Detox

On Monday I started a 4 week nutritional/physical detox. It's a mix of dietary changes and physical activity/stimulation.

I can't eat dairy, eggs, meat, wheat, or anything refined. So I'm eating a ton of veggies (lots of stuff we grew in our garden), fish, nuts and such. It is kind of cool, but I think I'm going to start to miss my sugar and meat and bread and such. It'll be especially tough with Thanksgiving right in the middle, but.../shrug

I think it'll be good for me. Maybe it'll help me get sick less often. I'm tired of getting sick all the time, and apparently something like this will help my immune system. I think it will also help me make some changes with the way I eat, though with a baby coming in 3 weeks things are about to get topsy turvy.

What I've noticed so far is an increase in bathroom visits, and a weird feeling in my stomach. I'm full, but my head doesn't think that a stomach full of veggies constitutes "full". We'll see how it goes though, I'm excited to see some changes, and the thought of cleaning out my system makes me happy.

Being a Dad

I'm ready to be a dad.

Current parents like to tell me that I have no idea what I'm getting into. Other prospective parents bemoan the fact that they have no idea what they are getting into. I feel like I'm ready.

The only thing that is scaring me/making me nervous is a selfish fear about how it is going to affect my "me" time. But I figure it'll totally be worth it. ;) The change in lifestyle will be huge, but it is a sacrifice that I'm more than willing to make. That's the only thing that worries me though.

Bring on the baby, I'm ready to be a dad. :)

Disturbing

Does anyone find this image as disturbing as I do? It took me a minute to realize just what was going on. And it's kinda creepy. I mean the circle of what they are eating... There's something totally wrong about it.

I found it on the Suicide Food blog.

Furnace confusion

So yesterday we received a second quote for a furnace replacement.

And there was a HUGE difference in price. He quoted us $4100, as opposed to around $6000. Now, it's for a Ruud furnace as opposed to a Lennox (i have do idea of the quality difference) but I can't see it being a big quality difference since it is another big name furnace company. There is also a difference between the size of the furnace, the first guys said 70,000 BTU, and the second said 60,000 BTU.

So I don't know the difference in the service levels between the companies, and any of that kind of stuff, but seriously, a $2000 difference between quotes is insane. The second company is a small local company, as opposed to the big multi-national corporation that the first quote came from.

I have one more quote on Oct 5, which I'm looking forward to. It's a larger local company, and he seems to do a little more in-depth initial inspection to figure out what would be ideal for our house. He says he takes about an hour and a half, as opposed to the 20-30 min that the last two took.

So we'll see what happens. And hopefully bean comes early. :)

Furnace Woes

So we need to get a new furnace. Well, we don't NEED to, but ours is not the best. It was put in around 1970/80 and it has about a 65% efficiency rating, meaning for every dollar we pay for natural gas, 35 cents go up the chimney. Not to mention the electric motor that circulates the air and costs about $500/year to operate.

A new furnace would save us about 30-40% on our monthly heating bills, and the new electric motors in them run for about $50 a year instead of $500. And considering our winter heating bills hover around $300, a 30-40% savings would be significant.

I had no idea what a furnace would cost us. Some people said they paid less than $3000, while others have paid over $8000. That's quite the spread, so I was a little worried when Winnipeg Supply came today to give us our first estimate. The sales lady gave me two options, both 96% efficiency ones, one was $6138, the other was $5799. Ummm...WHAT!? When I talked to Mama Bean before she left for work this morning, we figured we could go up to $3000. *jaw drop* Then she showed me all the rebates, which softened the blow quite a bit. $200 Lennox rebate, $245 Manitoba Hydro Rebate, $790 ecoRebate, and the Canadian Home Renovation Tax credit which knocks off another $800 or so. In the end it brought the prices down to $4075 and $3831. Still quite a bit more than we expected to pay, but a whole lot nicer than the pre-rebate prices. Though in order to qualify for the $790 hydro rebate we have to pay $250 for an eco inspection, so it's only like $500 off. But since we also want to get our attic re-insulated, it will be worth it, because if we get our attic re-insulated we could potentially get 100% of the cost back in rebates.

I have 2 more guys coming out to give us quotes so we'll see what the differences are. The lady that came out today said they wouldn't be the cheapest, but they also won't be the most expensive. I've heard lots of good stories about their service and install, so that's part of why I called them. I don't want to just pick the cheapest because I don't want to deal with the headaches of a shoddy install.

So we'll see how the next couple of quotes go. There's another first thing in the morning, so that'll give me a better idea of how reasonable today's was.

Oh, the best part? The eco inspection is Oct 16th. Yup, 4 days before Jo's due date. Which means the furnace install and insulation work can't be done until after that. And the furnace has to be installed prior to Nov 1st to qualify for the Hydro rebate, and we aren't going to want guys putting in insulation much into November as there will be snow by the end of October. :p So yeah. This should be interesting. Maybe bean comes early? *fingers crossed*

Have I mentioned that I want to go to school in January? Too bad I don't go to a church that can afford to help students that are going into ministry. lol

Josh and Keira

Last night I had the pleasure of chatting with my little niece and nephew in Calgary. We left Calgary a little over a year ago, a Josh was 3 and Keira was just about to turn 1.

I've talked to Josh once since leaving and it was so cute. I couldn't believe how much more he could talk and that he still remembered and missed me. Tonight I got to talk to them again, and I got to talk to Keira! She just turned 2 this weekend and I can't believe she can talk! She said "Hi, Uncle Chris," and "I love you." It was so cute!

I miss them. They are a big part of what I miss in Calgary. We got to watch the first years of their lives, and now I feel like I'm going to miss out on watching them grow up, which makes me sad. (mostly i'm just selfishly afraid that they will forget me and i'll cease to be josh's favorite uncle)

My brief conversation with them really made my evening. I'd been feeling pretty shitty all day, so it was a really nice high-point. They'll be here in 3 weekends, as Josh pointed out to me, which I'm pretty excited about. Josh even asked me where the baby was, and why I didn't have it yet. :) Seriously... so cute!

The Amazing Preggo Wife!

My wife amazes me with her patience when it comes to things pregnancy/childbirth/parenting related. And not just the physical act of being pregnant, but all the mental abuse from others.

She is constantly bombarded with parenting advice, and stories of other peoples experiences, whether we cares or not. She does an amazing job of taking it all in stride and remaining rather non-judgmental.

We aren't following the norm when it comes to bean. We are doing it at home with a midwife. We aren't sure yet about vaccinations. She's hoping to breastfeed and pump while I stay home and she goes to work. I'm going to be a stay-at-home dad. We have made educated choices about our upcoming child, that we think are right for us, but she doesn't use any of them to make herself superior to people that don't make similar choices. As I browse the internet reading about parenting and childbirth stuff, everyone is a nazi for their side of the argument. And it's really easy to get that way. It is natural to want to defend your choices. But Mama Bean does such an amazing job of staying above that.

We try to stay away from the conflict, the judging, and all that good stuff that comes with contentious issues. I'm not always good at that. I'm a bit of a shit-disturber at times, and not always great with keeping my mouth shut. Mama Bean is much better at this than I am, and she's doing such an awesome job of keeping the peace.

School Sticker Shock!

So I got a bit of a shock yesterday when I looked into going back to school. I just want to go back part-time, 2 or 3 classes per semester, and finish my Theology degree so that I can go on to become a Pastor. Seeing as how September is quickly drawing to a close, I figured I'd start getting the details on applying for school and getting the ball rolling. Then I saw tuition costs. I'd looked at the University of Winnipeg (UofW), and Manitoba (UofM) in the past and tuition for a 3 credit course (standard) was just under $300 which was fine and I figured we could afford for me to take 2 classes come January.

Then I look at Canadian Mennonite University's tuition, $590 for a 3 credit hour course! That's double what it costs to do a degree at either of the other universities in town. So then I look a little closer at the other schools to see if I'm missing something. It turns out that while a 3 credit hour course in the Faculty of Arts is only $285, a 3 credt hour course in the Faculty of Theology is $585. Umm... what?!?! How does that work? The only people going into the Faculty of Theology are potential ministry candidates; people that aren't looking to make a lot of money. So why does it cost double to get a degree to go into ministry as it does to get a normal Arts or Science degree. And then seminary ends up being $900-1300 per class.

It was a bit of a kick in the nuts. So I'm figuring when it's all said and done, we'll be shelling out about $1500 for me to go back to school in January. Which is a good $500 more than we had planned on spending. I know we can make it work, and we'll just make some cuts in other areas. We, like most people, aren't always the greatest with our spending habits, but I like to think that we've really improved over the past couple of years.

So, I guess we'll make it work, it just really sucks. It'll cost me just as much to become a pastor as it would to become a doctor, and I'll make less than a third. Now I know people don't become pastors for the money, but that's a HUGE debtload to take on for a career path that pays a mere pittance in comparison to an equally costly education. No wonder there is a pastor shortage, not many people are going to accept a debtload like this for such little monetary pay off. It's not like it is buying me a ticket to Heaven; that's free and available to anyone.

Prayers would be greatly appreciated as we make some pretty big transitions in the next few months. Mama Bean is due in about 4 weeks, I'll be off work for 9 months starting December 1st, and I'm hoping to be taking a couple of classes starting in January. It's going to be a busy time, but I'm really looking forward to it all.

Innate Parenting

Are we born ready to be parents? Do we have this innate knowledge, from birth, that prepares us for being good parents?

Part of me thinks so. Part of me thinks we are all born with the innate knowledge of how to be parents, of how to raise a child. I think it is then up to us to make the choice whether we want to be good parents or not. I think it's innate to all creatures, not just humans. Animals in the wild know how to take care of and raise their young, so why is it such a stretch to think that we, these intellectually superior creatures, aren't born knowing how to raise children?


Don't you love those people that ask you a question just so they can tell you a story? Mama Bean and I are finding this happening more and more when it comes to expecting a baby. They ask how the pregnancy is going, and don't really pay attention to, nor care about, the response. All they want is to tell their story. All parents have stories, it's part of having kids, but not everyone wants to hear your story every time you have an opportunity to tell it.

My Schools

So, I'm an IT guy for a local school division. There are 8 of us for 25 schools, and we are each assigned 2-6 schools. I'm one of those with 2 schools, though one of them is the biggest school in the division by over double the size of the next closest school.

My other school is an alternative school. It's a high school for kids who can't cut it in normal school. This could be due to emotional issues, psychological issues, and behavior issues; it has a very 'Dangerous Minds' feel sometimes. They only have about 100 kids, with another 40 on a waiting list, but it's a pretty cool setup and it's really awesome that they give kids a second chance who otherwise wouldn't get an education.

The one school I have is a total princess school. It is the "flagship school" of our division. They get the most money, all the cool new things, and all the prestige. I'm pretty much there full time, even though I'm also assigned to another school, and they are used to getting almost an almost-instant response when they submit tech requests. Last year, this resulted in me neglecting my other school and doing quick in-and-out jobs there and never really giving them a fair share of my time.

So this year I am determined to give everyone their fair share. So I am taking the time to visit my smaller school on a regular basis. Even if they don't have a super-urgent tech request, I'm still going to take the time to go over and give them some face time, which I'm learning is important. Schools only been back for 2 weeks now, but already I'm noticing a difference. People like being made to feel important, and I like making people happy and feeling special. It's good times.

My First Hunting Trip

So yesterday, out of the blue, my cousin sends me an email saying he's talked to his wife's best-friends husband and got me permission to hunt on his farm land near Morden. It's only 1.5 hours away as opposed to 2.5 where the other land is. He tells me it is "very good deer hunting property" and that there are guys that hunt it during rifle season that already have tree stands up and stuff. This is great because it is a step ahead for me because they'll have them strategically placed along existing game trails.

I'm kind of excited to get out and scout the land and get a couple of weekends of hunting in before the baby shows up.

My first hunting trip a few weeks back was more of a 4 day camping trip as opposed to a hunting trip. It was a great experience being out in the bush for a couple of days. The guys I went with are pretty awesome and they showed me a lot of stuff. It was amazing sitting 15-20 feet up in a tree and watch the sunrise and set. We'd be in our treestands by 6am and sat there until 9:30-10ish and then again in the evenings from 6-8:45ish.

It's so cool to watch the change in the woods from night to day and then from day to night. We didn't see any deer, because it was just too hot out, but the birds were so much fun to watch. I was doing particularly well one evening as I sat there in my tree stand, perfectly still, and a little chipmunk stopped on a branch not 3 feet from my head. I slowly turned my head toward him and whispered, "boo!" She started chattering at me and then ran up the tree and then started dropping things down at me. It was hilarious and a pretty cool feeling. I mean I was sitting way out in the bush, and was so still, that a wild animal was unaware that I was there.

It was a little disheartening that we didn't see any deer though. Well, one of the guys saw 2 deer the first morning that were about 100 yards away, but since we are just bow hunting our max range is 30-40 yards. Part of me wonders if they were closer and he let them walk because it was first thing in the morning on opening day. The guys I went with were more out there to be in nature and away from it all for a few days. They made it very clear that hunting wasn't their priority and that being out there was. Which was a little annoying because I was out there to hunt. I was out there to be one with nature and snag me a deer to fill my freezer.

But it was all good. It was my first time hunting, my first time bow hunting, and my first time multi-day camping with no showers, running water, etc, for 4 days. It was 25-30 everyday, which was way to hot. And the mosquitoes were out in full Manitoba fashion. I must have gotten 100's of mosquito bites over the few days we were out there and I was literally bathing in repellent. It did eventually get to the point that I just started to ignore them and as long as you didn't scratch them, they weren't that itchy.

All in all, it was a decent enough trip, but more camping than hunting. I'm hoping to get out a few more weekends, and hope to go out after work on a Friday, sit in a tree until sundown, sleep for the night, get back into my tree first thing in the morning, and then either hang out all day and go back into my treestand that night and Sunday morning, or else head home Saturday morning after sitting in the tree.

There is one thing that worries me about hunting alone. Gutting and skinning the deer if I get one. I'm more than comfortable with my archery skills, but when it comes to gutting it, and most likely quartering and skinning it to take home, I'm not so familiar. I've been watching videos on it, and reading about it, but I still think I need to buy an actual instructional book and video. And take the book into the field with me. This way I'd have a reference guide to help me. :) lol

I found this great site, Heartland Bowhunters, that does a great job of getting me excited to be back in the bush looking for deer.

Looking for a Book

Growing up there was this book in the library that we used to love, but I have no idea what the book's name is.

It was about some kids, brothers I think, that were on a farm and they decide to build an airplane. They build it out of parts they find around the farm. An old car for the body and engine, a big old prop from something and wings out of boards.

I think the cover was blue. There were no words, it was just pictures. Has anyone seen this book, or have any idea of what I'm talking about?

End of the Week Music

I've been liking these songs lately:

So Beautiful by Jarvis Church - from the Philosopher Kings and is way to old to be in a video like this. catchy though.

Say Hey by Michael Franti - the kind of song that makes you want to chill out with a little ganja.

Unconditional by Simon Collins -Son of Phil Collins, Canadian, and video was filmed in Vancouver.

Her Diamonds by Rob Thomas -This dude continues to put out quality tunes.

Summer Girl by Stereos -So cheesy. So lame. But one of my current favorite songs. Fav. Lyrics: "check it, check it boouow (probably bounce, but it is more of a noise" The dudes are so creepy fug, but it's so awesome. We listened to some other stuff by them and it all sounds the same. Which is awesome. Because if I like one song, it means I'll like them all. :D Oh, and the use of auto-tune is unbelieveable(ly awesome).

Work Frustrations

My job isn't so much stressful as it is frustrating. All summer it has been 3 steps forward and 2 steps back; slowly gaining ground while simultaneously wasting a whole shit-load of time. I'm not sure if it is like this every summer/fall, but it's pretty bad this year.

Typically we sit at about 100-120 open tickets between all 25 schools in our division. Right now we are just over 400, with over 25% of them being from my school. My school does NOT make up 25% of the population of the division, but it does include about 25% of the princesses.

There are a lot of things that can be improved on, and should have been done years ago, but for some reason we run around in circles with our thumbs up our collective asses. I mean, at the very least we should have a test environment. We are a large organization, how can we not run changes through a test environment before going live? No large organization roles out huge server, system, and software upgrades without thoroughly testing it. I mean seriously... It is so frustrating some times.

Today, just as I thought I was starting to get ahead, someone makes a change and sets me back hours of work. I had already been there almost two hours longer than I was supposed to be there when it happens. I've been going in an hour early everyday to try and get caught up, but I keep getting kicked back.

My goal is to have less than 50 tickets by the end of the week, so we'll see. I'll keep working hard, and get shit done and that's about all I can do.

Football

I can officially say I'm not much of a football fan.

I went to my second-ever CFL game today, and I must say that it was a bit of a snoozefest. Seriously, 5-10 seconds of action followed by minutes of boring inaction, during which the clock is stopped, so it isn't even like time is still counting down so that the game will end already.

Sure the action is kind of interesting, and mildly exciting, but it just doesn't balance out.

That and it doesn't help when the home team loses 55-10. lol

It amazes me at the number of people in my life that love football. NFL or CFL, there's this love for the game that I just don't understand. Maybe someone can explain to me what I'm missing.

Then again, I don't tend to get into most sporting events. I laugh at those people that sit in the bleachers, and in their armchairs, saying how dumb the coach is for calling such-and-such a play, and what a shitty throw that was and how so-and-so could do better, or heck, even they could do better. I've never understood that attitude.

The Naked Gospel Comments

So I'm taking part in another group blogging project. This time it is on the book, "The Naked Gospel" by Andrew Farley. It's a pretty cool book, and I'll write more about it later.

Today was my part, where I reviewed/summarized/commented on Part 3 in the book. I'm not super impressed with my writing this time, but it works and I got the general gist of my ideas out.

And you know what is super cool? The author responded! Now I know just because they wrote a book it doesn't make them super special or anything, but to me having the author of a book that I just reviewed comment on my review is pretty friggin sweet.

I tried my best to be respectfully critical with what I wrote as I really like his book and everything it has made me think about, but some of the ideas he has are a little far fetched, even for me, so I tried to express that, while maintaining that I like other parts. And he responded and actually cleared some things up for me. It is just so cool.

It's pretty awesome when someone you look up to, or who's writing you read and admire, takes the time to talk to you. I'm finding this more and more on Twitter. I follow some pretty influential people in the Christian world, big-name pastors, authors, etc... and when they comment on something I say, or respond to a comment I make about something they've said, it's a pretty cool feeling.

Oh, and if you are interested, you can pick up a free copy of The Naked Gospel in ebook format from his website thenakedgospel.com. It's an interesting read, and while I'm not on board with everything he says, it gives a lot of great things to think about.

Flin Flon

Mama Bean and I are currently hanging out in Flin Flon, MB.



It's pretty much in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, but it is out vacation for the weekend. It is a long weekend, so we decided to drive up here today, and will be driving back on Monday. It's a 10 hour(ish) drive with breaks for meals and pregnant-wife-stretching, and actually pretty decent. We didn't get to leave until around noon today because Mama Bean had an acupuncture appt, so we didn't get up here until 10pm.

It was mostly my idea to come up here, as it isn't some place Mama Bean would just decide to come up to. But I grew up here, and wanted to come back and check it out. We lived here for the latter half of grade 1 and grades 2 and 3, before moving to Yellowknife for grade 4 in 1991 so it's been almost 20 years since I left here.. We lived in Flin Flon for the part of grade one before moving to Denare Beach (a little cottage sort-of town 20 minutes from Flin Flon).

I have so many memories of this place, and I've been wanting to come up here for some time now and check it out again. I'm really excited to look around and check things out and take a lot of pictures. My parents will remember more than me, so they'll really appreciate the pictures, but there are some things I really want to see. My old school, our old house, the route I used to walk to school from our apartment in Flin Flon, our beach in Denare Beach, etc... It's going to be awesome.