That is correct; we now have a third grandson.
Chase Joseph Mensch arrived on his due date, September 25th; weighing in at 9 lbs 2 ozs. We thank God that he arrived with no complications.
Richard received a call on Friday which he promptly relayed to me at work. The details were minimal, to quote Richard; "some guy phoned and said Lynda has had her baby, it's a boy, 9 pounds something and his name is Chase." That was it we then had to wait for Lynda to phone with more details.
Saturday; Richard once again took a call, this time from Lynda. She was phoning to give further details and ask how to spell Joseph, this was her Grandpa Joe's name (Richard's Step-father). Lynda felt it appropriate to name this child after her Grandpa Joe. So we now have our new Grandson's full name: Chase Joseph Mensch (at least we think he will be a Mensch). Chase was born the large size of 9 lbs 2 ozs. Lynda said it was almost drug free until the very last moments. There are no more details; remember Richard (a man) took the call. Where was I you may be asking? I was at work, yes, at work on a Saturday morning.
I have no other details and no pictures to show. So there you are three grandsons to be proud of: Kegan, Zachary and Chase.
Monday, 29 September 2008
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Proud Nanny to Zachary
Zachary Dallas Morland
September 12th; 7lbs 7ozs
Isn't he adorable! Smiley phoned late Friday evening to inform us of the birth of our new grandson. Evette had a tough time, Zachary had to be delivered by emergency C-section within four hours of her being induced. Zachary's heart rate was slowing and he needed to be delivered quickly. Due to the speed of his delivery Evette is suffering a lot of discomfort. They are both home and doing as well as a new Mum does when she brings her first child home.
Evette looks so good here that you wouldn't guess at the trauma she had so recently gone through. She looks lovely holding her first born son.
This is Zachary in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Cambridge Hospital. The tub is a feeding tub until Evette is up to nursing him herself.
I'm finding it really hard not being able to go and hold my new grandson and be there to help Evette. Actually she probably wouldn't want me there so soon after coming home from the hospital.
The hardest part of all this is not being able to go and see my daughter and her son. Christmas is not too far away; Evette, Smiley and Zachary will fly out to Canada to spend time with us. Then they will fly to Victoria to spend time with her father. Actually Christmas does seem a long way of, but I know it will come soon.
I now know how my mother felt when Evette was born here in Canada and Mum in England. Now it's my turn to have a daughter giving birth in a different country from where I live. The world is small until you have a major event in your families life and then the distances once again are vast.
The new Richard
I'm doing these new posts in order of occurrence.
Richard has been working on loosing weight, as all our friends and family know he had managed to increase in size until he was well over the 300 pound mark. One of the side effects of having sleep apnea is weight gain. Having finally being diagnosed with the condition Richard's health has been steadily improved. Many of the things that had been put down to stress and depression are actually side effects of having sleep apnea (http://www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html).
Sleep apnea is a condition that stops a person going into a deep sleep because they stop breathing for a few moments in the night. Richard's index was 60, that is 60 times per hour he would stop breathing. We believe that he has had this condition from the late 1980's to early 1990's. After we were married in one year he put on 100 pounds. Now for a guy who is 6ft three that really isn't that much especially as he was under 200 pounds when we were married. As the sleep apnea progressed be became more tired and eventually never felt as if he had slept so was constantly having to take naps. At it's worst he was going back to bed withing a couple of hours of getting up in the morning, then again in the afternoon, he was always tired. His brain was not having time to rest to produce the necessary hormone that tells us when we have had enough to eat, so he would eat almost constantly. He could not concentrate for very long, was anxious and of course could not cope with even the smallest of problems to say nothing of the big ones that come with being a Pastor.
Richard was diagnosed finally in November 2006, and began to feel better withing weeks of buying the Cpap machine (http://www.sleepapneastore.ca/index.html). He was like a different person. As we all know extra weight is hard to loose and it was going to be a struggle for him to loose all the excess that he had gained.
In September 2007 I spent time with Evette in England and she passed on to me her old Slimming World Books ( http://www.slimmingworld.com/). You would never believe how quickly following this eating program made the pounds drop away. On September 6th (Saturdays Richard weighs himself) he announced that he had officially lost 100 pounds. That is just under a year from when he began the diet.
One of the hardest things for me to get him to eat was fruit, he now eats fruit like it's his new junk food. We have a hard time keeping enough fruit in the house. I also could never get him to try vegetables other than corn, peas and beans; he now will eat broccoli and often uses it in his cooking. He no longer eats everything that has been cooked so now we often have left overs that I can take to work for lunches. He has done amazingly well.
You are probably wondering about his sleeping during the day, very rarely does he need to take a nap other than on Sundays, but then all Pastors that I know take a nap on Sunday afternoons. He deals with stress so much better. It is like having a new man about the house.
A big thank you to my daughter who passed me those books and to Pastor Edmund Mielke for recognizing that Richard probably suffered from sleep apnea and to all those who have encouraged him on this road to new health.
Richard has been working on loosing weight, as all our friends and family know he had managed to increase in size until he was well over the 300 pound mark. One of the side effects of having sleep apnea is weight gain. Having finally being diagnosed with the condition Richard's health has been steadily improved. Many of the things that had been put down to stress and depression are actually side effects of having sleep apnea (http://www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html).
Sleep apnea is a condition that stops a person going into a deep sleep because they stop breathing for a few moments in the night. Richard's index was 60, that is 60 times per hour he would stop breathing. We believe that he has had this condition from the late 1980's to early 1990's. After we were married in one year he put on 100 pounds. Now for a guy who is 6ft three that really isn't that much especially as he was under 200 pounds when we were married. As the sleep apnea progressed be became more tired and eventually never felt as if he had slept so was constantly having to take naps. At it's worst he was going back to bed withing a couple of hours of getting up in the morning, then again in the afternoon, he was always tired. His brain was not having time to rest to produce the necessary hormone that tells us when we have had enough to eat, so he would eat almost constantly. He could not concentrate for very long, was anxious and of course could not cope with even the smallest of problems to say nothing of the big ones that come with being a Pastor.
Richard was diagnosed finally in November 2006, and began to feel better withing weeks of buying the Cpap machine (http://www.sleepapneastore.ca/index.html). He was like a different person. As we all know extra weight is hard to loose and it was going to be a struggle for him to loose all the excess that he had gained.
In September 2007 I spent time with Evette in England and she passed on to me her old Slimming World Books ( http://www.slimmingworld.com/). You would never believe how quickly following this eating program made the pounds drop away. On September 6th (Saturdays Richard weighs himself) he announced that he had officially lost 100 pounds. That is just under a year from when he began the diet.
One of the hardest things for me to get him to eat was fruit, he now eats fruit like it's his new junk food. We have a hard time keeping enough fruit in the house. I also could never get him to try vegetables other than corn, peas and beans; he now will eat broccoli and often uses it in his cooking. He no longer eats everything that has been cooked so now we often have left overs that I can take to work for lunches. He has done amazingly well.
You are probably wondering about his sleeping during the day, very rarely does he need to take a nap other than on Sundays, but then all Pastors that I know take a nap on Sunday afternoons. He deals with stress so much better. It is like having a new man about the house.
A big thank you to my daughter who passed me those books and to Pastor Edmund Mielke for recognizing that Richard probably suffered from sleep apnea and to all those who have encouraged him on this road to new health.
This is Richard taken in 2007 not quite his largest but pretty big non-the-less.
This was taken in July this year while we were on vacation he had lost about 90 pounds at this point in time. I will add another picture of how he looks today so remember to check this blog again.
New Vehicle
After arriving back from our last vacation we collected our car from the repair shop. In total the repairs cost just over $2,000, that includes the replacement parts purchased elsewhere. This was money we did not have, so the L of C had to be used. Richard and I had business in Thunder Bay a few days later although the car worked something did not feel right. We did not use the car over the week-end but had to go to Thunder Bay for a dental appointment on the Monday. We got just a beyond half way and kathump, kathump something was drastically wrong, Richard said the steering didn't feel right. We pulled over, a very nice person stopped and offered to take Richard to the truck stop at Pass Lake, I stayed in the car. We were towed back to Nipigon placed the car on Brennen Ford's lot (this is were the repairs had been done). The next day we were informed the struts had gone and would cost a further $600.
We are talking about a 1992 Plymouth Acclaim I would normally not agree with Richard to have the work done, but the mechanic said "breaks etc. wear out and the car was basically sound apart from that". With that recommendation ringing in our ears we said go ahead and make the repairs. Another $600 though was out of the question. Richard left me to deal with the situation.
Unbeknown to me Brennen Fords had a new owner and that is who I spoke to the following day. I told him that I would never have had the first lot of repairs done if their mechanic hadn't assured me the car was basically sound and now to have the struts go after only using the vehicle twice was not a car in basically sound repair. Brian agreed to make good and suggested we come a look at a couple of used vehicles on their lot.
I must admit that Brennen Fords (Brian) did us proud. We decided to purchase a 2006 Ford Escape XLT. This vehicle appears to have had only one owner and was still under warranty until October 31st which meant we could add extended warranty. The Salesman did not know about the deal Brian had offered us, which was $2,000 off the price of one of the used vehicle. Quite a deal as it meant the price Paul told Richard was not inflated to reflect the $2,000 trade in.
Here it is, our new car.
We are talking about a 1992 Plymouth Acclaim I would normally not agree with Richard to have the work done, but the mechanic said "breaks etc. wear out and the car was basically sound apart from that". With that recommendation ringing in our ears we said go ahead and make the repairs. Another $600 though was out of the question. Richard left me to deal with the situation.
Unbeknown to me Brennen Fords had a new owner and that is who I spoke to the following day. I told him that I would never have had the first lot of repairs done if their mechanic hadn't assured me the car was basically sound and now to have the struts go after only using the vehicle twice was not a car in basically sound repair. Brian agreed to make good and suggested we come a look at a couple of used vehicles on their lot.
I must admit that Brennen Fords (Brian) did us proud. We decided to purchase a 2006 Ford Escape XLT. This vehicle appears to have had only one owner and was still under warranty until October 31st which meant we could add extended warranty. The Salesman did not know about the deal Brian had offered us, which was $2,000 off the price of one of the used vehicle. Quite a deal as it meant the price Paul told Richard was not inflated to reflect the $2,000 trade in.
Here it is, our new car.
We love the versatility. With the drivers seat being powered I can adjust the seat to meet my needs completely, if only Richard would let me drive once in a while. Richard has never had such a new vehicle, it is his new toy. You should see him every time he finds a new gadget in the car, he's like a kid in a candy store.
This new vehicle will mean that Smiley and Evette will not have to rent a car at Christmas as this one will have enough room in the vehicle for them and the baby. If all the luggage won't fit in the back then we always have the roof rack which we intend to purchase a lockable box for.
The downside of this new vehicle means we have five years to pay on a new loan when we only had three months left on the motor home loan. There was no way we could be without a car and I refuse to put anymore money into a 1992 vehicle.
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