Proud Nanny to Chase

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.

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.

And not to forget the proud father. The similarities in Zachary to his father are very noticeable. Richard looks so comfortable holding his son here that you would never believe this is his first child.

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.

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 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.

Richard's Friday Swim

The Flower of the Day

Tansy

This is a picture of the entrance to Grand Marais harbour. (It was taken a few years ago.) You may ask why I have included it with this years photographs.

On Wednesday, after Richard had completed his work-out at the Pump House, he came back and decided a swim was in order. The waters of Lake Superior are definitely not known for their warmth, on the contrary they are very cold even in the height of summer. I noticed that quite a few of our neighbours were watching him, one couple were using binoculars, they were very concerned because of the distance he had swam out. I assured them he would be fine , although I must admit I was a little concerned he was out so far. That was Wednesday.

On Friday Richard once again went to the Pump House to do his work-out, on his return he went for a swim. He was gone for some time so I decided to see where he was. To my astonishment he was heading for the lighthouse (see first picture). I lost track of him so went inside to grab his binoculars; realising that once again the neighbours were keeping and eye on what he was doing. He made it to the first light house.


The speck to the side of the lighthouse is Richard, having climbed out of the water to take a rest. The people who were at the lighthouse talked with him for a while. Then he was back in the water heading, you've guessed it, not back to shore but to the light on the other side of the harbour entrance. By this time I was watching through binoculars most of the time. There was one point when a boat was coming into the harbour and heading directly toward him. He told me he was a little concerned but they did see him in time to adjust their course.


If you look very carefully you will see him walking on the wall from this light beacon. He was definitely the talk of the campsite that day. He was told they had never seen anyone swim across the channel before let alone swim back again. I'm sure someone must have done it in the past. Needless to say I was happy once he was back on my side of the harbour. He was tired but exhilarated that he had accomplished his goal with no ill effects.

What did I do on Friday? I sat outside knitting, went for a short walk around the campgrounds and just generally relaxed. The following day we were packing up to head back to Thunder Bay. Richard was preaching at a church there on Sunday.

Our One Hike

The Flower of the Day

Indian Pipe

I was so excited spotting this plant on our Thursday hike. The flowers droop their head as they open and look like a pipe hence the name. Richard laughed at my excitement at finding this specimen.

We started our hike on a gravel path that was marked suitable for a wheelchair. There were several well beaten rough paths leading off of this main one. One of these side paths led to this decking where people could have a BBQ and secluded party.




This was part of the view from the decking area. To reach this spot we climbed over rocks and roots, not difficult for the average individual but a real challenge for me. I was not able to take the path that continued on from the area. Richard and I back tracked to the easy path. The following series of pictures are me working my way back, I might add, with no assistance. I was thrilled to say I managed it alone.

We checked all the other rough paths from the easy one only to be turned back because of the steep grade, which I could not manage. After leaving this area we ventured into the primitive camping sites and tried other trails. As we hiked we slowly ascended above Grand Marais campgrounds to eventually have this view of the harbour. During our many shots of the view a yacht came sailing into the harbour this is the one for your enjoyment.

During our explorations of the areas surrounding the campgrounds we came across this wonderful area of Fireweed, Tansy, Daisies and tall grasses. I wanted you all to see how tall the plants had grown so Richard kindly went behind them and stood, he is 6 foot 3 inches. (A flower amongst flowers!)

I found quite a few varieties of flowers to photograph. We were hiking for a good 2 hours afterwards I felt so good, but tired. I've come a long way with my walking since September 2000 when I first had a below-the-knee amputation. Most of the credit goes to Richard for his encouragement; and for buying me the hiking poles that have given me so much more freedom.

This picture does not do justice to what I was seeing; the green of the Tansy, beige grass and then the grey of the almost dead tree. I could not resist taking a photograph of the effect.

Thursday night the moon was beautiful reflecting on the harbour waters. The whole scene was peaceful. God had provided just what we needed to relax and de-stress.

Wyneken's Freedom

Flower of the Day

Evening Primrose

Wednesday was another day to sit, knit and read. Richard to time to go to the Pump House and work out. He purchased a 10 day pass as it worked out cheaper than a daily pass, which would net expire for a year. He also went for a swim in Lake Superior when he arrived back home.

We decided to let Wyneken out for a roll in the dirt. We will probably live to regret the descision but it was so cute to watch him. Of course I did not think to do a video of his actions until he had had enough.

Even with my cuting part of his face off he still looks cute!

Here he is resting after his roll.

After we finished eating our evening meal we went for our walk around the camp grounds. This was another restful day.