Kissing Couple of Grande Prairie

Remembrance Day 2016

2016-11-11T06:58:00.001-08:00

"To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high"

John McCrae wrote those words many years ago, and they're particularly relevant this Remembrance Day. With everything that's happened this year, it's sometimes hard to feel hope for the future.

In these trying times, I implore you: Remember that there are things like honour and decency. Remember that our ancestors gave themselves to save us from oppression and preserve our freedom. Remember that even if you're not in the military, you can still take up the torch and fight for the same things those brave men and women believed in. You can end violence, racism, and misogyny without resorting to the use of any of the three.

Thanks folks.

4:30

2016-02-02T03:39:00.001-08:00

I've heard the jokes for years that parents of babies don't get any sleep. It's one thing to hear those stories and believe them. It's another to live through them.

Amelia woke up crying and I brought her to bed so Amanda could feed her, then I tried to go back to sleep. I must have succeeded, because the next thing I heard was Amelia crying from her bed again.

Amanda told me she had fed, changed, and burped her, but Amelia wouldn't go back to sleep. So I got up, picked up Amelia, and went to zap some water so I could try giving her water, formula, and/or pablum in that order.

By the time we were settled on the couch with her sippy cup, she had calmed down and was quite happy to have some water. Then she was fine. But in the process, she had woken right up. So I spent over a half-hour walking with her and singing quietly to her.

I thought she was asleep, but then the ice maker in the fridge rotated its arm that keeps the ice loose, and startled her. Later I put her in bed and she woke up and started fussing again. So we walked together again. Finally I got her to asleep about ten minutes ago. I've been awake for about an hour, and Amanda was up with her for a while before that.

Here's the kicker: from the sound of things, we don't have it bad compared to a lot of other parents. So I'll be yawning my head off at work tomorrow, but very aware that it could be much worse.

Two Weeks

2015-06-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

As of today, our daughter Amelia was born two weeks ago. Being a father has been both incredible and overwhelming so far, and I'm looking forward to the adventure ahead.

I'm happy to report that, while it was touch and go the first few days, I no longer call Amelia "Baby Fehr." It was a bit of an adjustment though -- it's amazing how a made-up name can stick when you've been using it for nine months.

Thank you to our friends, family, co-workers, and hospital staff who have been kind, patient, and very enthusiastic.

Overdue

2015-05-23T22:13:00.001-07:00

So as of today, Baby Fehr is three days overdue. It's really not a large chunk of time, but every moment has made me more and more anxious. This afternoon while Amanda and I were out and about, I kept a close eye on her, just in case we had to drop what we were doing and head for the hospital.

So now I wonder whether she'll have to wake me at 3am so we can sleepily grab our hospital bag and the baby's car seat and head off. I can't really prepare for it because it's just as likely that Baby Fehr will wait until tomorrow morning, or even the day after...

Anyway, we'll see what happens.

The Only Real Surprise

2015-04-28T18:57:00.003-07:00

So, like our friends and family, Amanda and I are excited for Baby Fehr to be born, in part, so we'll finally know whether we have a son or a daughter. Way back when the possibility of finding out the baby's sex first arose, Amanda and I talked about it and decided to wait until Baby Fehr was born.

I always thought it was more dramatic that way, and honestly, what's wrong with colours like green and orange for the baby rather than going all-in on blues or pinks based on gender?

Amanda had a different perspective on it. She pointed out that there are so few real surprises left in life. Movie plots are all-but given away online to entice viewers. New product announcements are met with muted shrugs. And once you're past a certain age, guessing birthday gifts isn't just possible, but likely.

But this is something we don't know, and can't guess with any certainty. Sure, the ultrasound technician may know, but without actually asking her, there's no way for us to find out on our own. It's great!

Amanda and I have actually made a bet. I bet her five dollars that Baby Fehr is a girl, and she bet that Baby Fehr is a boy. We've definitely noticed it in the pronouns we use to refer to the baby. I talk about what "she" is doing, while Amanda comments about what "he" is doing.

Anyway, it has been fun to wonder, guess, and debate. We'll find out in a few short weeks!

What's in a Name?

2015-04-27T20:03:00.001-07:00

So it's settled. Amanda and I have decided on the two possible names for our baby -- one boy's name and one girl's name. We've had the first names picked out for a while, but the middle names were in flux. We had at least three good possibilities for the boy's middle name, and a few lesser possibilities for the girl's.

But then I had a thought the other day at work. There was a name I had previously thrown out as a possibility for a girl's first name, mostly because I liked the shortened form of it. But when I tried the full name as a middle name, it worked! As an added bonus, that name includes the name of a family member whose name wouldn't work well as a middle name!

While we ate supper tonight, I suggested the new middle name to Amanda, and she liked it. We agreed that we've got an official name if Baby Fehr is a girl. But that left the boy's name. We had a few good possibilities for middle names, Amanda suggested that one would be her first choice, and we decided to go with it.

So Baby Fehr has a name, whether she turns out to be a girl, or he turns out to be a boy!

...now we just need to worry about other things like car seats, bassinettes, strollers, and other things.

As Days Go By...

2015-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

May 20th.

That's the only date I can think about right now. I know due dates, especially for first babies, are sometimes little more than a shot in the dark. But that date is the one that will not leave my brain.

It's just over three weeks away. Just over three weeks until I'm a dad and have a little person counting on me to keep him/her safe, warm, and fed (though indirectly for the first few months).

That is still an absolutely crazy thought. Seven years ago, I was still living at home. Four years ago, I hadn't even met Amanda yet. And a year ago, in the wake of Amanda's surgery, we weren't really sure if we would ever be able to have children.

It's a lot to take in. It doesn't help that we're not physically prepared yet. Car seat? Nope. Bassinette? Nope. Stroller? Nope. If it wasn't for my mom making an *amazing* baby blanket and cloth diapers with changeable absorbant liners for us, Baby Fehr would be in real trouble.

Part of the difficulty has been our schooling. I finished up for the semester on April 11th, just after Amanda started her first year of parts school. An average day for me involved work, supper, school, and a scant few minutes with Amanda as it was -- even thinking about spending an afternoon looking at baby stuff seemed like too much time away from school work that I couldn't afford.

Amanda's not working while she's attending school, but there's an awful lot crammed into her six weeks. Last week she had three tests, for example. She gets off from school reasonably early, but usually has to spend the bulk of the night taking notes and working on homework. As a result, it's been hard for us to find time to look at stuff.

Last weekend we did some looking, but quickly became overwhelmed. We don't have a lot of room in our apartment, so were debating the size of bassinette we could handle, and whether it made more sense to get a smaller one-purpose bassinette, or a larger one that served as a playpen once the baby was too large for the bassinette portion.

At any rate, one way or another, we'll manage when Baby Fehr is born. At the moment, it's just a little hard to see how.

Looking Spiffy

2015-04-26T09:42:00.001-07:00

When we tried to go to a play last night, Amanda wore a dress one of my co-workers made and gave to her.

What happened was that she had made the dress for herself, but it didn't fit her well. She offered it to me for Amanda, and commented that it should fit Amanda fine because they both have broad shoulders.

So I brought the dress home, and it fit Amanda great! To top things off, it looked really good on her. Now, this is the same co-worker who kindly made me a diaper bag for our soon-to-be-born first child (unbelievably, the countdown is at 24 days).

So, the short version of the above is that I have an awesome co-worker!

Dressed up with Froyo

2015-04-25T19:03:00.001-07:00

So, 15 minutes ago, Amanda and I were at Menchie's. Amanda was wearing a dress one of my co-workers made and gave to her, and I was wearing khakis and a polo shirt. This isn't our normal dress code for frozen yogurt. We were supposed to be going to a play, but they didn't have any record of tickets being held for us. We were a little bummed, but quickly rallied and headed out for frozen yogurt instead.

And before we headed out, we took the first kissing couple photo we've taken in quite a while! I'm clearly out of practice -- this photo has way too much of me and not nearly enough of Amanda.

Writing

2014-12-26T21:33:00.001-08:00

I've done a small amount of writing over the years. I've come up with a number of picture books, worked on a novel, and have written on this blog (sporadically). But I had never really done much with them. One time I tried sending a few of my picture book manuscripts to a publisher, but nothing came of the attempts.

In September, I decided to try something different. I had come up with an idea for a story about a goldfish who would like to try different things but is ultimately constrained by living in a bowl and being a goldfish. I created some basic illustrations, put the thing together, and published it on Amazon as a Kindle ebook. A Goldfish Wish wasn't perfect -- the illustrations were simple and the layout could have been adapted for ebook a better, but I finally had one of my books available to the public!

Once I finished my MLIS classes for the semester a few weeks ago, I took another look at other things I had written. Two years ago, I wrote a branching story for a library program. I used it for that program, then set the story aside. Well, I recently talked to my boss and received permission to use my creations beyond the scope of the library, and published that ebook through Amazon as well. Alien Abduction from the Library is a fun branching story that works very well as an ebook (though it works better in the Kindle app than on the eReaders themselves).

I don't know if I'll get anything else ready before my classes resume in January, but for now, two of my books are for sale, and it's very, very neat to be able to say that!

Cancun 2014

2014-11-09T16:07:00.001-08:00

Amanda and I just returned from my brother's wedding in Cancun. We had our doubts, but they were quickly washed away by the sun, sand, and salt water.

While we were there, we also took a couple of kissing couple photos.

The first one was taken on the beach next to our resort.

The second one was taken by my brother in front of El Castillo at Chichen Itza.

In short, it was an incredible trip, and a welcome break from work on my master's degree. Amanda appreciated a week off from work, too!

Starting School Again...

2014-09-09T20:18:00.002-07:00

So I started working on my master's degree last week. For the past few years, when I've discussed it, I've said that I'll have to do the work, but that I didn't think anything on there would be particularly difficult.

I've found that's not entirely true. The major difference is the amount of time I have. When I worked on my library technician diploma, I was working at a mill, and my hours were offset from my family's somewhat. I always had a few hours at home alone to work on things. But things are different now. Amanda's schedule and my schedule overlap almost perfectly, so any time I spent on schoolwork is time taken away from spending with her.

I'm sure we'll get into a smooth rhythm once I get used to being in school again, but for the moment, I feel kind of bad about it. However, nomatter how busy I am with schoolwork, there will always be some time for Mario Kart with Amanda! (Mario Kart 8 is awesome.)

One Year

2014-07-27T20:07:00.001-07:00

Today marks one year since the happiest day of my life -- the day I married Amanda. The whole wedding process was incredibly stressful, but when I saw her at the end of the aisle, the stress and worry melted away, and I just had to try not to cry.

I'm a very lucky man, and I couldn't have had anyone better to share my life with.

So after supper tonight, Amanda and I took a quick photo together. The wedding clothes aren't there, but the love certainly is.

Weddings, ho!

2014-06-22T06:52:00.001-07:00

Amanda and I attended our second wedding in a row this weekend. This time around, it was friends getting married. The ceremony and reception were great, and Amanda and I even had her sister volunteer to take a photo of us together!

Amanda looked amazing in her black dress, and I didn't look entirely bad either. :-)

SLP

2014-06-20T20:01:00.001-07:00

Amanda and I are finally watching Silver Linings Playbook. She was interested in the movie back when it was playing in theatres, but we never made it out to see it. So I placed a hold on the library's copy and we're finally watching it tonight. Good movie, and my full review can be expressed in five words:

Scott Pilgrim meets American Beauty.

Am Too!

2014-06-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

See, Mom? I do update this blog!

(Photo taken at my cousin's wedding reception)

Day Four

2014-05-02T21:22:00.001-07:00

Today marked day four. For the past few nights, Amanda and I have been getting out and about to go for a walk for 45 minutes to an hour after supper. It doesn't sound like much, but we really fell out of the habit over the winter and have gained weight as a result. So, four days is a good start, and hopefully tomorrow will be day 5, Sunday day 6, and so on!

New Glasses

2014-04-30T21:41:00.001-07:00

Amanda and I recently had our eyes tested. Mine are still fine, and hers haven't changed. But Amanda's glasses were getting old and scratched up, so it was time to order a new pair.

Here is the first official Kissing Couple photo of Amanda in her new glasses:

Garden Carnage

2014-04-29T20:35:00.001-07:00

Amanda and I are huge Plants vs. Zombies fans. So when Garden Warfare came out a few months ago, Amanda was quick to buy it on the way home one night. We signed up for an Xbox Live Gold account that night, and our lives have been more fun ever since.

After we got back from a really nice walk, we started playing. We're currently on the couch, trading the controller back and forth, and it's awesome!

Away and Home Again

2014-04-27T22:03:00.001-07:00

I returned home from a library conference today. It was the first time Amanda had been apart for more than a single night (the night before our wedding) since I moved out here.

It was weird. Even though I had a full king size bed to spread out across, I stayed on just half of it. When I tried to go to sleep, I had a hard time because it was too quiet. I missed hearing Amanda's soft breathing.

But I'm home again, and it was wonderful to come home to her!

The Real Birthday

2014-04-23T19:03:00.001-07:00

So, Amanda's real birthday ended up kind of disappointing. Amanda opened her final gift from me this morning, but then it was off to work like any other day. Then later on we got the news that our nephew is in the hospital with pneumonia. That put a damper on the day fairly quickly. He's doing okay now, though he'll be in the hospital a few days longer.

So instead of a birthday party or being taken out for supper, Amanda and I stopped briefly at Arby's on the way home from the hospital. We like Arby's, but it wasn't much of a birthday celebration. It made me very glad we celebrated early on Monday!

Another Birthday

2014-04-21T17:59:00.001-07:00

Wednesday is Amanda's birthday. I have to share her on her birthday with her family because it will be Scrabble night, and I won't have time to do much special anyway. So I decided we'd celebrate a bit early. I bought Amanda some balloons, cooked one of her favourite meals, let her open two of her gifts early, and baked a cake.

I made a fairly basic cake (I ran out of time after doing a bunch of cleaning/rearranging/running around), and then went to work decorating it. When Amanda saw it, she commented that she liked the friendly alligator on it.

...My cake decorating skills could use some work. Also my Yoshi-drawing skills. Still, I thought it turned out pretty good given how quickly I did it!

Endings and Beginnings

2014-04-20T21:25:00.001-07:00

It's spring, and it's time for new beginnings.

I've neglected this blog shamelessly since our wedding. But when I scrolled through it tonight before coming to bed, it reminded me how much I enjoyed writing it at times. This doesn't necessarily mean I'll be updating every day, but hopefully I'll update more often than my current one-a-month pace.

So first with the endings. Today was the final day of business for Wiseowl Toys, my parents' toy store. Back in 2002, my brother and I spent a fair chunk of our Thanksgiving weekend at home helping to apply varnish to the first of the shelves that would hold so many toys for so many years. It was time to close though. Nearly twelve years is a long time to work 9+ hour days for six days every week. In that entire time, the longest break my parents we able to take was five days to come up for our wedding last summer. It's time for a break. The people of Williams Lake will be sad, I'm sure, but they had one of the greatest toy stores I've ever seen for nearly twelve years.

In another ending my current boss will be leaving the library at the end of next week. She's been covering the maternity leave of another staff member, and found a new position she'll be starting shortly. It's strange though. My original (and permanent) boss is coming back, but at this point, I've worked for my current boss longer than I've worked for her!

Now for another beginning. Amanda and I gained weight this winter. Poor health and a ridiculous amount of snow made it tricky for us to keep active all winter. But now that the weather is nicer, we're going to turn things around. We started today by walking to buy groceries (roughly a half hour walk in each direction). I've got tomorrow off, so I'll try to get out for a lengthy wander (or maybe a swim), and I'm sure we'll get out for a walk tomorrow night. With a bit of discipline and a little luck, maybe we'll have beach-ready bodies when we go to Tyler and Irina's wedding in November. I can dream, can't I?

Finally, what would this blog be without a picture? Amanda and I took this photo together a few weekends ago in a mirror at Bouclair Home. Amanda is wearing one of my hoodies, but the colour suits her quite well, and I caught her referring to it as her hoodie a few times since then. But when she looks so cute in it, how can I complain?

Prediction

2014-03-13T19:46:00.001-07:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the blog. Be forewarned.

I just predicted something to Amanda, and I'd like an official record of my prediction. I've heard the rumours that we'll learn the mother has died in How I Met Your Mother.

I tend to believe those predictions. However, I also predict that we'll learn that in "present day" (2030), Barney has also died, and that Robin and Ted are planning their final years together. The arguments that kept them apart in the past will no longer exist. Ted will already have had children, and Robin will have travelled the world. They'll both be in their 50s, and there won't be any reason for them not to be together.

Anyway, that's my silly prediction.

Busy Week Behind Me

2014-02-01T20:22:00.001-08:00

Last week was busy. Between Family Literacy Day, Chinese New Year, and other things, I was hopping for a fair chunk of the week.

But things were also good. I was able to spend time working on the artwork for the Summer Reading Game scoreboard. Last year, I used level 1-1 of Super Library Patron, my take-off of Super Mario Bros. This year I'm making level 1-2, and have updated the visual design to look less like the original Super Mario Bros., and more like Super Mario Bros 3. It's been fun so far, and I'm hoping the scoreboard will be a hit like last year's was.

Oh, and Amanda and I went to the hockey game last night. The Storm lost in a shoutout, but we enjoyed ourselves, which is all that really matters!