Son of Krypton

For sometime I’ve been semi following along local artist James White. If you’re not familiar with him you should be. He was recently featured with Lynda.com celebrating 25 years of Photoshop. Seeing his incredible talent I knew from early on that I wanted to have at least one piece of his work eventually. I’ve tried to catch a few different items over the years but always ended up late when they were all sold out.

Back in the summer of 2013 he wrote a post about a poster he had done for an upcoming show he had been invited to. Shortly after reading I was in contact with him to see if he would be releasing prints of this. At the time he wasn’t sure so I kind of forgot about it.

Luckily about a month ago I was checking out his site again and happened to see prints being offered and was lucky enough to snap one up. While I was working today it arrived in the mail which absolutely made my day. It’s now hanging in my office beside my desk so I can admire his version of Superman all the time.

Thanks James for creating this and allowing me to get print for myself.

Here it is hanging on my wall. My picture doesn’t do it justice so I’ve included the picture from his site as well.

Son of KryptonSuperman

Dance – Now and Then

My girls have been dancing for a while. This week is picture week so they were all dressed up in their costume for recital and luckily Jen grabbed a picture of them. She also dug out a picture from about five years ago I think. Anyway they are super cute now and then.

Caile and Ella Caile and Ella

I’m Home!

As great as the staff at the hospital all were I’m very happy to be back home! As it turns out it wasn’t an abscess in my throat as was the original thought. It turns out that it was cellulitis. It got below the skin and was affecting the tissue and spreading that way.

Not quite completely done yet, I have more antibiotics that I need to keep taking and I need to follow up with my family doctor early in the week just to make sure things are still progressing properly. But the fact that I’m home, showered and cleaned up, I’m a happy guy right now. The doctor says I need to take it easy for the next 7 to 10 days which won’t be ideal when it comes to my exercise routine I was getting myself back into before this happened.

Oh well tonight I’ll concentrate on getting caught up on the things I need to around here and then get back to work tomorrow. The week or so will go by quickly and then I’ll be back on track again!

Thanks everyone for the messages and well wishes!

Hospital stay

I’m just getting settled in for what is my only night stay in the hospital. For getting close to two weeks now I’ve had a very sore throat making it very hard to swallow and sleep. Lack of sleep tends to have a way for making everything even worse than it is too. 

During this time I’ve been to the Emergency Room at the hospital twice to see the on call doctor. After testing for mono I was told both times it was a viral infection that should pass. They gave me a prescription for antibiotics but told me I should need to fill it because it was viral and they really wouldn’t do anything to help. The second time the doctor did give me some steroids that helped with the swelling a lot. That made things better for a while and I really did feel things were getting better so never filled the prescriptions. 

Yesterday was a horrible day. I didn’t sleep a bit the night before and now my voice was gone and the pain was making its way into my jaw. I tried to get an emergency visit with my family doctor but there was no way. So I went to a walk in clinic that I had heard good things about and he gave me antibiotics right away and told me to start. 

When I woke up this morning I was feeling a bit better and did sleep a little bit, but still not great. I was able to get into see my family doctor though and she right away called the ENT specialist on call and had me come over to the hospital to see him. This was due to a Peritonsillar abscess. The doctor told me I’d likely be here a few days while they fill me full of IV antibiotics steroids and pain meds. If that doesn’t work then surgery would be needed to fix things. 

I’ve had a couple embarrassing moments since I’ve been here so far. First is when they went to put in my IV. Needles don’t bother me, in fact I had just watched them pull 6 viles of blood out of my arms no problem. So when they asked if I minded in the student did her first IV on me I said sure. She has to learn sometime. She stuck it in my hand but wasn’t having good luck. I remember saying I’m starting to feel faint. Then the next thing I know there are a bunch of doctors around with cold cloths and one saying welcome back with us. Poor girl will never want to give an IV again. 

Next embarrassing thing was when I had to call the nurse to bring me a new Johnny shirt. This isn’t usually bad except that I had managed to let it fall in the toilet when I was changing my pants and getting it all soaked. Luckily everyone here is being very sweet. 

Not just everyone here but everyone. Not long after getting to my room my wonderful team had flowers delivered right to my room. The. They got mad at me when I told them the wifi here was so good I was going to get my laptop and do some work. The cool thing is I totally could have but they are more concerned with me getting rested and feeling better. I really do love my job and my team. Even a Pastor from our church got word I was here and came In and visited with me for a while. 

Tonight my throat was feeling so much better that I felt like I really wanted soil is food. In particular pizza. My mom who was visiting promptly left to go find us pizza. It tasted so good and felt so good in a stomach that was eating mostly liquid for days. 

The hospital chicken noodle soup wasn’t bad at all but the Luke warm dark caffeine water the call coffee left a little to be desired. I will have to find a way to get better coffee tomorrow. 

As I’m laying here getting ready to sleep in the hospital, for the first time in a long time, all I can think of is how blessed I am in my life. Surrounded by great friends and family with an amazing job with which I file my coworkers in the friends category I mentioned first. 

Thanks everyone. 

  
   

Finally feeling like Spring

It finally feels like Spring has arrived. The snow is starting to melt and I’m actually getting to see my front lawn again. Although it has lots of gravel on it, I’d rather that than snow.

I’ve been using the bench in the front yard as a bit of measuring stick judging how much snow was out there. At some point in between Feb. 6th and April it was completely covered for a while so I couldn’t really judge how much was there then.

Now that a lot of the snow is gone it’s a lot easier to get out for walks with the kids. Yesterday we were able to walk along the waterfront in Wolfville for a bit. It was really nice to be able to do this. It hopefully helped counteract the treats we had from Tim Hortons right before this. Alex had a Nutella filled doughnut. Could be the cause of the dance show they put on in the gazebo.

Looking towards Blomidon
Alex on the Wolfville waterfront
Caile on the Wolfville waterfront
Ella on the Wolfville waterfront
Dance show in the gazebo
Noah and I on the Wolfville waterfront

Went way backwards

Thus has been a brutal winter, but it seems like it is finally turning to Spring. We’ve had a lot of snow melt away and I’m finally able to see some grass in some places of my yard. 

Not only was there a lot of snow but I also let this winter be an excuse to fall away from all the good habits I had built for myself. I’ve been scared to get on a scale because I know I’ve gained a bunch of weight back. 

This last Sunday it made things very evident when I put on a shirt I hadn’t worn in a while and it barely fit. I probably shouldn’t have worn it really. That’s when I decided to change and get back into my good habits. 

First thing is I’ve really cleaned my eating back up. I’m eating good food and healthy portions. I’m not constantly snacking on crap food. 

I’ve only gotten a couple workouts in so far though because when I woke up Monday it was like my body was punishing me for not giving it the junk it was craving and making it work so hard during the workouts. 

I’ve had a headache since then and haven’t been sleeping well at nights. It’s taken a toll on my family life isn’t the evenings and I haven’t done enough excersise either. 

Thanks to my awesome job I don’t have to go anywhere to work so I’ve been able to pop some painkillers and work away. I do hope that I sleep tonight though and wake up with no head pain so I can get feel like myself again. 

Time to get up

This morning Alexandria came down stairs and asked if Ella was supposed to stillbe in bed. 

Up the stairs I went to get getup and ready for school. I rubbed her back and said Mom ready woke you up once it’s time to get up. 

She instantly sat up, blinked her eyes trying to get focused and said:

Ah I hate it when that happens, I fell back to sleep. 

Instantly she was out of bed getting ready to go. 

Colouring Contest Winner

Yesterday we received a phone call from the County Fair Mall. As soon as I saw the call display I knew what it was. Caile and Ella had submitted Easter colouring contest entries after seeing the Easter Bunny. 

Turns out Caile won her age group and we went to pick out her new bike today from Canadian Tire!

I’m happy for her because she took a long time and put a lot of effort into it. It paid off! She went the extra mile and added coloured sparkles to things like the Easter eggs. 

Here she is picking it out and then again in the house at home. Still a bit to snowy for it outside. 

   
 

Snowy Easter Walk

Yesterday we went for a beautiful wintery walk at Miners Marsh. The only problem is this was Easter weekend and it is supposed to be Spring time. 

Easter Egg Hunt and Game Day

Yesterday we got together with Friends and Family for what has become an annual Easter Egg hunt. Looking back it seems like we started in 2010. Starting out I was a little disappointed that we were going to have to hold it indoors this year as there is still far to much snow to be hiding eggs outside. The temperature felt like Spring yesterday but it still doesn’t look like it.

There was tonnes of great food and treats that everyone brought. While the kids were playing some of the grown ups were able to play some games. I love Settlers of Catan and was actually able to win the game of that we played. Also played my first game of chess in many years and with some really sloppy mistakes managed to win that game too. Once everything was winding down the Risk board was brought out. It’s been over 15 years since I played Risk but four of us stayed and played. My armies were destroyed quite early on in the game but it was still fun to watch and hopefully I learned some things and will do better next time.

Here are some pictures of the last few years of our Easter get togethers.

Easter 2015
Easter 2014
Easter 2013
Easter 2012
Easter 2011
Easter 2010