” to get it done now. And with all the back-log of Believer’s Hymnbooks back-orders going out the week before, we are easily keeping up with orders now. It is nice to have a wee break from the craziness of the Christmas / Calendar season. I worked for the morning, and then Iain and I picked up some burgers and poutine from Harvey’s and ate at my desk. We worked for the afternoon. I had brought some tools to pull the rear seat out of my van, and we got that project done, and put some winter weight in the back for my RWD van which is horrible in the snow and ice. We took the mail to the post office, and came home. Dan Cook was over again and he did the sanding of the drywall mudding, and when he left we were pretty much ready for primer / painting. Moira made some BBQ Chicken Breasts for supper, which was pretty good. After supper we got Josh ready for bed, and did the usual activity of the evening. Then Moira and I watched a couple Mentalist episodes while taking turns keeping Zach pleasant and happy.
(Josh sleeping “on” the couch – but he’s not tired or anything)
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and again was the first one up, so I slipped out the door and left for work. I ended up stopping and having breakfast at Sambos on my way. Once I got to work, the diner coffee wasn’t doing it for me, so I made another fine cup of coffee, and got to work. I worked for the morning, doing mostly paperwork. Lunch was Tie Pink Tuesday, and today we were joined by Rob MacDougall, and Jen McBlain. We had a good lunch, and eventually back to work. We worked for the afternoon, and eventually it was time for the post office, and home. I played with Josh and Zach for a while, and did some chores around the house. Josh and I shared a frozen pizza for supper. We had a flurry of evening activity, and eventually I left for evening meeting. Dave Shatford was the speaker on Mary & Martha for the evening. I am not criticizing his message, which was a good message, and he did a good job presenting the message on Mary and Martha… Dave didn't do this directly, but usually there is a throwing Martha under the bus for being busy when a truckload of people drop in on the house always perturbs me. I don’t know many people that could house 13 + people overnight in addition to those who live there, entertain them, feed them, etc. It was Martha who was being hospitable, and opened her home to them, and took responsibility to care for them. I get that she was annoyed that Mary “wasn’t doing anything” and that was wrong… but it seems in most messages that Martha gets thrown under the bus FOR doing something… not the attitude thing which was the main issue. People who are serving "the Lord" in their own strength will have a an attitude problem, but people who are serving the Lord in the Lord's strength, it is something approved of God. It just makes me feel like those who choose to serve in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the labor necessary in an assembly have “not chosen the better thing”... I look for a balanced approach to Mary and Martha teaching… as I am a “Martha” which after a message like this feels “guilty” for serving in the “practical” aspects of the assembly… Dirty Nursery workers, skipping the Lords Supper to serve the Lords people… you should choose the better thing… (Paul Young gave a great message on Martha at the 2011 Rise Up Confernce, General Session #5 if anyone cares) After meeting I tore down the tables and chairs for Kids Club the next day, and came home. Mike came, and gave me an adjustment, and then I finished watching the Leafs game. Zach had a wee nap on my lap for the evening which was nice. Eventually I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY

I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I left, picked up Iain and Caleb, and we went to Sambos for breakfast. We dropped Caleb off at school, and came to work. I made myself a cup of coffee, and began doing some work things. I worked for the morning, doing paperwork and a few orders. At lunch Iain and I ended up at Harvey's for some cheap cuepon burgers, and eating at my desk. I worked for the afternoon. I arranged an import, and talked with Sam about changing up our shipping systems. We are considering going back in time to doing consolidated exports to the US of all our packages, and dropping them directly at the post office. Eventually we took the mail to the post office, and came home. Moira was out with the boys when I got home, so I went directly to bed for a quick nap until they got back, and managed to get about an hour in. I got up, and Moira had a homemade lasagna in the oven which was delicious. She is on a special diet these days with no wheat / gluten, dairy, vinegars, or sugar, so for her to make a lasagna for Josh and I was pretty nice. We had the usual evening flurry of activity getting Josh ready for bed. Beth Paul came over to hang out with Moira for the evening. I spent the evening taking my turns holding and napping Zach, and watching some hockey and a few shows. Eventually I went to bed.

THURSDAY

I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse and made some coffee and a couple instant oatmeal's for breakfast, and began doing some work things. We are still putting Rise Up Conference stuff away, and had a few orders, and paperwork to be done. I worked for the morning. We got a pretty wild storm going on, one where there was lots of blowing snow, and high wind, and lots of ruckus that accumulated about 2 inches of snow. One of those annoying ones. At lunch, Iain and I drove around arguing about where we should go for lunch, and ended up at KFC for some "heart-attack in a wrapper", and ate back in the warehouse. My Dad the funny fellow that he is, set out in the middle of the storm with my Mom for Grand Rapids. Knowing full well that the storm was worse along the Sarnia to London route. He'll get no positive reinforcement from me for his sadist attitude about remaining on the Rest Haven board, and the determination to attend every meeting. Absolutely ridiculous driving a 6.5 hour drive for 10 hours for a board he should have resigned from about 4 years ago... Anyways, all that to say, that he wasn't there for the afternoon, and another staff member was already off sick, and in the midst of the massive storm, we closed up shop a bit early. I went home and spent some time with the family, and tried to decide if I would drive up to St. Catharine's to hang out with James for the evening. I decided I would take the 4x4 Tracker up, and left around 4:45, and headed to his house. I picked him up and we went to a little Sushi place in Niagara Falls called Shibuki Japanese Sushi & Izakaya... it is actually changed names, something like Hotoi or something. But nevertheless it was delicious. It was expensive, but delicious. We had a good chat over supper, and then went back to his place. We started watching the movie "Moneyball", but Pirate James and his trusty download had a bad file, and so we got about an hour in, and it corrupted, and so, we switched to another movie on his trusty Pirate Server Ship, called Cowboys and Aliens, and it was a pretty exciting flick. It was after midnight when I left and drove home.
FRIDAY
I got up, and got ready for work. I put on my snow gear, and went outside and blew out my driveway, and did my neighbors. I picked up Iain, and we went and did my Dad's driveway quickly. It was a great morning to clear snow. It was -12, and not a lot of snow, so, it threw nicely, and we were done quickly. I dropped Iain off at work to clear the entrances, and picked up a couple McDonalds Sausage McMuffins and got back to work. I made some coffee, and began working. I did some paperwork for the morning, and dealt with an errant shipment, and then did some correspondence. Eventually I left to go to lunch. I dropped Iain off at his house, and went home. I quickly cleared out the new snowplow banks, and then had some left-over lasagna. I went back to work, and finished off the work week. I came home, and spent some time with Josh, and then went to buy some paint for the trim in our basement. I picked up some Tie Pink for supper, and came home. After supper I read a bunch of books to Josh, then got him ready for bed, and read him some more books. I put Josh to bed, and watched a bit of hockey. Then Moira and I watched a bunch of Mentalist episodes. Eventually we went to bed.

SATURDAY

I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I made some coffee, and then got Josh out of bed, and on the potty. I left, picked up Iain, and went to the chapel for the Men’s Prayer Time. we had a good time of prayer, and then went to the restaurant for Breakfast. Ed and I did some work for the morning, measuring up for trim, and collecting tools, and brought all the trim to an empty warehouse bay beside GFP. Ed and I worked on getting the trim and doors ready to accept the hinges, and did some work getting ready to paint all the trim. Around 2:30 I left and came home. Moira and the boys were napping, so, I watched some hockey. There was a Toronto Marlies vs the Hamilton Bulldogs game being played outdoors in Hamilton. I would have loved to have gone, but didn’t have enough time or money to make it happen. Moira made some supper while I looked after Zach. We had a quick supper, and left for the chapel to watch a dirty movie. They had a young families movie night and “they” watched the movie “Courageous”. I played games on my phone until it was over, then got Josh and bolted from that horrible experience. I got Josh in the car and we went and did some donuts on the street in front of the chapel which was covered with snow. Once Moira and Zach came outside, we went home. I watched the end of the Leafs game which they lost to the Montreal Canadians, and pretty much as soon as it was done, I went to bed.
(Zach watching hockey with Auntie Beth)
I was pretty steamed with the whole movie night at the chapel. The Movie itself was called “Courageous”. I had no idea what the movie was about going into it, but had a pretty good idea that it was a “feel guilty”about something, as that what most Christian movies are right? I was right about the feel guilty thing, in that it was about all Dad’s need to do more, do better, and if you don’t your kids will end up on crack, and in prison. I only watched about 45 seconds in total of the movie, the scene near the end where some black guys were shooting at some cops, and punching them out. So, I can’t really comment on the full message of the movie. However what I got out of the movie was that I need to feel guilty for procreation and no matter what I do, I am destined to be a failure as a father. I am “sensitive” to Christian Entertainment in general, and the sharing of it simply because it is “Christian”. I am an equal opportunity person when it comes to “Church”, and the activities of the church I am fine with the Bible based church meetings, and will participate in them. However when it comes to entertainment, I am the Christian metal guy, and I “get” that not all people will enjoy it. I don’t force my choice in music on anyone, and in response I request that you don’t force yours on me. Same with movies, I would never force anyone to watch a movie they are uncomfortable with, and I request the same. I felt like I was forced to watch “Courageous” last night, and although I didn’t watch it, I resented the attempt. I’ll get right on the public presentation of the next Living Sacrifice Album for the whole family group as soon as it comes out… When I watch movies I want the mindless time wasting amusement, and that is all thanks… and I’ll begin lobbying for a chapel Superbowl party with great zeal… This situation brings back memories of the book “Cure for the Common Life” by Max Lucado, and I rejected the message of that book based upon the deliberate steps in my life at that time to make my life “more common”. Some people have this inner desire to continually “strive” towards perfection in all areas of their life, and put intense effort into this endeavor, and others are content to be a spectator… I am the spectator guy in this world, and I’ll take that common life with a large coke and some popcorn please… I don’t want fixing. I had lunch with Dan Lee on Sunday, and it became clear to me though, that I was putting my angst against the movie, and the attempt to make me feel guilty, and the Christian entertainment sharing thing… and that was a misplaced angst. My true angst was that there was a public event that was designed to get me to share my “emotions” with others. I don’t cry often. I cried like three years ago once, and then more recently when I was forced to abandon my family on Christmas day to go to a dirty conference. No one saw those tears. So, I avoid showing tears in all situations in life, with the exception of funerals of people I like. I was asked to attend an event to view a movie which is designed in all aspects to make one show and share the whole gauntlet of emotions, and I refuse now, and in the future to participate in such an event. I don’t watch chick flicks. I don’t watch “emotional” movies alone, with my wife, with my friends, and I certainly am not going to watch movies with church friends and “acquaintances” that are designed for such a thing. So, I said some things about the movie which really should have been indicating my unwillingness to display any form of emotion. The other thing was I was Forced to attend by my wife. I didn’t want to attend all week, and my wife essentially “made” me attend. I also had to skip Hockey Night in Canada. I generally don’t skip hockey for movies, and certainly don’t skip the Leaf’s for a chick-flick. As I mentioned earlier, I watched about 45 seconds of the movie, I spent the evening playing games on my phone, and following the hockey game on twitter. I was there in body, but not in spirit, and completely reluctantly. The solution in the future is to guard myself from being trapped in these situations, to avoid attending things like this. Next movie night at the chapel, I’m going to be home and watching hockey… so if any guys want to join me, feel free. In summery, I was more annoyed at the planned weep-fest vs the actual message of the movie, and I am at peace with my parenting and level of interaction with my kids. Thanks Dan for helping me sort out my “emotions” in regards to this unfortunate situation… I also understand that there was no agenda about collecting all the young families and making the guys feel like failure fathers, but just showing us the latest in Christian entertainment. I am also not opposed to Family Movie Night, I just want the option of not attending...
SUNDAY

I got out of bed and got ready for church. I helped get Josh ready for church, and made breakfast for Moira, Josh and I. We left for the chapel, and started into the Lords Supper experience. I was attempting to keep Josh under control for this event. He did well for about 45 minutes before going “wrangy”, and wouldn’t keep quiet, or sit still any longer. After the second outburst of wailing, I gave up, and took him into the gym and made him wait until everyone else started coming in. We had the coffee break time, and then Sam (aka Dad) was the speaker. He did a good job. After meeting, Josh and I went over the the Lee’s for lunch. Moira and Jen went to a movie for Jen’s birthday treat for the afternoon. Dan made some delicious ribs for lunch. The kids played for a while, and Dan and I hung out (and dealt with the aforementioned issue of my angst at the chapel movie night). Eventually we came home, and Josh watched a show while sitting on the potty, and I worked on this blog. Moira and Zach got home from their outing with Jen. I held Zach for a while, and then went to evening meeting. It was Harold MacDougall, and he did an excellent job in dealing with a little understood passage. The story of the prophet who did a prophecy against Jeroboam's altar, and left, and was instructed to not eat or drink before getting home. An old prophet lied to him, and brought him back to eat and drink with him, and on the way home the guy gets attacked, killed, then protected by a lion and a donkey. It was a really great message. I picked up some supper for Moira and I, and came home. I read Josh some books and put him to bed. I had some supper, and then watched some football while Zach had a nap on my chest. Moira and I watched a Mentalist episode, and I finished up this blog.
Thanks
That was my week…
Chris

Weekly Update 01-15-2011

2012-01-16T00:15:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Electrics with Zach
- Watching our stories
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Pastor Iain
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Onion Rings
- Supper with Sam & Beth
- Hockey with Dan
THURSDAY
- Work
- Believer’s Hymnbook Arrival
- Drywall with Dan
FRIDAY
- Breakfast with Iain
- Snowstorm
- Work
- Noel’s Birthday Party
SATURDAY
- Sleep In, Snuggles with Zach
- Drywall with Dan
- Hockey with Dan
SUNDAY
- Church
- Cheeky Monkeys
- Rugby with Mike
Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed before Josh or Moira were up and got ready for work, and slipped out the door, and to the warehouse. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got to work. Al was back from his week away in Timmins, so, when he arrived, Iain, Al and I got caught up on life. We got to work and had a pretty busy morning of doing orders, and tidying the warehouse, and preparing it to receive the shipment from the Rise Up Conference. At lunch Iain and I got some burgers. We worked for the afternoon, and did some orders. Eventually I came home. Zach came over and finished up some electrical jobs and then we had some meatloaf for supper. Zach finished up, and went home. I helped get Josh to bed, and then watched some hockey and a few shows with Moira.

TUESDAY
I got out of bed and went to work. I made myself a coffee, and enjoyed the serenity of a few minutes alone. Eventually Iain and Al arrived and we began doing some work things. We had some orders, and I spent the day doing paperwork. I arranged an import from the US, and some work things. Lunch was Tie Pink Tuesday with the guys. Eventually we were back to work, and doing orders. Around 4:00 in the afternoon our delivery of the Rise Up Conference returns arrived, six pallets of hard labour were unloaded and stuffed into the warehouse to be unpacked and put away. We got them inside, and closed the doors, and went home. Dan Cook was over doing some taping and mudding of the walls in the basement. He worked until about 6:00 and went home. I had some supper with Josh, and then went to evening meeting where Iain MacDougall was the speaker. He did a great job. I came home right after meeting, and watched some of the Leafs vs Buffalo Sabers game. Mike came over and gave me an adjustment, and then I finished up the game. I watched a show with Moira and went to bed.

Watching Hockey with Zach
WEDNESDAY
I got up, and got ready for work, and off to the warehouse. I made some coffee, and got started. Iain arrived, and we began unpacking the Rise Up Shipment. The first order of business was to find the CD’s and CD Duplicator, and got Faye and Sam set up duplicating and packaging for mailing all the Rise Up CD’s. We did orders and unpacked and put away books for the morning. At lunch Iain and I went to Archies for onion rings. During Iain’s message on witnessing on Tuesday night I used me as an example of the first time I had Archies onion rings everyone in the restaurant had one as they were so good everyone had to try it. So he reminded me during the message that I need to go to Archies for some onion rings. We worked for the afternoon. My delivery from the US arrived and we unpacked and put that away. After work I came home and helped Moira get the house ready for Mom & Dad to come over. We made a frozen lasagna which took way too long to cook. We showed Mom & Dad the renovations in the basement, and had some supper. We hung out for a while after supper. Dan Lee came over and we watched some hockey, after Josh went to bed, and Moira and Zach went over to hang out with Jen Lee. We had a good visit, and enjoyed the hockey, and eventually he went home and I went to bed.

THURSDAY
I got up, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made some coffee, and got started on the day. We did a few orders, and unpacked the conference for the morning. Around noon I tried to find out when the shipment of Believer’s Hymnbooks were arriving, and they advised me in about half an hour. So I scrambled to make room for 14 pallets of hymnbooks (in addition to the remaining 4 pallets of Rise Up Conference stuff) and ensure we had enough space to actually work. The hymnbooks were unpacked and stuffed in the warehouse, and received into inventory. Iain and I had a quick lunch at McDonalds, and came back to begin shipping calendars. We have three large carts full to go to the UPS driver by the end of the day. It was a big shipping day.

I came home after work, and Dan was over doing more taping and mudding of the drywall in the basement. James came over and helped me move our Wireless Internet set up. It was in the basement in Josh’s future bedroom… we moved it beside the tv in the living room. It is now a lot closer to where we actually use our computers, so we are getting a better signal too… Once James was done, I helped Dan in the basement covering up all the screws in the drywall. It is a job where I am always worried I am going to make more work later for someone else, or if I’d done it this way, would have been a lot better, or why did you do that, we are just going to cover it with this later… so… I had lots of continual questions for Dan the whole time. He had to go home, and Moira had a frozen pizza in the oven for Josh and I. Moira is still on a special diet, so, she had some salmon and rice or something… We had the usual flurry of activity getting Josh ready for bed, and then I watched a couple shows with Moira and took turns looking after Zach.

FRIDAY
It was a big storm all night, but I didn’t think too much about it, as we didn’t have snow scheduled in the weather, but I woke up to a big icy snowy windy mess. I got ready for work, and left. I picked up Iain and we made our way to have breakfast at a little local diner. After breakfast we made our way to work, and got the building shoveled out and set up to ship a bunch of orders for the day. On Thursday we shipped all the bigger orders, and on Friday we shipped all the single or smaller orders. So we shipped about 2500 lbs on Thursday but only 30 orders, and on Friday we shipped about 75 orders… At lunch we just got some burgers and I ate at my desk. We finished up the orders, and then Iain and I went and took the mail early to the Post office, and then went and cleared Dad’s driveway, and then did my driveway and my neighbor Harvey’s driveway. With the drifting, he got the worst of it. I bought a tiny little snowblower that was just perfect for my little driveway. Harvey has a huge driveway, and my snowblower really isn’t good for his. If I am going to keep doing this, I need something bigger, that can actually throw the snow off the driveway. We finished up, and went back to the warehouse to close up for the week, and I came home. Josh and Maverick were playing out in the snow…

I took Moira’s Tracker to get gas and fill up her continually empty windshield washer fluid container. As soon as I got back, we left and drove up to Fonthill to The Lazy Look for Noel’s 30^th Birthday Party. We had a nice time there, and then we drove back to their house, and had some cake.

We came home around 9:00, put Josh to bed, and I looked after Zach for an hour or so while Moira got some groceries. I kinda had a nap with Zach which was nice. Once Moira got back, and took Zach, I went to bed.

SATURDAY
My nice wife let me sleep in. So I got up around 9:00, and got ready for the day. I made an omelet for Moira, Josh and I. I made a delicious coffee, and after breakfast I worked on this blog, had a good coffee and watched the snow gently fall outside my window… it was a good relaxing morning. Dan Cook arrived and put another coat of mud on the drywall. Moira was out sledding with Josh, and I was looking after Zach.

Once Moira got home, and took Zach I went down to help him for a while. Once Dan was done, I had a shower, and went to the hardware store. I picked up a few things Dan told me to get and came home. I had a late lunch. I played with Josh for awhile, and he watched a show…

I looked after Zach again while Moira got some groceries. She made some supper. I held Zach while Moira and Josh ate, then had a quick supper. We had the usual evening of Saturday night baths, getting Josh to bed, etc.

I settled in to watch Hockey Night in Canada. Dan Lee came over to watch a couple of periods. The Leafs lost 3-0 to the NY Rangers, so it wasn’t that great of a hockey night, but it was a great night of hanging out with Dan. Eventually I went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed when Josh came up to greet us. I had a shower, and got ready for church. I made some coffee and breakfast, and helped get Josh ready for to go.

We left for church. I am having difficulty in focusing on Sunday mornings looking after Josh in the Lord’s Supper, and Moira with Zach in the Lord’s Supper as well. I lose my focus quickly trying to keep Josh quiet, or helping him with whatever little thing he is working on. I trust it will get better soon. So, I usually say I had a good time remembering the Lord, but I can’t remember any themes, hymns, thoughts, etc… so… I was there… We had Arnott McIntee as our speaker for the day. After meeting I took Zach and got him in his car seat, and in the Tracker and drove around while Moira got Josh from Sunday School. Zach and I drove around the Portal Village Community doing donuts wherever it was “appropriate”, and keeping Zach contented with movement. Once Moira and Josh were in the car, we drove to Niagara Falls to go to Cheeky Monkeys. We met Mike, with Isabella, Gavin, & Austin. We had pre-ordered some pizza’s and had a quick lunch, then let the kids run wild, and run wild they did.

Eventually the kids were showing obvious signs of exhaustion, so we left. We got home, and I ran an errand to pick up some snacks for Mike and I. Mike and I planned an evening before Christmas if we both survived the exhausting and stressful holidays. We ate junk food, and drank various beverages, and watched a bunch of the World Cup of Rugby that I had recorded. It was great as Mike used to play Rugby, so he could explain to me the nuances of the game, and the rules, and why they did things the way they did. I have a greater appreciation for the game beyond just the obvious toughness of the guys playing it. Moira was great, taking Josh and Zach to the basement, and looking after the boys for the evening while Mike and I just relaxed. Around 11:00, Mike left. I did some clean-up, and finished up this blog.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 01-08-2012

2012-01-08T21:09:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Day “off”
- Winter Classic
- Hanging out with the Frasers
TUESDAY
- 100 order at Work
- Swiss Chalet
- Games and Team Canada vs Russia
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Dry Wall
THURSDAY
- Work
- Dry Wall
FRIDAY
- Work
- Evening with Dan & Hockey
SATURDAY
- House Works
- HNIC
SUNDAY
- Church
- Nap
- Church

Weekly Update

Couple of pictures of Josh going skating for the first time.

MONDAY
This was my lone day “off” for the Christmas Holidays… I got out of bed at 6:00 when Josh came into our room. Moira was feeling sick, so I got up with Josh. I put on some cartoons and snoozed in my recliner for a while. Eventually I got up and made Josh some breakfast, and a cup of coffee for myself. People began stirring in the house, and I made Ben some breakfast, and a few minutes later some for Moira as well. I decided to take Maverick for a bath at the dog wash. It had been a while since he had last been bathed, and with a toddler dropping food on him (rather than for him) he gets dirty quickly. I bathed him and came home. We were gearing up to go to the Mandarin for lunch with Mom & Dad (aka Nanny & Grampy) and the Frasers, and then all sorts of craziness kicked in, with Josh somehow managing to pee in Zach’s car seat, and all over himself, and it was a horrible potty training day. And Moira was sick, so we stayed home. I slipped out and got some take-out for us for lunch. Moira got a Swiss Chalet ¼ Chicken, and I got a burger and poutine. Moira had a nap and I looked after the boys. Eventually I settled in to watch the NHL Winter Classic Outdoor Game. It was the dirty NY Rangers vs the dirty Philadelphia Flyers. I kept getting interrupted during the game. With Josh getting up from his nap, and another failed Potty training experiment. Then Ed Plett came over to measure up the walls in the basement to get his drywall supplies list. While I was away the game restarted on its own, and I missed most of the 3^rd period. We had some supper, and got Josh ready for bed. We hung out and watched a couple Mentalist episodes. It was interesting, with the Frasers here this week, they were also big into watching the same show as well, and they had brought a couple seasons on DVD, so there were a lot of Mentalist sessions in the evenings once they got back from their gallivanting. I had work in the morning, so I went to bed before everyone else…
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I slipped out before anyone was up, and went to the warehouse with Maverick. I made some coffee, and got started on the day. The first thing I had to do was do the customs paperwork to get the Rise Up Bookstore returned, and then some other paperwork. Then Iain and I got to work doing orders. Al had come in the week before and picked a bunch of orders, and so we just tried to get them all done. The Frasers dropped in for a visit just before lunch, and we tried to assist them with their requests, and even took the boys out for Tie Pink Tuesday. It was pretty good, and in the end Sam bought dinner. That was nice. Iain and I zipped back to work, and did orders all afternoon. My UPS driver was off, and so we had a replacement who showed up early which was kind of annoying. We only got 80 orders shipped via UPS on Tuesday. In total we shipped 100 packages even… Iain took the Canada Post to the post office, and shortly afterwards we came home. I got a call that one package was missing, and there was nothing I could do to fix the problem… I found out that they held all my packages which was kind of annoying. I emptied the cupboards in the basement as the kitchen is coming out this week. We then went to Swiss Chalet in Welland with the Family. It was an eventful evening to day the least… it took almost an hour to get our food, which when you have a toddler you are attempting to potty train, and a six week old, adds to the drama of an outing. It was going alright until after supper when we lost Josh who was climbing on empty booths in the restaurant, and then topped off the evening by pressing the button on the emergency exit to sound the alarm which hastened our exit of the restaurant.

We drove home vowing to not leave the house until the boys turned 18… The Frasers came over for the evening and we played a bit of a game of Phase 10, and then we settled in to watch Canada vs Russia in the World Junior Hockey Championship. It seemed like it was going to be a horrible game, and save for about 10 minutes where Canada scored four quick goals, to bring the game within one goal, but Canada couldn’t tie it up, and thus they can only go for the bronze medal… After the game ended, we went to bed…
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Moira was already up with Josh and Zach. I went to work, made some coffee, and got to work. Iain and I had another big shipping day with nearly 80 packages going out. Shortly before lunch I went over to Mom & Dad’s to say goodbye to the Frasers who were leaving to go back to New Brunswick after lunch. I picked up Iain and we got some lunch from Harveys and a ¼ chicken for Moira, and came home. We helped unload some drywall and supplies for our basement. After lunch we went back to work and shipped for the afternoon. I was just about to leave when I found out that thye had held my packages from the day before… So, I had to fix that problem, after I lost it… I vented my rage and kicked stuff… and then I fixed the problem. I picked up some groceries and came home. Ed Plett and Dan Cook came over to work on the basement. I made a delicious lasagna that Mike and Jeanette dropped off a while back, and fed the guys while they worked. Tonight they got a bunch of the drywall done, and the kitchen detached. They went home and I looked after Zach while Moira ran an errand. We watched a Mentalist episode, and then I worked on this blog. Eventually I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed when I heard Josh, and got ready for the day. Eventually I left and went to the warehouse. I made myself some coffee, and got to work. On Tuesday and Wednesday we shipped 185 packages in total, and it was just nuts. Thursday we got a wee reprieve from the mega-busyness and got a chance to breathe. Iain and I worked for the morning, and went to Archie’s for lunch. I got a delicious Chicken Bacon Ranch sub. We brought our lunches back to work and ate in the warehouse. We worked for the afternoon, and eventually Iain went to the post office. I had to wait for a delivery from the US. Eventually it arrived, and I went home. I began making supper. I made a full steak dinner for Moira, who is on a restricted diet for a few weeks, and a big pot of pasta for Josh and I, and Ed and Dan who were working in the basement. Last night they finished putting up the drywall, so, what is left is taping and mudding, trim, and paint. It is exciting to see what the final outcome is going to look like. Once they had that part of the project done, they went home for the night. I took Zach for a while and he had a nap on my chest while I watched some hockey.

Moira and I then watched the movie iRobot with Will Smith. Eventually I went to bed.

FRIDAY

I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Josh woke up as I was leaving for work, so I changed him, and left and went to the warehouse. I realized that I had left my computer at home, and had to go back. I made myself some coffee, and got to work. It was a slower day, and Iain spent the day tidying the warehouse, getting ready to receive some pallets of books, and taking down Christmas decorations. At lunch we picked up some Harvey’s burgers using some coupons that came in the mail. In the afternoon we did a few orders, and I ran a couple errands. Eventually we took the mail to the post office. I met Zach at the electrical supply store to get some things for the job he did for me on Saturday. I went to Canadian Tire on the way home. We are installing some new cable outlets, and the tool to put the end on a “cable” cable is like $120.00. So, we just bought cables that were already finished. I picked up some pizza for Josh and I for supper and came home. We had supper and we had the usual flurry of evening activity until Josh went to bed. Moira and Zach went out for the evening to a friends birthday party. I had Dan over and we watched hockey for the evening and had a good visit. Eventually he went home, and I went to bed.

Daddy, you tickle me one more time and I’m gonna bop you on the nose…

SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I made myself a coffee, and then went to pick up Iain. We drove to the house Ed is building and helped for a couple of hours putting roof trusses up for Ed and Dan. Eventually Iain and I left, taking Ed’s truck and moved some things to an empty warehouse bay next to GFP. We took the kitchen cupboards we tore out, and the doors we have to paint. Around 12:30 we were done that part of the job. I swept up the basement from all the drywall work that was done, and it was exciting to see the space we’ll have when we move down there. I had some lunch, and then waited for Zach to arrive to do some electrical work for me.

He installed a couple cable outlets, some Ethernet outlets, and then a light switch and a new wall sconce light in the hallway to our bedroom. Moira made a sweet potato shepherds pie for supper. After supper Zach tidied up his tools, and went home. I vacuumed the living room, and looked after Little Zach while Moira got Josh ready for bed. I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the Detroit Red Wings. Zach was having a nap on my chest for the evening which was nice. The Leafs got off to a nice 3-0 lead but the Wings got a couple, tied the game, and it was an exciting 3^rd period. Shortly after the game ended I went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed when my wife told me to go look after Josh. I got him on the potty, and put on a show for him, and went to shave and get ready for church. I made some breakfast for Josh and I. We got ready to go to church, and eventually left and got there almost on time. I held a sleeping Zach for the Lord’s Supper, then finished my coffee in the gym at the table of guys. We had Sean O’Byrne as our speaker for the day. He spoke on Grace in the morning. Moira and I picked up some Harvey’s / Swiss Chalet for lunch on the way home from meeting, had lunch, and shortly after lunch everyone was napping. I had Zach on my chest until he woke up wanting some lunch himself. I gave him to Moira, and went to my bed to extend my nap. I needed it. I am still wiped out from the Rise Up Conference, the busy week at work, the busy week that naturally occurs with a sick wife, an energetic potty training toddler, and a newborn. It was a glorious nap. I got up and spent an hour around the house, getting Josh his supper, and got ready to go to meeting. I left early and went to the prayer meeting, then than Sean O’Byrne spoke on God’s Faithfulness for the evening. Another excellent message. I picked up some groceries, and came home. I bought stuff to make some fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches for supper. I got home and got Josh to bed after reading him some books. He has had two perfect days of potty training which is exciting! I did a load of laundry, and made supper. Moira and Zach went out to visit her friend Rachel Brooks (aka Vandenberg) for the evening. I guarded Josh. I had grilled cheese sandwiches, and homemade tomato soup for supper. I settled in to watch the Detroit Red Wings vs the Chicago Blackhawks and finished up this blog.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 01-01-2011 (Rise Up Conference Edition)

2012-01-01T19:57:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone
Weekly Update – 2011 Rise Up Conference

Table of Contents

- Going to Rise Up Conference

- At the Rise Up Conference

- Home from the Rise Up Conference

Weekly Update

SUNDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for church. It was Christmas Day, and I was about to go to the Rise Up Conference around 11:30. We had talked about skipping church that morning as it was Christmas and all. Moira and I talked about it a bit and the absurdity of it kind of hit us. I have been listening to this War of Ages CD, which opens with a quote (which I think was on a DC Talk album too) “The greatest single cause of atheism is Christians who acknowledge Christ with their lips but deny Him with their lifestyle, that is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.” And on a day when the world actually bothers to go to church, and I can’t be bothered to go??? Anyways, we went, and had a good time remembering the Lord. I then left to go home. I said good-bye to Little Bear, and then Moira and Zach. I was weeping as I left that I had to leave my family to go to a conference. It was so miserable leaving. I had about 20 minutes once I got home, so I did some tidying and cleaning for Moira so she wouldn’t have to do it herself. Sam arrived and we left, picked up Harold, Barb, and Iain, then to get Danielle. We got on the road, and started driving. I had a headache, was sad I was leaving, and I confess I wasn’t much company for the first hour and a half of the drive. I listened to some good metal on my phone began to be more hospitable the rest of the trip. I drove for a couple hours then we got gas and Harold took over. We found a lone Chinese buffet for supper in a tiny town in West Virginia. We got back on the road and drove to Charlotte, and arrived at the hotel, Renaissance Suites Charlotte, around 10:55pm. I got the van unloaded with Harold and Iain, got my room key, and went to bed.

MONDAY
We met in the lobby restaurant for breakfast around 9:00, and had a good breakfast buffet. After breakfast we made our way to the bookroom. The guys were still setting up the tables for us. So we couldn’t really get started for an hour and a half after we intended to start. Once we got going we had a good run of unpacking books. We broke for lunch in the lobby restaurant again and then back to work. We set up the bookroom for about six hours straight, and pretty much finished around 6:30. It looks good, and if every man woman and child buys 30 books, we’ll have very little to pack up to go home. It is a BIG Bookstore. We closed and locked up, and got freshened up in our room. We went to supper to a place called Carolina Prime Steakhouse. We had a delicious supper. I had a nice 20oz Porterhouse. We came home, toured Mom & Dad’s “Presidential Suite Apartment”, and I came back to the room. I set up my coffee stuff, and settled into my room a bit more. I watched something other than hockey on TV, (man the NHL needs to get some mainstream TV deals in the US) and wrote some of the blog. Around 10:30 I went to bed.

TUESDAY

I got out of bed after a long night. The heating / cooling system has a sound of a waterfall, causing my sub consciousness to indicate to my bladder it needs to go to the washroom. So I was up a few times in the night for that. The hotel pillows are supplied by the Jacob Wrestling Angels line, and so you wrestle with your pillows until daybreak when you finally resign yourself to the fact that you might was well just get up and have a shower and get started on the day. So in other words it was a rough night. However on the bright side, I had unpacked the coffee supplies I had shipped to the conference and so I had a delicious morning coffee that I French Pressed in my room. I got ready for the day, and went to the lobby, and had some breakfast with Mom, Danielle, and Harold. Bill and Carol Duncan also arrived later and joined us. I had some crab cake eggs benedict. Delicious. After breakfast we went shopping at a nearby strip mall with a TJ Maxx and a Burlington Coat Factory. I found a pair of gray cargo pants, something I have been looking for for about two years. I then bought a pillow. I have wanted one for home for a while, and the previous evening convinced me to buy a new one. We stopped for some Mexican at Azteca Mexican Restaurant for lunch. It was alright but the type of place that serves you a huge plate with ¾ of the plate refried beans. We came back to the hotel and people were beginning to show up for the conference. We did some final touch ups on the book room, and a few things around the hotel, and opened the book room for business. I was sent on an emergency run to Wal-Mart for a cable for the Audio Video guys, and while out I stopped at Mac’s Speed shop BBQ. It was a place I could just move into and start paying rent. I have never been satisfied with the portions at a BBQ place, and when the tiny waitress was telling me to order the smaller dish I didn’t “really” believe her. I got take out and zipped back to the hotel. I had gotten a Beef Brisket sandwich for the bell-hop at the front desk. He had recommended the place to me the night before with great delight, and a hint of drool. So, I delighted him with a Brisket Sandwich and some mac n’ cheese. I had supper outside the book room, and ended up having to give the rest of my pulled pork away. It was awesome. I worked in the book room for a while, and then we closed up for John Lennox to be the speaker of the opening general session. He was excellent. I worked the book room for a bit until I had to make yet another emergency run to Wal-Mart for the audio video guys. It wouldn’t have been so bad except there was some serious resentment that my plea two conferences running (with plenty of notice) for the conference committee to find some techies to take this department over. But alas the night the conference starts it is my responsibility to rescue the conference. I got back to the book room just in time to close it, and deal with the days sales. I went to my room and went to bed.

WEDNESDAY

I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I made myself a delicious coffee, and headed downstairs. I had my coffee in the lobby. I am very thankful that I brought my coffee stuff, bottled water, and a case of coke to this conference. So many times it has been just the thing I needed and the week is only half over. We had some breakfast, and opened the book room. We were kind of busy. There was a general session and I just stayed in the book room. We then closed and I went to a John Lennox session. He was talking about his books, and they started flying in the 20 minutes until lunch. I called and ordered another 150 of his books to be sent in next-day-air. I grabbed a bit of lunch, and then the credit card machine ran out of paper. I had brought the wrong sized roll. So, I went out for an extremely frustrating errand. First the GPS took me to a remote location to where the Office Depot was no longer open. I was on a difficult traffic filled drive. Then I had to find another office supply place that didn’t have what we were actually looking for. I am going to have to modify the rolls of credit card paper myself. I got back just as the Joe Reese general session was ending and the store got busy for the short break. Once the break was done I went to another John Lennox seminar. I opened the book room for the break before supper. Once things were rolling and the staffs were there, I went to my room for a break. We closed for supper, and had a nice banquet. After supper we opened again and allowed people the opportunity to browse our books. Then Joe Mikhael was the speaker for the evening general session. He spoke on work and really gave me a kick in the hindquarters in regards to my work, and my frustrations of the last month and a half with my role with Rise Up conference, and the stress of work, and the resentment of leaving my family for Christmas, etc. It was a good message and reminded me of whom I “really” work for. I left the session a little early to get the book room ready for customers after the general session ended. We stayed open until about 10:00. It was a slower evening as it was the hymn sing evening, and many people were at that. I left Megan to do the end of day book keeping, and left for some BBQ. I went with three people< Anne, Courtney, and Jonathan from Starksville MS who had come with Dave and Sara Nicholson. It was good to get to know them as I have heard a lot about them from the Mississippi family. We went to Mac’s Speed Shop BBQ, a different one that I had gone to the night before. It was pretty good, but we went at 10:30 at night, and some of the BBQ had dried up a bit, and the Beef Brisket I ordered was a little tough. It would have been perfect at supper time. I came back to the hotel, and talked to Moira for a while on the phone before going to bed.

THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got my coffee stuff going. I had a shower and got ready for the day. Got my coffee made and went to the lobby to have breakfast. I ate with Bill Duncan and had a good chat. I opened the book room, and worked in there for the morning. I didn’t close it up, as I was waiting for a Fed Ex Delivery. I wandered down to the front and had a good chat about tailgating and going to football games with the bell-hops. The general session broke, and we got busy for a few minutes in the book room. I went for a while to Joe Reese’s session, and then I left and got an iced tea, and got back to my room as the Fed Ex Delivery of John Lennox books arrived about 5 minutes before the seminars ended. I put them out on the table, and people started buying them. I worked the book room during lunch, and we took shifts working and getting our lunch, and then working the table during the free time. Once the seminars started at 2:00, Megan, Ian and I went for lunch in the hotel restaurant, and relaxed for an hour while the rest of the attendees were in a seminar. We were open for another half hour free time. Supper was a fine Roast Beef dinner, which was enhanced when someone gave me their portion of beef making the meal “just right”. After supper I opened the book room until the general session with Joe Reese. We opened the book room for a while after the last session. We closed up, and counted up. Then I met George and Brenda Fehr, and another George from Louisiana, and Daniel Webster in the lobby for a late night snack. I went to my room and went to bed.

FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I made some coffee in my room and went to the lobby. There were a few minutes until breakfast, so I read a newspaper. I sat with Joyce Barinowski for breakfast (amongst others) and had a good chat. We opened the bookstore before the last general session of the conference. John Lennox did a great message, and that ended the conference. We opened the bookstore for another hour and a half. During that time people were scrambling attempting to get the conference CD done. But something was screwed up, and most people got blank discs. So… GFP will ship out new ones to everyone once we get our CD duplicator back. More Rise Up Work… We got some pizzas delivered to the book room and had a couple minute break for lunch. Then we began packing up the book room. My seat of the pants analysis is that I did about 25% more work than in past years at this conference, and so, when the inventory of the book room, and the packing up took us about four hours longer than in the past, and when we were finally done at 10:30 pm I was wiped out. We called it done, and went to the hotel lobby for supper. The restaurant was closed, so, we just ordered off the bar menu. I had some fish tacos, and wings, and shared a spinach and artichoke dip with the rest of us. I went to the room after supper, packed my bags and had a shower, and went to bed. Exhausted.

SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready to leave. My back was pretty sore from the work the day before. I called the bell-hop and had him collect my things and bring them down for me. We loaded the van, and then had breakfast in the lobby. At 8:29 we pulled out of the hotel in Charlotte. We got on the road, and shortly after we got on the highway I went to sleep for an hour and a half. I slept through a rest stop / gas fill up, and woke up a while longer down the road. Around noon we hit a Bob Evans for lunch. We kept driving and stopping only for gas. The last gas break I picked up some McDonalds. We cleared the border with no issues, and we pulling into Port Colborne around 8:30. 12 hours on the road. We dropped people off, and soon enough I was home. I came inside and gave Moira a kiss, and brought my luggage in. Soon enough I was settled into my recliner with Zach on my chest. Josh had already gone to bed. I watched a bit of the Leafs vs Winnipeg Jets game. My sister Charlotte, Dan, and Jared, Nick & Ben were in town. Ben wanted to watch the Canada vs USA World Junior game, and we had recorded it. We watched it from the beginning. We were pleased that Canada won. We had a few snacks, and watched the pathetic ball drop in Times Square. I thought it used to be bigger or something… Shortly after that, we tidied up from the night, and went to bed.

SUNDAY
I got out of bed when Josh came into our room chattering about the cars that I had brought him from the trip. We got ready for church, and had the flurry of activity getting ready for that. We left for meeting and I tried to have a good time remembering the Lord. Moira was in the nursery with Zach, and I had Josh, and the activity of trying to keep him quiet was quite distracting. Once Moira was finished feeding Zach, I brought Josh in so he could go potty, and got Zach to sleep on my chest in the meeting. I had my coffee at the break time, and then Ed Plett was the speaker on the topic of hope. Mom made a delicious Roast Beef dinner for the Fraser and Cairns clan. After lunch I looked after Zach for a while in the Recliner in the living room, and woke up around 4:30. We hung out at Mom’s for a while, and then I came home. I did some laundry, and chores around the house, and got unpacked from the trip. Moira and the boys got home, and Josh watched some shows while he went on the potty. We got Josh to bed for the night, and I finished up the blog, and Moira and I intend to hang out watching some Mentalist episodes for the evening. Sorry there were no pictures this week… to busy to take any…

Glad to be home from the Rise Up Conference. Glad to be home. Glad to see my wife and boys. Glad to be with the Frasers for a short visit.

That was my week…
Chris

Oh and Happy New Year…

Weekly Update 12-24-2011

2011-12-24T22:48:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone
Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Rise Up Shipment Gone
- Leafs Game
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Niagara Falls Lights
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Guarding Josh
- Evening in the Recliner
THURSDAY
- Work
- Hockey With Dan
FRIDAY
- Shortish Day at Work
- Babysitting
- Christmas Eve
SATURDAY
- Christmas Day

Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed when Josh came to our room to wake me up. I put a show on for Josh, and had a shower and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and began making my coffee. I had to zip out to the grocery store to get some Coffee Mate, and went back to work. I made my coffee and began checking a weekend worth of e-mail. I then helped Faye finish up the invoicing for the Rise Up Conference bookstore. I then did the customs paperwork for the shipment. The truck arrived to pick up the six pallets. I loaded them on the truck, and just like that “phase 1” of the Rise Up Bookstore was done. (Phase 2 is actually setting it up and running it in Charlotte, and Phase 3 is putting away what was not sold) It would be nice if Phase 3 didn’t have to happen but I suspect it is a bit ambitious to anticipate that every attendee, man, woman and child, buys 30 books each. This project has put me under considerable stress, and my body told me so today by locking up my back. I took it relatively easy the rest of the day doing some neglected correspondence, and some paperwork for the rest of the day. Lunch was going to be Harveys for burgers with Iain, but we didn’t feel like interacting with a few people we saw there, so, we went to McDonalds. I worked for the afternoon, and eventually Iain went to the post office. When he got back, I went up to see my friendly chiropractor “Dr Mike”, and got a rough adjustment. He was really beating on me trying to loosen me up. I came home and finished up supper Moira had started. I was kinda tired, and so after supper I took Zach for a wee nap. I started the bedtime process with Josh, but a combination of Josh’s exuberance, my sore back and exhaustion, I traded jobs with Moira and resumed looking after Zach. Zach fell asleep, and he had a nice nap. Almost two hours of him snuggling and sleeping with me. I watched the Leafs vs LA Kings game for the evening. It was a good exciting game, which went to overtime, then to the shootout. The Kings won the shootout, and thus the game.
TUESDAY
Moira told me to sleep in the basement on our new bed. I had a pretty good sleep, but got pretty cold in the middle of the night. I got up and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse and made a delicious cup of coffee. I was pretty sore from my wrecked back, and so I pretty much did paperwork for the day. At lunch we had Tie Pink in the breakroom with everyone. Moira, Josh and Zach dropped in, and so I played Hide & Seek with Josh for a while. We worked for the afternoon, and eventually I went home. I swapped Josh’s car seat into the van, and we drove to Niagara Falls. We hit up Wal Mart for a few things, like 36 cans of Root Beer for my nephews from New Brunswick who are visiting around New Years. We had supper at Wal Mart, and then went to the Falls so Josh could see all the Christmas Lights. He seemed to really enjoy that.

We drove home and got Josh ready for bed. I tidied my garage, and then Mike arrived to give me an adjustment. Moira and I watched a couple shows, and I went to bed around 11:00.
WEDNESDAY
I got up around 7:40, which was a pretty good sleep. I got ready for work and went to the warehouse. I made myself a coffee, and got to work. Today was still a busy day, despite it being impossible to get Christmas delivery… but it wouldn’t have mattered because it was really impossible once the Canada Post Shipping Computer died. So James came to attempt to fix that. Lunch was a cheap pizza at Little Caesars, and back to work. I spent the day at my desk, and Al and Iain did orders, and James tried to fix the computer. We ended up just going to buy a new one. I came home around 5:30 and began looking after Zach. Moira and Josh went to some Christmas thing, pizza with Santa. Zach had a nice nap in the recliner with me. Eventually Moira and Josh got home. I played with Josh in his room for a while, and did a few chores around the house. I read Josh some books and put him down for the night. I watched some TV for the evening, and hung out at home. Moira’s sister Beth came over and hung out too. I did some laundry, and eventually everyone was in the living room, and we watched a Mentalist episode. Eventually I went to bed. With my back I have been sleeping downstairs on the new King Sized Bed alone, which has been OK…
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I slipped out the door before Josh or Moira were up. I drove up to see my friendly Chiropractor Mike, and he gave me an adjustment. I drove to work getting some McDonalds for breakfast along the way. It was a “slower” day in the warehouse with only about 40 orders done on the day, and doing some end of the year tidying in the warehouse. At lunch Sam, Iain, James and I went to Archies, and we all got a delicious Archies burger. I had given Al the afternoon off, and Iain got back from work and wanted to leave to go to Toronto with his parents. I was “alone” in the warehouse for the afternoon. Although James was doing some work on my computer so we had a chat with one another while I did orders. Eventually I left and took the packages to the post office, and went home. Moira took Josh out to do some Christmas shopping, and I looked after Zach.

He was sleeping and so I had a nap myself. We stuck some frozen pizzas in the oven for supper. We had the usual flurry of evening activity of getting Josh to bed, and household chores. Then Dan came over and we watched some hockey for the evening. The Leafs won over the Buffalo Sabres. We watched a bit of the Canada vs Swiss World Junior game. Dan went home and I looked after Zach for 45 minutes before going to bed

FRIDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for work. Maverick and I drove up to Mike to get one last Chiropractic adjustment for my wonky back. I went to work and made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got started on the day. We were trying to work a half day, and finish everything up for the week and for the year. I left work around 1:30 and came home. I buzzed my head, and had a shower, and did a few things around the house. Moira had agreed to babysit two of the Lee kids, and so there was a bit of chaos in our house for the afternoon, and every toy pulled out and on the floor. Just kids playing. At one point Josh tipped over his whole kitchen and spilled all the little dishes and plastic food everywhere. So it made the one way journey to the garage as I am kinda sick of cleaning up tiny useless plates and plastic food… I got partially packed for the Rise Up Conference, and then Moira and I took turns looking after Zach and the other kids. We got Tie Pink take-out for Moira, Josh and I, and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the Lee kids. After supper they went home, and we cleaned up the house. I moved the piano into Josh’s room which is going to be its eventually final resting place. I then hauled the love seat up into the living room from the basement. We got Josh ready for bed and read him a few books, and the Christmas Story. This was our Christmas Eve, as I am leaving Christmas Day for the Rise Up Conference. We got Josh down for the night, and then put all the gifts under the tree. Moira gave me Zach and did some tidying, and slipped out to the grocery store. I looked after Zach and watched some World Junior Hockey.

Moira got home and we watched a Mentalist episode, and went to bed.
SATURDAY – Cairns Christmas
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I got up around 7:00 expecting a eager Josh to be diving into the Christmas Day experience. I didn’t realize that he was sleeping in. So I made a delicious coffee, and then watched a bit of Sportscenter. Eventually Josh got up, and we went to wake up his Mom and Zach. We opened our stockings and then Mom & Dad (aka Nanny & Grampy) arrived. We had some breakfast, and then began opening gifts. Josh is at a great age for Christmas, and he was a good boy most of the day. We had given him a chat the night before about being thankful, and he was good today at being thankful and patient, and played a good Santa handing out gifts to everyone else. We had a good time for Christmas morning. Mom & Dad went home to get Christmas Dinner going. Josh had a nap, and we did some tidying. Eventually we got Josh up, and everyone in the car and over to Mom & Dad’s for Christmas Dinner. We had a pretty good dinner, until Josh threw up, and Zach was screaming for his own supper. I had to slip out to get some more clothes for Josh, and then rocked Zach for a while. It was a chaotic supper. We got Josh settled in to watch some cartoons on Grampys bed. We had dessert, a fine Skor Trifle. After dessert I went in to check on Josh and woke up half an hour later. We went to the chapel to go to a Christmas Eve Service. Josh who has consumed several sleeves of Pez Candy, and as much sugar as a little 3 year old can consume in a day, was fluctuation between bouncing off the pews and yawning and telling me how tired he was. It was kinda funny. Eventually we came home, and we gave him a bath, and got him to bed. I did a couple loads of laundry and finished up this blog.

And now, lots of pictures from Cairns Christmas…

Merry Christmas Everybody…

Since I am driving to Charlotte NC tomorrow for the Rise Up Conference, I ended this blog a day early.
That was my week…
Thanks
Chris

Weekly Update 12-18-2011

2011-12-18T21:15:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Home
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Hockey Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Home
THURSDAY
- Work
- Work
- Work
FRIDAY
- Work
- Rise Up Conference Booktable “done”
Pizza & Wings
SATURDAY
- Sleep-In
- Family interactions
- Leafs Game
SUNDAY
- Church
- Home Alone
- Church
Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to work and made myself some coffee, and got to work. I knew I was in for a busy busy day at work. We had a lot of web orders that collected over the weekend, and a lot of orders that came in over e-mail, and basically there were two phone lines ringing all day, and most of the time the third. It was nuts. With orders to be shipped, and Rise Up conference packing, only 5 days to go, and to top it all off, short staffed. Iain picked, I packed, and Al shipped for most of the day. At lunch Iain and I ended up at Archie’s. I had a delicious Ruben sub. We worked for the afternoon, right up until the UPS guy arrived, and we had to go to the post office. Nearly 70 orders shipped. Eventually I was home, and interacting with family. Moira had a spinach and 3 cheese lasagna in the oven. So we had a good supper. I played with Josh, and got him ready for bed. We read a bunch of books, and eventually I put him to bed. Moira and I watched a couple episodes of The Mentalist. I went to bed around 11:00, and tried to go to sleep.

TUESDAY
I got up, and went to work. Josh, Moira and Zach were still sleeping when I left. I got to work, and we had another busy day. I shipped orders almost all day. It was Tie Pink Tuesday, and I had a delicious So-Chow WonTon dish. I worked for the afternoon. Today was the day I was really stressed out about how busy we have been, and the fact that we are significantly behind on picking, packing, and pricing for the Rise Up Conference booktable. We worked for the day, and did an hour overtime. I picked up supper on the way home from Archie’s. I got a Nickelodeon, and a Ruben for Moira. We had a good supper. After supper, I had a wee nap with Zach in my recliner. I then read a couple books to Josh, and helped Moira get him to bed. I watched a bit of the Leafs vs Carolina Hurricanes game, and then settled in to watch a couple episodes of “The Mentalist”. Mike came and gave me an adjustment, and Beth came over to do some laundry, and watched another episode. Eventually I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed when Josh woke up around 6:45. I put on some cartoons for him, and got ready for work, and went to the warehouse. I got there around 7:15. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got started on work for the day. We sent out an e-mail blast the night before and I had a lot of e-mails to go through. Eventually Iain and Al arrived, and we got to work on picking, pricing and packing for the Rise Up Conference, and doing orders. We worked all morning, until lunch. Iain and I called ahead to The Canalside to have them get some Fish & Chips ready for us for noon. We had some of the best Fish & Chips I have ever had today. It was particularly delicious. I went back to work for the afternoon, and did orders, and arranged an import from the US, and some paperwork. Around 3:00 I went home for an hour so Moira wouldn’t have to take Josh to a Midwife appointment for Moira and Zach. I spent about half an hour grinding up 3 lbs of coffee beans, and doing a special blend with about seven different kinds of coffee. It smells awesome. I watched some cartoons with Josh for a while. Moira got home and I went back to work. I did some paperwork, and had a meeting with Sam. On my way home I hit the grocery store, and picked up some bottled water, coke, and some coffee supplies to pack and ship to the Rise Up Conference. I always end up spending like $75.00 on Coffee on these trips, and so I figured bring my stuff, and have the coffee I actually love every morning. And you get in the hotel and can spend $1.75 per bottle of water, or spend $3.00 for 24 bottles of water, and keep them in your room mini-fridge. I came home, and we had supper. Moira made a nice Shepherd’s Pie for supper. Josh had a cold, and by the time supper was done, he was ready for bed. I ran a quick errand to get some baby wipes for Moira. Well not for Moira, but for the Moira to be able to change diapers more efficiently. I watched a couple periods of hockey, and then a couple Mentalist episodes… Eventually I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed when Josh woke me up around 6:30. I let him watch some cartoons, and I had a shower and got ready for work. I went to work pretty early since I was awake anyways, and left Moira and Zach sleeping, and Josh watching cartoons. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee. It is really busy at work as people are still ordering for Christmas, and all the personal Choice Gleanings orders of people who just want it to be delivered before the new year. Ed Plett called me and asked if he could start on my basement. I met him and told him what I wanted done. He started, and by the time he left he had all the framing done. We are going to have a nice closet, and lovely master bedroom in the basement, and then we are getting another bedroom at the other end, with a good size closet which will be a nice room for Josh. Al and Iain worked on Rise Up most of the morning, and I did orders. Eventually I shifted to working on Rise Up conference as well. We began picking, pricing and packing like crazy, and worked until about 8:30 at night. I was exhausted by the time we walked out the door. The good thing was we were completely done the GFP Books for the conference booktable. Iain and I went to McDonalds for a late supper. I got home around 9:00, took a look at the fine craftsmanship in the basement, and settled into my recliner. Moira and I watched a couple of Mentalist episodes, before eventually going to bed.

FRIDAY
I got up when Josh woke up. I got him settled in watching some cartoons, and I went to work. I made a delicious cup of coffee. I spent the morning picking product for the Rise Up Conference, and then did orders. Iain, Al and I went to Archies for lunch. I had a delicious Taco. We worked hard for the afternoon, and at 4:55 I left work for the afternoon, and the Rise Up Conference booktable was completely packed. What a relief. I got home, and Moira had a hard day with Zach not wanting to sleep, yet desperately wanting to sleep. We decided to order a pizza, and some wings for supper. I did some chores around the house and picked up supper. We had a good supper, and we watched some classic Christmas shows. I was utterly exhausted, it was a hard week of work, with lots of packing for the conference, lots of overtime, and then home to help Moira with Zach and Josh. And I think my body recognized the mental elation of being done, and released extra exhaustion into the system for me to deal with. We are taking way too much stuff for the anticipated number of people coming to the conference, but we had a few categories that I really wanted to bring, and it began to snowball on us. For instance we carry a full line of charts, pamphlets, powerpoints, etc which really need to be seen to be appreciated. It took up a full pallet on its own. We are known for our extensive commentary selection, and I wanted to showcase that. The average Christian bookstore has 2 feet of shelf space dedicated to commentaries, and in our store we have about 150 feet dedicated to commentaries on every book of the Bible. That adds up to just bring a nice selection. Anyways it is good to be done, and I am tired. I got Josh to bed for the night, and settled into my recliner with Maverick to watch the Leafs vs the dirty Buffalo Sabres.

SATURDAY
Moira got up and got Josh watching some cartoons and let me sleep in. She came back to bed as well. It is so great having a babysitter named “t.v.”. I had a decent sleep in, and then got up and had a shower and got ready for the day. I made breakfast for Josh and I and we had a nice breakfast together. I had a delicious cup of coffee, and watched some cartoons. We hung out in the living room playing until Moira and Zach got up. We set up his little train set and played with that a while, and then played cars. We tidied the house, and cleaned a little. Josh had his quiet time in his room. I went and picked up some stuff. I wandered the aisles at Canadian Tire, and I got a little toy shelf that was on sale, and I found a “video baby monitor” which was basically 75% off in the clearance section. I hope it works as there was no refunds on it. I picked up some burgers for a late lunch and then got groceries. I came home, put the groceries away, and got Josh dressed and bundled up, and we went to the park. Josh played for a while until he got cold.

We filled Moira’s car up with gas and came home. I took Zach and let him nap on my lap and Moira puttered around the house. Mom and Dad (aka Nanny & Grampy) came over. They inspected our building renovations in the basement, and we had a short visit. Then Moira’s Uncle Colin, Lena, and Filip and Sophia dropped in.

They were down visiting Gramma Funk for the day for Christmas. We had a nice visit until they had to leave for supper. It is good seeing them. I slipped out and picked up supper from Swiss Chalet and Harvey’s for Moira, Josh and I. We had supper. I then got Zach settled in for a nap. We had a good half hour nap, and then I gave him back to Moira for his supper, and I got Josh ready for bed. I read him a couple books, and put him down for the night. I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the dirty Vancouver Canucks. The Leafs played a good game, but they didn’t get key saves from their STUPID GOALIE ARRGGGGHHHHHHHHH… Anyways, the Leafs lost. I hung out with Moira and Zach in the living room and watching some TV. Eventually around midnight we went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. I made some breakfast, and helped get Josh ready for meeting. Everyone was ready in good time, and we got to meeting. Josh stayed in with us for the Lords Supper and was a pretty good boy for the whole time. He only got “wrangy” when the guy doing the announcing began reading letters after the announcements. I got Josh a snack in the gym, and enjoyed the rest of my mega-delicious cup of coffee. Ed Plett was the speaker for the morning, and spoke on hope. Moira took Josh and Zach to a “Christmas Party”. Josh made a nice little Gingerbread House.

I had an great afternoon alone. I came home after meeting, and made a nice dish of ground beef with some mushroom soup. I watched a movie, and then had a nice nap until the family got home. I got up and looked after Josh for a while, and then took Zach while Moira made some pancakes and bacon for supper. The bacon was some fancy smoked stuff from St Jacobs. It was delicious. I went to evening meeting where Mike Lewis was the speaker. I came home right after meeting. Mike came over to deliver some gifts, and I had a nice visit with him, and I showed him our renovations in the basement. I came upstairs and watched a “Bones” episode with Moira and finished this blog.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 12-11-2011

2011-12-11T22:23:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Home
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Feast!
- Home
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Supper at Mom & Dad’s (aka Nanny & Grampy’s)
- Home
THURSDAY
- Work
- Home
FRIDAY
- Work
- GFP Christmas Party
SATURDAY
- Work
- Library
- Home
SUNDAY
- Church
- Christmas Program

Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. Josh, Moira and Zach were still sleeping. I left for the warehouse, and made myself a pot of coffee. Al arrived around 8:00, and we got to work. I had done a bunch of orders on Saturday, and so Al was shipping, and I was packing a bunch of orders. Iain was working on the Rise Up Conference packing. We signed Zach up for an Education fund, and then I had some left-over steak, and gorgonzola blue cheese gnocchi for lunch. Delicious. I went back to work, and did orders for the afternoon. We were BUSY all day. Too busy to be packing a bookstore on the side… I worked for the afternoon, and then came home. I did a bunch of chores around the house, and played with Josh for a while. Gail Beach brought us some supper, a delicious feast, with some Prosciutto spaghetti, some homemade delicious bread, Caesar salad, and a chocolate cake. We had a fine supper, which was Josh approved. I had a long day, and I confess keeping up with Josh was a bit of a task. And putting Josh to bed was quite the chore as well. He had a lot of unburned energy. I was quite pleased when he was finally down for the night, and I was settled into my recliner. Moira and I watched a couple Mentalist episodes, and eventually I went to bed for the night.

TUESDAY
I got out of bed when Josh was jumping on me. I got ready for the day, put a cartoon on for Josh, and went to work. I had a delicious coffee to start the day before getting to work. Actually it was I had a part of a coffee, then sipped away at it all day whenever I was back to my desk. It was another busy day. I did orders again for the day. Iain spent the day shrink-wrapping some book set promos we are doing for the conference. At lunch we went to Tie Pink, and today was the “surprise” Tie Pink Christmas Dinner, where Amy gave us an incredible feast of Tie Pink Joy as her little Christmas gift to us. It was delicious. We went back to work, and again, lots of orders all afternoon. Eventually we closed up and went to the post office. I came home, and was wiped out. I ended up having a half-hour nap in my recliner. Jim and Elizabeth Paul dropped off a Scottish Stew for supper. We had a good supper. Josh didn’t have an afternoon nap, and so shortly after supper, he was ready for bed. I read him some stories and put him down for the night. Moira, Zach and I had an evening of watching the Leaf’s vs NJ Devils, Storage Wars, and The Mentalist.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made some coffee and began doing some work things. Iain and Al were mostly working on the Rise Up Conference bookstore, and I was doing orders. I worked for the morning and then at lunch Iain and I went to Subway. After lunch we worked for the afternoon with more orders and more Rise Up conference. I came home after work, and we packed up the family and went over to Mom & Dad’s, (aka Nanny & Grampy’s) and had supper. It was Zach’s first visit. Mom made a delicious Roast Beef dinner.

We hung out there for a while until it was time to take Josh home for bed. He is in the process of dropping his nap, so he is going to bed earlier in the evenings when he doesn’t have a nap. We had rented Season 1 of “The Mentalist” from the library, so we watched a couple episodes of that. Eventually I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made myself some coffee, and began doing some work things. It was a pretty busy day with both Rise Up Conference stuff, and orders. This is the busiest it has been that I can remember in a long time at GFP during November and December. Throw in a conference, and setting up a bookstore, we have been busy busy. We worked for the morning. Iain and I ended up at Sambos for lunch for some fabulous Club House sandwiches. We worked for the afternoon. I arranged an import from the US, and it was a big one. I had ordered a bunch of gifts for Moira, and Faye had bought a ton of things. We just arranged for two imports, one of “normal” GFP things, and a second that the driver would take right into customs to just enter there. We worked late for the evening. It was Faye, Al, Iain, Dad and I. We finished up some pallets for the conference, wrapped them up, and stuck them in the container until shipping day. We picked up some Swiss Chalet Festive Specials, and ate in the breakroom. We worked until 8:30, and got a lot done. After Iain and Al went home, I stayed another hour wrapping some Christmas gifts. I came home and Moira was hanging out with Jen Lee. I visited for a while, and then went to bed early.
FRIDAY
I got up, put a cartoon on for Josh, and went to the warehouse. I made some coffee, and worked for the morning. Lots of orders. Iain and I had a break to go shovel Sams driveway for him. On the way back to work I picked up 8 24” x 24” cement patio stones for the back of my van. This summer we took the front driveshaft off my AWD van to save some money. But my RWD van sucks in the snow, so I put a bunch of weight in the back. At lunch I went to buy the gift for the GFP Christmas Party this evening. I brought a great gift. It was some 5 year aged Cheddar, some fine Sausage, some crackers, a nice chocolate piece, and some tasty crackers. Iain and I got a cheap pizza for lunch. We worked for the afternoon. I did some orders, and Iain and Al worked on the Rise Up Conference. The import arrived from the US, and we closed up for the afternoon. I came home and got ready for the GFP Christmas Party. Moira and Josh were making a snowman out on the deck having some fun.

I looked after Zach while Moira got ready. We had to bring Josh and Zach for the evening. Moira wasn’t going to come until she decided today, too late to get a sitter. So Moira and the boys came for supper and a few games. She took them home, and put Josh to bed. I stayed for a couple more hours.

I came home once it was done, and watched a Mentalist with Moira. Eventually I went to bed.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed when Josh woke up. I made him some breakfast, and we watched some cartoons. Around 9:30 I left, and went to work. It was another Rise Up packing day. I started by unpacking the shipment from the US that arrived yesterday afternoon. We finished up picking, pricing, and packing the Bibles. I then finished wrapping our Christmas gifts. I ran a quick errand for Moira and was home around 3:30. I took Josh to the Library to return a movie, and then let him play on the kids computer.

Eventually we had to come home. I put a stew in the oven to re-heat for supper. I played with Josh for a while, and then we had supper. We had the flurry of activity getting Josh down for the night. He has skipped his nap, so he went down early. The Leafs were not playing Saturday night, so, I pretty much skipped Hockey Night in Canada. I recorded it, and watched Don Cherry and the Hotstove between Mentalist episodes that Moira and I watched all evening. Zach’s awake time is 10:00pm to Midnight and beyond. So, I was about to go to bed, when we were up another hour and a half getting him to sleep for the night.
SUNDAY
I got up with Josh around 7:00, moved to my recliner, put on some cartoons and fell back asleep in the living room. Around 8:00 I got up, had a shower and got ready for church. I made Josh and I some breakfast, and eventually he and I went to meeting. I kept him in meeting for the morning, and he did pretty good of behaving himself for a good 50 minutes or so before he was done. I took him out to the gym and got an early start on coffee break. My coffee was delicious. After coffee break we had Sam Cairns as our speaker for the day. Today is the Sunday School Christmas Program, and there was rehearsal after a pizza lunch. So, we had lunch and we stayed with Josh for the rehearsal. Eventually I took him home and put him down for a nap. I sorta shoveled the driveway, as much as would easily come up. I watched a couple Mentalist episodes. I had a wee nap in the recliner, and once Josh woke up we gave him some supper, and went to the chapel. I looked after Zach at the back to the chapel, and Moira sat up near the front to get a good view of Josh in the Christmas Sunday School presentation. Josh was a little donkey… or in the King James Version……..

After the play there was a little reception in the gym. Eventually we came home and got Josh ready for bed, read him some books and went to bed. I played with / held Zach for a while. I finished up this blog, and Moira and I watched another Mentalist episode. Basically we watched all of Season 1 this week.

That was my week…
Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 12-04-2011

2011-12-04T21:37:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- New Bed
- Monday Night Football
TUESDAY
- Work
- Canalside
- Family Time
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Family Time
- Leafs Game
THURSDAY
- Work
- Pink Eye
- Family Time
FRIDAY
- Work
- Fancy Supper
SATURDAY
- Work
- Santa Claus Parade / Tie Pink
- Hockey Night in Canada
SUNDAY
- Eggs and Cartoons
- Sunday School
- Nap
- Playing with Josh
Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Moira let me sleep an extra half-hour as I was kinda feeling sick. I had a shower, and left for the warehouse, and got there around 8:00. Actually we were all feeling kinda sick in our little household. I got to work, and made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got started on work things for the day. We had a busy day with lots of orders to be done. I was feeling pretty rough, but managed to be somewhat productive for the day. At lunch I ran a couple errands, and delivered some throat drops for Moira. I picked a cheap pizza and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon, with a couple of breaks. We got a new bed, and since Jabe was in town with his big white truck, he delivered it for us. Our old one is 10 years old, and beginning to get worn out. My back has been hurting in the morning when I wake up, and it has been on our radar to get a new one. When in Mississippi, Moira and I slept in a King Sized bed, and rather liked it. So, we got a beautiful King sized bed. Iain and I went over move it in when Jabe arrived. Then I ran an errand with Moira before going back to work. I finished up some work, then went home for the afternoon. We hung out for a while before supper. Noel & Dwanna delivered us some supper which was nice of them. After supper we watched a Christmas DVD with Josh. Then I got him ready for bed, and read him a bunch of books before eventually putting him to bed for the night. Moira and I spent the evening with Zach, and watched a couple shows on TV. Eventually Jabe came over and we watched Monday Night Football. Moira went for a pre-midnight nap, and I looked after Zach for an hour while he fussed and snoozed and fussed.

We had a nice little visit. Around midnight Monday Night Football was done, and Jabe went home. I delivered a hungry Zach to Moira, and went to bed.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed when I heard Josh reading to himself outside our bedroom door. I made him breakfast, and got him ready for the day. Then I put on a show for him, and had a shower, and got ready for work. I went to work. I was running late, and so I picked up Iain on the way. I made some coffee, and had a nice start to the day. We did some orders for the morning, and I did a bunch of paperwork. At lunch, Al, Iain and I went to the Canalside for some fish & chips. Tie Pink was closed for a couple days for some kitchen renovations, so we had to skip Tie Pink Tuesday. After lunch we went back to work, and did work things for the afternoon. Eventually I went to the post office and went home. I took Josh to the Library, and we read some books, and played on the computers for a while. We picked out some Christmas kids DVD’s and checked out. Last Monday, pre-birth we bought some Festive Specials from Swiss Chalet, and they forgot the festive parts of the dinner, and I called them on it. So tonight I picked up two free Festive Specials, and came home. We had a good supper together. Once supper was done we watched a Tigger & Pooh Christmas DVD. We got Josh ready for bed, and I read him some books, and put him down for the night. Moira, Zach and I hung out for the evening. We watched a “Mentalist” episode, and a few shows for the evening. Around midnight we went to bed. Zach had a good long sleep, basically through the night…
WEDNESDAY
Around 7:00 we all got up. I made breakfast for Josh, and then got ready for work, and went to the warehouse. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I got to work for the day, and did a bunch of paperwork for the morning. I had a meeting with Ed about renovating our basement. We had a busy couple of weeks of cleaning, de-cluttering, putting our house up for sale, and touring houses to buy, and researching mortgages, etc, and in the end it makes most sense for us to stay where we are. So, the moving stress is kinda over for the time being. I worked for the rest of the morning. At lunch Iain and I went to Archies. I got a delicious “Humongous Taco”. We went back to work and did orders and some more paperwork. It was the last day of the month, so, we had end-of-month reports. We helped Ed Plett load a “steeple” that he built for this massive house he is working on in Toronto using the forklift. That was exciting. We finished up the day, and I went home. Moira was doing well despite her Mom leaving for Mississippi today. Barb MacDougall and Jen dropped by to deliver us some supper (and meet Zach of course) We had some supper, and played with Josh, and Zach and spent a couple hours getting Josh to bed. I settled in watching the Leafs vs the Boston Bruins. The DVR did me well, and I watched the game in about an hour. I played with Zach for a bit, and did some chores.

We then watched a Mentalist episode, and then I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed when I heard Josh coming into our room. I made him breakfast, and a fine cup of coffee for myself. Josh had his breakfast, then I got him dressed for the day. I put a show on for him, and had a shower, and got ready myself. I took him to Nursery School, and went to work.

I began doing some work things, and just nicely got going on the day. The Nursery School called to say that Josh had Pink Eye, and I had to pick him up, so, I did. We came home and Moira had already arranged a doctors appointment for Josh. So, I helped her get the boys ready, and out the door and into her car so she could go to that.

I went back to work and did work things for the morning. I packed my sister Caroline’s Christmas Package, and shipped it. Merry Christmas Caroline. I did some paperwork, and soon enough it was lunch time. Al, James, Iain and I went to Archies and I got another beautiful Taco. While it was being made I renewed my US Travel Insurance. I had a delicious lunch, and went back to work. I did some work things for the afternoon, arranging an import from the US, and some other paperwork, and a few orders. Eventually we closed up, and took the mail to the post office. We have been really busy this Christmas season and I am beginning to wonder how I can pick and pack a Rise Up Conference Bookstore, and keep up with orders. I came home after work, and helped Moira do some chores around the house. Moira gave Zach a bath.I got supper ready and on the table. We had supper, and then we hung out in the living room as a family while Josh watched a Mickey Mouse episode. Moira and Zach had a nap, and Josh watched some shows. Eventually I got Josh ready for bed, and read him some books. Eventually I put him to bed. I buzzed my head, and had a shower. I watched the 3^rd period of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the Washington Capitals game, and interacted with Zach.

Beth came over, and hung out with Moira. We watched a Mentalist episode together. I went to bed.
FRIDAY
I dragged myself out of bed, when Josh woke me up. I had a tough time waking up this morning. I made Josh some breakfast, and go ready to go to work. I left Josh watching a cartoon and went to work. I made myself some coffee, and got to work. We had a fairly steady day with orders, and I had some paperwork for the morning. At lunch I picked up some groceries, and a pizza. We worked for the afternoon, and we finally began to pack for the Rise Up Conference. We went to the post office, and then I came home, and made supper. I made some skillet fried top-sirloin steaks, and some gorgonzola blue cheese gnocchi. It was a delicious supper. After supper, I snuggled with Zach in my recliner while Josh had a bath. I traded boys with Moira, and read Josh a bunch of books, and put him down for the night. I got some groceries, and some more diapers, and came home. Moira and I watched a couple Mentalist episodes.

SATURDAY
Moira let me sleep an extra hour, and I got up around 8:00. I had a shower, and got ready for the day. I made breakfast for the family, and a fine coffee for myself. I left for work. We were doing a Rise Up packing day. It was a busy morning. I unpacked the shipment I received on Friday. Al packed all the folders for attendees and Iain packed up all the Charts and pamphlets. I picked up some pizzas for everyone working and had lunch in the breakroom. After lunch I did orders. Moira too Josh to see Santa Claus arrive via Tug Boat.

We had a big pile of orders and I figured getting a head start on Monday morning was worthwhile, so we can focus on Rise Up during full staff hours on Monday. Around 3:00 I came home and watched some hockey while Josh was having a nap. It was the day of a Santa Claus Parade in Port Colborne. So, we reserved a table by the window at Tie Pink, and went and had supper. When we got the Mom & Dad (aka Nanny and Grampy) were there, and Al and Carol were also there. So, we had a nice supper with them. Moira or I could stay inside with Zach for the parade as it went past. I took the first shift inside with Zach, and Moira was outside with Josh, and then we swapped. Josh loved the parade with all the Christmas Lights, and Flashing Lights, and Sirens. And of course was thrilled that Santa Claus came past with his sleigh. For the record, it was Zach’s first visit to Tie Pink.

We came home after the parade, and put Josh to bed. I settled in to watch the end of the Leafs game. It was 0-0 when we left Tie Pink, any by the time Josh was in bed it was 2-1 for the Boston Bruins. The final score was 4-1 for the Bruins.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and moved Josh out of our bedroom. Moira and Zach went back to sleep for most of the morning. We watched a Veggie Tales Christmas DVD, and I made Josh some breakfast, and a fine cup of coffee for myself. I made a casserole for lunch, and did some chores around the house. Josh and I went to Sunday School in time for the second meeting.

After meeting we came home, and Josh and I had some lunch. After lunch Josh had a nap, and I ran a quick errand to Staples to get something I needed at work for first thing Monday morning. I came home, and got permission for a nap. I christened the new King Sized Bed in the basement with a Sunday Afternoon Nap. It was a glorious thing. A nap fit for a “king”. I came upstairs when I heard Zach crying through the baby monitor, and spent some time playing with Josh. We set up his train set and played with that, and did a few puzzles, before watching a couple cartoons. I took Zach and got him to sleep on me chest in the recliner which was nice.

Moira took Josh to pick up some Festive Specials from Swiss Chalet. We had an active Josh for a while and I ran him in the living room for a while. I got Josh ready for bed, and read him some books, and put him down for the night. I finished up this blog, and watched a movie with Moira.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 11-27-2011

2011-11-27T21:12:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- Crosby’s Return
- Welcome to the World Zach
TUESDAY
- Day with Mom & Zach
- Meets and Greets
- Leafs Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Wednesday
- Evening with the Family
THURSDAY
- Nursery School
- Work
- Thursday Night Football
FRIDAY
- Nursery School
- Work
- Park Fun
- Louise’s Birthday Event
SATURDAY
- Zach’s first outing
- Nicholson’s Family Christmas
SUNDAY
- Church
- Nap
- Family Time

Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse and made a delicious cup of coffee, and got started on the day. As soon as I opened my e-mail I knew we were in for a busy day in the warehouse, with a lot of web orders pending. Eventually everyone arrived at work, and we started doing orders. We did orders all morning, and pumped out a lot of packages. Somewhere in there we found time to inventory the Tavistock Bible Conference Booktable. At lunch Iain and I went to Archie’s and picked up several subs for people at work. I had a delicious Big B’s Buffalo Chicken Sub. We worked for the afternoon, and kept up with orders. We had a significantly busy day. I was pretty tired by the end of it. I came home and Moira wasn’t feeling great. I picked up some BBQ Chickens, and we made a Chicken and Bean dish we like for supper. I looked after Josh for a couple of hours, and we watched “Frosty the Snowman”, and another cartoon. Then I switched to watch the Mighty Pittsburgh Penguins take to the ice with the first game back for Sidney Crosby. I was kinda watching the first period, and reading books for Josh. Crosby only scored on his second shift, and then got an assist a few minutes later. Totally dominated the game. Around 7:30, it was official that Moira was in labour with the new boy, Zachary Boulter Cairns. So, I called Mom and asked if she would have Josh sleep-over for the night. Just as I was dropping him off, I saw Jabe barreling down the road driving Louise, and we arrived at the same time. I stuck Maverick in the garage, and began focusing on the birthing process. We have mid-wives which come to the house, and it is great. Louise was puttering around and checking in on Moira who pretty much wanted to be left alone during the early moments of the labour. I was watching the Penguins vs Islanders game, which as I said was totally dominated by Sidney Crosby. It was 4-0 going into the 3^rd Period. About 10 minutes to 9, I was sent out to get a few things from the grocery store, and just as I came home, the midwife pulled in the driveway. There was an initial flurry of activity as the midwife checked out Moira, and got the house ready for the delivery. With Louise there, and the midwives, I was kind of redundant, so I relaxed in my recliner. I am pretty good at being a part of the birthing process… Every so often the midwife would listen to the babies heart beat which was cool to hear the heartbeat of the little guy I was about to meet really soon. Moira was a champ in the whole birthing process, and in basically three and a half hours, we had a beautiful baby boy born! There was the flurry of activity while the midwives got baby and mom stabilized. I got to hold him for the first time when Moira moved to our bedroom, and I carried him up to her. Almost 2 hours after he was born everything was done, and we got some pictures.

The midwife packed up and went home, and we got things settled and tried to get some sleep. Moira had Zach in a little bed thing beside her in our bed, so, I slept in the recliner with Maverick for the night.

TUESDAY
I woke up at a nice time of 8:45, and got up for the day. I made some breakfast for everyone (except Zach, who got his breakfast elsewhere) I held Zach for a while, and let Moira have some breakfast. I kind of like him. One of the funny things that newborns do is try to “latch on” to anything on anyone’s chest, so even though Josh did it, it is still disarming to me. I got myself a delicious coffee, and made a few phone calls, and did some chores around the house. Last night the cable picture went out around 10:00, and I took it as a sign from the Lord that a wife in labour is more important than the 3^rd period of Crosby’s return. But this morning when it still was not working I called the cable company and tried to get it working. Eventually it was fixed. It was slow day, with a few visitors during the day. Grampa Jabe arrived this morning, and was really there to run some errands for Louise, but was glad to meet Zach. We thought the midwife was coming to check mother and child around 11:00, and it just kinda getting pushed, so, it was kinda sad that Nanny and Josh didn’t get to come in the morning. In the end they came after the midwife around 3:00, and they stayed for about 40 minutes. Nanny was pleased to meeting Zach, and Josh gave him a little peek, and then regaled us with stories from his sleep-over at Nanny and Grampys. I read him a couple books, and then I dropped them off back at Nanny’s house. He is sleeping over again. I ran a couple errands, and came home. I made supper, a delicious creamy chicken pasta dish. Jabe came back. He fixed the change table, as the support backing board had fallen off. Grandpa Jabe and Grampy Sam had a nice little moment with Zach.

Eventually we had some supper, and I did a few things around the house. Louise went over to the Brooks Townhouse where the Nicholson’s are staying to get a few things done. I puttered around the house, and doing some laundry and some dishes. Around 7:30 I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the Tampa Bay Lightning. Moira was watching a DVD on her computer with Zach, so I was just there if she needed me for the evening. Mike came and gave both Moira and I an adjustment which was great. I watched the rest of the Leafs game, and relaxed for the evening. The Leafs played a pretty good game, winning 7-1. Around 9:45, Beth Paul arrived to meet Zach, and then Louise and Jabe got back. Louise, Beth and Moira had a nice visit. Eventually I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY

I got out of bed, which was a feat. I slept in Josh’s toddler loft bed, which is about 4 feet off the ground, and the ladder is designed for little people in both foot position and weight capability. I got out of bed without dying and got ready for the day. I got some food and drink for Moira, and quietly slipped into the bedroom, and put it on the bedside. Moira and Zach were soundly sleeping. Maverick and I slipped out the door, and off to work. It was quite the day at work, as there was a pile of international and special orders the piled up over the time I was away. And we had sent out an e-mail blast, and I had about 200 e-mail to sort through. Around 10:30 I picked up Josh and all this stuff from the two day sleep-over at Nanny & Grampy’s and brought him home to Mom & Josh. I then went back to work. I did a bunch of orders with Iain. At lunch Iain and I had Tie Pink Wednesday, since I missed it the day before for a certain special event. I also ordered a Tie Pink Feast for 24 people on Friday night. It was fun going through the menu and picking out all kinds of delicious dishes. I worked for most of the afternoon, and took some time to finish wrapping gifts for Nicholson Family Christmas. I “think” I am done now for this event. I still have to wrap for Cairns Christmas on Christmas day, and some to send to the Frasers. Somehow Baby Zach is giving to Dan Fraser this year, and since all he gives these days is stinky diapers, and throw-ups, Dan isn’t going to have a pleasant Christmas. Heh heh heh, no need for any kind of ambitious packing project for him this year… the gift is all he needs. I received a shipment from the US, and closed up the warehouse and went home. Louise went to be with the “other family” for the evening. So, it was Moira, Josh, Zach, and I. I slipped out and bought some Swiss Chalet “Festive Specials”, but when we got home they had missed the chocolates, and all the little extras. They had forgotten that bag. So, it was just a Swiss Chalet Chicken Dinner for supper, which was delicious by the way. After supper I gave Josh as bath, and tidied up the house. Mom & Dad (aka Nanny and Grampy) came to visit for a while, and then Dave and Mimi dropped in for a few minutes. After they left, I settled in to watch some hockey, and took Zach for a couple hours while he napped on my chest. That was fun.

Eventually it was time to go to bed, which is also feeding time for Zach, so, we got everything set up, and I went to sleep.

THURSDAY

I got out of bed when I heard Josh coming to our bedroom. I got up, and got ready for the day. Zach and Moira were still sleeping, so, we kept it quiet, and out of the room for the morning. Then I made him some breakfast, and got him dressed for school. We had about 40 minutes before school, so I put a show on for him, and did some chores around the house, the dishes, some tidying, and moved Josh’s car seat to the van. Once his show was done, he said good-bye to Mommy, and I delivered some snacks and drinks to Moira. We drove to his Nursery School, and checked him in. (Zach already punching Josh in the nose)

I went to Canadian Tire, and bought a locking clip for Josh’s car seat. We used up the other ones with the two car seat bases for Zach’s car seat. I went to work, and headed straight to the coffee press for a fine, delicious morning coffee. I did some orders, and e-mail correspondence. Soon enough it was time to pick up Josh from Nursery School. We went to Subway for lunch, and had a good little lunch on our own. I took him home, and got him ready for his afternoon nap. I went back to work and did some orders, and paperwork for the afternoon. Eventually I went to the post office, delivered the mail, and hit to grocery store on the way home. Soon enough I was home with the Family! When I got home, Dave Nicholson was there moping the loss of his dirty Detroit Lions, with Mimi. Sharon was also there looking after Moira. They left for supper, and Josh, Moira and I had supper together... we kind of together, as Josh wouldn't eat, and by the time he did eat something Moira was up having a nap. After a while, Moira and I traded children, and I had a wee nap with Zach in my recliner. Jabe came over to watch Thursday Night Football in the basement, so, eventually I joined him. Around 11:00, Moira and I went to bed, but as it is with a new baby, we just went to bed, with very little sleeping involved. Zach is a napper by day, and activer at night.

FRIDAY

I got out of bed, and mentioned to Moira that next time we should try sleeping a little. I got Josh some breakfast, and did the dishes. I got him dressed for the day, and plunked him down in front of the babysitter (aka: TV Cartoon Station) and had a shower, and got a few chores done. I drove Josh to Nursery School, ran a couple errands, and eventually found myself at work. When I got in, I quickly realized that our computers were messed up, and after a mild attempt on my own, I had James come do an emergency fix. I picked Josh up from Nursery school, and he was cute in his craft, which was a police officer crown, and badge. We went to the grocery store (I have lost track of how many times I went to the grocery store this week) and picked up some Grilled Cheese Supplies, that Josh picked out, and went home. I made him some lunch, and went back to work. James had pretty much fixed our computer issues, and I worked for the afternoon. We did some orders, and eventually left for the post office. Iain dropped me off, and I got Josh ready to go to the park, and Iain delivered the packages to the post office. We then went to the park and played with Josh for a while. He had a great time, and Iain seemed to have a lot of fun too, jumping all over the playground, and surprising Josh by appearing places he didn’t expect, like on top of the slides and things. We went to the water park first, and then to a new park in the middle of town.

We dropped Iain off, and went over to a Birthday Party for Louise. It was a nice evening, and Josh really enjoyed the Chinese food. There was something like 24 people there visiting, and celebrating the Birthday. Moira stayed home with Zach, and that nice lady Gail Beach stayed with her. Around 7:30, after the cake which was beautiful…

Josh and I came home. I looked after Zach so Moira could have some Josh time, and get him to bed. I walked around with him, and showed him all the lights, which would get his eyes open a bit… He loves the Christmas Tree. I did some chores once Josh was to bed, and Moira and I watched a movie on TV. Eventually we both decided to go to bed early, since Zach was asleep. We had a great night, with only having to be up once for the middle of the night feeding. So, we got two good stretches of sleep which we were very thankful. And Louise got to sleep all night, so, she is rested for Saturday as well.

SATURDAY

Saturday was Nicholson Family Christmas, so it was a special day. I got up and got ready for the day. Louise went over to get some Christmas things done, and I delivered her there. Then I came home and made breakfast for Moira and Josh. I got Josh ready for the day, and then we watched some cartoons. Around 10:00 Moira was ready, and we got Zach bundled up and got him into his car seat the first time, and we went for his first drive. It was a short drive over to the chapel. It was officially Nicholson Family Christmas Day. We met at the chapel, and played in the gym for an hour or so. John set up his Camera stuff, and we got some family photos with the new baby. It was amazing, we took the photos, put them on an SD Card, and five minutes later I had 90 photo printed. Friends and Family will be getting them soon. I had done the Nicholson Family Christmas Cards in the morning, and had the pictures in the cards before lunch. They had catered the Turkey Dinner, and it was a tasty morsel. After lunch we slowly got around to opening gifts. When you have 18 people in a room with gifts for each other, and it was overwhelming the amount of gifts. It was heightened for me as I was looking after collecting all the gifts for four today. I had planned ahead, and brought a bunch of batteries, and screw drivers, knives, pliers, and wire cutters. It served me well breaking into toy packaging in seconds, and getting him playing with toys efficiently. Of course we didn’t tell Scott about the tools until he got through the seven layers of tape, wrapping paper, duct tape, etc. That was fun. Once gifts were done, we began packing up, and Moira, the trooper she was for the day, was tired and ready to go home.

So, we went home, bringing Sharon with us. I unloaded the vehicle, and sorted gifts, and dealt with all the “stuff” we took with us. Moira and Josh had some supper, and then Sharon got Josh ready for bed. They watched some of the classic Rudolph until Josh fell asleep against Sharon. I moved him to his bed, and then had some supper. After supper I went to GFP to meet Judah Sax who was quite pleased to do some book shopping. I came home, and watched a Mentalist show with Moira. Around 10:00 we went to bed. Well I went to bed, and Zach woke up and wanted yet another supper.

SUNDAY
I got out of bed, or rather out of my recliner when Josh woke up around 6:30. I was not feeling very good, so, I just put on some cartoons and got another hour of sleep. I had a shower, and made breakfast of Josh and I. I got him ready for church, and we went to meeting. Mom and I had him in the meeting, but he didn’t last too long. Nanny took him to the nursery. Josh went to Sunday School, and Jabe gave an excellent Gospel Message. After meeting, Josh was cute coming down the stairs with his new Bible for Sunday School. We picked up some Sambos for lunch. It ended up that it was only me who ate anything at lunch time. We all had a nice nap. Josh woke up, and we played for a while. Moira got up with Zach and we had a little family time. The mid-wife came and checked out Zach and Moira, and all seems well. We had a disjointed family supper, and then Josh had a bath. Once he was in his PJ’s, he watched the Hermie Fruitcake Christmas DVD. Once the movie was done, Josh went to bed. I finished up this blog, and nursed my cold for the evening.

That was my week…
Thanks

Chris

Welcome to the World Zachary Boulter Cairns!!!!

2011-11-22T00:59:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the World Zachary Boulter Cairns!!!!

Born on November 21, 2011
Time 11:02/pm

Length 21 Inches
Weight 8 Lbs Even

Moira is doing well after a three and a half hours of labor. Both are in good health.

Zachary Boulter Cairns means…

Zachary: The Lord Remembers

Boulter: cook or chef

Cairns: a monument for a memorial

When we began thinking of names for our child, we both agreed we wanted to give some tribute to the Pells, who influenced so much of our lives, with the involvement of both the Nicholson’s and the Cairns’ families in the work of Uplook and Gospel Folio Press. We also wanted to give tribute to the life of Lois Pell in particular, but nothing seemed to “click” when it came to names for our son. With Joshua, his middle name is John Samuel which works on so many levels: they are my middle names as well as Moira’s Dad's and Chris’s Dad's names. Chris is actually named after Uncle Johnny Boulter, and Uncle Samuel Boulter, the brothers of Chris’s Dads Mother, Pamela Boulter Cairns. So, when we discovered the meaning of the name “Boulter," it seemed to click naturally.

Zachary is named in remembrance of Lois Pell, who’s earthly memorial is her hospitality and life of service to the Lord cooking in her kitchen. And Zachary's middle name is also a tribute to Chris’s Grandmother. Though neither of us really knew Gramma Boulter, she was also a servant of the Lord through hospitality and a dear woman. There are two sub “definitions” of Boulter, the first being “sifter of flour”, which is a slight nod to Chris’s days in the Pancake House at Agape Valley, and the second is “sifter of meats,” which anyone who knows Chris, knows how much he loves meat. We also have a good friend named Zach Garner, and though our son Zach isn’t necessarily named after him, we do like the connection. However the true inspiration of the name is “The Lord Remembers Pamela Cairns and Lois Pell and our son is a Memorial to them”.

Thanks

Chris& Moira

If you are local ~ We like you and all, but we only want immediate family to visit for the first few days. Too many people visited after Josh was born, and it had bad effects on both Josh and Moira’s health. So in their best interests, the house is closed! You'll meet the little guy eventually. I'm sure he'll be out to Portal before you know it.

Weekly Update 11-20-2011

2011-11-20T20:40:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- Archie’s Burgers
- Monday Night Football
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Mid-Week Meeting
WEDNESDAY
- Breakfast with Al & Bjorlies
- Work
- Josh’s Birthday Party
THURSDAY
- Work
- Settlers of Catan
FRIDAY
- Work
- Supper with the Nicholsons
- Evening at Home
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Meeting
- Christmas Prep & Tree
- Visit with Zach
- Hockey Night in Canada
SUNDAY
- Meeting
- Country Store with Jabe & Louise
- Nap
- Meeting

(We’ll preface this whole weekly update with “No Baby Yet”, but still a great read this week)
Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made a nice cup of coffee, and got ready for the day. I spent 40 minutes wrapping Christmas gifts. I am wrapping most of the gifts for Louise, and I had some Birthday Gifts for Josh to wrap. I wrapped a bunch of gifts, and then got to work. We had a busy day in the warehouse, with a lot of web orders to be done. We did orders for most of the morning. John and Thomas Bjorlie dropped in, and I had a good visit with them. At lunch John, Thomas, Iain, and I went to Archie’s for some fine “Archie’s Burgers”. We had a good lunch, and some good conversation. I went back to the warehouse and worked for the afternoon. Thomas helped check off a booktable from the CMML Conference. By the end of the day we had done 70 orders, which is a pretty high number for our little warehouse. We took the mail to the post office, and came home. I made a pot of pasta for Louise, Moira, Josh and I. It was kinda tasty. I baked it for a while, and it “sweetened” the sauce a little… After supper Moira and Louise went out to do some Christmas shopping. I looked after Josh, playing with him, and reading him books.

Eventually I put him to bed. Thomas, Iain and John came over for Monday Night Football, and we had a nice evening, and a nice visit. It was the Green Bay Packers vs the Minnesota Vikings, and the Packers lay a beating down on them something fierce. As soon as the game was done, the guys left, and I went to bed.
TUESDAY
Josh came in to wake us up. It was kinda funny, as I woke up to Moira questioning Josh about the chocolate he had on his face at 7:00 in the morning. Turns out he found a chocolate coin in his treasure chest, and why not eat it eh’… what are you boy? 3 or something?... I got up, and had a shower, and got ready for the day. I went to work, and had a delicious cup of coffee, and began doing some work things. I worked for the most of the morning, and then I drove with Dad to his chiropractor appointment and we had a Rise Up Conference bookstore meeting during the drive. We got home at noon, and left immediately for Tie Pink Tuesday. We had John and Thomas join Al, Iain, James, Dad and I. It was a fine feast. I had a delicious Tie Pink Special Fried Noodles. We worked or the afternoon, doing some orders, and I arranged an import from the US. It is a big import this time, it has all the John Lennox titles we are bringing to the Rise Up Conference, where he is a key-note speaker. So, we have brought in a lot of his new books. I finished up “work” for the afternoon, and then spent the next hour and a half wrapping my brother-in-law’s gift for Christmas. It is a masterpiece, with at least 9 layers of boxes, two rolls of duct tape, three rolls of 3” packing tape, gift wrap, packing peanuts, and lots of gift wrap. No welding like in past brother-in-law Christmas packages, but it is still a fine “workout” for the intended recipient. Merry Christmas heh, heh, heh… I got home around 5:30, and Moira made some Bruschetta Chicken for supper, which was delicious. After supper we went to the chapel for mid-week meeting. We had John Bjorlie who spoke on prayer and the life of Elijah which was some excellent stuff. After meeting we emptied the gym of tables and chairs for Kid’s Club. Josh had fun with the Gym Toys for a while afterwards.

We came home and put Josh to bed. Moira and I hung out, and watched some TV for a bit. I went to bed earlier, as I was kinda wiped out from the late Monday Night Football evening, and the busy day at work.
WEDNESDAY
I got up and got ready for the day. Moira, Maverick and I slipped into Josh’s room as he was just waking up and we sang him Happy Birthday to our little 3 year old big boy… He liked that. Then I picked up Iain, and we went to “Melinda’s” for breakfast, and met Al, John, and Thomas. We had a good breakfast, and then went to work. We did work things for the morning, with several orders to be done, and some paperwork. I was receiving a shipment from the US, and it was an odd one with a lot of details to be looked after. On Tuesday I had five packages in five different states that miraculously arrived in time for the pick up in New York on Wednesday morning, which I had all cleared for import the evening before. That kind of odd… At lunch I drove with Dad to the bank, and to look at a house. We didn’t get anything to eat, so, I slipped out afterwards and shopped for a gift for Dad for his Birthday, but, it was one of those wandering aimlessly in the aisles of Canadian Tire looking for junk that he didn’t need. So, I picked him up a gift card to Swiss Chalet instead, something I know he’ll enjoy. I picked up a “hot n’ ready” pizza for lunch and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon, and eventually we closed up for the day. My shipment arrived from the US, and there was a lot of special orders for store customers, and also for the Nicholson Family Christmas. I wrapped a bunch of gifts for an hour, and then came home. It was Josh’s birthday, and we had Nanny & Grampy, and Louise and Beth were there. Josh had a fun party, and was quite cute the whole evening. He had a good pile of gifts to work through opening.

Eventually the party was done, and we tidied up, and gave him a bath, and got him to bed while people left to go home. I put together a wooden tow-truck toy / model thing for Josh, and then once we were done, Moira and I watched an episode of “The Mentalist”, a show series Moira and I have been enjoying lately. As soon as the show was done, I bolted to my bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Maverick and I slipped out the door, and went to work. I made myself a delicious coffee, and began doing some work things. It was decently busy for the morning, with Iain and Al doing order, and I doing paperwork. At lunch James, Iain and I went to Subway. I worked for the afternoon, with a wee break to have a Birthday Party for Sam (aka Dad). It was a decent day in the warehouse. Then I wrapped a bunch of Christmas gifts for an hour. It was a neat skyline / sunset tonight, where it was a clear sky night over our wee town, but you could see the big storm clouds over Lake Erie on the horizon. (Leaving work at sunset)

I came home and had some supper with Moira and Josh. I read a few stories to Josh, and then left for Games Night with Noel. We played an epic game of Settlers of Catan, and it was Noel, Caleb, Jon, Harold and I playing. It was a long game, and I was “close” to winning for two rounds and sat there hoping I could make it while people played their finl hands until I finally managed to pull out the win. Lord of Catan! I came home and watched a show with Moira, and went to bed.
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I woke up early and was at work around 7:00 in the morning. I made my delicious coffee, and had a nice start to the day.

(The Sun wasn’t up when I went to work either)

(Doesn’t this look delicious?)

I was alone in the warehouse for the day. So, it was good that I was there early. I got a start on doing orders, and managed to keep up all day, despite being quite busy. I worked for the morning, and then picked up some McDonalds for lunch. I did some orders for the afternoon, and kept up which was good. I took the mail to the post office, and went back to work, and did a few more orders before going home. We were having Jabe, Dave, Sara, and Louise for supper. So when I got home I helped Moira make some pizzas.

(Josh helping make the pizzas)

Eventually everyone arrived, and we had a good supper. Everyone had a good visit. I got Josh ready for bed, and tried to get him down. He was kinda wired… but eventually he went down. Everyone left, and Moira and I hung out and watched a “Mentalist” episode, and I went to bed.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and went to the Mens Prayer Meeting. There was only a few of us, and we had a short prayer time, then went for breakfast. We had a good chat, and a good breakfast. I went to work afterwards, and pulled out the ol’ Christmas Tree. Then Louise came over and assisted me with labeling a bunch of gifts. I wrapped a few gifts, and then came home. I helped Moira get the tree up, but the annoying thing wouldn’t light up in one spot. We had some left-over pizza for lunch. While Josh had a nap, I did a grocery run for the chapel, then came home. I had Zach come over and try to fix the tree, but in the end we gave up, and stuck a string of lights on where it wouldn’t light up. It was nice to see him, as it has been quite a while. We also fixed some lights at GFP. Moira and Josh were finishing up the tree when I got home. It looks kinda nice

Once we were satisfied with the tree, we went to Subway for supper. We came home, and settled in for Hockey Night in Canada. I paused the game for a while, and got Josh ready for bed, and read him a bunch of book. My wife was kinda tired, and apparently she is having a kid one of these days… I settled in once Josh was down and watched the Leafs defeat the Washington Capitals. Dan came over for the start of the 2^nd period. We had a good visit. The Leafs dominated the game and won 7-1. It was good to see the Leafs win the game with lots of confidence. Eventually I went to bed.
SUNDAY
In the middle of the night I rolled over and Moira wasn’t in bed, so I texted it to see if she was in labor, or just finishing up a project, and the silly goose was up making a photo book project for Josh. I fell back asleep, and eventualy got up in the morning. I got ready for church, and made a delicious cup of coffee, and breakfast of Josh and I. We went to meeting and had a good time remembering the Lord. I took Josh to Sunday School for the first time. He was quite excited to go to Sunday School! Then we had George Telfer as our speaker for the day. I picked Josh up from Sunday School, and then let him pretend to drive the car for a while.

(Josh leaving Sunday School)

We went to the Country Store with Jabe and Louise for lunch. After lunch I put Josh down for a nap, and had one myself. Around 3:00 I got up, and watched a “Mentalist” show with Moira. Once the show was done, we got Josh up. He had a pretty good sleep.

Around 5:30 I went back to the chapel to the prayer meeting. Then we had George Telfer again as our speaker. We came home after meeting, and got Josh ready for bed, read him some books, and put him down for the night. I made myself a delicious dish of ground beef with mushroom soup and had supper. Mike dropped by with one last Birthday gift for Josh from Isabella, Gavin, and Austin. I finished up this blog. Moira settled in to watch a movie.

That was my week…

Thanks
Chris

Weekly Update 11-13-2011

2011-11-13T20:48:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Fish & Chips
- Wee Birthday Party
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- John Ritchie Shipment
- Guarding Josh
WEDNESDAY
- Super Busy day at Work
- Supper at Nanny & Grampys
THURSDAY
- Work
- Hi Louise
- Chargers – Raiders Game with Iain
FRIDAY
- Work
- Guarding Josh
- Hockey Game
SATURDAY
- Early Morning
- Coffee
- Hi Nanny
- Nap
- Chapel
SUNDAY
- Church
- Lunch n’ Leaves
- Church

Weekly Update
MONDAY
Josh woke up, and came to our room, and woke us up. I realize I don’t quite get the “extra hour” of sleep with Daylight Savings Time, but I think it is of the devil. I wearily got up, and got ready for work. Maverick was quite excited that he got to join me in the warehouse after a week away. We had GFP Open House last week, and a dog defending his territory for every customer coming to the back wouldn’t work too well… not that we had too many customers in the back… From the start we had a busy day in the warehouse, with lots of orders to be done, and some special orders, like a large shipment of books for the UK, and a Gospel Hall Reseller drop shipping a bunch of Choice Gleanings all over the country. At lunch Iain and I set out for some Subway for a “quick lunch”, and ended up at the Canalside, and had some delicious Fish & Chips. Delicious. Unfortunately lunch was almost an hour, which wasn’t the plan. We got back to work, and shipped like crazy for the afternoon. About 20 minutes before we were going to go to the Post Office, we realized we had entered all the wrong weights, as somehow the scale got switched from Pounds to Kilograms, so all out packages were entered wrong. So we scrambled to fix that. In the end we had a huge pile for the UPS driver and a large shipment to the Post Office. Moira was having a wee Birthday party for Josh, and so I picked up a cake on the way home.

The party was in full swing of things when I got home. We had pizza and cake for supper, and then the kids played for a while. It was interesting that the kids were all playing fine, but went nuts when the parents arrived to pick up the kids, they all started wailing, and “scrapping” over toys, etc. Eventually the kids were gone, and Moira and I got Josh to bed. He got a “Transformer” for his birthday, and he didn’t have too much interest in books. We got Josh to bed, and we tidied the house, and then watched a movie together.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse and made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I got started on the day, which was slower in the morning, with Iain and Al being able to keep up with orders. I had them preparing to receive a large shipment from the UK that was due to arrive. We went to lunch, Tie Pink Tuesday. While I was waiting for my food, Faye called to tell me the driver was there with the shipment. So, I zipped back to work, and unloaded the three pallets of books, and left them in the parking lot. It is amazing that in mid-November we had the doors to the warehouse open most of the day, and it was a warm, clear, sunny day. So, I unloaded the pallets and left them in the parking lot, and zipped back to Tie Pink. I had my delicious Egg Foo Young, and then back to work. We unpacked the entire shipment which was significant work for the afternoon. We didn’t get to ship out any of the orders we had for the product that arrived, but we had a good idea what we were in for on Wednesday when we left. The significant portion of what we received were the new What the Bible Teaches book, and then the Believers Hymn Book. We got 400 of the new What the Bible Teaches, and 600 Hymn books, which both had a lot of orders. We took the mail to the post office, and I came home. Moira had some singing lessons, so I played with Josh for a bit, then we watched some cartoons. I slipped out, and got gas, and picked up some Tim Hortons for supper. I tried the new Lasagna, which was quite tasty. Moira had an appointment immediately after supper, so I looked after Josh. Around 7:00, Dan and his daughter Katie came over. Her homework was to watch a show, and evaluate the commercials. The Garfield show she chose was a little much for Josh, so we went to the basement and he watched a Mickey Mouse. Once the show was done, they went home. With Daylight Savings Time, I had already decided to skip meeting. I got Josh in bed, and got him down for the night. I started watching the Leafs game but they were having the “usual off night” and losing. With the Leafs, you can tell in about 8 minutes of watching what team showed up, and what the outcome of the game is going to be. The poor suckers who paid $400.00 a seat to watch that last night… I switched to a couple other games. Beth came over to hang out with Moira, and we ended up watching a classic Police Acadamy movie. As soon as the movie was done, I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got up early because my son was up early with that miserable Daylight Savings of the Devil Time. I dragged myself out of bed, and attempted to wake up. I played with Josh in his room for a while, eventually leaving for the warehouse. I made a much needed coffee… and drank the much needed coffee. I had Al and Iain arrive early, and we got to shipping. We had a big stack of orders, and it was a busy busy day. We worked hard all morning. At lunch Iain and I went to Subway. I had a decent Subway Club. We shipped all afternoon. When we did our end of the day reports we had shipped 91 packages, with at least 40 of them being over 50 lbs. It was a heavy shipping day.

We just left a pallet of packages for the UPS driver. Iain and I went to the Post Office, and dropped off our packages. I drove to Welland to our Mortgage Broker, to just get a clear handle of what price range of houses we should be shopping in, and getting some actual numbers, and advice. Josh was at Mom’s house, and Moira and I arrived there, and we had a nice supper with Nanny & Grampy. We visited for a bit, and then came home to get Josh ready for bed. Moira and I spent most of the evening chatting about houses, with a short break with Mike giving me an adjustment. We chatted some more, and I went to bed at 10:30.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Once again, Josh was up a little early, so, we were up early as well. Maverick and I went to work, and got started on the day. I had a delicious cup of coffee… the pictures don’t lie, it was delicious.

I got to work for the day. After the mega-busy day we had on Wednesday, I was ready for a “paperwork” day, and thankfully I had enough to do that most of the day. I worked for the morning, and then went to get some $1.00 pizza slices for lunch. I did a few orders, and some more paperwork for the afternoon. Al and Iain spent the day doing orders, and putting the books away from the shipment we got on Tuesday. We took the mail to the post office, and I came home. Josh was having a nap, so, I read the newspaper while Moira taught singing lessons.

Moira got Josh up before her last lesson, and Josh and I watched a couple cartoons in the basement. It was her last week of lessons for several weeks since we have a new baby on the way sooner than later… Moira had made a lasagna for supper, which was delicious. Just as we were sitting down, Moira’s mom arrived. She is in town for basically a month. She has a full month a head of her, with her daughters taking her for a birthday adventure this weekend, the anticipated arrival of the new baby next week, and then the week after that is the Nicholson Family Christmas… so it was good to see that she arrived safely. After supper, I slipped out to buy some gift wrap for the holiday season. I am going to wrap all my gifts, and for Louise as well. So, I’ll need a lot of wrap. I came home and watched a bit of hockey, and then read Josh a bunch of books. I invited Iain over to watch the Raiders vs the Chargers game. So we hung out in the basement watching the game…
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made a delicious cup of coffee, and got started on the day. We had sent out an e-mail blast the night before with several popular items, and we got hit pretty hard with orders which was great. Iain, Al and I shipped for the morning, and by noon had done almost 40 orders. At lunch I went home and had some hotdogs. Iain left at noon to go to a youth conference in Sudbury. On my way back to work I picked up some groceries, and then went to the warehouse. I did a few orders with Al, and some paperwork. Around 2:30 I went home, and took over looking after Josh. Moira went away for a special birthday surprise for her Mom with Beth and Janice. Josh and I played for a bit, then went to Canadian Tire. I picked up a few things, and then we went to the Free Zoo (aka Pet Store). We went to the grocery store and Josh picked out some Ice Cream. We ended up getting some Blueberry Cheesecake. We came home and played some more, and I stuck a pizza in the oven, and Josh and I watched cartoons and had supper. I got Josh ready for bed. My kind Mom offered to babysit while I went to a hockey game with Dad, and Dan. It was a pretty good game. The Pirates managed to exploit a weak defense that continually left their goalie in difficult situations, and the final score was 9-2. It was a pretty rough game too, with several ejections. The Warriors like to hit, which with lots of goals, and lots of big hits, and even a couple of scraps, it was a good game. I came home, and tucked Josh in, and watched some TV for a bit. Eventually I went to bed.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed which Josh came to get me. The results of his diaper ended up in him having a bath. So he played in the bath for a while, and then once he was out, we made breakfast. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I needed it. We had a good breakfast and then I put a show on for him so I could have a shower, and by 8:00 we were ready for the day, bathed, fed, and dressed… We played for a while, and I did a load of laundry, and vacuumed the house. Bill dropped by to loan me an air compressor. I blew out the line for my furnace, and hope that I got that fixed for a while. The condensation line frequently gets backed up… and so about twice a year I have to use an air-compressor to get the line cleared out. Josh gets a little stir-crazy in the mornings, so we went for a drive around town, and then went to visit Nanny. He helped her with the leaves on the deck.

We had a fine lunch of creamed tuna and peas on toast… and pickles. Josh loves pickles. We came home after lunch and had a nice long nap. I needed a nap, as Josh kinda woke me up early today. We watched some cartoons, and had a snack. We played for a bit, and then went to the chapel for a young family supper the elders were putting on for us. It was nice. The kids went upstairs for supper, and the young couples could have a nice supper, fellowshipping with one another, and the elders were just saying that they were there for us… After supper, we decided for Josh to have a sleep-over at Nanny’s. So that was fun. I ran a couple errands after dropping Josh off, and picked up supper for Moira and Louise who had just gotten home from their little weekend away. I picked them up some Swiss Chalet Festive Specials. Actually a Festive Special Family Pack. I watched the Leafs blow a decent lead to lose to the dirty Ottawa Senators <spit>. Eventually we went to bed.
SUNDAY
I had a nice sleep, and for the first time in a while, I slept in. I actually slept in too late, and woke up with 25 minutes to get to meeting… I got ready for church, and had some breakfast, and a coffee. We did get there about 3 minutes late. We had a nice time remembering the Lord, and then we had Don Debaeremaeker as the speaker for the day. He gave a good message. We went to Nanny & Grampies for lunch. Louise also joined us. We had a good lunch. After lunch Dad came over and we did the leaves in my yard, which was nice to have help with that job that I really wasn’t looking forward to doing. Then Jayson Daziel came over to help me with my furnace. He fixed it in about three minutes which was great. I watched a bit of football, and then got Josh up. He watched some Mickey Mouse, and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually we went to evening meeting. Ed Plett was the speaker, and did a good job on Zechariah. He is working his way through the whole book. After meeting, I returned the air compressor that Bill loaned me, and my Dad’s lawnmower. We came home, and got Josh ready for bed. I made some tuna sandwiches for Louise and Moira, and a snack for Josh. Once Josh was done his bedtime snack, I read him a bunch of books before bed. I finished up this blog, and watched some Sunday Night Football.

That was my week…
Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 11-06-2011

2011-11-06T20:37:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents

MONDAY
- Work
- Trick or Treat
- Monday Night Football
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Midweek Meeting
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Buffalo Shopping Run
THURSDAY
- Work
- Work
- Leafs Game
FRIDAY
- Work(ish)
- Home Touring
- Youth Group Retreat
SATURDAY
- Youth Group Retreat
- Perfect Muskoka Day
SUNDAY
- Youth Group Retreat
- Home Sweet Home

Weekly Update

MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. It seemed like a short weekend… I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got ready to do some work things. We had Al in, and he and Iain worked away at orders. We had an Open House week, where the public was invited to wander the warehouse, and we had a clearance section, and a damaged section laid out on tables. We didn’t have too many people come back on Monday. We were quite busy with orders, and I had some paperwork, and a lot of e-mails to respond to. At lunch Iain and I came home and had some hot dogs. We went back to the warehouse for the afternoon. Iain and Al got the Tavistock Bible Confernce booktable collected. Eventually we took the mail to the post office and came home. Iain and I got Maverick, and drove up to the Dog Wash, and gave him a bath. Once we got home, Moira, Josh and I went to get some supper at Harvey’s. Josh was dressed up as a Pirate for Halloween. After supper, Moira and Josh went out Trick or Treating with Ashely, and William and Wesley. Beth Paul also joined them. I stayed home and gave out treats to the kids who came by. It was a miserable night, so the numbers were down, which was fine by me, and my Wunderbar collection. Iain came over for Monday Night Football. Somehow he is a San Diego Chargers fan, so, we watched that game that they lost to the Chiefs. It was a late ending game, and it was 12:30 by the time I went to bed.

TUESDAY
I dragged myself out of bed, and tried to get going for the morning. I said good morning to Josh, and then left for work. I made some coffee, which seemed like it was broken for the first hour of the morning. When people flipped their Choice Gleanings Calendars today, they were reminded to re-order for next year, and we had a massive influx of orders for the day. We did orders for the morning, and I worked on an import from the US. I worked for the morning, and then it was Tie Pink Tuesday. I had a delicious Egg Foo Young. We worked for the afternoon, doing orders. Eventually Iain and I took the mail to the post office. We ran a few errands, and then I came home. I made some supper, a casserole. Moira was teaching some singing lessons, and Josh and I watched some cartoons while she taught. We had some supper. After supper it was mid-week meeting. It was an information / business meeting, which was different than the ordinary. After meeting we cleaned out the tables and chairs in the gym for Kid’s Club, then came home. We put Josh to bed, and I watched some hockey.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I was up before Josh or Moira, and just slipped out the door. I went to McDonalds to get some breakfast and something similar to coffee. I had an 8:00 appointment for an e-test for my Van. So I sat at Canadian Tire and read Mcleans Magazine, and drank something similar to coffee. I went to work, and began doing some work things. We had a pretty busy morning with orders. Dad and I ran a few errands, including buying a projector for the chapel. I didn’t really want to buy one as I just assume I bought the wrong thing… At lunch I went home for some left over casserole. I worked for the afternoon, doing orders, and some paperwork. Eventually we took the mail to the post office, and I came home. I had traded vans with Dad When Moira got home, I transferred the car seat, and we drove to Buffalo. Our first stop was at McKay’s Work Wear. I have been eying a new Carhartt Extreme Artic Quilt Winter Coat. I wanted to try one on before I ordered one online or something but it turned out that they were as cheap as any place as I could get online… So, Moira bought me a new winter coat, and hat, and gloves for Christmas… We then went to Chipotles for supper and had a burrito. We hit up a couple more stores. Josh was not too enthused with the mall, so, when Moira went to Target, Josh and I stayed in the van and watched some DVD’s. We are making some great headway on our Christmas gift shopping. We got home around 9:30, and put Josh to bed. I did a load of laundry, and watched some hockey. Once I got it in the dryer, I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I was up before Moira and Josh, and went straight to the warehouse, and made myself a cup of coffee, and got started doing some work things. We had a decently busy day in the warehouse. James was also in, so there was some computer things for us to work on as well. At lunch James, Iain and I set out for $1.00 slices of pizza, but ended up at Archie’s Subs instead. I had them make me a Humungous Grilled Steak Taco, and it was delicious. I worked for the afternoon doing various orders, and some paperwork arranging an import from the US. I was working the evening shift for our Open House at GFP, so I just stayed. We were not exactly rushed off our feet with our only guests were Harold MacDougall, and then later, Barb MacDougall and her mom Betty dropped in. Slow night. At 8:00 when we closed up, I picked up some McDonald’s and went home. I watched some of the Leafs game, and got packed for the Youth Group Retreat. The Leafs won, which was nice. Eventually I went to bed.
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, earlier than usual, and got ready for the day. I left and stopped by Tim Hortons for a coffee and some bagels for breakfast. I drove up to get an adjustment from Mike, then came back to Port Colborne to begin work. It was a weird day for me at work, where I was in and out all day, and not necessarily doing very much work. I ran a quick errand to buy myself a new pair of Crocs, and then back to work for a bit. Around 11:00 I picked up Moira, and we went and toured two houses with Steve Dube, our realtor. We made some real progress today, seeing two houses we could see ourselves moving into. After seeing the houses, Moira and I had lunch, again at Archie’s. I went back to work for the afternoon, and did a few work things. Around 3:30, the delivery from the US arrived, and I received a few things, and then Iain and I took the mail to the post office and went home. Moira and I took Josh to the park, and played a while, and then home to have some pizza that Moira had made.

I gave my family a hug goodbye, and left. I went to the chapel, and the young people got loaded up into the various vehicles, including Dad’s van which I was driving. I ended up having Dave Robins, Danielle, and Caleb in my vehicle. We got on the road, and had some good chats, and listened to some tunes and had a good drive. We always stop at the rest area near King City on Highway 400 for a break, and then got back on the road all the way to the Cottage. We pulled in around 11:00, got unloaded, and had an hour of relaxing before bed.
SATURDAY
I got up, and got ready for the day. Then went upstairs, had several cups of coffee, and settled into the serenity of the Cottage life.

It was a beautiful clear sunny day, with blue sky, and sun glittering on the lake. A perfect Muskoka day. We had our opening devotional time, then the first session with Gary McBride. He spoke on the Upper Room Ministry of Christ from John 13 – 17 for the weekend. After the first session, Iain grilled up some burgers for lunch. We had an hour after lunch of free time, and I snagged a cup of coffee, and a Muskoka chair, and settled in for some serenity time. A.J. joined me and we had a nice chat. Then Gary spoke again, from John 15 on the section on the Vine and Vinedresser which was some good stuff. I peeled a bag of potatoes with Gary and Iain, and then snagged my Muskoka Chair overlooking the lake and wrote some of this blog… It doesn’t get much nicer than this…

I sat there for a while, and then moved the chair to the gazebo right down by the lake. That was kinda nice too… Eventually we had supper, a delicious roast beef dinner that Erna did. After supper we had the last session of the day with Gary. After that session I read for a while. Eventually we got a great game of Phase 10 going, and I had a good lead in the game, but Erna shut us down around midnight before I could claim my ultimate victory… So I went to bed, in the lead as regulation time ended.
SUNDAY

I got out of bed and got ready for the day. I grabbed a cup of coffee, and got into the Muskoka chair in the gazebo, and had a coffee beside a perfectly still lake, calm, and quiet, and beautiful. I read for a while, and enjoyed the serenity.

Eventually I went inside for some breakfast and a refill of my coffee. I packed up my things and loaded them in my van. I wrote this blog for a while, and read for a while until the devotion time started, and then we did a Lord’s Supper which was a nice time of remembrance. Gary did his last session, and then lunch. I was mostly packed, and did a token clean up, which really was not as much as I should have done. But I connected with my outer self in the Muskoka Chair, enjoying the sun.

Eventually we got on the road, and started driving home. We stopped for gas along the way, then on to a rest stop a few miles from Hwy 407. We had supper, then drove the rest of the way home. I dropped people off at the chapel, and came home. Perfect timing, Josh was one book away from bedtime. I said good night to my Little Bear, and then unloaded from the trip, and got caught up with Moira on the happenings of the weekend. I finished up the blog, and did a load of laundry, and got ready for the week ahead.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

How’s The Serenity?

Weekly Update 10-30-2011

2011-10-30T21:33:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
-Work
- House Listing
- Guarding Josh & Leafs Game
TUESDAY
- Work
- Lasagna
- Gospel Meeting
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Wednesday
- Guarding Josh & Hockey Game
THURSDAY
- Work
- House Showing
- Nanny & Grampy’s & Gospel Meeting
FRIDAY
- Work
- Gospel Meeting
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Meeting
- “Harvest Party”
- Date Night
SUNDAY
- Church
- Book
- Church

Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I got started on the day. Iain and I moved some more stuff into the container, then put a couple of pallets of Choice Gleanings back in the container, and closed it up. We went back into the warehouse, and did a bunch of orders for the morning, and a bunch of paperwork. I was pretty busy, and kinda stressed out. I worked until about 12:30, and came home, and had some lunch. Steve Dube arrived, and he took a bunch of pictures of our clean and tidy house, and took all the information to list our house to sell it. He then took us through two houses which were a little nicer than last week. I went back to work, and finished up the day, took the mail to the post office with Iain, and came home. Moira, Josh and I went to Harvey’s for supper. Moira went to evening meeting, and had to go early because she was in the kitchen. Josh had skipped his nap, and was pretty tired, so, I had an easy night, of getting a child to bed, and settled into my recliner to watch the Leafs game, vs the Philadelphia Flyers. It was an exciting game. Moira and I hung out until it was time for bed.
TUESDAY
I got up, and went to work. I was up before Moira and Josh, and slipped out, and went to the warehouse, and made a coffee. I did some orders and paperwork for the morning. At lunch Dad and I went to Archies Subs for a delicious sub. We went back to work, and Iain and I did orders for the afternoon. It was Sunday School Standing Orders day, so we did orders until pretty much time to go to the post office. Eventually I came home, and had the wonderful surprise of Moira making a lasagna. I played with Josh in his room for a while, and then once Moira’s singing student arrived, Josh and I went to the basement to watch some cartoons. Once her lessons were done, we went upstairs and had a delicious supper. After supper, I went to the gospel meeting at our chapel. I gave my Mom a hug and welcome home, then went home myself. Moira and Beth were settling in to watch Beverly Hills Cop, so I watched it with them. Once the movie was done, I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I woke up tired… my wife didn’t come to bed until about 3:00 in the morning, waking me up, then Josh woke up at 5:00, and I had the task of putting him back down for the rest of the night, and I tossed and turned until my dirty alarm clock went off, and I got up, and got ready for work. I got to the warehouse, and made a delicious cup of coffee, and it was tasty, but seemed to be “broken”, as I was tired all day… It felt like a Thursday all day, and I kept doing Thursday tasks and feeling the pressure of getting caught up before the end of the work week. It was kinda a weird day as James was in a day early, and we did Tie Pink Wednesday. I had a pretty good lunch. After lunch I ran a couple errands, buying Christmas lights of all things in October… And then I arranged for an import from the US. I did a few orders, and Iain and I closed up for the day, and went to the post office. I got home just as Moira was backing out of the driveway to go for groceries, so, I went with Moira and Josh for groceries. We came home, and made some supper. I had some hotdogs which were delicious. Moira was in the kitchen for the gospel meetings, and I was putting Josh to bed. I read him a bunch of books, and played with him some. I put him down for the night, and settled in to watch the Montreal Canadians vs the Philadelphia Flyers.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made a delicious cup of coffee, and got to work. We had a busy day. We had lots of orders, and then Moira called to let me know our house that was only listed the day before, had a showing that evening. So, work, and stress of getting a house ready for a showing, and Moira’s singing lessons, etc, it was rough. We also had a few large deliveries at work, including a shipment from the US which had to be received. I was looking after Josh after work while Moira taught singing lessons, and I was doing what I could to get the house ready for the showing. We went to Nanny and Grampy’s for supper, who they themselves had a busy day with a funeral, and the reception at the chapel afterwards, and then after a short break, back for gospel meetings. Moira had something to do in the evening, and Josh and I went to the chapel for the gospel meeting. It was a good meeting, and then after having a few cookies in the gym we came home. Moira was home, and helped get Josh ready for bed. We read him a few books, and put him down for the night, quite late… I watched a bit of hockey, and some Man Vs Food, one of my new favorite shows, and went to bed.
FRIDAY
I got up, and went to work. I made some coffee, and took a cup down to Ed Plett, who was working at Lester’s workshop. We had a good chat, and Lester arrived to join in on the conversation. Moira called me to let me know that I had the car seat, and Josh had to get to nursery school. It was costume day, so Super Josh showed up. He looked pretty cute in his costume. I drove with them to nursery school, and watched the costume parade.

I went back to work, and we were in the full swing of things, with Iain, Al and I with a full slate of work for the day. We had a large booktable to ship, lots of orders, a bunch of books to put away, and a warehouse we had to tidy and clean for Open House next week, and a few print runs of books to put away. So, we had a busy day. At lunch I picked up a double meatball sub from Subway which was delicious by the way. We worked for the afternoon, and around 3:30, we were caught up, cleaned up, and ready for Monday. Iain took the mail to the post office, and I went home and mowed my lawn. We officially have a for sale sign on our lawn, and the reality of the it has begun to sink in. I made some homemade BBQ sauce for some chicken and baked some chicken, and made some rice for supper. Moira and Josh got home, and we had a good supper. After supper we went to evening gospel meeting. We had some pretty low attendance from both the sinners and saints this week… Josh was happy with all the post meeting treats in the gym. We came home, put him to bed, and I read a book on my Kindle for the evening.
SATURDAY
I got up, and got ready for the day. I made some coffee, and left for the men’s prayer meeting at the chapel. We had a prayer time, then went for breakfast. After breakfast, we drove around and looked at a few properties that Moira and I had our eye on, and showed Al, Ed, and Dad. Dad and I went to Canadian Tire, who just did a massive renovation and were having their grand re-opening. I had a headache all morning, and went for a nap to try to sleep it off. I didn’t have much success with that, so after a couple hours I got up took a couple of Advil, and got up for the afternoon. Josh woke up from his nap, and Moira got up from hers, and we got going on the rest of the day. We drove around looking at a few houses, and then went to the chapel. We were having a non-Halloween party, where people get dressed up in costumes with no association with Halloween, a “harvest party” with costumes for the kids. I put on some Old Spice deodorant, and went as a Man. So a bunch of families were there, and we had a pot-luck, and then went harvest candy collecting at the various townhouses around the chapel of people we knew. It was a nice time.

We had arranged for Jen MacDougall to look after Josh for Moira and I, and we went on a date. We drove to St. Catharine’s, and went to Kelsey’s by the Penn Center, and had a few appetizers. We then drove around the parking lot to the theatre, and went to watch “Real Steel. I think it was about Wolverine fighting robots… It was midnight when the movie got out, and then we drove home.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. I made breakfast for everyone. We went to the chapel for the Lord’s Supper. We kept Josh in the meeting this morning, and had did a great job. After coffee break, we had a gospel meeting which was pretty good. After meeting we went to Subway for lunch. I had a delicious meatball sub for lunch. I dropped Moira and Josh off at home, and went to Canadian Tire. I was going to buy an “Air Pig”, but it was $75.00, and you can buy a cheap air compressor for that. I figured an air pig (which is just an air compressor tank without a motor that you fill with compressed air, and can use it for a blast of air to fill a tire or whatever until the air runs out) would only be about $25.00 or something, but alas, too much money, and if I invest in an air compressor it is going to be a bigger one. The reason I wanted something with compressed air was to give a blast of air to the drain pipe on my furnace, and clear out the line. In the summer it is the line where the de-humidified water goes, and with a high efficiency furnace it de-humidifies in the winter too… Sometimes it gets clogged with a bit of debris that gets past the air filter on the furnace. I just used an air pump to pump used to pump up air beds and hoped for the best. I then finished a book I read on my Kindle. It was an American Wins vs the dirty Muslim terrorist rah rah stories with some Christian elements thrown in… Josh woke up and I watched some cartoons with Josh, and eventually we went to the chapel for the evening gospel meeting. It was the last meeting of the series, and Jim did a good job, talking about the Lord’s Return. After meeting there was a fellowship time with lots of people staying afterwards. It was a good evening. Josh and Isabella were taking turns playing the piano and singing into the mike. It was cute.

Near the end, it was just Ed and Erna, and Moira, Josh and I sitting around having a good chat. Eventually around 9:00 we came home, and got Josh ready for bed. Moira read him a few books, and put him to bed. I finished up this blog, and now will spend the rest of the evening relaxing, getting ready for the work week to come.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 10-23-2011

2011-10-23T23:08:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
-Work
- Leaf’s Game
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- House Shopping
- St. Catharine’s Run
- Evening Meeting
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Outreach Dinner Shopping
- Leaf’s Game
THURSDAY
- Work
- Guarding Josh
- Housework & Leafs Game
FRIDAY
- Work
- Outreach Dinner
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Meeting
- Hard Work
- Leafs Game
SUNDAY
- Church
- Lunch, Housework, Guarding Josh
- Church
- Tie Pink Feast
Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. It has been increasingly difficult to get out of bed these dark, cold mornings… but alas, you have to get out of bed, and work to support these fabulous lifestyles we have. I got to work, and made a delicious cup of coffee, and began doing some work things. It was a kinda busy day with orders to be done, and two large book tables to be checked off, and paperwork to be done. On top of that, Sam was back from a week away, meaning he had a bunch of things to catch up with me on. I went home for lunch, and had some left-overs. I made some wraps with the left-over pork from Sunday dinner. I worked for the afternoon, which was mostly paperwork, and a few orders. I took the mail to the post office with Iain, and came home. Moira and I have been driving around a lot lately… and the reason for that is that Moira and I have decided to sell our house, and move into something with more bedrooms, and a yard. It is a tough decision for someone who is in a 5 year old house, with new everything. Anyways, it is on our radar… And if we are going to put our house on the market, we decided to de-clutter for a week, so if someone calls to tour our house, with about 20 minutes of work we have a showable house. So, I spent an hour or so packing stuff up. We made some supper, and had supper. I settled in to watch the Leafs game, and packed up some excess dishes with my wife during intermissions. After the game I went to bed.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I went to the warehouse, and began doing some work things. The first crisis of the day was the coffee pot died, so, a trip to Canadian Tire to get a new one. James was in, so there was some work with him, and a few orders, and lots of paperwork. Lunch was Tie Pink Tuesday, and I had a delicious lunch. Immediately after lunch Moira and I met with Steve Dube to look at houses. It was pretty evident after a few minutes in two houses, we were not interested in those, and then the next house was the one we were most interested in, and we liked it, but it basically didn’t have a kitchen… and there was some 100 year old wiring in the upstairs that would need to be dealt with, and we couldn’t really tell if the 100 year old house had any insulation or not… I went back to work after the house tours, and did some work things. I came home after work, and Moira was teaching some singing lessons. So I looked after Josh, and made some pasta for supper. He watched some cartoons. He and I had some supper while Moira went overtime with a lesson. Around 6:00 I left, and picked up Dan, and drove him up to St. Catharine’s so he could pick up his new van. I drove home, and went right to mid-week meeting. After meeting I had a quick banquet meeting, then home. Mike gave me an adjustment, and then I spent the evening watching some hockey, and eventually went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got up, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse after saying good morning to Josh. I made my coffee, and then began doing some work things. I use a coffee press for my coffee, and the rest of the staff a coffee maker… and the new coffee maker was leaking, so another trip to Canadian Tire to get a new coffee pot. Iain and I went back to work, and Iain did some orders, and I did some paperwork. I ran a few errands for work before lunch. After lunch the boss and I went for a drive for some conversation, and then back to work. I did some work things for the afternoon with Iain, and eventually went to the post office. After work, Iain and I went to the grocery store, and bought the supplies for the Outreach Banquet at our chapel, and delivered that to the chapel. I came home, and stuck some frozen pizzas in the oven. We had some pizza, then after supper we drove around looking at properties, and then came home. Moira got Josh ready for bed and I fell asleep in my recliner. Around 8:00 I picked up Iain and went to the chapel, and set up tables and chairs for the outreach dinner. I came home and watched the Leafs vs the Winnipeg Jets game. The Leafs managed to win in the shoot-out so that was better than a loss. Shortly after the game ended I went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, after snuggling with Josh who came to wake us up since it was daylight, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse and began doing some work things. Iain and I spent the morning re-organizing the big storage container that we have behind GFP, and did a few tasks like delivering Dad’s snow blower. We have a large crate, and when we first put it in the container, we did so in such a manner that we could never open the crate, so, we moved a bunch of plywood, and put the crate in the container the proper way. We worked for the morning, and then at lunch James, Iain and I went to Little Caesars for some cheap pizza for lunch. We went back to work, and did orders for the afternoon, and I did the paperwork to arrange an import from the US, and also double checked all the invoices against the purchase orders for easy receiving when the packages arrive. I came home after work, stuck a frozen lasagna in the oven, and then watched cartoons with Josh. I read the flyers and surfed while he watched a couple shows. Moira was going out for the evening. So, Josh and I had some supper, and played for a while. I got Josh ready for bed, and read him some books, and eventually put him down for the night. I did some organizing of some of my stuff in my bedroom, and then settled in to watch the Leafs lose miserably to the Boston Bruins. I watched a bit of Man vs Food, and went to bed.(Josh going to school)
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. It was kinda funny, I was in the shower, but heard Josh standing beside Moira yelling Cock-a-doodle-doo like a Rooster… guess it was time to get up. I went to work, and made myself a delicious coffee. Iain was not in for the morning, so it was just me in the warehouse. I did some orders, and some paperwork. I went home for lunch and had some left-over lasagna. I went back to work, and did some orders, and Iain came in and we did some work things together. I ran a couple errands, and then took the mail to the post office. I then had to switch gears from GFP work to the Outreach Dinner at the chapel. We picked up a bunch of food, and some supplies, and dropped them off at the chapel. I began heating the meat and potatoes, and making my world famous cheese sauce for vegetables. I slipped home to get changed, then back to the chapel. We made the salads, and got everything on the tables. The people began showing up, and we got everything on the buffet line, and everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. During the prep, I slipped on a wet spot on the floor and sprained my ankle, which made the rest of the evening a bit of a chore. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal, and we spent the time in the kitchen washing dishes. I didn’t get to experience any of the event itself… it was pure work. We cleaned up, and I came home. Moira was just finishing a movie, and I watched it with her, wrote some of the blog, and went to bed around 11:00.

(Josh with a bubble mohawk, and a beard like daddy)
SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I went to the Men’s prayer meeting, and then to the breakfast with the men. Nico was there, and then I picked up Caleb, and shortly afterwards Iain arrived. My goal for the day was to empty my shed, so if our house sells when the backyard is covered in snow, I don’t have to shovel out my back yard. So the guys took everything out of the shed, and dumped it in my driveway, and I dragged a bunch of stuff out of the garage, and we took it all to the parking lot behind work with multiple runs with my van. When we were almost done, I went over, and began building pallets of stuff, and putting it into the container we have behind work. It is great, our home is really de-cluttered and all our storage areas in the house are really emptied out. Having the ability to store stuff in the container, on pallets really is going to help us if we move, as with a U-haul truck it would take me about 10 minutes to load a huge amount of stuff. And all the “junk” that no one knows how to pack in a moving truck, like those folding camping chairs, are all in a huge pallet sized box, contained nicely. Nico spent the day in a pair of chest waders, and a rain coat using a 13hp gas pressure washer. It was amazing, he made our decks and fence look like new, and totally cleaned the exterior of our house. We worked until about 4:00, when I took the guys home. I was wiped out by the time our work was done. I had worn myself out with the banquet on Friday, and then working all day on Saturday was rough. I settled into my recliner for a while. We had fed the guys homemade pizza for lunch, and I had left-over pizza for supper. Moira doing some tidying in our bedroom, and I was looking after Josh. I “tried” to put him to bed at like 7:15, which didn’t go over so well. But I was being selfish, and wanting to relax and watch Hockey Night in Canada… Dad came over to watch some hockey with me. We got Josh up, as he was way too awake… (Grampy making Josh laugh)

We enjoyed the evening with Dad. He eventually went home. I watched the rest of the game, and the Leaf’s managed to win in Overtime over the dirty Montreal Canadians. I was pretty tired and went to bed shortly after the game ended.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. Shaving once a week whether I need it or not… I made some breakfast for Moira, Josh and I, and a great cup of coffee for myself. We went to meeting. I had a good time remembering the Lord, and then we started our week of gospel meetings with Jim Comte. After meeting, we went to the Country Corner for lunch. We came home after lunch, and put Josh down for his nap. Moira went out with Jen MacDougall. I did some housework, tidying and dusting the house, and moved Moira’s Piano. Josh woke up, and we watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show together. Moira got home, and I did a few more things around the house. Then we realized it was time to go to evening meeting. It was a good meeting. After the meetings we had coffee and cookies in the gym. Josh enjoyed his cookies, and then rode around the gym on a little trike. Bill needed to get his Pressure Washer back, and so Caleb, Nico and I drove over with him, and loaded it unto his truck. I drove the guys home, and then came home. Moira had already put Josh to bed. We ordered some Tie Pink take out for supper. Moira went out to pick it up. We had a delicious supper, and watched an old movie that Moira had DVr’ed. I finished up this blog, and once the movie was over, I went to bed.
(Josh trying to drive away from the chapel, like father like son… just wanting to leave and get home)

That was my week…

Comments are appreciated…

Thank

Chris

Weekly Update 10-16-2011

2011-10-16T21:09:00.001-04:00

Weekly Update

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Thankful for No Work Day
- Hanging out with Mike & Jeanette & Family
- Movie Night
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Meeting & Movie
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Another Movie
THURSDAY
- Work
- Appliance Move
- Mexican Feast and Meet & Greet
FRIDAY
- Work
- Girls Night Out, Guys Night In
SATURDAY
- Men’s Prayer Meeting
- Drive & Sambos
- Hockey Night in Canada
SUNDAY
- Church
- Airport Run
- Drive
- Church
Weekly Update

MONDAY
It was Thanksgiving here in Canada, and I had the day off. I made a deal with my wife that I could sleep in, and I did just that… until like 10:30. It was glorious. I made a nice cup of coffee. Moira, Josh and I went to Mike and Jeanette’s for lunch. They made a delicious Pad Thai dish, which was absolutely delicious. The kids played (and fought like kid do) in the basement. Josh skipped his nap, and played a little rough at times… We had a great visit with Mike and Jeanette. It was nice having an afternoon to visit when we didn’t have to leave early to get the kids to bed. Eventually we did leave. Josh fell asleep in the van, and Moira and I just drove around town until he woke up. We came home, and spent the next couple hours doing supper, and getting Josh ready for bed, etc. With my new DVR I recorded the Indiana Jones series of movies. Once Josh was down for the night, we watched the first one, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Once the movie was over I went to bed.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to work, and made a delicious cup of coffee. I got to work. Iain and I were busy after the long weekend. We did a bunch of orders, and I did a bunch of orders. I had a lot of receiving to do. We worked for the morning, and then James, Iain and I met Al at Tie Pink for Tie Pink Tuesday. I had a delicious Tie Pink Chop Suey. After lunch we went back to work, and Iain and I did orders for most of the afternoon. Eventually we took the mail to the post office, and came home. Moira was teaching singing lessons, and Josh and I watched some cartoons. Moira made a lasagna for supper, and we had a delicious supper. Moira had another singing lesson, so Josh and I watched another Mickey Mouse in the basement. We went to evening meeting. Josh was happy that William and Wesley were there. Iain MacDougall was the speaker, and did a really good job. We came home and put Josh to bed. Moira and I watched the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom. My DVR cut out with about eight minutes to go in the movie, right at the most intense moment in the movie, I think, I didn’t get to see the end…. So, that was annoying… And then I noticed that it was midnight… so I went to bed…
WEDNESDAY
I got up, and went to work. Josh was kinda sad that I was leaving for work so I could support his fabulous lifestyle. I made some coffee, and began doing some work things. We are getting busier these days, and Iain and I are keeping ourselves pretty steady with work which is good. I worked for the morning, and then came home, and made myself some tuna sandwiches for lunch. I worked for the afternoon, and came home at the end of the work day. I made some supper, a pasta dish, and had supper with the family. We spent the evening in, and played with Josh, and got him ready for bed. I read him a bunch of books, and put him down for the night. Moira and I watched another DVRed Indiana Jones movie, the Last Crusade. It was a pretty good film. It took too long, and I was up too late again, but eventually went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I played with Josh for a few minutes, and then went to work. I was out of breakfast stuff at work, so I went to McDonalds for some breakfast burritos, and then went to the warehouse. I made myself a delicious coffee, and got to work. I spent the morning doing some paperwork, and some work things. With Dad being away, I have been doing some of the things that he does, taking up some of my time. At lunch Iain and I picked up a bunch of $1.00 pizza slices, and all the staff had some lunch. Then I met Moira at the grocery store, and packed her groceries as she checked out, and I then delivered them to the house for her. She is “great with child”, so whatever lifting I do for her the better. Then Iain and I got caught up on orders. We then went and got the washer and dryer from my basement, and then went to Mom & Dad’s and swapped the units. It sounds easier than it was. It was a miserable, dirty heavy job. We then had to unpack the container at work to store the old unit from Mom & Dad’s house, and put everything back in the container. Both Iain and I were wiped out by the end of that task. He and I did a few orders, including a big order of calendars going out. We took the packages to the post office and I came home. I looked after Josh while Moira taught some singing lessons. We were having company for supper and making Mexican, so I did the meat for the burritos, and did a bunch of chopping of onions, peppers, and tomatos so Moira could do her thing when it was her turn. We had a lady Maria, and her son Diego for supper. In the new year we are probably going to be looking after Diego for a few evenings each week so Maria can work at a local restaurant. So… we had an initial meet and greet with her. Eventually it was time for them to go home, and for Josh to go to bed. It still ended up being 9:00 by the time Josh went to bed. Then I settled in to watch a couple of hockey games. I had a goal of going to bed a little earlier.
FRIDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. Josh and Moira were still sleeping, so I just went to the warehouse on my own. It was a beautiful morning. There was a thick cloud cover casting a deep shadow, and then the sun rise creating an awesome beam of light.

I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got to work. Iain and I did a lot of orders for the day, amongst other work things. Pretty good pile of orders for the day…

At lunch I went home and had a left-over burrito which was alright. I worked for the afternoon, and awaited a delivery from the US. It arrived right around 4:00, and we pulled it inside, and closed up for the day. I went to the Library and picked up a couple of DVD’s and came home. We just had some left-overs for supper. Moira went to Jeanette’s for the evening for a “girls night out”. I got Josh ready for bed, and read him some stories and put him down for the night. Dan and Mike arrived, and we feasted on snack food, and watched some movies. We watched “The Eagle”, about a Roman soldier trying to get some honor back for his family name which was pretty good. Eventually it was late, and Dan and Mike went home. I went to bed too late.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. I went to the Men’s Prayer Meeting at the Chapel. After the prayer meeting we went for breakfast. I drove with Ed Plett and had a good chat with him. I came home, and watched some cartoons with Josh. Maverick had a nice morning.

We gave him lunch, and put him down for a nap, and I ended up falling asleep in my recliner, and woke up to Moira and Josh still sleeping. We got up and went for a drive around town, and then went to a park. Maverick was with us, and it was funny trying to get him to go down the slides and stuff.

We went to Sambos for supper and I had a delicious club house sandwich. We came home, and I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the Calgary Flames. It was nice that the Leafs came back from being down 2-0 in the first to win 3-2.
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. I made some coffee, and some breakfast for Moira and Josh. We went to meeting, and had a nice time remembering the Lord. Mom & Dad were home from their trip to Raleigh, NC, and Grand Rapids MI. Mom was turning right around and going to Saint John NB, and so Dad and I drove her to the airport. We had a good drive, and a good catch up chat with Mom & Dad. Dad and I went for lunch at Montana’s after we dropped Mom off. We had a pretty good lunch, then came home. Josh had just gotten up from his (lack thereof) nap, and Moira had Barb and Harold over for lunch, and they were just leaving when I got home. I did the dishes, and then Moira, Josh and I went for a drive. It has been cold and rainy and not very conducive to going to the park. The drive became a bit longer when Josh had his nap in the car seat, and we decided to let him sleep a while longer. We came home and had some supper. I had some pork tenderloin we made for Sunday dinner, and it was delicious. I went to evening meeting, and went to the pre-meeting prayer meeting. Then it was Dan Lee as the speaker, and he did a good job on the life of Lot. I came home after meeting, and did a load of laundry and another dishwasher load of dishes. I then settled in to watch some Sunday Night Football, and finish up this blog.

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 10-09-2011

2011-10-09T20:59:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Buffalo Run
- House & MNF
TUESDAY
- Work
- Buffalo Run
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Mid-Week Meeting & X-Men
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Book
THURSDAY
- Work
- Park
- 1^st Leafs Game
FRIDAY
- Work
- Long Weekend
- Steak & Movies with Zach
SATURDAY
- Long Weekend
- New Cable Box
- Pizza & HNIC
SUNDAY
- Church
- Guarding Josh
- Beach?
Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I actually had a wonderful sleep, despite my better judgment. My son was sick, and my 8 month pregnant wife slept with him in my recliner in the living room. So, I had a good sprawling sleep. I went to work, and made a coffee. It was a delicious experience. I began working, and then we had a massive power outage in Port Colborne, which included our office. So, I was settling into a book at my desk, reading by what little daylight was streaming into my warehouse. Then Sam called a staff meeting, and talked until the power came back on. Iain and I worked for the morning, doing some order, and getting caught up on correspondence. I went home for lunch and Moira and I had some Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Tuna Sandwiches for lunch. I went back to work, and did orders with Iain, and worked for the afternoon. Eventually I came home from work, and picked up my passport, and headed to Buffalo NY for the evening. I need some new “dress pants”, and am having a difficult time finding a pair. So, I went over to Buffalo to do some shopping. I went to Burlington Coat Factory, then to Target to get some diapers, and a humidifier for Josh. I got some supper at Mighty Taco, then went to the grocery store and got a bunch of groceries. I drove home, and had no issues at the border. I got home around 9:00, unloaded the van, and then watched “House”, and watched some Monday Night Football. Eventually I went to bed.
TUESDAY
I got up, and got ready for work. Josh had woken up a little early, and woke us up too. I did the garbages, and went to work. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee. I had a sad moment when my coffee press cracked, and thus ended the reign of the GFP Coffee Press. I’ll have to get another one. I got to work, and realized that I needed to go to Niagara Falls to our US Warehouse. I drove over, and picked up some stuff that was easier for me to just pick up than try to import it with the customs broker. Finding the import codes were too annoying. I got back to work right at noon. We went to Tie Pink. I had a delicious Special Fried Noodles dish. We went back to work It was a beautiful afternoon, so Iain and I took the air conditioners out, and sealed up the holes for the winter. We took the mail to the post office, and then I came home. Moira taught a singing lesson, and Josh and I watched a Mickey Mouse Club House, and then once the lesson was done, we made some supper. We made some sloppy Joes for supper. After supper, we played for a while outside with Josh. It was a beautiful fall evening… nice tree eh’…I went to evening meeting. After meeting Mike came over to give me an adjustment. Then Moira, Beth, and I watched the new “X-Men” movie. It was a pretty good movie. It was the “beginnings” of the X-Men which was pretty well done…
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I said good morning to Josh, and went to the warehouse. I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, and got to work. I did work things for the morning. It was a deceivingly busy day that felt slow. So we had some large orders trickle in over the course of the day, but didn’t feel too much pressure. Just before lunch Moira and Josh came in. Iain had a good time riding Josh around on some carts, and Moira and I enjoyed his laughter. I went home for lunch and had some tuna sandwiches. I went back to work, and did some work things. I went to Canadian Tire to buy some tools to modify a display rack for the store. It became apparent quickly I didn’t buy the right thing. We did some orders, and then took the packages to the post office. After work, Iain and I went to the grocery store to buy some supplies for the Chapel and for Work. We dropped off our stuff, and then I came home. Moira went to the park with Josh, and met Ashley, with William and Wesley. I stayed home and made a pasta dish. Since I had some time, I baked it. I had a significant amount of cheese mixed in, and on top, and it turned out delicious. I have been reading the Steven James “Patrick Bower” series of books, and recently obtained the newest title, “The Queen”. So, I spent most of the evening reading that. I gave Josh a bath, and got him ready for bed. Moira read him some books, and put him down for the night. I read all night, and into the early morning. Eventually I folded a page, and went to bed. If you are into Crime / Detective books, this series is pretty good, and “apparently” Christian. There isn’t the potty mouth or the sex that the secular books in this genre have, so that makes it a little better.
THURSDAY
I forced myself to get up after the late night, and went to work. I made a much needed cup of coffee, and began doing work things. I did some paperwork for the morning. Then Iain and I raided my tools in my garage at home, and went to Canadian Tire to buy more tools for the display rack modifications. It was a thin wire rack, but it was pretty solid metal wire, and welded, so we ended up buying bolt cutters to snip them off, and then had to use an angle grinder and a file to finish it off. A lot of work and expense for a “free” display rack. At lunch I went and voted for the Conservatives in the Provincial election, and picked up some cheap $1.00 pizza slices and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon, doing paperwork, and arranging an import from the US. Eventually I took the mail to the post office, and came home. Moira was teaching singing lessons, so, I took Josh to a park. It was a beautiful day. I swung him for quite a while, and then let him play on the playground. It was a beautiful day, and for most of the time, we were the only ones there. I brought Josh home, and I had some supper. Josh and Moira had a late supper, so ate later. Moira taught another lesson, so Josh and I watched some cartoons in the basement. I brought Josh up, and left him for Moira to look after and went back downstairs to watch the opening night of the 2011 – 2012 NHL Season. It was the Leafs vs the dirty Montreal Canadians. I watched the first period downstairs, then during the first intermission, I came upstairs and read Josh some books. Moira put him to bed, and went to a ladies prayer meeting. I guarded Josh, and watched the last two periods of the game. Then I caught a little of the election results… Well Ontario, enjoy the lies, broken promises, hospital closures and tax grabs, for another four years… Dirty Liberals… How can anyone in good conscience give the Liberals a third consecutive term with their history??? I went to bed and read for a while before eventually going to sleep… I finished the book, but I stayed up late… too late…
FRIDAY
I dragged myself out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made my coffee, and got to work. I did some paperwork, and had various meetings with Dad who is away this coming week at a conference doing a book table. At lunch I went home. I worked for the afternoon, and tidied my warehouse. Eventually a shipment from the US arrived, and we closed up. I went to the library to rent some DVD’s, then hit up the grocery store for a minimal order to get us through the weekend until we do our regular grocery shopping. I came home, and loaded up my stuff, and went up to Zach’s. I had been marinating some steaks for a couple days. I arrived before he got home, and began cooking a bacon and onion sauté and then grilled up the steaks. I finished them with some blue cheese dressing, some BBQ sauce and smothered them in melted cheese. It was delicious. The steaks were a nice Medium Rare, about two inches thick. With the marinade, and all the sauces and saute’s it was a delicious experience.

After supper we were entertained by Rachel for a while until she went to bed. Then Zach and I watched a couple of movies. I came home around midnight, and went straight to bed.
SATURDAY
I got up when Josh woke us up. Moira slept in a bit, and I made breakfast for Josh and I and a much needed cup of coffee for myself. I did some laundry, and the dishes, and watched some cartoons with Josh. Around 11:30, Moira, Josh and I went to the Pen Centre in St. Catharines. I exchanged my cable box, and ended up getting a sweet deal, free trial for a year on an HD receiver with a DVR. We came home, and I set that up. I had a left over steak for lunch, and had to do some sharing with Josh and Moira. It was delicious, even microwaved. My nice Mom dropped off some Honey Crisp Apples she had picked up and that made me happy. Moira had a nap, and I cleaned my shower. It was a real task. I watched some cartoons with Josh. Moira made some homemade pizza’s for supper, which were really quite nice. I settled in to watch Hockey Night in Canada. The Leafs played a decent two periods, and in typical Leafs fashion, had a horrible 3^rd period, and luckily they managed to eke out a win over the dirty Ottawa Senators. They gave up 5 goals in the 3^rd period. My buddy Dan came over to hang out which was nice. We also had a guy come to look at our kitchen in the basement we were hoping to sell through Kijiji. But he didn’t want the whole thing, and we looked it up to see what it was like, and we had overestimated what a used kitchen was worth, and also overestimated what it would have been worth new… Dan and I watched a bit of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the Calgary Flames game, before eventually shutting it down for the night. Well, before trying to shut it down. Josh woke up, and it took a while to get him back to sleep…
SUNDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for church. I made some breakfast for Josh and I and a delicious cup of coffee. Josh has been sickish, so Moira stayed home with him for the Lord’s Supper, and I went. I had a good time remembering the Lord, and then I came home. Moira went to second meeting, and I looked after Josh. I did some cleaning, and then Josh and I had some left-over pizza for lunch. I put him down for a nap just as Moira got home from meeting. Moira had her lunch and then went to pick up her Gramma Funk. It was her Birthday today, so, Moira took her to her Aunt Elaine’s for a wee birthday party, and I looked after Josh. While Josh was napping, I did some set up on the new cable box. I woke Josh up around 2:30. He watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and I wrote some of the blog. We went outside for a while, and Josh rode his trike.

Then we were throwing sticks for Maverick. Maverick can get about three feet of air jumping up and can long jump about seven feet. I was holding up a stick for him to jump for and didn’t realize that Josh was right in his flight path, and he got him good… like Sportcenter Highlight Reel NFL Tackle kind of hit. So, I brought Josh inside, wiped off his face and checked for any serious damage, and stuck on the “Pacifier” (aka TV) and let him watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. We hung out inside for the rest of the afternoon. I made a pasta dish for supper. Moira got home while we were eating supper, and then we went for a drive. By the time Moira got home it was kinda on the edge of going to meeting and being a little late, or just going out… so, we went for a drive and found the beach. We came home, and gave Josh a bath as he was covered in sand. While he was bathing, I watched the Winnipeg Jets Home Opener game vs the Montreal Canadians. With the DVR, I just fast forwarded through the game, and stopping for the goals. That was great. I love the new DVR! We read Josh a bunch of books, and put him down for the night. I settled in for Sunday Night Football, and finished up this blog… Long Weekend, Day Off Tomorrow…

That was my week…

Thanks

Chris

Weekly Update 10-02-2011

2011-10-02T20:41:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Babysitting Boys
- Park & Movie
TUESDAY
- Work
- Tie Pink Tuesday
- Babysitting Boys
- Hockey Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Meeting
THURSDAY
- Work
- Ice Dogs Game
FRIDAY
- Work
- Pirates Game
SATURDAY
- Frozen Burgers & Buns
- Leafs Game
SUNDAY
- Church
- Thanksgiving Dinner
- Hockey Pool Draft & Football
- Church

Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went into the warehouse, made some coffee, and got to work. My coffee was absolutely delicious. I have had a huge amount of paperwork since my trip to the trade show. So, I spent a good portion of the day doing paperwork, reconciling purchase orders with invoices. At lunch Iain and I went to Archie’s Sub’s for some delicious subs. I got a Big B’s Buffalo Chicken Sub, which was delicious. I worked for the afternoon, and eventually Iain and I took the mail to the post office. Moira and I were looking after William and Wesley for three days. So when I got home I installed their car seats in the van. Josh, William and Wesley were in full play mode when I got home. Moira and I made some pasta for supper, and had an eventful supper. After supper we took the boys to the park by the library, and let them get some energy out. I rented a few movies for Moira and I. After the park it was home for baths, books, and beds for the boys. After the boys settled down, Moira and I watched the new “Wall Street” movie, which was pretty good. Eventually we went to bed.
TUESDAY
I got out of bed after a bit of a sleep in. I went to work, made myself a delicious coffee, and began doing paperwork for another day. It had been two years since our last trade show, so we bought a lot of new product, and stocked up on new Bibles, so, we have a lot of work in data maintenance these days. At lunch it was Tie Pink Tuesday, and I had a delicious dish. I worked for the afternoon, and arranged an import from the US. Eventually Iain took the mail to the post office, and we went home. Moira was teaching singing lessons, so, Iain and I took the boys to a park to play. It was a weird park with some little potty mouth bullies, which I didn’t really know how to deal with. When some brat chucked a crab apple at Josh’s head, we decided to leave. We came home, and made supper. Moira made some blueberry pancakes for supper. After supper, the boys played, and Moira and I tidied the house, and got them ready for bed. I read a bunch of books, and we got the boys all down for the night. Mike came and gave me an adjustment which was nice. I settled in to watch the Leafs game, and alas my Cogeco Cable was not working, so I waiting for approximately 27 minutes on hold with Cogeco to get that fixed. It wouldn’t have been so bad except they were playing “fuzzy” music, you know where the hold music is staticy, and then they were playing Celine Dion, which makes you want to gouge your eyes out. That and I was missing hockey… Eventually my cable was back, but I couldn’t get the game, so, I watched a Calgary Flames vs NY Islanders game on another channel. I watched until the end of the second and went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made some coffee, and got to work. I basically spent the whole day at my computer doing paperwork again. At lunch I went home, and made some tuna sandwiches for myself. I worked for the afternoon, and the work day was done when my huge shipment arrived from the US. I came home, and Ashley was home from her trip, and the boys went home shortly after I got home. I tidied up from the day and made supper. A frozen pizza for Chris and Josh, and tuna sandwiches for Moira. In the evening I played with Josh for a bit, and read him some books. Then I left and drove out to Agape Valley for a Harvest Day planning meeting. I probably could have skipped that meeting and not been too worried about things… Eventually I drove home and shortly afterwards went to bed.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made a delicious coffee, and got to work. I had left Maverick home, and Iain and I had a busy morning. My shipment arrived from the US the evening before, and Iain and I unpacked it, sorted it, and received it into inventory. A lot of stuff arrived from the trade show, so it was exciting to see the new stuff. At lunch I ran a few errands and got some $1.00 pizza slices and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon, and then came home after taking the packages to the post office. Moira was teaching singing lessons, so, I looked after Josh. It was raining outside, and kinda cold, so, we just watched cartoons. Moira had made some chicken soup for supper. I had some supper, and then left and drove to St. Catharines. I found a parking spot near the arena, and met Zach. We watched the OHL Niagara Ice Dogs vs the Mississauga St. Mikes Majors. It was the season opener for the Ice Dogs. The first period was rough for the Ice Dogs, and several goals that the defencemen should have been able to help out their goalie a little but didn’t. The second and third periods the Ice Dogs had a good game but it was too late, and they lost. I had a nice evening with Zach. Once the game ended, I drove home, stopping by the Pita Pit for a late night Gyro. When I got home Moira and her sister Beth were making cookies for Agape Valley Harvest Days. Josh helped with the cookies until his bed time. Shortly after getting home, I was in bed.

FRIDAY
I got out of bed well after my alarm was supposed to go off, because my son who was playing with my phone the morning before, set it to PM, so, I got up with a few minutes to spare, and rushed off to work. I got to work, made some coffee, and got to work. I did a few work things for the morning. I went to the local industrial supply store to buy a rain coat. I just bought a cheap $15.00 suit to get me through the day tomorrow. I am supposed to BBQ in the rain all day. At lunch I went home and had some leftover chicken noodle soup. I went back to work, and did some work things for the afternoon. It wasn’t exactly a busy afternoon. Eventually we took the mail to the post office, and came home. Moira and Josh were at a Midwife appointment. So, I had an hour alone in the house. I did a load of laundry, buzzed my head, and shaved for the first time in nearly a month, and packed up my van for Harvest Days tomorrow. I made some supper, a pasta dish. We had a good supper, and then I read some books to Josh and played with him for a while. I folded my laundry, and got changed to go to a hockey game. Around 7:15 I walked over to the local arena to watch the Port Colborne Pirates vs the Welland Canadians. A bunch of us were there, Dad, Dan, Iain, Harold, Danielle, Dave, Thirza and Emily. Rob was there too, but with other people. The game was really good, fast paced, intense hockey. I had a really good time. It was 2-2 going into the third period. The Canadians scored with under a minute to go. But the third period was one of the best periods of hockey I have seen in a long time… I came home, and watched the movie “”Hancock” on TV. Eventually I went to bed.

SATURDAY
I got up at 6:30, got ready for the day. I made some coffee. I left at 7:00, picked up Iain. We picked up 3 huge bags of Ice, then picked up Thirza and Caleb. We picked up some breakfast from Tim Hortons and then we drove to the Welland Bakery, and picked up the hamburger and hot dog buns for the day, and went to Agape Valley for Harvest Day. It was a cold, bitter, cold, miserable, wet, cold, rainy, cold, windy, cold day. We got to our area, and began setting up. We had a delay waiting for a tent, but during the driving sleet, we were glad to have some shelter. Due to the weather, it wasn’t as busy as people dreamed… So we spent some time just trying to keep warm. Moira and Josh arrived, and he had a lot of fun. He got to go for ride on a 4wheeler. He liked that, and the quote when he was climbing off was, “Maybe Dad will get one of these”. I would love to buddy… We shivered and served for the afternoon, and then around 3:30 we began scaling down, and tidying up. By 4:30, the BBQ area was tidied up, the van was loaded, and we were pulling out to go home. When I got home, I unpacked what I needed to, and then had a shower. We had some left over past for supper. I read Josh some books after supper, and then I woke up shortly after Moira put him down for the night. I don’t know how that happened but I was wiped out from the day. I settled in to watch the Leafs vs the Detroit Red Wings. Iain and Dan ended up coming over to watch a couple periods with me. That was nice. I watched a bit of the Canada vs New Zealand Rugby game, and eventually went to bed.

SUNDAY
I got out of bed after sleeping in a bit. I got ready for church, and made myself some breakfast, and a delicious coffee. I got Josh dressed for church, and we went to the chapel. We had a good time remembering the Lord. Then Sam (aka Dad) was the speaker for the morning. After church, I dropped Moira off for her to have a quick visit with her Gramma Funk, and I zipped home. I picked up a pie for lunch, and then picked up Moira and went to Mom & Dad’s for lunch. They are going to be away for Thanksgiving, and Mom is going to be away for two weeks, so, we had Thanksgiving Dinner today. It was delicious. We brought Josh home for his nap, and Moira had a nap herself once Josh was down. I drafted my Fantasy Hockey Pool Team. I watched some football while Moira and Josh napped. I ran a quick errand to the grocery store. I came home, made supper for Josh, and woke him up from his nap, and gave him supper. I woke Moira up, and went to the chapel. On the way I picked up Barb and Harold who were walking. I went to the pre-meeting prayer meeting, and then Mark Beach was the speaker for the evening, and spoke on Joseph. I came home right after meeting. I stuck a frozen pizza in the oven for supper. Moira and Josh got home from meeting. Josh was already in his pajamas when he got home from meeting, and we transitioned right into reading his pre-bed books. I put him down for the night, and then had my supper. I finished up the blog, and settled in to watch Sunday Night Football.

That was my week…
Thanks
Chris

Weekly Update 09-25-2011

2011-09-25T21:54:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone

Table of Contents
MONDAY
- Work
- Hockey Game
TUESDAY
- Work
- Mid Week Meeting
- Hockey Game
WEDNESDAY
- Work
- Agape
- Steak with the Lewis’s
THURSDAY
- Work
- Park
- Games Night
FRIDAY
- Work
- Guarding Josh
SATURDAY
- Guarding Josh
- Maple Leafs vs Buffalo Sabres Game
SUNDAY
-Church
- Eve of Destruction
- Church

Weekly Update
MONDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made some coffee, and got to work for the day. For some reason it was just Iain and I in the warehouse for the day. Al decided to take the day off. We worked for the morning, and regaled people with stories from the Bills game I was at on Sunday. I had some orders to do with Iain, and lots of paperwork. I worked for the morning, and then I went home for lunch. I dropped Maverick off, and Moira and Josh were not home, and there were no left-overs in the fridge, so, I picked up some McDonald’s and went back to work and ate at my desk. I worked for the afternoon, and eventually I went home. Moira made some spaghetti for supper which was quite tasty. It was the first Leafs game of the NHL pre-season, vs the dirty Ottawa Senators. I watched the Leafs win their first game of the season. I did take a break during the first period to read some books, and help get Josh to bed. The rest of the evening was watching some hockey, and surfing. It is so good to have live hockey back. It was such a long summer…
TUESDAY
I got up, and had a shower, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, and made some delicious coffee, and got to work. Al was in today, and he picked and priced a big booktable. Iain did orders, and I did paperwork. I have a lot of paperwork since I went to the trade show the week before. At lunch we went to Tie Pink for Tie Pink Tuesday. I had a delicious “Special Fried Noodles”, and it was great. We went back to work, and did work things for the afternoon. I ran out of Canada Post shipping labels a few days before, so, we couldn’t ship Canada Post which was frustrating. I came home after work, and watched some cartoons with Josh in the basement while Moira taught some singing lessons. It was her first day of lessons for another year. Josh and I had a frozen pizza (cooked in the oven of course) for supper. In the evening I went to the mid-week meeting. Dave Shatford was the speaker. After meeting I helped clear the tables and chairs from the gym for Kid’s Club. I came home, met Mike, who gave me an adjustment. Then I settled in for another Leaf’s vs the Philadelphia Flyers pre-season game. A.J. and Jen came over for a short visit which was nice. Eventually I went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for the day. Josh had come in and snuggled with us in bed for a while this morning which was cute. I went to work, made some coffee, and got to work. I worked for the morning, doing a bunch of paperwork. A sales rep dropped in so I visited with him for a bit. Then I drove up to Agape Valley. There is a necessary kitchen renovation to be done if we are going to serve pancakes in March, so a few of us were discussing that. I dropped my van off at Dave Peter’s place for him to do a repair on my van. The rear hatch on my van was not opening. Dad came and picked me up, and we went back to work. I packed up a big book table that is going to the October Workers and Elders Conference. I arranged an import from the US. I realized I had a box of Purolator Courier labels kicking around, and it turns out that they work in my Canada Post machine, so, we got all our Canada Post shipping out. I even shipped a nice donation to my sister (and the saints) in Cyprus. We took the mail to the post office in Dad’s van. We had to return the van to Dad at work, and were just starting to walk home when Lester picked Iain and I up. I got home, and shortly after we got home, we left to go to Mike and Jeanette’s for supper. I picked my van up on the way. When I got there Mike was grilling some massive T-bone steaks for supper. Excellent! They also had their neighbor over for supper, and it was neat to get to know her. The steaks were delicious, as was the whole supper. We hung out for a while, as the kids played. We then found Josh who had tucked himself in, in Gavin’s bed, and realized we had to get our boy home to sleep. I was driving seperatly, and stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart to get some cold medication. I have my annual allergies / fall cold / cough which I can’t really identify what it is, or where it comes from. I stopped to get some “night time” stuff with the hopes of getting a great sleep for the first time in a few weeks. I got home, and watched the end of another Leafs vs Philadelphia Flyers game, and then the end of the Boston Bruins vs the dirty Ottawa Senators game.
THURSDAY
I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I went to the warehouse, made my coffee, and got to work. I spent a lot of the day doing paperwork. At lunch I picked up a sub from Archies. I got a delicious Big B’s Buffalo Chicken Sub. It was great. I ate at my desk, and then worked for the afternoon. At some point in the afternoon, Dad and I went out to the racetrack and picked up tickets for Sunday, for the Eve of Destruction. I worked for the afternoon. Eventually Iain took the mail to the post office, and I waited for a delivery from the US. They called to put it off until the morning, so I came home. Moira was teaching singing lessons, and so I went to the basement and watched some cartoons with Josh. Moira made some blueberry pancakes for supper. After supper I took Josh to the park to let him play for a while. He had a good time. Eventually I brought him home, and Moira got him ready for bed. I left, picked up Caleb, and went to Noels house for games night. Tim Plett arrived, and we got started on games night. I had gotten a game called “Mr Bacon’s Big Adventure” for my birthday, so we started with that game. Candyland has more strategy than that game, and so, it only lasted a few minutes before we moved on to another game. We then started playing “Tigris and Euphrates”. I won the game which was great for me. We then played two rounds of “Blokus”, and it was hilarious how quickly Noel attacked me, and blocked me out for being able to play. I lost both games pretty quick. I came home after the games, and went to bed.
FRIDAY
I got out of bed after a long night. My allergies were pretty bad, and I was up a few times dealing with that. I got ready for work, and went to the warehouse. I made some coffee, and got to work for the day. Shortly after I arrived, the shipment from the US arrived, so Iain and I unpacked and received that. I did paperwork, and Iain put books away. At lunch, I went home and had some tuna melts with Moira and Josh. I went back to work for the afternoon. I did some orders with Iain, and then ran a couple errands. We finished up work for the day. I went to the grocery store, and picked up some items for the weekend. I came home and Mom (aka Nanny) was looking after Josh. Moira had gone to St. Catharine’s to pick up Janice for the weekend. She got home, and left for Camp LiLoLi for the annual Ladies Retreat. Moira was leading singing this year. So, she left, and I was home with Josh. We played for a while, had a pillow fight on my bed, and played with his trains. We then made some pizza for supper. I had rented a “Franklin” DVD and we had supper watching cartoons. Josh finished up supper, and we played some, and got ready for bed. I read him some books, and put him down for the night. I watched a movie “The Tournament”, and then went to bed.
SATURDAY
I got out of bed when Josh came and woke me up. I made him some breakfast, and had some myself. We had breakfast, and then I got him dressed for the day. He watched some Mickey Mouse Club House shows, and I had a coffee. Eventually Josh and I went out for the morning. We first went to Canadian Tire, and Josh spent a significant amount of time checking out the lawn tractors, asking me everything about them, pretending to drive them. It was cute. We then went to the “free zoo”, (aka the Pet Store) and then picked up a chicken for supper. We went to the park and Josh played for a while, and then I swung him for quite a long time on the swings. We had a good time there.

(Josh enjoying the park, and playing on the lawn tractors)

Then we went to Nanny and Grampy’s for lunch. I worked on Mom’s computer trying to speed it up. I think her major issue is too slow of an internet connection, but that is just me. Josh had fun with Grampy looking for “Goldbug”. Mom made creamed tuna and peas on toast for lunch which was delicious. After lunch we came home and Josh went down for a nap. I had a shower, and got ready to leave. I loaded my van for going to the game, and also for the Eve of Destruction on Sunday. I watched some college football during Josh’s nap. At 3:15, Nanny arrived to look after Josh until Moira got home from the Ladies Retreat at Camp LiLoLi. I woke Josh up and realized that I had a mess to clean up in regards to my son and his diaper. It ended up being a bath clean up, and full change of clothes. I then went out to meet everyone and drive to Buffalo, and realized I had left the keys in my van, with it draining the battery, and it was dead. I had a couple frantic moments trying to get my van started with the battery booster pack I have, which also was dead because it wasn’t plugged in while in storage. So, Zach picked me up, and the gang got on the road. It was Zach, Mike, Bill, and another Bill from Zach’s work, and Jon and Joy, Zach’s relatives. We drove to the border, and had a single car to wait for, so, we cleared the border quickly. Got to the arena, and parked, and walked to the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. It is a great restaurant which is kinda the place everyone goes to before the game. It is 5 stories of dining options, and they have some killer wings. I had a great Beef on a Wick, and a bunch of genuine Buffalo Wings, and it was a delicious supper. After supper we walked to the arena and waited for Dan to arrive. He got there shortly after we got into the arena. We got to our seats which were one row from the ceiling. The game was a pre-season game with only a few guys who will actually get to play with their respective NHL teams this year, so the quality of the game was more of an ECHL game than NHL, as guys are still getting their game and speed back, and it is varying degrees of skill, so, the passes that would be received in an NHL game were missed. And we were sitting way up high, so it was appearing even slower, and it was easier to see the mistakes being made. But it was hockey, and it was the Leafs, and I enjoyed the evening immensely even though the Leaf’s lost. After the game we had a scare with a missing passport, but thankfully it was found in the van. On the way back to the van I had a most delicious street meat hot-dog which hit the spot. We drove home. We stopped at work, and I got Zach some books so he could teach Sunday school, and then got home. My van, with a charger on it for a couple hours started right up, which was good. I came inside, wrote some of this blog, said hello to my wife who was home from the Ladies Retreat, and went to bed. It was a good day.
(The view from our seats – up high eh)

SUNDAY
I got out of bed after too few hours of sleep. I got ready for church, and then made some breakfast for Josh and I. We had Breakfast together while Moira got ready for church. At about 9:00, I left, went to Sobeys to get some subs that I ordered from the deli. I went to meeting, and had a good time remembering the Lord. After the coffee time, which I had a fabulous coffee of some “Kicking Horse” coffee, bold, freshly ground joy. Then Iain MacDougall gave a good message, and then Dan Lee finished it off. Both messages were really good. As soon as meeting ended, Iain and I took off, got changed quickly and went to the New Humberstone Speedway for the annual “Eve of Destruction”. It is one of, if not the best event I attend in a year. This is a day that is dedicated to smashing stuff up, and destroying cars. It starts with a 75 lap endure race with no caution flags, just go, or red if someone is actually hurt. They minimally clean up the track during red, leaving cars in the way to add to the mayhem upon restart. That race had something like 112 car start the race, and there were flips, pile ups, guys off the track, and into and on the cement barriers. After that they have backwards races, blindfold races, flag pole races, figure eight races, trailer races, and between all these events they had guys jumping cars through RV’s, or school bus races, or a giant transport tow truck pulling a van around on a winch cable trying to get it to roll. One neat event was lining up three cars with no oil in the motors, and holding their foot to the floor until the motors blew. One car totally caught on fire which was pretty awesome, especially since they just got a giant payloader to push it out of the way while they let the other vehicles keep going. It is so much fun to watch this event. The best event in the Niagara region in a year… This year our numbers were down a little with only seven of us. Iain MacDougall, Jayson Daziel, Thirza Beach, Al Robertson, Bill Duncan, Dad and I. The track had this event going really good this year, keeping the events rolling continually with minimal waiting or down time. Our day ended with a long jump competition, with a bunch of guys ramping their cars. We left when a guy got injured, and we saw there was going to be a long delay. When we were driving home, we met the full 911 response, so the injury must have been worse than they let on. If you skipped this event this year, you missed a great time, and you can’t say I have not talked about this for the last two years or given adequate notice… come next year! We had 20 minutes before evening meeting, so Iain and I got changed, and went to evening meeting. Harold MacDougall gave a good message on Palm Trees and the Christian Life. We then had our end of the month fellowship time which was nice. Afterwards I cleared the gym of tables and chairs for Kid’s Club, and swept the gym floor. We came home, and got Josh down for the night. I finished up this blog, and got ready for the week to come.

(The Eve of Destruction Crew)

(Some smashed car action, and a bit of smoke from a car on fire)

(Some car doing the long jump competition)

That was my week…
Thanks
Chris