Repurposed

This posting is about retirement. Two different types of retirement actually. The first is for a colleague at work who is retiring tomorrow after 34 years of service. Al started at BC Hydro in 1977 which was the same year I was born. I'd like to wish him well in his next career which for BC Hydro personnel often involves working for BC Hydro in some fashion. I've learned that for most people retiring doesn't usually stick the first time and it takes a few tries to get the hang of it. I'm hoping to learn these lessons and apply them in 20 years to ensure I get it right.

The second kind of retirement has to do with the pictures shown here. A few months ago Al gave me an old mahogany bed that had seen better days. Someone in his family had made it for his son Nathan. I was happy to take it as it was 5/4 mahogany and had some very wide boards. After a bit of disassembly I had enough wood for two side tables with plenty to spare. I made the box on the left as a thank-you. The sides were all resurfaced but the top was from the head board and was left original. The bed has been retired but will live on in it's second career.

A Trip to Home Depot

For those of you that have used our guest room recently and noticed an unpleasant odour, my apologies. With four dogs operating as a pack there was only so much that Febreze could handle. But I'll get back to that. This started as a simple trip to Home Depot. I had received a $30.00 gift card for my birthday and I mistakenly took the family with me. The intention was to check out products for some 'potential' home renovations in the future, but $300.00 later I was left with a new project and nothing of my original gift card.

I wasn't interested in drawing this particular project out too long as it required removing all of the furniture so it turned our upstairs into a bit of a disaster zone. We brought home the materials on Sunday and I got to work on Tuesday evening. We took the old carpet out and then let the room air out a bit before getting started on Thursday evening. It's good that the kids are still young as they were quite agreeable to helping. They both helped hammer down the staples for the subfloor and Callie helped move materials. Even though we were just putting in an hour or so each night we had all the floor down and some of the new baseboard in by Friday evening.

Saturday morning was spent finishing off the baseboard and putting on a coat of paint. The walls got a wipe down and the furniture was all back in place by Saturday afternoon. (Much quicker than the 2 years it took to finish off the laundry room.) It's now much cleaner and any little 'accidents' are easily taken care of. I should mention it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. We did get the carpets cleaned regularly but there was simply a mustiness that we couldn't shake. Hotel Schwab has now completed it's renovations and is open for business again.

Tea Parties, Sugar Cookies and Baseball

I haven't done too many blog entries this year. Out weekends are filled with soccer, dance and recovering from the week. It doesn't mean we aren't busy, we've just been spending most of the time at home with the kids. This sunday started with a trip to Home Depot. Much of the flooring in our 20 year old home is original and we decided the next room to get a make over would be the guest room. When we returned home it was after lunch and rather than something quick, Callie decided a tea party would be a better idea. Crab and peanut butter sandwiches (separately), cookies, strawberries and tea. All on Kerry's grandmother's china.

After lunch it was time for Carter and Mommy to bake sugar cookies for Carter's daycare class. (This is one of  Carter's many 'Picture Smiles'. I'm not really sure why he squints since it wasn't bright in the kitchen.) Callie doesn't get to bake sugar cookies for her class. The Surrey school district has instituted some strict food safe rules so all food has to be store bought. Not all teachers follow it but it appears Callie's class is. I really don't think we lose that many kids each year to food poisoning.

After cookie baking we all headed outside for some baseball in the back yard. I decided I wanted a baseball bat and ball for my birthday. (Kids sized.) Tools are the ultimate gift but it's easier if I buy that for myself. We got a small metal bat and a bright yellow softball. It's still a bit heavy for Carter but it appears perfect for Callie. She's getting pretty good at throwing and she's surprisingly good at hitting. She's not just swinging wildly. She's timing it perfectly. I think I'l try to get a hold of a T for t-ball and spend some time playing ball at the park this summer.

A Trip to Steveston

If you were hanging out in Steveston last week and a wailing child interrupted your afternoon coffee, then my apologies.  I'll get to that a bit later. My birthday ended up on a Thursday this year so we decided to wait until the weekend before going out for dinner. The weather on the Saturday was amazing so we decided we'd head to Steveston for lunch on Sunday. The weather was nice but down by the water was quite a bit cooler then we were expecting. Steveston has quite a bit of history with several buildings being preserved. One of my daydreams involves retiring and taking up boat building. There are a few buildings that would make great shops for working and teaching.

For lunch we ended up at Pajos. It's a great fish and chip place on a barge in the harbour. They've been there for 27 years and they serve everything in cones of newspaper. (Special food safe news paper. I don't see places using real newspaper anymore.) The cones fit in holes in the picnic tables and chairs. We had to eat up top on the dock in the wind because we brought Wilson. "No dogs allowed!" After lunch we stopped off at Starbucks for hot chocolate and were planning on going for a walk on the dike but Carter had other ideas.

Carter's usually pretty good at holding hands when walking across the street but today he decided he had a bit of an independent streak in him. Sometimes I'll let him walk on his own as long as he stays right beside me but this time he wanted to be as far away from me as possible and with a busy intersection it wasn't working out very well. Big Mean Daddy decided he would force Carter to hold hand and get across the street. This didn't work out too well and Carter decided he had to 'redo' the intersection. No matter what we tried he wasn't moving forward until he had a chance to walk across the street without holding hands. Kerry tried to go with him and got across one street but then he tried the running away thing again and it was Big Mean Mommy's turn to force him across the street. We didn't get our walk and ended up having to force him into the car seat. He managed to cry about crossing the street the entire 45 minutes home. It wasn't until I explained to him that I needed his help so that I could be safe that he decided things were okay. Now whenever we cross the street it's so that he can keep me safe.

Snow Day!

On Friday night we got about six inches of snow. For the rest of the country this might be  ho hum but for us it's a big deal. The weather was amazing.  So great in fact that by lunch the melt was on so we had to hurry to the hill. The kids are still young enough that they're content with a hill not far from our house. It's only about 50 feet long but it's steep enough to get up some good speed and has a lot run out room. Even though we went a few times last year both Callie and Carter were a little apprehensive about going by themselves. This is handled by easing them in on Daddy's back to start.

Last year we bought a couple of newer fancy sleds that were on for cheap at our car dealership. Not surprisingly those didn't work out too well. I think they were broken after about three trips down the hill.  At the end of the season I picked up a couple of old standby's. A crazy carpet and a flying saucer. I think they're great sleds because they keep you nice and low to the ground and they're simple. Our particular sleds have proven to be quite slippery too. A good and bad thing. You get a good ride if you don't accidentally fall down the hill while trying to get on.

We actually spent two days on the hill this weekend. On our first trip we managed to get Carter going by himself but Callie was a bit more stubborn and decided to start making a snowman when I told her I wasn't going down with her anymore. Day two was much more successful. We started by going about 10 feet up the hill and then incrementally increasing it. She of course figured out what we were doing and tried to make it her idea that we were going from farther up each time. By the end she was going down the little ramp I'd added at the top of the hill and getting a nice big push from me.

A Trip to Granville Island

Since my Dad was down to visit we decided to take a trip down to Granville Island. It's a great place to visit though we usually only make it down when we have company. Callie decided that she didn't want to go and after 20 minutes of screaming and coaxing I remembered that they have a great bead shop there. It didn't take long to convince her once we let her know that we could go bead shopping. She's had a number of sets given to her as gifts and she enjoys making up bracelets and necklaces. It's a good hobby because she can always start over if she doesn't like the end result. I'm not a fan as at least every few days someone makes a wrong move and you hear the tinkle of beads flooding across the floor.

Although the bead store is a great place with literally thousands of options, the prices seem out of this word. I think the average price for the beads in the picture above was about $1.00. Callie truly enjoyed herself though and picked up a little vile of beads and one 'special' bead. After bead shopping we bought some treats and headed outside to sit since inside was packed. Callie had a great time chasing and feeding pigeons. I plan on using this trip as an example in the future of. 'Trust your parents. You'll have fun!' She got beads, treats and two Nancy Drew books. Poor Carter didn't complain once and only got a cookie!

Christmas I and Christmas II

Somehow two weeks off at Christmas just isn't enough. We don't travel anymore since our 13 hour odyssey from Prince George a few years. Instead we get the parents to come to us. (A good thing this year since Carter decided to have some sort of terrible cold that had him sick and cranky for 10 days with a high fever for 5 of those days.) I've lost track of whose 'turn' it is but this year Barb and Reg were down before Christmas up to Boxing day. We had a fondue with Barb, Reg, Corey, Carmen and Ron on Christmas eve. (No fire this year.) Christmas morning was chaotic with wrapping paper flying everywhere. I won't mention everyone's favourite gifts but I'm sure Carter's was not they grey pants he got. His exact words were "Pants!?!? That's just weird!"

On Christmas day we had everyone over again for traditional turkey Christmas dinner. The kids spent the entire day playing with all their new toys and surprisingly there were very few melt downs. This year Santa's pajama theme was Penguins and he even knew to give a set to Kristen. We didn't get a white Christmas this year and I'm starting to think that the prediction that this year will be 5 degrees cooler than normal is not going to come to fruition. We've been wet, windy and plus 7 for most of December with very few frost days.

Christmas II came on December 29th. This year it was just my Dad as my Mom had to stay in Prince George to help my grandma who fell and injured her knee on Christmas Day. We opened gifts from my parents and brother and the kids had another day of playing with their new toys.

It's now New Years Eve and Kerry and I went mattress shopping. We've now reached the point where we'd rather have one nice gift for both of us and a good night's sleep was first on the list.