Good News vs Bad News

The other day Shiela and I rented Kung Fu Panda. I'm a big Jack Black fan so I was excited to watch it even if it was a cartoon. The opening scene is the funniest I had seen in a while and I was laughing out loud. It was "pure awesomness!" if you know what I mean.

Anyways, in the movie there is this old, wise turtle and he said something I thought was probably very true but very hard to believe and actually live out. He said "There is no such thing as good or bad news. There is only news."

The more I thought about that the more I realized that it was true, but just really hard to accept. When something happens and we have to tell someone else, we almost always phrase it "I've got some good news!" or "I've got some bad news." The truth is that we don't really know what is good news or bad news...it's simply news. We don't know what the future holds and so how can we determine what is good or bad.

For example, if I were to win a trip to Vegas, I would instantly think that was good news. But maybe on that trip my flight ends up crashing and I'm paralyzed for life...I'd view that as bad news which only came about because of the "good" news. But maybe because I am now paralyzed I am able to spend a lot more time getting to know God better and sharing my story with others. Now that "bad" news isn't' so bad if it ended up turning into something that was really good.

I find it hard to look at life that way, although it is very true. We don't know the plans God has for us and sometimes what we view as "good" or "bad" is actually just the opposite in God's overall plan. Makes me sometimes wish I could see the future so I'd know how God will turn "bad" news into good...but then again, we wouldn't really need faith then, would we.

Mom's, Are You Offended By This

So Motrin came out with this new ad that in the end is implying that you should take Motrin when your kids cause you pain. The main focus is on mom's wearing those devices like Snuggli's that if worn for a long time may end up causing you some pain.

For some reason, a bunch of moms out there went into a hissy fit like they'd seen their kids do and made enough noise for Motrin to pull the ad. Apparently they got offended that if you wear a Snuggli you look like an official mom, blah, blah, blah.

I have no idea where the offense is in this ad. Seriously people, can you not laugh at yourself for once. You're probably so wound up you're forgetting what advertising is all about...to make you not forget the ad. If you really didn't like it, don't mention it and it will be gone forever. Now all you've done is made people like me find it on You Tube and make comments about how crazy you are...which makes everyone talk even more about Motrin which will definately boost their sales. I think it's time for you to get out to a Mom's Group and start talking to adults again...or at least get out more and laugh again.

Don't agree with me...I dare you to let me know in the comments.

Kudos of the Week

I figured it's time to start a new feature on this blog...ok, it's actually the first feature I've ever had but you got to start somewhere! Kudos of the Week is going to be a weekly feature where I give "Kudos" (not cooties) to a person/business/service that I feel did a great thing this week. I'm leaving the guidelines fairly loose to start with.

The first Kudos of the Week is going to Jordan at Prairie Mobile Communications on 8th street. I needed to get a cell phone due to my new job. I wanted to go to Prairie Mobile because they do a lot of business with our company and I like to shop at those types of places. My work was going to cover my cell phone contract so I had to put it under their account. The first time I walked into the store I waited in line about 10 minutes and then as the sales girl helped me she eventually realized that she couldn't set up my account because it was a Saturday. Understandable, so I left to come back on Monday.

Monday I came back right after work and after standing around in line (or at least I thought it was the line) for about 5 minutes, someone walked in, went to the receptionist who then told the customer it would be about a 30 minute wait to talk to a salesperson. She then looked at me and told me it would be 30-45 minute wait. I had to be somewhere rather quickly so I once again had to walk out...this time a little perterbed.

I went back on Wednesday, again right after work, and waited around again for a little bit as the receptionist again told me it would be about a 30 minute wait (on a side note, I found out that all these Sasktel Mobility stores have long waiting times and are always busy because it takes so long to set up each customer). Luckily, within 5 minutes I was able to talk to Jordan. I told him which phone I wanted and how I needed it to be set up under my company's account. He then informed me that since it was past 4:30pm he was not able to set up the phone because the main office closes at 4:30pm each day (no one had ever mentioned this to me before).

It was here where the pivotal turning point happened. I was once again going to leave, possibly for good this time as I was getting quite frustrated and was going to try out a different store, when Jordan did the best thing a salesperson could ever do...he went above and beyond to help me. He told me that what he could was take down my work information, and then the next day when the office opened up he would set up my phone, give me a call at work to tell me it was ready, and then courier my phone to my workplace so I would have it by around 10:00am the next day. Not only that, he assured me I would like the phone I was choosing which also put me at ease. Within 2 minutes of that I was walking out the door and the next day at work my phone showed up via courier just like he said it would. I was extremely impressed with that service and will always go back there from now on!

So to Jordan at Prairie Mobile Communications, Kudos to you! The service you offered to me that day was amazing and I will be telling everyone I know to go to Prairie Mobile Communications on 8th street and talk to Jordan if they need a phone. Thanks for the great service and for WOWing your customers.

Inspired by Life

Do you ever feel that you are stuck in a rut? Doing the same old things...eating at the same old restaurants...talking about the same old things? Do you ever wonder where the excitement of life went? Do you ever look at that friend of yours on Facebook that seems to be travelling the world, going to all the great concerts, doing such amazing things and living life to the fullest while you are updating your status with how you are washing the marker off the wall that your child put on there?

I admit that I sometimes feel that way. Same old, same old. I sometimes just want some adventure...something different.

All of that to say that the new Sirius ad that came out is probably one of the best TV commercials I have ever seen. It's not funny...it has no spoken words at all...but it is probably one of the most inspiring commercials I have ever seen. Have you seen it yet? If not, you need to go watch it right now before you continue reading the post. You can view it here (it's better to see it on TV, but this is the best link I could find for the video right) or click the picture above. http://www.austinmacdonald.com/commercials/Austin%20Sirius%20Radio/Untitled-1.html

Now I'm not promoting Sirius satellite radio at all...I work for a local radio station and Sirius is sort of a competitor. But the point I'm making isn't about satellite radio...it's about experiencing something new. Over the last few weeks in radio I've been learning a lot about ads and what makes a good ad. This ad is so amazing because it doesn't try to explain to you why Sirius radio is so great. It doesn't shoot down local radio or explain to you why having hundreds of radio channels to choose from is so great. Instead, it focuses in on that desire that most of us have to get out of the rut and experience something new. It reminds us of all the great things we've experienced in our lives and how doing something new is so exciting. I'm a very musical person (not playing it, but music really gets to me) and the music in this ad inspires me to get out of the rut and do something new.

So what are you going to do? Stay in your safe zone where everything is normal and expected...or take a chance on experiencing something new that could make your life so much better...scary at first but so rewarding in the end. Tell me what you are going to do in the comments!

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day was this past week. As is typical for me, I phoned up a friend of mine, wished him a "Happy Remembrance Day" and asked if he was going to watch Flags of our Fathers once again. He came back with the quick reply of "you ungrateful bastard". I'm guessing he must have picked up the sarcasm in my voice again!

It's true, I can't say I'm a big Remembrance Day fan. It's interesting because every year Remembrance Day comes around and every year I treat it as the same as any other day. Then after it's over I think that maybe I should have gone to the service at Credit Union Centre, sit in a hot building with 5,000 other people and place bets on which kid standing in the line of cadets will be the first one to faint and fall over. But by the time the day rolls around again the next year I forget about those thoughts and once again do nothing.

The friend who called me the bad name previously is just the opposite. He always goes to the services, he wears his poppy with pride and he probably even does 2 minutes of silence instead of just the one, to show how thankful he is.

This year I think I figured out why Remembrance Day is not a big deal to me. The truth is I'm thankful for the Canadian soldiers that fought for us in the World Wars, I really am. If it weren't for them we'd have to drive down to the USA every Veterans Day to say thanks to them for saving us from those nasty Germans (ok, that was not nice.) But seriously, the reason it's not a big deal to me is that I don't know anyone that was personally in the war or fought in the war. I can't phone up my Grandpa and say "Thanks" every Nov 11 for what he did for our country. We all get together to say thanks, but I really don't have that connection that makes it personal...therefore it is not a big deal to me.

I think it is the same for anything else out there...like diseases. How many people really give two hoots about the Crohns and Colitus Foundation? Probably very few of you...except for those who know someone who suffers from it. When you have that personal connection it suddenly means a lot to you. I believe the CIBC Run for the Cure used the slogan "Who are you running for?" to get people out to their event. Almost everyone that runs in that event knows someone personally who has suffered from cancer, so the run is something special. I just don't have that with Remembrance Day.

So, to all the veterans out there that fought in the wars, thank you for what you did even though I don't know you...I still get to benefit from what you did. This poppy's for you!

Life Changes

It eventually had to happen. Things just can't go on forever. Change is inevitable. The good part is that change is not bad and in my case it was great!

Yes, I finally have left TrojanOne and moved on to a new job. I knew it was time to move on, but I still had an extremely hard time making that decision. TrojanOne has been a good company to work for the past 3 years. I enjoyed many aspects of it, but in the end there were some things TrojanOne couldn't provide for me....mainly an office and interaction with people.

And so I've moved on...to Rawlco Radio. I'll be working in their Co-op Advertising department and helping the sales people enhance their clients campaigns by adding co-op (or cost share advertising) to their plan and eventually doing my own sales too. I've only been there 1.5 weeks but I already LOVE it. I didn't realize how much I needed to work in an office, but now that I'm there I am so glad I made the decision to leave. Thanks to Rawlco for helping me see the light.

So yes, I'm still alive. Yes, I will be updating this blog more frequently. Yes, I could very well be lying because I always say I'll update more and then things happen...but I'll do my best so keep coming back to check it out.

A One Trick Pony

As many know I am currently taking some time off from coaching soccer. I felt like I needed a bit of a break and when the team I was coaching all moved up an age group I decided it was a good time to step back for a while. I didn't completely leave soccer. I still play on our Men's and Co-ed Tauro team and I am also on the Technical Committee for Eastside Youth Soccer Association. However, I was asked to coach the U12 boys premier team again this winter but turned it down so I wouldn't be so busy that I couldn't spend time with my new daughter. I also gave up running our Men's Tauro team a few seasons ago and now just play on it.

The reason I mention that is that in my past I have often been known as "the soccer guy" to many people...that's soccer guy, not god. I'm not the best soccer player in the world by any stretch of the imagination and truthfully I don't even follow international soccer or the European soccer all that much (though I don't mind watching a game or the highlights). But I have always been passionate about soccer. When I came back from Africa in grade 8 I wanted to play soccer in gym. In high school I was on the soccer team from grade 9-12 and was a captain in my final year. I played soccer at Bethany Bible College and really pushed to get the soccer program going convincing the school to let us go to tournaments in Abbottsford though it was a 16-18 hour trip one way. I pushed to get the coaching job at Bethany College to coach the men's and women's teams and then coached the men's team for many years. I started up the Alumni Soccer Tournament at the school to get players to come back and play. I took my soccer coaching courses and obtained my full Community Coach certification to get better and got involved in youth soccer in the city to become a better coach. I was an instructor in a soccer program to teach players that wanted to get better in certain skill areas. I have coached everything from college kids to kids 10-12 years old in a variety of skill levels (although mostly premier) and was even an assistant coach on the Saskatchewan Under 13 boys Provincial team.

That entire last paragraph sounds like bragging, but that's not how I mean it. The point is, I felt that my passion for soccer people saw gave me the stigma of being "the soccer guy". I felt that people thought all I cared about was soccer. When people I only knew casually would talk to me, they would start to talk soccer. After a while it seemed to get to me because I wasn't sure if I wanted to be only known for one thing. I was feeling like all people thought I was was a soccer guy.

Over the last couple years I've been trying to decide if that is what I want to be. Is it ok to be known as a one trick pony? I think these thoughts have stopped me from going further with my soccer coaching skills. For the last number of years I've been wanting to obtain my B-License in coaching which would be great to have, but I think part of me hesitates doing that because that will pigeon hole me even more into being labelled as "a soccer guy". I'm not sure why I don't want that.

What do you think? Is it better to be well rounded and mediocre at a lot of things, or is it ok to be labelled and always known as "the soccer guy", or "the ribbon dancing girl" or "the audio sound guy". Any thoughts?

Planniing for the Fall

You know it is time to get back into a routine when a week like this next one is about to hit you. No, not work. No, not sports. It's time to decide which TV shows am I going to follow this season.


I'm trying to keep it to a minimum as I really don't have a lot of time to be watching TV...or at least I should be doing other things rather than watching TV is more like it. But there are definately a few shows that I will be watching regularly this season:


The Office - if you are one of the 4 people who haven't started to watch this, go out, rent the first 3 seasons and then start watching Season 4 this week. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.


Criminal Minds - the last season ended with a bang and I want to know what is going to happen with those supposedly random killings in New York. This is a show I won't be missing.


CSI Las Vegas - This is the only CSI show I watch consistently. I can't stand Horatio in Miami. The New York one is ok but you can't watch them all. I love this original version and even though Grisam is going to be gone this season, hopefully Laurence Fishburne will be a good replacement.



Then there are a few shows that I like, but if I miss them it would be ok:


Prison Break - After breaking out of prison, then finding money, then going back to prison, then breaking out again, I'm starting to get bored with this whole thing. I thought they were going to end it after last season, but obviously someone threw a bunch of money at the right people because he's back again. Not sure if he's breaking in or out of prison yet...I'll watch some episodes but not sure if I'll follow it consistently. Which means I probably won't watch it much as you can't hit and miss episodes in a show like this.


Law and Order SVU - I like this show, but again it is not one I have to watch each week. Although there is some carry over from episode to episode, it is not huge and you can enjoy an episode even if you missed some others.




So You Think You Can Dance Canada - I really enjoyed this last season of the US version so I'll probably watch this a fair bit...especially since Shiela likes it a lot too. As long as the choreography is good I'll keep watching.


The big decision:


Survivor Gabon - Survivor has been around a long time. I remember the first season being on before I was even married. This is a show where I'll either get into it huge or never watch it. I haven't decided yet and will probably make a last minute decision on Thursday when it premieres.


So those are the shows I'll be watching. What do you think...am I missing a good one that I should have on my radar? Let me know!

Our Beautiful Girl

I stared to write a long post about the whole birth story, but then figured I'd just give you the main details and show some pictures.

The entire labour went fast. Shiela's water broke at home around midnight and off we went to the hospital. She was fine until she got to registration in the Emergency Room which is where she had her first major contraction...so much pain she couldn't talk. We went up to antepartum but they quickly realized she was 7-8cm dilated and off we went to the Labour and Delivery section.

Shiela was in a lot of pain and the contractions were probably 60 sec apart...so basically she was in pain the entire time. She asked for an epidural, but they said they also had to get an IV in her first. She was on all fours on the bed because that was the only position she could handle. Finally, they got in the IV and she managed to sit up long enough for them to put in the epidural (she was extremely strong there!). The epidural was in, but then they checked her again and she was fully dilated and they said she could start to push.

So she got into the pushing position and the pushing began. The epidural doesn't work during the pushing phase and so the epidural didn't have time to take effect at all because everything happened so quickly. The entire pushing part took only about 20 minutes and I then had a baby girl in my arms. The entire process took less than 3 hours!!

Shiela was phenomenal during the whole process. She was totally composed the entire time. She was saying "Thank You" when someone helped her. There was no yelling or threatening to remove body parts, etc. She was absolutely amazing...I was extremely proud to be married to such an amazing woman.

And then our daughter was in our arms. Shiela had no tearing at all and so she is recovering very well. For our last night in the hospital we also got the Victorian Room which is very nice room and I would suggest everyone try to get that one.

The Stats:

Kira Lynn Mathies (pronounced KEER-ah)

Sept 6, 2008 2:49am

7lbs 1oz

19.75 inches long

Blue eyes and blonde peach fuzzy hair

Extremely cute!!

Here are some photos of my precious daughter!

I celebrated my daughter's birth by giving everyone who came to visit her in the hospital a mini Coke to drink and then we toasted Kira Lynn. It was a lot of Coke to drink, but I managed as I of course drank a can everytime someone else did!

Two shots of the Victorian Room...we watched the Rider game on the great TV! You can also see the Queen size bed that massaged and vibrated!

It's a Girl

We had a baby girl on Sept 6 at 2:49am

Kira Lynn Mathies
7lbs 1 oz
19.75 inches long

More to come later (including photo)!

Do Businesses Want Our Help?

I have honestly started to wonder lately if businesses really care about what their customers say. Customer Service is all the rage right now. All the businesses are talking about how important customer service is and how they want to improve customer service. But I don't think they really do and I'll tell you why.

Story #1
I got rear ended a while ago and had to get some body work done on my car. I brought it to a popular location (Sherwood at the Auto Mall) and asked them to fix it. They took the paper work and I made an appointment for 3 weeks later. 3 weeks later we bring the car in, we get a rental car and they say it will be ready Wed. Wed afternoon rolls by and Shiela goes by there on her way home for work to get the car. "Oh, it's not ready yet," they say. "We just found out that we had to fix the frame and not just the bumper so we had to order more parts and get SGI to approve it so it will take longer. It will be done Thursday or Friday." Friday afternoon rolls around and about 4:30pm Shiela phones down to see if the car is ready. They say it is done but not detailed yet, so we can either keep it there for the weekend or else pick it up dirty and get it cleaned another day. She reminds them that we have a rental car and they then say that we should probably pick the car up then as SGI won't cover the rental car for the weekend since the car is technically done.

Shiela tells me this and so we decide to pick up the car. But I also decided to phone down there to talk about their customer service. The part that made me upset was that they never, ever phone us to tell us what was going on. When our car wasn't ready on Wed, they never phoned to let us know it would be a few more days. They weren't even going to phone on Friday to tell us our car was ready and then we would have been charged for the rental fee because of that. I told the manager that they were showing extremely poor customer service by not informing us of what was happening and that we always had to be after them to find out what was going on. The best part is that when we phoned Friday at around 4:30pm he said we needed to come by 5:00pm to pick up the car because they close at 5:00pm for the weekend. I asked why he didn't phone to let us know and he said he had a list of 7-8 other people yet that he hadn't phoned to tell them their cars were ready. So now it was past 4:35pm on Friday and he still was going to phone 7-8 other people to tell them that they needed to get down to the shop in the next 25 minutes or else they couldn't get their car. I told him that was poor customer service. What did he do...nothing...and he really didn't seem to care.

Story #2
The other day at Extra Foods in the Lakewood Suburban Centre I went to buy some toilet paper. After analyzing it all I chose the PC brand that said it was very soft. The price was around $7.30 for 24 rolls. I went and paid for it and it came to $8.29 (before tax if there was any). I decided to go back and look at the shelf to see if I had been mistaken on the price. Nope, I was right. I looked a bit to my left and saw some toilet paper there for $8.50 or so. I then looked at the tags even closer and saw that one of them was for 140 sheets per roll and the other was fofr 170 sheets per roll. Same brand and everything, but ironically the 140 sheets was more expensive. I then looked even closer and noticed that they had piled up all the 170 sheet packages in line with the price for the 140 sheets and vice versa. So not only was the price they were charging wrong, they even had them all stacked wrong so unless you paid extremely close attention you were bound to grab the wrong item.

I decided to go tell the store manager that both their price was wrong and more importantly, the items were all stocked on the shelf wrong. After waiting around 10 minutes for the store manager to arrive, I finally managed to explain to her the situation and that she may want to look at the way the items are stacked as it is deceiving and in the wrong places. She looked at me and then asked if I wanted to exchange what I had bought. I looked at her dumbfounded before just saying yes and I went and got a different roll that was cheaper. However, ironically, I ended up getting the Purex brand that had more rolls in it with the same # of sheets per roll for even cheaper. The problem was that on the shelf there was no price tag at all. So I came back and asked for a price check on the Purex rolls and told her that this brand didn't have any price on it. She just scanned it and asked if I wanted that one. And yes, I did.

Now after typing these stories I feel like maybe I'm being too picky. However, I was not mad in either situation. I only was talking to them to let them know there was an issue and that they may need to improve their customer service. I was only trying to help, but neither business really seemed to care.

I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish, but I now feel that it is not worth it to try to help a business. As consumers, I guess we should just suffer in silence, take our business elsewhere and leave these businesses always wondering why they are losing customers...because they just dont' listen.

Changing of the Guard

We all remember the big controversy back in 1999. Oh, you don't? Well, then let me remind you. It was the Women's World Cup final and it had come down to penalty shots. Brandi scored the winning shot for the USA and immediately stripped off her shirt to reveal the infamous Nike sports bra. Apparently that was the first time a women had ever gone in public with a sports bra because that event was talked about forever and is still remembered today.

Fast forward now to 2008 Beijing Olympics. The women's USA team was playing Brazil in the final for the gold medal. After a gruelling match the USA win it 1-0 and in the midst of the celebration it happens again. Natasha Kai rips off her shirt to once again reveal her sports bra. Only this time it is not a classy, black, poster worthy sports bra that the marketing companies love with the easy-to-see Nike logo. Rather, it is a pink one with white swirls on it...and to make things even worse, there is no brand logo to be seen! How can a marketer ever use that for any type of advertising!!

Take a look at the two photos...the first one being Brandi and the second one being Natasha.















I write this post not to show you pictures of girls in sports bras (just go outside on a hot day to see that) but rather how the image seems to have changed over the years. The first photo is a white girl, well built, classy sports bra with obvious branding, long hair. Basically your poster child for the all around athletic girl (which she basically became with that shot!). The second picture is of a girl (not sure if Caucasian or not...she is from Hawaii so maybe just really tanned), tattoos everywhere (there are even more tattoos of writing on the other side of her torso that you can't see in this photo), with a pink and white swirly bra with no branding.

I'm just speculating here, but I don't think if that second shot would have happened back in 1999 it would have even been popular. Back then tattoos really weren't that popular and I think people would have looked at her as a little weird. Does wearing a non-branded sports bra show how disassociated the younger generation is with brands? I'm sure she would have worn that bra on purpose knowing that she would most likely take off her shirt if they win. I just find it interesting how times have changed and the images and acceptance of certain things have changed over the last 10 years.

What do you think? Am I reading too much into this? Do you think our accepted image of people has changed in the last 10 years?

(Oh, and if you want to know what happened to Brandi's Nike sports bra...it's in her drawer with all the other sports bras she wears)

Breastfeeding Does What?!?!

As mentioned in the previous post, I attended a breastfeeding class. I thought this class was going to be about training Shiela on how to breastfeed and what to do. Apparently they do that in the 2nd class, but this first class felt similar to what I imagine the Communist do to brainwash people and teach them their propaganda. This entire class was basically about why breastfeeding is so awesome and why formula is so bad and wrong. And just like on Corner Gas when the townspeople spit every time they say the name of the nearby town they hate, the teacher got everyone to spit when someone said the word 'formula'. Sure am glad I'm not the janitor in that place!

Now I'm all for breastfeeding, but I think they were pushing it a little too far. They handed out their list of 101 Reasons to Breastfeed. I started to glance through it and suddenly burst out laughing when reading some of them. I think they were stretching it pretty thin to come up with a top 101. Here are some of the sketchy ones:

1) Breastfeeding means fewer cow-induced global greenhouse gasses
2) Cow's milk is designed for baby cows (although we all drink it!)
3) Breastfeeding helps reduce cruelty to farm animals (no Mr. Farmer, please don't massage my breasts any more...please!!!)
4) Suckling optimizes hand-to-eye coordination (last time I looked the baby used their mouth to get the milk, not their hand)
5) Breastfed babies have sweeter smelling diapers (that's good because I'm sure I'll be smelling each diaper to take in the wonderful sweet aroma of crap caused by the breastmilk)
6) Breastfeeding is what breasts were designed for (hmm..let's poll 100 men and see what they think!)

So as you can see, the list maybe should have been shortened to like 50 or so,as in my eyes going to 101 made it lose a lot of credibility. The 2nd class is this week where they actually teach us how to breastfeed. I wonder if there's a class on how to mix baby formula? (spit)

The Things I Do For Love

When it comes to sports there is very little that will make me miss a game. I am very dedicated and always want to be there. I look forward to the games in great anticipation and missing one is very hard on me.

So when Shiela told me that the breast feeding class was during a soccer game, I quickly grabbed the pamphlet and analyzed it trying to make the dates on there change so there would be no conflict with soccer. I gave it the best evil eye I could but to no avail.

Therefore, tonight I will miss my soccer game so I can go learn how to breast feed. In all honesty, I'm fine with it and want to support Shiela, so attending this is not really a big deal. Besides, I should probably learn a few things to so that when I use my man boob (just like in Meet the Fockers) to feed the baby when Shiela is not around, I know what to do!

Knock Knock Ginger

Ever played that game when you were a kid where you ran up to someone's house (usually late at night), rang their doorbell and then ran like the wind to go hide and watch some sleepy eyed guy answer his door in his boxers (hopefully he was wearing at least that!) wondering who is there at 2:00am? Of course I would never do this to anyone (stop laughing), but the other night someone played a similar game like that on us.

It was 1:00am in the morning and I am soundly sleeping, dreaming of dribbling past the defense in soccer and scoring yet another awesome goal (just like reality of course!) when I suddenly get woken up with an elbow. "Are you awake?" Shiela asks. I quickly think what an odd question because obviously I am now, but I politely reply "Yes". "I think I am having contractions," she tells me. Being the easy going person I am, I glance at the clock and decide that whatever it is it can wait until morning. And back to sleep I go.

A few minutes later I am woken up again with the same question. "Ok, let's time the contractions I say." I start my watch and realize that the contractions are 2 minutes apart. Now in the pre-natal classes we took they told us that when the contractions get to 5 minutes or less we should go to the hospital. However, it is 1:00am, I'm half asleep and I see that the contractions are 2 minutes apart. The problem is that the pre-natal classes made it sound like it would take a while...you know, start at 10 min apart and then slowly work it's way down to 5 minutes. They don't mention that they might just start at 2 minutes! After trying to think about this through all the fog still lingering in my brain, we decide to go to the hospital.

I grab the keys, open the door and start to walk to the car. "You might want more than just underwear on," Shiela calls after me. I glance down and quickly sprint back inside throwing a glance at all the windows in the houses around ours wondering who was all looking. Finally, we were in the car and at the hospital. We were put right through to Antepartum. After a few questions and looks it sounds like they are going to send us home and we just need one more person to check. The doctor comes in, checks the cervix and says Shiela is 3cm dilated already. I'm drifting off to sleep in the chair beside the bed during all this, but when I hear the words "You're going to have this baby now" I quickly perked right up. Did I fail to mention that this baby was currently six weeks pre-mature.

Fully awake now I carry all our stuff to the Labour and Delivery section of the hospital. I walk into the room and tell the nurse there must be a mistake. This room we are in wasn't a hospital room, it was a mini nursey! The best part was the extremely comfortable LAZY-BOY chair that fully reclined into an almost bed position. I quickly sit down, kick back the recliner right to the bed position and start to relax. Shiela lay down in the bed, they strapped her full of wires and then continued to check on her throughout the night.

At 6:30am I wake up to a slight beeping. Nothing big, just the monitor wasn't reading properly. I tell Shiela to press the call button and a nurse comes in to fix things while I drift back to sleep. The next thing I know there is a loud alarm going off in the room, I bolt awake and watch as 6 nurses come crashing through the door of our room all yelling things and moving quickly. I did what I could to help...got out of the way! I watched as they flipped Shiela over, strapped on the oxygen mask, and played with all the monitors. I felt a little left out so I just decided to randomly yell things out like "What's just fell out" and "Is that suppose to look like that?" Finally things calmed down and everyone was just talking at a dull roar. Apparently the monitor was not getting the babies heartbeat and so the nurse hit the panic button and all hell broke loose. Better that than not doing anything so I was fine with it. After that ordeal Shiela was totally fine (she was fine and calm the entire time) and so I went back to sleep.

The next 30 hours or more were a blurr. Shiela wasn't really progressing so we just kicked around the room, played some crib and I would occasionally yell close to the monitor on her belly once in a while to make the needle on the computer jump really high and confuse the nurses when they came in to check on her status. Finally, after around 40 hours in the hospital we went home as Shiela had stopped having contractions and everything was back to normal.

And so the saga continues and we continue to wait. Probably a good thing...we didn't have the baby room ready yet anyway!

You Want a What?

Although we may be few and far between, there is a group of us that do exist. We don't have an official group. We don't get money from the government to operate. What we do get are weird looks from people and an attitude of apparent shock when they find out we are part of the group. Yes, I'm talking about us non-coffee drinkers.

I've never liked coffee. Yes, I've tried the flavoured kinds. Yes, I've tried your Cappuccinno. Yes, I've tasted a Moccachino. I dislike them all. Any hint of coffee taste at all and my tastebuds cry foul. And please don't tell me that "You can barely taste the coffee in this Moccha cheesecake"...trust me, I can.

But the worst part of being in this group is when regular coffee drinkers ask you to go get them a coffee and rattle off some strange language that they assume you will understand. This past May at a conference put on by our company I was hanging out in the morning before it started, chatting with a female co-worker. Suddenly we see the owner come walking quickly towards us. He first looks at the girl and then turns to me and says "In the interest of not being sexist, Sheldon I need you to go get me a coffee from Starbucks in the lobby. I want a vente cappuccino." He hands me his Starbucks pre-paid card and runs off.

Now I'm not usually his lackey but I could tell he was in a hurry as the conference was starting right away so I figured I'd oblige (and I wanted to keep my job!). I went downstairs to the Starbucks in the lobby and stood in the long line. When it came time to order, I told her I wanted a vente cappuccino. Now I had absolutely no idea what this meant. They could have given me sour milk topped with cinnamon for all I know and I would have brought it back to the boss. Thankfully she seemed to speak the weird coffee language and I paid using the Starbucks card.

I stood there watching as I tried to guess what type of concotion I had ordered. But my heart quickly panicked when I saw her grab the largest cup they had and proceeded to pour liquid into it. Thinking that size seemed way to big I told the girl "You know, I think that cup is too big. I just want the smaller one." She looked at me strangely and asked if I had ordered a vente cappuccino. I told her yes, but I just need it in a smaller cup. Extremely puzzled she held to the motto of 'the customer is always right' and gave me my vente cappuccino in a smaller cup.

Excited that I had survived this coffee ordeal I grabbed my vente cappuccino and proceeded to walk back upstairs. I passed a couple of guys from our company who work in our Toronto office and they asked me what I had ordered. I told them I was getting it for the owner. The one guy looked at the cup and immediately said "That's not what he drinks." I stopped moving up the stairs, turned around and looked at him. I then looked at the cup to see if it was see through or if there was writing on it as I couldn't figure out how he knew what I ordered. "How do you know?" I asked. "Because the owner drinks vente cappuccino's." "That's what this is," I replied. "No it's not. That is not a vente cup and the owner only drinks vente." Suddenly everything snapped into place and I realized that vente was simply the cup size.

Looking like a complete idiot I now had to go back to the Starbucks and get a different coffee (trust me, giving the owner a non-vente cappuccino probably wouldn't be a good idea first thing in the morning). I gave the coffee to a fellow coworker and went to buy the proper one. Rushing back upstairs the owner was just walking by and I gave him his coffee. "What took so long," was his retort. "Well," I replied, "next time it's probably best to send someone who actually drinks coffee."

I never told him the story or the fact that I spent double the money on his gift card since I had to buy two of them...but that just goes to show, you can't trust non-coffee drinkers to get you a coffee. So the next time you ask me to go get you a double-double cappuccino with a twist of moccachino in a vente cup with a hand warmer, and I give you a puzzled look, that is your cue that I may very well come back to you with a cup of sour milk.

Coolest 10K in the World

If you are into running or have ever thought of running a 10K but wanted it to be really special for your first time, then I have the perfect run for you...The Nike+ Human Race.

This is going to be the most amazing event. The event is happening all around the world but only in 25 cities and the only Canadian city to hold one is Vancouver. There are going to be thousands of people all running this event and the excitement and adrenaline that will be flowing through the crowd at this event will be phenomenal.

This run is definately different than other runs. Here is why:

• Everyone will be wearing the same colour run shirt
• It will start at around 6:30pm
• There is a free concert afterward for all participants (and we are talking a BIG name band. Kanye West is performing in LA for this. Vancouver has not yet announced their headliner)
• You will be part of an event happening around the world at the same time (minus time zones obviously

If you need to get inspired, check out the promo video right here. Every time I watch it I get inspired to be a part of it.

Hope to see you there!

The Ol' Heave Ho

Like the old saying goes. When the going gets tough the tough get going. Well, I found out last night that when the going gets tough the tough should give it the ol' heave ho.

No, I don't mean give up on life...I'm talking about breathing techniques for labour.

Last night Shiela and I went to our second pre-natal class to learn all about what to expect and we learned a few breathing techniques. The last one they taught us was the hee-ho. Supposedly this is a technique used in England or somewhere and it is suppose to work really well. Instead of just blowing out air like blowing out candles, you instead breathe out in a hee - ho method. When it gets intense you can increase it to hee-hee-ho or if it get's really bad you can use hee-hee-hee ho. Ok, now that you are all hyperventilating trying to figure out how this breathing works lets move on.

These pre-natal classes are actually pretty good. I'm sure the teacher thinks I hate it because I'm yawning a lot but that's just because I'm tired. The info they give you is pretty useful and I will definately be more prepared going into the delivery room. As I mentioned to Shiela last night, I don't think I fully understood before just how long and hard this whole delivery process is (go ahead, make fun of all men and how we don't understand the pain, etc. etc.) I mean, I've heard women say they were in labour for 16 hours, blah, blah, blah and I just figured they were in the hospital waiting for the baby to be born. I knew the birthing part was painful but apparently there is a lot more going on then just when the baby gets pushed out.

So now that all the women reading this are typing up hate mail to me and yelling to their husbands that they are never again going to hang out with Sheldon and Shiela because Sheldon's so insensitive, I'll help you husbands out by giving you my

Top 5 Questions Not to Ask At Pre-Natal Classes (learned from experience):

5) What type of pain medication is there for the husband?

4) Is it ok to pre-record me saying encouraging words on a tape recorder so I can just play the tape for her when I'm off watching TV in the visitors lounge?

3) How long do I rub her back before we switch positions and she massages my shoulders?

2) Is it ok to reassure my wife by saying "That wasn't so bad now was it?" after each contraction?

1) What should I tell my wife when I feel that she is over exagerrating on the pain?

Needless to say all the women in our pre-natal class love their husbands that much more after having me in their class.

What Is To Come

As mentioned in my last post, I was so busy with the Hbc Run for Canada I just didn't have time to post. I was working all the time and my body was exhausted. But now with the main event behind me and only the wrap up to do I can settle back into a regular routine.

Thank you to the hundreds of people that have been checking back on this blog daily and even twice a day for some just waiting in anticipation for a new post from me. Well, you won't be disappointed much longer. Stay tuned for some great posts coming up like:

• How I nearly killed myself driving my rental pick up (literally)
• My connection with Kelsie Hendry who is Beijing bound in pole vault
• Why I'm mad at the new Degrassi show
• The top 10 things not to ask during pre-natal classes
• Baby Update - only two months to go!

Stay tuned!

Too Busy To Post

It's a lame excuse but I've just been too busy and too tired to post recently. My big event, the Hbc Run for Canada, is coming up on July 1 and things are going crazy right now as I'm trying to finalize things in all of our 15 cities across Canada with 31 people sending me information on a continual basis. I'm working all the time...the only real breaks I get are when I go play slowpitch or soccer at night. Then I come back home and work again until midnight or 1:00am. It's a great event but as with any event you put on, I can't wait til it's over!

Feel free to bring the family down to our event on July 1. There's a 10K run, a 3K walk and 1K kids run. The best part is they all happen at different times so someone can run the 10K and then come back to watch their kid run the 1K. The 1K is very cute to watch and very popular with families. Good kids entertainment and a band will play too for the adults.

Go here to check out more.

Sheldon