My Junior Year

Married life was good for me. My grades went up and I really looked forward to coming home at the end of a long day at work. We found ourselves some low cost subsidized housing still in the fifth ward not far from Lisa's mothers house. It was only a block north of M. E. Lazerte High School where Lisa went to school. It was a very nice two bedroom, two story town house that even had a basement. Our land lady was a very nice person as well and we loved living there.

Lisa continued to work at the City of Edmonton Law Department. I believe one of those buildings in this picture is the law building but it's been too long so I don't know for sure which one it would be. By the end of the summer I couldn't wait to get back to school. The only problem was that one of the required "classes" for my major was a week long tour of several mines, refineries and smelters across Northern British Columbia. I loved the opportunity to see these places but my first week away from my wife was not something I cared for. I've included several pictures from some of the mines along our route. The first one is the Endako mine, the next is a big truck from the Huckleberry mine, the third are some big mills from the Huckleberry mine and the last one is the Alcoa Aluminum smelter at Kitimat.

By the end of my first semester Lisa and I decided that she should go to University as well. She applied for school and just before Christmas she gave notice and quit her job. As luck would have it, during Christmas we found out that she was pregnant. It was really too bad that she had quit her job because if she hadn't she would have been able to take maternity leave. We had talked about having kids and we didn't feel strongly one way or another but by the time we decided to wait it was too late. Even still, we couldn't have been happier. We were very excited and even though it meant that Lisa's career would have to take a thirty year delay we both wanted kids and we wanted them while we were young so that we could enjoy them. There would be time for ourselves after they were grown. Now that we were started we saw no reason to hold back. We made the decision that we would have one kid every two years and that is what we did. Kira was born in 1982, Brandon in 1984, Ben in 1986. We miscarried between Ben and Alycia but then picked up where we left off with Alycia in 1989, Alex in 1991 and Sarah in 1993.

For my last summer of college I applied for a research position working with one of the professors and we did research work on submerged Arc Welding. It was a wonderful job and I learned all kinds of stuff. Perhaps my favorite part was simply machining test samples out of weld beads in the schools machine shop. They had a small lathe, mill, surface grinder and pretty much anything else you would need. The last picture is of a sub arc welder on a pipeline.

It was a long hot summer for poor Lisa and when her due date came and went she got very cranky. She was begging her doctor to induce her and finally when she was two weeks late he agreed to. I checked her into the hospital the night before but then during the middle of the night I got a call from Lisa. She had gone into labor on her own and my little girl was getting ready to enter into this world. I sped all the way to the hospital. For a more detailed account of Kira's birth click here and read all about it. There is no experience in this world that can come anywhere close to have a baby. It truly is what life is all about.