It's been a while......

A few weeks ago I thought I would make my daily shaving routine a little more exciting/dangerous, and took up shaving with a straight razor. I got this razor off http://www.straightrazorplace.com/. It was made sometime between 1912 and 1921

I got this J.A. Henckels stainless razor off ebay, it was made around 1928.

My bike ready for the commute to work.

Austin being really happy.

The other day we got Austin a Jolly Jumper. Tina took this picture of him while I was at work, I haven't seen him in it yet, but apparently he likes it.

One of the jobs I go to often is in a field, the other day I came home and found this little critter on me, it's the second tick I've found on me lately, got to be careful.

Some breaking news, we were in a car accident on June 20th, this is the result of it. Tina's car was written off, Tina and Austin were taken to the hospital. Austin was fine and Tina had a some bruises and burns from the airbag.

Inside of the car.

One of our Wednesday night rides.

A big summer storm rolling in.

I got a handlebar mount for my GPS, here is the data from my ride to work one night. There seems to be a glitch though because there is no way I did 106km/hr top speed. :)

Austins first trip to Alberta, this is the river just upstream from Crescent Falls.

I just liked this picture. :)

What is my Mom trying to do to me??

Austin sleeping in his car seat.

Nice hair!!

The first and probably only video you will see on here, since after borrowing Tina's camera to take this video I ended up dropping it and it is no longer working.

Wow, it's been over two months now since I updated this, I feel bad about that. It just seems like there isn't much time or ambition lately. More then likely it's ambition holding me back. We were in a pretty bad car accident with Tina's car. A woman did a left turn right in front of us and we hit her going around 50km/hr. Tina was pretty bruised up, Austin (or Rubberman as I've been calling him) wound up being just fine. SGI settled with Tina already and she bought a 2005 Pontiac G6 GT, it's pretty nice, I haven't taken a picture of it yet though. This week was my first time commuting to work on my bike. Since I work Saturday and Sunday I decided to bike to work those days and take my van on Monday and Tuesday when the traffic is bad. Except for Sunday when I got a flat tire it went pretty well. I have to leave a little earlier but it only takes me 25 mins to ride the almost 8 kms to work. Anyway I will try to update this a little more often (I know I always say that) Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.......

Hello again!!

Austin not sleeping in his crib, something he likes to do a lot. :)

Spadina Crescent at night.

I was playing around with my camera down at the Weir one night, here is one of the photos.

Austin all streached out on the couch, he is getting bigger by the day.

Looking very shocked after his bath! :)

Finally got out on the bike for about an hour today, I found several routes for getting across Circle Drive, all of them involve tunnels which I'm not crazy about, since there is a lot of muggings and such around them.

I got a sweet deal on this Lowepro Slingshot 200AW camera case. I wanted one for a long time, but $130 was too much for me to pay, I found that Blacks Photo had them on sale for $69!!! and ordered one. My old camera case had no more pockets left to offer, with this one I need to eventually get some lenses to fill all those spaces.

Some days Austin loves his bath, this was one of those days. Isn't he the cutest?

He seems to enjoy sleeping on his tummy sometimes, we started him on his back, but now his neck is pretty strong so he can sleep either way, Tina put him on the couch and we took this photo because he looks like a little bean all curled up and sleeping.

On Saturday we went to Saskatoon's largest garage sale in Montgomery. Tina put a hat on Austin because it was a little windy out, he also has a leash on his soother in case it blows away. :) We didn't find anything too good at the garage sales, or anything we really needed, so we just walked around for a long time looking at stuff.

Wow, there has been a few things happen since my last post. First of all I got a new job, I'm currently working out my last two weeks at Siemens Laserworks, and then I will be starting at Envirotec on May 12th. I will be driving and operating a vac truck in and around Saskatoon. I'm pretty excited about it because it looks like it will be a pretty enjoyable job and I think I will do well at it. The other thing that happened is my brother moved to the Phillipines. He has been actually married to a girl from there for a just about two years now and he finally moved there since she has been unable to come here. It is pretty sad for my parents and I, but I know he is pretty happy there and things seem to be going well for him there. It is weird to talk to him and he is half way around the world away, they are just entering their winter season there now, which is pretty crazy. Austin is getting bigger and with that he seems to be getting a little more moody lately. I think he gets bored sitting down or lying somewhere for a long time and he get's cranky and wants you to play with him. I guess it won't be too long now and he will be into everything. Well, until next time, ride safe and have fun!!

Hello again

There is a funny story behind this photo. Austin decided he didn't want his soother, so he took it out and put in on top his head, then he fell asleep. :)

Mommy is drying him off after his bath.

Cuddling with Daddy on the couch.

In last post I forgot to show our backyard. We do have a small backyard with our new place. It even has a small shed where the bikes can stay. There is a garden along the fence too, so I may make a second attempt at cherry tomatoes this year.

I just took this photo today when I got home from my bike ride. Tina made a bed on the couch for him. He always holds his hands up like that when he's sleeping for some reason.

How's it going? It's been a while since I put something here. Austin takes up a lot of our time during the day (and night). Today we got up to around 14 Celcius and all the snow melted and dried up so I decided to head out on the bike for a while. Whew! Am I ever out of shape, I went out for about an hour and headed down 33rd St out of town and then out on the highway I went. I took the highway over to where they are building a new school and Olympic size swimming pool just outside of Confederation area. They just threw in some new bike paths over there, so I rode around on them for a while before heading home again. Austin isn't being too bad, but he has a lot of gas for some reason so he often doesn't want to fall asleep right after he has eaten (can you blame him). He thinks it's bedtime around 12:00-2:00AM. Tina looks after him at night when I'm working and I look after him on the weekends. I'm hoping it warms up a lot more so we can take him out for walks soon. We took him to some stores today and walked around with him in the stroller a bit. Anyway keep looking here, I do post occasionally :) :) Ride safe and have fun.

Our newest family member....

Getting fed in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

All hooked up in with wires in NICU.

Isn't he cute?

In the car seat waiting to go home.

The first time Mommey got to see him

Snuggling with Mommy in the hospital room.

His bed for five days.

Austin's favorite thing to do.

In the hospital room.

AUSTIN ANDREW STEPHENSON

Born: March 13th, 2oo8 at 8:57am

21" long and 6lbs 15.5 oz

Well that is all the information on Austin for those who like to know such things. Everything went really well except that he got really plugged up with mucous and had trouble breathing and feeding properly, so he had to spend a few days in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We still got to visit and feed him in there, but he didn't get to stay with us until Monday. The first night at home was pretty intense, thankfully my parents were here and could help Tina and I out. He really didn't sleep at all that night, but since then he has slept pretty good at night. It's certainly a lot of work to look after him, but also kind of cool to think that one day he will grow up and be an adult, pretty amazing when you think about it. It's been hard because Tina had a C-section, so she isn't able to do too much right now, so I haven't been able to work too much. She is going to her Mom's house for a week so that her Mom can help her out. Anyway I will try to keep this updated more now, but with Austin here and all it took me two days just to get this in here. :) So until next time, ride safe and have fun.

Long time, no write...

Getting my bike ready for the first ride of the new year.

Leo waiting for me to get ready to go.

Heading to Delisle, we didn't make it all the way there, but it was a good ride for sure.

Look at that belly. :)

Almost ready for the baby.

Our new kitchen

This is our new living room, the laundry is on the right behind the closet doors. That is Tina's friend Louisa sitting in the chair, she actually took the two above pictures of us, they turned out really nice.

Our new bathroom

Our new bedroom, please excuse the cloths on the bed. :)

The baby's room!

Well it's been a long time since I updated this blog, I feel bad. We have had a lot going on lately. At the end of February we had to move out of our old apartment, we found a place in Confederation which is on the opposite side of Saskatoon to where we were before. We actually got a basement suite this time, complete with a yard and shed. I really like our new place and we were super lucky to get it, we looked for a long time before we found this on. Rentals are few and far between in Saskatoon these days. Moving was quite a production, I actually rented a moving van and we got it all in the new place in two trips. We had tons of help (A very big Thank you to all those who helped us out) so that made it go faster. I don't think I will ever chose to live on a third floor part of a building again. That many flights of stairs makes you realize that you have to much junk and should get rid of some of it. Another exciting bit of news is that Tina is going to be having a C-section on March 13th (tomorrow) so the baby is coming sooner the we expected. Still I think we have everything under control and are ready to have a new son or daughter. Both Tina and I will be staying at the hospital for a few days following her C-section, so I won't update this again until we are home. Look for photos of our little one then. Becoming a Dad tomorrow has made me reflect a lot on how life will possibly be when our kid gets to be my age. Lately I've heard that we are running out of iron ore to mine for metal, and we are currently experiencing shortages of oil as it can't be found fast enough to supply growing demands. Also gas prices are supposed to jump to huge levels this summer and it makes you wonder what the world will be like in ten years, or even one year. I think science will have to take over in place of natural resources that are running out fast, we will have to advance very quickly to make up for the loss of things like metals and oil. My bike is steel, it might start going up in value a lot here soon. :) Anyway food for thought, I have to go to bed soon and tomorrow will be very exciting for both Tina and I, we will need our sleep. Until next time, ride safe and have fun!