Chris and Jo in Winnipeg

Baby Blessings

2009-08-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Ever since Jo and I first found out that we are expecting a little one, we've been overjoyed. A little overwhelmed at some points, but mostly just full of joy.

One thing I am learning, is how blessed we are. From the moment we started telling people that we were expecting the love that has been flowing our way has been amazing and unceasing.

We have been blessed with amazing friends, an amazing church family, and amazing family. We've been given so much, and offered so much more.

Danny and Des (Jo's brother and sister-in-law) gave us a ton of clothing that our little nephew Josh grew out of. There's a good 2 dozen onesies from newborn to 12 months. Almost as many sleepers, some hats, booties, socks, pants and shirts. There's also another box full of clothing 12 mo and up. Jo's parents will also be bringing out a few more boxes when they come out when bean is born.

(yes, we've been labeling the drawers with sizes)

Deb and George from church supplied us with a matching crib, change table and dresser, that also happen to match the existing decor in the room. They also gave us an exersaucer, high chair, swing, and more.

This is our new nursery. :)

Dan and Des also gave us an infant car seat (below, left), some toys, a jolly jumper and more.

Jeff and Char (also from church) gave us another car seat (above right) and stroller. It just so happens that the two car seats have matching bases so that we can put a base in each car and that seats can cycle between them. They also both fit on the stroller, which is so awesome.

And finally, here is the stuff that we bought. We picked up a crib set from Sears which happened to be 20% off. It's a pretty cute set, and I can't wait to see bean in it.

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of Jo's 32nd week of pregnancy. In about 8 weeks we will be blessed with a great little boy who will become the center of our lives. Jo's doing really well and planning on working until October 16th, 5 days before the estimated due date. She's planning on taking approximately 6 weeks off of work in hopes of putting in a few weeks of work before we head back to Calgary for a couple of weeks for Christmas with family and friends.

Effective December 1st, I will be taking advantage of this wonderful program that our government offers and turn in my laptop bag for a diaper bag. I will be on paternity leave for 37 weeks, and take on the responsibilities of a stay-at-home dad while Jo continues to grow her chiropractic practice. I'm really looking forward to it, though I'll miss my job. Taking paternity leave is a bit of a bittersweet sort-of thing, as there's talk of an opening that is taking place in the central IT staff with the division. I'm one of the school-based techs and they'll be hiring from our group for this central position. It's a huge step up, and would be an almost $20k/yr raise. It would be an Apple Specialist position, where I'd get some amazing training, and could easily move on to bigger and better things in the Mac world. It's an opportunity that I'm pretty sure I could get if I worked for it over the next few months, but I'm passing it up to raise my family; a sacrifice I'm more than happy to make.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

2009-05-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

We are growing a buttload of vegetables this year. We have a 4' x 12' box in our backyard, called Sharp Garden, and a 25' x 60' plot in the St. James Horticultural Society community gardens, which we call Silver Garden.

We started 100 seedling peat pots April 27, with corn, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon, and pumpkins. Most sprouted successfully, but we probably should have started sooner, with planting lights and/or heating pads. The seedlings are not big enough, and most don't have true leaves yet. I am not sure they will survive the transplant to Silver Garden.

We planted Sharp Garden on May 16, with yellow onions, garlic, purple carrots (the outside is purple, the inside is orange, the taste just like normal carrots), and lettuce. We also planted sage, basil, and thyme. I would like to have separate pots of mint and dill. The woman who lived here before us left a map of her garden beds, as well. There are some chives, some lilies, a whole shwack of peonies, some tulips, and marjorie. We have a rabbit living in our backyard - he eats mostly grass and the tops off some of the bulbs. He's so cute, I don't want to get rid of him. We've covered our vegetable bed with netting to protect it.

Our experience with the horticultural society has been somewhat frustrating, but the real problem has truly been the cold weather. Spring is typically wet here, but there were no days of sunshine in between, to heat the ground, and start working the soil. Normally, people would be done planting by Victoria Day, but they society only finished the plot survey and posted the map that weekend. After weeks of visiting almost daily, we finally knew which little bit of land was ours. Only it's not so little; we had estimated a plot of 12' x 36', I planned a layout, and we bought seeds. Instead, the plot is three times that size - we had to change plans on the fly! We've divided the space into ten smaller 12' x 12' plots, each with it's own cute name :)

A. The Three Sisters Field will have complexes of corn, pumpkin, and peas. The corn provides a trellis for the peas, the pumpkin leaves create a living mulch, and the peas replenish nitrogen and nutrients that the corn strips from the soil.
B. Legumeland has five rows of various beans and peas. Only two varieties, the scarlet runner beans and sugar snap peas will require a trellis. The others are bush-type plants; green bush beans, sugar spring peas, and yellow wax beans.
C. Watermelon Forest has a mix of plants. Our pepper plants will be here, and a row each of broccoli and cauliflower. Apparently the latter two are prone to pests, but I'm ok if they don't work out, because how much broccoli and cauliflower can you actually eat.?The cauli may end up as mixed pickles. Half the forest will be watermelon vines, close to a ditch that crosses the plot. Although we picked a Canadian variety with a shorter season, I'm still not sure it's going to work. Apparently they are kind of princessy plants.
D. The Cucumber Plot (not to be confused with the Pickle Plot) is also mixed. We will be trellising the cucumbers, because apparently it increases yield, and saves room from spreading vines. There will also be tomato plants and lettuce.
E. Squashes and Roots will live south of the ditch. We'll have some yellow zucchini vines, then turnips (which I've never eaten) and beets, and then spaghetti squash vines. At least some of this food will become baby food. Some will be incorporated into experimental recipes found on the internet. Most of will be given away.
F. Rabbit Food is just rows and rows of carrots and lettuce.
F. The Pickle Plot will have trellised pickling cucumbers, a row of radishes, two rows of spinach, and a row of red potato plants that didn't fit in Tuberosity.
H. Koopland is a corner of garden our friends Nathan and Heather will be planting. We figured we had some square footage to spare.
I. Tuberosity is just potatoes; fives rows, about 25 yellow plants, and 30-some red. The seed potatoes we bought started growing while in our basement. We're going to have too many potatoes. Also, we added a row of extra onions that didn't fit in Sharp Garden.

We're going to have a lot of food. The community aspect of the plots is also very fun - our neighbor on Sharp is about five plots away from us at Silver. He has a sandpiper nesting in his garden, which is very cool. Most of the members are seniors, and very sweet and helpful. We met most of our neighbors while planting this weekend - about 3/4 of the plot is seeded. The remaining space will have seedlings and plants added when the weather stabilizes. We had a super productive weekend, and we're very excited about the potential results in a few short months!

-posted by Jo

Spring is in the Air!

2009-04-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

It has been such a LOOOOONG winter here in Winnipeg, we are quite ready for it to be Spring. 2009 has already been very busy and exciting for us - we're ready to kick into high gear!

Christopher continues to enjoy his work at Sturgeon Heights school. During Spring Break, they rolled out 100+ new computers, which had to be custom formatted for each user. When the students and teachers are away, that's when the IT department plays. This summer will be extra busy, as they upgrade all the division Mac computers to the new version of Mac O/S.

After leaving Starbucks, and spending a few weeks temping at the Health Sciences Centre, I spent most of February filling in for a chiropractor in Lorette, Dr. Rosalie Pelissier. She founded and manages the practice for herself and two other chiropractors, Ann and Angele. I took care of patients and learned a new style of Activator practice while she vacationed in sunny Florida and Mexico. It was such a rewarding experience, only one week of working there cemented my decision to become a more permanent member of the practice.

Dr. Angele had been running two practices - the one in Lorette with Dr. Rosalie, and one in the city that was formerly her husband's practice. She decided the toll of her busy schedule on her family, patients, and business was too much, and so I have taken over her practice in Lorette. I was very fortunate to obtain funding quite easily from the Bank of Montreal, which also funded my education. They have been really wonderful to deal with.

After all the lawyering was complete, I officially joined the practice on April 1, 2009. I am an independent operator within the clinic, but Rosalie manages most of the business details for us, which makes things much less complicated for me. I work four days a week, Monday and Fridays 8:00 - 12:30, and Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30 - 8:00. I have Wednesdays off, for now. I've worked four days so far, and my schedule is steadily building up. I'm learning a tonne, and feel very comfortable in my new home.

Underlying all these exciting developments, even more life-changing events have transpired :) Christopher and I are very pleased to announce we are expecting our first baby on October 20, 2009. We took a positive pregnancy test on Valentine's Day, which made for a very exciting Family Day (Louis Riel Day) long weekend. I have since spent eight weeks (and counting...) feeling constantly nauseated :( Hopefully that will stop soon. We have met with a midwife team, and are looking forward to a natural birth at home. We will keep you updated!

Have a wonderful Easter!
-Jo

Upcoming Renovations

2009-02-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

We recently put up a clothesline in our basement. Dryers are such an energy hog, and killing our Hydro bill. It would also be nice to wrap our hot water heater in a "blanket" which further insulates the hot water tank, and insulate the first 6 feet of pipe that leads into the house.

Manitoba has a lot of incentives to increase the energy efficiency of your house and make upgrades. That, along with the new rebate program from the Federal government makes things a little more affordable.

It would also be nice to upgrade our furnace. It was installed around 1980, and is about 65% efficient. It would be nice to have a high efficiency furnace, so we aren't throwing away half of the money we spend each month on an inefficient furnace. Manitoba Hydro will let you finance a new furnace through them, and just add it to your monthly hydro bill.

Other future projects include replacing our windows with better insulated ones, and maybe one or two that open, as the windows on our main floor don't open. Insulating our attic would also be nice. It is a good 5 degrees colder upstairs than it is downstairs, and I think a lot of that heat loss is through the walls/ceiling of the second floor.

So these are a few of the things that we want to do in the coming years, to improve our house.

Pictures of Our House

2009-01-10T21:13:00.001-08:00

We are 100% unpacked now. Not everything has found its place, but the house is looking much more put together now.

This is our front room, aka the music room. It's also the room with most of our books. Our Christmas tree filled up the space by the window nicely. Eventually we'll have some comfy armchairs, to sit and enjoy the afternoon sun. The room feels so warm with the hardwood - totally worth the work of pulling up the carpet! We recently moved our rocking chair and television from the front room to the basement den, where our new futon will be delivered Monday. Once we have some actual seating (!) it will be much easier to enjoy our tv, and wii, and having friends to visit.

We also use the dining room when friends visit. In addition to the futon, a kitchen hutch will soon be delivered, to replace the credenza/mirror in this room. Those items will move to the empty wall in the front room, where the television used to be. There is still much shuffling and organizing to be done! A real blessing in this house are the closets and storage nooks everywhere. The closet in the dining room is full of dishes and boardgames.

This is our office/den/room of constant comfort. We spend many hours here! I am constantly organizing and cleaning it up, but it still just looks windblown at best. Paper management is a never-ending chore! Thank goodness we have a huge filing cabinet. This room also benefited from carpet removal, to reveal the beautiful hardwood underneath. The closet in this room is full of computer stuff and Chiropractic odds and ends.

This is our upper landing. I just like the way the light filters in, and the pretty heron picture. The wooden railings aren't particularly safe or reassuring, but they allow light into the upper hallway. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the light fixture is deliciously retro! The downstairs and upstairs hallways are basically the only areas still carpeted, which is nice on icy feet in the morning.

Not that our bed is so fascinating... but here it is! We'll be building a stationary bedframe, because the wheeled one was moving too much, causing damage to the hardwood. The dressers and closet in our room are Jo's clothing area. The wardrobe and closet in the second bedroom are Christopher's clothing area. The second bedroom is also where my various craftage supplies are scattered for now.

It took us two months of winter to finally clean up our garage enough to park a car in it! All the wood piled against the wall used to be the crate that protected my piano on its travels from Calgary. It was rather inconveniently taking up all the parking space - but it has been so cold, we found it hard to get motivated enough to shift things around. I'm sure the Honda will appreciate its new home.

-Jo

Happy Saturday!

2009-01-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yay, my garage is useable! When we moved to Winnipeg, we had the piano packaged in a big box and moved out here. The movers unpacked the piano and put it in our living room and left the box in our garage. We kept meaning to dismantle it, but never got around to it. Then it got cold, and it was too cold to do it.

Well today we finally got around to doing it. Well, we didn't fully dismantle it, but we did make the garage useable for the first time since moving in! Yay us. So one car is now in the garage, and the other is parked outside. They will rotate depending on the timing of us getting home, but it will be nice.

I also got winter boots today! This means Jo and I can go for walks and such, which is exciting. Now to slim down so I can fit into my snow pants, and I'll be set! Good times!

We also bought a futon today! (it was a good day if you can't tell) We didn't move any couch-like furniture from Calgary, so it will be nice to have a place to sit! and watch tv! and play wii! Once everything is hooked up that is... We only have electricity on one wall in the basement, the opposite one from the TV. So I'm going to have to run an extension cord across the room as well as run a ground cable to that outlet. I'm excited about the futon, it's really nice, and they've made technological advancements in futon matressess so now they don't flatten out where you sit like the old ones. We also have a futon mattress from Jo's cousin so we have a spare/backup.

And we finally used our breadmaker! Our house smells wonderful right now!

-Christopher

New Year, New Employment

2009-01-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

In particular, chiropractic employment! I really loved my time at Starbucks, and recommend it to anyone looking for stimulating, fun casual work. I miss my sbux friends in Calgary a TONNE and really value the new friends I made at my store on Pembina. After some much needed recovery time, I'm ready to get back to my career.

Shortly after moving here, I met an Activator doctor practicing in Lorette, a small town about 15 minutes southeast of the city. She runs a busy, three-doctor, community and family centred practice that I find an absolute inspiration. However, she has no room for a fourth doctor. I will be doing a locum for her during February and a week of April, while she takes some trips.

It quickly became clear, after speaking with several doctors about associateships and starting practice, that every Chiropractor has a unique and individual style of practice. It looked unlikely for me to find a place in an existing practice, so I started gathering information about starting a new practice.

I also knew one of the doctors was selling her practice in the Lorette office, because she needs to devote herself to her husband's practice in the city, as he is now on permanent disability. Once I've looked over the financials from the past few years, I'll be able to determine a fair value for the clinic. Starting a practice or buying a practice will both require considerable capital. The major advantage of buying an existing practice is walking into an established clientele. This represents a much lower risk, both to lenders, and to my potential income.

The major advantage of starting from scratch is the power to choose my location. Unfortunately, Lorette is far from where we live right now. I'll see what the drive is like when I do the locums. Nonetheless, I am very excited about my return to Chiropractic, and the prospect of working in such a dynamic practice, which follows my Chiropractic technique and philosophy. It will be a privilege to work with an office of likeminded doctors, because it is truly a rarity in this profession.
- Jo

August to December

2008-12-30T12:50:00.001-08:00

So, if you hadn't heard (but since you are reading this blog, you probably know us and probably have heard), but in case you didn't get all the details, here is the Reader's Digest version. :)

We are in Winnipeg. we've been here for 5 months now. Wow, almost half a year. Winnipeg is in the grip of winter, with no warmth on the horizon until the spring, just like God meant it.

We sold our house at the end of June for slightly less than we had hoped, and were packed and ready to go for August 1st. we had lots of help loading up the truck and everything went smoothly.

The drive was long and rather uneventful with the exception of the truck breaking down on my parents in Medicine Hat. we each drove a car, and my parents drove the moving truck. The problem was fixed and the rest of the trip went by without any problems.

we moved into a little 1 bedroom apartment on Pembina (south end of the city). Jo started work at Starbucks right across the street and began the Manitoba Chiropractor licensing process and I commenced looking for a job.

I got a job at Convergys, a huge call center, where I worked for a month doing technical support for Comcast business customers across the states. While working there I was offered a 4 month term job with Great West Life which I took with great enthusiasm, as call center work sucks and doesn't pay worth shit.

Thus began my 1 month stay at Great West Life. It was a great company to work for, but I was working in the IMAC (install, move, add, change) department, meaning I was pushing papers, and acting as a coordinator all day. All-in-all a great experience, but not quite what I was looking for. After about a month, I received a call from the St. James School District where I went for an interview and was offered a job doing computer/network support for the schools in the division, a division which our new house is in.

During my job hoping, Jo and I spent a large amount of time house shopping. We aren't renting people, and after tasting the greatness that is home-ownership we wanted to snag a place out here. Our realor, Don B., was absolutely amazing and really showed us what Winnipeg has to offer. After a few un-accepted offers we found an amazing little place and our offer was accepted. It's a cute, 1100 sq ft, 1 1/2 storey place in St. James, on the west end of Winnipeg. It has a HUGE yard, and an attached single car garage. The basement is fully finished, and it had been freshly painted througout. The lady we bought from kept the house immaculate and it is in amazing condition. Shortly after we moved in we ripped up most of the carpet on the main floor to expose beautiful hardwood underneath in really good condition.

We moved into our new place on Oct 1st with lots of help from my awesome relatives and friends.

Throughout this time Jo had been working on her licensing stuff and was also looking for a clinic to work in.

So that brings us to December. Time for Christmas and all that fun stuff. We decided not to do presents this year as we are trying to get things going with a practice for Jo. She has a lead on a practice for sale so we are just waiting for the seller to get all the info together.

At the beginning of December we had the Dueck (my mom's side) family get-together in Rosenfeld. 88 people showed up this year, and there was lots of good food. I think it has been about 15 years since I was last at one, so it was cool to be back and see all the people that couldn't make it to our wedding, as well as all of those that were able to make it.

We also took a drive out to Altona to see my grandparents old house. It was a nice trip down memory lane. :)

We didn't go home for Christmas this year, and had a wonderful Christmas dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's place. They even suprised us with a few presents which was fun.

So Christmas is over, New Year's eve is upon us and Jo is done at Starbucks at the end of the week. She is going to be doing some temp work doing mecial transcription while the chiro stuff comes together starting next week.

We hope that all is good in your lives, and this caught you up to date on the last few months. I know I missed tons, and maybe got something wrong in all of that, but Jo will be sure to let me know. :)

You can expect more frequent updates, and we wish you all the best in 2009.

Belated Merry Christmas

2008-12-30T12:25:00.001-08:00

Belated Merry Christmas Everyone!

We've been delinquent in keeping this up-to-date for all of our family and friends, but that was possibly because I forgot the password. :)

But a new year is approaching, and there will be more posts. This blog is a nice way to keep you all in the loop of what is happening in our lives, so for those of you we don't get to talk to on a regular basis, or for those fun little things that come up, we'll post about them on here.

price drop and subsequent offer

2008-05-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

So we dropped the price of our house on Monday. We'd been on the market for 3 weeks with a decent amount of activity in terms of showings with 2 to 3 a week, but not a single offer. Now we understand the market in Calgary has slowed significantly, and this is just how things work. So we dropped it by 6 grand in hopes of enticing new buyers. Immediately after the drop we got 2 showings in 2 days, with an offer following the second showing.

The buyer's Realtor, Lynn, presented the offer around 9pm on Wednesday evening. The price they offered was acceptable, but they had a special clause saying that their house had to sell in order for this contract to go through. And that they had until July 15th to sell. They were also only offering a $2000 deposit, which is low compared to the usual $5000. So we counter-offered accepting the price and asking them to drop the clause that they needed to sell their house, and to raise the deposit to $5000. Then we sat around waiting for a reply. And waited. And waited. Eventually we find out that the other Realtor has just left. So our realtor calls her to see what's going on, and Lynn gets in a big huff about how they would never consent to that change in the contract, and was all insulted that we would even suggest such a thing. I'm not sure why she took the insult so personally, as it's just a business deal but... The fact that she just left without giving us a response to our counter-offer annoyed me, as that's really quite rude.

But such is the way of business, so we continue to wait.

House is Listed!

2008-04-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

So our house listed on Monday and showed up on MLS earlier this week.
Here's a link.

It begins...

2008-04-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

Who: Jo and Chris
What: Moving!
When: July 1st(ish)
Where: Calgary, AB to Winnipeg, MB
Why: To shed the shackles of financial oppression, and live happier lives where we get to spend more time together and not work multiple jobs. To allow Chris to go back to school and go on to live his dream of being a shepherd of the people, and for Jo to further explore her dreams of being a rock star, writing, and helping people cope with the subluxations of life.
How: A moving truck, some elbow grease, the help and unconditional love and support of family and friends.

Parents and friends have been told. Notice has been given at work. Realtor has been called. Decluttering and staging of the house has began, and we're hoping for a quick sale. Listing at $349,900, and Patricia (the realtor) says it is in the quick-moving section of the real-estate market. Looking at other houses in the similar price range, they seem to be on the market from 17-60ish days. She figures if we don't get an offer in the first 3 weeks, we'll knock it down 5 grand and see how that goes. I'm confident in her abilities as a realtor as she is freakin amazing, so I'm not too worried.

I'm working on lining up contacts for jobs out there, but for the next 2 weeks most things will take a backseat to getting our house ready. We'll be listing it on April 20th, so we have until then to get everything ready. This means moving furniture, hanging pictures, packing excess, decluttering everywhere, minor painting, cleaning up the yard, minor repairs, etc... This house has to look golden. I hate the stress of selling so the sooner we can get it done with the better.

We brought in some of my brothers furniture to brighten the place up a bit, and we need to paint on of the walls in our living room. It used to have these ugly-ass shelves that were crooked, so we took them down when moving in, but they left lots of holes in the walls. We just have to repair them, paint the wall, and we'll be all good. Well, for that wall anyway. It is a lot of work, but we are up for the challenge and it'll turn out great.

-Chris