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!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
2 weeks
I'm still around, do not fret. Mama Bean and I have had a great couple of weeks with house-guests galore. And what an awesome 2 weeks these last couple have been!
Last week Kari and Heather were here (and James for 12 hours), along with Kari and James' awesome little boy, Bruce. Bruce is 9 months old and quickly reminded me what it's like to have a baby around; they never stop. Bruce and I had lots of fun playing together, and I am now even more excited about our coming son in October.
We took a tour of the Legislative building last Friday which was a lot of fun. We didn't take the guided tour, but some random politician dude found us walking the halls and gave us a little impromptu tour of things he found particularly interesting. It was kinda neat, and he was super enthusiastic about it all.
It was a great week with them here and Mama Bean really enjoyed having her best friends around to spend time with as we haven't seen folks from back home since moving.
This past week my family was in town for a visit, and it was so great to see them. They were in town for my cousin Jenelle's wedding, and stayed to hang out with Mama Bean and I. It was so awesome to see them and hang out for a few days. I got to spend some time with my brothers as well as my brother's girlfriend whom I didn't really know as they only started going out shortly before we moved.
My parents aren't the kind to sit around while on vacation, so I took Mon, Tues, and Wed. off and we got a ton of stuff done. We built a bedframe for out bed, as we only had one of those cheap metal ones. We also built a box to cover our A/C unit during the winter. Tuesday night my dad discovered the frame of one of our basement windows was completely rotted out so we spent all day on Wednesday ripping out the old frame, deciding to use the old window, building and installing a new frame and being done. :) We just need to paint it and it'll be perfect.
Mama Bean and my mom ripped up the remaining carpet on our main floor, so we now have hardwood floor everywhere on the main floor with the exception of the kitchen which is lino and the bathroom which is cork. The floors look a million times better than they did when we moved in and everything was carpeted.
So now everyone is gone. My parents drove home yesterday (14 hours in a day instead of 2 like they had originally intended) and our house is quiet. It seems a little weird, but nice. I started getting sick midway through the week (too much excitement) and needed a rest day today to recover. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be all good again and wrap up the last few odds and ends on our projects.
And now I need to catch up on two weeks of blogs that I've been missing. :)
Last week Kari and Heather were here (and James for 12 hours), along with Kari and James' awesome little boy, Bruce. Bruce is 9 months old and quickly reminded me what it's like to have a baby around; they never stop. Bruce and I had lots of fun playing together, and I am now even more excited about our coming son in October.
We took a tour of the Legislative building last Friday which was a lot of fun. We didn't take the guided tour, but some random politician dude found us walking the halls and gave us a little impromptu tour of things he found particularly interesting. It was kinda neat, and he was super enthusiastic about it all.
It was a great week with them here and Mama Bean really enjoyed having her best friends around to spend time with as we haven't seen folks from back home since moving.
This past week my family was in town for a visit, and it was so great to see them. They were in town for my cousin Jenelle's wedding, and stayed to hang out with Mama Bean and I. It was so awesome to see them and hang out for a few days. I got to spend some time with my brothers as well as my brother's girlfriend whom I didn't really know as they only started going out shortly before we moved.
My parents aren't the kind to sit around while on vacation, so I took Mon, Tues, and Wed. off and we got a ton of stuff done. We built a bedframe for out bed, as we only had one of those cheap metal ones. We also built a box to cover our A/C unit during the winter. Tuesday night my dad discovered the frame of one of our basement windows was completely rotted out so we spent all day on Wednesday ripping out the old frame, deciding to use the old window, building and installing a new frame and being done. :) We just need to paint it and it'll be perfect.
Mama Bean and my mom ripped up the remaining carpet on our main floor, so we now have hardwood floor everywhere on the main floor with the exception of the kitchen which is lino and the bathroom which is cork. The floors look a million times better than they did when we moved in and everything was carpeted.
So now everyone is gone. My parents drove home yesterday (14 hours in a day instead of 2 like they had originally intended) and our house is quiet. It seems a little weird, but nice. I started getting sick midway through the week (too much excitement) and needed a rest day today to recover. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be all good again and wrap up the last few odds and ends on our projects.
And now I need to catch up on two weeks of blogs that I've been missing. :)
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Family!
It's summertime! School is out and work is supremely busy. It is nice that I'm on a 7-3 shift now instead of 8-4, but getting up that hour early is going to take some getting used to. I will enjoy getting off at 3 though.
AND...My parents get here tonight! It's very exciting! I haven't seen them since we moved last August, and I've never lived in another city from them for any length of time, so it's been a bit of an adjustment. Especially with not going home for Christmas. So I'm pretty excited. They are coming out for a cousin's wedding on Saturday and staying until next Tuesday.
My parents aren't fans of sitting around on vacation either, so we have a bunch of projects planned for around the house and I have the first half of next week off so we'll get lots done.
AND...My parents get here tonight! It's very exciting! I haven't seen them since we moved last August, and I've never lived in another city from them for any length of time, so it's been a bit of an adjustment. Especially with not going home for Christmas. So I'm pretty excited. They are coming out for a cousin's wedding on Saturday and staying until next Tuesday.
My parents aren't fans of sitting around on vacation either, so we have a bunch of projects planned for around the house and I have the first half of next week off so we'll get lots done.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
8 years
On Tuesday Mama Bean and I celebrated 8 years together. Well, maybe not so much celebrated, but we realized that it was on that day 8 years previous that we became a couple and have been together ever since.
8 years. 96 months. 3 years of which were long distance with her in the states. That's a long freakin' time. Most marriages don't last that long.
When we first started dating we celebrated every 'monthiversary.' We did it for years; right up until the wedding actually. Since then we haven't done it so much any more, but on the 23rd of each month I still usually think about it.
Back in May it felt weird to tell people that it was our second anniversary as we've been together hella longer than that. And while May 5th, 2007 will always be the official start to our life together, June 23, 2001 will always be the actual day we started spending our life together.
Sometime in the last 8 years Mama Bean and I came up with 1+1=11, two uniquely individual numbers, yet together they make a single number. We were never a fan of 1+1=1 or 1+1=2 as they always seem to lose the fact that we are both still individuals. I wonder what it is when we have our little bean in the fall? :)
I couldn't have met a better woman to marry than Jo. Every morning I wake up, roll over and smile because this wonderful person is in bed next to me. Nothing could make me happier. And to think that by the time our next anniversary rolls around we'll be a family of three. Life doesn't get any better than when you are surrounded with great people that love you.
8 years. 96 months. 3 years of which were long distance with her in the states. That's a long freakin' time. Most marriages don't last that long.
When we first started dating we celebrated every 'monthiversary.' We did it for years; right up until the wedding actually. Since then we haven't done it so much any more, but on the 23rd of each month I still usually think about it.
Back in May it felt weird to tell people that it was our second anniversary as we've been together hella longer than that. And while May 5th, 2007 will always be the official start to our life together, June 23, 2001 will always be the actual day we started spending our life together.
Sometime in the last 8 years Mama Bean and I came up with 1+1=11, two uniquely individual numbers, yet together they make a single number. We were never a fan of 1+1=1 or 1+1=2 as they always seem to lose the fact that we are both still individuals. I wonder what it is when we have our little bean in the fall? :)
I couldn't have met a better woman to marry than Jo. Every morning I wake up, roll over and smile because this wonderful person is in bed next to me. Nothing could make me happier. And to think that by the time our next anniversary rolls around we'll be a family of three. Life doesn't get any better than when you are surrounded with great people that love you.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Home
I read a post from C Lo over at One Smarmy Mama that got me thinking about the concept of “home” and what it really is. Is it the place where you grew up? Is it the place you live now? Is it the place your parents or rest of your family live? Is it the place that all of those cliché sayings say it is? E.g. where the heart is. What is home?
While I used to think home and hometown were the same thing, the older I get, the more that changes. Is that just how it works, or does hometown always equal home, whether they live there or not?
Growing up, home was wherever I was living. We moved a lot for the first 9 years of my life when I lived in 6 different towns in various parts of the country from northern Manitoba, to southern Manitoba to the Yukon, to southern Alberta, back to northern Manitoba/Saskatchewan, and then finally up to the Northwest Territories where I spent almost 10 years of my life before moving back to Alberta and now I’m back in Manitoba.
For the first 9 years we were never in one place for more than 2 years, though why that changed when we moved to Yellowknife, I am not sure. I spent my formative years growing up in Yellowknife, grades 4-12. When someone asks, I say I grew up in Yellowknife. When I lived in Calgary, and someone asked me where I was from, I’d say Yellowknife. Yellowknife was my hometown, and even after 8 years of living in Calgary, I didn’t feel like I was from Calgary. Yellowknife was still where I was from, even though I hadn’t been there since graduating 8 years previous.
Now that I live in Winnipeg, I hate telling people that I’m from Calgary, it just feels wrong. It wouldn’t make sense to say I’m from Yellowknife, but I’m not from Calgary. I often say, “We moved here from Calgary, but I grew up in Yellowknife.” Now there’s nothing wrong with Calgary, but I’m not a Calgarian. It isn’t who I am, and I don’t want that label. I’m from a small town; I’m not a city boy.
So what is “home”? My hometown is Yellowknife, and after being away for almost 10 years I still miss it, but it is the place that I miss; the memories of the good times. I don’t miss the people. Is home defined by people or can it be defined by a place?
When I lived in Calgary, I called it home. It was where I lived, and where my family did also. Now I’m married and living in Winnipeg with my wife while the rest of my family is still in Calgary. Is home here, or back there?
For me, the concept of home has changed a lot over the years. It started with where my family lived, as I was a part of that unit. Then, when I moved out but still lived in the same city, home was my parents’ house. Even when I bought my own place, theirs was still home. Once I got married and we lived in a new place that we bought together, it still didn’t seem like home; more just a place we lived in. Home was still my parents’ house. Since moving to a new city, I feel that we are finally starting our own home. Our house is turning into our home, and I think that will be further cemented when bean is born in October. I know the house that we are living in now will not be our forever house, or even a house we are in for much more than another 4 years, but while we are there, it will be our home. Home is where I live with my wife, with my family. Home is a place that I live with people that I love.
While I used to think home and hometown were the same thing, the older I get, the more that changes. Is that just how it works, or does hometown always equal home, whether they live there or not?
Growing up, home was wherever I was living. We moved a lot for the first 9 years of my life when I lived in 6 different towns in various parts of the country from northern Manitoba, to southern Manitoba to the Yukon, to southern Alberta, back to northern Manitoba/Saskatchewan, and then finally up to the Northwest Territories where I spent almost 10 years of my life before moving back to Alberta and now I’m back in Manitoba.
For the first 9 years we were never in one place for more than 2 years, though why that changed when we moved to Yellowknife, I am not sure. I spent my formative years growing up in Yellowknife, grades 4-12. When someone asks, I say I grew up in Yellowknife. When I lived in Calgary, and someone asked me where I was from, I’d say Yellowknife. Yellowknife was my hometown, and even after 8 years of living in Calgary, I didn’t feel like I was from Calgary. Yellowknife was still where I was from, even though I hadn’t been there since graduating 8 years previous.
Now that I live in Winnipeg, I hate telling people that I’m from Calgary, it just feels wrong. It wouldn’t make sense to say I’m from Yellowknife, but I’m not from Calgary. I often say, “We moved here from Calgary, but I grew up in Yellowknife.” Now there’s nothing wrong with Calgary, but I’m not a Calgarian. It isn’t who I am, and I don’t want that label. I’m from a small town; I’m not a city boy.
So what is “home”? My hometown is Yellowknife, and after being away for almost 10 years I still miss it, but it is the place that I miss; the memories of the good times. I don’t miss the people. Is home defined by people or can it be defined by a place?
When I lived in Calgary, I called it home. It was where I lived, and where my family did also. Now I’m married and living in Winnipeg with my wife while the rest of my family is still in Calgary. Is home here, or back there?
For me, the concept of home has changed a lot over the years. It started with where my family lived, as I was a part of that unit. Then, when I moved out but still lived in the same city, home was my parents’ house. Even when I bought my own place, theirs was still home. Once I got married and we lived in a new place that we bought together, it still didn’t seem like home; more just a place we lived in. Home was still my parents’ house. Since moving to a new city, I feel that we are finally starting our own home. Our house is turning into our home, and I think that will be further cemented when bean is born in October. I know the house that we are living in now will not be our forever house, or even a house we are in for much more than another 4 years, but while we are there, it will be our home. Home is where I live with my wife, with my family. Home is a place that I live with people that I love.
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