September 2009

Thanks for dropping by - I don't update this very often anymore. Ben is almost sitting up now, eating solid food, and fall is coming fast. Carolynn starts work again next week. Time flies on, as they say. Here are some photos from September.

babycondin#2

born in late April. Doing well. Keeping us up. Hope this finds you well.

Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be in Gibsons ...we hope to get to Calgary sometime early in the New Year.
C/C/E

Evan's reaction to the latest economic update.

later he cheered up, and started looking for ways to weather the storm.

when all the news is shit, the best strategy is to paint n()k()d.




it's hard to reconcile economic apocalypse with a 2 year-old's sense of fun.


Seriously though, there's been such an incredible shift in ethos lately - it's a psychological vortex out there. I'm glad we have a 2 year-old's perspective on life to remind us of what's important.

We miss you Marcus.



Nov 15, 2007

It's been a sad week as we say goodbye and "next time" to our good friend Marcus Dressel, who left us on November 7, 2007 following a dignified fight with cancer. Marcus was the kind of guy that didn't just "stop to smell the flowers", as they say; he would pull out his Canon SLR with its paparazzo lens and take a hundred photos of them in macro, photoshop them and put them up online. He had an eye for details that we all pass by, and the calm to stop and enjoy them. He was the kind of person that would call you up just to tell you about something funny he'd seen on TV or in a movie. We'll remember the way that he didn't just tell stories, he narrated them, including the one of his "unique" first experience as a midwife [2008: This video has now been viewed 41,000+ times].

His departure from this world is just such a tremendous loss.

For those of you attending the memorial on Saturday, Carolynn will be collecting cards and photos in a "memory box" to share with his family and daughter Katelyn.

UPDATE: I learned at the service that Marcus had 3 (three!) separate Bachelor's degrees (I thought he had two) - in psychology, geography and education, as well as a diploma in criminology. It has been amazing to see the outpouring of comments about how respected he was as a teacher in New West. We always suspected he was good at his vocation, but the many comments from students about him have given ample support to his sister Barb's point: one of the greatest tragedies of Marcus' passing is the loss of a rare and true mentor to students (here is but one example).

We've had a few inquiries from people who would still like to contribute to the memory box. I'm sure Kristina would still welcome contributions.

It's fitting that Marcus would leave an online presence:

Here is a great slide show of Marcus.
Here are some memories in the guest book on remembering.ca.
Here is the thread about him on Takethepiss.com.
Here is a link to the 1,172 images that Marcus ("keeper") took on the soccer pitch. (He posted 5,532 times on the takethepiss bulletin board, or 2.75 posts a day!, which I guess indicates how passionate he was about soccer and how prominent he was in the local community). Somewhere out there is a BC Lottery scratch n'win with his soccer photo on it (it was a great shot and they called him up and asked to use it), but I can't seem to find it anywhere...
See also the links at right to his blog and Katelyn's web-page.

halloween 2008

was really alot of fun.

pretty amazed making pie with Oma...

soccer in the park

a couple of weeks ago Evan was dancing with his bicycle pump (yes, a bike pump, when he sees it he likes to dance with it)...anyway, he was flying allover the living room and landed forehead-first on this plant pot. He split it in four places--it's cracked all the way down and up the back too, but you can't see it in these shots--with his head. He was okay, but had a nice goose-egg as you can see above. Mom had her concussion diagnosis kit out (she was on google), and I was recalling my concussion skills from babysitting school.

Here are some pics from Evan picking his pumpkin from our garden. In the spring, we planted the seeds, but apparently you have to pollinate them yourself, which we didn't know, so the pumpkin was, well, impotent I guess and didn't grow. We couldn't bring ourselves to see the disappointment on his face, so I bought a pumpkin at the store and snuck it into the garden. He was pretty impressed with himself as you can see...

We're still alive....

If anyone still reads this thing, I finally got around to putting up some more photos. Mostly from the summer, but that's fitting, because I'm still denying that it's October. Evan has outgrown even his big-boy bed (formerly a crib) now, and sleeps in a queen. Today I measured him and he's grown 3/4" in the last month, though admittedly this is in the margin of error of the two-year-old-butter-knife-measurement method--I can't measure him with spoons anymore. Even so, it's a lot. Yesterday we wintered the vegetable garden and Evan's not running around outside naked anymore, so summer must be over.

I hope this finds you well. Thanks for stopping by.

From left: Carolynn's aunt Ingrid, Carolynn's Oma (Evan calls her "Other Oma" or "Great Oma), Carolynn, Evan's Grandpa Dennis, and Oma Margret.

Asleep with Papa.

note to self: someday if I ever get around to it, rustle up the picture of him bathing in the sink when he was a newborn, just to put here.

Evan's vegetable garden that we put in this year. Evan and I dug for about a month. His shovel's in the background; he brought a lot of labour to the project.

At the PNE (my and Evan's first), which was, umm, well, umm, festive, but not Stampede. Evan rode on the carousel but was scared of the horses. He was the only one who wanted just to sit on the chair, so we got to skip the line (we rode it 4+ times).

first time camping (in August near Vernon).

gardening with Oma.

camping near Vernon in August.

ooh that's cold.

reading Green Eggs & Ham with Grandpa.

with nanny and papa.

testing out new pajamas.

At the sand dunes during our trip down the Oregon coast (Evan-free, back in June).

these were from the summer, after Carolynn had taken him to the Chinese salon for kids. "You want boys cut?" Carolynn: "yes, but just a trim". She proceeded to shear him, tufts of hair and all.

Condin jamboree. Andrew's legs make an appearance and his girlfriend Brenna, who Evan likes to serenade.

these are from the summer. our pictures have been a total mess lately, but i've finally started to sort them out and restore backups.

This one's for you Deb.
C.

Happy March, and happy birthday to the 75% of the Canadian population that was born this month. Things have been pretty hectic around here--hence the dark blog--mostly stemming from our recent "move" (in quotes, because moving requires unpacking, and we haven't really done much of that) a couple of weeks ago into our new house. It's exciting to have a yard for Evan and we are starting to feel more settled. Here are a few pics/videos from the last month. I'll try and get some more up soon.

Cute

We bought Evan a microphone on the weekend (we've been watching Bobby McFerrin videos and he's always asking what the mic is).

We finally have a choreboy

When she was trying to convince me to have a wee-baby, Carolynn promised me that one day this would come to pass. And now, here we are, and well, [sniff] it feels just as emotional as that first moment that Evan entered this world and opened his eyes. Like suddenly, everything becomes clear, you know?, and you have this sense that, whatever happens, we're going to be alright.

Out for a walk with mom and nanny

What happened to February? These are from the start of the month.

Budding Photographer

Evan loves taking pictures now that he's learned to work the camera. Here he is in Vernon with Brenna, his favourite subject.

In Vernon without Mom

Evan didn't ride on Uncle Andrew's sleds, but he did wear his hat.

In Vernon with Nanny Papa

Christmas 2007

Looks like your typical sweet and innocent gingerbread house....Jen, Chris, and Sig hard at work.....almost had to call in Steve to make the roof stay up.
Sig - up to no good...

Gingerbread men? women?

Christmas 2007

Secret Santa

Christmas eve at Oma and Grandpa's house. Can you imagine when we used to do this and most of the 22 cousins were less than 10?

Before the 3rd Rum and Coke

More Christmas Eve 2007 at the Stevenson House

Chris and Evan escape outside on Christmas Eve Day while the women are inside getting ready......

What a day!

Today will be great for sure. I just woke up to discover that my dream of having a glow-in-the-dark cat has been realized! Red too. How great is that?

Cloned cats that glow.

Way back in October

I never did get a chance to post pictures of Evan's halloween. He was a kangaroo and it was a lot of fun. He loved the pumpkin lights but showed no interest in the candy.

An attempt at a group photo at the halloween baby party.

Evan getting his "wow that is so amazing" look at the big pumpkin in the picture below.

With best buddy Evan Cropp (a super-cute monkey)

Not to be moralistic,

but this tragedy back home is a useful reminder that we should all slow down this holiday season.

Trucker charged in McLeod Trail Tragedy (Calgary Herald)