Welcome home...

If you have found your way here to our new humble online home, WELCOME. Over the years our family website has changed and evolved through various layouts, looks and purpose. Over time it has finally settled down to become our online family history or family journal, as this area of the site is titled. Some may ask why even have a family website, especially with online sites such as Facebook so firmly used by many of our family and friends? Well simply put, this is my way (Michael) of trying to collect and record the various moments in time of our family as we grow and age. Some people scrapbook, others collect multiple hard photo albums, but for us, this is was the easiest method to keep a family record or history, which I believe will be especially important in the years to come when looking back will be as important to us as looking forward.

For most of you, it's more than likely that you have never stopped by here and so a new "look" or "home base" may mean little, but for us and especially for myself, it has been a labour of love and hate. One of the reasons it was so easy to start a website, long before Facebook took over our house and probably yours as well, was because Apple Inc. made it so easy to build and maintain one. They produced great software for free and created a great online location to store and display the site for a reasonable cost. The problem is, it was also propriety, meaning that the site could never easily be changed and moving it to another platform or online "host" was impossible. Recently Apple announced a whole new program for providing online products, which no longer included hosting websites or updating their website software, and so the search was on for a new place to host the site and likely a new way to build and maintain it. Thus the hate part, having to rebuilding our site from the ground up...this has not been fun but in fact a very laborious in-devour. However, the love part has been slowly going back through all the old blogs, from monthly and yearly moments to our travel blogs, and remembering all that has happened over the last 6 years since the site was first published.

So thanks for for stopping by.  The new site has some cool innovations that will make it easier for us to update and maintain more regularly. Not everything has been brought over yet, so check back and you will eventually find all our online family history in the months to come back up and running. And, thankfully, this new site should be much more easy to move, if it ever has to again.

Michael

Back from Waikiki, HI

Well we are back from Hawaii and I have one last day of vacation before the start of the Fall season. Thanks to a great waterproof case from Amazon we where able to take lost of water pics. The above picture is from one of my favourite moments from the trip. The funny thing is I almost missed the turtle as I was swimming with our guide in another spot when this particular female turtle came up for some air. By the time a swam around the crowd of other snorkelers to get a better view I found my self right in front of her head with the waves pushing me closer to her. Great fun! I have a nice video of the whole experience I will have to post at some point but for now we will all pour through our pictures and video and remember one of the best Family Vacations to date.

=8-)

Michael

Happy 13th Birthday Emily: Welcome to the teenage years!

It's been a real joy and gift to be part of Emily's life and watch her grow and develop into a young women. Tonight we went out for Emily's Dad and Daughter diner and true to Emily's personality we ended up at Montana's for BBQ ribs. Great dinner and even better company. HAVE a GREAT YEAR Emily...there will be lots of new and interesting adventures on the horizon this year.

Love DAD
=8-)

Ortho: The start of the journey

Well, I thought I would keep record of the coming two year process of fixing the countless issues with my smile, bite and overall poor dental condition. This has been a long and drawn out ordeal getting to this point and there are many more procedures to go. To go forward, I should go back for a few minutes and explain how it has come to pass, that at 42, I am now wear braces. Growing up it was obvious that there were issues with my teeth, as my childhood pearly whites gave way to crooked, crowded adult teeth. For those that know me, I don't smile that often and in pictures, it's more of a grin with no teeth exposed. As a child I smiled quite often, teeth all aglow. But as I grew and my dental condition worsened I worked hard to hide what I was quite ashamed to show. By the time I was 20, and all finished any further growth, I was left with the following; severe lower crowding and twisting in all 4 incisor teeth, the bottom canine teeth also out of place; the top four incisor teeth spread out, gaped and slightly twisted, my right top central incisor tooth chipped from a childhood accident that was never fixed, worse yet, both my upper canine never came in and grew up into the front roof of my mouth, finally a slight under bite from a very strong lower jaw (as my orthodontist likes to say). Now, I do remember in my teenage years being taken to a Orthodontist and my parents being given an estimate that included breaking my jaw and resetting it, but it never came to pass. 

As the years went on, Elaine and I met and got married, I went on to university, went through a couple different carrier paths, was blessed with fatherhood and many ministry opportunities through our church. All during this time I just gave up on doing anything about my teeth and worked out a routine of life that hid as much as I could when I sung or talked. But over the last few years as the company I invested in and work at has spent more and more time in the public eye doing trade shows and sales visits, I had begun to become more and more self conscious of my smile and overall talking appearance. Add to this, I have three wonderful and beautiful women in my house, whose smile is always on display in our family pictures, while I stand and grin at best and scowl on others. About three years ago, I started looking into what could be done, but every time the quotes were exceptionally high and always involved jaw surgery. Then about 3 months ago, I made a comment to the girls orthodontist (who has been monitoring their growth to set the optimum time to start their own ortho work) that I was not looking for perfection, just something that would allow me to smile again and be less self conscious when I talked. This seemed to be the spark that was needed to come up with plan to fix 90% of my dental problems (In my case perfection could only come with jaw surgery), 

And so here I sit, 3 days into my first week of wearing braces and I hope that this will all be worth it for the money the family is allowing me to spend. The plan, as best as I can explain, will remove the all my crowding, straighten out all my teeth, get ride of any gaps and create room for fixing my missing upper teeth. What has been interesting is that as I begun getting x-rays, dental moulds, 3-D CT scans and surgical consults for those pesky upper canines, is how worse things had gotten. I had 1 lower incisor tooth removed this week as part of the plan to do all this without jaw surgery (remember I have this very strong lower jaw). As it turns out, that tooth was cracking down the middle (front to back) and darkening i.e. rotting out due to all the overcrowding and twisting. In April I go in for an "in office" surgery to remove the two upper canine teeth that are actually damaging the roots of my two upper central incisors. As it turns out, the surgeon was glad that my braces will be in place as this will keep those two incisors from potentially falling out (when the now dead canine teeth are removed) while bone grows back and re-strengthens the roots of those teeth. Later this late summer/early fall I will get that much need chipped tooth fixed once things are settled into their correct places. This is possible because thankfully my Ortho is using speed braces that reduces the treatment time. Finally, when the braces are ready to come off, back into surgery I go to get implants for the two dead canine teeth that have left holes in my upper mouth. 

Lots of fun! In case anyone is wondering (which I doubt), I am now living with metal speed braces on the bottom row of teeth (without those ugly coloured rubber bands!) and clear ceramic speed braces on the top row (as Dr. Chow states, "these will come in handy when I start smiling again in about 6 months, if not sooner"). Next updated will come after the canine removal surgery. Till then, I promise not to complain or make a big deal about this any further. 

Michael 
=8-)

Jan- Feb 2011

 

Well its just a s few days away from March and so much has happened around here that I know I will end up leaving something out.  There have been trips around the world, championships won, and a number of changes around here worth noting.  Grab a coffee as this could take some time. 

  1. 1.  Michael’s Trips:  This year has been a series of trips that have had me out of the house and the road every 2nd week.  1st up was a Big White Skiing Trip in the middle of January. Great weather, great snow and good fun.  I even tried to snow board and thankfully I am still here to tell the tail...although never again!  Next up was a work trip to Holland, Belgium and France.  I had always been on of my travelling dreams to head to Europe and although it was only one 8 days it was an experience I won’t soon forget.  The highlights are probably visiting the three big cities we spent time in, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris.  Next up was a trip back down to Salt Lake City, UT for a dealer factory tour that included snowmobiling. Then back to Toronto for the National Home Show and 5 days of consumer sales for our cover systems.  Back home for a week and then back down to Downtown Vancouver for another week of home show work.  Spring break just can not come soon enough this year.

  2. 2.New church:  It took along time for us to make the decision to no longer attend Southside. We had been part of the church life there for almost 14 years and over the years have made some really good friends.  There are many great ministry memories that we take with us and over the years our faith has developed in the process.  But as the life of our family changed, it was time to move on and find a new church home that was able to connect with our whole family and not just Elaine and I.  It never is easy saying goodbye but as the fall and winter of 2010 have passed bye, we have felt more and more sure that God has had hand in this move.  We are now currently attending Parkland Fellowship, where the girls are attending the youth and we are enjoying being part the community there.  It will be interesting to see what God as in store this year.

  3. 3.Schedule changes: As the girls have grown up and changed so has our family schedule.  This spring will be know for the craziness that has been the past few months and the daily activities that have kept us on the go.  Sarah started club volleyball, high school basketball, continued her club soccer schedule and then started attending Parklands youth program.  Emily added Volleyball, school basketball, Parklands Jr. youth program and spring skiing to hers, on to club soccer.  With my travel schedule I have no I idea how Elaine has been able to keep up with all of it.  But she HAS!  Having two active teenagers in the house has been a transition over the last few years that we had quite the time sorting out. But, the sports and activities that they are involved in, have kept them healthy and out of trouble.  Even more so, they are both so talented and smart that both Elaine and I believe God has a plan to use these talents for his purpose in the coming years.

  4. 4.Championships & Basketball: This year Sarah’s school was intent on running only a grade 10 team and the grade 9 girls were likely going to be given the year off and told to try again next year when they entered grade 10 themselves.  Thankfully some very talented teachers, Mr. Jones and Miss. Campbell, heard about this and step up to create an all girls grade 9 team.  Both of the coaches not not only were intent on running the team, but with Miss Campbell's experience playing for the Canadian Women's National Basketball Team and Mr. Jones understanding of the players and their strengths, the team has developed and blossomed into a powerhouse.  They have won a number of tournaments this year, made it to the city finals and just this week won the Regional Fraser Valley Championships.  Not bad for a team that know-one wanted to see put together.  They are off to the Provincial Championships now and it will be fun to see just how far they can go in the tournament against the best in the province.  As for Sarah personally, along the way she has been given a number of player tournament awards, MVP awards and in the Fraser Valley Championships was named the regional MVP.  

  5. 5.This and that:  Emily is now the tallest female in the house and now stands 5ft 7.5in...and she is only 12!  Max is finally starting to settle down, not so many “mistakes around the house”, but still hates and moving thing that he sees go by when you take him for a walk.  It was sad to hear of the fire that did server damage to Delta Cedar, were I grown up working for many years through high school and early university.  Finally, as I sit here it’s February 27 and there is snow on the ground, this is Vancouver where it rains not snows.

Till next month.

=8-) Michael





It's Been A Long Time

 

Ok, ok.  It’s been awhile. Actually as I looked back it has been almost 8 months since we posted an updated on the family website and then only once for 2010.  Everyone, including me, just kind of abandoned our family website and took to Facebook with a vengeance.  Add to that, some dabbling on twitter and trying to get a POSTEROUS account going (the ease of use for posting is far superior to apple iweb, which I can’t believe was still not update for use on the iphone...sorry I digress) and the dust around here got pretty thick.  It’s sad really.  There was some pretty good stuff that happened throughout the year and did not get documented on our “family journal” (that’s what the website really is for us).  In any event, with the site revamp comes a new year and a new start of the family journal/blog.  At some point I’ll attempt to try and rebuild the old blog posts to match the new site, but until then, just clink on  ‘2006-2010 old archive’ on the blog’s front page or click on the ‘previous’ button below to read the all of the old posts.  

As for today, “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life” (as Michael Buble would sing) for the family blog.  I think that there will be lots of material, stories and news from the family’s life around here over the coming months to ensure that we once again keep this train rolling (lot’s of cliches today). 

The next big updated will be at the beginning of February and should be quite interesting as Sarah (and to a lesser extent Emily) trying wading through Club Soccer, Club Volleyball and High School basketball while keeping up their grades.  I for one am eagerly awaiting to see how this all plays out.  I will also be travelling to Europe for the first time in late January for work, so there should be some interesting tales to tell out of that trip as well. 

As always, for Elaine’s daily thoughts head to FACEBOOK...and hey...who every you are that takes the time to read this little family journal please post a comment. It would be great to know who came to visit.

=8-) Michael