During the pregnancy Catherine has been amazing; transitioning from a fly in camp job to an at-home office working for a non-profit environmental awareness organization. Not only was this transition difficult because of the drastic change in responsibilities but the at-home office meant that Catherine went from surrounded by colleagues in an industrial scientific field to essentially an independent contractor for the Northern Environmental Action Team. Like the truly talented lady she is Catherine managed to kick start the organization's Dawson Creek activities, building relationships in the community and creating some events that bolstered the profile of NEAT and involved schools, and community groups. (I should note that her at-home office became, on several occasions, my at-home work shop. Bird houses, spice racks, vertical gardens were all built by Catherine's little elves.) These items were all used to promote re-use of pallets and other materials. Catherine has also now moved into the consulting world and now operates as a business. She is doing water sampling work for the Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. So, why is Catherine amazing, if you didn't get it...She has switched jobs, single handedly kept and an organization going in Dawson Creek, started a business, canoed 118 kilometers in torrential rains, continues to swim, challenged herself with indoor rock climbing, hosted family from East and West playing tour guide, cook and babysitter, all while managing her first pregnancy! Amazing!
I have settled in to teaching Grade 8 which is an interesting challenge and very different from grade 3-4. The kids are emotional, hormonal, full of energy and many challenges. I finish most of my days very tired and with an ever growing to do list it seems. I am enjoying the energy and challenge and have found working with students of the middle school years very interesting because the conversations are more sophisticated and the learning more dynamic. While I am happy to be on break I am eager for the new year and the projects that await. I continue to work at the climbing gym and am now a certified Level 1 instructor.
Catherine and I have been busy. I think we had 5 jobs between the two of us at one point this year. We have been fortunate to have family from both sides visit. Dave and Ronnie were up followed by Murray, Tracy and Graeme (who took in his first rodeo) and then Steve and Yolande to finish out the summer in August. Dave wandered the streets, Tracy came determined to see wildlife and the Northern lights and left having seen both, although the latter sighting may have been influenced by fizzy orange adult beverages. Murray and I enjoyed many beers, Yolande redesigned, redecorated, cleaned windows and polished silver candlesticks( I think she found every store in Dawson Creek with anything good to offer) Her special touch warmed rooms up and made the place feel like home for travelers coming from all directions. Steve and I put the finishing touches on an interlock patio I designed and built and then he spent the rest of the visit with a mystery allergy/flu. Despite the flu we toured and saw the Old Kiskatinaw Bridge, The WAC Bennett Dam and places in between. We thoroughly enjoyed all the time that we spent with family up here and Y'all come back now ye here!
This summer was also filled with celebrations of love. Mike McPherson married Tina Scott, Stephanie Simmons married Peter Grauer, Matt Franks wed Jocelyn Carten, Marc Bergeron tied the knot with Jocelyn Bueller, Shaun Elliot and Erin Ladd and Emily Black and Aaron also took the plunge. Wow! It was a summer of touring around seeing some of our close friends and family take the next step in their lives together. The nuptials brought us to PG, around the island, to Pender island and around the lower mainland. It was awesome to share in these celebrations of love and we were thrilled to be a part of them all. I should share a couple of my adventures or misadventures surrounding some of these celebrations.
After the Franks-Carten wedding the celebrations moved to Tofino. Catherine had to fly back to the mine so she missed out on this unfortunately. It was my first visit to the west coast of Vancouver Island and a memorable one. The next visit will be with my love. Anyway, it was awesome!. I visited cathedral Grove, Sproat Lake, surfed in Tofino, dined in Uclulet and camped at a newly constructed camp ground that offered rugged, spectacular vistas, great beach and Yurts to come. The wedding partyers congregated in what can only be described as a paradise on Earth where we surfed, ate, drank and were merry. Halfway through my stay on the West Coast Houdini dragged the chair and enormous piece of driftwood into the ocean in a desperate attempt to join us in the surf. He killed my phone and nearly 3 other phones and several cameras. This left me incommunicado with my pregnant wife (Dog house to follow)I headed out after three days of living the life of an indulgent hippie and went to visit Rogi, Lizzie and Tilly - The Youngs. Before arriving at their home in Duncan I stopped and bought myself a phone - YAY iPhone! I love maps on this thing! I toured with the Youngs to Campbell River and camped some more. It was great to catch up with them and see Tilly old enough to climb trailer ladders and deposit cell phones in recently extinguished fires. All kinds of personality that kid, can't imagine why.
I will move now to the Simmons-Grauer rehearsal dinner. So I was to get organized and bring myself on time to the rehearsal dinner - no problem. My parents were arriving for their visit that afternoon as well and they were going to travel by transit to the Jerricho Beach hostel. However, their flight was delayed and I was tracking it. It was delayed but scheduled to arrive at a time where I could get them, drop them off and make it downtown for dinner. OK here we go. Drive to the airport, one lane for 20 mins on Southwest Marine Dr. Checking AC App for arrival time, sweet they just touched down. Fly in to the airport, hug the rents, wait for luggage (tapping feet). OK got it lets go, pay the parking, on the road. Get downtown, on the way through Kits, dad is using 2 smart phones to calculate best route (I dont know if iPhone or Blackberry won). One way grrrr, no left turn hmmm, doing it anyway, woohoo on the right road. Drop the rents off, pop a Ueee, heading downtown. Awesome I am getting on to the Cambie St bridge, almost downtown, I'll be drinking beer at Steamworks soon, maybe only 15 mins late. But what's this? One bike, 2 bike, 3 bike, four bike, tall bike, long bike, WTF (Sorry Grandma). What is this??? So I wait... and 45 minutes later I arrive at the address. Contact the wife, this is an Asian food place, where r u guys? Sally comes to get me. I get in, there are leftovers and a none too happy wife. I enter to a round of applause, never good when you miss the entire event. I sputter and stammer and say "but bbb but there were all these bikes and I was on the bridge and you cant just get off the bridge and and..." Then Stephanie saves me, "Holy crap, you got stuck behind Critical Mass" Critical what? Apparently I managed to hit a once a month anti-establishment hippie-a-thon that tries to disrupt traffic. That could only possibly happen to me, FML (Sorry again Grandma). Well, I was on time for the wedding the next day, found some great parking(so great I left my vehicle there all weekend, but that is a story for another time), and enjoyed a beautiful ceremony and awesome reception.
More recently, because Catherine has been working in the rural areas around Dawson Creek and our family is growing, (literally I think Catherine is bigger every day now...she is not enormous by any stretch though...love you dear) we purchased a new truck. The Tucson is going strong but better it is an in town vehicle than a highway warrior now. Houdini was dancing to the beat of his own drum most of the summer, we think maybe a sense of sibling rivalry. However, he is his usual cuddly self again so must have resigned himself to the inevitable and is solidifying his place in our hearts. (It hasn't changed)
Well, we had some cool Halloween decorations up and the neighbours liked the spooky decor. We have followed that up with x-mas lights on the house and we are truly enjoying our place up here. We hunted our x-mas tree with our new tenant ( a law student from T. O.) and set it up. We chose one that had been blown down in recent chinook winds and this may have been why it died quickly and early on us. The tree shed so many needles it had to come down already and when I removed it from the living room I could have counted those that remained.
I think that's it in a nutshell. We are heading to New Westminster for Christmas and the New Year. We miss everyone out east and are looking forward to seeing Saskia and Scott over the holidays so we can relive some of the Celtic Campervaning together. My New Year's resolution is to write more so come back and check this out again soon. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the best to our friends and family for 2012.
Shaun, Catherine, Houdini and Face
