Being a parent is a tough occupation.

Being a parent is a tough job. After all they don’t come with an instruction book. So we putter along trying to do the best job that we can and make mistakes along the way. I’m not a patient person at the best of times. However I do what I can. Maybe I’m a bit abrupt with the kids, especially when they get noisy. But I want to be the best parent that I can; which means helping the kids with their schoolwork and getting their grades up.

I wasn’t too impressed with the last report card of Galen’s. He needs to get his English comprehension up and he’s had a bit of a problem with that since for the first two years of his schooling he was in French Immersion.

Cameron has a bit of a behavioral problem in that he has a bit of trouble listening…and is prone to doing stuff that he isn’t supposed to do. I’ve had to repeatedly tell him to do something and that’s a problem he has to overcome. He has to learn to listen.

But overall, they are good kids. They know that they're loved and they seem to be thriving. I'm glad that they're enjoying their new school unlike the school that they were going to in Vancouver.

Some Photos from the last 6 weeks.

We've had a spate of wonderful weather around here, but to tell you the truth, when it starts raining or is foggy, that's when you see the real British Columbia weather for what it is.

Our back alley is a great place to take shots because you can get some of the creepiest looks in that alley. Especially when you take a shot of a foggy morning at about 7:50 AM when there's nothing but fog in that alley.

This was from when I was taking my kids to school sometime in November.






This is out of focus, but it's also creepy looking; you're just waiting for something or someone to come out of the fog.















If I can come up with some better shots, I'll stick 'em up on my other blog.

Here's some alley pictures in the snow, that we had the night before my father passed away.







This was my oldest son's gingerbread house before it ended up turning into a major mush-fest coming home in the rain. But still; it was edible at least to them. Trying to get them to go to sleep after that sugar infusion was another story.





These two shots were from the day we buried Sam (our cat) in the back yard of our place a day after he died of a stroke.


This was the sunset we saw the day we buried him.


Sunset Pic 2


The cherub marks the place where we interred Sam.

Snow Pics.

Since the death of my father...I haven't had the opportunity to post photos of the snowfall that happened on the day that I had to take the kids to Save-On-Foods to get candies for their gingerbread houses.















I have some fog pics as well, but those will have to be put up later.

Life Goes On (Without My Father)

Life without my father doesn’t seem much different from “life with him around” other than the realization that he will no longer be there to ask advice about life. My entire memories of him are condensed into photos. I’ll never see him again in flesh and blood That is the hardest part about my father’s death that I may or may not ever get over.

However surprisingly there has been few tears at his loss. My father wouldn’t have wanted that. He would have wanted me to “remain strong” for my family. Yet tears are an integral part of grieving. So now and then I allow myself some weakness.

They say that there are five stages to grief:

1.Denial
2.Anger
3.Bargaining
4.Depression
5.Acceptance

However it seems I’ve skipped 1-4 and gone directly to 5. I’ve accepted his death. I’ve accepted that he had a full life, well lived and that he had the opportunity to be able to have a relationship with two out of his three grandchildren (the last was born in 2009, the year he passed away). I've even accepted the fact that he was "ready to go" and wanted to go after suffering that heart-attack...

Yet, I miss him…I miss him every day and will for the rest of my life.

Epitaph for My Father

~from my other blog~

My Epitaph For My Father

The reason why I haven't been posting lately. Been busy with funeral arrangements. Now that everything is over and my father has been interred in the ground...I'll have time to breathe, pause and reflect on memories going back 39 years.

Miss Me, But Let Me Go
Author Unknown.

When I come to the end of the road,
and the sun has set for me.
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little—but not too long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that was once shared.
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,
and each must go alone.
It’s all a part of the master’s plan,
a step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart,
go to the friends we know.
Bear your sorrow in good deeds. Miss me,
but let me go.

Yes, it started snowing yesterday.

Since my two kids had a school project coming up where they end up having to make gingerbread houses (albeit with graham crackers). They said that they needed the candies to decorate the houses. So we wandered off to get the candies. Damned things cost us $19.00.

It started snowing halfway there, but on the way back from Save-On-Foods, it really started coming down. Managed to get a few photos which I will be uploading later on in the afternoon.

'Tis the Season (for materialistic greed).

~parapharasing Randy "Macho Man" Savage...OOOOH YEAH!!!!!!

When we were young we had to put our wishlists for Christmas on a piece of paper. Most of the time it didn't get past the door of our home. Now with the internet, we can display our materialistic greed throughout the entire cyberverse allowing millions and millions of people to actually see what we "really want" for Christmas.

Welcome to Wantz.it, a wonderful little Facebook utility that allows you to post what you want for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, your birthday, whatever the heck you want. Annoy Santa Claus, Annoy the Easter Bunny. Just because you Wantz.it.

Frankly to me the name reminds me of a particular fella from a certain trilogy.



"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious."

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, why not just go with the flow...

And another thing about Christmas is those weird Best-Buy Commercials. I'm a twisted son-of-a-bitch at the best of times and I'm so tempted to walk into a Best-Buy and pull this. Guaranteed you'd end up getting weird looks. Where can I find the...~go into orgasmic contortions~?

"You have the wrong store, sir."

Not much to post about.

Evidently we're supposed to have snow this weekend, however I haven't seen much of it at any rate. We're supposed to get 10 (updated to between 10-20) cm on Monday. It's currently -1 and it's supposed to start snowing throughout this afternoon.

Tuesday they're expecting it to be mixed precipitation. So hopefully over the winter we'll see a trace of the white stuff. After all it is pretty cold. If we get a decent amount of snow, I'll put up pics.

~edited~ This was standing looking out at the back yard at the snow coming down.

Welcome to "An Animal Roaming 'Bout Town".

This is my blog about what I do every day. And yes. I'm a photographer so you may see some pics of everyday stuff. This is my snapshot blog. I have two other blogs where I have my more "set-up" shots (1 for freelance photography, and 1 for my business). But this is where you'll see the majority of my snapshots from every day trips like to the mall or out with my kids. etc, etc, etc.

Not many people choose to document their life, but I feel that every life has importance. And mostly because I tend to like to remember my own life in pictures because my memory isn't that good that I can remember every detail to utter minutiae.

So here it is...