London, ON Thoughts are with AT60

Erin is taking a year off with the baby, then attending university. They both come from successful families so their parents have helped them considerably. Chris's mother is offering her basement to them free of charge. They plan to move out after the wedding. Chris's dad is paying for his entire education. Erin's parents provided a considerable sum of cash. Chris's earnings at Safeway are paying their cost of living expenses, including the car, so the money will, hopefully, be used as a down payment on a house. They have all offered more but Chris has insisted that they'll be fine. Erin saw the doctor yesterday. Both she and baby are doing well. The smoke is blanketing the city, but they're staying to the north of it. The air quality out that way is surprisingly good.

Congratulations on your wedding, Sarah. How are you and your husband doing?

 

When are they planning to wed?

We're very happy, thanks. I'll be happier when I know when I can come back to visit in Canada though!

 

The wedding is December 20 in Kelowna. On the 21st they'll be flying to Hamburg. The exact location of the stopovers has yet to be determined. They'll fly out of either Toronto or Halifax, which is what Sar-tamber-lac wants. From there they'll drive to Nürnberg and spend a night there. Chris wants to show Erin where he grew up, and see the house again. If he can even find it, that is. From there it's on to Berchtesgaden, high in the Bavarian Alps, via Munich. Chris has never been to Berchtesgaden but he's seen pictures in history books (it's where Hitler lived) and the view looks amazing. They'll spend several nights there before moving on to Venice, where they'll wrap up the honeymoon and return to Kelowna for work and university. The baby will stay with grandma and grandpa. The whole honeymoon was designed to be romantic and to satisfy Chris's lifelong homesickness at the same time. There are no plans to visit France or the former East Germany. Chris has little appreciation for either.

Where do you live, Sarah?

[image=http://www.re02.org/location/images/hamburg.jpg] [image=http://www.travelinfo.de/kreuzfahrten/deilmann/katharina/nuernberg.jpg] [image=http://www.tourismus-bayern.com/oberbayern/anger/images/berchtesgaden.jpg] [image=http://www.tim-thompson.com/venice-3.09.small.jpg]

 

Wow, that looks beautiful. I've never been to Germany but the room mate I had in Spain is from Hamburg and always spoke very highly of it.

 

I just moved from Ontario to Rhode Island, USA. It's nice, but i miss people.

 

I know what you mean, Sarah. We miss London too. Rhode Island probably isn't bad though. No amount of money in the world could convince me to move to the USA, but if I had to, I'd probably pick Rhode Island.

The fire flared up again last night. It's huge. 4,200 more people were evacuated and the last of the railroad bridges were lost. Chris's sister and her friends used to hang out at Kelowna's largest playground, just down the street a bit. Why 17-year-olds hang out at a playground, I dunno. Anyway, they're all volunteering to rebuild it, which I think is great. Went up to the house today. Deemed it still unliveable.

 

Good news RE: the fire.

We got our first meaningful (at least 5mm) precipitation last night since January. During the past few days, due to the terrain and the size and heat of the fire (the wall of flames was 100 feet tall, I hear) it was too dangerous to get ground crews in, so we had what I called "the air war". Water bombers were landing in Okanagan Lake every few minutes to pick up water and dump it on the fire. Now that the weather has started to cooperate and the flames are smaller, ground crews are moving in to fight the fire head on, and they're feeling optimistic. This fire has threatened the city of Kelowna for 3 weeks now, so we're all very happy about this news.

School continues to go, well... it's school. Chris learned something interesting in German today. The German government instituted a spelling reform in 1998, so much of what Chris learned growing up is now obsolete. Chris has also been having a slight conflict with his German professor over which German dialect is best. Chris speaks a mixture of Bavarian and Berlin German, but the teacher is teaching a more widely used form and she doesn't want Chris using his native German. To Chris, this is like an American being forced to speak British English or vice versa. She also doesn't like the fact that she's teaching formal German and he's using informal German. For example, she wants him to use "guten Tag" and "Wo wohnen Sie?" but he insists on using "grüß dich" and "Wo wohnst Du?" (note: not only is the latter informal, but it's also the old spelling from before the spelling reform) Chris's attitude is that if older people can get away with not using metric, then he can get away with using old German. It's what his relatives speak so to speak anything else would creat problems. He doesn't think he should have to adapt to suit her stuck up, prissy international German. And for God sakes, "Ish" doesn't mean anything!

The other classes are going great.

 

Cool Glad that the weather is finally cooperating and that he's liking school.

 

That's like when mmy friend from Ukraine lived with us for a year, went back to Ukraine and was told that her English was wrong. Yeah right, hers was better than the teacher's.
However, sometimes one must conform to teacher in order to get good marks.
And it can't hurt to learn formal as well as informal, could it?

 

Hey, me again. At the campus between classes with some quick news. They're moving back into their house tonight. Also, we had some rain last night that more or less has the fire under control at last, after a month of chaos and devestation. We're all pretty happy about that around here.

Well, that's all the news I have for now. The baby could come any day now so if I disappear for a few days, that may be why. I'll try to keep in touch via the campus computers and I'm considering getting the internet put in at home.

Enough news from me. What is your news?

 

Ooo! Exciting! Let us know when there is any news!
As for us we're filming again this weekend so things are a bit hectic.

 

Wonderful news!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!



Erin gave birth to a daughter, Eva Camille Scheiding, (7lbs, 4oz.) on Sept 14, 2003 at 6:34 p.m.

The proud father was watching the Vancouver Canucks exhibition game in Vernon with friends when he got the page. It took 40 minutes of highway driving at 130 km/h to get to the hospital but he arrived in plenty of time.

The baby's name had been changed from Camille Eva to Eva Camille just two days earlier after Chris pointed out that Camille could be shortened to something undesireable. Eva is a simple name to remember and write.

Chris's dad and Erin's parents are already making plans to come out west and visit. YJN, if you will be in Kelowna, please send an e-mail to admiral_thrawn60@hotmail.com so plans can be made for a short visit.

Mother and daughter are doing well and Chris will be picking them up from the hospital today as soon as his classes end. As much as he'd like to spend his days with Erin and Eva, there's no paternity leave from university.

I wanted to get that news out to you all as soon as possible. I'll probably be driving home during my longer class breaks from now on, so forgive me if my time here and on MSN becomes more infrequent.

Have kids. They're great.

 

Congratulations !!!!

 

How wonderful! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm glad everything went well.

 

I already congratulated Chris on MSN, but I thought I'd mention it here too. That's wonderful

 

That's amazing Chris!!

All my love and best wishes to you and Erin and Eva!

 

Congrats Chris!

 

...pictures?

 

Congratulations Chris and Erin

 

Quick update:

School still going well. Starting to question German teacher more and more though. Today read a dialogue out of the textbook between two Germans, one of which seemed to be a Nazi. He was accusing a young girl of being un-German because her mother was Iranian and she doesn't have blonde hair and blue eyes. German professor claims to have been born from two German parents and raised in Germany, but she tells her French class that she's French. That woman is insane. Who the hell writes these textbooks, anyway?

Met Paul Martin today while he toured the area inspecting fire damage. Woohoo! Chris is not a Martin supporter (and won't be until he actually tells us what his platform is) but was nevertheless excited to meet the man who will be our next leader.

Decided today to modify his 1997 Jetta. Wants to turbo charge it and add a performance exhaust, cold air intake, boost controller, intercooler, and possibly nitrous. Right now the car is 115 hp. With the mods it would be about 160. With nitrous it would be about 200. Estimated cost for all, less nitrous, if he gets the parts used, is about $1000.

Giving serious thought to transferring to UWO next year. Chris and Erin both miss London a lot so there's a good chance they'll be returning to London for good. Will keep you updated on that.

Erin doing well, but both tired because Eva doesn't seem to know that you're supposed to sleep at night. Learning to appreciate times when she's asleep. Erin out practicing her driving right now. Chris is happy about that, because he's afraid she's going to end up killing herself in that car. Divine intervention is the only explanation for the fact that she never flipped her parent's SUV.

Want to tell you all that I saw the support thread, and would like to offer my support to anyone who needs it. You know how to contact me.