Tribute - Eugene Peter Babiuk

On October 22nd, Eugene Babiuk passed away, and this post is dedicated to him.  He was my Dad.  He was loved, and will be dearly missed.

He spent his last years with a passion for Christ, enjoying giving sermons at church, children's stories and leading out in Bible studies.  He wanted to show his love for Christ, and was re-baptized again 7 days before he died.  He also volunteered at the local Adventist Community Services, and it was a highlight for him to go and help in any way that he could - often driving an hour each way even in the dead of winter to be there for his volunteer shift.

He will be remembered for his kindness, his quiet sense of humor, and for his love.  He will be remembered as someone who loved his three children immensely, and would make every effort to go and watch Cam and Brad's curling and hockey games every chance that he could after his retirement.  Curling of course, such a truly Canadian sport in my mind, was one of his favorites and he used to be on a curling team all of my growing up years.  He was a hard-working man who worked two jobs year-round, adding another two seasonal jobs during the summer.  How he managed on so little sleep was amazing.

I'll never forget going out with Dad on my very first summer job, helping him to cut the grass on school lawns surrounding our little town of Portage la Prairie.  He also helped to teach me how to drive a stick-shift - being brave enough to lend me his little truck to practice on!   He would always take me out water-skiing during the summer, always content just to drive the boat while I skiied behind.  One of my favorite memories was taking the long drive to Alberta to visit family, and all along the way I quizzed him about what life was like when he was a child in the "olden" days! :)

His life and love will always bring a smile to my face, and my heart aches with the loss - but I know that he truly loved Christ and that he has the hope of heaven someday.  Going through the loss of a loved one who has been in your life for so long brings a lot of reflections with it, it has been a rough couple of weeks but I am so fortunate to have loved ones in the form of family and friends who have walked every step of this with me.  I will always be thankful for the memories that I have of Dad, and for the fact that I was able to talk to him so frequently as the end of his life drew near - even the night before he went to the hospital. 

Gene Babiuk's life made a difference, to those around him and to those that loved him.  His life made a difference to me. 

Rest in peace.

Copy of Obituary:

EUGENE PETER BABIUK July 1, 1940 - October 22, 2011 Eugene passed away peacefully on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at Concordia Hospital, Winnipeg, with his family at his bedside. He was predeceased by his father, Peter. He will be lovingly remembered by his sons Cam (Tracey) and Brad, their mother Olga, daughter Amy (Karis), grandsons Zachary and Kaleb, mother Lena, sisters Evelyn (Ken) and Elaine (Murray), nephews Jeff (Niesha), Scott (Patricia), and niece Kim (Yan). Cremation has taken place. Memorial service will be held at Transcona Seventh Day Adventist Church, 133 Regent Ave. E. Winnipeg on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ACS (Adventist Community Services) or The Canadian Cancer Society. Our family extends special thanks to Dr. Du Plessis and Eugene's Home and Palliative Care providers.

O Canada!

Of course this entry must begin with a nod to our northern loved ones.  It was Canadian thanksgiving last weekend and Lisa D opened her home 24 of her nearest and dearest friends to celebrate the occasion.  It was quite the food festival as one would expect, but Lisa really outdid herself by having Thanksgiving crafts there for the herd of children as well.  Well done!

Jenn's TRYING to get Evan to look at the camera for the three little boys' pictures! :)

Segretation of the Sexes - Women on the side closest to the children to be able to pop up and assist as needed!

Kaleb is in gymnastics this year as mentioned, so Amy was able to sneak away from work this week to participate in one of the "parent watch" opportunities.  He was proud as punch to have her there, and would wave and call to her throughout the time.  So cute!  There are four little boys (including Evan B), and Kaleb and Evan are the youngest.  Kaleb isn't always quite sure what he is doing, so he watches the older boys intently and copies them.  Evan is the "free spirit" of the group as the youngest by about 6 months, doing his best to follow instructions but sometimes adding his own twist to things! :)

Phrase of the week:  Our power went out last Sunday for several hours just as the boys were going to bed - this disturbed them greatly as their respective noise makers went off in their rooms.  Kaleb crawled out of his crib (yep, no keeping this kid in his crib anymore!!!) to come ask Mommy to turn it back on.   When she explained that she couldn't turn it on because there was no power, he earnestly said to her "Yes, Mommy, you can - try really, really hard!!!"  Zachary's phrase is actually something that his parents have begun at naptime that we say to him - it is a story of a little boy Zachary on an adventure.....Zachary usually requests "Tell me a story about Zachary, and include him seeing some really big animals!"  Amy's stories have included Zachary over in Africa riding a zebra, white water rafting and flying back a grizzly bear, to making a snow cave to take a nap in......if these stories were true, what an exciting life! :)

Steinkes Arrive - Bringing the Cool Weather With Them!

We were excited last weekend when Amy's cousin Jeff and wife Niesha moved down from N. Carolina.  We were especially excited when they brought Jeff's mom and Dad - Aunt Ev and Uncle Ken with them!  We were OVER THE TOP excited when they brought cool Fall weather with them!  Yippee on all counts!

We are very excited to have Jeff and Niesha living down here - we hope that they will enjoy Orlando!  They're living in Amy's Mom's old house until they figure out where they ultimately want to live and save to buy a house - so that worked out well for all parties. 

Zachary asked Aunt Ev to play "5 Little Monkeys" with him - of course he doesn't know HOW to play, so poor Aunt Ev ended up having to read the instructions! :)

Zachary and Kaleb were beside themselves of course, because they LOVE playing with Jeff and Niesha.  They played in the pool, and we went to the nearby school track where they rode bikes (even Uncle Ken!)

Jeff narrated the "races" around the track - added quite the excitement!

Uncle Ken taking a bike "stroll" :)

Uncle Ken is a professional cabinet installer, so we scored his expertise when Karis installed some utility room cabinets at Mom's new place.  What a treat to have someone who is a professional do it!  He apparently put his pencil behind his ear as he was hanging the cabinets, and both boys have been walking around since then with pencils behind their ears! :)

On Sunday we decided to enjoy the beautiful cool weather and we headed off to SeaWorld with Cochrans and Bergherms.  In the morning the weather was in the 70s, what a difference from the last time that we were there when it was in the 90s!  MUCH better!  It was very fun - we saw lots of shows and animals.  Zachary also went on the water roller coaster - Journey to Atlantis, which was his second 'real' roller coaster ride.  Can't believe how big he is!

Kaleb on the roller coaster - his second ride - he loves it!

It is official - Kaleb no longer stays in his crib and calls for us to come and get him.  He does stay in bed during the middle of the night thankfully and doesn't yet do the "jack and the box" game when we put him down for naps and bedtime, but in the morning and after nap he just comes trotting out, pleased as punch! :) 

Phrase of the week:  "NO, I will NOT do it!"  This is obviously not a fun phrase that we share this week.  However, it seems that easy-peasy Kaleb has entered into a new phase of his life where he is sowing his wild oats and giving us some attitude.  Always look on the bright side!  This week when discussing his behavior and attitude, Amy said "Mommy likes 'Happy Kaleb,' not this Crabby Kaleb so much."  Kaleb's response?  "No, I like Crabby Kaleb!!"  Zachary is becoming much easier - most of the time he obeys willingly, a good little helper, and doesn't have as many emotional outbursts....but even he has his moments when receiving punishment for misdeeds.  When told that he would lose a privilege for misbehaving, Zachary insisted that he needed MORE consequences as if to say "I don't care, that privilege doesn't matter to me!"  We've told him it doesn't work that way and that we won't take more privileges away for a misdeed, but then you wonder maybe you should take more away because he's being lippy?  Parenting 101 (or perhaps 505!) classes are needed!!!

Moving, moving, moving

The past two weeks have been a mad scramble of moving - in more than one way!  Amy's mom got a job a few months back up in Maitland, so we were thrilled to have her relocate.  The house that she's moving into though needed a LOT of work - the guy living there hadn't maintained it very well and had two small dogs that did a job on the walls, tile and carpet etc.

Relocating would not have been that big of a deal, but Amy's cousin Jeff and Niesha were moving down to Orlando (YIPPEE!) and planned on arriving September 29th.....and they were moving into mom's old house.  So with that deadline, Karis discovered what it was like to flip a house in two weeks.  Mom decided on paint colors, carpet etc all on the first day and then it was an orchestrated calendar after that with workmen coming into the house to relay new carpet, fix things etc.  Karis and Mom began painting like fiends in order to get as much painting done before we needed to move her furniture in (much easier before the new carpet came in as you didn't have to worry about spilling paint on the carpet etc).

There were a multitude of wonderful friends who helped us over the two weeks.  Kent came to help paint, Allen came to paint and re-do the garage floor, Rob watched our kids one night so Karis could go over to the house while Amy was at church finance committee, and Bill and William Cochran aided in painting as well.   We are so thankful for such blessings of these friends!  Our friend William though deserves special thanks - he came over virtually every single day to help Karis.   The one moment of "over the top" friendship was when the contractors were ripping out old tile and it was taking much longer than expected because of the way it was laid.  We had a very tight timeframe at that point because we needed to get the carpet laid in order to move Mom that weekend.  Karis realized that when the contractors left that if he didn't finish ripping up the tile, that there was no way it would all come together in terms of timing - so he took over the jack hammer and ripped up tile for HOURS.  William came over to help paint, and realizing the task in front of Karis, he immediately threw himself into helping clear tile and take turns with the jack hammer.  The exhausting work was completed that night, thanks to the two gentlemen's "get it done" attitude.

Bruce, Karis, William, Zachary, Kent, Bill and Rob

Kaleb & Zachary begged to help paint, so with no painting clothes, Amy had to strip them down to their undies and away they painted!  They were covered in grey paint by the end of course, but what fun!

The same group of men (including now Bruce who came over when he wasn't feeling well after work - bless him!) also graciously gave their Friday afternoon and Saturday evening hours in order to then move Mom physically up to the new house.  A late night meant that the next morning came WAY too early - especially for the same group of men who had committed to a 100 mile "Ride for Ronald" bike race that Sunday.  It was Karis' first 100 mile bicycle race, and the two weeks of exhaustion and hard work took its toll and he was not feeling at peak performance.  Bless Kent's heart (another great friend!) for 'pulling' Karis the last 30 miles by pedaling in front the whole way to create the draft for Karis.

Karis has now recovered from the bike ride and says that he'll do it again (crazy men!), and Mom is now unpacking furiously in her new house.  Karis has also said that he enjoys "flipping" a house, so we'll see if he tries to do it again in the future!  Jeff and Niesha moved down this weekend (more on that in next week's post) - so all of our moving parts (at least these ones) have settled down.

Enamored with baby Erik waiting for the men to arrive at the finish line.

The waiting cheering section - Kelli, Zachary, Erik, Mom, Luke, Kaleb, Adam and Lisa

Kent, William, Rob and Karis

Phrase of the week:  "Mom, can you wipe my bum today, it's faster!"  Zachary has decided that he's big enough now to wipe his own bum most of the time, but he still likes the "concierge treatment" once in a while in the name of speed! :)  "Mom, I get out myself!"  Ahh....a milestone that Amy wasn't looking forward to.  Kaleb has crossed the mental barrier of getting out of his crib after a nap (Friday) and in the morning (Sabbath).   So far he hasn't gotten up in the middle of the night, but it surely can't be too far off.  Depending on his reaction, we'll have to begin considering taking down the side of the crib if he keeps getting out of bed himself - no reason for the side if it doesn't keep the baby in! :)