We needed to make some walls for around our backyard garden to keep the soil from washing away. I cut some old shelves in half and attached them together. Seems to have done the trick. This will do until I come up with a more suitable fix.
Yup, today I got my vasectomy. My wife and I had decided that two beautiful daughters was plenty for us. Initially my wife was thinking that if giving birth to our second daughter she may need a cesarian section that she may have her tubes tied at the same time. Turns out that she had a natural childbirth so there was no opportunity to do it then. It’s quite an invasive procedure for a woman to have her tubes tied so I stepped up to the plate and got a vasectomy.
In order to get in to see the specialist I had to wait 3 months after the referral. This three months put it sort of “out of sight, out of mind” so I didn’t sweat it. As I was nearing the final week I began to think about the procedure a little more but it wasn’t freaking me out….yet. I woke up today, the day of the appointment and I was really quite out of sorts. I was stressing a little and it was apparent to my wife.
I must say that the actual procedure was really nothing at all. I was given a valium when I got there to take the edge off (thank god). The procedure was painless with all of the freezing they do. I left pretty happy and pain free, that is untill I got home. The freezing is wearing off a bit as I type this but it’s not bad. The only way I can currently describe my discomfort is that it’s the same ache that you get when you’re playing street hockey and take a frozen tennis ball to the pills (weird frame of reference but I’m Canadian EH!).
So far so good. Doc says to have a relaxing weekend, which means most of the work with the kids falls on my wife (boo hoo). I get to iron the lazyboy with my ass this weekend and be waited on (yessss!) This was a wise choice for our lifestyle, although it isn’t for everybody. Just thought I’d share this story. Anyone else have a vasectomy story (good or bad)?
File this under shameless spousal promotion. My wife (and yes it still blows my mind) is blogging. Check out her take on motherhood vs career woman at Mommy Vs Manager !
You can also follow her on Twitter @MgrMom
Thanks guys!
I think I found my motivation to getting back into exercising. It’s always a daunting task to get back at it after a long break. The last time I was in the best shape of my life was about 3 and a half years ago. I was on parental leave with our first daughter. Since she was pretty immobile being only 6 months old, I was able to exercise daily at my own pace. I was getting my cardio in on our elliptical machine and alternating days lifting weights. I never looked better or felt better. I efforts were even getting noticed by others, it felt good.
I made a commitment to myself this year that I would begin the long road to the healthiest lifestyle I can lead and be in the best shape of my life by the time I hit 40 (3 or so years). I am now just relaxing after a very good workout and I feel great, not only from the workout but mentally for getting off the couch and getting it done. Now, the next step is doing it frequently, getting a few weeks in so that I want to maintain the results and not sabotage my efforts by backsliding
Well, that’s it really. Progress report: Yoga last night to help my nagging lower back problem and weights tonight, feels good!!
How often do you come across a blog post that starts off something like “I haven’t blogged in a while….”? Well, this is one of those posts. We have made many lifestyle changes that have had a severe impact on how much free time I have. In early October we had a new addition to our family, a baby girl. She is doing quite well and is an absolute bundle of joy. I actually forgot how much work babies are. I actually don’t do well with sleep deprivation so it’s a good thing that my wife is off on maternity leave and handling the lion’s share of the feeding duties.
I have also decided to pursue continuing education towards a degree, part time, via correspondence. Again, I have forgotten how much work school/studying is. I thought school was tricky when I was in my teens and had nothing to do but concentrate on good grades. It’s insanely tough finding the motivation to study after work and after the kids are settled for the night. I”m nearing my late 30’s and find that after 12 hour shifts at work, dinner, bathing the kids and getting them settled, I’m beat!
My motivation for trying to find a sliver of time and get back to blogging is twofold. 1. I miss the creative outlet and 2. I do actually feel like a schlub for not providing my very small group of faithful readers anything to chew on. I have managed to scrape up this extra time with the help of my employer. How you ask? You see, the industry that I work in is very tightly integrated with the automotive industry (and you know how well the auto makers are doing lately.) I have been forced to take a two week layoff without pay, they call it a furlough, I call it shitty! I by no means have a bunch of spare time due to my wife’s “honey do” list, but I have some. What better time to blog? I chewed on the idea for a few days about how to jump back in again and decided on what you see here, honesty.
What kind of content can you expect moving forward? More of this, I think. I’m pressed for time like never before so my posts may be more concentrated but hopefully as enjoyable. Like they say in big business, my “mission statement” from here on in is to provide something worthy of your time, three to four times a week. So those of you still checking back in, I can only say Thanks!
I have this quirk that I can’t really explain. I keep several jars of screws, nuts, bolts and assorted nails in my garage. In fact, there are quite a few jars, probably more than I will ever use in a lifetime. I’m not really quite sure as to why I keep them because I’m not a pack rat, in fact I’m quite the opposite. I don’t hoard things around my house in the event that I may need them, I find the clutter distracting and it causes me stress. My wife and I have actually been on a de-cluttering kick lately to free up space and simplify our lives in anticipation of our new daughter. I have also de-cluttered the garage in preparation for the winter. I want to get one vehicle in there so both of our vehicles don’t have to survive outside in the harsh Canadian winter.
When I came across the storage cabinet where I keep the jars of screws and nails, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw them out or even “thin the herd.” I think I can deal with keeping them and storing them in my garage because they take up such little space. You never know when you’re going to be assembling something you purchased and its missing a screw or bolt etc etc. Nails are handy for fixing loose deck boards or hanging a quick picture in the house. I probably go to those jars maybe twice, three times a year but it’s very reassuring knowing they are there. They’re a grown man’s security blanket. Sure, I could toss them out and if I ran into a scenario where I needed a screw or nail or bolt I could just scoot to Home Depot, a mere 5 minutes away. It’s about self sufficiency, If I need something I just walk out to the garage and dig through my jars, no car involved, no exchanging of money for goods. I’m not ready to admit that it is some sort of sickness because I don’t take the time to segregate them by size or thread type. Nails are with nails, screws with screws, a simple system.
I don’t think you can trust a man who doesn’t have a small stash of miscellaneous nuts and bolts. If i ran across someone like that I’d be very inclined to say “you never thought you’d come across a time when you’d need a 2 inch phillips screw?, they’re very small, you could keep a few in a jar….just in case.” I know it sounds absurd but it’s how my brain works, you have to be prepared! Manliness is next to prepared-liness I say.
One of my favorite blogs on uncluttering and such is unclutterer.com have a look!
Do any of you guys and girls have collections or stashes of things that you keep? Do you have that drawer in your house with every possible battery size, just in case? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Isn’t it funny how life always balances itself out? Every good is accompanied by some bad, for every joy there is some sadness, Yin and Yang. This, I assume, is the norm for most of the worlds population, not all bad, not all good, but balance. I mean, there are always people who are inherently lucky and things seem to always go their way. My wife and I are not those people. With our family growing in the very near future we decided to go out and lease ourselves a new SUV. We did the responsible thing and shopped around and took into consideration looks, price, fuel economy, residual value. We test drove and compared, lifted hoods and kicked tires. At the end of an exhaustive two week search we ended up with a 2008 Toyota Rav4. We are extremely happy with the vehicle and it is going to suit our needs perfectly. There is enough room for two car seats in the back for “peanut” and her soon to arrive sister, and space in the very back for our dog Lacey. It will be perfect for camping and trips up north and handle our Canadian winters with 4 wheel drive. I know it’s no Cadillac or Lexus but it’s in our price range and we feel it rides like a dream. We are ecstatic with joy and very proud of our new purchase. I know you are waiting for the flip-side to our recent joy? Well after 26 days of possession of our new “baby”, my wife was rear ended today! We haven’t even made our first month’s payment, D’oh! My wife and baby to be are fine and the damage really isn’t all that bad, but Damn! Look below for the carnage:
Anyone else have those experiences where you’re riding on a high and lady luck or karma comes and slaps you back down to reality?
Please share your stories in the comments!
I’ve chosen a new design for the blog. I’m much more in control of this one so I hope everyone likes it!
Thanks for your patience while I was ironing out the bugs.
We have a dog, a big one, not massive, but big. She’s a boxer-beagle mix named Lacey, and we describe her as a boxer with a beagle head (doesn’t sound as cute as she looks right?). My wife and I got her shortly before we got married. In hindsight it was perhaps our “test run” at parenthood. She started out as this adorable little puppy you see here.
And this is our beautiful girl now, she’s gotten a little bit bigger (about 70 lbs bigger!):
Lacey comes with a bit of a story that I’d like to share with you. My sister lives in what us in Southern Ontario call “up north”. It’s about a 2 hour drive north of where we reside. It’s cottage country to Southern Ontarians, where there are a lot of very nice retired people, some people who call it their year round homes and some very backward people. Lacey came from one of those “backward” people. He was a farmer who raised boxer pups to sell as purebred. It turns out that by some twist of fate a beagle got with his prize boxer mom and bred. The result was 7 boxer/beagle pups. Afraid the news would get out that the boxer bloodlines were not pure, he was going to shoot all 7 pups. As soon as my sister heard this she got on the phone to me an asked if we would rescue a pup. We sure as hell did! Between my sister and I we managed to find a home for all 7 pups *whew*. In a strange twist of fate the dirtbag who was going to shoot the pups is now raising boxer/beagles because of their popularity *grrrr*. But I digress…….
Lacey has taught two free wheeling young twenty somethings a thing or two about responsibility. Every decision we made thereafter involved our new member of the family. We weren’t able to just up and take off for a weekend without factoring her into our plans. She also taught us about saving, having to save for her vet bills and puppy training. We also have to make sure she gets sufficient exercise and proper food.
When we were about to have our first daughter my wife and I prepared to smooth the transition from a three member family to a four member family. We were worried about the dog feeling ignored and having her turf invaded. We did everything to make everyone feel like they had a part to play in our family and that there was more then enough love to go around. When our daughter was just a little baby, Lacey was very, very well behaved considering what she had to put up with. Our daughter “Peanut” would crawl over to where Lacey was sleeping and poke her ears and bend her tail and Lacey would just get up and move out of reach. Now that Peanut is older she has learned to be gentle with Lacey and not hurt her. She has learned that Lacey needs love, hugs, kisses, treats, food and regular walks. Today, Lacey and Peanut are best of friends.
As for Lacey she gives us all she has in return, heaps of love. Even if I go out to the garage to grab a screwdriver she acts as if I’ve been gone all day and is excited to see me. We as humans can learn a thing or two from our pets when it comes to animals “I don’t give a crap what you look like, do for a living or the clothes you wear” uninhibited love for us. We had a scenario where we had put our daughter to bed and were sitting on the back porch enjoying the evening. Lacey came to the patio door like she wanted to go outside to relieve herself. I got up to let her out and she took off and bolted from the door, back inside the house and upstairs to the second floor. Finding this odd I went upstairs to see where she had gone. I found her sitting at the foot of our daughter’s bed, with our daughter on the floor crying. She had fallen out of bed and Lacey came to get us, GOOD GIRL!
To this day we can’t express in words how much our dog has enriched our lives. We offer in return our love to her.
I’m sure all of you our there have stories of how your pets have added to your lives. Please share those stories and see you in the comments!
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Yeah, you’ve heard it here first. I’ve always found a lyric from the Kid Rock song Only God Knows Why very profound. I heard the song today and I started thinking about it again and decided to write about it today. The lyric goes:
“Oh somehow I know there’s more to life
than this, I said it too many times
and i still stand firm you get what
you put in and people get what they
deserve, still i ain’t seen mine
No I ain’t seen mine
I’ve been giving just ain’t been gettin’
I’ve been walking down that line
So I think I’ll keep walking
with my head held high
i’ll keep moving on and only God
knows why”
He’s pretty spot on about how there is always more to life than than “this”. There’s a deeper meaning, a deeper purpose than just existing. We need to change the world for the better, affect lives in positive ways. Either of those can come in many forms, plant a tree, adopt a child in a third world country, heck recycling even helps.
You get what you put in and people get what they deserve. This could’nt be more accurate. Yes there are people in life born with advantages over others and there are always going to be people who are inherently lucky. There is no match, I repeat, no match for hard work. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward. As for people getting what they deserve, I leave that one to Karma 
Kid Rock feels he still hasnt “seen his” and maybe someday he will. The fruits of his labours have paid off with money but perhaps he’s seeking something more gratifying. As for me, I think my hard work has paid off. I’ve got a good life, a roof over my head, food in my tummy, a good job, a beautiful wife, an adorable daughter and another on the way. So,
“I think I’ll keep walking with my head held high
i’ll keep moving on and only God
knows why”
I’m with Kid Rock on this one.
Do you guys have any special lyrics from songs that really stick in your head as being profound? I would like to see which ones you guys choose. See you in the comments!
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