Give Your Heads A Shake

I gotta say, I am getting really frustrated with the Calgary Flames fan base lately, and a few media persons. The Flames are mired in a big funk right now. We have only won one of our last six games, and our offence has gone absolutely stone cold. A large part of our slump has been a complete lack of any type of presence from our top players. Unfortunately our beloved captain Jarome Iginla is one of the most glaring examples of our big time players that have gone missing. It is unacceptable that our top players have almost been non-existent during this funk, but it's not just them its the whole team that has been inconsistent, timid, lacking any confidence. This is evidenced in the numerous brain lapses they've had, bad line changes, poor positioning, scrambling, deviating from the system.

The unfortunate part, as it has been for numerous years,; is that when the team is doing lousy, the share of the blame falls on Iginla's shoulders for the entire teams short comings. Lately on the after hours call in shows, and on some blogs, I am hearing things like our problem lies in the fact that Iginla isn't scoring, and that it is time to trade Iginla. Trade him now while he has a lot of value. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Here is why I think that this line of thinking is extremely flawed, short sighted, ridiculous (Sutter like, you'll understand as you read on). First off, Iginla is one of the greatest Flames to take Saddledome ice. He has carried our team on his shoulders night in and night out, year after year, often with little to no support. He has proven his mettle game in and game out. He has been the face of the franchise, and along with Kipper; probably the only reason we've enjoyed the fruitful years of success we have. This alone should grant him some respect.

This teams success largely depends on Iginla's play. If he's scoring, odds are Calgary will have a good chance of winning. While he is struggling now, his game is showing improvement. In a year where the Flames are going to largely live on the playoff bubble, trading him mid-season doesn't make sense, unless you want to start playing for the number one overall draft pick next year.
But here is my biggest reason to not trade him now. It seems that if you are going to trade Iginla, that signal's that you are going to initiate an all out re-build of the team. That to me would logically include your other older and valuable assets (Kipper, Regher). While trading these assets for future young talent to take us back to prominence, do you really want to put your trust in Darryl Sutter? Hasn't he proven, time and time again; that he is not very competent at creating a good team for the new NHL? He struck gold with Kipper, but since then it has been a solid string of mediocre at best acquisitions. (Look no further than the Olli Jokinen trade) Even today, he traded away Ian White, who was a large part of that Dion Phaneuf trade. Yet another piece that we acquired that didn't work out. Additionally, he has had a valuable scoring superstar in Jarome Iginla who has been begging for complimentary players to play with. And year after year he has gotten mediocre players to play with him, producing nothing but a frustrated Iginla and fan base. You can't make water into wine.
Essentially I feel Iginla still has a lot to offer any team. I think he has a couple more solid, productive years left in him. His leadership and skill are an asset to anyone. I really hope he stays, but if not, I hope that a) he goes to a contender, for a shot at a cup, b) that someone other than Sutter handles the deal.
But to all of you fans crying for Iggy, to get traded, give your heads a shake! After all that man has done for this team, and the community, don't you think he's earned the benefit of the doubt?

The Newest Crane

I figured now is as good a time as any to introduce you all to the newest member of our family. It was quite a long journey. Poor Jody thought at one point that he would never come. It didn't help that 2 weeks before her due date the midwives were telling her that the baby was going to come any day.

So needless to say poor Jody was trying every trick in the book to try and speed up labor. We were taking long family walks, she was drinking lots of raspberry tea, taking herbal supplements, hot baths, numerous stretch and sweeps from the midwives. At one point she was even doing jumping jacks in the living room. Nothing seemed to work. Once her due date rolled around, she was resigned to the fact that she was never going to have the baby. On a side note, it worked out perfectly for me as I had a fantasy hockey draft to attend on the due date, so already I can tell my new boy was going to be another hockey fan...

Back to the story though. The next day on the 7th, our midwife came to visit Jody after lunch. She visited with Jody, gave her another stretch and sweep, and then after no signs of labor she left. Jody then decided to go to the grand opening of the new Shoppers Drugmart, while I stayed home with Colton and we napped. Jody came home around 4:00 and told me she was feeling some cramps, which didn't get me excited. She'd been having those for weeks. Later Colton woke up and I grabbed him and we went downstairs to begin watching the opening game of the NHL season. Jody came back around 5:20 and said the cramps were getting stronger, and to start timing them. They were about 5-6 minutes apart and 30 seconds long, but they were somewhat erratic. We called the midwife and she said to time them for another half hour and call her back. We called her back with the contractions staying a bit more constant, and now 4-5 minutes apart. She told us to get ready to go to the hospital, and that she was on her way to check Jody out and confirm labour. After we hung up the phone the contractions went down again to 6-7 minutes, so I thought "false labor again". Our midwife arrived at about 6:15 and took a quick look at Jody and told us that she was in labor and going very fast. She told us in her opinion if we were going to make it to the hospital, we needed to get an ambulance, or do the birth at home. None of us, including the midwife; ideally wanted to do the birth at home, but Jody felt the pain was so bad that she couldn't even move and opted to stay home.

With that choice out of the way the midwife put me to work immediately finding supplies as she ran out to her car to grab her materials. At this point it's 6:45. At about 6:50 Jody's contractions got worse and the midwife put her in a warm bath to try and take off some of the edge. She then asked me to go get a towel to put behind Jody's head. I wasn't even down the hall way when she told me to get back asap. I grabbed the towel and ran back to find the baby's head already out! We had planned to move Jody back to the bed for the delivery, but apparently he had other plans. With no turning back, Jody began to push at 6:58 and by 7:05 Hayden Denver Crane was born.

It was insane how quickly it went, and how healthy both he and mom were after it all. Never in a million years, did I think we'd have a baby at home, or that quickly! On top of it all, he made it just in time for the Calgary Flames home opener!, once all the dust settled and Jody was resting, I took Hayden down to watch the game with me. The midwives were fantastic by the way. I was amazed at their preparedness. I wish I had taken a picture of our bedroom, it literally looked like a hospital room. They were very good with Jody, cleaned up everything for us, and when they left, you wouldn't have known we had just had a baby. By the way, anyone wondering, we had some friends take Colton for the night when we called the midwives, just to be safe. He was not present for the labor.

Anyhow, enough from me, here are some photo's for your viewing pleasure.................................

Hayden Denver Crane born October 7, 2010 @ 7:05 pm. (Minutes after his birth) Notice all the brown straight hair! totally opposite of his big brothers blond curly hair.

Hayden one hour after his birth, Hayden takes 5. He was born at 9 lbs 3 ounces, 21.25" long.

Here is Hayden after his very first bath. He looks a lot like his big brother in this shot. Colton has been very nice to his brother so far. I'll post some video of when he meets him for the first time.

Let the Games Begin

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I never post anymore. I'm very sorry people. It wasn't intentional. I don't even know where to start really. This summer was the summer of endless travel. I went to Montreal twice, Chicago twice, Dallas twice, Houston once, L.A. once. All in all including the driving to other towns outside of these major centres, I think I've covered over 10,000 miles this summer in travel. If you are wondering why all the travel, it was for work. I had to go and supervise a bunch of loading, unloading, and demonstrations of my company's equipment. It has been exhaustive, thankless, and stressful, but there were also a lot of good moments too. I got to see some really neat places I may never have seen had I not done this traveling. I also met a lot of really great people, and perhaps made some network contacts for the future. (For anybody wanting to know what I do, go to www.raildecks.com. It's the company my dad and I started a few years back.) All in all, while there were tough parts of it, it was a good summer.
In other news Jody, Colton and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newest addition to our little family. We've decided on a name of Hayden Denver Crane. He's due October 5th, although I'm sure mommy won't mind if he comes a little earlier. he's quite an active little guy, as it seems Jody's tummy never stops moving. We've almost got his nursery set up, and Colton is trying to potty-train so that the baby can have the diapers... ha, ha, ha. It should be interesting, although I can't believe I will be a father again! Two boys, does it get any better? Hockey season is going to be so much fun around our house.
Moving on... life has been going steady and fast for our family, with no shortage of surprises. Our next biggest adventure starts this Friday, I will be leaving my job in pursuit of my education. That's right, I'm stepping away from my company to go back to school full time and complete my education. I have decided I would like to attend Mount Royal University here in Calgary in their Communications Program. I'll be pursuing a degree that should land my in the Broadcasting/Journalism field. Watch out people, you're looking at the future face of TSN's SportCenter... hopefully, one day. It's kind of crazy to think about, and I can't believe I'm doing it this late in life. My poor family, they'll be seeing a lot more of daddy around the house from now on. Perhaps, I'm crazy. Maybe I've lost my mind. We shall see. I'll begin in general studies in January, then transfer into the Communications program when it open up again next fall. Wish me luck.
Other than that, the excitement never stops for us. Colton and I are looking forward to the start of another Flames regular season. Hopefully the boys can pull their boots up for a full 82 games this year and actually make some noise in the playoffs. Here's hopin'. Jody continues her wonderful photography business in Calgary. She's had quite a bit of success lately with some great newborn shoots and family portraits. Obviously her availability will drop for the next little bit when the baby comes along, but still, there's no better time to book her for shoots in the new year! Check her out at www.jacphotography.ca to book her, and see some of her latest work on her blog at www.jacphotography.blogspot.com. You can also follow her on Facebook J.A.C. Photography. Ok, I think that covers all the plugs I can do for her.
Alright people, until my next post, you all take care. Wanna know when my next post will be? Well, you'll just have to keep coming back and checking.....