I'm a bonehead.

I put Lily's pants on backwards this morning, and it took me 2 diaper changes and 4 hours to notice.

I have officially lost my mind - if anyone finds it, please give me a call.

Good fences do make for good neighbors.

Sunday night, after we came home from dinner at the Auntie's, we found a note on our door. It was from our next door neighbor, wanting to talk about our fence.

I hate our fence. It's a perfectly good, no maintenance chain link fence. Perfectly ugly. I would rather paint a wood fence every year than have chain link, but as it came with the house, I am stuck with it. Or so I thought.

John, our neighbor, purchased the house next door to us last year. He lives on the other side, and wanted a place for his step-father to live, so he offered to buy the house from the old owners, and renovated the heck out of it. The old owners didn't spend ANY money on it, so John had a lot of work to do.

He decided to replace the wooden fence on his property, and wanted to do the fence in between us as well. But as the fence is on our property, he needed our input and permission to do anything.

He called to say he had an opportunity to get the fence replaced this week, and that if we were OK with it, he would be replacing the chain link on our side at the same time. Here's the good neighbor part. We don't have to pay for it. John said that if we wanted to contribute we could, but if we couldn't, that was OK too. He knows that our funds are pretty limited while I am on maternity leave. He said that if we have more money next year, that we could give them something at that time. It was too generous an offer to pass up, so we agreed that they could go ahead.

The workers were here Tuesday and Wednesday, and it's just about done. It looks amazing.

This picture is from the company website - I only wish my yard was that green now.

It's vinyl, and maintenance free. And it isn't chain link.

After 6 years of a not-so-nice neighbor, it's a treat to have super nice ones instead.

I have to thank my guardian angel for keeping us safe and sound despite being in a wee car accident this Tuesday.

Normally on Lily's month-birthday, I post about how much she has changed since we brought her home. I note all the amazing and amusing things she has done. How tall she is, and her latest tricks. This week, I didn't post on her 8 month birthday, for a couple of reasons. The first was the accident. I'll get back to that later. The second is this:

Five years ago, on April 17, my grandpa passed away. This is always a hard day for me, because we were so close. He taught me so much - how to pick out nails at the hardware store when I was only 2 or 3, how to make stuff out of wood, how to identify birds by their calls, how to fix things, how to knit, how to fish (yes, I know I don't eat it, but I still remember how to bait a hook, catch, clean and fillet a fish.) and how important it is to do the things you love most. I miss his whisker rubs, his laugh, his sideways grin and the way he used to tease me. I know it's only in my mind's eye, but sometimes I can still see him trudging up the hill at the cabin. The last time I spoke to my grandpa was at Easter of that year. We visited, and when I said goodbye I told him I loved him. The last thing my grandpa said to me was "I love you too." I didn't know that it would be the last time we spoke, but I can still hear those words. I miss him every day, and always will.

I was thinking of him all morning, as I do on the anniversary of him passing away. Bryan called me from work, asking if I could pick him up at 10 instead of 11 as planned. He had an appointment for a specialist - a dentist, at noon. He had planned to work a half-day in the shop, then come home to change and go to the appointment. He wasn't feeling well, so he asked me to come early. I got there around 10:15, and we headed towards home. At the corner of 50th and 101st, we were stopped at the red light, waiting for the advance green on our left turn. I heard a crash, and then looked up to see a black BMW spinning towards us. From what I can piece together, the driver of the BMW was trying to get around a pickup truck that was pulling a 16 foot flatbed trailer, so he could make the light. The BMW clipped the truck or the truck clipped the BMW, which caused the BMW to spin, hit a pole, and the median before sliding sideways into us.

Before I go further - WE ARE ALL OK.

This is where my guardian angel stepped in. My airbags didn't go off. Lily didn't even feel the crash. I wasn't hurt. Bryan wasn't hurt. My car is only slightly damaged - pending insurance repair estimates of course. The driver of the BMW had a scraped hand and a bump on his head. The driver of the truck hit her head, but was OK. The paramedics checked everyone else on scene, and said we were all fine, and that they didn't need to take anyone in to the hospital.

They say that when you become a parent, nothing is more important than your child. This is one of those things I always knew, but didn't get until Tuesday. The only thing I cared about at the moment that everything happened, was that Lily was OK. Before Bryan could even ask me if I was all right, I asked him to make sure she was fine. It wasn't until he looked at her, and told me she was OK that I began to absorb what had just happened, and how lucky we were to go through this without any injuries. All I wanted to do was take her out of her car seat and hold her tight, but I couldn't until the paramedics got there. They checked her out, and said she was just fine. Then I gave her a huge hug.

Bryan will possibly scoff at this, but I have to say how impressed I am at how he handled everything. I know that as my husband and Lily's dad, it's his job to take care of us, and make sure we are safe. But to see that come to fruition in a moment where I froze and didn't know what the heck to do, makes me proud to say he's my husband and the father of our child. In the space of a few minutes, he made sure that Lily was fine, that I was fine, called 911 and got the police/ambulance/fire department en route, checked with the other drivers, got names and phone numbers of witnesses organized for the police. Then he came over and hugged me.

So thank you grandpa, for looking out for me, and keeping us safe on Tuesday. I love you.

A day at the park...

Today we took Lily to the park for the very first time. It was a beautiful day, sunny and bright - perfect for an outing. We went on the swings, and the slide, but I think she liked the swings the best. She really wanted to get down and play in the sand, but she's too little to do that. Next year!

13 things I did today...

1 - Went to the salon for some pampering. Thank you Alex, for the lovely visual of your mother-in-law flashing the dinner party, just to show off her gall bladder removal scars. (Apparently, she 'forgot' to wear a bra that day.)

2 - Went to Planet Organic and bought my daughter cookies, white beans and avocados. Not to be consumed at the same time. The diaper would be disastrous!

3 - Had a Chai Latte while my Lily ate cookies. Well, I ate a cookie, and she mashed the broken bits in her fist and hid the mushy parts in her dress for me to find when I lifted her out of the stroller.

4 - Chatted with a sweet granny about her great-grandchildren.

5 - Smiled back at about 13 people, as they smiled at Lily in the sling. I am always amazed and amused by the reactions we get while shopping. (The sling lets her see out, and leaves me with free hands.)

6 - Sat and nursed Lily to sleep in the back yard. The sun was on my face and there were robins singing. I could have stayed there all day.

7 - Made homemade pizza sauce for tonight's dinner. My pizza dough was it's own science experiment. I discovered that no matter what the recipe books say, you can't make pizza dough ahead of time and 'just store it in the fridge until you are ready'. Let's just say I'm glad I have a big fridge - there was room for expansion.

8 - Listened to Lily squeal and talk to herself while she was supposed to be napping.

9 - Fed Lily chicken and mangoes, and banana yogurt. When this didn't work, I gave her the spoon and let her have fun. It's hard to get dried mango paste out of baby hair once it's dried, so we...

10 - ...gave Lily a bath. Splish splash.

11 - Made pizza, and then watched as Lily crawled across the living room in search of her mumma. She crawled so much, she had rug burn on her belly.

12 - Laughed as I listened to Bryan on the phone. He was trying to explain to his sisters how to turn on the computer, without using any computer lingo. Apparently, they haven't used it in...6 months. I cannot fathom this.

13 - Let my sweet Lily fall asleep on me, and watched her for a while before putting her to bed. She doesn't fall asleep on me very often - I miss it. She used to snuggle up like a little froggy. She's getting too big to do this, but she did her froggy for me tonight.

Goodbye Bradman.

Tracy's post was hard to read. I haven't been at work since August, so I'm not sure how I am going to deal with this. I don't have to be at the store, half expecting him to come around a corner. I don't have to worry about picking up the phone to page him, only to have to put it down because I can't page him anymore. The sad part for me is that I'm not there to talk about him with everyone, as they trade Brad stories, and laugh and cry at the same time as they all realize that he is really gone. So here are a few of my memories.

I started working at Home Depot 9 years ago, at the South Common store. As head cashiers, we looked after the lot attendants. The most memorable one ever, has to be Brad. It was Brad that coined the term "Cart Transfer Technician". His lot escapades were infamous - from 'loaded diaper' counts (people were forever leaving Huggies for him to pick up), to cart surfing, to the name of the day on his apron. Lot attendants go through a lot of aprons. Brad was never afraid of being different. He started out with 'Brad' on his apron. This progressed to Bradman, The Bradster, Bradorama, and so on. Irene, our manager finally said "Please, can't you be just Brad?" You guessed it, his next apron read...

Just Brad

(I believe it was "The Bradster" that received a customer comment card.)

I remember Brad as part of our Over 6'4" club - we had an unusually large number of really tall men at that store. He was the skinniest though, and would regularly eat his huge lunch at his coffee break, and go through several double burgers from Harvey's at his lunch break. Some days it was astounding how much food he could put away.

I also remember his crazy Halloween escapades, and his tales of how he found most of his costumes at "Lou's". This just happened to be in his dad's closet. Apparently Lou had a lot of polyester left over from the 70's...

The sticker car...Brad's vehicle of choice at the time was a little beater, that was entirely held together by stickers of all shapes and sizes.

I moved on to the Strathcona store, and didn't see Brad again until I moved again to the Sherwood Park store. Our little Brad had grown up, and was now a manager. It was really neat seeing him grow up from a skinny, silly lot attendant, to a less skinny, (still silly) good manager. (He knew when to be serious, but the silly Brad was the best.)

He kept us laughing and smiling, even when we had to deal with really stupid customer situations. Our office was full of laughter, good natured ribbing and tons of inside jokes. We had cake days and Slurpee days, and Swiss Chalet days. I love the day that we 'decorated' the windows of his truck and managed to get someone else blamed for it. (Thanks Jerrett!)

I remember how proud he was when he became an uncle. He had a picture of his niece on his cell phone, and would show it to anyone who wanted to see it.

Brad had a huge family at Home Depot. He was a son to some, brother to most, and a friend to all. We are all richer for having known such a great guy. We will miss you so much Brad.

Happy Easter!

I would just like to point out that the lovely weather we are currently experiencing can be blamed directly on my husband. For the past while, when anyone commented on how nice it was outside, he would say something like:

"Enjoy it now, because we will be getting the winter back soon."

That's why it snowed on his birthday.

Hiya,
Originally intended to post prior to midnight and still on my birthday...however...since the "new" blogger requires a different password, which somehow does not match what I have written down I was unable to meet that criteria.
And, truth be told, I am slightly annoyed at the moment.

Anyways...I am another year older, another year and a day now actually.
And how old is that you might ask...well, I have decided to start counting my age from A.D.

This being As Dad.

So, I am now in 1 A.D. Ergo, I am 1 this year. A few more years and I will match my mentality for the day. For those of you that do not know me well....the second of April is a dark day for me, I am almost always in a dark mood. Today was no exception, try as I might I could not improve my mood. Granted, in my small defense, I spent the day all but fuming that my wife had not gotten me a birthday gift...or card or anything. This was not the case, her parents and her all went in together to get me a gift...however I did not find out about this until after dinner at their place tonight.
If I was dark haired today I would have matched the dark and brooding description.
OK, I know it doesn't refer to hair color but what the hell, I am trying to alleviate the mood somewhat.

Honestly, I am not a smart man, I try to rule by logic, but like many others...emotions get the better of me and I tend to let them carry me along. I should have sat down at the start of the day and just appreciated all that I have; instead of being snarky all day long and cheering up at the end. Well, until I had the log in issues with blogger due to Google's interference.

Its amusing though, when Carrie got up, looked outside today...she tells me, so you got your weather...OK, if i could have ordered the weather, well it would have been like this today....that or a heavy rain...maybe rain next year.

All in all, as I look at being another year older, I can reflect and realize, while this year definitely had some trying moments, some painful moments, it also had moments of pure elation. My high points were the birth of my daughter and of course the first anniversary of marriage to my loving and very patient wife Carrie.

I won't bother with the lows, I've finally learned the wisdom to realize that you move on from the lows and you hold the high points near and dear to your heart, and when material thrown by monkey's hits the spinning device used to move air; they are what keep you going.

So, I'm definitely going to hold on tight to the two most important ladies in my life, because even on my birthday, its how I relate to them that I measure my day. Today I was lacking somewhat, I have 364 more days to make sure that does not happen next year.