Look who's Back!

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Mark Twain

I think that sums up my absence from the blogging world. Hello everyone!

I know it has been a crazy, ridiculously LONG time since my last post and I have lots of good.....well, I have lots of excuses anyway. My last post was in June for gods sake! Before I get down to it, I would like to take a moment to thank the countless individuals who posted, emailed and in one case even called me (....it was a concerned family member, but that still counts right?) to encourage me to return. It was you that brought me back and it means so much that you took the time to see how I was doing. Thank you all!! You ROCK!!!


As for what's been going on the last 4 months....well, suffice to say, a great deal. So much has happened that it will be tough to do it all in one post. So I think this calls for a "Bullet Post" where I will answer some of the most common questions.

Q- Are you coming back?

A- Ta Da!!!!

Q- How did your trip to Rock Lake with your daughter go?

A- It rained the whole time, but it was my best trip to date. Funny story.....we almost made it all the way to our site on Pen Lake without being rained on, but with just 10 minutes left the skies opened up. We arrived at our site, but not before being completely soaked and cold. I wanted to be sure Laruen was taken care of, so I put up the tarp, started a fire and had her in dry clothes reading a book in no time. I then went about setting up camp as the rain continued. After I was done I walked up to Lauren, sitting wrapped in a blanked and seated in her chair before the fire...looking like a queen. She turns to me and says "Dad, why are your lips blue?".

Q- How did your Ironman go?

A- This will take far more time to explain then I have space, but for now I am disappointed to say I did NOT do the Muskoka IronMan this year and this is the main reason I have not posted. I guess I just wasn't ready to admit publicly that I fell short of my goal. It still hurts to admit it. Things happened that I could not do much about ( more on this later) , but I am back on the horse and training hard, but this year I plan to take some time off over the winter. Not doing this was a major factor in what happened this year. Lesson learned the hard way.

Q- What's going on with your family/personal life?

A- Lots of great stuff here. Tanyia and I are going to Cuba in December, but this time without the kids. This will be the first time we have gone on vacation without them since our honeymoon. We are going with another couple and it should be a blast.

Other family related stuff....

-Jacob made the Novice Rep. Hockey team despite being a year younger then the other kids. I am on the coaching staff again this year and it is fun, but takes up so much time. Last weekend we had our first 2 regular season games and Jacob has 3 goals, 3 assists in the first and 2 assists in the second. Nothing like starting the season 2-0!

-Ethan is playing ball hockey this year. He has mixed feelings about it so far, but I think once he makes a few more friends he will be fine.

-My niece Crystal moved in with us this past January after her Mom (Tanyia's sister) passed away suddenly. I wasn't sure how it work out, but I am happy to say I could not have hoped for better! Her boyfriend Bob and I have become friends and it is then that we are going to Cuba with. Although he hasn't said anything specific to me about it, I have a feeling Bob is going to ask her to marry him while we are away. I hope he does. They are both great people and they have a solid relationship.

That's all for now folks, but I PROMISE I will post again on Friday! It's great to be back.....talk to you then. :)