Blast From The Past

Here are my first attempts at blogging, on my Yahoo page a couple of years ago. I came across my old page and thought I would repeat the blog entries here, for posterity and a few laughs.

My up-to-date update is after the old blog entries:

"Entry for November 08, 2005
No rest for me! Running a business, co-ordinating construction of 2 houses, being a dad/stepdad to 4 boys, Scouting, choir, leading a Bible study... I need to find some time for myself.

Entry for November 09, 2005
Things are going well at the houses, although the drywalling at our house is taking longer than I anticipated. Just painting, flooring, cabinets, light and plumbing fixtures and trim to go!
Alistair's house is being framed now and it looks good to get it roof-tight for his next visit in 3 weeks. Everyone who asks if we will be in the house for Christmas isn't joking anymore - yikes! We will be in before Christmas: that is my goal. Of course, my original goal was to be in by Labour Day!

Entry for November 10, 2005
So the insulator's truck is in the shop, so he can't blow in the insulation in my attic. This means that when the guys walk on the roof trusses in the attic when they put in the insulation, they may crack the drywall compound that has been installed and my drywaller is warning me that this will be extra work for them to repair. The wind blew the gate into the drywaller's truck and broke off the passenger side mirror. He said don't worry about it, they will replace it with a part from the junkyard for $5 or 10.
Alistair's house progressed well yesterday, with half of the roof trusses put up. No work on it today (I think) because of windy, cold, rainy weather.
Long weekend tomorrow. We will be marching in the parade to the cenotaph with the Cubs and Scouts. Then we have the rest of the weekend off, just in time for me to paint the front door and install a new lockset, as well as replace the basement light fixtures to dress up the house a bit more.

Entry for December 22, 2005
Wow! Hard to believe it's almost Christmas! We aren't in the house - delay with the hardwood installer, so it will have to be in January. We dug out the Christmas ornaments from the rental storage room. Looks like I won't have time to empty it before the month is up - another $80 down the drain.
Alistair's house is coming along quickly. He will be done not long after us, I figure.
Anyway, here at the office late to finish up work before year-end. See ya in 2006!

Entry for April 03, 2006
So we are finally in the house! Keeping busy with finishing touches. I heard somewhere that it takes a year to build a house and another year to finish it. I can see why. We still have interior trim to paint, landscaping to do, and the back deck and balcony to build."


UP-TO-DATE UPDATE:

Still running the business. We have had some ups and downs, but last fiscal year was quite good. I guess that is what can happen when I am not at a construction site every morning!

Construction is complete, including my parent's house next door and my sister and her family on the other side of our parents. It is great to have everyone so close and yet we still have our privacy and our own lives.

Now I am Dad/Stepdad to 4 boys and 1 girl! Natalie was born on June 8, 2006!!! Philson moved in with us full-time on March 30, 2007!!!

I am still involved with Scouting, although only as a Trainer now. Cheryl is now our group's Registrar. We will probably go back as leaders when David and Natalie are old enough to join Beavers. I know our friend Margaret is waiting for us to come back as her replacement!

I am still in the choir at St. Peter's. We have been struggling a bit with the choir size, with a number of people over the past year or two, with fewer people coming in to replace them. I enjoy it and I enjoy singing praises to God, but I feel like we are only surviving as a choir and I am not sure what we can do to improve the situation.

I am not running the Bible study any more. Life just got too busy when Natalie was born, so I opted to not continue it for that year, which became this year too. I miss it, I know I need to get back into the Bible and while I know that leading a study is not the only way for me to do that, I also recognize that it was an easy way for me to take the time to do it. I need to put forth the effort to study the Bible for my own sake, other people will benefit from my doing so, when I have more balance in my life.

While I have found some time for myself lately, it has been fleeting and I feel guilty about doing it. Cheryl and I are slowly working our lives back to an acceptable balance, with our time together as a couple having been driven down to virtually nil over the past couple of years. We are on the same page and we both want the same satisfaction with our lives as a family and as a couple. It is nice to get back to spending some time together, just the two of us, even if it is only for brief moments at a time right now.

We have been in the house for almost 23 months. Since we moved in the house at the end of February 2006 (what happened to Labour Day 2005!?!), we had the back deck and balcony built. Still working on the interior trim painting, Cheryl has most of the main floor done. I slogged away at getting the yard ready for sods this summer and fall, but I ran out of seasonable weather. Looks like the spring for that project. I knew that if we moved in before painting the trim, it would be the kiss of death for getting that chore done. I guess I was right, after all. Oh well, onward and upward!