babycondin

September 2009

2009-09-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

halloween 2008

2008-11-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

was really alot of fun.

pretty amazed making pie with Oma...

2008-10-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

soccer in the park

2008-10-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

2008-10-30T17:30:00.001-07:00

2008-10-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-10-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

Asleep with Papa.

2008-10-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

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).

2008-10-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

first time camping (in August near Vernon).

gardening with Oma.

2008-10-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

2008-10-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

2008-10-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

camping near Vernon in August.

ooh that's cold.

2008-10-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

reading Green Eggs & Ham with Grandpa.

2008-10-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

with nanny and papa.

2008-10-10T22:55:00.000-07:00

testing out new pajamas.