Some Post scripts and notices

Hi everyone! After a week of crazy posting, I wanted to address a couple things. First off, I had a post on here regarding families and my views on those who choose not to have children. I want to make sure I clarify something. I do not make apologies for my views, that is the way I feel. However I want to make sure my remarks aren't misconstrued to include anyone without children. There are those cases out there where for one reason or another, where people can't have children, ranging from medical reasons to others. People who are prevented from having children are completely different from those I was speaking about, who make a conscious choice out of selfishness to not have kids.
Anyhow, enough of that, on to my next point of business. Over the next little while you'll be seeing changes to my blog, hopefully you'll enjoy them, let me know if you don't. I am welcome to all suggestions of how I can make the reading experience more enjoyable.

TGIF

Well it's Friday, and I don't know about all of you, but I seem to always have the worst time recovering from long weekends. This long weekend was especially a bummer. Here in Calgary we had lousy, lousy weather. Anyhow, the week is done now, and I am glad to be able to try and relax this weekend.
So some of you might be wondering why I have a picture of No Ma'am President Al Bundy at the start of this post. Well, its a dedication to a special group of guys back home in Ontario. There was a select group of men, including yours truly who made it a point to get together every so often for a remarkable event known as "MAN-lunch". We would all go to the Mandarin Chinese Buffet and debauchery would ensue. Basically we had 3 main rules we lived by. First, no women allowed, testosterone only. Second, no sissy food, you ate garbage and plenty of it. Going easy was not an option, at least one button had to come undone on your pants by the end, or a belt notch loosened. And the last rule was, What is discussed at Man-lunch, stayed at Man-lunch. It was absolutely awesome, and boy do I miss those times. There was a lot of bathroom jokes, a lot of discussion around cool movies, and funny videos on Youtube. And much, much, more. I cannot go into too much detail without breaking rule number 3. Besides, we still want our wives to think we are somewhat civilized and intelligent. (Don't fear, there was nothing of questionably immoral nature, just a lot of men being men) The biggest joke of it all was that we entered Man-lunch and went from upright walking, intelligent speaking human beings, to knuckle dragging, hunched over cavemen, grunting and snorting by the end. Thank goodness for our wonderful wives who are able to refine us and clean us up to become fully functioning members of society. Anyhow, that group has since been dispersed by life, but I do miss those days. I was even able to get my son started with his first Man-lunch last year. Hopefully one day we can have a Man-lunch reunion, or I may even have to start a new Man lunch group here in Calgary. So today I finish off with a moment of silence for my Man-lunch brothers, Paul, John, Kyle, and Junior member Colton. Long live the discount Chinese buffet!

Milestone!

The Mixing Bowl hit a milestone. I officially have 10 followers on my blog! (I know that there are many more who follow my blog, but haven't registered as an official follower for one reason or another) As of this morning our dear family friend Andrea joined up as a follower. For being my tenth follower she gets the grand prize..... A shout out on my blog. And the rights to being my sons favorite babysitter!

Thank you to everyone who reads my ramblings! You're the greatest.

Family, it's not for the weak...

I'll bet some of you are reading the title and thinking "What's that all about?" Well, let me tell you. I miss my family so very much right now, (anyone still wondering what I'm talking about, needs to go back to my posting at the end of April to catch up)and I think about them every day. Married life has been the greatest experience of my life so far. And my little family has truly come to mean everything to me. I was listening to a popular talk radio host last week. He brought up a segment where he had referred to a study done recently in Britain, where they claim to show statistically, that people with children are more unhappy than those without. He discussed the different sides and views on this topic, and then he took a call from a man who only referred to himself as "Rolex Boy". This caller then went on to express how he is very self centered and selfish. How he likes his life now where he can just pick up at a whim and fly around the world and party. He went on to say how he is too immature to have kids and how he'll never want that life style because it's too depressing. He doesn't want all the baggage that comes along with it. He further went on to say how most people if they were honest like him, would say the same thing, that kids will make you unhappy. I was floored as the radio host continued to feed this fire, and even agree with him on a few points. By the end of the segment the basic result was this, Children are stressful, and needy, and will make you unhappy, and ruin your marriage. If you want to be happy don't have children.

People, this was grossly offensive to me. I see this as yet another attack by conspiring groups, on the family. The family truly is the central, stable force behind a civilization. A family is the source of some of life's greatest joys! Think back to some happy moments in your life, how many of them involved your whole, or a member of your family? I am only a father of one right now, so perhaps my opinion doesn't carry as much weight as some of you that have more children. However, I can tell you, and this is the absolute pure truth; there has been no greater joy in our family than our little boy, Colton. I feel sorry for some of you who perhaps are deciding that children just aren't for you. That would be too tough of a job. I think that western civilization is getting too soft. I think we are getting too weak. We don't want to have children, because that would be hard, and infringe on our lives. That would involve responsibility. That would involve accountability. That would involve being considerate of others.

I remember when Jody first came to me and said she wanted to start having children. I was still a bit immature. I panicked because I liked it being just her and I. We could stay out all night and sleep in the next day with no worries. We could pick up and take off for a vacation at any time without it being a big production. But she persisted, and I relented, and I panicked. But I remember the day I first saw my boy on the Ultra sound machine. That day, a switch was turned on in my head. I went into that office a boy, and I came out of there a man. I was never more excited to be a father, and to take on that responsibility. I can't adequately describe the feelings you feel as you stare at that little person you helped create. Children force you to grow up, and force you to become an adult, and my life has never been better since. I love my wife for having that foresight, to start a family. I'm sure she'd echo a lot of my thoughts. She is a fantastic mother, and Colton loves her to death. Together we've embarked on this journey and though it has it's trying times, Colton has been the best thing to happen to us besides finding each other.

So I encourage any of you considering not having children, think very, very, hard about that choice. Think hard about the things you'll miss out on and weigh them against the things you'd "be giving up". I think you'll find that the pros far out weigh the cons, if you can really call them that. On a more global scale, consider this fact. The birthrate, and therefore population growth in western civilizations is actually in a decline. The countries we look at as radical, fanatic, hostile etc, they continue to have children at a steady rate. If this trend continues, their populations will soon out number us greatly. It's true what they say, there is strength in numbers. So who do you think will take the balance of global power in the future... Something to think about.

Please readers, let me know what you think. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Happy May long weekend

To all you Canadian readers I say Happy Victoria Day weekend eh? Being the leftovers of British loyalists has it's benefits I guess. Actually the May long weekend in Canada is considered the kick off for the summer season. Just a little history for any of you American/Mexican/other readers. A lot of people use this weekend to do some camping, fishing, off-roading etc. As for me, I'll be trying to use it to relax a bit. I have a buddy of mine coming over on Saturday, where I'll crack open the old guitar case and do a little jamming. Other than that I will be resting and missing my little family. To update any of you following our journey to Calgary, Jody and Colton are still in Guelph as we await our house to sell, and she has some photography jobs she has to complete. We have had a few showings, an offer (we rejected), and we have a couple more this weekend along with an open house Saturday. So everyone, send a prayer our way that we'll get a buyer this weekend so that our little family can be reunited. I sure am getting sick of being here in Calgary without them.

I got an email from an old friend today. He's applying to be a police officer and just needed contact info from me to submit for his background checks. It got me thinking, today I should dedicate my post to old friends. I've had many friends over the years. Some I've managed to keep in contact with, others... not so much. This happens for one reason or another. Some of the relationships ended poorly, others just grew apart, and others have simply gotten lost over the years. I'm a type of person that doesn't like to live in the past. This is one major reason why you'll never find me on facebook. Some people from the past, I simply don't care to get in touch with, and some, I don't want getting in touch with me. However there are the few, those really good friends who impacted you in a major way, and you know, when you see them again, it'll be a happy reunion. I have a very few, select group that fall in this category. My friend Brent, who was the one that emailed me today; is one of those. I was really happy to hear from him today, and I hope to hear from him again soon. It may be one of those situations where we may not talk everyday, week, or even month, but I do appreciate those times that we do talk. So today I encourage my readers, to think of those special people in their lives who affected them in a very positive way, but that you may have lost contact with. If you have a way, contact these people again and renew old acquaintances. You'll be glad you did, but again, I remind you, positive influences is the key. I think we've all had people in the past that weren't good for us, yet we were close friends. Try to avoid those types please. And also, make sure to keep a hold of those good friends you have now. Those life long friends that you've had and will have for life. I've got a few of those too, and they mean an awful lot to me.

Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!

Big update to catch up

Alright people! I have been away from blogging for a bit, due to a lot of craziness. I am back now, and promise to get back to posting regularly for any of you who are still my faithful readers. This post is going to be a whirlwind, its basically just going to be a snapshot overview of the last 3 weeks of my life, I hope you all enjoy Just as background, the reason life got so hectic and crazy for me was because I drove out to Calgary to kick off my family's move out west, leaving my wife and son back in Guelph to sell our house. That's where it all gets interesting...

Yes my beloved Flames lost out in their series to the Chicago Blackhawks, culminating in yet another frustrating first round exit for the fourth straight year. I'm expecting big things this year in terms of coach firing's, and key tweaking in players to finally get that culture in the locker room that will push us over the edge.

During the first week of May, my wife and son came out to visit me for a week. It was the best week ever, as I miss them soo much. Jody ran around shopping for houses and got a drastically different haircut (it looks good). Then that weekend I had my annual golf weekend out in BC, where I surprisingly improved in my game, but it still needs a lot of work. While I was golfing Jody and the boy came out and went sight seeing with Grandma and Auntie Manda. After the golfing was over we took a trip up to Kimberly, BC to visit my Aunt Karen, Uncle Steve, and cousin James. Colton became absolutely infatuated with their big lab Echo. She was really good with him, licking and chasing him around the house. He was in heaven. Whenever he was eating he would look for her to come over so that he could share his food. I got to take a ride in my uncles sweet Corvette at 180 km/h, talk about adrenaline rush. The following morning Uncle Steve took us around to the many scenic views in Kimberly, and Jody was able to take some great pictures. The picture for this post is one she took of me and my boy at St. Mary's lake I believe. It was an awesome trip and Steve, Karen, and James were excellent hosts. (By the way James, you and I will have to have a Lacrosse rematch)

On May 5th Jody and Colton returned back to Guelph, much to my heartache; and I came down with a nasty cold that put me out of commission until pretty much now. Upon returning to Guelph, Jody and I decided to list our home with a real estate agent to try and speed up our sale. We got on with a really motivated, go getter of an agent, and 12 hours into our listing we already had 3 showings and one offer compared to 1 showing and 0 offers in four weeks listing with Property Guys (sale by owner company). So we are really hopeful that our house will be sold before the month is out. My fingers are crossed, as I'm dying to have my family back.

I hope everyone did something for Mothers day. For Jody, we had a nice lunch together and she got tickets to go see Keith Urban. For my mom all her kids cooked dinner for her and showered her with love (she's been sick all week with the cold). I want to say thank you to all the mothers in my life. You all know who you are. You are all so special, and I owe you so much. Were it not for each and every one of you, I would not be who I am today. I love you all so very much!

Till next time, take care everyone.